Bleach / First Impressions

Summary:

Working together, Renji informs Ishida that he can keep Szayel busy for at most 20 seconds, and Ishida decides that this is enough. Renji’s subsequent attack involves grabbing Szayel and wrapping Zabimaru around both of them so that Szayel cannot escape a demon arts spell from point blank range. This succeeds in burning Szayel, but more importantly, it puts him right at the center of Ishida’s trap. Ishida then places down a fifth and final Seele Schneider, completing the star pattern that Szayel is in the middle of. Szayel thinks that all of Ishida’s weapons’ spirit forces should have been sealed off, and though this is true, Ishida can still use his silver tubes. A small drop of the spiritual power from one of these ignites the ground around Szayel, enveloping him in a pillar of energy. Ishida explains afterwards that this attack technique is called the Sprenger, and it relies both on how the Seele Schneider pommels accumulate spirit particles and on how a drop of concentrated power from the silver tubes ignites everything.

Unfortunately, this attack failed to finish Szayel off. Burned but still alive, Szayel grabs one of his Fraccións, turns it into a ball of energy, and eats it. Doing this heals his body, and once he’s completely okay again, Szayel explains that his special Fraccións can be consumed like a regenerative medicine. However, he decides not to retaliate right away because he needs a change of clothes, and he promises to think of the most grotesque way to kill Renji and Ishida. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Las Noches, Nel is crying over the fallen Ichigo when Grimmjow suddenly arrives and shuts her up. Walking up to Ichigo, Grimmjow flips his opponent’s body over and sees the chest wound that Ulquiorra inflicted. He then brings Inoue out and orders her to heal Ichigo. As she begins to do so, Inoue wonders who would have done this, so Grimmjow explains that it was Ulquiorra. He knows this because he recognizes that the circular wound on Ichigo’s chest is the same type that Ulquiorra commonly inflicts on enemies that he’s interested in – the wound is in the same spot as Ulquiorra’s own Hollow hole. Grimmjow, however, also does not take kindly to the fact that Ulquiorra went after what Grimmjow considers his own prey.

After Ichigo wakes up partway through the healing process, Grimmjow urges Inoue to hurry up because he wants to defeat Ichigo when Ichigo is unhurt. Grimmjow is in a rush because he knows that Ulquiorra will eventually figure out what’s going on and return back here. No sooner do those words come out of his mouth than Ulquiorra suddenly appears, having already found out what Grimmjow did from Loly and Menoly.

Preview

Following the edits they made last week, this week they took out most of the goriness from the scene where Szayel ate his Fracción Lumina. In the manga, Szayel takes bites directly out of Lumina and eventually spits out a half-eaten arm, but in the anime here, he changed Lumina into a ball of energy and ate that instead. I can’t fault them too much because cannibalism (kind of) seems like it’d be a big no-no for broadcast television aimed at a relatively young crowd, but removing that took out a little of the repulsiveness that comes with Szayel’s character.

Other than that though, they’re still following the manga pretty closely (three more chapters covered this week). I still have no idea how they’re going to transition into the upcoming new arc, but like I noted last week, Ichigo and Grimmjow’s fight is going to stretch to at least the beginning of April, so it seems unlikely to be a gradual thing. Speaking of which, it was announced last week that the new Bleach OP starting next month will be performed by KELUN. It takes over on the April 23rd episode, so that might be when the new arc starts too.

36 Comments

  11. This isn’t directly related to this episode, but have any of you thought that the upcoming Soul Society episodes might not be an entire arc of filler but something to better explain Show Spoiler ▼

    Iblard Jinkan
    Reply

  12. Regarding what Iblard said:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Anonymooo
    Reply

  14. @Anonymooo

    And they can always add up an additional part with some threat inside of ss where captains have to deal with it WITHOUT main hero plot-protection saving the day.

    Unknown Voice
    Reply

  19. To Iblard: Maybe this is or isn’t a spoiler, but just to be safe…
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Ally
    Reply

  21. this is just a speculation and my wild imagination runnning….. wild…
    anyways this is what i think will happen based on the most recent manga chapter
    Show Spoiler ▼

    its just how i imagine the series might end

    kentaiyoshimi
    Reply

  23. @Kentaiyoshimi
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyway, this episode was really nice, here’s hoping to see the Ichigo Vs Grimmjow fight that is sure to be interesting.

    PYROtechnic
    Reply

  24. I don’t read the managa, although I should, but I was hoping they would leave the hallow like hole in ichigo’s chest and tie it in to his inner hallow allowing him to use his hallow mask for a longer period of time. 11 sec is weak.

    burnttoast
    Reply

  27. @kentaiyoshimi That would be a cool surprise you should be a writer because it sounds better than the current story. Aizen should start with the high school because to me their friends are boring and after they bury their friends they drop out and become full time a** kickers.This arc animation is excellent but it seems like Soul Society:The Sequel Show Spoiler ▼

    but there will probably be a good twist at the end of this arc like when the Menos came and picked up Aizen,Tōsen,and Gin and he took off his glasses and broke them and gave them the superman gaze. This episode proves that Ishida is a bad A** I hope the level up Chad some more like make his arm cover his whole body like Venom or Spawn because I believe Ishida has upgraded about three times already in the manga and in the show.

    https://randomc.net/image/Bleach/Bleach%20-%20164%20-%20Large%2013.jpg
    Ishida’s Grandfather in a voiceover: The Force is strong in you my young Padwan.

    @yanipheonu
    https://randomc.net/image/Bleach/Bleach%20-%20164%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
    Grimmjow: We will start the bidding at 10,000 Yen.

    Roger
    Reply

  28. Also Renji showed some skills and went suicide bomber on Szayel
    https://randomc.net/image/Bleach/Bleach%20-%20164%20-%20Large%2011.jpg

    But I knew they were going to change the part where Szayel eats Lumina. I think they would make more money if they had uncut DVD’s you could buy and show how he did it in the manga.The shinigami cup was funny but does anybody else think that the previews for the next episode are giving too much information to people who haven’t read the manga if I did not know now what will happen I would skip it to be surprised like I did when I first started watching bleach about two years ago but I did not start reading the manga until the middle of the Bounto filler and to me it was more enjoyable not knowing what will happen next episode. I probably will stop reading the manga after this arc so I can be surprised like I was with Soul Society. Finally to the people who do not know what will happen and have not been spoiled you will definitely enjoy the next episodes.

    Roger
    Reply

  31. damn!they are moving
    i knew they will have to play some fillers soon, but i’d rather they keep the anime at steady pace instead of slowing it down (naruto just is unwatchable!). this animes are only 30 min a week, something good better happen at least once every 2 to 3 episode
    or it just gets boring!

    ulquiorra for life!

    goukison
    Reply

  36. @ Unknown Voice

    Filler wise, they definitely have a lot of opportunities

    Show Spoiler ▼

    KayEx
    Reply

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