Hiyori is bad enough. When you’ve got green-haired Visored trying to out-Hiyori Hiyori, you’re in deep, deep trouble. This episode was nearly as bad as the one a couple episodes ago when Hiyori stunk up the joint. Yes, there’s a plot in here somewhere, but it gets drowned out by all the yelling and screaming and whining and complaining by Hiyori and green-haired Visored.
I was so desperate for a “best girl” for this episode that I had to choose Rangiku, who showed up in the post-credits scene for a brief joke.
Guess what? Hiyori is still annoying as heck. But I didn’t feel like making this review all about her. Instead, let’s see what happens when Kisuke Urahara brings her to visit a prisoner. His name? Mayuri Kurotsuchi.
Why Mayuri was “redeemed” in Bleach is beyond me. The guy is as low as it gets when it comes to morals. Apparently it was Kisuke who gave him his big chance at being set free. Okay, I get it, but why? Why did Kisuke even consider this? Is Kisuke really the biggest villain, or the dumbest person? All these questions need to be answered or this “Turn Back the Pendulum” arc will prove to be just a waste of time.
Best girl of the episode: Yoruichi (13) (barely beating out Soi Fon)
Hiyori is so aggravating (how aggravating is she?) that I at one point in this episode felt like giving up watching Bleach forever. She had irritated me so much that I was ready to just turn off the episode and give up the dream of watching the whole series in a year. Thankfully I stuck it out, not because she got any better, but because the episode came to a merciful end.
What exactly is the point of Hiyori acting all over-the-top angry and violent? It’s not like there’s any love angle to it. It’s just her going into constant fits of rage. She doesn’t bring anything positive to the table. She isn’t funny, she isn’t likable, she isn’t useful to the plot, she’s just yelling all the time. Give me a break.
Thanks to her, I consider this the worst episode of Bleach thus far. My ears hurt from hearing her yelling and screaming and complaining the whole episode. There wasn’t anything good about this episode at all.
Best girl of the episode: Yoruichi (12) (she got a few lines, which allowed me to have a second female character to pick)
Time to go back in time! This arc brings us back I think a century in the past. Some Captains are still there. Others are Lieutenants, such as Sosuke Aizen. Still others are Visoreds, who I still hate even now. And some of them are people we know well, such as Squad 2’s Yoruichi and soon-to-be Captain of Squad 2, Kisuke Urahara.
This episode pretty much just sets things up. Most of the Captains are introduced, with only a couple left as mysteries. Then comes a very humorous scene where Soi Fon steals the show. She goes around spying on Urahara all day long, writing down his every move, because she wants to prove to Yoruichi that he doesn’t deserve to be Captain. Yoruichi laughs her off and tells her that she’s hopelessly in love with Urahara. This is what makes the Yoruichi-Urahara-Soi Fon “love triangle” the best one in all of Bleach.
Aizen is plotting something. You just know it from looking at him. But what? Oh, and one of the characters is said to have gone to Squad Zero. Which is relevant since I’m rewatching TYBW where they went to Squad Zero. Of course, TYBW just retcons a bunch of stuff, so I’m not sure if this is consistent. In any case, Soi Fon’s spying and Yoruichi’s accusation of her love for Urahara make this episode a good start to this ultimate of flashbacks.
Best girl of the episode: Soi Fon (12) (man, I could just listen to Karen Strassman’s voice the rest of my life)
Tommy A. Phillips 