Bleach / First Impressions

Summary:

A lot of things have been stolen lately, and since the clues point to the sewers, Hanatarou, Nanao, Ikkaku, and Houzukimaru go to investigate. The group ends up stumbling upon a few traps, one of which washes them all away to another area. There, Ikkaku gets attacked by a Toujuu with tentacles and gets separated from the others. Hanatarou, Nanao and Houzukimaru then come across a camp set up by a small white figure, and they find most of the stolen stuff. Before they can learn anything from the culprit, the Toujuu attacks again. Houzukimaru’s attacks against it are ineffective, and right as things are looking bad, the small white figure picks up his sword, heals Ikkaku with it, and then defeats the Toujuu with its power. It turns out that this figure is none other than Hanatarou’s Zanpakutou Hisagomaru, and it had run away to the sewers because of a misunderstanding. Hanatarou and Hisagomaru are thus reunited, however they get separated again while trying to exit the sewers.

Preview

Although I thought the first half of this episode wasn’t very interesting, the second half wasn’t bad. The monster of the week was forgettable – a very generic tentacle monster – however it was at least nice to see Hisagomaru in action again. I suspected that the culprit was either Hisagomaru or Nanao’s Zanpakutou, and it became evident that it was the former once he started healing Ikkaku with the sword with a gauge. It reminded me of the last time Hisagomaru showed up in episode 134, and from there the pieces all came together, including why the title card looked the way it did. It does make me wonder though when we’ll ever see Nanao’s Zanpakutou and her abilities, if ever. Anyway, it looks like they’re using these monsters-of-the-week to focus on individual Zanpakutou, and next time will be all about Kazeshini.

32 Comments

  3. I’m glad to see these fillers due to the fact that manga is moving at an annoying place. I hate having to wait a week to see that Aizen is still nowhere close to being even injured. Blah. I love these fillers. I want 26 more episodes of filler. People seem to think that just because Kubo didn’t write the fillers that these are automatically bad. No one to blame but KUBO!!! lol

    Agevhunter
    Reply

  4. This is pretty fun episode, especially when Hisagomaru stabbed his sword in Ikkaku’s ass(it looked like he enjoyed that!), and brought out his big gun, which it was unexpectedly hilarious by the way.

    Karis
    Reply

  13. Don’t diss the fillers lol. They might be generic, but at least it has a clear beginning and a clear end which it reaches at a solid pace. The current arc in the manga, on the other hand, can be used as an example of all the mistakes a mangaka can make lol. If Bleach would’ve started with an arc like that it would’ve had a handful followers max. People get less and less demanding with every chapter…pitiful.

    Grimmer
    Reply

  18. hm, focus on spacific zanpakto. I HOPE THEY HAVE AN EPISODE FOR CRAZY BONES. I love the way those 2 look. Plus i enjoy their abilities. (eventhough i’m sure they wont showcase their powers for a filler, since its so close too being used in the actual series)

    karura2000
    Reply

  21. My favourite quote was Nanao saying “There are no ghosts in Soul Society” in the sewers. LOLWUT? Followed closely by Ichigo’s “I’ve never seen a Hollow with a sword before!” a few episodes ago, this proves that the writers are just messing with us now.

    Shad P
    Reply

  22. I thought that Hisagomaru was very lame
    like it looked cool when we first saw it in ep134 but just how it looks and then the big giant cannon coming out was stupid.
    The ending was lame, too.
    Another thing is, they have chickens in Soul Society? I don’t really get how that works since it’s suppose to be spirit particle based unless they stole them from the real world.

    koager
    Reply

  23. To answer a few questions:
    -The baby in the preview seems to be Ise’s “Itegumo” personified, from what the voiceover is saying during the clip.
    -Nanao’s zampakutou hasn’t even been seen, nor named, let alone explained or used; there’s not much chance a filler episode would explore something that canon hasn’t dealt with yet.

    Nope
    Reply

  27. This episode was ADORABLE. I couldn’t care any less that it was filler, the monster was worthless and they made an embarrassment out of Ikkaku’s bankai but Hanatarou and his zanpakutou made this episode a classic in my book.

    Ky0_Sama
    Reply

  31. I feel sorry for the people making this anime. The manga arc is so bad and slow that they’ve had to pull out three filler arcs during its course just to not catch up. Sure, this is pretty bad, but the one prior to this was better than most of the hueco mundo garbage.

    Adam?
    Reply

  32. Hisagomaru: Most ADORABLE ZANPAKUTOU EVER. He’s like Hanatarou except way less annoying ’cause he’s got a big ass gun!
    Speakin’ of asses, I was literally rolling on the floor when Hisagomaru stabbed Ikkaku. ^_^

    Kit Kat
    Reply

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