Kurogane's Anime Blog » Bleach

Bleach 70

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:12:17 +0000

Blehhhh….. not a very satisfying episode, since the baddies are kinda lame. I mean… the power to change things into snakes…. ooo scary, maybe if I had ophidiophobia XD.

Rukia and Lirin saved this episode anyways, with Rukia’s “*Gokigenyou*” winning hard and Lirin’s “tragic drama queen” cuteness saving the day :P.

The baddies are kinda funny as well, with that snake guy going all “No comment” on Ichigo, XD. Am I supposed to take them seriously? I also foresee the female Bound turning to Ichigo’s side and making Bleach in to harem anime with Ichigo as Harem Master. Ah well~~…..

Bleach 68-69

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:10:41 +0000

The game reaches the final stage as the *kaizou konpaku* summon a huge gate in the city, sucking Ichigo and co. into a rocky area where Chad is tied up to a big pole. The pole turns into and hourglass and the last game begins as a challenge between the 2 guys with Ichigo and Renji under a 5 minute timeframe. Ichigo tries to use his *Bankai* but fails and reaches the 5 minute limit when the hourglass breaks and everything returns normal.

Ichigo finally realises it’s Urahara’s doing and shouts his name out.He appears and explains it was done on purpose to test him. He also states that Ichigo can’t use his *Bankai* now as he did in Soul Society as he only managed to gain it because of his feelings to save Rukia. Yoruichi, who has been investigating a few things with Soi Fong, interrupts the discussion to bring bad news.

It turns out that people’s souls have been getting sucked away by Bounds, a clan of humans possesing special powers just like the Quincys. Unlike the Quincys, who use their power to kill Hollows, Bounds have the ability absorb human souls whose bodies have died and can continue to live on forever, much like vampires. There hasn’t been sightings of them as they’re in small numbers but it turns out that this time, it’s much more dangerous as they’re sucking souls from living people.

As Ichigo and co. have spirit powers, they’re highly attractive targets for the Bounds and to protect them, Urahara assigns Ichigo, Chad and Inoue a *kaizou konpaku* each, with Ichigo taking Lirin, Chad with Nova and Inoue with Claude, who each puts them in dolls that are seen at the new ED, with Lirin in the bird one, Claude in the rabbit and Nova in the green man one, as the *kaizou konpaku* have the ability to detect the Bound’s spiritual forces.

Their peace doesn’t last long as the *kaizou konpaku’s* soon detect the Bounds. Inoue and Chad are lead by Claude and Nova to a warehouse where they find a souless body crumbling into dust and meet a guy Bound who comments they’re delicious but lets them off as he’s full. Ichigo confronts a woman Bound in an alleyway, who unleashes a seemingly indestructible flame being on him. In the fight, Ichigo gets trapped by some debris, with the being delivering the final blow, but he’s saved by none other than Rukia, suprising Ichigo ^_^.

Wow, I’m actually liking the filler arc right now. They concluded the *kaizou konpaku* arc quite satisfyingly, with a good explanation too. It is quite true that Ichigo gained his *Bankai* in record time and that would really make him quite unable to control his powers that well.

The Bound arc now is also looking quite good, mostly because of the *kaizou konpaku* group joining them now. I particularly like Lirin now, especially in her bird doll which is quite *kawaii* and suits her well. Her chemistry with Ichigo is also quite instant and they both somewhat hit it off together quite well. Nova fits Chad well too, seeing that they both are silent types and as for Inoue and Claude…. well… hehe :). In fact, they could easily intergrate the three of them for the next major arc as well.

Undoubtably now, the return of Rukia will make things interesting as I quite miss her too. Her *zanpakutou* should prove to be very useful against the flame being summoned in this episode, and I really want to see her **Sodeno Shirayuki** animated :)…. oops, did I just gave out a spoiler :P.

This special 1 hour episode also had 2 little omake’s in the end, the first with Soi Fong and Yoruichi, with Soi Fong trying to give Yoruichi a box of chocolates, seemingly because it’s Valentine’s Day, but fails. Soi Fong seems to be thinking that Yoruichi is more of a masculine figure here XD. The second one involves Ukitake and Hitsugaya, with Ukitake giving Hitsugaya a big Christmas-themed box of candies, making Hitsugaya ask Ukitake why is he so good to him, to which he replies that because they both have white hair ^_^;;;;.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this episode, even if the earlier filler arc ones weren’t that all good. Humour was in full swing this episode and there was quite some action put in as well. The next episode will be the build-up of the Bound arc and about Rukia return to Karakura City.

Bleach 67

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 03:25:34 +0000

Not as irritating as the last episode, mostly due to the comedy involved. The whole setup of disappearing schoolmates was also much more easier to stomach than last week’s infinite looping rooms, with a (phew!) notable lack of melodrama.

