[oh yeah... i can feel it]

[queendork56]

Tuesday Wednesday! means Bleach time...

I'm really liking this filler arc.


We start with out with our guys having a pow-wow by the river. Renji is not happy. So he and Ichigo get into (another) fight. Ishida and Orihime try to calm them down. They talk some more (Orihime does her usual baffle everyone with Hime-logic) before the scene changes. (Oh and there's more Kon abuse.)

We then check in with the goings on in Soul Society... specifically the 10th Division. Matsumoto brings Hitsugaya a cup of tea and the two chat for a bit about Soi Fong. (And I must say I'm glad that Matsumoto came out looking pretty much the same as she did back during the SS arc.) But when the large stack of paperwork is brought up... Matsumoto disappears.

Back in the human world... someone is putting on a nice fireworks show. But this isn't your normal fireworks show... this is a message delivery system. (The note is from Ririn.) And once the fireworks fade a giant version of The Mod Squads gate appears above Karakura. Ichigo quickly changes into a Shinigami and the gang goes racing off, leaving Ichigo's body behind.

Meanwhile Soi Fong and Yoruichi are investigating some strange happens. The two find a body that's been turned to sand. Soi Fong takes a sample from the glowing spot on the shoulder.

Back in Soul Society Hitsugaya heads to the 12th Division to check in on the goings on. He arrives at the monitoring room (I'm sure it has a better name) and finds Ukitake and Shunsui already there. Shunsui offers booze and Ukitake's hair is pretty. (Also.. yay for us getting to see these 12th Division guys! This is the first time we've actually seen them animated. No Akon though. *sad*) The 12th Division guys pick up on something.

We go back to the human world! Ichigo & Co. have made it to the gate and find The Mod Squad waiting for them. The gate begins to suck things into it starting with Kon who only has a pencil-thin Quincy to weigh him down. While everyone holds on for dear life Ririn pulls out something that looks familiar. (It really does nothing for her.) The van that Ishida is holding on to finally gives into the gate and he goes into the gate. Orihime is also losing her grip and as she gets sucked in Ichigo grabs her and they both move toward the gate. Renji nearly gets smashed by a bus (I think it was a bus) and leaps up after Ichigo. Ichigo tosses Orihime to Renji and powers up for ban kai only to get... nothing. His ban kai fails to initiate. Renji is hit by a pole that's also being pulled into the gate and loses his hold on Orihime. Everyone gets sucked into the gate.

Orihime wakes up (on her shield) in a barren area and finds Kon and Ishida. Orihime runs past Kon to check on Ishida. Ichigo and Renji arrive soon after and they find The Mod Squad and their hostage. Ririn announces a challenge stage! Ichigo has five minutes to save Chad, who is totally having flashbacks to the end of Disney's Aladdin. But there's a little catch... he has to get past Claude and Nova. (By the way... Nova, and his sexy self, is a man of very few words, which is a shame considering he's voiced by Sugita Tomokazu. This seems to annoy Claude a bit and it actually reminds me of the way Keigo reacts to Chad's lack of speech.)

Anyway... the fight is on! Claude takes the form of Ichigo and we get more Ichigo on Ichigo action. (My Zangetsu is bigger than yours.) Renji takes on Nova in a super hot redheaded battle (thank you so much!) Nova can manipulate space so all of Renji's attacks end up hurting him. (I love Nova. He even did a finger wag to Renji.) So basically... they're getting nowhere fast and they're running out of time.

While that's going on Soi Fong and Yoruichi are still out investigating. They hear a woman singing and head toward the train yard. They find a man in a trance moving toward a mysterious woman, the singer. Just as the woman gets ready to go after the man Yoruichi hops on the roof the train car and changes into her human form. She leaps down on the woman which kicks up a huge amount of dirt. Back in Soul Society the monitors in the 12th Division put out static. The well placed dust helps hide Yoruichi as she attack the woman. The woman releases the man and jumps away. She trades words with Yoruichi before disappearing. A still naked Yoruichi sends Soi Fong away (back to Ukitake I think.) In Soul Society Ukitake summons Kotsubaki and gives him an order. Shunsui takes his booze and heads out while Hitsugaya and Ukitake stay on the case.

Meanwhile Ichigo and Claude are still fighting it out. Ichigo breaks out the big stuff which puts Claude into a brief panic. Nova (and his pretty eyes) notice and leaves Renji hanging. He warps himself to Claude and pulls the shield(?) off his back. He uses it to send Ichigo's attack back on himself. Ichigo dodges and it gets sent a nearby rock.

