Bleach / First Impressions

Summary:

When Ichigo returns home from school, he’s greeted with an elbow in the face by his incredibly energetic father. Ichigo, however, acts distant and shuts himself in his room. Seeing him back, Kon starts asking about if Ichigo noticed anything different about Isshin, but Ririn stops him and reminds him that Urahara had warned them it’d be useless to reveal to others about what happened on that night. The two of them then see how unresponsive Ichigo is and asks him about it, but Ichigo claims it’s nothing. Tired of seeing Ichigo like this, Kon decides to go out for a walk and drag Ririn out with him. With them gone gone, Ichigo thinks to himself that he can hear it. He knows that he had at one point driven off his Hollow side, and the mask that had kept coming back up until then suddenly disappeared. But from that point on, he kept hearing the inner Hollow calling out to him. It is at this moment that Ichigo starts hearing his inner Hollow talking to him, telling him that it’s getting closer and closer and will swallow him up. As Ichigo is trying to figure out what to do, he hears his sister Karin knocking on his door. She wants him to tell her what’s bothering him, and when he tries to brush off her concern, she reveals that she knows he’s a Shinigami because she saw him a long time ago.

Around this time, the 12th Division in Soul Society detects the arrival of two complete Arrancar into the human world. Having been alerted to the Arrancar by the sudden increase in spiritual pressure, Ichigo apologizes to Karin and leaves in his Shinigami form. He heads for the forest where the two Arrancar, Ulquiorra and Yammy, have made a crater with their entrance. When humans – who cannot see the Arrancar – approach the area, Yammy uses a technique to suck up all their souls. Inoue and Sado see what’s going on from a distance and rush towards the site, passing by the bodies of humans who have already died. Sado tells Inoue that if there were any survivors, she should take them and retreat. Ulquiorra informs his partner that they’re here for just one human, and he should be easy to find because there are only three people in this world with a spiritual pressure high enough to fight. Surprisingly though, they spot a human girl – Tatsuki – who survived Yammy’s soul-sucking technique. Yammy is a bit impressed, but Ulquiorra calls her trash, so Yammy pulls his leg back to kill her with a kick. What saves Tatsuki from death is the arrival of Sado to block Yammy’s leg. Inoue is also here, and Sado asks her to take Tatsuki and run away. Ulquiorra considers Sado trash too, so Yammy makes mincemeat of Sado’s arm with one swipe.

Seeing Sado’s lifeless body, Inoue decides to stays by his side and realizes that he knew how strong their opponents were – that’s why he wanted to fight alone. Ulquiorra labels her trash too, so Yammy prepares to squish her with his finger, but Inoue shields herself with her powers. She also starts repairing Sado, and Ulquiorra recognizes her technique not as restoration, but as something more akin to temporal or spatial regression. Inoue is thinking to herself that she has to hold out until Ichigo arrives, but she starts to question why she’s relying on him because she doesn’t want to burden him any more. She wants to send these people away without relying on Ichigo to give him at least a little peace of mind, so she sends Tsubaki to attack Yammy. The Arrancar, however, crushes her fairy and reaches to smash her after Ulquiorra says that he can kill her. Yammy’s hand is stopped only by the zanpaktou of the one person Inoue didn’t want to rely on: Ichigo.

Preview

For all the stuff that we’ve been through with the Bount arc, the production team working on Bleach sure knows how to impress when the time comes. Actually, that might still be the pent-up desire to see this arc animated talking. Regardless, I was very excited to see the arrival of Ulquiorra and Yammy. I though the black and white when Sado was getting smacked was a nice touch, as was having Ichigo’s Hollow side actually do the talking when Ichigo is alone in his room (since in the manga Ichigo is just thinking that entire part to himself). And yes, they did add in Ririn, but that didn’t really change anything that happened in that scene aside from Kon getting a bit beat up.
This episode also highlights three of the things I want to see developed more in the manga and the anime: Karin knowing about Ichigo being a Shinigami, Tatsuki being able to see Shinigami and Arrancar, and Inoue’s feelings towards Ichigo. Without spoiling it, there’s one chapter in particular relating to one of those that I’m really looking forward to seeing. Of course, the one thing they are developing very heavily is Ichigo and his Hollow side, and we’ll definitely be seeing more of that. As for next week, Ichigo going to initiate ban kai and start fighting Yammy, but as the preview shows, he gets beat around pretty badly.

40 Comments

  7. I’m crying behind my computer! i’ve been waiting for this episode for a very long time. Ichigo and his hollow, Ulquiorra and soon my two favorite characters are going to show up T___________T

    Ben
    Reply

  10. Yeah but the reason he get’s beaten badly is not because he lacks power. You’ll notice why when you watch the next episode. Wich looks pretty hot if you look at the preview and animaton.

    Haohmaru
    Reply

  13. sorry for the double post, but is Ririn and her group in this episode too?! if they are, where exactly they show up? can somebody please tell me?
    goddamn it man, why don’t they just die? they ruin every single episode. @#$%!

    Ben
    Reply

  20. Conquisidores (sp) is one of my favourite post-SS arcs, and probably my favourite (cuz everything after that is mostly trash). However, the color-choices for both Ulquiorra and Yammi are butt-ugly. I expected Ulquiorra to have more white/black colors to emphasize those eyeliners (cheer up emo kid!).

    Pakxenon
    Reply

  24. It’s getting better and better for each episode!

    This is what Bleach stands for with great action and very fine emotional moments.

    And i know what you are talking about, Omni. => That chapter is the most awaited chapter of the post-SS Arc for me.

    Nobunaga
    Reply

  29. This arc would’ve been top notch if the animation weren’t so slow and I am seriously getting sick of listening to the background music which they used in the Bount arc… can’t they orchistate newer music now that that’s over?

    Karis
    Reply

  31. I think they’re going to “ease” into a much more detailed art form, in order to not upstage the “Bount” arc anymore than has already been done. So with my great psychic mind, I estimate it will be a few more good weeks before the animation becomes freaking sweet (sexy) once again.

    And speaking of sexxxyyyy, Ulquiorra is SEXXXYYYY. Omg *sex-y*

    What is with ashen-faced, pasty evil that I heart so much? It’s probably cause he doesn’t sound retarded, unlike 98% of the evil-enemy population Bleach.

    allie_*
    Reply

  33. welll im just happy that the manga storyline is back…but i think the animation is a little let down i think the best animation was when rukia death arc or soul society arc..hopefully it will improve….anyways yeh the episode was good it make u want to know wat is gonna happen like the old eps…

    okies
    Reply

  34. ya I thought that was very dbzish too Eld hehe. Calling people trash like they where yamcha and such was funny. Rukia comes back in next weeks episode 114! woot! I cant wait to see ichigo and rukia’s meeting again, the animated part should be funny as hell. hehe

    Ichigo: rukia…

    Rukia: …..

    Ichigo: ….

    *Rukia kicks ichigo right in the face*

    Rukia: wtf is with that look! dont stare into space like that!

    hehehe, yup rukia chan helps ichigo snap out of the funk hes currently in.

    Soon rukia will be doin her sword release woot!

    Btw if anyone wants to see rukia’s sword release I’ll post the link ^^. Its from the bleach movie

    chaosdemon06
    Reply

  36. Good Episode. Ulquiorra sounded just like I thought he would. The next episode or two should be very good because of the way it was portrayed in the manga.

    PS I agree that they should make some new music for this arc rather than sticking with the bounto music which is pretty poor. Hopefully That’ll change.

    Chado
    Reply

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