Kon’s role grows once again as he discovers the truth behind Kagezora.
What They Say:
Inside the Maggot’s Nest, Urahara and Kon find Ouko Yushima, the man behind Kageroza’s invasion. Finding traces of Kageroza’s blood nearby, the two follow the trail and finally discover Nozomi’s whereabouts.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Kon and Urahara continue to be a very amusing team to watch as they both have a certain respect for each other that’s often not there when Kon is involved. Their path has led them to the body of Yushima, the creator of the mod souls, but it’s not what Kon expected as the guy is basically slumped in the chair and long gone from this world, though the body remains somewhat alive. While it seems like a dead end, Urahara has plenty of tricks up his sleeve and one in particular that lets him analyze the blood on the ground that comes from Kagezora, which gives him the clues about where Kagezora’s lab may be so they can go and find Nozomi.
As these two get their mission going in the next direction, the show does provide for some fun in the action department as well as Ichigo has given in to his Hollow side and busted loose, big time in a literal sense, as well as the ongoing fight between some of the Captain’s and their Reigai. Where the show becomes surprising and interesting is when Urahara and Kon get to where the lab may be and there’s a Reigai of Urahara there. Considering what’s been picked for Reigai to date and the way that Urahara is largely out of the picture during a lot of the series to those in the Soul Society, it’s surprising to see him get one. But it does have some very fun action to it as the two fight and their personalities shine.
What’s also surprising is that we do start to get a better look at what’s going on with what Yushima did back in the day and how it resulted in the situation that we’re in now. The real connections between him, Kagezora and Nozomi is made clear and it’s definitely an interesting idea that they’re trying to pull off here with what happened. But it’s more the emotional side that’s stressed as Kon wants to save her from her fate, and the meaning of their relationship is what defines it. The idea of the split that happened and the way each personality is so different in the forms that are taken is straightforward enough, but it just doesn’t resonate well and it’s hard to say how it all works as a whole with how they interacted prior to this. It may have been obvious at times, but it still feels like it’s just an easy little twist to add on at the end to try and tie things up.
In Summary:
Bleach gets to the heart of matters with this episode as Kon is the one that gets to discover the truth of what happened that brought Nozomi and Kagezora into the world. It’s not a bad revelation, but like much of this arc it hasn’t really resonated well for a variety of reasons. The fun part of the episode deals with the action, both as the Captains get their fight on against their doubles but also for Ichigo getting out of control for a bit. But what drew me the most was the simple fun of seeing a Urahara Reigai and the way the two of them play off of each other. It’s not huge or anything, but their kind of happy go lucky personalities makes it a whole lot of fun to watch play out. In the end though, much like most of this arc, the story is simply there and it hasn’t felt like it warranted the investment in time or character.
Grade: B-
Streamed 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.