We start off with another look into Yamamoto and Yhwach’s last fight before hopping to the opening. The vocalist from this song reminds me a little bit of Kenshi Yonezu, especially in the first little bit. That’s a big compliment, for anyone not familiar with Kenshi Yonezu. We stay in the past and find a young Kyoraku Shinsui. And we’re reminded that Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryusai, captain commander of the Gotei 13, has died. At this point in the manga I was very confused about how anyone was ever going to defeat Yhwach. We learn a lot about the Soul Society’s mentality here and it really makes me wonder if Kubo ever plans to write a prequel manga about the olden days. I know there’s more material out there in the form of novels, but I have little to no insight into what that means.
He’s done what he came here for.
The quincies kick things up another gear and a whole bunch of soldiers join the frey. The leftover shinigami get annihilated at record pace. I am curious as to why we’re not seeing much of quite a few of the familiar faces that should still be running around right now. Captains, vice-captains, seated officers. Ichigo finally makes his way to Soul Society with the help of Akon and immediately takes out one of the Stern Ritter who barely gets done introducing himself, so we’ll not give him the light of day. Byakuya asking Ichigo for help is the perfect culmination of the man’s entire character development. Ichigo is looking pissed.
Real talk here, I did that thing where I took a screenshot in the middle of a quick animation, and it still looks good. What is this animation quality, it’s crazy smooth.
Ichigo and Yhwach clash, with the latter having the upper hand easily. This is where Ichigo finally shows off the fact that he has Quincy powers. There’s some bullshit that Kubo wrote about how Ichigo’s spiritual pressure woke up due to being mixed with Quilge’s spiritual reiatsu. Call a spade a spade, this was incredibly poor writing on Kubo’s part, but I’ve said before that I think he felt extremely rushed to make cool chapters at this point to offset the manga’s waning popularity. Yhwach reveals that he knows about Kurosaki Masaki, Ichigo’s mother. Yhwach sets off to kidnap Ichigo back to the Wandenreich. Can you imagine that at this point, manga readers were still very much having whiplash going from the fullbringer arc to this arc. Ichigo ends up saved by the bell, I mean Aizen, and the quincy retreat. As a parting gift, Haschwalth breaks Ichigo’s zanpakuto.
Byakuya’s story arc culminating in him falling short and dying, asking Ichigo to help Soul Society out in his stead, is pretty amazing.
This episode had a fair bit of original content that I think helped out with the pacing. We’re still going at lightning speed, but I understood a lot better what was happening here. I do think the Bleach manga wasn’t made for weekly reading towards the end. I get that sense from more long running shonen to be fair, even in One Piece I sometimes get a little bit lost. I’m no longer 19 with nothing else to do, I’m in my 30s busy pretending to be a functioning adult. With mixed success at best. I think this is a big reason why I stopped reading a lot of manga weekly and have switched over to buying the volumes and reading those when the come in. It’s a lot more expensive for sure, but I think it’s a better reading experience. Of course, you can always just binge a manga online now, that’s a pretty good way of going about things too. Either way, this episode looked amazing, sounded amazing and even had some fanservice for us manga readers. Looking forward to next week already.
Surprise Aizen! Hope that didn’t spook you too much.
I’ll be the first to admit that the first three or so episodes of this show didn’t really grab me that much when it comes to the story. Call of the night feels like it’s going for vibes over substance and although there’s definitely nothing wrong with that, without a proper story I’ll quickly start to lose interest. That’s why I was so pleasantly surprised when the show started introducing more characters. In this colorful night in an uninteresting town with an uninteresting main character, a story takes place that has such good vibes that you can’t help but feel good. Let’s talk about Yofukashi no Uta, or Call of the Night.
Scammed.
Anime: Yofukashi no Uta Manga by: Kotoyama Studio: Liden films Runtime: 13 episodes Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy, Fantasy
Yamori Ko is a middle school student who has just about gotten bored of his daily life. He feels almost dissociated (Spelled that wrong three times before I let autocorrect take the wheel) from the people around him until one night he decides to wander out in the street, marveling at the difference in feelings this brings with it. That’s where he meets Nanakusa Nazuna. Initially he thinks she’s just a young person like he is who is also bored of daily life. She seems fun to be around so Ko doesn’t mind. Unfortunately for him, or fortunately, there is more to Nazuna than Ko originally thinks. She reveals to be a vampire and ends up sucking his blood. Ko is not unhappy about it, thinking he’ll now become a vampire as well. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. To become a vampire yourself, you need to be in love with the vampire that sucks your blood and Ko seems to not have many feelings of love for anyone right now. We join Ko and Nazuna as they become better friends while Ko tries to figure out his feelings. Along the way we meet other vampires and slowly start learning about their intricate interpersonal relationships as well as the unwritten rules of vampire society.
