The upside of writing these recaps every week is that if I have to remind myself how the previous episode ended I can just go back to the last paragraph I wrote last week. I forgot that the episode ended with Ranpo in trouble. I’m sure he’s not actually in trouble, but he wasn’t in a great place. I think I’m watching too many shows this season. I have trouble keeping up with some of them. I’m no longer a teenager with unlimited free time. There’s enough going on that when I turn on an anime episode I don’t want to be confused. Next season I’ll have to be a lot more selective about what I watch. Putting that aside, let’s dive into this week’s episode and see where it takes us.
Ranpo and the police officer have a battle of wits, each of them thinking they are smarter than the other. Except one of the two is correct in their assumption. Now I don’t know what Ranpo has planned for when the police officer will do something violent, assuming that happens, but when it comes to wits he’s definitely superior. Ranpo explains the details of the crime and when the police officer says the stagewright was responsible he gets told he’s wrong. The stagewright was probably murdered before everything started. It was all a set-up for something bigger. Check-mate, Mister So-Called Officer, who smells of organic solvent.
Are we there yet?
We cut back to Fukuzawa who is starting to get worried about his new gifted friend. One thing that I always wonder about when we have subtitles is how names are decided. I talked a little bit about Zoro being named Zolo in the official translations in my One Piece Wednesday post from this week. A lot of the characters in Bungo Stray Dogs are named after real authors. Edogawa Ranpo being one of them. Yet the subtitles translate his name as Rampo. When I listen to Fukuzawa pronounce his name I can hear it with an ‘n’ but perhaps that’s because what I expect to hear. Either way, Ranpo left behind a clue for Fukuzawa. And when I say he left a clue, he straight up told him the answer. Ranpo follows evil cop Mitamura into an abandoned building. Remember kids, All Cops Are Bastards. Now that we’re looking at this scene, doesn’t Fukuzawa have a cane in the main storyline? I wonder if it’s the cane they find here.
It’s pretty impressive that Fukuzawa opted to look there so quickly.
Ranpo is in deep. There’s five armed soldiers in the building so he has no real way of getting out easily. This is where they were going to bring the gentleman with the cane. Miitamura has disappointed his superiors and to make up for it he caught Ranpo. They’re asking him to work for them. He still hasn’t explained who ‘they’ are though. Fukuzawa talks to Oda, who’s still imprisoned. He reveals the organization of ‘V’ kills people ritualistically. This is giving Fukuzawa some serious flashbacks to his own killings. I wonder if he was working with V or just doing similar work. If ‘V’ is the group that’s holding Ranpo that’s pretty bad news. I do wonder who the mustached man next to Fukuzawa is in this scene. This show is always full of small mysteries. That or I’m not paying enough attention. Quick reminder that Oda has always been cool.
Mitamura is trying hard to get Ranpo to join his MLM scheme.
Mitamura is still trying his best in convincing Ranpo to join them. He really is an annoying brat. Reminds me of some of my students in a way, except smarter. Don’t tell them I said that. Mitamura already goes back on his promise of not planning to use the gun. Ranpo gives him about three seconds before he gets taken down by a badass Fukuzawa. The latter is very much unhappy about Ranpo’s irresponsible way of acting. I gotta say I love this scene. Ranpo is so well aware of how clever he is that he seems to forget he’s still just a child. Fukuzawa telling him off really hits him to the core and he responds just like a kid would. I’m actually tearing up watching this scene. The poor kid was probably scared under all that bravado.
Poor thing, give him a hug already Fukuzawa. He’s lost so much so early in his life and he just doesn’t really know how to act properly.
After all is said and done, a guy with a cool hat reveals that the organization’s name isn’t pronounced ‘V’ but it’s the roman numeral for five. Oda gets his improved food, Ranpo sees the world a little bit brighter and we end the episode there. I forgot how talented of a storyteller the author of Bungo Stray Dogs was. His light novels as well, are some of the better light novels I’ve read so far. Very compelling and hard to put down. I was actually talking to a friend of mine the other day. I read both volumes on separate flights to go visit him. Good times. I digress. This episode neatly closes off the first mystery and I’m curious to see where we’re headed next week. But until then, I still have to catch up on like seven other shows, so I’m gonna quickly go do that. As always I hope you enjoyed this little recap and thanks for reading!
I haven’t quite figured out what makes someone a leader, but I think cool hats are an important part. I will get back to you when I have more information.
Also, I’m not going to speak about it, but there is an after credits scene. Don’t miss out on it.
Very few shows I’ve seen will stick with me as much as Spy x Family has. It’s not the best show I watched last year, simply because I think there were some areas where it didn’t quite hit the mark for me. What makes this show so special in my opinion is that the points where it does hit the mark, it absolutely nails it. From soundtrack to art to animation to voice acting. There’s so much polish on this show it almost shines too brightly for me to even see it. So with that endorsement out of the way, let’s dive into one of 2022’s biggest hit anime, based on a shonen jump manga by Tatsuya Endo.
That smile. That darned smile.
One little fun fact is that the mangaka has gone on record saying he doesn’t feel particularly attached to the characters from his own manga. Spy x Family isn’t the story that he wanted to tell so he feels no real attachment to the Forger family. That’s got to be hard on your mental health after a while. I guess it’s more important to write what sells than to write what you want if you want to make it in an industry as brutal as the manga industry. Makes me wonder what a manga he does want to write will look like. Perhaps we get to see this once Spy x Family ends and he has enough recognition to take a little bit more risk. But putting aside whether the author likes the characters or not, he definitely has a knack for creating a fun story, so let’s dive into the story proper then.
I think I might be obsessed with this opening theme. It’s gorgeous and just sounds so pleasant.