But time is almost up! Another vortex appears overhead and begins sucking things up. (Again starting with Kon.) Ichigo powers up for ban kai again only to once again fizzle out before it starts. And just before Chad learns how to breath sand... the glass breaks and the vortex disappears.

Ichigo rushes up the hill to check on Chad who is completely unharmed and easily breaks his bonds. Ichigo notices Urahara's hat on the ground nearby. And actually puts his brain to good use.

Applauding Urahara appears. (Hatless of course.) After getting his hat back he explains some things to Ichigo. It seems that Urahara noticed Ichigo's inability to call his ban kai when he wanted. Urahara explains to Ichigo that before Aizen resurfaces Ichigo needs to be able to use initiate ban kai. (He even kneels before Ichigo again.) Urahara also spills the beans about Ishida's lost powers. (Yes, this is a change, but I think think it's good... will explain at the end.) Everyone moves in on Ishida (even Renji!) Ishida gets a bit defensive and Ichigo delivers a little speech about the importance of fighting together. (Which from the looks on these faces... seemed to impress some people.) Ririn also tells them that their classmates were returned unharmed... in the middle of nowhere. (Keigo drools. But before anything else can be said Yoruichi arrives.

Our merry group heads upstairs for tea. (I am loving this whole human!Yoruichi/Urahara interaction. Oh! Someone finally gave Renji some new clothes.) Urahara gives everyone the low-down (complete with random shot of Captain Urahara) The new enemy is called the Baunt. It seems that the Baunt are sorta like vampires. They feed off souls. The Baunt could live forever if it kept devouring souls (The Quincy were included in the explanation but I have no freaking clue why) but now the Baunt are taking souls from living humans. (Ichigo gets uppity during it all and Yoruichi and Urahara give him a double look.) Urahara then decides to assign The Mod Squad as a support team. Ririn will go with Ichigo. Claude will go with Orihime. And Nova will go with Chad. (I love Nova!) Ishida gets nothing except for moral support from Ichigo. After the assignments are handed out Urahara and Yoruichi seem them out. (Okay... so I just wanted to throw in another Urahara/Yoruichi cap.)

Back in Soul Society Hitsugaya and Ukitake explore the library and totally don't find what they were looking for. (Note to self: Never check out a book that Hitsugaya wants to read.) And over the on the roof of the 8th... Shunsui is enjoying a nap.

But back on Earth Chad is on the search for a body for Nova. (I love that they play "My Pace" in the background here.) Chad spots a cute little turtle in the claw machine. Back at his place, Chad inserts the pill in the turtle and the adorableness begins. After waking up Chad and Nova have a long, deep coversation. And by "long, deep conversation" I mean complete and total silence. This continues until Kon pops up out of nowhere. Kon breaks out the tears and tells his story.

It seems that Ririn is a bit picky and the latest pain in Ichigo's rear end. Ichigo is searching through all of their old stuffed animals, but Ririn is not happy with any of them. Ichigo digs through more plush while Ririn paces and talks the entire time behind him. Finally Ichigo tosses a stuffed bird at her. She stumbles back and steps on Ichigo's badge. She pops free of her body and lands in the bird to her horror. Ichigo gapes as she fumes. Kon shows up to laugh at her and gets drilled in the face. (That's plushie on plushie crime!) Has Kon been replaced as the resident pain in Ichigo's rear?

Kon finishes telling his story to Chad. (Not only is Nova the cutest Mod Soul, but he makes tea! And where did that tea go?) Chad and Nova are less than impressed with Kon's sob story. There's really only one place that Kon really wants to be and that's snuggled against Orihime. But there's a problem... Claude is there in his place!

Kon heads to Orihime's place and after hearing an excited noise his imagination runs wild. (And all I can say is WTF, Kon, WTF?) Thankfully Chad is there and tries to stop Kon from barging in, but the plushie gets away. (Nova and Chad are just so cute!) Once inside they find that Orihime's joy is from seeing Claude in his new body... a very odd rabbit.

But all is not well in Karakura... Claude and Nova sense something. (I wish Nova was a regular character!) On the street a woman falls into a trance and is called by the woman from before. At Ichigo's place Ririn wakes up and alerts Ichigo to trouble. They confront the woman, but she throws her victim toward Ichigo and makes a break for it. Ichigo and Ririn give pursuit.