Stunning color palette
Now for those with a particularly keen eye and a vast amount of knowledge on Japanese music, something has become apparent. Yeah, I didn’t know this either before I was told about it. There is a Japanese band called Creepy Nuts (what a name), who wrote a song called Yofukashi no Uta. Kotoyama asked if he could use that title for his manga, to which they agreed. And now that this same manga has been adapted to an anime, this same song is used as the ending theme for it. Things have come full circle. Both opening and ending are done by Creepy Nuts and both are absolutely fantastic songs. They also really fit the vibe of the show, which I always like. Sometimes an opening sounds good but it doesn’t match the show, and sometimes (like in Mashiro no Oto for example) the opening theme feels like a part of the story itself. That’s the case here as well.
“It feels so free” “This is where I belong”
The animation is fine, everything looks good when it’s in motion, but it doesn’t blow you out of the water like a Ufotable or Mappa show. For what it needs to do it suffices though. What they put this energy into instead, is the artstyle. Taking some hints from both Jojo and the Monogatari series, this show creates a unique color palette which adds to the vibe of the show. The night feels like a magical time and if they’d just used darkness with street lights I don’t think they’d have created an effect as powerful. With the purple and pink hues you feel like you’re transported to a magical world and you never stop to question why there’s vampires everywhere.
More vampires join the story.
The characters are fun. The vampires each have their own quirks and personality and although they are a group, they have different ideas about how vampire society should work. It makes sense that a small group of outsiders that have been brought together kind of by coincidence doesn’t work together amazingly. Nazuna is free spirited and doesn’t live by the rules while Niko is strict and wants to protect the safety they have. Everyone else seems to be somewhere in between all that and I’d honestly love to learn more about these characters. Time to buy the manga I guess.
oh no, she’s pissed.
Overall this show was a lot of fun to watch each week. The music gets you ready, the artstyle keeps you engaged and the characters do the rest. Like I said before, the show has a little bit of a slow start but once you get past those initial handful of episodes things pick up properly and you won’t have time to look back at all. If you like atmospheric shows with interesting characters and a fun fantastical plot, then this show is definitely the one for you. I therefore highly recommend this show, and I’m confident it’s going to be one of the more memorable shows from this year. And that’s saying a lot with how stacked this year has already been. Thanks for reading!
We start off right where we left off last week, with the Captain Commander facing off against Yhwach. Not only that, Kyoraku is still fighting too. Äs Nödt, Bazz B and and NaNaNa, who each defeated the people they were dealing with handily jump to attack Yamamoto. Kyoraku isn’t worried though, as he’s known the Captain Commander for a very long time and knows that he isn’t going to get taken down that easily. Yhwach isn’t sympathetic as they interrupted his fight. So far it looks like Studio Clown is flexing every muscle in their animating body for these fights. This stuff reminds me of why we loved Bleach in the first place. Such cool fights. And we’re treated to Zanka no Tachi, Yamamoto’s bankai. It heats up the entire soul society, and apparently this isn’t the first time Yhwach has seen it. It looks metal as fuck.
That’s a long time
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that Yamamoto is still genocidal if it means getting to defeat his enemies. It’s terrifying that a man with his morals became so powerful and in charge of an entire realm. Ishida is joining the viewer in a history lesson. There’s a lot about this arc that I highly wonder if Kubo planned it at all, or if he just ran out of ideas after Aizen was defeated. Either way, although the Fullbringers kind of petered out, this arc is burning with a fury, just like Yamamoto is. Speaking of fury, it’s the rise of the CGI skeletons. I suppose I’ve seen worse CGI, it’s just so noticeable when it switches from one to the other and that’s arguably the biggest issue I have with it. These skeletons are fighting Yhwach as part of Yamamoto’s bankai. We’ve seen east, west and south now, I wonder what north is like.
I doubt that’s comfortable
Yamamoto reveals that the Quincy can’t steal a bankai they don’t understand. That’s probably why they were unable to steal Ichigo’s bankai. There’s a lot to that kid that’s hard to understand. Yhwach is persistent though and walks out of the sea of corpses that look like his fallen friends. Remember folks, Yamamoto is the good guy here, I think. And with his fourth strike, Yamamoto destroys everything around Yhwach, almost cutting the man completely in half. Just like that, the invasion is over and the ringleader is dead.
There is an impostor among us
Well, of course it wasn’t as simple as that. It turns out that this Yhwach was a fake all along. Yhwach went over to kill the rest of Yamamoto’s friends. The one that Yamamoto was fighting was really Stern Ritter Y: Royd Loyd. It turns out Yhwach’s real goal here was to have a chat with Aizen Sosuke. Remember Aizen, glasses, hypnosis power, bit of a dickhead. Yhwach thinks they have the same goals, but Aizen disagrees. And here’s the kicker. Now they show off that Yhwach himself is strong enough to steal Yamamoto’s bankai. This is looking pretty bad for the Soul Reapers right about now. And with one well aimed strike, Yamamoto Genryuusai, Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, is down.