Contrary to the author, I do feel a level of attachment to these characters. Loid Forger is the fake name for a spy going by the name Twilight (Tasogare). He is infiltrating the neighboring country that they have a cold war with. There is no active fighting going on, but things aren’t exactly great either. This is basically a reflection of post world war 2 Germany. The east and the west are represented and there’s tensions yet life has to go on. His target is a member of the government. To get closer to his target and find a way to convince him to broker peace between the two nations proves to be nearly impossible. Thus WISE, the spy organization he works for, devises a plan. He needs to have a child get close to Desmond’s (the target) child, so they can talk to the man through that connection. The problem is, Twilight doesn’t have any children. So he does what any reasonable spy does; he adopts an orphaned child. The child he settles on is the star of this show. Anya is adorable in everything she does. Not only that, she has a secret super power. She can hear other people’s thoughts. She uses this power to get Loid to adopt her and later on in several other situations. With his new daughter, Loid sets out to apply to Eden College, the prestigious school where his target’s son will soon enroll. But things aren’t quite in the clear yet, as the process of enrollment requires the presence of Anya’s parents. Plural. With this problem, Anya and Loid need to quickly find someone who can play the role of Loid’s wife.
What an elegant way of sitting in the tram, Mr. Forger.
This is where my favorite character, Yor, comes into play. Yor is an assassin called The Thorn Princess (Ibari Hime). She’s nearing her thirties and is still single. In a world like this one, that’s rather suspicious. She is thus on the lookout for a partner so no one will interfere with her work. Basically, Loid and Yor are perfect for eachother in that sense. They get married in the middle of a crazy action scene and neither of them figure out the other is a spy or assassin. This is where we get into the suspension of disbelief portion of the show. Because we need a bit of that. It’s really hard to believe that one of the most talented spies in the world and one of the most feared assassins are somehow completely oblivious to the other’s work and talents while living in the same house.
You can do it Anya, protect the peace in your new home by…. studying I guess?
But this is shonen anime, not a thesis on the believability of your plot. Sometimes things need to be a little bit crazy and unbelievable to make for a fun story and one thing Spy x Family always delivers on is fun. I do think that if future arcs create suspicion between the characters it would make for some more interesting story telling than just keeping them as the densest two masses in the universe for the entirety of the story. The rest of the cast of this show is pretty decent too. Damian is a great foil for Anya who is about as likable as an annoying brat will ever be. His father is rich and important so he is a bit taken aback when some people don’t immediately suck up to him. The head teacher is a great caricature of an old stuck-up gentleman with his “elegant” obsessions. Becky is a bit annoying at times and I’m not a whole fan of the “this prepubescent child is somehow madly in love with an adult man.” It just feels weird to me. Franky is an informant is great too, especially how he sort of turns into Anya’s fun uncle as time passes by.
Call it like it is, Anya.
Before I give my final verdict, there’s two things I want to talk about; music and production quality. First up; the music. The first opening and both endings are solid, fun to listen to but not amazing and unforgettable. The second opening however, is an absolute banger. Bump of Chicken has been one of my favorite bands ever since I first saw their opening Hello World play at the start of Kekkai Sensen. I’ve liked many of their songs on Spotify and they’re just so relaxing to listen to. Souvenir is the song used for the opening here and I don’t know if I can put into words how gorgeous this opening is. It sounds amazing by being upbeat yet melancholic at times as well. It perfectly fits with the top tier animation used for the opening credits. I think it’s close to being the perfect opening sequence and I can’t think of many openings that will top it that aren’t also by Bump of Chicken. It’s near the very apex of anime music for me, together with greats like Kenshi Yonezu, Aimer and LiSA. Moving on to animation and art. This also looks great throughout the show, even peaking at certain moments. Nothing that’ll absolutely blow your mind during most episodes, but it always felt fluid and fun to watch. It’s not quite on the level of something like Chainsaw Man though, but for the kind of show it is, it really doesn’t have to be.
It’s a good thing he decided to punch the table because Yor was about to murder everyone in this room without an ounce of mercy.
That brings me to my final verdict. Spy x Family is a great concept that’s not at all believable but still really fun to watch once you accept how ridiculous it is. The production is high quality and the characters are a lot of fun. I wonder how good the story is going to be at keeping its ridiculousness fun, but for these first two seasons it passes with flying colors. It made it into my top 10 shows of the year with ease and the only thing that doesn’t put it higher is the fact that the story itself has not been super intriguing so far. But with all that it has to offer, it doesn’t have to be and with the success it’s had I’m sure we’ll delve deeper into the story with future seasons. But that’s me and my opinion, now I’m curious what you think of the first two seasons of Spy x Family. Please let me know in the comments down below and as always, thanks for reading.
I will say that I was really confused for a hot moment before I recognized some of the characters and realized that we’re currently watching the play that the actors we spoke to in the last episode are putting up. It looks like they’re a persecuted group of fallen angels who are being hunted down. Ranpo is about as confused as I am, so that helps. While this is happening, Fukuzawa spots something fishy but is quickly distracted by Ranpo spoiling the ending. Welcome back to another weekly discussion of Bungo Stray Dogs by the way. I’ve been looking forward to this show, even though I am watching way too many anime this season and still have several hours of content worth of backlog. I really should reconsider watching some of the shows I’m watching. My anime tracker says I’m actively watching 31 shows which is kind of insane. I don’t think I’ve ever watched this many, let alone during a time of my life where I actually have responsibilities outside of laying in bed watching anime. But none of that is important now, so let’s go back to the episode at hand.
Come on Ranpo, no spoilers.
