What's the best animated episode in Bleach ?
 

After watching ep.121 , I wonder if the animation quality is better than those of SS arc . Can 121 beat all other in this aspect ?
If not , could you please state your best epi. in terms of VISUAL quality ?

Hmmm, to me SS arc was the best Arc but I do agree the animation gets better. Then again, most animes do...

To me the best was 17

Until now I had a top 2 in good animated episodes. The one in which Ichigo saved Rukia from the execution and the one where he show his Bankai the first time.

With episode 121 I have a top 3 now.

The one where Renji attacks Rukia when he and Byakuya came to retrieve her was also beautifully animated (effects include sakura petals in the background and that green light when Renji lightly slashed Rukia)

121 grimmjow vs ichigo

118 ikkaku vs. edorad

(kariya vs. byakuya)

Mayuri Vs. Ishida

it's a couple actually, but 121 and 118 outshine them all to me.

100% agree.

My vote is for the episode where Ulquiorra and Yami show up and then Ichigo(and later Kisuke/Yoruichi). The number of frames being used in the fight sequences has to be higher than any previous episode. Course there is always death note 25, if anyone wants to see the best animation in any non movie anime ever ;)

118 indeed Ikkaku vs Edorad

and offcourse

<== 121 :D

I can't remember to have seen better animation not even in SS arc..

I dont know why but I didnt like the animation in 121 that much. Maybe because i felt some scenes could have been made much better...

As for my favourites... maybe 58 or ichigo's first encounter with renji+byakuya

soooo true :D

SS arc is hard to pinpoint because it was basically a run of 30+ episodes that were very consistent in animation. Now, it's like one every 4-5 eps you get a nice one, the same pace that was set in the Bount Arc.

Yep! Episode 15~17 rocked hard!:D

That is a BEST animation ever!

Yep yep! You have awsome eyes people

Definetley the bit where Ichigo saved Rukia from execution. In Shounen Jump KT mentioned that, that chapter, and the one after it was the first in Shounen jump to have it ever coloured 2 times in a row.

SS arc's animation at-times was as bad if not worse than the eps all those Bounto arc haters clammer about...Ichigo vs. Byakuya while probably having the best intensity and atmosphere is not even close to best animated or visual fight ep in this anime (I remember feeling like it's good but it could have been drawn so much better)...For best animated fight episode (can't recall exact numbers) that I can think of off the cuff, I'd go with

Ikkaku vs. Ichigo (This episode I remember there being a visual intimacy to that fight I loved).

Ichigo vs. Kisuke (The training fight between the two during Ichi's flashback when fighting Renji in SS--That whole ep was drawn good)

Ishida vs. Mayuri (Mayuri's soul slayer and Ishida's wicked blue energy made me notice, overall great visual ep)

Ichigo vs. Grimmjow Jaggerjack (aka the guy who was punching the $hit out of him--By far the best hand-drawn stuff to date--The imperfections in Grimm's face and movements tell the story that only a few can understand when I say "imperfection" )

Ichigo vs. Head Bounto (Final Fight episode--Ya see I forgot his name^^ Yeah the Bounto arc ended rather average and this fight didn't have much soul to it but, visually it was superb in it's animation)

Animation gets better ? have you tried watching Naruto Shippuden :heh: , the gara vs sasori fight feels like it was watching at 10fps

I prolly agree with everyone on episode 118 and 121

121 got my vote so far

I kind of liked Ishida vs Yoshi (Bount) to be honest, I thought that was the most active and aggressive fight Ishida had fought. Vs Mayuri it was a lot of standing around and teleporting, whereas vs Yoshi alot of the transition scenes, the dodging, was animated, not to mention he let some automatic arrowfire off!

SS arc didn't have the greatest animation, true, because they were going more for image quality. The reason was, if most of the characters can't fight equally with their opponents, what's there to animate? Just guys getting nuked by shunpo. So you focus on image quality.

Bount arc had better animation because some of the fights were more full-body, but the IQ was horrible at times (no manga images/cells to draw transitions from). Bount arc 95+ had much improved image quality though. The biggest difference in the fillers has to be the music though, other than 98 (Kenpachi fight) most of the music was horrendously corny.

Right now the music is really carrying the Arrancar arc as the the IQ/animation flip flops.

ishi vs yoshi was undoubtedly the best fight scene during the bount arc. her doll was really rather awesome.

byak vs ichi during ss.

and of course grim beating down ichi in the arrancar arc.

Oh yea the execution bit. Lol, how can I forget. Yep, that was the best animation in my opinion as well

A lot of 105 was amazing too. No major battle, but the scene that begins with the shot of Seretei in the morning is full of shadows and light sources that looks almost film quality. This leads into Rao'Tao confronting Kariya with a kido gun. This entire scene's overall quality (animation, image quality) might be the highest quality (IMO) in Bleach so far.

as far as I went, I was blown away by the first fight between Rukia's brother (I suck at spelling:p ) and Ichigo