Meanwhile in another part of town Chad, Nova, Kon, Orihime, and Claude are heading toward the Baunt they felt. (Poor Claude has no hands and Nova has no mouth.)

Ichigo and Ririn chase the woman down an alley and corner her against a wall. But she summons a "Doll" which is a large, fiery humanoid beast. Ichigo dodges the fireballs it flings and attempts to chop it's arm off, but the arm easily reattaches.

Chad & Co. have ended up in a warehouse district (looks kinda like the place where they trained with Yoruichi.) Nova senses something and jumps down to look for it. Nova found a victim. They watch as the man's body turns to sand. A shadow appears in the doorway and a male Baunt makes an appearance. He spends some time talking and leaves without doing anything to Chad or Orihime. (He also got a couple of looks of plushie anger.) Nova takes one last inspection of the sand.

Back at the fight Ichigo is learning that his hack and slash technique ain't working. No matter how many times he cuts through it the doll keeps putting itself back together. Ichigo looks for a weak point. He goes for the "heart". The doll begins to fall apart, but it just keeps shooting things at Ichigo. (I think it shot the pieces of it's "body" at him.) It throws Ichigo and Ririn back against a wall and the doll uses the opening to put itself back together. It powers up two fireballs as Ririn checks on Ichigo. Ichigo is up but stuck. The doll launches two huge fireballs directly at Ichigo and Ririn. They freak out. But before Ichigo gets roasted a lightening strike blasts the fireballs. When the smoke clears there's a familiar figure standing in the middle, Rukia (and I believe she's wearing the dress Ishida made for her.)

Next week what appears to be semi-good character design and more school time highjinks.

We got not one, but two Shinigami guides this week. Sadly neither of them were based on the Valentine color omake with Shunsui and Nanao (dammit).

In the first one... Yoruichi is getting dressed (while Soi Fong peeps.) Yoruichi notices her, but Soi Fong seems to be hiding something. Soi Fong breaks out the cute faces and whips out a gift for Yoruichi. But Yoruichi turns back into a cat and Soi Fong breaks out in tears.

Then after a short promo break where Kon and Ririn gives some details about a contest... we get another Shinigami guide. This one finds Ukitake and Hitsugaya in another serious talk. Then Ukitake busts out this and tries to force it on the poor boy. Then Ukitake breaks out the creepy uncle face. (Why anime people? Why? It was funny last week... this week... not so much.)


Also... did anyone notice that they've totally redrawn Ichigo's face in the ending theme?

This is what it looked like when the ending started back on episode 64.


This is what it looks like now.



Crap that was long... anyway... I'm impressed with the filler arc. I knew The Mod Squad weren't really the bad guys, but I honestly didn't see the Urahara connection coming. I also like that people are actually dying. When was the last time someone actually died during the current time in Bleach? Back when Mayuri blew up his boys?

I like the loss of Ichigo's ban kai. It actually makes him seem more normal and less shounen super hero strong. It'll also helps cover up the lack of Anti-Ichigo popping up. Anti-Ichigo is the closest to the surface when Ichigo goes ban kai... if he were ban kai-ing all over the place to beat filler baddies then they'd run into a problem later.

I also like that Urahara spilled the beans on Ishida and the speech that Ichigo gave. Even though they weren't going to mention it to Ishida in the manga... I like the in the anime everyone seems kinda upset that Ishida did something like that. I also think that when the anime gets to Ryuuken's offer it'll add something more to the decision. (I mean we all know that it's gonna burn Ichigo's butt when he finds out that Ishida chose the Quincy over his friends and I think that it's gonna burn anime!Ichigo's butt even more after that scene.)


Oh yeah... I almost forgot. ROFL @ everyone who thought the filler arc was gonna end at episode 70. I hope I get to laugh at everyone who thinks that 71 will be based off the manga because "OMG!1!! That episode title is totally vague! I'm gonna ignore what happened in the episode that can totally explain it and tell everyone that the manga arc is starting!!! OMG!"

Comments

[imparfait.livejournal.com]

I'd be really mad if I were drawn that way too, Renji.

Shunsui sans hat is SCARY. O_O

OMG. WTF. BONDAGE?

I need to see this shit myself.

[electra-torch.livejournal.com]

The bondage thing is totally Kon's fault. Someone really needs to take the porn away from him...

