[Not a trace of chivalry. This film feels like a pile of fantasy webnovel clichés awkwardly glued together with cheap Western superhero elements. It has no identity, no soul, and no idea what it wants to be.]
[And the director actually dared to say this would replace Bleach? Please-stop insulting Bleach. This goes beyond embarrassment.]
[Martial arts cinema didn't decline by accident. It was strangled to death by arrogant, talentless people who have no idea what audiences actually want.]
[I knew it the moment the cast was announced. Any production tied to Rebeca Verne is practically doomed from the start.]
[They all came from Paladins of Destiny. One rose and became a benchmark. The other fell straight back into the gutter.]
[Alex's interview clip is legendary. I laughed so hard I had to replay it three times.]
[Meme: Sosuke Aizen's look of absolute disdain.JPG]
...
...
As most people had already expected, Four Great Detectives was torn apart mercilessly by both critics and audiences. There was no room for debate, no patience for excuses, and no interest in giving it the benefit of the doubt. The verdict came quickly and decisively.
The final rating stopped at 4.8.
When Alex saw the number, he didn't react right away. He stared at it for a moment longer than necessary, as if weighing something silently behind his eyes.
It wasn't shocking.
In the hazy memories of his previous life, the film had at least managed to crawl past the five-point mark. It hadn't been praised, but it hadn't collapsed quite this badly either. This time, however, the failure was loud, public, and absolute.
And the real reason had little to do with the film's quality alone.
It was timing.
Four Great Detectives had chosen the worst possible moment to release. It walked straight into the peak of Bleach's dominance, when the series wasn't merely popular-it was overwhelming. Ratings, online discussions, memes, fan art, cosplay events-Bleach had swallowed the entire entertainment landscape whole.
Worse still, the film's production team committed an unforgivable mistake.
They tried to cling to Bleach.
Every interview hinted at comparisons.
Every promotional line teased "surpassing a classic."
Every piece of marketing screamed insecurity disguised as confidence.
They weren't standing on their own merits.
They were borrowing prestige they hadn't earned.
Audiences noticed immediately.
The moment viewers began comparing the two works directly, the film's fate was sealed. With Bleach sitting comfortably at an absurd 9.8, a movie that struggled to justify its own existence never stood a chance. It didn't even reach half that score, crushed under the weight of its own arrogance.
By the time people walked out of theaters, most of them weren't angry anymore.
They were simply irritated.
Ironically, the only genuine entertainment the film provided-aside from Alex's now-legendary interview clip that spread across the internet like wildfire-came from a single, unrelated piece of news buried inside a promotional report:
Ray and Rock would be joining Alex's next project.
That single sentence hit harder than any trailer.
Social media exploded almost instantly. Speculation flooded timelines. Fan theories multiplied overnight.
Naturally, one question dominated every discussion:
Was this the continuation of Bleach?
Ray had always been a controversial figure. His career swung between uneven performances and moments of undeniable brilliance. Even his harshest critics, however, never doubted one thing-when Ray was fully committed, his acting could be terrifyingly good.
As for Rock, there was no discussion to be had.
His name alone carried trust, weight, and credibility.
With both of them entering Alex's orbit, it became difficult-almost impossible-to imagine where this next project might stop.
...
...
That same weekend, under the suffocating anticipation of countless fans, the final episodes of Bleach – Soul Society Arc finally aired.
When the opening theme faded and Sosuke Aizen left the battlefield alongside his two subordinates, something subtle yet undeniable changed.
The tension that had been gripping viewers' chests for weeks didn't disappear-but it loosened. Not because everything was resolved, but because the truth had finally surfaced.
Under the setting sun, an orange glow enveloped the shattered Seireitei. Broken walls cast long shadows over scorched stone. The ruins felt heavy, as if the Soul Society itself were mourning.
Loss lingered in every frame.
The casualties were impossible to ignore.
Three captains defeated.
That single fact was enough to shake the very foundation of the system governing the Soul Society. The captains of the Seventh and Tenth Divisions, along with the vice-captains of the Fifth and Sixth, had all been driven to the brink of death by Aizen alone.
There were no heroic speeches.
No last-minute miracles.
No comforting lies.
Only a cold, crushing defeat.
After his battle with Ichigo Kurosaki, Byakuya Kuchiki-gravely injured and barely able to stand-still tried to protect his adopted sister.
