Quote Originally Posted by Rynjin View Post
The whole point was Ichigo maybe reawakening his Shinigami powers but probably not. Ultimately that's not what happened though, and more to the point I lost what respect Kubo had earned back by actually having the chutzpah to make Ichigo's power loss a thing that stuck.
This.

There was a potential for a really cool “soft reboot” of Bleach in the Fullbring arc. Ichigo is depowered and Uryu is knocked out at the start to take him out of it. Get Chad and Orihime to come into their own and then bring Uryu back for the big fight at the end. Ichigo gets some powers back but doesn’t restore his previous broken powers. They win the day with friendship and teamwork.

Ta-da! You’ve just given relevance back to the human cast which was lost when power scales went off the charts in the Hueco Mundo arc. Go into a new story focusing on the group.

Instead Orihime and Chad don’t get to contribute. The Shinigami come in and solve everything, give Ichigo back his powers, and the whole thing ends on an anti-climax. It was more than a little irritating.