Recap / Bleach Turn Back The Pendulum Arc

Short Summary

A flashback arc revealing the past of Kisuke Urahara when he was appointed the Captain of Squad 12, as well as the past lives of the people who would become the Visoreds.

Main Summary

We've been introduced to Kisuke Urahara and the Visored. But who were they, back before they became the rogue Shinigami we all know and love? How exactly did they gain their Hollow powers? What would we see, if we were to turn back the pendulum to a time when they were still normal members of the Gotei 13?

To answer that, we go back long before Ichigo was born, to a time when Aizen still wore glasses and Shinji had long hair. Back at this time, Shinji Hirako was the captain of the 5th division, but still a Butt-Monkey to Hiyori, who at this point was the lieutenant of the 12th. Love was the captain of the 7th, and Hiyori's self-appointed babysitter. Rose was the captain of the 3rd, and Yoruichi was captain of the 2nd. Squad 12 was getting an new captain after the old one was promoted to the Royal Guard, and Yoruichi offered Kisuke Urahara, her 3rd Seat, the job. And after some zany hijinks with Sui Feng trying to prove him unfit and Yoruichi thinking Sui Feng was stalking him, he gets the job.

Hiyori, however, is not happy about it. The old captain was something of a mother figure to her, and she hates Urahara for replacing her. Urahara helps her gain a more nuanced view of him with a trip to the Maggot's Nest, which is a prison for Shinigami deemed too dangerous to remain outside, including deserters, potential subversives, and Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Urahara proves his combat chops by stopping an attempted prison riot with his bare hands (weapons aren't allowed in the prison), and Hiyori gains a grudging respect for him.

Meanwhile, a young Byakuya is a lot more emotional and easily goaded as a teenager than as a captain, as shown when Yoruichi pranks him. Ukitake and Kaien Shiba have tea together and Kaien, despite misgivings, eventually agrees to become Ukitake's lieutenant. The two discuss a young prodigy, later revealed to be Gin Ichimaru. Gin is just as creepy in the past as in the present, being introduced killing the third seat of the 5th division while Aizen watches.

Nine years later, there's trouble in Rukongai. Several citizens have disappeared, devoured from within by a strange white substance. Squad 9, lead by Kensei and including Mashiro and a young Tosen, investigates the vanished citizens, but all they find is a massive Hollow. Kensei defeats it and saves the life of a young Hisagi, which would later inspire him to become a Shinigami himself. Unfortunately, their victory is cut short when Mashiro reveals she's found something- the empty uniforms of the advance team. The sashes are still tied and their socks are still in their sandals, making it even more unlikely than usual that they all decided to strip naked and search for missing citizens in their birthday suits. Kensei concludes that whatever happened to the missing citizens happened to the advance squad, and asks Squad 12 to send someone over to take a scientific look at the situation (they choose Hiyori). He himself, along with his squad, decide to stick around Rukongai to continue looking for the potential enemy of Soul Society that caused this.

Later that night, Kensei's group is all killed by a mysterious assailant. Mashiro sleeps through the carnage, and Kensei himself is impaled by the attacker, who Kensei recognizes. The audience isn't shown the attacker's identity, but given that Kensei was incapacitated by imprisonment in a bubble of darkness beforehand and only recognized his assailant afterwards, anyone who's seen the Soul Society arc can make a pretty good educated guess.

Back in Seireitei proper, everyone notices the reiatsu of Kensei and his team vanishing, and Yamamoto sends a team out to investigate. Urahara regrets sending Hiyori out alone and wants to go look out for her, but Yamamoto disagrees. Instead, the team is formed of the rest of the future Visored- Hatchi, Love, Lisa, Rose, and Shinji. Urahara and Tessai sneak out together to help. The initial rescue team comes just in time, as Kensei and Mashiro have been Hollowified and attack their former comrades. After a desperate battle, the shinigami manage to restrain the berserk Kensei and Mashiro, but the fight isn't over. Instead, Hiyori starts to Hollowfy, and Tousen uses his Bankai to render everyone but Shinji unconscious, heralding the arrival of himself, Aizen, and Gin.

As the audience probably knew already, all the disappearances and the Hollows were Aizen's doing, and Tousen was on his side all along. Shinji had suspected that Aizen was not trustworthy (which is why he made Aizen his lieutenant, to keep a close eye on him), but Aizen was one step ahead of him. He used Kyoka Suigetsu to disguise someone else as him for the past month, making Shinji think that Aizen was always with him, when in fact he was off turning random Soul Society citizens (and later, random Shinigami) into Hollows for his experiments. Shinji tries to attack Aizen, but is stopped when he, along with the others, start to Hollowfy. Shinji is still capable of fighting in his half-hollow state, and attacks Tousen. He wins, but struggles with controlling himself while slowly turning into a Hollow. Aizen tries to finish him off, but this is when Urahara intervenes.

