A new journey begins. Although Soul Society and Ichigo faced their greatest despair, their new journey starts in Episode 9. The main character, Ichigo, will of course get another chance to become stronger, but Renji is given the exact same opportunity. To be honest, Renji isn't typically seen as a top-tier character, but since he has been with us from the very beginning, seeing him get a chance to power up genuinely makes me happy. As someone who has read and watched a lot of shounen series, I have to admit I already kind of guessed what was coming next. Most of the time, shounen characters have a massive feast to recover their bodies, and the actual training begins right after. While these meal scenes are mostly dialogue and can feel a bit slow, they are still an essential part of the shounen genre. Kenpachi vs Kenpachi. The main highlight of Episode 9 is the epic fight between Kenpachi and Kenpachi. The team did a fantastic job, the animation is amazing! Ever since Yhwach showed us the memories from the battle a thousand years ago, we knew that Unohana Retsu was actually an extremely powerful character. Before seeing Yhwach's memories, I never would have thought Retsu could actually compete with Zaraki Kenpachi, but the entire Thousand-Year Blood War arc proved me wrong. Retsu can genuinely stand her ground against Kenpachi, and even deal massive damage to him!