Let’s start off by taking a moment to unpack what Ranpo is saying here. He feels like there’s something he’s missing that everyone else understands. As someone who has autism, which I’m pretty sure Ranpo’s character is based around, that feels familiar. There’s a lot of things that are extremely normal in today’s society that just don’t make sense to me at all. This can range from social interactions to interpersonal communication and even seeps into the way society works and functions. It’s scary to be on the outside and never quite feel like you belong with everyone else. It’s scary to wake up with anxiety for things that shouldn’t cause anxiety. I feel for a character like Ranpo because I know what it’s like to feel like the odd one out and be the only one who doesn’t get it. But with all of Ranpo’s insecurities does come a talent.
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
Ranpo’s observation skills are off the charts, as he’s already demonstrated. Fukuzawa explains to him what his talents are. Unfortunately for me, I’m not a special talent like Ranpo is, I just get the anxiety part and the feeling of not belonging. Fukuzawa explains to Ranpo that he’s not the only one who’s special, but that most people are not particularly special. Of course people seem like monsters if you don’t understand them. Fukuzawa uses his lvl 100 speech skills to convince Ranpo of his talents by giving him some cheap glasses. I suppose a kid that age would love to be tricked into being less anxious. It’s basically cognitive behavioral therapy in mere moments. When Ranpo switches the way he thinks of things the world becomes colorful for him. The moment this happens, the anime goes from black and white to color.
I’m not sure that’s quite what he meant, but we’ll let it slide
I thought it was gray before to signal it being from Fukuzawa’s perspective and color came in when we were looking through Ranpo’s eyes, but I guess I was wrong in that observation. Now that Ranpo can see the world clearly, all the colors have appeared. I feel like I don’t quite understand the leap from one to another but I like the fact that we’re going to start seeing some color now. I feel like the grayscale would have gotten old pretty fast. Ranpo is going to quickly solve the murder now that he sees everything clearly. We jump into the opening from here on out.
This is totally unrelated to the rest of this review, but I got some organic, made from damaged apples 0% apple cider. I thought all cider would be made from leftover apples, but I guess I was wrong. It’s really good though. I’m not big on alcoholic drinks in general, but cider seems to be one of the rare exceptions. But it’s only the afternoon right now, so I don’t think someone like me who doesn’t really drink should drink something alcoholic suddenly, so the 0% one is a great alternative. Moving on.
That’s a lot of blood, I don’t think it’s supposed to come out of your body.
The play continues and the lead character dies a beautifully tragic death. Except it’s not a part of the script. Something strange is definitely going on here. Ranpo promised he would prevent the murder, and the guy is still dead. There has to be more to this than meets the eye. It’s up to Fukuzawa to figure out why an audience member disappeared. Low and behold, it was the man that piqued his interest before. While we were walking around, Ranpo has figured out there were two murderers. From his convoluted explanation I believe he let one murder fly so they could catch the bigger fish? I’m not quite sure but I’m definitely intrigued. I do like that all the characters in this show have super powers and Ranpo’s superpower is just autism. I feel justified in my existence. His acting skills aren’t particularly great though and the audience kind of cringes at his initial act. Once he starts explaining what is going on, they get a lot more enthralled.
Hiroshi Kamiya delivers these lines wonderfully
And there’s the big reveal. The lead actor wasn’t actually dead. He was just faking his death. It’s a pretty convoluted plot but it’s smart in a fantasy story. Use something to make your pulse seem gone and use your own drawn blood to trick forensics. Sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately Ranpo was too smart for your ploys and figured everything out. He wanted to play death itself and he seems to have succeeded in his attempts although the result was not what he expected. He jumps off of the stage. I don’t know how high that stage is supposed to be so I’m unsure if he just killed himself or just hurt his ankle. He was low on blood, so he was probably not doing too hot.
Now the show is done, I hope you had a, gut-trembling, or something resembling fun.
I like that Ranpo has concluded that he’d rather have a super power than just be highly observant. Even if it means tricking himself. No one who’s that clever doesn’t see through a ploy that simple. My question about the lead actor gets answered pretty quickly. He’s just arrested. He wasn’t the mastermind that wanted the man in the front seat dead. It was the stageright who planned everything. It turns out this stageright got murdered in his locked room. And suddenly we end on a shot of the police officer with a very cunning look on his face. That can’t be good for Ranpo.
Look, I know it’s a prequel but I’m still worried for Ranpo. He’s just a little kid here, only 14 years old.
I enjoyed this episode and it flew by super fast, but I can’t say I fully understand what exactly is going on with the story. Who is murdering who for what reason? This is long before some of the other parts of the story that we already know, and it’s been such a long time since I watched those so it’s no wonder I feel a bit confused at times. Maybe I should read the manga, that seems like it might be fun. But for now, these are my thoughts on the second episode of Bungo Stray Dogs, I hope you enjoyed watching it alongside me and hope to see you all here again next week for the next episode. Thanks for reading!
It’s time for another season of Bungo Stray Dogs. I’ve read some of the novels and the first volume of the manga for this one, and I’m still hoping to dive into the entire story one day but for now let’s just have a look at what this new season of anime brings us. I’m going to be covering this show weekly so follow or like if that’s something you’re interested in. Let’s get to it.
Ranpo here looks like he should be voiced by Fukuyama Jun, but maybe that’s just the glasses.
The opening True Story by Screen Mode isn’t familiar to me, but it sounds alright. The animation and style of the opening kind of reminds me of the Monogatari series. Perhaps that’s just because it feels kind of abstract. We start off this season with a younger looking Fukuzawa who, to remind everyone, is the leader of the detective agency in the story we’ve seen so far. It does seem like he’s working alone at this point. His words, not mine. He’s on his way to a crime scene where someone allegedly got pushed out of a window.
Listening to the opening again as I’m gathering screenshots to put here, I do actually really love the vocalist’s voice. It’s the song that doesn’t quite do it for me though.