Aizen retreats when Urahara doesn't buy his story about just happening upon the investigation team already injured and then trying to save them, but the battle isn't over yet. Urahara is able to use his incomplete Hogyoku to stabilize the Visored, but he can't return them to normal. Come next morning, he and Tessai are arrested. Aizen has framed them for Hollowfying the Visored, who are to be treated as Hollows and killed. Yoruichi breaks them out and takes them to her hideout along with the still-Hollowfied (and unconscious) Visored. Urahara vows to save the Visored from their condition, and they all leave for the World of the Living.

Kisuke Urahara, Yoruichi Shihoin, Tessai Tsukabishi, Shinji Hirako, Hiyori Sarugaki, Kensei Mugurama, Mashiro Kuna, Rojuro Otoribashi, Hachigen Ushoda, Lisa Yadomaru, and Love Aikawa thus become exiles and enemies of Soul Society. Urahara starts up a small shop along with Yoruichi and Tessai, where he helps other outcasts in binds. The others, now Visored, hide themselves away. As half-hollows, their very existence is illegal to Soul Society. As the story flashes to the present, Shinji comments how they really owe Kisuke for what they are now, and he and the other Visored prepare to aid their former comrades in the battle against the man who got them all exiled.

To Be Continued

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Turn Back The Pendulum Arc has the following tropes:

• Adaptation Expansion: The anime has Shinji temporarily halt his hollowification by calming himself down, and then fight Tosen before it resumes and incapacitates him.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Urahara takes the fall for Hollowfying the Visored and has to escape to the World of the Living. Three of the vacant Captain positions will be taken up by Aizen and his lieutenants. The only thing about the ending that isn't good for Aizen is that Urahara still has his spiritual abilities and the Visored are still alive and will eventually get a handle on their new Hollow powers.
• Bittersweet Ending: Kisuke manages to save the Visored, but they're all exiled from Soul Society. The Gotei 13 has lost 6 captains in one go (plus two powerful Kido users and three lieutenants), and half of the replacements are not trustworthy. No one suspects Aizen of being behind anything, and he'll be free to continue his plotting until he finally revealed himself at Rukia's execution.
• Blatant Lies: Aizen tells Urahara that he just stumbled on the Visoreds injured from battle and was trying to save them, when Urahara had just caught him about to execute Shinji, who was obviously turning into a Hollow (not exactly a battle injury by any means). Urahara sees straight through it.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Urahara was still this as a shinigami; he's relaxed, carefree, and gets wrapped up in research and neglects personal hygiene, but he's still definitely captain-class and very good at his job of tracking down and capturing deserters.
• Chekhov's Gun: The special Gigai that Urahara is working on is used to sneak the Visored out of Soul Society.
• Damsel out of Distress: A prisoner in the Maggots' Nest tries to take Hiyori hostage. She isn't having any of it.
• Doomed by Canon: Poor Kaien Shiba will be killed by a hollow prior to the present day.
• Empty Piles of Clothing: The disappeared people leave these. This is a sign that they didn't die normally, since those who do take their clothes with them.
• Evil Gloating: Aizen gloats to Shinji about how he played him with Kyoka Suigetsu and then turned him and his team into Hollows.
• Foregone Conclusion: The Visored will be hollowified, and Urahara will be blamed for it. They'll all be forced to flee, along with Tessai and Yoruichi. Aizen will not be suspected until he finally reveals himself at Rukia's execution.
• Foreshadowing: Well, Foregone Conclusion-shadowing, but the arc begins with Urahara rounding up a group of shinigami deserters. By the end of the arc, he'll become a shinigami deserter.
• Frame-Up: The arc shows the reason why Kisuke had to flee Soul Society. Aizen framed him as being responsible for hollowfying the Visored and tried to kill them, leaving him with no choice but to flee in order to cure them.
• The Ghost: The captain of the 11th (the previous Kenpachi) is never seen; apparently, he's too lazy to go to captain meetings, even when they're investigating the sudden disappearance of another Captain.
• Groin Attack: Hiyori tries to do this to Urahara, but she just hurts her foot.
• Kangaroo Court: When Urahara is arrested for supposedly conducting hollowification experiments, he isn't allowed to speak except to answer questions, isn't told what he's being arrested for, and isn't allowed to even see the evidence against him. The Visored are in the same trial sentenced to death while they're still unconscious.
• Once More, with Clarity: When Aizen is explaining how he tricked Shinji, several earlier scenes are shown with some random Shinigami in Aizen's place, which is what was really happening under his illusions.
• Painful Transformation: Turning into a Hollow does not look fun.
• Stalker without a Crush: Sui Feng stalked Urahara to prove that he was unworthy of being a captain. Of course, Yoruichi takes it as her being a Stalker with a Crush.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The arc is told entirely in from Kisuke's flashback, revealing how the Visoreds come to be and why both they and Kisuke was forced to flee from Soul Society.
• The Worf Effect: Aizen is able to easily block Tessai's attack, despite being a mere lieutenant at the time.