Half of this episode is just a recap of what we saw at the end of the arc right before the Rurichiyo/Amagai arc. So, I’m only going off half an episode of progress. Basically, Grimmjow tries to come back to fight, but he’s in no shape for driving, and anyway, he’s got no place to go. Instead, Nnoitra comes on down to fight Ichigo. I think he just killed Chad, so time to put Ichigo in a body bag too.
Also, Renji, the Quincy Uryu, and Nel’s pals run up a staircase, only to find out that they’re still trapped by Szayelaporro. This episode may have started out as a dud, but there’s at least a lot to look forward to in the next episode. Or maybe they’ll spend a whole episode on Ulquiorra or something and I’ll regret ever getting interested in what comes next. In any case, Hueco Mundo is back, and it’s gonna be around a while.
The Amagai/Rurichiyo arc ends here. Basically, Ichigo battles Shusuke and wins, then everyone gathers around to tell Shusuke the truth. When his father was saying something about the Bakkoto, he was actually saying, “Beware of the Bakkoto!” Old Man Yama could have spelled that out very easily, but instead he decided to let Ichigo put on a show first. And thus Shusuke chooses a form of euthanasia over living any longer.
This arc had many flaws. Let’s try to count them all.
Rurichiyo’s voice. Absolutely horrible and wooden and unfaithful to the original.
Enryu’s voice. Ichigo never even hears it, and the joke ends up falling completely flat.
Amagai’s betrayal. It made no sense at all and came with no warning. At least Aizen had the decency to act a little suspicious before his betrayal.
Old Man Yama’s silence. Had Yamamoto just come out and said, “hey pal, I didn’t mean to kill your father, I was just trying to let him die in peace, and he said ‘beware of the bakkoto’ not ‘the bakkoto’ so really you’re totally wrong,” well, does any of this happen?
The entire arc as a whole. It really felt like a waste of time. The Bount arc was nice for a filler arc because it felt like the characters grew during that arc. This one, hardly any of the main characters got much screen time, and Ichigo didn’t really grow either.
Best girl of the episode: Yoruichi (10) (for her brilliant explanation to Amagai of how he went wrong, and because I simply love Wendee Lee’s voice)
Captain Amagai is thirsty for revenge, and I wonder if he would have gotten said revenge if he didn’t obsess over Rurichiyo. Ichigo was only in this fight to protect Rurichiyo, not to save Old Man Yama’s life. But Amagai insists that he has to have the princess too, forcing Ichigo to go into all-out mode to save her. Meanwhile, Rukia is reduced to the position of battle commentator.
Rurichiyo continues to talk in utterly wooden speech, which isn’t as much the fault of the voice actress as it is the director, and I’m pretty sure Bleach’s dub budget had been slashed at this point. Thus it really isn’t anyone’s fault, but still, Rurichiyo’s voice sounds so robotic that you’d think it was from a video game.
Anyway, Amagai fights Ichigo and no one wins, so we’re going into overtime next episode. There’s only one episode left, so it is true sudden-death overtime, literally.
It turns out that after all this time, Captain Amagai has been putting together a plan all for the one shot at killing Old Man Yama, the man who killed his father. Very much like the ridiculous and stupid plot of the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series, Amagai spent his entire life doing everything with this plan, which included lying about his past, gaining power, handpicking helpers, and plotting like crazy, so he could have one attempt at killing Yamamoto. (A similar thing happened in the Kenobi series, but far stupider.)
Meanwhile, Yoruichi fills everyone in on what has been going on at the Kasumioji clan all this time. It makes me wonder, if this clan was so evil in the first place, then what makes Rurichiyo and her guardians innocent of everything that’s gone down because of them? Seems to me like they deserve some of the blame. Anyway, we now know the truth about Amagai… sort of.
The actual truth of the situation is pretty laughable, almost as funny as Enryu’s voice, which we hear for the first time in this episode. But that truth has got to wait. In the meantime, Amagai goes all out at Yamamoto, with Ichigo looking on as he makes his attack.
Tommy A. Phillips 