After talking with one of the investigators he comes face to face with Oda Sakunosuke, the presumed assassin. We know Oda from the second season where he, Dazai and a man named Ango would come together at a bar. The second Bungo Stray Dogs novel; Osamu Dazai and the dark era covers that story as well and is told from Oda’s perspective. Out of the two novels I’ve read, that was definitely the better one, Oda was a great character.
What a clash. Things went from 0 to 100 so fast.
We have a new character enter the room who immediately turns everything on its head. He calls out the secretary for being the murderer and Fukuzawa for not figuring it out quicker. That’s Ranpo right? It’s been a while since I last watched this show because it’s been a while since it last aired. And that’s Hiroshi Kamiya’s voice right? His voice is instantly recognizable yet he does manage to make a lot of the characters he voices sound unique. To make matters more complicated, Oda has had enough of being locked up on a chair so he decides to free himself and grab his guns again. He mercilessly kills the secretary that hired him and subsequently betrayed him if Ranpo’s story is right. And Ranpo is always right.
And just like that the murderer gets murdered. Ranpo is unfazed by all of this, which should be a red flag.
I remember now how fun of a character Ranpo was. He’s basically L from death note if he never listened to an MCR album. Hiroshi Kamiya adds all the flair he needs to it. It turns out Ranpo has no parents and got kicked out of school for being a whistleblower so Fukuzawa does eventually offer him his business card. The cheeky bugger then walks to the nearest phone he can find and immediately calls him to help him out with his lack of work or place to stay. I remember why I liked this show already. Quick sidenote, is it really a thing in Japan that you can store a phone or something in the sleeve of a yukata? I think that’s a yukata, I’m uneducated on this kind of stuff, I just know they look comfortable.
Cheeky bugger
If you haven’t picked up on it by now, maybe you have that type of colorblindness that doesn’t let you see any colors, or maybe you’re a dog pretending to be a human and you can only see gray tones. This show so far is more or less in black and white. There’s a little bit of color here and there but it’s mostly grayscale. I wonder if that’s going to persist through the entire season. I have no idea what this story is going to be about, contrary to the last two anime I followed along with. Fukuzawa has decided to drag Ranpo along for the day, which he must already be regretting. Just because you’re right, doesn’t mean you’re likable. Ranpo is extremely direct to the point that it’s kind of mean.
Hello well dressed lady with glasses 🙂
If we’re going to talk about annoying characters, a pretentious actor might be right up on the list. Although his idea of what’s boring and what isn’t is something I can respect. If the audience doesn’t like it, then it’s probably not good. The rest of the actors seem to be a bit more sociable. The girl that Ranpo ends up talking to is a lot friendlier though which makes her suspicious in my opinion. Chekhov’s gun and all that. To put into perspective, a lot of the characters in this show are named after famous authors. The writer knows their stuff about writing.
Now that I’m looking at her again, she looks familiar. Is she a character we already know from a previous season?
Fukuzawa is quickly starting to realize that Ranpo isn’t just some wisecracking kid, he’s just genuinely super smart. Not only that, he somehow thinks that other people grasp the same concepts. Also, weirdly enough the flashbacks to earlier in the episode are in color. Since we’re following along with Fukuzawa, maybe this is to signify that Fukuzawa isn’t seeing the full picture, hence the lack of color. When he thinks back on things with more information given to him by Ranpo, the full picture starts to form and we see color. Maybe those literature classes weren’t wasted after all? Who am I kidding, they definitely were. Moving on.
I see your true colors shining through.
With just spending half a day with Fukuzawa, Ranpo manages to figure out his entire backstory. Fukuzawa is angry, but he was the one that asked the question. This is the first time Ranpo is shaken. Rightfully so, a grown man just yelled at him out of nowhere. And right as they agree to work together, the doors to the theater open and the performance starts. I suppose this is the start of their detective agency. All in all a very solid first episode. I liked the way it was presented to us with limited color and seeing these characters again was definitely a good time.
Spy x Family isn’t on this list because it needs its own dedicated post. The second opening ‘Souvenir’ by Bump of Chicken is easily my most listened anime song of the season. They nailed it, like they always do!
Happy New Year everyone! I know this post only goes up on the second of January, but it’s the first one I’m actually writing in 2023. It is currently 10 AM on January first and I’m going to be in that optimistic phase for a little while so I might as well make the best out of it and do a lot of writing early on. I took December off from writing, only writing a couple things here and there. So now it’s time to get back into it. Other seasons I would split my quick reviews up into a few different posts but I’ve decided to just start making one post for them each season. Part of it is because I have a lot I want to write about and I don’t want twelve Mondays out of a year to be quick reviews and another part of it is that I didn’t watch that many interesting shows this past season, so it’d be one or two posts at best anyway. Putting all of that aside, let’s dive into the anime of fall 2022 together. As usual, none of these will contain big spoilers for the shows themselves, so feel free to browse through the posts.
Bibliophile Princess
Watching the prince enjoy chatting with another woman from behind a window. Poor Eli. She doesn’t have the social skills to figure out what’s really going on.
Coming out of the gate swinging, Bibliophile Princess has comfortably made its way into my top 10 anime of the year and will be featured in that list later this month. It tells the story of Eliana Bernstein, a nobleman’s daughter who loves books. She’s been engaged to the crown prince for a couple of years in a sort of sham engagement where she gets to read the books in the royal library while he gets to fend off other suitors that he’s not interested in with a good excuse. A few years have now passed and Eliana sees the crown prince getting friendly with another girl in the palace courtyard. She laments the fact that her access to the royal library might soon disappear as the prince might find a replacement for her. To her own surprise she’s more sad about this than she expected. The story follows Eli and Prince Christopher as their romance slowly grows. Misunderstandings and intrigue never outstay their welcome and as the show continues our main characters get more depth to them. If you’re a sucker for sappy love stories that really don’t have too much substance to them, then this is the show for you. It was definitely a guilty pleasure for me this past season and it’s a shame that it’s not rated higher than it currently is.
