It’s that time of the week again. I’m excited to see more of Ranpo getting himself into bad situations with no proper plan to get out of them. Or perhaps he’s grown since the last time and he now knows what he’s doing. I’m doubtful, but we’re here to find out. Let’s get to it then.
I just love this shot of the Gifted Detective Agency.
Seeing the opening play once more with all of the characters instead of just Ranpo and Fukuzawa definitely increases my excitement for this season. I’ve missed some of these characters. There’s also a coffin there, which I’m sure isn’t there for no reason. We see Chuuya and Ango from a previous season as well. It looks like a lot is on the line this time around.
The person on the left looks familiar to me but I can’t place them. I’m guessing the person on the right is Nikolai, whom we see towards the end of this episode.
We get a quick recap of what’s happened while Poe tries to find a clue to help Ranpo. What a good friend and rival. Poe is scared by his own phone, which instantly makes it the most relatable character in the series. We jump back to Ranpo figuring everything out with ease. At this point he’s let his passenger in on the fact that he’s aware of what’s going on, and not just some random kid taking the same taxi.
Poor Poe, being surprised by his own loud ringtone. I loved this scene both because it’s very funny and because it’s painfully relatable. I get scared from phone calls too Poe.
It turns out Ranpo was the one who called Poe, and the police heard everything that was going on. Both the murderer and the getaway driver will be arrested. Except that’s not what’s going to happen. These guys are professionals. Ranpo left his phone in the car though because he still had a plan. You can’t outwit Ranpo. My early guess is that Ranpo uploaded the story to his phone and made him read that or something? It turns out I’m right. To be fair, that wasn’t hard to guess, we’ve just seen Poe with the script on him. Every week I watch this anime, I want to go back and watch it from the start again, or perhaps read the manga. It’s so good. Ranpo says he’ll have the guy turn himself in though, we’ll see how he does that.
He figured that out pretty quickly. Is he watching the show too?
Here’s the big reveal. Yokomizo wasn’t killed by our perpetrator. He committed suicide. It was assisted suicide, but it was part of the plan all along. That’s pretty hardcore. I’d rather not live out the things that happen in my stories. Although I am currently working on one that’s pretty peaceful, that might be fun, but some of the others just feel stressful. Putting that aside, Ranpo is pretty smart to figure this out, but we knew that already. It was a mystery that leaks into the real world. Of course there’s more to the story. The author was terminally ill and asked his only friend to kill him as part of the story. Again, that’s pretty hardcore. And I’m guessing what Poe saw were tears. He didn’t want to kill his friend so he cried afterwards.
I like how this is brought as a sad moment, but it’s also absolutely an insane thing to do.
And with a proper amount of manipulation from Ranpo, the perpetrator gives in. But on his way to being detained, his car gets attacked by a stranger calling himself Nikolai. He’s obviously one of Five’s members and it’s not looking great for our murderer. No loose ends allowed. What a terrible ending to such a great episode. At least he managed to get a message across to Ranpo. Things are heating up fast and I’m just excited to be here for it. I’m guessing the huge job they’re about to get is to deal with Five, and that’s not going to go well. I wonder if we’ll see some serious losses on the side of the agency this season? So far they seem to be mostly scott free, but the author has shown before that he’s willing to kill off important characters when the story calls for it, so who knows. Anyway, I hope to see you all here again next week for the sixth episode. The title is called Tragic Sunday and I’m happy to inform you that I recognize the kanji for “day” now. My Duolingo practice is paying off. Thanks for reading.
Here’s Nikolai, seemingly one of the members of the five organization. I’m guessing he’ll play a big role this season?
Before we dive into the present time (that’s present continuous kids, since it’s still going on. If it were a habit or a fact it would be the present simple. How many times am I going to have to explain this?) I’m sorry, my inner teacher leaked out, it’s been a very busy start to the week. I even had to cancel Dungeons & Dragons because I felt like crap. I’m doing a bit better now, well enough to quickly recap what has happened in the story so far before starting on what I presume is the next big arc.
