Bleach / First Impressions

Summary:

With Ichigo still shocked to see her, Rukia wastes no time in kicking his face, slapping him a few times, and then using her glove to drag out his Shinigami form. She leads him to a Hollow that’s appeared in town to try to have him fight it, but Ichigo can’t seem to draw his zanpaktou and just keeps dodging the Hollow’s attacks. When Ichigo finally does reach for his zanpaktou, he immediately feels his inner Hollow trying to take over. Seeing that Ichigo is unable to fight, Rukia questions if he’s afraid of defeat, not being able to protect his friends, or the Hollow inside of him. She says that if he’s afraid of defeat, he only needs to get stronger. If he’s afraid of not being able to protect his friends, he needs to swear get stronger until he can protect them. And if he’s afraid of the Hollow inside of him, he only needs to get stronger until he can crush it. After Rukia asserts that the Ichigo in her heart is the man who would shout that with confidence, Ichigo finally comes to his senses and powers up to defeat the Hollow.

With the fight over, Rukia takes Ichigo back to school and drags him to go see Inoue. When Ichigo doesn’t apologize fast enough to Inoue for being weak, Rukia apologizes for him. Ichigo then promises to get stronger and vows to protect Inoue next time. Moved nearly to tears, Inoue is glad that Ichigo is back to normal. Afterwards, Rukia and Ichigo return to his home where Kon attempts to greet her with a hug, but she knocks him to the ground with her foot. Outside the room, Karin catches her father and Yuzu eavesdropping on Ichigo’s conversation with Rukia because they’re shocked that he brought a girl home. Karin isn’t so impressed, and Ichigo eventually gets them to go away after hearing the commotion outside his room. He then turns to Rukia to get her to explain what the Arrancar are, but Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Rangiku interrupt by poking their heads through his ceiling light.

With the help of Rukia’s drawings, Renji explains that the Arrancar acquire both Hollow and Shinigami powers by removing their masks. Up until now, there’s only been a small number of incomplete ones, but Aizen’s Hougyoku made them complete. Soul Society originally wanted to just watch and wait with Aizen since they were still recovering from the loss of three Captains and the Bount incursion, but the true Arrancar appeared earlier than expected. Yamamoto chose Renji and Rukia to come to the real world, and Renji asked Ikkaku to come along. That led to Yumichika, Rangiku, and Captain Hitsugaya tagging along too, and that’s why they’re all here now. It’s at this point that Hitsugaya appears in the window to suggest that Aizen’s interested specifically in Ichigo. He goes on to say that normal Hollows removing their mask wouldn’t be much of a problem – only the ones stronger than Menos would be.

Since Ichigo didn’t know that there were Hollows stronger than the Menos, Hitsugaya explains that there are actually three classes of Menos. The first is the huge Gillian, which are highest in number of all the Menos, but move slowly and have the intelligence level of a beast. Hitsugaya feels that the problem lies in the two remaining classes. One of them is the Adjuchas, which are somewhat smaller than Menos and fewer in number, but high in intelligence. The final and strongest type is the Vasto lorde. Although these human sized Menos are extremely rare, they are stronger than captains. Because they are short three captains, Hitsugaya fears that if Aizen has more than 10 of the Vasto lorde class, Soul Society is done for. At that very moment, Ulquiorra and Yammy are returning to Hueco Mundo to report back to Aizen and 20 of their brothers.

Preview

I’m gonna start off with a manga-related spoiler because I have to get this off my chest (Don’t click if you haven’t read the manga because this is a major spoiler):
Show Spoiler ▼

In any case, this episode had Rukia giving a nice speech about getting stronger to knock Ichigo out of his rut. I like the way it was delivered, but I always get a little uncomfortable when they talk about getting stronger because it reminds me too much of DBZ and power levels. Aside from that, a big chunk of the episode was devoted to explaining the Arrancar, which was interesting to hear, but not terribly exciting to watch. Hitsugaya’s prediction that Soul Society would be doomed if Aizen had 10 or more Vasto lordes bodes poorly in light of the fact that Aizen already has Ulquiorra, Yammy, and their 20 brothers. Fortunately, Ichigo and company aren’t as weak as they may seem sometimes.
I’m really looking forward to this next set of episodes because there’s a ton of exciting material – at least one big thing for each of the fights that develops.

51 Comments

  5. Yeah, they “talk”. lol. Looks close to the same too. Of course it’s been censored some, but thats to be expected.

    Looks like a well done ep again. Ah man can’t wait for the sub. Next couple of eps are going to be awesome. Hopefully there’s not as bad censoring and we get to see some blood.

    And Omni you are sooooo right about about that pic. Crazy I say. Crazy.

    Velius
    Reply

  10. @Manji
    Show Spoiler ▼

    jesus
    Reply

  17. Is anyone else besides me worried about how fast the anime is catching up to the manga?

    i means seriously, this is my Future Prediction for the Anime:

    *This is JUST A THEORY NOT A SPOILER*
    They are obviously catching up to the manga pretty fast, even if they are trying to delay it with the involvement of the mod soul dolls. However, i don’t believe they are capable of doing another filler arch, my guess is that they are soon going to round up this arch with their own version of the ending and thus shift away from the manga.

    I think this because there are a very few animes out there that has gotten away 200+ episodes *naruto being one of the major failures* and Inuyasha *spell?* was stopped until the manga was finished *which it did last year* and is now going to start up again *god help us all* but i don’t believe the animators of bleach feel they can get away with that sort of behaviour.

    So i truly believe, unless the manga is going to end soon *which i doubt* then the anime is not about to do another ‘filler arch’ like the bountos but instead split away from the manga.

    What do you guys think?

    Elegant Destruction
    Reply

  19. The Animators aren’t going to make up their own ending with the way they’re going. They follow the manga very closely.

