'Sword Art Online' Goes Full 'Bleach' With its Newest Sword

Sword Art Online is no stranger to fancy sword skills, but the latest season of the series has seen more fantastical abilities for each of the Integrity Knights as Kirito and Eugeo battle their way to the top of the Central Cathedral.

While these new swords have shown off some awesome powers, one seems just a bit familiar to fans of another popular series, Tite Kubo's Bleach, as Alice's Perfect Weapon Control art gives her sword the same ability as Byakuya Kuchiki's Senbonzakura.

The third season of the series features a new virtual world, the Underworld, which allows certain swordfighters to add modifiers to their swords to grant them wild new abilities. For example, Kirito's Perfect Weapon Control art is a massive energy that whips around from his sword. The latest episode introduces Alice's Perfect Weapon Control, which is based on the fact that her Osmanthus Sword is born from an ancient tree. When she activates it, it breaks into hundreds of petals that have the ability to cut through whatever she desires. This will automatically seem familiar to Bleach fans.

In Bleach, the Soul Reapers can activate their Zanpakutos in order to achieve different abilities. One of the most prominent ones in the series belongs to the Captain of the 6th Division, Byakuya Kuchiki. When he activates his Senbonzakura, his blade spreads out into hundreds of tiny blossom petals. Swinging the hilt of his sword, he can use these petals at will much to the chagrin of his foes.

Since Alice did not get a lot of screen time to show off the full extent of her Osmanthus Sword, there's no telling of whether or not she will have as much control over her petals as Byakuya did in his series, but there's still plenty of time to do so. Still, it's a hilarious coincidence and maybe Sword Art Online will share more coincidences with the popular Bleach series as the Alicization Rising arc continues.

If you have yet to catch the new season of Sword Art Online yourself, Sword Art Online: Alicization can currently be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu. The series is officially described as such:

"Where... am I...?" Before he knows it, Kirito has made a full-dive into an epic, fantasy-like virtual world. With only a murky recollection of what happened right before he logged in, he starts to wander around, searching for clues. He comes upon an enormous, pitch dark tree (the Gigas Cedar), where he encounters a boy. "My name is Eugeo. Nice to meet you, Kirito." Although he is supposedly a resident of the virtual world - an NPC - the boy shows the same array of emotions as any human being.

As Kirito bonds with Eugeo, he continues to search for a way to log out of this world. Meanwhile, he remembers a certain memory deep down within him. He remembers racing through the mountains with Eugeo as a child... A memory that he should not have in the first place... And in this memory, he sees someone other than Eugeo, a young blond girl. Her name is Alice. And it is a name that must never be forgotten..."

Bleach was first created by Tite Kubo for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, running from 2001 to 2016. The series follows the young delinquent Ichigo Kurosaki, who has the ability to see spirits. He soon obtains the power of a Soul Reaper - one meant to usher lost souls to the afterlife - and now has the duty to defend the living world from monstrous dark spirits known as Hollows.