That is our mustachiod friend from the previous episode in the middle right? Then is that Fyodor on the right and the hat guy on the left? It’s hard to say with these silhouettes. I also want to say that the second guy from the left is Chuuya, but I’m not confident about that.
Fukuzawa has left his murderous past behind. We don’t know much about this, but what we do know is that he met Ranpo at some point early on. The two solved a mystery together that involved the organization called V, or Five, as a guy on a nearby rooftop explained. He had a nice hat, remember hat guy from last week? I think I need sleep. Either way, we jump back to the present time after finishing this arc and as I expected, the opening visuals reflect that. No more gray tones of Ranpo and Fukuzawa, but instead the full color of the cast we’ve come to know and love. I’m excited! The song is also definitely growing on me. Music does that a lot, I rarely like a song the first time I listen to it. We see five guys standing in the background over some abstract landscape. I’m putting an early bet on the fact that they’re five. Some of them even have hats, so that checks out.
Let’s add some early predictions for this upcoming arc. For starters, there are a ton of characters that I probably should recognize but I won’t. We’ll see more of Fukuzawa’s past and the guy with the mustache in the opening, that we briefly saw in the first few episodes, is a big villain. He might be the leader of this Five organization. I’m talking a lot before the episode starts but it’s good to get some early guesses in. We have about ten episodes to go including this one so a lot can happen.
This is that’s really hiding in the stuffed toy animal people in Amagi Brilliant Park. It’s just the characters from Bungo Stray Dogs opening a theme park because business is slow.
I was about to ask why Kunikida is in jail but the show was good enough to remind me what happened. I remember what happened but I didn’t remember that the death of the young girl had made Kunikida a suspect. Ranpo agrees that he shouldn’t have been in jail. I was hesitant to mention the name Fyodor earlier on in this post, but that is the hat guy from last episode. Presumably he is one of the members of Five. After not breaking out Kunikida, Ranpo goes on to bully Poe. I’m kind of debating rewatching the early seasons since there’s a lot of depth to this show but I think I remember the most important things.
This is the scene of a murder by the way. This chaos shows off perfectly how crazy this show can get.I do feel kind of bad for Poe. He’s trying to be a good friend to someone who very clearly either doesn’t appreciate it, or has no clue how to show his appreciation. As much as Ranpo is an exagerated character, they really nail some of his characteristics. I find his lack of social skills 100% believable.
Ranpo still being a child at heart is always great to watch. He is impatient to a fault and very childish. They talk about a murder mystery but those conversations are rarely fun with Ranpo since he always knows the answer. Except not quite always. The evidence destroyer being thrown off of the roof of Tokyo Tower was definitely a surprise. Then again, it doesn’t take him long to figure out the elaborative plot set by the actual evidence destroyer. I know a lot of these stories have mysteries that get elaborate because they’re stories, but I did find myself chuckling at the absurdity of this one. It’s extremely far-fetched and relies on Ranpo being smart enough to figure out where to look at the right time yet not smart enough to figure out the trick behind it. It’s great that he still relies on his glasses that activate his gifted abilities. The ones he definitely has and isn’t a lie that Fukuzawa told him. Oh no, our guy has a powerful ability that counters out any proof of crime. He leaves Ranpo unable to solve the mystery. After the episode card in the middle, we jump back two months to the start of this plot. Here we get a quick explanation as to why this man was working with Fyodor.
That’s the look of confidence you wear when a plan is coming together without issue.
We’ve made our way to Volume 3. We’re still in the early stages of One Piece and with the Captain Kuro arc coming up, which I think is one of the worst arcs in the series, we have one or two volumes to get through before things pick up and we never look back.
