Bleach episode 320 review

Kon is put in charge of watching Nozomi, the mysterious girl who has become this arc’s Rurichiyo. Everyone’s got to protect her at all costs, even though we have no idea why. And of course, Kon lets her get away, and she goes off wandering until she runs into fake Rangiku. This fake Rangiku captures her, only to get stunned when Kon comes running back after Nozomi, and then confronted by the real Rangiku. In the end, it’s a nice story for Kon, who ultimately did protect Nozomi, albeit after losing her in the first place.

My concern with this arc is that we’re going to keep on going with this “Nozomi must be protected, fake Soul Reapers are evil” without ever knowing why anyone is doing anything. Why must Nozomi be protected? Why is that Squad 12 guy doing this? What is the motive of fake Soul Reapers who don’t really exist? So confusing, but at least this episode was pretty entertaining.

Best girl of the episode: Rangiku (40) (she has the chance to mess up Rukia’s magic # if she keeps this up)

Episode rating: 7/10

Bleach episode 319 review

So, Yoruichi joins up with Ichigo & Rukia as they try to run away from the fake Soul Reapers. Eventually, Yoruichi “sacrifices” herself so the two of them can escape. In reality, Yoruichi’s “sacrifice” is a complete ass-kicking of the fake Byakuya, Renji, and others.

Uryu also defeats his foe, and then Ichigo and Rukia along with all the real Soul Reapers go after the bad guy. It’s not clear what he’s planning on doing, why he’s even fighting, or why he even exists, save to fill the role of bad guy for this arc. In fact, we don’t even know why we’re fighting, we just are. And it’s getting a little aggravating. I’m going to go listen to “Fairytale of New York.”

Best girl of the episode: Yoruichi (19) (Rukia’s magic # down to 23)

Episode rating: 5/10

Bleach episode 318 review

In this episode, we find out why everyone’s after Ichigo: they’ve had false gigais attached to them and now basically have their brains controlled by this evil force. They’re also stronger than they usually are, because if they weren’t, Ichigo would beat them with ease. Yoruichi explains everything, but not until after this charade of the Captains using Ichigo’s broken combat pass as somehow “proof” of his guilt… of doing what? Again, they aren’t telling us what the crime is. They’re just saying that Ichigo’s guilty. That’s great. What did he actually do?

This arc has the makings of being one of the worst in Bleach history. This is a very, very bad start. At least Rukia did herself a favor by being heavily featured in this episode, and that magic # shrinks quicker.

Best girl of the episode: Rukia (60) (magic # at 24)

Episode rating: 4/10

Bleach episode 317 review

This episode was so confusing to keep up with what was going on. Apparently there’s some big problem in the Soul Society, but no one wants to talk about what that actually is. Mayuri and Kenpachi both get put in charge of the plan, which is… well, what is it? It’s something about something about… yeah, I got nothing.

Then we’ve got Ichigo and Rukia running from “The Cleaner” which was supposed to have been gone thanks to Aizen, but now is back so it forces Ichigo to use his Bankai and thus inch closer to losing his Soul Reaper powers. But before he can, he shows up in the Soul Society, where about 59 Soul Reapers including Toshiro and Byakuya choose to put him in jail for doing something bad. The only problem? We don’t even know what that bad thing is. It’s essentially an excuse for making Ichigo this arc’s “damsel in distress.”

Best girl of the episode: Nanao (9) (she had some screen time before we got obsessed with capturing the ultra-evil Ichigo) (Rukia magic # down to 26)

Episode rating: 5/10