This Fan-Made BLEACH Animated Short is Incredible
The Bleach anime ended in 2012 with the end of the Fullbringer Arc which is a shame because the 1000 Year Blood War Arc was fantastic, but didn’t finish in the manga until 2016. This 4-year gap would’ve just led to more filler which is annoying. I hate filler seasons with a passion. They’re pointless and don't contribute to the story. Whenever I watch Bleach, I make sure to skip the Bount Arc and the Zanpakuto Arc and any other filler storylines because they slow down the show. That being said, if you avoid the filler episodes like I do, Bleach is a great anime. Yes, the plot gets convoluted a little and it suffers from a serious case of only-the-protagonist-can-do-anything as well as a bigger case of the villain-started-out-well-thought-out-but-then-we-made-him-too-powerful syndrome that happens in a lot of anime. However, because the anime ended before the manga, we were never treated to the end of the Tite Kubo’s story which has some awesome moments as well as some crazy moments like when the Gotei 13 gets wrecked. I’m talking Byakuya-Kuchiki-ends-up-in-a-fatal-coma wrecked. You can watch the end of the fight that leads to Byakuya being in critical condition thanks to the talent at Retro Ryno that went ahead and animated it.
Overall, the animation is great. It's a different style than the anime, but I like it. The music is perfect for the situation and the voices were well thought out. Sadly, they only animated the last bit of the fight so Byakuya is already very injured at this point. His opponent is a Quincy by the name of As Nodt and if you want to learn more about the story, go read the manga. The whole fight starts around Chapter 494, but I would recommend starting from the beginning of the arc around Chapter 480. I wish they’d revive the anime just to help bring the last arc to life. Do you want to see the final arc presented in the anime, or are you fine just reading it?