#Bleach ep284: this is too formulaic, & would've felt more effective if used when her Fraccion died. #anime 

I don't think they fleshed out Hallibel's backstory much in the manga, so this episode came as a surprise. Another interesting thing is that I don't remember the manga addressing the Vasto Lorde issue very much after initially talking about it. But I always believed that the top four or five Espada were Vasto Lorde.

In all this episode was one big flashback that successfully gave the manga a little breathing room from the anime that is breathing down its neck.