Something small I just noticed, Akon & Rukia's gigai - It's not actually the Hogyoku that Akon reacts to. This is within Rukia's soul itself, he wouldn't be able to access it, Aizen needed to study for ages to figure out a way to remove it from her soul, going to the lengths of executing her via the Sokyoku and then the special glove thingy. He's reacting to the Gigai itself, which Aizen later explains to be special because it basically turns the Shinigami into a human. Akon mentioning "posession of this kind of skill would be reason to banish him forever" which transitions into the Urahara scene summoning the Senkaimon to Soul Society. It functions as subtle foreshadowing while also confirming that the publicly available reason for Urahara's banishment were the gigai he made, and not the Hollowfication of the Vizards which the Central 46 & Shinigami elite swept under the rug.

i've been looking forward to following this since Spicy told me it was happening. Love both of your videos and love Bleach, so this should be a bunch of fun. I’m going to leave a bunch of my thoughts as notes while I listen! Uryu doctor - really perfectly put by Crafts, the sewing is a really neat connection I never really picked up but I’m pretty sure there’s supplemental info from databooks or future sketches that further suggest Uryu is a damn good knitter, which is the closest thing to surgery, the profession the Ishida family is clearly heavily characterised by. There’s also the whole Quincy / Templar Knights / The Knights Hospitaller references that are made more prominent in TYBW which further backs that up. Uryu is a tsundere like Spicy says, he’s tender and nurtures life (kids doctor in the present as recently confirmed by Kubo), he’s always protecting others over the course of the story just like Ichigo and finding these little loopholes to justify his innate behaviours (like he does in HM), and so knitting as a way to act out those ‘doctor’ behaviours that he refuses himself out of ignorance and conflating his father’s role as doctor and as a Quincy (he dissected Katagiri’s corpse for the Auswahlen silver). The truth sets him free in that regard as you mentioned. Doodles - there are soo many super cool things with the doodles, for example Urahara showed up at the end of chapter 1 which is flashed back to in the final chapters of Soul Society as Aizen explains his plot for the Hogyoku, it is then when Urahara placed Rukia into the special gigai that masks all Reiryoku and slowly renders a Shinigami soul a regular human (he works on this gigai in TBTP and it’s similar to the one he gives to Isshin in EBTR). This is why Rukia is undetectable by Soul Society and it’s the footage from the Don Kanonji television show that exposes her location and tips off Soul Society to send Byakuya & Renji. Kubo & references - Kubo is super well read & it can be jarring sometimes lol, please do share as much as you can, I’ve been collecting them all for a while and I’ll try to share what I can here too haha. One in the Uryu stuff is Karneades, which I believe to be a reference to Carneades, one of the most prominent skeptics of his time. I guess this is Kubo’s way of telling us to be skeptical of the information we’re receiving in the chapter, we are receiving the Shinigami POV of the Quincy massacre which is later recontextualised. They claim the killing of Hollows destroys balance and that’s why all Quincy must die but we know there’s far more to the conflict and that killing Hollows causing life & death to mix together may not be as catastrophic as Rukia believes, since that’s exactly what the utopia Yhwach fights for looks like. Karakura is not a real town but it is chock full of references and probably one of the coolest things about the first arc. Aizen is heavily inspired by Aizen Myo-o and the biggest link between the two are wish-granting jewels, the Hoju & the Hogyoku. Aizen Myo-o is enshrined in Kamakura, which is known for its abundance of shrines & temples, kind of like a spiritual hub in Japan. Karakura serves the same role in the story, having a high concentration of Reishi suitable to serves as a Jureiichi which Aizen plans to use alongside the 100,000 souls living in the city to create his own Oken. Ichigo’s Zanpakuto in the first arc - okay so, there’s a lot going into this and there’s quite a few factors to consider that Kubo muddles between sometimes because it’s ultimately very spiritual & the final point is of course, ‘the blade is me’, but in this first section of the story, Old Man Zangetsu is top dog. He is the center of his