How much longer?

[JT]

After the WW i feel that there couldnt be much more after that...now the WW arc hasnt come out yet...so its hard to really determine, its just that once the guy pulling all the strings dies...what else more could happen....so ya give me your input....

[Mikan]

Probably sub arcs to tie up any minor loose ends...but it would be ridiculous to create a whole new villain, villain's cronies, etc. I think the only major thing that could happen after the WW would be an arc about the Royal Family/Seireitei/Karakura after the war with subarcs to tie up afore mentioned loose ends.

[JT]

well im hoping that any loose ends get tied up during the WW arc....or even in the HM arc....but maybe Gin will turn out to be the actual threat...that would be cool...but again kinda annoying if TK makes the series drag....idk he might be able to pull off.....

[Sergelia]

I think the WW will be the manga's climax; anything else is just to support it.

Like I said sometime in IchiRuki FC, I think that there will be one big arc after HM, which will be decisive in that any major power-up, training session, shopping and manicures will be dealt with in it. I doubt that WW will be filled with, say, relationship-building and character development. By the time WW's started, all characters will have to be built, and all relationships should be pretty much obvious so the reader's attention would be turned to the PLOT and FIGHTING.

As for the supposed King's Realm arc, I'm not sure. I always thought it would be incorporated midst-war, with only a select few main protagonists (ie, Ichigo, Rukia, Inoue, Ishida, Chad, and maybe Renji) in the spotlight. I never imagined it to be a whole separate arc... maybe I should open my mind a bit more... well, everything's possible.

CONCLUSION - Bleach's not ending any time soon, dears. At LEAST two more big arcs to go, and many many threads to tie. For example, we don't even have a slight idea of what Ichigo's Main Power (tm) is, we can only guess about his ancestry, we don't know what's the connection between him and Kaien, we don't know why Gin likes to play mind games with Rukia, we don't know the true extent and/or limits of Orihime's powers, Tatsuki, Keigo and Mizuiro are still an ambiguity, Urahara's motifs are just a speculation... let's face it, we actually know just a tiny bit of everything that's there to be known.

Woah, now I'm wondering if all this could be properly answered in just two arcs... O__o

[Velius]

As long as Aizen is the final bad guy in this story, Kubo can drag it out as much as he likes. If it's to be during the winter ware, then so be it. After that might be watering down the series a bit... But as long as this doesn't turn into DBZ with main bad guy after main bad guy.

[Rain]

I don't want Bleach to have main bad guy after main bad guy but I don't think Aizen should be the final bad guy, I think/hope Kubo will go in a different direction.

[Shinrin]

I highly doubt the winter war will be all that people think.
More likely i think it'll work as a distracktion, in a somewhat similar way as how Orihime was "Collected"

[JT]

i know what your saying sergelia, i too dont think its goin to end in the next couple of months...hell no...lol.....its goin to be a couple years maybe...and i would love to have have all those loose ends tied up....and i guess the reason i think that its comin to a close is b/c im afraid it will get watered down like DBZ....

[Rain]

Ever since Inoue was taken to HM I've doubted that a winter war will occur, and I still doubt it.

[Air]

Aizen dying? No way :D
I think he will reach his "throne in the sky" at the end of the Winter War.
Then, another arc start..

[Shinrin]

Wouldn't be suprise if were going to see what's left of the Espada turning up for the socalled Winter War.

But what we might not know could be that they're not Aizen's true Espada. They might think it, but he'd have assembled the Vast Lords which will be his personal army aiming for the heavens, while sacrificing all the others aswell as many shinigami to create the Royal Key.

Atleast that would be how i'd play my cards in Aizen's place

[JT]

well maybe the arc will happen but like shinrin said....it could be juss a way to distract everyone from where they should be.....which would be interesting.....maybe it wont actually be called the Winter War arc....maybe it will start like that, then end up being bout the king....but i dont think after that its goin to last much longer

[Shinrin]

It might end up feeling to forced to make a fight for everyone. so perhaps we'll have several fighting in a large chaotic war or there might actually be well known characters dieing without showing there releases.(But Kubo will show em in another Databook)

[Velius]

Don't forget there is still the possibility of the Kings Realm arc. Which would more then likely take place after the winter war and Aizen gets the kings key somehow. (I doubt all of Karakura is going anywhere.)