Bocchi the Rock!
Embodying the true introvert, the idea of doing some activity every single day sounds absolutely awful.
I’m not going to be the biggest advocate for this show. Hitori (Bocchi) is a young girl with pretty solid guitar playing skills. She’d love to join a band and perform with them one day but she has the social skills of an anxious worm. She almost accidentally finds herself joining a local band and the story follows her shenanigans with her new friends. Bocchi has severe social anxiety. The show does a really good job of portraying this, both in storytelling as well as in using wacky animation to really emphasize certain situations. By all accounts, Bocchi the Rock is a good slice of life show. But I couldn’t really enjoy the show. For starters; Bocchi’s anxiety is so well done that it sometimes started to give me flashbacks to my own past. My social anxiety isn’t terrible these days, but it used to be really, really bad. It probably wasn’t too far off of what Bocchi is like in the show. That’s not an enjoyable experience to relive. At other times I also felt like the show was moving too slow and in the busy November and December months I found myself playing some of the episodes at 1.5 speed, which is something that is normally only reserved for One Piece. For those unfamiliar with the One Piece anime, it often feels like a 24 minute episode covers about seven pages from the manga and realistically, that’s not even that far off. If you like good slice of life anime, then Bocchi will probably fit your taste. I didn’t really like it the same way I didn’t really like The IT crowd. I recognize its merits, it’s just not made for me.
I’m the villainess, so I’m taming the final boss
Aileen is definitely nailing the look of villainess, I love those colors and the design of her dress here.
We’ve had a couple of Isekai anime where a girl gets transported into a visual novel and has to change the outcome of the story now and it’s a genre that’s very hit or miss for me. A great example is “My life as a villainess” which I really enjoyed until the second season started and I was just kind of bored. I think the problem with this genre is that the initial problem can be very engaging and well written, only for the story to devolve into something much more generic that feels on par with mediocre Isekai shows. This time around, I’m the villainess manages to evoke that same feeling in me in less than a season. I enjoyed the first few episodes quite a lot. Aileen has to prevent the demon lord, who is the current prince’s half-brother, from going berserk. She works together with humans and demons to try and figure out this delicate situation. After the strong start, the following arc was incredibly boring. I just couldn’t find myself caring about the characters involved most of the time and honestly the only reason I remember the characters’ names at all is because of how generic they are. It picks up a little bit towards the end but I found that at that point I’d mostly lost interest.
Reincarnated as a sword
If a strange sword starts talking to you in the woods, it might be trying to get you to join a cult. I’m just saying, you have to be wary in these situations. This particular sword is fine though, it’s just a middle aged bloke from earth.
Maybe I’m not a good judge of what anime I should be watching, but this season has been a nice big pile of mediocre shows for me. Of course I also watched a bunch of the exciting sequels, but we’re not here to talk about those. Reincarnated as a sword follows a man who, well, reincarnates as a sword. He turns into an excalibur-esque sword that’s stuck in the ground somewhere in the middle of nowhere. As he’s hoping to find a wielder, a young catfolk girl named Fran finds him and the two start traveling together. Fran’s goal is to evolve, which is something that catfolk rarely get to do. My main gripe with this story is that early on it seems slavery is a common thing but as soon as we get to the cities we see no slaves. There is no real elaboration of this system and it kind of feels like a plot device. Fran is a fine character, so is the sword itself, and the story never get particularly dull, but it also never gets particularly exciting. If you like generic Isekai stories with a twist you could consider this one, but if not, just skip it.
Shinobi no Ittoki
I wish we could have seen more of her story, she was definitely one of the more interesting characters in the show. but with a one-cour runtime, we had to mostly stick to the kids’ story
I was debating if I should talk about this show, but I decided to give it a quick mention in the end, before closing off this post. Shinobi no Ittoki follows a high school student who finds out that ninja’s are not only a real part of society, but his mother is the leader of a large ninja clan called the Iga clan. Iga has beef with the Koga clan and the story follows Ittoki and his friends as they get embroiled in a clan war between the two clans. The story has an interesting premise but pretty quickly lost me on its execution. It has some interesting characters but then there’s also some really annoying characters who picked their motivation one day and then just stopped to think about it. There’s a traitor whose betrayal is never quite explained well, there’s some strange things behind the scenes that seem to just be there to move the plot ahead and Ittoki just isn’t a very good character. All things considered, this is probably a show you should avoid. It’s interesting how polarizing this studio is. Studio Troyca, the studio that made this show, is also responsible for bangers like Re:Creators and Aldnoah Zero. On the flip side it’s also responsible for the second season of Aldnoah Zero and now this show. It seems like they have the winning formula, just only sometimes they make a show.
Just watch Chainsaw Man. And remember, it’s the quiet moments that make a loud show shine.
And that brings us to the final roundup of shows that didn’t make the list. Putting sequels aside, there’s a few shows I haven’t talked about yet. Beast Tamer was too bland to talk about. I didn’t hate it, but I’m fairly certain I’ll have forgotten it by early February. Chainsaw Man was very good, but everyone is already aware of this and if you really want to find out more about it I suggest you check out Gigguk’s latest video on the subject. Lastly there’s Isekai Ojisan, which was plagued by delays and has yet to finish. I believe we have one episode left and I will probably do an individual review on the show when it finishes, since I quite enjoyed it. Oh, and I will be talking about Spy x Family on its own later this month. There you have it. Let me know if there’s any shows I missed out on in my list that I should really check out, or if you disagree strongly with any of my opinions. But for now, I have a lot of writing to do as well as catch up on some older anime – I’m currently watching Record of Ragnarok – so I’ll leave it at this. Thanks for reading and leave a like or comment to make my day!
