I’ve been waiting for months to watch this and I was finally able to do so last night when I visited my good friend, Paul. I had high expectations for this movie seeing as I never really liked the first Bleach movie. The first one was a little too soft and off-tangent to the over-all story of the anime/manga. The movie was quite long, but it didn’t disappoint. The plot was well-made however I do feel that some of the characters were just “forced” to make an appearance to please the fans of the anime. My full review of Bleach Movie 2: Diamond Dust Rebellion after the jump!
PLOT SYNOPSIS
The King’s Seal, an ancient artifact rumored to have the power to bend space and time, is stolen by a rogue Shinigami accompanied by two arrancar that have the ability to control fire and lightning. Toshiro Hitsugaya’s team engaged them but they miserably failed as the two arrancar proved to be more than a match against Toshiro’s team. The kid captain recognizes the rogue Shinigami and abandons his duty to Seireitei and pursues his opponent. This causes the Gotei 13 to suspect that Toshiro was involved in the incident and they collectively decide to put the entire squad of Toshiro on probation while the other captains hunt Toshiro down as well as the King’s Seal.
Enter the main character – Ichigo. He finds Toshiro wounded and quickly takes him to his house to help the young captain recover. When he finally wakes up, Toshiro refuses to explain the situation to Ichigo. Toshiro takes off but Ichigo manages to catch up to him and tries to force the captain to explain what’s happening. Before Toshiro can explain, the two arrancar attack, pummeling Ichigo relentlessly. Ichigo manages to survive and even fends off the two arrancar but he falls unconscious himself and Toshiro takes the opportunity to flee the scene.
At this point, the identity of the rogue Shinigami is revealed. His name is Soujiro Kusaka, and apparently he has a duplicate of Hitsugaya’s zanpaktou, Hyonrinmaru. Soujiro engages Shunsui Kyoraku and even manages to severely injure the Gotei Captain. The Gotei 13 suspect that Kyoraku was injured by Toshiro and makes his capture top priority. Toshiro eventually catches up to Soujiro and here we finally see the connection between the two. Apparently Toshiro and Soujiro were classmates and good friends that eventually managed to manifest the same sword – Hyorinmaru. They were forced to fight one another in a duel to the death to find out who should be the rightful owner of the blade and Sojuiro lost. Soujiro finds himself in Hueco Mundo but he’s able to reconstruct his soul and body using the power of the King’s Seal.
Soujiro teleports himself and Toshiro to Soul Society using the King’s Seal. The Gotei 13 immediately surrounds them but before he could be captured, Soujiro breaks the King’s Seal, unleashing it’s destructive power. Since Soujiro hasn’t mastered his blade yet, he’s not able to fully control the power of the artifact and this threatens to literally blow up Soul Society. Soujiro transforms into a gigantic ice dragon with the ability to summon hollows.
Toshiro, together with Ichigo and the other members of the Gotei 13, engage Soujiro in one epic battle that eventually leads to Toshiro facing off with Soujiro in a duel to the death. Toshiro wins, cleared of all charges, and the King’s Seal is reconstructed. Talk about one happy ending? LOL.
Movie Review
Over-all the movie was good. The pace was very fast and there were rarely any dull moments except for the start. I loved how they were able to feature all of the major characters even though it was just for a few minutes. More than anything though, the animation and the sound track was really superb! I’d definitely buy the OST of this particular movie if I had the cash to spare. One complaint though… when will Ichigo learn a new technique? All I keep seeing are his Getsuga Tenshos! It’s getting really boring seeing him use the same thing over and over again!
How about you guys? Were you able to watch it already? If so, what did you think?
PS – I took a lot of screen captures and I’m going to come up with a post with my favorite scenes on this movie later tonight (well if I can find time to compile them later, hehe). To those who like torrents, you can download the movie I just reviewed here.
Click here to read my Weight loss System which let me get rid of 50 lbs. in 5 months!
