Although Soi Fong had managed to land some hits on Yoruichi in the previous episode, she lets her ego get ahead of herself in the battle when she attempts to go in for the kill using the Flash Cry/Release technique. And even though Yoruichi, who also powers up with the technique, says that she hadn’t mastered it, she shows she can stop bullets with this technique, or in this case, Yoruichi is able to stop the charging Soi Fong rather easily. During the battle, there’s a flashback into Soi Fong’s younger days on how she grew up to admire and idolize Yoruichi, but she grew bitter of her when Yoruichi disappears out of the blue. This drives Soi Fong to try and improve on her techniques so that she may surpass Yoruichi one day, but upon seeing how she was dusted aside so easily even while using the Flash Cry/release, Soi Fong just breaks down into tears.
Meanwhile, we jump back into the battle between Ichigo and Byakuya, with Ichigo egging Byakuya on to use his Bankai. Byakuya, thinking that Ichigo isn’t worthy enough of his Bankai, uses his 1000 flower petal technique to end the battle, but Ichigo deflects those petals aside with his Getsuga Tenshou technique and manages to (ZOMG) land a cutting hit on Byakuya! Once again, Ichigo calls out Byakuya to release his bankai, and it looks like we’re in for some big fireworks next episode 
I don’t know if you guys feel the same, but I found it to be sort of a lame duck excuse that Soi Fong would just all of a sudden go vengeful after Yoruichi left her position as commander. The timing was too short and there was no real buildup to that point. Also, I’ve come to realize that hundreds of years in the death god world seems to correlate to about maybe 15 to 20 years in a human life span seeing how Soi Fong only became an adult during those times and Yoruichi hadn’t aged that much. I wonder how long does one have to live to not be an adolescent? :P
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Whoa, I’ve quite liked this ep, yeah, the Soi Fong “vengeful mode” was triggered in a little hasty way, but…she’s the insanely-stiff-and-serious kind of people you often see in anime.The kind of people who makes promises lasting…a lifetime and beyond! So she had, imho, the right to be “a little” piss*d off…seeing her beloved “yoruichi-sama” left her behind. Her tears were kinda touchy for me (as petty as I am). I hope _really_ to see lots of fireworks in the next ep…this anime has dragged a bit recently, imo.
Yeah I’m not really sure how aging works in the soul society…why do they even age in the first place? Aren’t they kinda already dead? Although, it’s sort of pointless to wonder about these kinds of things in an action anime…
Haha, yeah don’t think about it too much. It’s just character design to show off their personalities.
Bleach is full of mysteries. Mmm, speculation. I guess if you can die when you’re already dead(like Kaien), you can age too. They probably age reeeeeally slowly in SS.
I agree, this episode was kinda draggy. They managed to stretch out the Yoruichi and Soi Fong flashback for three-quarters of the episode. Hardly any juicy fighting…But the next few episodes are bound to be a huge Byakuya VS Ichigo extravaganza, so I don’t really mind.
Yep, the aging thing is really wierd.
For instance, even though 100 years passed in the Hollow world, Yoruichi didn’t seem to grow older from the time that she was in the caravan (see Kungfucius’ second picture) and now — at the most, perhaps from mid-twenties to late twenties.
So, maybe 100 Hollow Years = 5 earth years.
The wierd thing is that Genryuusai-jii-san (fire-whip-’burn-to-ash’ leader) looks around 85, in earth years. So 85 earth years * (100 Hollow Years / 5 Earth Years) = 1700 — therefore, Genryuusai-jii-san is 1700 Hollow Years old! Suspicious!
Are there any dogs in Soul Society? We’d have to do even more conversions then!
they age when they enter the human world maybe? something to ponder that is
Another question: if all the Shinigami are dead people, what’s to prevent them from going back and visiting their relatives in the human world?
Also, concerning Yoruichi’s age, what about all that time she spent in cat-form in the human world?
probably SS law also maybe their family members do not have a high enough reiatsu to see them
and thats a good question about Yoruichi’s age im out of ideas
Yeah, after reading the responses you guys left, it kind of helps me figure this whole thing out about their ages and stuff. Im ust say too, that I didn’t think the episode dragged to much because now we figure out the relationship between Soi and Yoruichi. Yet, I wish they could have shortened that part & added more of Ichigo’s fight with Byakuya.
P.S. how serious is the new opening song at the end, when you see Rukia & Ichigo 2gether, & than those boney hands come out the sky… it creeps me out every time.