Bleach episode 173 review

Rurichiyo escaped into the Soul Society, right into danger (it’s danger danger!). She goes to a tea party, at which point she gets attacked. Meanwhile, the bumbling idiots Kenryu and Enryu fall into a predictable trap and get knocked out of contention, but Ichigo shows up in time to SAVE Rurichiyo. After Ichigo SAVES her, she needs SAVING again, and this time Kenpachi SAVES her. But Kenpachi has no interest in the situation and simply leaves.

This episode was notable for its wooden dialogue and voice acting, particularly with Rurichiyo. I complained about the lack of the royal “we,” but this goes beyond that. She is talking like a robot. Did her voice actress record all her lines without direction? I’m not trying to criticize a VA or a director, but man, does she sound wooden and robotic.

Also, this episode includes another classic case of “Arranged marriages are evil,” which I find annoying. If you had given me the opportunity of an arranged marriage, I would have jumped at it the first second I could. I’d love to have an arranged marriage. They’re not evil. They’re not a bad thing. The fact that this shows up from time to time in different media is really annoying and almost laughable.

The episode kept my attention, particularly with Yachiru’s humor, so I have to give it a good score.

Best girl of the episode: Yachiru (13)

Episode rating: 7/10

Bleach episode 172 review

This episode is devoted to exploring how useless Squad 3 Lieutenant Izuru Kira really is. He starts out the episode unable to corral a cat, then suffers criticism from people in his squad who think the new guy Kibune deserves to be Lieutenant over him. He gets so upset that he tries to drink it away, along with fellow useless Lieutenant Tetsuzaemon Iba. Then finally he falls into a hole, where he has it out with Kibune before Captain Amagai comes to save them.

Obviously Kibune is up to no good, and obviously Kira’s the guy we’re supposed to cheer for, but I find myself kind of cheering against Izuru, because he really has proven how useless he is. Meanwhile, we don’t get the appearance of any female characters in this episode at all, save for Rurichiyo showing up with ten seconds left to save my “best girl” gimmick. Close call, guys.

Best girl of the episode: Rurichiyo (3)

Episode rating: 6/10

Bleach episode 171 review

Rurichiyo shows her true colors in this episode, taking a royal temper tantrum and storming off when Kenryu told her not to eat carrots. No joke, this actually happened in a Bleach episode – a whole plot line got kicked off because someone was mad about not getting to eat carrots. If that wasn’t enough, it was Orihime who saved the day in this episode, protecting Rurichiyo when she ran off in a hissy fit. Those triangles Orihime makes, are they 2-D or 3-D? Sometimes they look like they’re just blocking in one direction.

Anyway, thanks to Ichigo & pals, everything ends up hunky dory for Rurichiyo, and she makes up with Kenryu, who makes up with her… almost said “makes out” with her, which is not all that far from what their relationship is. Now I assume we’ll get to the meat of the reason for this whole situation? I hope, at least. Otherwise, we’ll be just talking about the power of friendship and how Rurichiyo’s way of talking sounds weird when it doesn’t sound weird at all. (Oh, what a missed opportunity by the dub crew.)

Best girl of the episode: Orihime (33) (watch your back, Rukia! 2 more to catch you!)

Episode rating: 6/10

Bleach episode 170 review

In this episode, the characters actually call out Rurichiyo on using the royal “we,” yet since she never used it in the dub, the conversation makes no sense! This is a huge fail by the dub. It’s as if they asked Yoda why he talks backwards, but Yoda’s voice was changed so he talks normally. Sadly, most people never even realized what was going on here, and just shrugged it off as small talk and as a conversation that didn’t matter. Well, guess what. It mattered to me. And I’m not happy about it.

I’m not too happy about the rest of the episode, either. Rurichiyo has an obsession with Ichigo, which makes zero sense because she only saw the guy one time. Even if it is love at first sight, it’s still hard to figure out why she likes him so much. Anyway, Ichigo fights off a bad guy, then Rurichiyo’s protectors tell him and the others the whole story. Apparently Rurichiyo is a princess who’s under attack because she’s the successor of whatever clan she’s part of, and naturally bad guys are always after princesses, so they’ve got to protect her. They figured to bring her to the world of the living, where she’d be safe. (Not!) So now it’s up to Ichigo & pals, though mainly just Ichigo, to protect her.

This episode wasn’t all that great, and sadly neither is the rest of the arc. But a lot of it would have been solved if the dub had just stayed true to the original language.

Best girl of the episode: Rurichiyo (2)

Episode rating: 5/10