Kagezora faces off against a few of the Captain’s, but it may be more of a challenge than he expected.
What They Say:
Captains Hitsugaya and Kenpachi have located Kageroza and proceed to attack him, but Kageroza retaliates by controlling the Precipice World to his advantage. Back in the World of the Living, Nozomi and the others continue their search for the missing Ichigo.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While Bleach has had some fun episodes with the Reigai running around and all that it entails with people fighting themselves or some other combination thereof, Bleach kind of lost me a bit with the previous episode when it had Ichigo go up against Kagezora and then proceeded to toss him to someplace else that and ignored him for the rest of the episode. Throwing the lead character into a special place to keep him out of the story for a bit isn’t an unusual tactic, and certainly not for Bleach, but it is an annoying one since it essentially says they don’t know how to handle him within the story or they wanted a cheap way to get him to build up the abilities he needs to defeat the big bad guy. The only thing that’s saving the story at this point for me is that it’s got a lot of Kenpachi material and that just continues to be a whole lot of fun.
This leaves the group in the World of the Living in an awkward position where they’re protecting Nozomi and haven’t a clue as to what’s happened to Ichigo. That doesn’t have them panicked, but there is concern and uncertainty, especially since they have so little idea as to what Kagezora is really capable of at this point. And there’s even some concern about Nozomi herself since she’s the object of his attentions and they can’t be sure how she’ll be utilized by him. None of that really matters in the Soul Society though as Kenpachi just wants to fight, especially after such a good fight as he has recently, and there’s hopes that Kagezora will give him what he’s looking for. Kenpachi has such a driven attitude about him that it usually does serve him well, but he continues to make the same mistake with many of his opponents and this match is no exception since he just walks into a bigger trap.
The majority of the episode is given over to the fight with Hitsugaya and Kenpachi against Kagezora and it’s one for the hardcore fans to really enjoy as they pull out a variety of moves and we get a more detailed look at how Kagezora’s Zanpakuto works. I’ve always enjoyed the weapons that the characters used and the variety to them all, but I’ve never felt like I really needed to get into deep detail with them. Kagezora naturally raises the stakes here with his that offers up some interesting and unheard of moves with how it handles space, since it’s becoming clearer that he’s a master of the Precipice World space, and that has some neat tricks to it all. Still, Kagezora himself isn’t that compelling of a villain and while we’ve gotten a basic idea of what he’s after, he simply doesn’t have enough charisma to pull off the role. Especially when standing against such strong personalities as these Captain’s that are going up against him.
In Summary:
Bleach focuses heavily on the fighting here while giving a nod to Ichigo’s disappearance at the start of the previous episode. They’re keeping him off screen for longer than he should be, since even one episode feels bad never mind two or more, but they’re trying to mitigate it with an extended series of fights in the Soul Society as the surviving Captain’s get closer to Kagezora. This could be a lot of fun, especially with the clones that are out there, but it’s surprisingly not all that compelling as it gets underway with the even bigger fight here at the end. Kagezora himself has become a drag on the storyline by not offering enough potential as villain to hold his own against such characters that we’ve known for so long, which in combination with a less than fascinating storyline already dragged out a bit too much, leaves a fair bit to be desired. It’s not bad, it’s all executed well here, but it feels like it’s just going through the motions.
Grade: B-
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