Guess who’s back, back again! Aizen’s back, tell a friend.
Official anime streaming websites have historically been sparse in my country. Even with the rise of Crunchyroll there were always large amounts of episodes missing. To give an example, I got an account there once to watch One Piece again, only to realize the middle 70% or so of episodes were unavailable. Because of this, I’ve had a long history of watching my anime basically wherever I can find them. I will be quick to defend this, as I would gladly pay for my anime if they were reasonably available. This is what I do with manga for example, which is why my room is slowly looking like that of a hoarder. Debating morality aside, this explains why I watched Summertime Rendering on a weekly basis while a lot of people might not have. It’s been stuck in Disney jail for a while and although it could be out by now, it wasn’t airing weekly in the west. This is a real shame because it’s a very good show. So without going into any major spoilers, in case readers of this post haven’t had the chance to watch it yet, let’s talk about Summertime Rendering today. There will be spoilers for the first two or three episodes, but nothing past that.
And so it begins
Name: Summertime Rendering
Manga by: Yasuki Tanaka
Studio: OLM
Runtime: April 2022 – September 2022 (25 Episodes) Genre: Mystery, Time Travel, Thriller, Action
Our protagonist, Shinpei, returns to his home on Hitogashima Island. He is there for the funeral of his childhood friend, Ushio. He left the island to move to the big city and she unfortunately drowned trying to save a young girl from drowning. The girl survived but seems emotionally unwell. Even before he gets to the island, things are strange. He has a weird dream where he hears his childhood friend plead for him to find her. When he wakes up he jumps forward landing face first in the bosom of Hizuru, another passenger on this boat and an important character in this story. He gets promptly slapped in the face for his unintended assault and arrives on the island proper.
And so the mystery starts
While Shinpei is on the island, things slowly start getting more and more strange. Ushio’s neck shows strangle marks and it’s not long before he figures out that she was murdered. Not only was Ushio murdered, something supernatural might be going on. Soon after, Shinpei finds out, through going through the motions of it, that he has some sort of time travel ability. Think Re:zero but slightly different. With this power and limited knowledge, Shinpei and his friends slowly try to uncover what is actually happening on this island and how to save as many people as possible before it’s too late.
Something, Katy Perry song, Something
Summertime Rendering is a neat package that fulfills on all the basic promises of a good anime. The artstyle is solid, nothing mind blowing but definitely above average. Same can be said for the animation. The action scenes are amazing when they want to be and the animation throughout is always solid enough that I never noticed any problems with it. The characters in this show are very fun and well written, to the point that we find more depth in them as the show goes on. As someone who doesn’t like time travel in general, I found myself not bothered by it at all in this show. Hizuru is one of my favorite characters and I also appreciate that the cast is more diverse than just a bunch of teenagers. If you like a good mystery show that has the full package, then I highly, highly recommend this show. It’s great right from the start and as the season continues it just gets better and better. The ending is satisfying and although it’s not particularly important to the review, the first opening absolutely slaps. You won’t want to miss this show, so if you can find it anywhere, definitely give it a watch. I’ll be trying to find a good place to buy the manga, because I can definitely see myself wanting to experience this story again. Thanks for reading.
It’s time for Bleach! I’ve got a raging headache and a ton of other work and writing to do right now, so let’s dive into it quickly and not waste too much time. We continue where we left off last week, with Ichigo headed to Soul Society. At least that’s the message being spread, they don’t seem to know that Ichigo is having some problems. Just as I’m saying that, Akon figures out that there’s interference, but it might still serve as a nice boost in morale. Jidanbo looks to be brainwashed and attacks the twelfth squad. Still, Rukia has faith in Ichigo.
Jidanbo’s clearly being controlled by someone.
I just realized that the opening song reminds me of Asian Kung-Fu Generation a little bit. Same vibe, more modern.
And just like that, one alphabet warrior down.
Quilge’s “J” stands for jail. Luckily the gang is saved from him by a mysterious stranger. We cut back to pretty boy Byakuya struggling against Äs Nödt. I know talking is a free action in anime, but laying out your plan while the enemy is staring you down might not be smart. I did expect Äs Nödt to have a more feminine voice when I read the manga. Their power is to inflict fear in their enemies. As someone already suffering from anxiety this power wouldn’t work against me. Can’t be more anxious than this am I right? Just me? True fear has no cause. Have some chill, Kubo. You’re scaring me. I suppose that’s the point. Byakuya is not looking too hot, I’ll tell you that much. And now Äs nödt even brings out Senbonzakura against Byakuya. This fight isn’t even close to being fair. And there we go, another iconic panel from the manga. Byakuya, Renji and Rukia are all down and out.
