Action and tension is the order of the day in the latest Bleach anime episode.
What They Say
With the Espada gone, the Visoreds are now able to confront Aizen. Having been unwilling test subjects in Aizen's past experiment, the Visoreds make no effort to hide their hatred toward the man who destroyed their lives. Hiyori, unable hold in her anger, is the first to attack Aizen with her blade. Meanwhile, Chad, Renji, and Rukia continue their fight against Yammy in Hueco Mundo.
The Review!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having enjoyed the early episodes of Bleach when it started on DVD here and having made it up to episode 109, I decided to do what I did with One Piece and jump into the latest episode to see what would happen. It took a bit to get a handle on One Piece but it worked out well for that show. So with the DVD box sets rolling out, I'm jumping ahead nearly 200 episodes to see what's going on in the world of Bleach today. Part of me hopes that it will help eliminate the sour taste left by the Bount arcs that I just finished.
Aizen has decided that the Espada can't accomplish what he wants as their combined strength has them still coming across as inferior to him, so it's best to just dispose of them. There's some nice shock and horror at such an outcome from one the last Espada to fall which sets the tone nicely, but then the show goes into a bit of a goofy comedy routine on the ground with some other characters as Mashiro battles it out with a decidedly creepy guy. It turns serious though as it progresses and Mashiro is actually threatened by the whole situation. She gets pretty beaten up but manages truly severe damage as Kensei steps in just in time to rescue her. He's amusingly stoic as he intends to go avenge her without it actually being called that since he just wants to pummel the cocky kid.
While that plays out, the confrontation between the Visoreds and Aizen starts to heat up as there's a good bit of verbal sparring starting things off as Hiyori recalls events from the past that have pushed her to this angry and violent point. She's practically ready to blow to take him on and he's got all the cards in his hands at this point. With his demeanor and style, he's able to taunt and provoke them to reckless action, all with that very cool, calm and controlled smile of his. Her attack and Shinji's reaction to it and what happens sets off the real fight though but it's only setup as just as the tension mounts, it's off to show us where some of the main characters are such as Rukia and Renji as they fight against Yammy while Ichigo is doing his best to get back to everyone so he can actually help after Ishida has been injured and Orihime is doing her best to help.
In Summary:
Getting into the groove of a series that I'm familiar with, but with such a gap, is certainly a challenge at times. Bleach has some lengthy arcs so that definitely plays into it as well but there's enough familiarity here, I mean, Aizen was a central bad guy figure how long ago?, that you can jump in with only a bit of difficulty in keeping up with the who's who side of it. The visual design of the show still feels much the same as what I've seen so far and there's a good dose of action here that looks interesting. Leaping ahead like this has me curious to see the growth of the characters between the DVDs and where it is now, but also to follow it forward from here and see where it's going to go. This episode teases nicely as it sets up things with Aizen while also providing some drama and giving a good fight sequence for Rukia and the others in Hueco Mundo to deal with.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70" LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