I'm betting the winter war arc will happen. I doubt it will go the way any of us think. These things rarely ever do. :)

[Mz D]

As well as the Kings realm there's also Hell, it was only briefly touched on at the start of the series. We know it exists but anything else about it is a mystery.

I could imagine Kubo doing another arc just with the Hell dimension.

So what thats, end of HM arc, another training arc, Winter war, Vaste Lordes arc(maybe), Hell and the King realm.

I really don't think Bleach is going to end anytime soon, there's too many possible things to explore further and tie up.

[hyiceme]

This arc is definitely not the last. I can easily see Aizen succeeding in getting into King's Dimension, which will probably start another arc.

[wakeskater]

and dont forget the ichigo and tatsukis children arc X-D

[Velius]

Kubo would have to find a reason for the good guys to go to Hell. >.> (no pun intended). ATM, from what we know about it, I dont' think really is one and I don't think it's the type of place that they would even want to go. (remember what happened to that hollow that got impailed. WTF was that. Whatever it was, I doubt anyone will mess with it. lol.)

[Sergelia]

Yes, I definitely anticipate finding more about Hell; ever since I first saw the Gate I was screaming "YES! Do it, Kubo, do it!" but when I continued to read the manga and it barely ever got mentioned I kinda forgot all about it. T__T

But it is a possibility, and would be an example of good writing IMO. You know, the barely touched-upon subject suddenly becomes the focus.
I ONLY hope that doesn't mean Ishida/Chad/Renji/Tatsuki will get kidnapped by someone from Hell and then Ichigo will go save them/fight the bad guys/eat cookies.

-__- Then we would discover that all this time Bleach was just a test for some research agency to see how much repetitiveness people could stomach before quitting.

I think the HM arc will end with Aizen finally finding the Vasto Lordes and persuading them to join him. That is his goal at the moment, right? The Karakura gang + Rukia and Renji will start their, likely separate, training in either Karakura or SS or wherever, and that's pretty much it. Then enter the next arc, where "the final/third blade is swung down", we finally learn more about Ichigo's back-story, we see Shirayuki (yes, I'm a fangirl), Inoue and Chad's powers are explained some more, and Ishida and Renji... em... yeah.

As for the "main badguy", I still say it's really Urahara.

@wakeskater - Ichigo and Tatsuki's children? :rofl Well, that's a new one. xD

[Guildenstern]

I think we're -far- from the end.

This current arc seems to be setting up the action for later on-- Ichigo is trying to finalize his power, we're dealing with the part of the story that Kubo forshadowed that Orihime would 'become an important character later on' for-- I really think her importance has to do with unsealing that fun little orb for Aizen so that the party can start, and with learning that she's got a power that is helpful and she always has a place with her friends. Chad realized something about the nature of -his- power, Ishida got his back, Rukia's starting to branch out, even the shinigami are still getting ready. This arc is just the warm up, all these plot lines need to run their course before things are finalized.

If Orihime reverses the orb and gets it unsealed, the Winter War might start a little earlier than expected, but I can still see it taking a good space of 'manga' time to execute.

Also I kind of am staring suspiciously at Urahara's stipulation for Renji that he'll answer all his questions, but only in three months. I get the feeling that Kubo, through Urahara, is going to tell us WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH RUKIA GODDAMN through the medium of Renji asking him, but what I don't know is f that information will come to Renji in time to do any good.

Which brings me to something else. >_> Kubo isn't even close to letting slip what Rukia's deal is. He only recently unclenched enough to give her a title page. (Title page with wonderfully suspicious name writing, huzzah) I can't imagine he'd let that info out until it was important to do so, i. e. probably sometime around the final arc, because he's a sadist and he likes stringing us along it's important to the overall story, ergo Renji's 'Three months' stipulation.

And Ichigo's still got a bit of growing to do, anyway. And daddy is still not explained. XD We're gonna be here for a while more. Aizen and anyone else waiting in the wings are far from getting their butts kicked YET.

[Agmaster]

I don't get what you mean by Rukia's deal. She's that girl who hangs out with Ichigo and uses self bodily harm and pep talks to force Ichigo into being a better warrior.

[Sergelia]

... you WISH it were that simple. ^__^

I just finished a long rant about Rukia elsewhere... but her story needs, and WILL be explained, damn it. I still don't believe Hisana, you know.

That will take like, at least 4 chapters on itself, so yes, add that to the "how much longer" equation.

