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

Bleach episode 31 review

Ichigo fights Renji, and as he beats Renji, he has a very long flashback about his training with Mr. Hat & Clogs. You could realistically call this a “training arc” episode because there was far more training than there was present-day battling with Renji. It’s not bad, really, especially with the theme of the name of this post being the reason why Ichigo can wash away Renji’s attacks and break him down.

But it is just one one-on-one battle for this one Episode Thirty-One. Ichigo won. And I’ll see myself out.

Oh, and we got Soi Fon’s Squad 2 “Houki Boshi,” which spoils the character of Yoruichi, whom we had never seen in human form before. Soi Fon shows pretty much every emotion imaginable in 60 seconds. Man, I love that woman. Forget Omaeda, Soi Fon, come make babies with me!

Best girl of the episode: Momo Hinamori (I totally forgot that she actually had a few lines in this episode, talking to Izuru Kira)

Episode rating: 7/10