Rukia looking adorable here.That loooks like it hurts.
Not every captain is struggling as much with their fights. Zaraki Kenpachi has swiftly defeated Stern Ritters Q, R & Y. He came to party and won’t take no for an answer. He attacks Yhwach. Time to check in on Ichigo. Yeah, he’s still stuck.
Kusakabe Chojiro’s Bankai
Hisagi is struggling against Stern Ritter “O” Overkill. He’s been going around killing over a hundred soul reapers and reveals he’s responsible for the death of Sasakibe. This claim summons a very, very angry Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryusai. Remember that he only failed to defeat Aizen because doing so would also destroy everyone around him. Stern Ritter “O” uses Sasakibe’s stolen bankai on the captain commander as if to disrespect the man once more after his passing. We now get some nice backstory for the two, the first time we see a younger Yamamoto as well. It’s very interesting to see how Yamamoto got to take the name Genryusai out of love for his subordinate. Being hit with the same man’s bankai like this must be painful. Especially since this clown of a Quincy doesn’t do it justice. Needless to say, “O” gets overkilled. Yamamoto pleads to slaughter every single rebel. Now that’s a morale boost and a half.
A young captain commander. “young.”Pure unfiltered rage.
Let me end this week’s review by once again reminding everyone how cool Kyoraku is. Seriously, he looks so badass here at the end of the episode. Oh, I won’t spoil it here in case you missed it, but there is an after credit scene this week.
Out of all the arcs that Kubo Tite wrote for Bleach, this is definitely one of them. The fullbringer arc leaves much to be desired. We leave the Aizen arc with Ichigo losing his powers and slowly being unable to see Rukia. The arc ends with Ichigo turning into a normal high school student and life just kind of returning to normal. Things are nice, and it was a nice point in the story to end it on. And then instead of doing that, or leaning on the massive cast of characters that we’ve already come to love this far into the story, Kubo decides instead to introduce an entire new group of characters that I really couldn’t get all too invested in. Before my rewatch I still remembered a ton of the soul reapers and arrancar, because they were so memorable. The visoreds were the same. And then we have the fullbringers who… I think there’s a kid with a gameboy. That’s the extent of what I remember. But putting all that aside, let’s get to reviewing this arc proper.
I am angry okay, about how bad this arc is.
Ichigo is now just a regular high school boy. He’s 17 years old, has a part time job, and is looking forward to his future. Meanwhile he’s being bothered by Ginjo, who also seems to have a substitute shinigami token. Right from the get go he’s an extremely unlikable character to me. While this is going on, both Ishida and Inoue notice something strange about Ichigo. Oh, and Ishida gets stabbed by a strange man.
That’s not looking too good.
Things are ramping up a little bit from here. Ginjo keeps pestering Ichigo to join his little club of Fullbringers called Xcution. It consists of Riruka, Jackie, Yukio, Giriko and Ginjo. They all have the strange power to manipulate the souls of things, allowing them to turn things they feel strongly about into weapons. They want Ichigo to become a substitute shinigami again so he can absorb their powers and turn them into regular humans. There’s also Tsukishima, who is the one that slashed Ishida and used to be a member of Xcution. Last time they found a substitute shinigami to take their members’ powers Tsukishima changed his mind and ended up killing the shinigami as well as the members who’d already given up their power. You’d think we would have heard about this already. On top of all of this, Ginjo tells Ichigo that he shouldn’t really be trusting Urahara. I remember the first time I was going through this arc and I actually thought Urahara might be a villain. I thought that would be such a horrendous plot twist that it would actually ruin the manga for me. Luckily Urahara turned out to never be a villain at all. It makes no sense for him to be a villain either. The only thing I could have seen happen is him harboring a grudge against the Soul Society for sentencing him to death, but he just doesn’t seem like the type. Moving on.
You don’t need to fully understand someone to trust them.
Ichigo decides to join the Xcution group to get his powers back. In the meantime Inoue also gets attacked by Tsukishima, but after she’s been cut there’s no wound. There’s only a strange feeling that Tsukishima is an old friend. Meanwhile Sado is training with Xcution as well. I never liked the changing of logic on how Sado’s and to a lesser extent Inoue’s power works. Sado had hollow powers but now he’s just a fullbringer controlling the soul of what exactly? None of it feel like it tightly lines up. Ichigo fights with some random puppets before defeating Jackie while fighting in Riruka’s dollhouses. As they’re training, Tsukishima attacks the Xcution base and they take a break from training to fight him off. Ichigo’s current form of Fullbring looks like a more boring bankai. That’s really all there is to it. Ginjo and Ichigo fight inside Yukio’s game console as the next part of their training. While they’re doing so, Inoue is being brought to the Xcution base. The scene where she’s talking to Riruka really highlights why I don’t like this arc. It feels like we’re starting from zero again, with all the progress we’ve made so far being completely gone. The guy propped up as the big villain for this arc is a bloke with a bookmark, and there are no real stakes except for Ishida getting attacked once and recovering from it. Going from the Aizen arc to this, and then after this to the upcoming Thousand Year Blood War arc just feels like it’s not well planned. Also, Ginjo is just an asshole for most of this arc.