Highlights include:

- Ichigo and Renji’s little *”shounen-ai”* hints.
- Ishida’s uber 1337 sewing skills.
- Lack of Ririn’s incredibly annoying giggles and more of her seiyuu’s talent out.

The little cameo by Soi Fong and Yoruichi was a bit illogical though.

Bleach 66

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 17:03:52 +0000

Kurosaki and co. are lead to the museum, where upon the invitation of the girl, they play a game with her. They’re trapped in a sequence of seemingly infinite rooms sparsed with some random traps. Ishida, being the Conan of the group, figures out the trick of the room and breaks through the illusion. The baddie trio try to capture him, but Ishida has already figured out their secret and uses Ichigo’s Sprit Seal to reveal them as *kaizou konpaku* (modded souls) with the ability of illusion and space manipulation. The trio returns Chad and Inoue and leaves with a hint that they’re heading for their school.

At first, I thought this is going to be a really bad filler, but it’s not that bad now, especially with the ingenious idea of making mod souls the villains. This would certainly help tie it in with the main story arc later on. I’d totally forgotten about that aspect of the Bleach-verse.

But still, it’s not all that good. The episode was kinda boring on the “looping rooms” part and Ririn’s giggles are darn irritating. The whole execution is kinda clichéd too, with last episode’s “city marathon” and this one’s “loop room” of which have been seen in other animes. What happened to the fights man?!

Kon had his fair share of screentime thought, which would please some fan(atics) of him I know. Ishida’s “mods” supply this episode’s parody, with his Doraemon-esque “pocket” in Kon now. The short *omake* at the end of this episode was really funny too, with the deadpan narration throwing me off course. It was kinda funny to see Soi Fong toying with a cat as well :).

Next up would be the “oh-no-my-classmates-are-in-danger” episode. Expect cheesy melodrama. It doesn’t seem to be that bad though, as some flashes of Soul Society were spotted in the preview. Bleach7 did report a swift end to the filler arc anyways :).

Bleach 65 – Beginning of Filler Hell

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:42:50 +0000

After a short sequence of the meeting between the **Gotei 13** Captains about the state of **Soul Society** after Aizen’s betrayal, the story resumes back to **Karakura City**, where Ichigo and Co. are trying to figure out what happened yesterday night. They break into Inoue’s apartment where they get a phone call from the kidnappers and gets lead around in a city-wide marathon. Later that night, Inoue seemingly returns with no memory of whatsoever happened, but it turns out to be a trap as the three villains of this arc introduce themselves and take Chad too as a parting gift.

Blah blah blah and blah… well, Bleach is slowly descending to filler hell. The events in this episode really make no sense other than to put in some hillarity between Ichigo and Renji. The villains haven’t really been introduced correctly, there’s no purpose introduced other than getting back their kidnapped friends and the whole thing really comes off as a joke more than anything :P.

In fact, the best parts of this episode really come after the show, with the short sequence involving Renji trying to steal some rice as he’s still hungry after being underfed by Urahara’s gang :p. I’m not seeing much hope for this arc and they’re seriously going to face problems trying to integrate this arc with the main arcs later on.

Bleach 64

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:19:15 +0000

Stepping into the filler realm, Bleach 64 is an OK episode to my standards.

With everyone back in Karakura City, life returns to normal as usual for our protagonists. Renji arrives also, unexpectedly, saying he’s now the person-in-charge of Karakura and just right on cue, a Hollow appears, slain easily by Ichigo. One *shoujo-ai* moment, hillarious *isouro-san* sequence and collateral damage scene later, the focus is one Inoue, dreaming about her brother. The doorbell rings and Inoue’s suprised to find her brother behind the door. Meanwhile, Renji gets a Hollow alert and wakes Ichigo up to rush to scene, after sensing it’s from Inoue’s place. Inoue’s having a chat with what she thinks is her brother and suddenly, a door appears, looking like the Hell’s door from the earlier arc and Inoue gets sucked into it, in full view of the rest of gang.

Hmm… basically there’s not much wrong here but I’m still not buying into it. The premise hasn’t really been shown, given that none of villains and their motives are revealed, with Inoue suddenly becoming the victim.Hopefully, it’s not gonna be cheesy. They’d better integrate this well into the whole story, or I’ll throw Bleach off my watch list.

The first half was quite good, being it taken from manga material. There’s also some extra shoujo-ai moments too and Renji really stole the show with his appearance and hillarity with Urahara-tachi.

The ED sounds OK, but the animation seqeunce feels funny. I’m not liking the new villains(I presume) character designs except for the customary cute girl. The additional seqeunce after the ED with Kon and Ishida was really LOL.

In any case, I’ll still give it a try. If it descends into Naruto territory……. I think I’ll pull a DarkMirage on them.

Bleach 63

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 15:09:10 +0000

This is a one hour special, with half dedicated to recaps of what has happened and the other dealing with the aftermath of the Soul Society arc.