[Guildenstern]

I don't get what you mean by Rukia's deal.

By Rukia's deal I mean the GIANT FREAKING GAPING HUGE HOLE IN THE PLOT where they deal with: 1. What the hell happened to Rukia after her sister left her in Rukongai 2. How and when she got the Hougyoku from Urahara as a child 3. Her abilities 4. Her name 5. Why Urahara picked her to hide his Deathorb, etc, etc etc, I could go on.

So, yeah, I'm thinking that might need a trifle clearing up at the end of the manga, and will definately add to the pagecount.

...The end of this manga is going to be a blowout of epic proportions.

[twsl]

how about rereading the manga so you can answer some of those questions on your own

[Guildenstern]

how about rereading the manga so you can answer some of those questions on your own

They're not in the manga though, that's the point. XD They need to be answered sooner or later, and will add to the length of the manga overall. It'll be cool to read though!

[Rain]

Guildenstern- some of those are answered and the ones involving the hougyoku aren't important to the plot and may not be answered.

It would be interesting if hell got involved in the plot somehow, I hope it is before bleach ends.

[Syn]

None of her questions are answered and some might be really important in regard to the plot. Renji wanting to question Urahara was not something that wasn't important, especially given Urahara's reaction.

[Velius]

Gah, not even going to bother getting rid of all this. Got to love the people and their OMGWTFBBQMYPOST. No more Rukia talk. Not even close to being on topic.

~Vel

[Beee]

IMO the HM arc is almost finished... so the WW arc will come soon. All the plotholes left from the HM arc (heck even the SS arc and the one between SS and HM) should be filled in the WW one. Though the Winter War itself will come only in the very end (at least that's what makes sense to me).

By Rukia's deal I mean the GIANT FREAKING GAPING HUGE HOLE IN THE PLOT where they deal with: 1. What the hell happened to Rukia after her sister left her in Rukongai 2. How and when she got the Hougyoku from Urahara as a child 3. Her abilities 4. Her name 5. Why Urahara picked her to hide his Deathorb, etc, etc etc, I could go on.

So, yeah, I'm thinking that might need a trifle clearing up at the end of the manga, and will definately add to the pagecount.

...The end of this manga is going to be a blowout of epic proportions.

I think that some of those holes are stuff that you will probably have to figure out on your own and that'll be left for readers to assume (like #1 and 4) Personnaly, I don't think it's really essential to know what happened to Rukia after she got dumped or how she remembered her name.

as for #3, well She already had spirit powers and she devellopped them I guess... you're talking about her being able to cast Kidou spells and use Zanpakutou right..?

as for #2, She probably didn't get it as a child.. that's still unclear but we'll definetely get an answer for that. IMO I think he didn't since he was probably banned from SS even before Rukia became a shinigami, or before she was even born.

and for #5, He was desperate to find someone and got lucky? He just needed someone, ANYONE and it happened to be Rukia (at least that's what I think). Then again, it's not 100% sure that's what happened and we'll probably find out about this one too.

I didn't really bother re-reading the manga so some of my answers are probably a little incomplete but I think you can find some of those answers by re-reading it or just using logic/intuition to guess what happened and all...

[Neverhere]

I see is as there's Hueco Mundo, then some intermediate stuff, then Aizen goes for the Ouken and Karakura town with his newly restaffed Ten Swords, and an Arrancar force before the Winter War(which might happen quicker, 'cause there is no reason why Aizen would show Orihime where he keeps the Orb and that she can reject events of fate if not to put the idea into her head and ours.) The 13 squads lose when Aizen goes through the Seireitei on his way to the throne. As he tries to make his way to the top, he encounters the Royal Guard(which could mean new characters introduced), and more fights ensue. Oh and lots of other intermediate stuff in between big locale changes. Thats as far as I can see/speculate the plot moving, which is not counting all the other stuff mentioned in passing: How the Shiba's got dropped from the nobel houses, and the other not mentioned nobles houses; Isshin's past ; Kenpachi's past as Kubo wants to tell that story, and a whole bunch of other little things like bankai's and resurrections.

I figure it show all last for another 8 years give or take(maybe 10),before bleach comes close to closing its curtains. (Estimate Based on the fact that the SS arc was like 80 something chapters. )

[JebbaChan]

I agree with most of you in that the WW will most likely be the last big arc. I can see maybe a mini arc before & after the WW, but after that I think Kubo is done.