In the background, Isshin, Urahara and Rukia are scheming something. Shouldn’t they instead be doing their jobs and deal with Xcution? You can’t tell me someone like Urahara has not been actively aware of their existence. Tsukishima cuts into several people and makes them believe he’s their friend until he starts to show up around Ichigo. Ichigo’s training is completed because Ginjo treats him like absolute shit and in doing so awakens his powers. Ichigo runs away from the situation in a panic. This is where he meets up with Ginjo, who explains that the rest of the fullbringers are now also under Tsukushima’s control. Things are looking quite dire. I would like to remind you that up until now in the story, nothing has really happened. Ichigo got new powers to replace his old ones, and Ishida was hospitalized, but that’s really it. This is just the set-up of a story arc. Which is strange since we’re at about 8 episodes left from the almost thirty. The pacing is all over the place.
If you’ve been cut, but there’s no cut, it’s clear something else is going on.
Tsukishima’s true power is revealed. He places himself in the past of other people making them fully believe he was always there as someone they knew. That’s what happened to all the people around them. Ginjo and Ichigo suck at evading their followers though and are promptly led to Tsukishima’s place. All his friends and family are there as well as the other fullbringers. Ichigo and Tsukishima clash after Ginjo tells him to go wild. It’s starting to feel a lot like Ginjo is dictating what is and isn’t allowed. One thing that isn’t allowed is for Tsukishima to have fun, since Ichigo is quickly overpowering him. That’s when Sado and Inoue show up to support Tsukishima. That’s gotta sting. It’s also worth noting that these episodes take about 5 or 6 minutes before anything new happens. I think that’s part of why this arc feels so awful. Nothing happens for a third of the airtime.
He was the bad guy all along
Things ramp up a little bit from here. Tsukishima has some sort of revelation and Ginjo gets stabbed by his power as well. Meanwhile Ishida is on his way to some place, probably where they’re fighting right now. Speak of the devil, there he is. And there’s the big reveal. Tsukishima didn’t cut down Ishida, Ginjo did. Both of them get cut down in one fell swoop. Ginjo wanted to awaken Ichigo’s fullbring so he could steal it all along. Looks like his plan was successful. So Ginjo was the one who stabbed Ishida, which is why he was bleeding in the hospital. Him and Tsukishima were working together from the start. Tsukishima cut Ginjo and the other fullbringers as well. Turns out they were all his enemies from the very start. So basically they found the hero who saved the entire world and had gone back to being a normal human. Got him back into the fight and hurt all of his friends only to kill him and take his newfound powers. It’s hard to believe an entire group of people is so awful. When Ichigo is at his lowest he gets stabbed from behind by a very familiar sword. Ichigo is way too far gone to realize what is going on. It makes sense, it’s been seventeen months since he’s last seen Rukia. Seeing Rukia again is such a breath of fresh air. It really reminds me how much I do not care for these Fullbringers. Give me back my fun Soul Reapers and Visoreds, thank you very much. Also, I said it’s a familiar sword that Rukia used, but it’s not, it’s a newly made sword by Urahara. It does kind of look like Sode no Shirayuki though.
He’s back 😀
This is a cool moment though. Turns out there’s some people who owe a big debt to Ichigo and are here to set things straight. Renji, Byakuya, Toshiro, Kenpachi and Ikkaku are here to provide support. As soon as he feels the heat, Ginjo goes on the retreat but Ichigo doesn’t let him. Ginjo stands no chance whatsoever. On a quick sidenote, it is very nice of Yamamoto to break his authoritarian rule for a moment to respect Ichigo’s contribution to their society. It turns out the reason there was a law surrounding Substitute Soul Reapers was for a reason. Ginjo is the first one of them to ever appear. Things heat up as Ginjo shares his powers with the other Fullbringers. Riruka is hesitant about it all though, good for her at least she still has some morals left. I do love that the fullbringers think they stand even a fraction of a chance with three captains, two former captains, three lieutenants and the guy that defeated Sosuke Aizen. It’s time for the big fights between fullbringers and Soul Reapers. I wonder who’s going to win.
Hype.
