Bleach episode 136 review

So, basically, an Arrancar decides to betray Aizen and steals the Hogyoku, and “kills” Ulquiorra in the process. He then recruits two other Arrancar to join him, and now they’re off to cause chaos in Karakura Town.

As promising as that sounds, it actually wasn’t. The episode tries to make Ulquiorra out to be a sympathetic character, which he’s not. I am going to tar and feather Ulquiorra by the time this blog is done, by the way. I find it sickening that people ship him with Orihime. And there’s nothing messier than a little shipping war.

Meanwhile, Kisuke decides to leave his shop for a little while, and Ururu has to stay behind and clean. Renji keeps getting in the way. Yes, this was actually in the episode. As a result, it “wins” the episode for Ururu.

Best girl of the episode: Ururu (3)

Episode rating: 5/10

Bleach episode 135 review

A girl is drowning, and instead of diving in to save her, Rangiku throws Kon’s Soul Candy into the plushie that the girl had dropped into the water. The new “Kon” saves the girl, who doesn’t realize that he saved her until later, when Kon reveals (accidentally) that he’s a living being. Now it’s up to Kon to placate the girl, who somehow lives on her own, and to save her from a Hollow.

This episode brought a lot of unintentional humor to me. Maybe it was intentionally unintentional, or unintentionally intentional, or even unintentionally unintentional. In any case, I was laughing a lot at this episode. It even had a happy ending for the girl, who Rangiku saves from the Hollow before reuniting her with her mother. What can I say? These filler episodes are hit or miss, but this one hit. Chalk one up for Kon and Quinton Flynn!

Best girl of the episode: Rangiku (19) (ooh, baby, watch your back, Orihime!)

Episode rating: 7/10

Bleach episode 134 review

What good is a cooking anime if my queen Erina Nakiri isn’t in it? Nevertheless, Yumichika becomes an Iron Chef in this episode, accompanied by Hanataro and the other useless guy from Squad 12 who I don’t remember his name. They help out a dead baker to give a cake to his mother. It’s as drab as it sounds.

This might have been the worst episode in Bleach history if I didn’t catch myself laughing midway through. But I wasn’t laughing from it; I was laughing at it. It was unintentional humor, but sometimes unintentional humor is better than intentional humor (actually, that’s almost always the case). Luckily, Ururu shows up to deliver the cakes to Renji and Chad to taste-test, and thanks to her appearance, I didn’t have to give away “best girl” to the dead baker’s mother.

Best girl of the episode: Ururu (2)

Episode rating: 4/10

Bleach episode 133 review

“With a love like that, you know should be glad.”

Ikkaku gets roped into a kendo contest by Mizuho, who is once again the star of the show. Seriously, who would have bet Mizuho would be gaining ground on Rukia and having more focus than Ichigo himself? She gets Mizuho to start training her peeps, who are in the exact same situation as Karin’s friends in the last episode: beat a rival group, or be forced to disband. It’s amazing that they came up with identical storylines like this.

But not only that, Ikkaku loves doing it because he loves competition so much. He even ropes Renji and Toshiro into it. That’s right, for the second consecutive episode, Toshiro is competing in a contest to save someone’s skin. And for the second straight episode, he succeeds.

Midway through the big kendo battle, after Ikkaku has coached up his boys, the Soul Reapers get called to a Hollow sighting, and they are all forced to leave their defective Soul Candy bodies behind. (Yachiru of all people is behind the Soul Candy, as proven by the post-credits sequence.) But the kid that Ikkaku trained actually wins his match, leaving no need for Ikkaku to battle. He then takes on everyone in sight when he returns from beating the Hollow. It’s a very Three Stooges ending.

Sadly, I found myself laughing during this episode. And it wasn’t unintentional humor. So you might say that I… liked this filler? Oh boy. I’m feeling guiltier every minute.

Best girl of the episode: Mizuho (3)

Episode rating: 8/10