Bleach episode 35 review

It’s not even an hour after Aizen’s “death,” and the Soul Society has been thrown into complete chaos. Momo attacks Ichimaru. Izuru attacks Momo. Toshiro attacks them both. The other Lieutenants are just there for dragging Izuru and Momo off to jail. It seems that the Soul Society fixes all its problems by putting people in jail. Actually, that doesn’t sound all that different from the real world.

Anyway, Ichigo and Ganju got healed at the Pokemon Center and are now ready to fight again. They climb up a never-ending staircase that actually does end, and at the top they are greeted by someone. That’s right, it’s time for the best fight of the arc: Ichigo vs. Zaraki (who I don’t call “Kenpachi” anymore thanks to TYBW). This should (will) be good.

Also, Squad 8 Captain Shunsui Kyoraku prepares for battle with… Chad? A small fry for the future Head Captain to be taking on. Also, Uncle Shunsui teases his niece Nanao. They’d make such a cute couple if they weren’t, you know, connected by blood.

Speaking of blood, there’s going to be a lot of Ichigo’s spilled against Zaraki, and I can’t wait.

Best girl of the episode: Momo (3) (she really does have a lot of guts to take on Gin Ichimaru)

Episode rating: 8/10

Bleach episode 34 review

It was so obvious. It was right there from the beginning. And I missed it. I never saw it coming.

Aizen was a villain from Day One. From his passing Ichimaru in a suspicious way, to his weird response to Momo, to what he told Momo in his barracks. It shouldn’t have been this hard to figure out that he was a bad guy.

But I missed it the first time I watched Bleach, and I believed that he was some sort of martyr at the end of this episode. Poor Momo. She looked up to Aizen as a father figure, and he turned out to be anything but.

Things just got real in the Soul Society. Renji’s in jail, Ichigo’s out of commission, the other Ryoka are out of the plot altogether, and Aizen is dead. Or at least we wish he was.

Best girl of the episode: Momo (2)

Episode rating: 9/10

Bleach episode 33 review

So! It’s filler, filler night, and no one’s gonna stop me from making fun at this episode… but here’s the thing: for filler, this one was actually kind of humorous. I’m not saying it was a great episode or anything, but the Karin-Jinta fight made this episode a little worthwhile.

Don Kanonji wants to start up a new “team” and he enlists Ichigo’s sisters and the Urahara Shop gang. With typical tomfoolery, the team helps defeat Hollows and guides a cat to the afterlife. At one point, Don Kanonji says “Smells like bad spirits” which was a great line given the title of this show and the title of an album of a song with a similar title. (I hope that make sense, but if that confuses you, just google Nirvana.)

Anyway, Jinta and Karin keep battling it out because they want to be Karakura “Red.” I assume this is something like the Power Rangers. At least Ururu was nice and agreed to be “Pink.” I forget whether Karin and Jinta’s argument lives on, but there’s at least some reason to be interested the next time one of these filler episodes pops up.

Best girl of the episode: Karin (2)

Episode rating: 6/10

Bleach episode 32 review

I probably didn’t care much for this episode the first time I saw it; after all, wasn’t it just a typical story of two poor people growing up in bad conditions? But now having seen Rukia and Renji get together at the end of the manga makes me see exactly how important this episode was. We get a ton of backstory which is all necessary to understand these two characters. I complain about this a lot, but here it was used perfectly.

We also see Renji’s first blush in front of Rukia. See? I told you it was canon from Day 1! And we get an amazing scene at the end where Renji grabs Ichigo by the collar and makes him promise that he will save Rukia. It’s a poignant scene which establishes Renji as “one of us,” one of the good guys. This is Bleach at its finest!

Best girl of the episode: Rukia (10, moving her back into a tie for first place with Orihime)

Episode rating: 9/10