Needless to say, Kenpachi defeats Giriko in one slash. Small fry is accurate for sure. Renji casually knocks out Jackie as if she wasn’t even there. Toshiro abuses Yukio’s PTSD to have him drop his guard. Ikkaku… punches a kid for a while. Rukia and Byakuya both struggle against their opponents, with Byakuya even having to use his bankai to fight against Tsukishima. Eventually Byakuya prevails and mortally wounds the bookworm. Ichigo and Ginjo fight, with Ginjo explaining that the substitute badge is meant as a way for Soul Society to keep Ichigo in check. Ichigo brushes it off and says it’s not important. Ginjo can’t understand it. The fights continue and Ginjo and Tsukishima both die, with Riruka heroically saving Ichigo. Jackie and Yukio vanish into the world and that’s the end of that. I think that the thing that irks me so much about this arc is that the fullbringers don’t feel like interesting people until towards the end. We learn more about them in the final two episodes than in the rest of the arc. Reflecting on it now I think this isn’t a bad story per se, it’s just really poorly written. And on that somber note ends the Bleach recap. Overall I enjoyed myself a lot albeit way less during the final stretch. Now it’s time to take a break from watching so much anime, it’s been a lot. Thanks for reading.
Imagine thinking you stand a chance against Kenpachi.
Episode 4 already starts out with a recap of the first three episodes. I think that might be better than recapping just the previous episode. Speaking of which, remember how that one ended? Things got pretty hectic in Soul Society and Kira got murdered. It is an almost three minute recap though. Are we back to the olden days of shonen anime where it takes five to six minutes before the episode finally starts? No sign of Kira before the opening theme by the way, I wonder if we get to see him after the opening. I figured they’d end the recap with his unfortunate lack of a torso.
Not the last we’ll see of this guy.
We get a few shots of shinigami having been slaughtered, including Kira. It’s an absolute bloodbath that reminds me of the first attack on Shiganshina in Attack on Titan. And the death of loredump-kun provides us with a pretty grim episode card. Rose gets the message that Kira has been taken out from a hell butterfly. He himself is currently facing Stern Ritter U: NaNaNa Najahkoop. I remember some of the sternritters from when I read the manga ages ago, but not all of them. I do remember Bazz B, the one that took out Kira. Also, does Rose have a new voice actor here? A quick google search tells me I’m wrong. Maybe it’s because of the gap that it sounds different, maybe I’m making things up.
I wonder if his teeth are a fashion statement.
Back to sternritters I still remember from the manga though. Sternritter F: Äs Nödt is still utterly terrifying. I’m guessing we’re going to be introduced to a bunch of them in today’s episode to set the scene? We’ll find out. Renji is here to protect his squad members, at least the one guy who didn’t flee. The balls on this guy are intense, I surely would have ran.
Nightmare FuelShe’s a lot more pleasant to look at but equally terrifying.
Next up is Bambietta Basterbine, Sternritter E. She’s casually slicing through soul reapers like it’s nothing. Komamura faces the young girl, being called a little doggy. I have things to say about Komamura’s fight, but I’ll leave them for when it happens properly. We get some quick succession shots of other matchups about to happen throughout the Seireitei before we jump back to everyone’s favorite redhead. Well, one of our several favorites; Renji. He doesn’t get a lot of time to fight before someone else shows up, quickly followed by pretty boy Byakuya. Time’s treating him well, not going to lie. Even two on one, Äs Nódt seems unfazed by the attacks.
Hello Byakuya, long time no see.
I feel like I’m going to be commenting on the soul reapers’ looks more than on the fights today because Toshiro and Rangiku are looking good here too. We get a succession shot of captains using their bankai and it gets stolen away immediately. This is where everyone learns that their bankai don’t get sealed, they get stolen instead. Soi Fon, Komamura, Toshiro and Byakuya are now without a bankai. That’s pretty tough already. I feel like this arc is definitely going at top speed, just like it did in the manga. At least everyone else is now informed about the bankai theft going on. It is kind of interesting how Kurotsuchi Mayuri, who has been a lunatic throughout the series, is by far the most clever, sane and reasonable person in this arc. Kyoraku laments their situation and tries to still look cool. He pays for it with the loss of an eye, while hordes of soul reapers are murdered. Akon is desperate and calls for Ichigo.
That is tough. At least now he can wear a cool eyepatch.
Ichigo’s bankai still refuses to be stolen and his Quincy opponent is not happy about this fact. Ichigo taunts him enough for Urahara to take out his opponent with a surprise attack. Urahara still does not fight with honor. He and the hound from Game of Thrones would get along. Ichigo heads to the Soul Society. Urahara talks about the main Quincy abilities. Blut, which is a buff of their abilities, Vollstandig, which is like their bankai and finally their ability to steal Bankai. Things take a turn for the worse when the Quincy that Urahara took out wasn’t dead yet. Sado gets half his stomach torn out, Orihime gets taken out and Urahara gets pierced by an arrow while Ichigo is locked up in a strange prison. Things are truly going horribly wrong. If that quincy can survive a hole in his body like that, maybe there’s hope for Kira still. Or for half the cast of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures. Maybe not. And that’s all we have time for today. Things ramp up a lot in today’s episode so I don’t blame people for being a bit lost. I am posting my recap of the Fullbringer arc later this week and let me tell you; the whiplash of going from fullbringers to this in the manga was pretty intense. It’s like a silly guy who wants to steal Ichigo’s abilities but never stands a chance to full on nazi Quincy invading and murdering everyone.
