Tale of the Lost Agent

Takes place 17 months after the end of the much longer and more complex Arrancar Saga. The Tale of the Lost Agent is a transitory arc much smaller in scale and scope than many of those that preceded it, and the style of it expresses this change: gone are most of big bombastic battles and otherworldly environments, sobstituted by quirky Urban Fantasy's settings and a more grounded feel. Together with this, the majority of the "old" cast is put on the background in favor of an entire group of new additions.

This all changes by the end of the arc, where in full glory they make a comeback the larger than life conflicts, the ultradesigned characters, the transformations, as well as the old guard, while the newer characters are almost entirely removed. For these reasons, some fans ended up complaining that the overall arc felt like "canonic-filler", irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, just an excuse to give back Ichigo his powers in time for the beginning of the "Thousand-Year Blood War", the true climax of the manga.