Ending's better, man. Like you said though, it is certainly more epic and bigger sounding than it has been in a while. Reminds me of D-Tecnolife.

(also After Dark rocked, what is wrong with you)
I'm thinking it'll just be an alternate time/dimension/whatever, like the movies. How they're kinda set during the series and weird stuff, like in DiamondDust Rebellion,
Ichigo goes Vaizard, which doesn't happen until like episode 125 or something? And there is literally no time inbetween for those events to happen, so it's just an alternate dimension or something