Bleach / First Impressions

Summary:

As Ichigo tries to chase after Byakuya, he passes through the forest where Tobiume and Haineko are wandering around. They decide to have some fun with him and start attacking him, but Ichigo isn’t really interested in fighting them. Fortunately for him, Rangiku and Hinamori are on patrol, and they step in to face their own Zanpakutou, allowing Ichigo to leave. Rangiku has no qualms about fighting Haineko due to their strained relationship, but Hinamori first tries to talk to Tobiume. Tobiume, however, thinks that Hinamori is weak, and she gets Hinamori angry by implying that it was her own fault that Aizen betrayed her. Ichigo meanwhile continues forward and senses someone nearby. When he goes to investigate though, he gets attacked by pillars of ice. His opponent is none other than Hyourinmaru, but Hyourinmaru loses interest once Ichigo initiates bankai. It turns out that Hyourinmaru doesn’t remember who his original owner was or his own name, and he had thought that it might have been Ichigo. Having overheard all this, Hitsugaya suddenly appears and tells Hyourinmaru who he is.

During all of this, Muramasa has been in the Menos Forest in Hueco Mundo. Despite his own weakened state, he’s able to take out everything that comes after him, including several Gillians.

Preview

None of the Tobiume and Haineko stuff this episode was really interesting for me. I think that’s partly because Rangiku and Hinamori haven’t been shown to be particularly powerful, and partly because so much time is spent on the two Zanpakutou spirits arguing instead of doing anything of note. The only real highlight in that battle was that Tobiume invoked the memories of Aizen, and it’s good to see that something like that riles Hinamori up. Of much more interest was Hyourinmaru and his apparent amnesia, and it makes me think that it’ll be fairly easy for Hitsugaya to get his Zanpakutou back. As for Muramasa, I still don’t know why he’s in Hueco Mundo, but I suspect it has something to do with understanding Hollows and the one inside of Ichigo.

Speaking of which, I was amused at the fact that Ichigo had initiated bankai at the end of last episode, yet went out of it to continue chasing Byakuya on foot. It makes no sense that he didn’t just stay in that form given how much faster he supposedly is in it, never mind the fact that he had to use it later anyway against Hyourinmaru.

33 Comments

  4. Why can’t they ever get Ichigo’s face right? His whole upper body looks utter shit in the anime version. How hard is it to draw a character for Christ sake? After all these years and still goddamn imbecile in EVERYTHING.

    dodli
    Reply

  9. Well it looks like we are going to get another good choreographed fight scene. I wonder if Rangiku and Hinamori will be able to defeat their zanpakutou without resorting to using their zanpakutou’s dislike for each other as an advantage.

    Cherubium
    Reply

  13. I have to agree with Mania Lyssa that muramasa could be Ashido’s zanpakuto. For one thing maybe when he said to ichigo that he killed his master he ment imprisoning him in Hueco Mundo. Also i dont remember ashido using shikai or bankai during his fillar so maybe that will be the explanation why.

    TakashiD
    Reply

  14. i was really hoping that the fillers was gonna be awesome this time but i guess there really is no such thing as a good filler. Don’t get me wrong the concept was original and could’ve been good but the fact its just going to be shinigami owner versus zanpaktou over and over again with very boring battles (so far), and it seems like this is going to continue throughout the filler, is way too predictable and boring for me. I’ll probably watch next ep but unless it does better im going to wait till the real bleach comes back

    Sean
    Reply

  17. In this episode, I was paying more attention to the scene in which Senbonzakura was conversing with Haineko and Tobiume.

    For some reason, I get the feeling that it’s Byakuya inside the armour.

    M
    Reply

  19. the guy talking to tobiume and heineko does look and sounds like byakuya, not taht i give a damn much bout byakuya tho, so that wasnt interesting… the fight i wanna watch are hinamori’s and hitsuguya’s …… wanna watch hinamori’s cause of her kidou, seems like an easy win for her, and wanna watch hitsuguya’s cause.. well cause the zapaktou has no memory… but i suspect… hinamori’s fight will be dissipointing for me..

    brianleung8912
    Reply

  20. I think Hitsuguya will havea though time fighting Hyourinmaru, they always refer to Hitsuguya as being Immature with his power, so Hyourinmaru should be much stronger, like with Zambimaru being better able to use their bankai than Renji. Should be a good episode next week, I hope Ichigo doesnt have to come to the rescue, that would piss me off alot

    Johnnyg5646
    Reply

  26. Boy, and here i thought last week’s episode was bad. Haineko and Tobiume are the worst pairing ever; annoying to end and their “jokes” are not funny. The Ichigo part wasnt any better. What the hell was he doing running around aimlessly like an idiot. It’d be fine if h was following a reitsu or something but he was just running in a straight like a retard. This filler arc started DAMN GOOD in terms of both plot and animation, but theyre both starting to run out of gas.

    damian
    Reply

  27. Tobiume and Haineko arguing for what felt like half of the episode was indisputably boring. And it was stupid that they changed Haineko’s ability to resemble that of Senbonzakura. Wasn’t Haineko’s ability originally to be able cut anything that is surrounded by the ash when the hilt is swung? (Now there’s a bunch of ash ramming onto objects.)

    Also, I hope they’ll give a good explanation as to why Hyourinmaru seems to have lost his memories.

    Artsi
    Reply

  29. Always expected this sort of episode to pop up sooner or late; ie filler of filler.
    No one gives a crap about two Zanpakutou bitching for half an ep, Ichigo running around like a mug or Murumasa hobbling through Menos Forest.
    Next ep looks a bit better. Wonder if they’ll link it to the second movie and the two Hyourinmaru thing? You never know…

    blinx01
    Reply

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