It’s the end of the year. I hope everyone had their fill of amazing food during Christmas and is ready for the new year. I love the new year because it feels like a new start. I’m well aware that half the things I promise I’ll do better or more off will fall to the wayside by mid-January, but it’s still exciting. Also, I have eight full days off starting on the first of January so I’m hoping to at the very least get a head start on some writing. I have big plans and I’d like to make it a month or two before it all collapses. All that aside, before the year is over we still have two more episodes of Bleach to go over. I’ll write some of my thoughts down here and give a quick opinion on the first cour at the end. Without further ado;
This point in time paved the way for the entire story of Bleach.
How old is Isshin supposed to be here? Seeing that Masaki is still in high school. Should we just continue to ignore the fact that soul reapers are like 10x the age of humans and quincy? Probably for the better. We get a quick glimpse of ol’ hat-and-clogs in the human world bumping into Masaki before the opening theme greets us. Remember how part of the Hollow latched onto Masaki? I would wager good money that’ll be a problem in the near future. To oversimplify Urahara’s long exposition; Isshin has to live in a gigai in the human realm for the rest of Masaki’s life to protect her. Ryuken is understandably unhappy with this, but there is no other choice. Of course Isshin is an absolute chad and has unwavering resolve, so the problem gets solved quickly. This does make Ichigo a mix of quincy, soul reaper, hollow and human. The ending plays before we learn more about Masaki’s death.
This was such a massive reveal in the manga.
It turns out that Masaki should have been fine against Grand Fisher, but she lost because of Yhwach stealing everyone’s power. Basically, Yhwach killed Masaki and Katagiri, both Ichigo and Uryuu’s mothers. I’m starting to think this Yhwach guy is kind of a dick. This brings me to another big issue I’ve had with Bleach for the longest time. Their major villains never have a goal I understand. I’m sure it’s something other people can argue for, and that’s fine, but both Aizen and Yhwach feel like bad guys for the sake of being bad guys. I much prefer more human villains. This is why Pain from Naruto was such a great villain. You could empathize with him and he even got his redemption. I feel like too many shonen villains become psychopaths without redemption. Maybe that’s just the whiplash from finishing God of High School which has a great villain who is very flawed in the way that he’s supposed to be flawed. Either way, we move on to the final episode of this first out of four cours of Bleach.
Professional Douchebag: Yhwach
Ichigo gets picked up and put back in the zanpakuto jail. Time to pick up a new weapon. We jump back to the rest of Soul Society for a training montage. Poor Toshiro finally completed his bankai before getting it stolen. Kensei is going to teach Shuhei to get a Bankai with the help of Mashiro. I love how one of them is a lieutenant and Mashiro is a super lieutenant. Shuhei still cares for Tosen, who is not a great role model. We jump again, this time to squad twelve where Akon looks in on his captain creating a new Zanpakuto. Next jump brings us to Omaeda who tries really hard to not make his little sister cry. He feels a bit sad because Soi Fon didn’t bring him with her for training. Next jump brings us to Komamura speaking to his Clan Elder. There’s a secret technique to learn but he’s undeserving. After jumping around between captains it’s time for Ichigo to say goodbye to Zangetsu.
The real Zangetsu is here.
So the Asauchi used to make Ichigo’s Zanpakuto is his inner Hollow, which is the White Hollow created by Aizen. His old Zanpakuto wasn’t an Asauchi but a pretender. Who’s that old man? It’s Yhwach. There’s the plot twist of the century. Ichigo’s Soul Reaper powers were actually the slumbering Yhwach. Why did nobody notice this? Why did no one question his lack of real Zanpakuto? There are so many question marks but at the very least I feel like the explanation of Ichigo’s weapon is a lot more clear this time around. In the manga I was far more lost. This means that the person responsible for Ichigo’s mother dying as well as many deaths in the Soul Society is also the one who fought with him from the majority of Bleach’s runtime. That feels weird to me. Yhwach also says he’s not really Yhwach and not really an enemy. It all feels a bit contrived. Why does this version of Yhwach feel bad about having to kill Ichigo, while he killed many people without a moment’s hesitation. Maybe it’s me, but it feels poorly thought out. Zangetsu Yhwach sees Ichigo as his son and so does regular Yhwach, but the latter doesn’t quite show it. It’s time to say goodbye to the fake Zangetsu and say hello to the real Zangetsu. That’s right, it’s two blades this time around. One for each Zangetsu. That would have been a pretty cool reveal if it wasn’t in the opening from the very first moment. I hope that anime only viewers missed it, but you can oh-so-clearly see two swords in Ichigo’s hands during the opening and it bothered me a ton.
I’ve got swords, they’re multiplying.
Before we finish up, there’s one more reveal. Uryu has decided to side with the man who killed his mother and was instrumental in hurting many of his friends. And with that the first cour is over. I’ve enjoyed it more than I expected. It still feels contrived at points, but it was great seeing a young Masaki brought to life in animation as well as seeing all the cool fights in this first part. There’s much more Bleach to get to before all is said and done, and I’m curious in what ways Kubo will improve on this story as it’s brought to life once. But for now, we’ll take a well deserved break from Soul Society. Thank you all for reading these weekly posts and I hope you all join me in a few months when we pick it back up!
If I’m right, this is the penultimate episode of the first cour of Bleach’s new anime. Time flies when you’re having fun. We’re getting a solid introduction to this new arc with some cool fights. I think the squad zero part so far has been disappointing, but we start this episode off with some very interesting information. You see, the only way to get a Zanpakuto is by being given an Asauchi forged by mohawk over here. Ichigo seems to be the sole exception. He never got an Asauchi. Then the question begs; where does Zangetsu come from? And on that note, we start the episode.
This is another reveal that I’m not sure feels earned. Maybe Kubo planned this from the beginning, but I have my suspicions that this was a later idea. I could be underestimating the man, but Bleach never feels like it was planned out well.
