Whats up with the zero-gravity?

[Narcasi]

Well I just found myself thinking
"Just why is it that the shinigami and arrancar can suddenly fly around in the air while fighting?"

They just stand around in the air, talking, fighting, and when they get blown back, they even leave dust trails in the air (wtf..?)

It never happened in the SS arc (I think, correct me if I'm wrong)..
and to be honest I liked that "down-to-earth" way more (haha.. down to earth, get it? :Haha )..

Well what do y'all think about it ?

[Pyramus]

Well, its likely to do with their shunpu that they can hover! That or they are standing on their own spirit force! lol! Its proberly just a power that they can do, but they decied to keep it a secret till they left SS! shh!

[smach]

don't really have an answer and can't really find an answer so just accept it and move on. :)

[_mike_]

well remember ichigo in his fight against byakuya and even in the OVA, he was in the air for a short while (in the ova, the was "flying")....yes he jumped to evade the senbonzakura, but evading all of those, takes a while, surely he'd have dropped to the ground, if there was gravity.....also shunpo "defies" gravity

[Narcasi]

Yeah I can see that, but I just think they're flying around too much now, and it makes me go "wtf?" when Shinji for example is standing upside down..
It's gotten a little too DBz-ish I think :P

[Pyramus]

whats wrong with DBZ??? If anything, it should be more like DBZ! Ichigos balls are inert! His strength IS OVER 9000!

If you dont understand, lookie here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtpyeLxVkI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cS18yG8DJI

[_mike_]

maybe its to do with the sudden increase of power of the hollow form....hollows appear from the sky, so the more powerful one is/controls their reiatsu they can stay in mid air, think of it like narutos chakra training/videls flying lesson in dbz....in this case its put reiatsu at your base to keep your altitude constant :p

[Narcasi]

Rofl nice vids Pyramus :o

But anyways I don't really think there is an explanation.. I guess you just have to figure it out yourself :P

I'm not really looking for a meaning behind it though, I just find it.. annoying :sad

[paulsan2112]

yeah, it kinda pisses me off too...

i remember thinking when i first started watching bleach, with all the powers and whatnot, why they WEREN'T flying, thought that was weird considering the rediculous jumps and other similars, but just came to accept that...

now, a considerable time later, everyone flies...
my whole world has been flipped upside-down.


BLEACH, I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU ANYMORE!

[gdo01]

Has everyone forgotten the third episode? Ichigo clearly slides on air as if it were a floor when being thrown out of Orihime's house. This has happened before and it was explained already by Zangetsu during Ichigo's training (http://www.bleachexile.com/bleach-online/details.php?image_id=1333)

[Undying]

It's NOT suddenly. Goody anime erases important stuff as usual. Zangetsu explains it to Ichigo in the chapters equaling episodes 19-21.

[paulsan2112]

maybe so... it does feel a bit much all of a sudden, at least from the anime perspective.

[supratt232]

if it makes you feel better their all ghosts/spirits anyway so flying is probably the most reasonable thing they do...

[paulsan2112]

now i can sleep at night.

[dragoneyes001]

edit: didn't see Supratt's post but its still the same answer.

simply put they are all ghosts/dead/spirits theres no laws of gravity to follow yet they do which is actually the error.

[Yamamoto]

My gosh so many times this question has been asked lol..

and this is a part where the anime department failed to put across to anime viewers..(Undying shows pretty much where it is)

In the manga where Ichigo first goes to his inner world and it starts to break down, Zangetsu in the manga (cut from anime) tells Ichigo to remember his fight with Inoue's brother and gather the spirit particles around him to form a platform in the air so he won't fall (but he doesn't do that anyway so he still falls)..

And notice not all shinigami walk on air, so it depends on the shinigami's skill

[ocean]

well my theory was that they solidified their reiatsu under their feet to stay in the air

[VinScythe]

It's even possible that we were given a glance at this ability in SS when Komamura zipped through the air approaching a corner to attack Aizen.

Then again it could have just been a series of those mighty leaps of his.

And notice not all shinigami walk on air, so it depends on the shinigami's skill
I would have never thought Ikkaku and Renji actually possesed enough control to make such a trick. But yeah, Zaraki won't be doing such a stunt anytime soon.

[FullMetal Rebel]

I thought it was something like spirits flying in the real world or something like that,since no flying was done in ss,unless its gonna happen in HM.And i thought this flying thing was exclusive to Ichigo's bankai.

[Minielf]

I think the reason they can't fly in SS and HM is because the spirit pressure of the entire realm is too dense. It's kinda like gravity in many ways. The spiritrons that make up SS and HM are exert so much force that they pull all spirits to the ground, so neither Shinigami nor Arrancar would be able to break out of it. On the other hand, in the normal world, there's so little spirit particles around that to spirits it's like there's little or no gravity, and so they are able to perform feats such as walking on air or flying.

[Undying]

Flying was done.

Ichigo stoon on air.

Byakuya got up to a high tower.

Byakuya got down from the tower.

A little hard if you can't stop on air.

[theblack_dragon]

come on guys like i think the air fighting is cool i mean where do u want to fight in the streets after you guys know that there really nit allowed to destroy building and what not

*what does puzzle me is where do they find those pieces of dirt wen there breaking in mid air lol i still love bleach*

[Eskiboy]

well if you guys cast your minds back when byakuya and renji 1st come to the real world to collect rukia, we see them both standing in mid air in a kind of menacing pose, so probably any shinigami can do it l doubt its a hard skill to learn.

[angel226]

Yes i too noticed the heavy increased in ariel battles.

But like people said this was already explained very early on. I personally believe the increase in ariel battle has to do with Ichigo's increased abilty to control his own reitsu.

Just think of it like this, they use melee weapons for the most part that result in having to do battle at close range for the most part. I mean if your opponent cant fly or stand in the air, how are you going to sword fight with them. Thus our main character Ichigo was stuck on the ground till he become more talented with his spiritual power. Meaning his oppenents in SS arc had no reason to take flight in battles with Ichigo.

[Aerias]

If I'm remembering correctly, Ichigo had to borrow some shoulder pad thing from Yoruichi to be able to fly when he was saving Rukia from execution

[Harley Quinn]

Dammit just went to post something 2 the first page.Ignore me.Am acting like complete idiot.

[nx6]

If I'm remembering correctly, Ichigo had to borrow some shoulder pad thing from Yoruichi to be able to fly when he was saving Rukia from execution
It was a cape actually.
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/96/capejpgsq4.th.jpg (http://img329.imageshack.us/my.php?image=capejpgsq4.jpg)

I think he just needed it to fly long distances, but standing in midair is different. I think when we see them "flying" in battles at each other they're really leaping towards each other (and we're watching it in slow motion) or doing long shunpo steps from one position in midair to another.

But they can't change direction while they are jumping unless they step on something (which theoretically they can do anywhere I guess).

Using the cape would allow Ichigo to not get tired right before the battle from doing all those Shunpo steps, and perhaps he could fly with the cape faster than he could run (he was still in training when the execution started).

[TallDarkRandom]

hmmm seems they miss some stuff out in the anime maybe :| i like it how ever it brings a new dimension to the anime but didnt ichigo have to borrow that cape that could make him fly in the arc were rukia was going to get executed :|

just looked above an someone else mentioned it but i swear she says to fly not long distances just to fly