Buggy used to travel on the same ship as Shanks. They were apprentices on a ship. We see Silvers Rayleigh here, although at this point we still had no idea who he was and Oda probably didn’t either. Maybe the idea was there, but there’s a reason none of the other characters on this ship are named outside of Buggy and Shanks. We learn that Buggy ate his devil fruit by accident and is still mad at Shanks for being the cause. It’s obviously Buggy’s own fault that this happened, but I won’t be the one to tell him this to his face. The fight with Buggy ends on a pretty comedic note and after all is said and done, Nami joins the crew. For the time being. I think I remember Buggy being thrown in the ocean in the anime, but I’m not sure I’m right about that and I’m too lazy to check this. Either way, Buggy is one of Oda’s favorite characters as he’s said, so it’s likely we’ll be seeing more of the clown.
After getting away from Buggy and his crew, Luffy and Nami find a new island. This is where things get really silly. They find a man who’s been stuck in a treasure chest for years. His crew abandoned him and he’s been stuck trying to get to the treasure at the top of a cliff. You must be a pretty lousy pirate if you get stuck like that and don’t manage to escape after years. Regardless of that, we could have had Gaimon as our next crew member but he declined. Think of what we missed out on. We could have had epic fights like Hody Vs. Gaimon. Actually it’s probably for the best that he declined, now that I think about it. Either way, after this quick pitstop, we jump to Pinocchio’s introduction.
Usopp is the main focus of this upcoming arc. He’s the son of Yasopp, who we talked about when Shank’s crew was the focus in volume 1. He’s a liar with the ‘uso’ part of his name being the Japanese word for liar. He’s been trying to cheer up the sickly rich girl living in the mansion on the hill. He does so by telling lies. Not only that, but every day he runs through town warning of pirates coming to attack. He’s basically the boy who cried wolf in this story and the villagers know it. Luffy and companions run into him and they talk for a bit, before starting a fight with the local buttler. Before the volume ends, a strange man who can hypnotize people named Django enters the village and talks with the butler, Kurohadol (Klahadore in the official translation) about murdering the rich girl and stealing the inheritance money. Usopp warns everyone but to no avail.
I like Usopp’s story in concept, but I never could get myself particularly invested in the fights in this arc. I’ll talk more about this when we talk about volume 4, but it just felt boring to me. But negativity aside, as all volumes, this one read easily and I got through it quickly. Things are going to heat up soon and Usopp will show us what he’s made of. Seeing young Usopp again after over a thousand chapters of One Piece makes me realize how far they’ve gotten. Luffy and Zoro have always been impressive and although I’ve never liked the direction Nami’s character has taken, she definitely gets her moments. Usopp has made a complete transformation. He’s buff now, and super capable, even though he himself might not feel that way. Watching them behave like a bunch of kids again is kind of refreshing. Do keep in mind that this part of the manga is 25 years old. Can you believe that? I was 5 years old when they started publishing, that makes me, if we do some quick math, old.
But that’s this volume in a nutshell. Not much happens here that has major impact on the rest of the story except for the little bit of backstory we get of Shanks, Yasopp and Buggy. Gaimon will never be seen again (except for a filler arc in the anime), and Usopp’s story hasn’t progressed enough in this volume to have any real effect. I am excited to keep reading though, especially considering how long it’s been since I’ve read and watched some of these arcs. It’s easy to forget how good this manga is when you read it week to week. It does seem to diminish my enjoyment a little bit. Especially nowadays, when such big things are happening in the manga, but it sometimes takes a few weeks for something to actually happen. It’s much better to read in bulk and as I’m getting older I’m feeling that more and more. My attention span isn’t as big as it was and I have way more things going on in my life. But reading a volume every weekend, like I’m doing now, is quite nice. I highly recommend this approach over reading individual chapters. I can fully see myself phasing out weekly anime and manga more and more over time, switching to watching a show in a couple days or reading a volume whenever it’s released. It does help that I can afford them now, whereas teenage me could not. I feel like I’m getting distracted. Let me know what you think of this volume and what you’re expecting of the upcoming fight with Captain Kuro. Either way, I appreciate your time and thank you for reading!
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.
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!
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.
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 