And he failed.
Gin Ichimaru's blade pierced straight through him without hesitation, turning the moment into something profoundly tragic. Not only because of Byakuya's wounds, but because of what it revealed.
At that moment, everyone understood:
Aizen wasn't just winning.
He was playing with the entire Soul Society.
Later, inside the medical wing, silence ruled. Machines hummed softly. The air smelled of antiseptic and exhaustion. Even the doctors moved carefully, as if loud footsteps might shatter something fragile.
Byakuya lay surrounded by equipment, his breathing shallow, every word tearing itself from his chest.
"Rukia… there's something I need to tell you…"
Speaking hurt. Breathing hurt. But he spoke anyway.
Through this restrained, almost whispered confession, the audience finally learned the truth he had carried for years.
Byakuya had not taken Rukia in merely out of duty.
Nor out of simple compassion.
There was an unspoken reason-one that was finally revealed.
She reminded him of his late wife, Hisana.
The revelation struck viewers like a blow to the heart.
After nearly sacrificing himself for Rukia, combined with Jasper Quin's commanding presence, Byakuya had already become one of the most beloved characters in the series. And yet, even then, only Sosuke Aizen-portrayed with chilling precision by Alex-could truly overshadow him.
Facing Rukia's disbelief, Byakuya slowly shook his head and continued.
Hisana was not just his wife.
She was Rukia's sister.
The silence that followed felt suffocating. With a weak yet steady voice, Byakuya recounted the past he had carried alone.
Hisana had grown up in the slums of Rukongai, where hunger was constant and survival uncertain. Realizing that staying together would doom them both, she made the cruelest decision imaginable. With tears in her eyes, she left Rukia at a stranger's doorstep and walked away, carrying nothing but guilt.
Years later, fate twisted cruelly once more.
She met Byakuya.
Despite fierce opposition from the Kuchiki clan, he married her. For a brief time, happiness existed.
Then it was taken away.
Five years later, Hisana died-her body worn down by illness, the result of a lifetime of hardship. Even on her deathbed, she never stopped worrying about the sister she had abandoned.
Byakuya kept his promise.
He found Rukia.
He brought her into the Kuchiki family, fully aware that doing so meant breaking ironclad laws and defying centuries of tradition. Lying beneath the glow of medical lights, he confessed the crushing weight of those choices-the vow he made before his parents' graves, and the doubt that consumed him when Rukia was sentenced to execution.
In the end, his gaze shifted toward Ichigo Kurosaki, unconscious as Orihime Inoue desperately tried to heal him.
Gratitude flickered quietly in Byakuya's eyes.
"Ichigo Kurosaki… thank you."
In that moment, countless viewers finally saw Byakuya Kuchiki for who he truly was.
Not a cold aristocrat.
Not a heartless enforcer of rules.
But a man shattered by duty, by love, and by promises that could never coexist.
The comment sections reflected that realization almost instantly-and then exploded.
What began as scattered emotional reactions quickly turned into long threads, essays, and heated debates stretching across pages. Fans weren't just reacting anymore; they were processing.
"This scene destroyed me. I thought Byakuya was just another cold noble cliché, but this? This is tragedy."
"I never expected to feel sympathy for him. I went in hating him, and now I can't stop thinking about how lonely his entire life has been."
"The way he talks about promises-you can feel how every choice he made destroyed something else. There was no 'right' answer."
Many viewers pointed out how restrained the scene was, how it relied more on silence than music or dramatic framing.
"The fact that he doesn't cry, doesn't scream, doesn't break down-that's what makes it hurt. You can tell he broke a long time ago."
Others compared the moment to classic tragedy rather than typical action storytelling.
"This feels less like a series arc and more like a Shakespearean character trapped in a supernatural world."
"What hurts most is that Byakuya didn't fail because he was weak. He failed because the system forced him to choose between law and love."
A noticeable shift followed in how fans discussed the series as a whole. Conversations stopped revolving solely around Sosuke Aizen's brilliance and began expanding outward.
"I came for Aizen, but I stayed for everyone else."
Only then did the audience fully grasp something essential.
Bleach wasn't extraordinary just because of Sosuke Aizen.
It was extraordinary because every character mattered.
Each carried history.
Each carried conflict.
Each felt alive.
And that-more than any twist, betrayal, or battle-was the true and lasting power of the series.
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