This week chapter 670 of Bleach was released, and one of the things revealed in this chapter was what happens when the petals on Hitsugaya Toshiro's Bankai runs out. The end result is...
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... Toshiro revealing an adult form. The reactions are mixed, but here are some of the ones which stand out to me, as well as my reactions to them. The first reaction which stands out to me is this one, which I paraphrase.
Toshiro has finally revealed his "real self".
By "real self" the readers think Toshiro is in the same boat as Nel, where he's sealed into a younger version of himself and needs to use his Bankai to return to his adult self. I honestly don't get why people keep insisting that Toshiro is an adult stuck in a child's body rather than a child with the mind of an adult. In fact, Toshiro is referred to as a child genius in the present tense, not the past tense; by this I mean he's not referred to as was a child genius but is a child genius.
A few readers point out the fact Toshiro's never been shown to age like the others. Characters like Byakuya, Rangiku and Gin are all shown as children a hundred years ago, but are now adults, so surely that means Toshiro should also be grown up into an adult as well. The first problem with this argument lies with the fact all three characters are not actually not children age wise, but in preteens. People seem to forget that Rangiku was already developing in the chest area, meaning she had hit puberty, and would be between the ages of ten to thirteen. Gin is around the same size, so he would also be a preteen range , and Ukitake notes that Gin is the same age as Byakuya.
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The argument is also based on the idea that Toshiro has not grown, and that he's always been the same size. His current height indicates Toshiro is a preteen, somewhere between the physical ages of ten to twelve, maybe thirteen if one pushes. Toshiro also argues that he's not grown, and stopped growing around the time Momo entered the academy, and many readers take Toshiro's word for it. The first problem with this particular argument lies in the fact we can't take Toshiro's word as truth due to the fact Toshiro has a complex regarding his height. Said complex is to the point Byakuya even notes that Toshiro's obsession with height is disturbing.
If that's not enough, there is proof that Toshiro has aged over the last forty to fifty years. When Momo entered the academy, Toshiro came to her shoulder height wise.