I’m actually impressed on how they pulled the recaps. It wasn’t all that boring and they focused on the most popular aspect of the show, the fights, nicely. Some people that I know *\*coughfuk-u-dacough*\* could do well to take lessons from the Bleach production crew.

The second half resolves the Soul Society arc, with not much chnages from the original manga material. Since the Arankal arc is still ongoing, next episode seems to start off a filler arc with the gang plus Renji facing off 3 gothloli villains. Somehow, from the preview already I’m not expecting good stuff to come out. Meh.. we’ll see next week.

Bleach 62

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:31:52 +0000

More of Aizen pwnage of Soul Society and unexpectedly they shortened the action a bit. There’s supposed to be more fights and notably the other 3 gatekeepers of Soul Society got the cut. Well, their appearence was more of an excuse for Jidanbou to show off his 1337 skillz anyways.

I was abit disappointed by this episode, as it kinda felt rushed but they still did cover most of the manga stuff in the chapters being animated. My guess would be that the Soul Society arc will end with the next episode, which is going to be aired on the 10th of January by the way, and they’ll all go back and live happily ever after…………….NOT!!!!

I guess they’ll be starting up the filler arcs for the new year. I’ll stick around and watch for a few episodes, to give them the benefit of the doubt. If it starts to look cheap-ass, cheesy, or get-item-A-and-weapon-B type of stories, then I bash them up nicely :).

Oh…. How I WANT to see Sodeno Shirayuki animated _|-|0””’

Bleach 61

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:50:10 +0000

The twist continues on… as Bleach heads for the end of the Soul Society arc.

The twist continues on, as Aizen shows off his l337 skillz and pwns both Ichigo and Renji easliy. As much as I’d hate to admit it, but he is seriously f**king evil and f**king cool at the same time. I’m pretty relieved that the action scenes this episode was really animated nicely.

Also, Aizen’s motives are nicely revealed in an anticlimatic mood after Ichigo and Renji’s defeat, with the revelation of Hougyoku and Urahara’s less-than-noble help of Rukia.In all, this episode covers Chapter 172 to 175 of the manga completely and perfectly.

One point to note also was the BGM arrangement of this episode, luring viewers into a false hope by playing “Number. 1″ when Ichigo arrives to block Aizen’s sword and nicely ending the song just before the climax when Ichigo’s attack gets easily blocked by Aizen. Further in later, the BGM’s used during Aizen’s explanation really befits the story being told and truly, the musical team of the Bleach anime deserves praise.

In all, this was truly a fine episode of Bleach, continuing from the quality we’ve been seeing since episode 60. I have to admire the storytelling genius of Kubo Tite-sensei in producing Bleach, although at times it may seem to drag a bit. However, it is still true that the end of the Soul Society is in sight and I can only hope that the production team are able to produce material of this calibre, if they make a filler arc, but I’m not putting my money on them yet, judging from past experiences :P.

Bleach 60

Kurogane Shiroikaze — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 15:27:12 +0000

Ok, now, how many non-manga readers were shocked by this episode ^_-? For those who were, I did say the twist was good, eh :). The first time round I read it from the manga (mind you, I was reading the manga a long long time before they even announced the anime :), I was practically pissing off my pants when they did this revelation, and it was truly a long piss, as it took them 4 weeks(or +/- 1 month to go through it :). Anime watchers have it much more shorter, eh.

But truly, this was a really good episode, with everything animated nicely with the build-up done right. I really pity Hinamori, but as Aizen says, “akogare wa, rikai kara moto mo tooi kanjou dayo” (or ” Admiration is the emotion furthest away from understanding.”). You can’t deny Aizen’s badassness and kakkoii-ness. So far, among the recent series I’m following on, he’s still the most memorable and coolest antagonist :).

But seriously, Aizen’s “Kyouka Suigetsu” is f**king overpowered and darn cool. The ability of “Complete Hynopsis” is sooo overpowered it’s actually cool. Plus ol’ Aizen used it so masterfully, it’s hard to believe. Truly a f**king hard opponent to fight with. Plus, the one little fact that it’s STILL A SHIKAI!!!! God, I so wanna see his bankai, which unfortunately won’t be revealed anytime soon, judging from events in the manga :). Probably some ability to make his hynopsis reality 0.0!!.

That aside, this episode is still bad news for perfectionist fans (like me), as it marks the fact that the Soul Society arc will end soon, by my estimation in 3-4 episodes. As the current manga arc is still in progress, it’s hard to animate it. Apparently, rumours of a filler arc are flying around, as with the rumours of a Bleach movie too. Hopefully, the production crew won’t turn Bleach into the next Naruto, with tons of cheap-ass and tasteless fillers. Well, at the least, Bleach still has Rukia-chan~~ :). It’s also a bit sad for me, that we won’t be seeing Rukia’s zanpakutou soon….. :P.