Hitsugaya Toushirou on September 14, 2008
I still can’t figure it out how Kusaka knew of the existence of the King’s Seal. It would seem that there is a 3rd party involvement.
Des of DoC/ ``renji of Tyr on September 14, 2008
Nice. I will definitely check this one out. ^^
Des of DoC/ ``renji of Tyr on September 14, 2008
btw. I just finished watching Fate Stay Night! It was awesome ^^
Its a must see Anime ^^
kinneas008 on September 14, 2008
Sa anong arc toh involved?
Sa Arrancar Arc ba?
Tagal ko nang inaantay toh..
Ung unang movie mejo okay lng..
pano kaya toh?hmmm..
shagojyo on September 14, 2008
The movie isn’t involved in any of the anime/manga arc.
Evangelos on September 14, 2008
Wow, I need to watch this! lol
kinneas008 on September 15, 2008
^
I mean bandang saan arc xang nanyari..
Like ung sa unang movie before the bount arc ata xa nangyari..
EDP on September 15, 2008
hope ichigo can control his hollow form then fire some special named cero(hollow’s/arrancar’s fire ball)lol
Dodge on September 15, 2008
Carlo, di naman synopsis yun eh. O_O I was reading through it and I figured that if I went on, malalaman ko na yung buong kwento! Hahaha!
Ulqiuuora Shifter/Bitzbox Valhalla Server CHAMP / RPC 2008 Champion on September 17, 2008
Mas mganda panoorin nyu ang future 2008 rpc champion nyu kami un!!
kobe on September 29, 2008
In my opinion, this movie has to play in an alternate universe, where everybody besides Ichigo must be a lot weaker than they are in the series. For example, there’s no way, Kusaka could have ever defeated Shunsui whithout activating the Kings Seal. And even with the seal released, that would have been a joke for someone like Yamamoto. I mean he is en par with Aizen and Aizen is one bad ass strong guy.
this movie just doesn’t fit the series and is also way worse.
But if you wouldn’t have seen the series you could propably enjoy this movie.
jica on October 8, 2008
How’s that?
I mean, with Kusaka, or is it Kasuka, dead and the king’s seal properly returned to the royal family, then what?
The movie didn’t even show Hinamori, whom Kusaka somewhat tried to involve with his and Toushiro’s conversation…
At any rate, the movie didn’t seem to justify lots of things since it deliberately lowered Ichigo’s capability as a powerful shinigami/uninitiated vizard.
And lastly, this is the only official bleach production wherein Toushiro is actually smiling! =)
Pero kumpara sa Memories of Nobody,
mas astigin po ito. =)
Chloe on October 31, 2008
I have many complaints about this movie.
Firstly, it doesn’t make sense at all! not wanting to spoil it for people who haven’t seen it yet, but Ikkaku randomly goes into bankai. It doesn’t do anything for the story!
Did anyone understand what hitsugaya was trying to atone for? i didn’t really understand that. I would like to think that this movie really is just in an alternate world. i give it a 4/10
Bleach Hitsugaya Toushiro, Captain Toushiro, Captain Hitsugaya, Toshiro Hitsugaya background, Hitsugaya History | Waukster Online on May 23, 2009
[...] seasons. He was instrumental in the discovery of Aisen’s treachery and he even had a movie (Diamond Dust Rebellion) just focused on his back story. Check out the synopsis of Bleach Manga 358 as well as other [...]
Xed_92 on June 6, 2009
Well, this is a must see movie. It was the greatest ever. I loved toshiro he looked pretty tough and ready to take kusaka down on his own. The last scene was amazing especially the last dialogue with kusaka. it kept me wondering how kusaka used the zampaktou in a different way from how toshiro does. It kept me believing that Toshiro’s bankai isn’t fully developed and many things and issues have to be revealed. After the movie i hope toshiro will show more power in the coming manga series to come. (for the last manga series please go to http://www.onemanga.com)