powers, the center of his soul. He controls the flow of his Reiryoku, he is suppressing Ichigo’s true power / true Zanpakuto, and Ichigo is using a fake knockoff counterfeit Zanpakuto. A Zanpakuto requires an Asauchi, which the Shinigami essentially infuses their soul into, turning it into an extension of them (you’ll see the idea of the blade/weapon being an extension of the body in so many different schools of thought). Ichigo at this point obviously doesn’t have a Zanpakuto because he isn’t following the traditional route of getting one, which is true even at the end of the arc. At first, he has a Quincy reishi construct (we later see in TYBW, Quincy’s can make practically anything out of reishi). This mimics Rukia’s sealed Zanpakuto (they have the same design, same guard, same handle) only much bigger to match Ichigo’s considerable spiritual power (even when so drastically suppressed). When Rukia transferred her powers onto him, he took 100% of them, but what this actually means is that he took 100% of her Reiryoku at the time which would gradually recover with time in a heavy Reishi environment like the Soul Society (which later happens). The reason this doesn’t happen is not just because they’re in the Human world though (which has far less Reishi in the atmosphere) but because of the gigai Kisuke placed her in to conceal the Hogyoku. Oh, and the Hogyoku is also the reason Ichigo receives 100% of her powers because it can manifest desires & Rukia was disillusioned with being a Shinigami and beating herself up over the death of Kaien (chapter 0 part b or 205.5 if you’re reading on Mangasee corroborates this with the scene of her internally spouting Shinigami doctrines to herself before departing to the world of the living on her first solo mission, where she meets Ichigo). Then, Byakuya seals his Haketsu & Sakusui, which basically blocks his ability to draw spiritual power from himself (and in this particular context, Byakuya believes this will remove all of the Reiryoku he took from Rukia). But Urahara, knowing the truth of Ichigo’s soul composition, places him in the Shattered Shaft which accelerates his Hollowfication through the encroachment of his chain of fate, leading up to him leaving the cave with the Hollow mask. This is also when Isshin regains his supernatural powers because he is no longer serving as the lid that keeps White locked down, White is now awake and existing within Old Man Zangetsu. When I say Ichigo regains his powers, what is meant is really that he regains his access to Reiryoku, which is still being suppressed by OMZ of course. This is when the False Shikai is generated, the iconic big blade with the cloth wrappings (white, but the box he drew from had a red ribbon, Uryu’s ribbons were white too so maybe this is Kubo visually demonstrating that there’s something up with Ichigo’s blade). This blade is a constant Shikai type, which Byakuya in the Gerard fight essentially confirms was a made up term and doesn’t exist. It’s a counterfeit knockoff that OMZ, and later White, control. Only when Ichigo becomes king of himself does he gain the real blade(s). Don Kanonji - I see you're a big fan Spicy, love him in the first arc and I think his character teaches Ichigo a very important lesson he really values. If you didn't know, he's the protagonist of Spirits Are Forever With You, the light novels written by Ryohgo Narita set in the 17-month timeskip between Arrancar & Fullbring. Going to maybe add more thoughts later.

Btw if you didn't notice in kenpachi vs ichigo... Kenpachi momentarily uses two hands when ichigo overpowers him (chapter 112). Also the skull which appears behind kenpachi symbolises his zanpakto.."nozarashi" which means "weather beaten bones"..

Hotboyspicy and Crafts together ummmm based ❤❤❤❤

I can't believe we're getting Nen Show Podcast 2.

In terms of the literary stuff, I see some people get into pseudo intellectual territory with it sometimes and miss the forest for the trees but I do think Bleach goes pretty hard with having interesting symbolism.

Woah! The Spicy boy himself has risen through the ranks. Good for you buddy 🔥

Now I want to reread Bleach as well.

Oh this will be really interesting

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Mathwiz sounds weird this podcast...

1:16:08 quick correction although ichika sounds like it might be connected to ichigos name it translates to strawberry flower which means happy family. This is in reference to the flowers sewn on rukias wedding veil given to her by orihime. Its written in the We do Knot always Love you novel.