Hundreds of chapters later and Sado and Orihime are still treated as fodder. Such a shame.
It seems like getting access to new Bleach episodes on Monday is going to be tough, especially to then also review them. So instead we’ll move this show to Tuesday. With that said, back to Hueco Mundo where Kurosaki Ichigo and Nel confront Quilge and his men. Ichigo also instantly recognizes his teleporting techniques as being the same ones that Ishida uses. He confirms that they are in fact quincies to Ichigo. We cut to the Soul Society where the captains are still in their meeting. The call to prepare for war is made by the captain commander who is understandably very upset right now.
Ichigo looking very modern and HD these days.
Ichigo is surprised to find out that the Quincy have heard of Ishida. They seem to think somewhat highly of him but refuse to elaborate.Quilge reveals now that they have a similar final move to Ishida called the Vollstandig (I don’t know what kind of drugs my translations were on, but I’m pretty sure that’s been the name in the manga for years). It’s like a bankai for quincies. Also, it turns out that Ywach’s men lied about waiting five days to attack the Soul Society. With Ichigo distracted, the Wandenreich marches on Soul Society immediately.
The Wandenreich is to immediately invade Soul Society.
Neither fighter is able to do a lot of damage to the other, but Ichigo using a Getsuga at point blank and not even hurting Quilge a little bit is pretty telling. And here we see Quilge make use of the Quincy’ ability to absorb reishi, spirit energy. While he’s doing so he gets sucker punched by Ayon. Yeah, bet you also forgot about him. He’s the monster that dealt serious damage to the Gotei 13 soldiers during the war for Karakura. He is summoned by the three arrancar – Sun Sun, Mila Rose & Apache – offering up their arms. He’s a bit unpredictable but he definitely packs a mean punch.
Not a single thought going around in that head.
It’s very telling about Uryuu’s relationship with his father that he calls him Ryuken and not dad or father or something similar. Ryuken doesn’t want to tell Uryuu about the quincies though. He still doesn’t seem to know what’s really going on. We get a small lecture on the history of quincies. We’ve heard this before to an extent. Soul Reapers purify hollows and have them pass over. Quincies destroy the souls completely. The way quincies do things is bad. Something about the balance of worlds being destroyed by the way they deal with hollows. Uryuu goes to his father’s office because he wasn’t born yesterday. Here he finds some Nazi memoribilia, I mean knowledge about the quincy history. I’m going to have to hard disagree with the line “wars take place because both sides are just” though.
Stuff like this being dumped so late into the story often made me wonder if Kubo never planned for Bleach to get this far into a story.
We also learn that Kurotsuchi is responsible for the vanishing of souls as a way to balance out the mass extermination of hollows. This is very interesting because he’s been aware of Ishida from very early on, even lost a fight to the quincy, and has been talking to Yamamoto about this. Obviously the Captain Commander has been ignoring his warnings, which is very on brand for the Soul Society’s leadership. It’s also revealed that Yamamoto failed to kill Ywach once before, 1000 years ago.
History is written by the victors, Uryuu. To find the real spicy stuff you’ll need to do some digging.
After Ayon beats down Quilge he gets up again and kills Apache. Using the same power that absorbs Reishi he powers up even more this time, destroying Ayon with ease. His power is strong enough to even absorb people themselves. Is there anything this guy can’t do? Their clash continues and we see a shot of Ywach looming over the Soul Society. Quickly cutting back to Ryuken’s office, Ishida has now learned everything there is to learn about the Wandenreich. Kajomaru is trying to make sure the rookies stay confident. That’s not a red flag at all and shit definitely doesn’t hit the fan half a second later. We get a few quick succession shots of some of our old familiar friends. Hisagi, Kira, Renji, Rukia and Lisa. It’s so good to see them all again, especially Kira, who’s had a rough time being betrayed by his captain in the previous arc, so it’s good to see him healthy and oh there goes his body. Poor dude can’t get a W. The Sternritter are here and we see some of their prominent ones.
One of, if not the most iconic panel in this arc is finally animated. Time for some genocidal fun.