[(Anonymous)]

I do hope the filler arc isn't TOO long. It is going to be difficult to keep up any tension between Rukia and Orihime if they are both around Ichigo for a few months before the Manga storyline picks up again.

[mousmonkey.livejournal.com]

I totally love Ochi-sensei's attitude. I wish I had teachers like that. :D

[akira-nanimoyo.livejournal.com]

I severely dislike this filler episode...I was fine with the arc up until now. The arrival of Rukia has now totally destroyed the significance of the surprise arrival of the Karakura Shinigami, I'm still convinced that Ishida's loss of power was kept a secret from Ichigo & co. for a reason in the manga and that they shouldn't have deviated from it, and the explanation for Ichigo's loss of Bankai is lackluster and unconvincing (he can use it in the living world perfectly well against Ulqiorra/Yamii and Grimmjaw..."natural reasons", my ass).

Did I mention how much Rukia's arrival will ruin things later on?

[electra-torch.livejournal.com]

I'm happy that Rukia's back now. Maybe the anime will cut out the shitty chapter that followed her return.

Well a girl can dream anyway...

[akira-nanimoyo.livejournal.com]

Granted, her return was incredibly crappy, but her sudden arrival and instant tugging of Ichigo out of his post-Arrancar-battle funk is important when considering Orihime's development as a character. Kubo Tite made it very clear that Orihime was jealous of Rukia's ability to reach Ichigo that fast, and Rukia arriving like this sorta screws the whole thing up (there's no depression for Rukia to pull Ichigo out of, and therefore no reason for Orihime to develop jealousy...and when it does come along, Rukia will have been around for a while, so it won't be as big a deal). I can't believe that Kubo had Orihime express her feelings for no reason; there must be something that this jealousy will lead into.

Mind you, almost all blatant IchiHime evidence has been cut from the anime thus far (as was the last bit of Orihime character development...see her post-Rukia-disappearance speech to Ichigo in the manga versus its anime incarnation), and they'll probably fudge their way through it...but still, I'll miss the humour brought on by the sudden arrival of the Karakura Shinigami. I think, overall, Kubo knows what he's doing with the manga, and deviating from it like this could screw up some things later on if Studio Pierrot isn't careful.

[electra-torch.livejournal.com]

Kubo Tite made it very clear that Orihime was jealous of Rukia's ability to reach Ichigo that fast, and Rukia arriving like this sorta screws the whole thing up (there's no depression for Rukia to pull Ichigo out of, and therefore no reason for Orihime to develop jealousy...and when it does come along, Rukia will have been around for a while, so it won't be as big a deal).

Totally. Because when Chad gets his arm cut off and Orihime gets severely injured Ichigo will dance and spew rainbows and not get depressed at all! I mean who gives a shit about his friends getting hurt because he wasn't there to protect him when Rukia showed up 20 episodes ago?!

Ichigo falling into a slight depression because of his Hollow has nothing to do with Rukia being there or not being there and everything to do with himself.

Ichigo doesn't start angsting over his Hollow until after Hirako shows up. Ichigo doesn't start angsting over not being able to protect people until after Chad and Orihime get hurt. Bringing Rukia back now has no effect on any of that. Nor does it have any impact on Orihime's jealous feelings. Orihime is jealous because she tried to reassure Ichigo and failed yet Rukia was able to do it. Rukia being around for this arc will not change that.

And you know... Rukia can leave. I mean it's not like she's chained to the ground and not allowed to go back after this filler arc is over. Hell for all we know this current Baunt filler arc could be over in 10 episodes and the Shinigami could go back to Soul Society. There is nothing that says that because Renji and Rukia are there now they'll be there through it all.

Kubo knows what he's doing with the manga, and deviating from it like this could screw up some things later on if Studio Pierrot isn't careful.

And studios never change the storyline when a manga is adapted into an anime and when they do make changes those anime fail horribly.

There's still a good 20ish episodes to go till the latest mange arc is schedule to begin... lots of things can happen in that time. Instead of bitching over things now why don't you wait for the arc to start and then bitch?

[pajee.livejournal.com]

I like the filler arc, very much. So what if it's different from the manga? That means there's more BLEACH. It's like how Mai HiME and some other anime, FMA, are different from the manga all together or in parts while still being really good.

I noticed the ending too! I think the animators kicked the person who originally designed Ichigo and had someone else re-draw it.