I can’t believe it’s once again time for a weekly Bleach episode. It’s been so long since I experienced that weekly that it feels strange. We see Ywach talking to one of his subordinates who’s on the ground writhing in pain. From there we jump into the opening theme which is very pink. Not that I mind it being pink, it’s just an interesting choice. We see the soul reapers as well as the sternritter. We’re getting hints of some of the upcoming fights. If you want to avoid spoilers, don’t pay too much attention to the trailer since it’s absolutely full of them. On a brighter note, Ichigo’s window is repaired.
Everyone is just vibing, eating some bread, while Ichigo is still outside. Ishida still has a crush on Orihime after all this time. Some things never change. Ichigo returns. Akon relays the fact that Soul Society was attacked and one squad member died on the scene. The first squad was attacked by one single attacker, killing every single member of squad 1 in just over three minutes. This arc doesn’t mess around folks. Yamamoto is the only remaining member of squad one. That’s a very hard pill to swallow, these are skilled people. And on top of that, they have no idea how the attackers got in and out. Things are not looking good for the Soul Society.
There she is. Nel is back! She’s falling from the sky like nobody’s business. Turns out Hueco Mundo is in trouble. Ywach explodes some of the arrancar he took. After all, they’ve taken full control of Hueco Mundo. A little bit of backstory, but Halibel became the new ruler of Hueco Mundo after the war with Aizen. Turns out she survived the fight and fled to Hueco Mundo. Unfortunately for her, she has now been captured by Ywach and his troops. Back in the world of the living, Pesche joins the fray, landing right next to Ichigo and Nel.
Sasakibe gets an honorary funeral with the captains and lieutenants in attendance. Well deserved, he’s served for a very, very long time.
Of course Ichigo and friends are up for helping out Hueco Mundo. Well, some of them at least. It turns out Ishida is still very loyal to the quincies. He can’t help save Hollows and Soul Reapers. He’s still a good guy though. Probably. Speaking of people who are probably good people, Urahara is here, listening in on another conversation he probably shouldn’t. The halfway card does make me wonder what happened to Halibel’s friends. They’re probably dead, but that’s such a sad story for the Arrancar.
Urahara takes the group minus Ishida to Hueco Mundo, where they find a walking army of Quincy as well as a sea of corpses. Things look horrible here. Pesche points out the blue flames they use that set everything on fire. The hollows never stood a chance against this army. Ichigo’s already forgotten about his fights with the arrancar and is now trying to help them. Here we’re introduced to Sternritter J: Quilge Opie. If anyone in their army looks like a proper nazi it’s this guy. What a freak. And as soon as he opens his mouth he just confirms that even more, giving them a choice to kneel and beg or die. One of the arrancar has a question, which is not appreciated.
There are still some fighters left in Hueco Mundo. It’s Loly and Menoly, Aizen’s stans from way back when, who bullied Orihime and were beaten up by Yammy. They don’t stand a chance but they’ve impressed the sternritter. This entire part of the story is here to show how. While he’s monologuing his men are getting slaughtered by none other than Halibel’s friends: Mia Rose, Sunsun and Apache. Look at those abs. I mean, what? Ichigo and Nel are rushing towards the fighting. It turns out that the small fry of any army will always be the small fry. None of Quilge’s soldiers stood a chance against the stronger arrancar. Quilge on the other hand seems unbothered. His invite to their army is falling through though.
We get a captains meeting with all of the new captains including the visoreds. Mayuri and Akon explain to the captain’s what is going on. The Quincy aren’t just killing people, they’re extinguishing souls. Ichigo arrives too late and Halibel’s friends are already defeated. We end on that somber note. And that brings us to the end of episode 2. Things are going really fast. The first episode covered 5 chapters and this second episode covered another 3 chapters. To give some context, this arc is a little over 200 chapters long. From what I’ve understood there are going to be three cours for a total of 48 episodes. That means every episode needs to cover about four chapters of the manga, which is quite a lot. Anyway, I’m very tired so I’m keeping it short, but I enjoyed this episode and hope to see you all here again next week. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 