With Kira down, that’s two lieutenants destroyed without getting a proper fight. I think Kubo already knew at this point in time that his days as an author for Shonen Jump were numbered. Bleach’s popularity didn’t exactly skyrocket during the Fullbringer arc so he had to go from zero to hype moments very fast. I feel like this resulted in a very rushed start to this arc, with too much happening all at once for it to feel like the natural progression of the story. It’s almost like how in Hunter x Hunter we go from an intense arc to a more fun arc and then back to a more intense arc. Except Kubo just dials up the intensity to 100 from nothing here and never looks back. Having said that, with his art being a bit lackluster in the later volumes compared to some of the early stuff, I do think that a good animation studio can really up the quality of this final arc and I’m excited to see what this season will look like. I’ve forgotten enough about this arc to be surprised by some of the things that happen. Not by Kira getting demolished though, that was pretty unforgettable. But that’s this episode of Bleach. I hope you enjoyed it, if you did leave a like and a comment below and as always, thanks for reading.
Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe I’m just going soft. But as of late I find myself enjoying more laidback shows a lot, as opposed to the more intense shows. I really felt this sentiment when I just watched two shows back to back. I started by watching Beast Tamer and followed it by watching Blue Lock. I enjoy both shows, for different reasons.
Ah yes, the cardinal sin of soccer: teamwork.
Blue Lock is a show about soccer. A crazy guy has 250 strikers “locked up” in a large complex to compete to become the top striker. They can leave at any time so they’re not actually imprisoned or anything, but they’re there and they can’t leave the building while being a part of the project. It turns these kids very aggressive and very unlikable. It’s a fun show for sure and I’m very curious where it’s going to go, and I hope that some of the characters become a bit more likable as the show goes on. So far I only think Bachira is likable. It is a very original show though, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it. And having Hiroshi Kamiya to voice another psychopathic weirdo is just the cherry on top. He’s still one of my favorite voice actors and instantly recognizable. Also the opening is by Unison Square Garden which I approve of.
I know, I know, it’s an unbelievable premise for a sports anime, but still.
Beast Tamer is a very generic, run of the mill fantasy show. You’ve seen a million of it before, you’ll see a million of it in the future. This show doesn’t reinvent anything and doesn’t throw anything crazy at you. It’s a show about Rein, who’s a part of the hero’s party but gets banished because he’s not useful enough. Sound familiar? That’s probably because it’s the third show with a similar plot I’ve watched and that’s with me already skipping a bunch of these when they don’t catch my attention immediately. But, originality isn’t king. You can have a story that’s been done before but refine it and make it your own. Hell, I’m writing an Isekai story that’s definitely taking inspiration from other shows.
Great design, great personality, great everything.
What Beast Tamer has going for it is its characters. Rein is definitely a bit of a pushover, which I’m not a fan of, but he’s kind and he’s good at communicating. That last one is beyond most protagonists, so it’s a welcome trait in a character we’re going to spend time with. Kanade is his first companion and she’s a bubbly character but not in an annoying way. I’m not a huge fan of this character archetype so it gets grating to me fast. Kanade hasn’t annoyed me, but I think that’s also partly thanks to the second new party member, Tania, getting added rather quickly. She’s the archetypical tsundere character. I love it when there’s a character that’s tsundere, but they’re actually normal. Like, I mean no offense to most tsunderes, but a good amount of them are just mean. Bullying isn’t an attractive character trait. Well, to me it isn’t, but looking at the amount of people that seemed to enjoy Nagatoro-san I’m alone in this.
Quick sidebar, I couldn’t stand that show. Maybe it’s because I got bullied when I was younger, but that’s not attractive to me at all. I’d much rather watch a show like Uzaki-san, where the character is a lot more on the teasing side.
I’m sorry /o\
Putting aside my dislike of mean characters, Tania isn’t that. Sure, she has some arrogance and a heaping pile of pride, but she’s also introspective when she messes up. I found myself really enjoying the latest episode to a point where it kind of surprised me. Having likable characters might be a bigger positive for an anime than I’d like to admit. I do like slice of life shows a lot and they live or die on the characters in it, so it makes sense now that I’m putting it into words. I guess I’m just stating the obvious here, so don’t mind my ramblings. Anyway, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the shows I just watched before going to bed. There’s some great shows this season that I can’t wait to review once the season is over. But for now, I’m going to finish up my anime for the day and go to bed. Goodnight and thanks for reading.
If I sent you this picture and asked who should voice him, I bet a significant amount of viewers would suggest Hiroshi Kamiya.
As I’m finishing up this post I’m starting to realize that my exhaustion from the last few months is really getting to me. It’s getting a bit hard to write a coherent paragraph. Maybe that’s a sign I need more sleep. Or maybe I should ignore that sign and keep staying up late watching anime. I guess we’ll never know.
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.
Not a single thought going on in that head. Compared to modern female characters Orihime really does fall flat in my opinion.
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.
Bonk, go to Soul Reaper jail.
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.
Rest in peace.
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.
That’s some pretty dope art, not going to lie.
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.
Two of the most powerful characters in the entire series.
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.
Look. at. those. abs.
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 