Meanwhile Ichigo has been sent home. Isshin senses his approach but Ichigo runs away and finds shelter with the manager at his part time job. Isshin doesn’t let his son run away this time around. Also, up until this point in the manga I thought there was more to Ikumi than met the eye, but she clearly can’t see Isshin in his Shinigami form, so that dispels that. Urahara has informed Isshin about what’s going on. It’s finally time for Isshin to tell Ichigo who he really is. And it turns out he’s a quincy. What a twist.
Man’s got the drip.
We take a journey back in time to when Toshiro and Rangiku were both working for Kurosaki Isshin, or should I say Shiba Isshin. Following the lead of soul reapers dying, of course something Aizen was involved in, he made his way to the regular world. We then see a young Kurosaki Masaki at the Ishida household. She was taken in by Uryu’s grandparents. Turns out Ryuken used to be a nice kid before he turned all mean and unlikable. He liked Masaki and realized his mother wanted them to get married to keep the bloodline pure. No wonder Uryu ended up being so stuck up, he comes from a family of elitist pricks.
Rangiku did not deserve this kind of shade.Young Ryuken, or Ryu-chan. Makes him sound less scary.
Meanwhile Isshin encounters a completely black hollow. Masaki catches wind of what’s going on and rushes out to go and help. Ryuken tells her to be careful and not go out. First the soul reapers have to die, then the half blooded quincy and then the pure blooded quincies should go out. What a fun organization. I get that they’ve been wiped out by soul reapers and are still bitter about that, but they’re very stuck in their ways. Masaki seems to be different and actually have proper morals. Good on you, Masaki.
Send in the half-bloods first, that’s something the good guys do, right?
And with all things evil in this world, the one who almost killed Isshin was Aizen Sosuke. Isshin almost bites the bullet but is saved at the last moment by Masaki. Masaki is a total badass and just takes a hit to make sure she can deliver a killing blow. When the hollow self destructs it’s Isshin who jumps in to save her. Ichigo’s parents are pretty cool. If the Soul Reapers were to send out anyone to represent them, Isshin is probably pretty high on the list of good options. A lot better than Yamamoto “a little genocide never hurt anyone” Genryuusai. And there we have it, the opening to Everything but the rain.
Isshin fighting against Aizen’s research specimen; White.
There’s more important information. The hollow, during self destruction, passed some sort of power on to a Quincy. Now what would happen with a union between Quincy, hollow and soul reaper. See where I’m going with this? We’ll find out more soon enough I suppose. Thanks for reading, we have one more of these before the new year is upon us.
I remember this scene feeling like a fever trip in the manga. I felt confused about what was happening at all times. It seems a bit more obvious what is going on this time around. The fight between the kenpachis continues. Both Unohana and Zaraki are absolute freaks when it comes to the joy that fighting causes them. Unohana is trying to fix Zaraki so that he can fight to his fullest extent. And there we have it. Bankai, Minazuki. The most terrifying lady in this series showing off her terrifying bankai. A sword of blood and the ability to heal up her wounds which she gained in years of being a healer. And like that, Zaraki Kenpachi realizes his true potential. And just like that we see the end of Unohana Retsu, the previous Kenpachi.
We see Zaraki as a child, which we’ve seen before.I’m not scared, are you scared?
We move back to Ichigo and Renji who have arrived at the next island. Here we have the creator of Zanpakuto. Why are there a bunch of women here? I thought these people lived in solitude. I never liked squad zero in the manga, and this isn’t changing my opinion so far. Ichigo’s opinion of their vibe kind of matches mine to be honest. But this guy can maybe make a new Zanpakuto for our main character, so he has to suck up to him. At least a little bit. I might have tricked you a few sentences ago, I might have just forgotten this arc, I guess we’ll never know. But this guy is in fact living in solitude, those around him are Zanpakuto he created.
The one and only creator of the Zanpakuto.
So Oh-Etsu Nimaiya creates the Asauchi, the Zanpakuto without a personality and then when they get used by Soul Reapers they form into more personalized swords as they spend more time with them. This is a way for characters to get weapons that suit their style. Doesn’t make a lot of sense for some characters like Soi Fon, who got a weapon that doesn’t fit her at all, and I’m sure there’s more examples but it feels like a lot of this story got thought up way later. I want to quickly bring up God of Highschool. It’ll make sense. I’ve been reading that Webtoon recently and it’s really good. Some parts of the story could have been better for sure, but one thing I love about this series is that up until the very end it always feels like the author planned out things to happen in a certain way. This doesn’t mean he did, he could have thought they fitted in nicely later on, but as long as to the readers it feels all planned out, it becomes a watertight story. For a series of almost 600 chapters that’s very hard to do and I don’t think Kubo managed to do it.
Squad Zero are for the most part just not very likable characters and they didn’t get enough screentime to become interesting to me.
Back to the episode real quick. Renji manages to beat the trial but Ichigo fails. He’s told to give up. That’s not going to fly with Ichigo but one interesting thing he says is that Ichigo isn’t a soul reaper. He is a substitute in a sense, but his father is also a famed Soul Reaper so he is a Soul Reaper by blood. This is another show of why I don’t like this arc. Ichigo gets treated like he’s useless by these people that haven’t proven themselves at all in the story. He’s the guy that saved Soul Society from Aizen while they were just relaxing and doing nothing. We are entering the best part of this arc soon though, so I’m excited for that. I believe the upcoming part of the anime will cover “everything but the rain” and right as I’m writing this, the title card for next week shows up to confirm my suspicion. This is very exciting.
Who’s face is that? I think I know, but I won’t tell!