    Inuyasha was a failure. There way too many stupid fillers in between, not just filler arcs, but fillers in arcs.

    If anything, I’m guessing they MIGHT have a hiatus.

    coolxal
    Reply

  20. In terms of how fast the story’s going, this episode only covered two chapters. If they can somehow manage that for all the episodes from now on (which seems doubtful for the action episodes), then the manga storyline will last quite a bit longer.

    Omni
    Reply

  22. @Elgant destruction – Inuyasha was stopped in 2004, not last year 😛 more like cancled actually. But about the filler thing, i say bring it on! Atleast now they’ll have even better material to work with and experience in the filler department instead of just..going episode by episode, im pretty sure they’re already working out a plan for the fillers that will eventually come..when will they start though?

    Inuhanyou
    Reply

  24. @Elegant Destruction
    “Inuyasha *spell?* was stopped until the manga was finished *which it did last year* and is now going to start up again”

    I don’t know about a second series of Inuyasha starting up or anything, but if you’re implying that the Inuyasha manga has finished, you are mistaken. They just released chapter 493 this week, and the story doesn’t seem to be very close to finished. Rumiko Takahashi has said there will be at least 500 chapters.

    quigonkenny
    Reply

  28. Go Rukia! As expected the “The Ichigo in my heart” speach got a Valentine Day debut. I am predicting nosebleed for fanboys next episode 😉 Orihime’s girl harem is growing. I think the speed up episodes 110-114, (the Rukialess epis) but I agree that the studio has begin to slow down things a bit. Anyway if you think chapter 262 is mind boggling wait until you read 263!
    p.s quigonkenny is right Inuyasha’s manga is still alive and kicking. To my knowledge there really isnt any fillers (i.e. modern day storylines) in Inu, just internission eps which is mostly in the manga too.

    Bleachfan
    Reply

  30. This anime + the real naruto coming together is like a DREAM coming true……someone please tell me that I am not dreaming…… 😛
    This story + characters = ROCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

    tensai_otaku
    Reply

  32. am i the only one who’s losing interest in Bleach? i read the manga weekly, watch the anime weekly, but i dun feel the excitement and anticipation that i once had… i kinda felt the same way for Naruto as well, but i got all excited again for Naruto again, but not for Bleach… can anyone identify what kind of weird syndrome this is? Bleach definitely has potential, and im not gonna give up on Bleacht just yet after following it for more than 2 years…

    psychohare
    Reply

  33. BUT BEFORE THAT!! COULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHO THAT DUDE IS WITH THE ERASER HEAD MASK IN CHAPTER 262, THE NIGGA LOOK LIKE DAVID BOWIE!! NO CLUE. SOMEONE FROM RUKIA’S PAST?? FILL ME IN PLEASE CUZ SOMEONE SAID THATS THE WTF MOMENT OF THE YEAR, IM CURIOUS WHY……. by the way looking back, i find it amazing how Db&DBZ got away with that 500 episode thang, yeah it was hot ..BUT DAMN!!dat’s a lotta episodes, “just an opinion” but to the dude that created naruto,- NIGGA PLEASE!! even though he found DBZ to be a great inspiration, he must realize that you cant get away with that kind of stall out any more. todays viewers ain’t got that kind of patience anymore.. come on dude, when the hell is naruto gonna learn to actually fight.i’m sick of his weak ass. dat’s why i like bleach ,it feels like it’ll be coming to an end soon, and thats good!! it had a great run. SO TO MARKETING!! PLEASE DON’T TREAT ALL YOUR SERIES LIKE CASHCOWS WITH FILLERS AND SHIT, YOU CHEAPEN THE ART, NOW KILL YOURSELF..

    brooklyn otaku
    Reply

  38. ” The hollow inside of him”. I don’t get it. Does this mean that Rukia knows Ichigo has a hollow form? That can’t be it. Anyone care to explain? ”

    I think rukia’ve heard it from her brother byakuya…because ichigo is the one who fought him with the hollow..it’s like when ichigo’ve discovered rukia’s story about kaien..coz he knew that she was in shiba’s house when he was searching for her in soul society. I believe he’ve heard her story from someone

    hananon
    Reply

  41. ya 262 is a big shocker…. I think Rukia will win with her 3rd dance but its going to take alot out of her emotionally wather its a fake or not. I dont think byurka would let rukia go to the hollow world unless she would be able to handle herself. I think shes going to surprize everyone again like she did with her sword release ^^

    chaosdemon06
    Reply

  42. @Hananon – Thanks for explaining. I expected it to be a BIG shocker to Rukia and gang, since it seemed like that’s what it seemed like it was leading to (Since only Byakuya saw his hollow form). Renji and the rest don’t seem to know at the moment so I guess Rukia is keeping it to herself.

    Tim
    Reply

  43. “am i the only one who’s losing interest in Bleach? i read the manga weekly, watch the anime weekly, but i dun feel the excitement and anticipation that i once had… ”

    When did you start losing interest? For me, by far the most exciting part of the series is the Soul Society Arc. I even stopped reading the manga for a bit afterwards because I no longer cared to know exactly what happens. Even now, I don’t follow the manga that closely anymore. I still catch the anime since the I just torrent it along with the other animes I watch. Plus the action’s still quite exciting. Just don’t have the *must-see* factor of many soul society duels.

    meh
    Reply

  47. @meh
    i kinda lost interest during the fillers. But it wasnt due to the fillers, it was due to the manga… Show Spoiler ▼

    i hope Bleach gets interesting again… it’s currently missing the X-factor and the unpredictability. im a very loyal anime fan and i stick to the end for almost every anime i watched so far. Bleach has the potential for greater things..

    psychohare
    Reply

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