We’re starting off strong. Kyoraku has been named the next Captain Commander after Yamamoto’s passing. Unsurprisingly, he’s not happy about this. He has a meeting with Central 46 who are still as useless and annoying as ever. I wonder if they’re modeled after the US Senate. His plan is to make Zaraki Kenpachi learn Zanjutsu, basically making him unreasonably powerful. And he’s picked someone to do this for him. Captain Unohana from squad four; The first Kenpachi. This reveal was crazy.
I’m avoiding having the preview picture be a spoiler, so have this guy for starters.
After healing in the bath, Ichigo and Renji move on to the next island. I know some people were complaining that last week we didn’t get to see buff Kon, but luckily they didn’t forget about him. After a good bath it’s time for some food. Itadakimasu! Bleach is now Shokugeki no Soma. Hikifune Kirio explains that they’re getting ready for the upcoming three rituals. Next up: The man who created Zanpakuto. How long have these people been a part of squad zero?
I want her secret to losing weight
We jump back to Soul Society itself, to the lowest level of the underground prison where Zaraki Kenpachi is getting ready to face Unohana Yachiru. Kenpachi vs. Kenpachi. Unohana without her iconic braid looks terrifying. I remember seeing this in the manga as well, she’s way more intense than Zaraki. It also turns out the braid was hiding a scar that Zaraki once gave her. She in turn is responsible for the scar on Zaraki’s face. Kyoraku laments that one of the two will have to die in a clash between Kenpachis. Both lieutenants have been handed a will of sorts and are now awaiting the return of their captains.
I don’t know who’s scarier, Äs Nödt or Unohana
For a moment they’re evenly matched and they cross blades, even though Zaraki is definitely on the defensive, he’s holding on pretty well. For a moment, that is. Unohana very quickly has the upper hand. She disarms Zaraki and puts her blade to his throat and tells him he’s gotten weaker. Without mercy, Unohana cuts his throat. When he blinks for a moment, he’s suddenly back, without a cut throat. The fight continues. Unohana is absolutely merciless and will heal him whenever he’s about to die in an attempt to make him stronger.
Lambs to the slaughter, what you’re gonna do when there’s blood in the water.
All in all, not a whole lot happened in this episode. At least it feels like that. We have a new Captain Commander, two captains are fighting to the death and it is more or less revealed that all the people thought dead (Byakuya, Zaraki, Renji and maybe Rukia) are perfectly fine either last or this episode. At this point I started getting confused about what Kubo wanted to do with this arc. It felt like he was going to start slaughtering named characters but then immediately reeled it back in. It felt a bit weird at the time and that sentiment hasn’t changed. Having said all that, I’m still excited to see more Bleach every week.
Poor Isane, I wonder if she knew this day would come.
The battle has ended. Time to take in stock and see what the current scenario is. Both Rukia and Renji managed to survive their surgeries and are stable. Kurotsuchi summons Ichigo shortly after to check on his broken Zanpakuto. It turns out both Zaraki Kenpachi and Kuchiki Byakuya have survived. I wasn’t a fan of this in the manga. I thought Byakuya had fully bit the bullet, but he ended up being alive afterwards. The head captain is gone though. Kyoraku shows up to be the adult in the room. Ichigo gets told that his Zanpakuto cannot be restored.
This was all they could recover
And there we have it. The zero squad shows up. These guys have been talked about before. They’re the ones that live in the Soul King’s royal palace. All five members are captain level, and their combined strength is greater than the entire thirteen squads combined. These are some powerhouses. Makes you wonder why Kubo never used them before. Was Aizen not a big enough threat? They do turn out to be a bunch of weirdos right from the get go. They’re very happy go lucky after what’s just happened. One of them is the former captain of squad 12, which Urahara replaced to the dismay of Hiyori. The zero squad immediately starts taunting some of the captains.
The five most powerful soul reapers alive.
Soi Fon calls out the zero squad. They don’t take kindly to it. This seems to be yet another layer of the Soul Society not working properly. Each department has their own task apparently and they can’t properly work together. Who cares if it’s your job to do this or that, just watch the world burn while you ignore the rest of society. One of the squad zero members has collected Rukia, Renji, Byakuya and Ichigo’s broken weapons and is about to take them up to the palace alongside Ichigo. Urahara calls into the meeting through zoom, he wasn’t aware it was an in person meeting. No one is happy to see him. He’s using Kon as an antenna. Poor Kon. We also hear a very familiar voice. It’s not hard to figure out who it belongs to, but I’m leaving that for your own discovery regardless.
I wonder who that is?
Today is a blessed day as we get a shot of Kuukaku. She’s the one that shoots everyone back up to the palace. There they are, the fullbringers. Can you tell how happy I am to see them again? This waste of airtime? I’m so mad they weren’t just completely forgotten about for this arc. They’re weak as well, not interesting and somehow get a training arc. I’m disappointed. It is interesting that Kuukaku said it’ll make Isshin sad. Bald captain reveals that they’re the key to the soul palace. Ichigo and friends are sent to the hot springs to recover. Is this technically a hot springs episode? His manner of healing is pretty metal though. Old blood goes out, new blood goes in. Tenjiro Kriniji, the hot spring demon, is pretty metal.
There she is, the best character in the show. For reasons. I will not explain myself. Step on me.
Things are speeding up and I can’t say this doesn’t still feel incredibly rushed. In this episode half the people who just died turned out to be alive, Squad zero is introduced, the fullbringers are back, an arrancar is back, Ichigo gets told he can get a new Zanpakuto and something is bugging Unohana. It’s just an information overload. I’m kind of hoping it slows down from here, but from what I’ve heard about how far into the manga this arc will cover, I think it’ll keep blasting at max speed. Anyway, I’m heading off, I’ve been severely overworked and need sleep. Thanks for reading, and I hope to be here again next week with a new post, but I can’t make any promises.
Supposedly one of the most powerful characters in all of Bleach
Opal Kaharis 