Kagezora’s superior position allows him to extol about just how superior he is.
What They Say:
The captains of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads find themselves gradually overpowered by the Reigai forces. Meanwhile, Rukia, Uryu, Renji and Chad use their teamwork to fight Kageroza.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the storyline moving things up a fair bit, bringing everything together in a way that definitely says the end is near, we’ve gotten an increase in the action. It’s not a surprise after the episodes with all the revelations about what’s gone on in the past and how Kagezora is working things. His bonding with Nozomi took things up a few notches as well as the two sides finally came back together and that put some strain on Kon. Add in Ichigo going wild in Hollow form and the various captains of the Soul Society facing off against their opposites in Reigai form and it has all the checkmarks you need to say we’re at the turning point for events.
That’s not to say it’s bad because it’s hitting all the right marks. There’s a good number of things going on here with the fights that are underway and the use of a variety of the Soul Society captains squaring off themselves or others provides for some solid fun. The fights between the captains has some good fun as we see them squaring off against each other and themselves, particularly with the way Kenpachi just gets so into it no matter who he’s up against. But they’re definitely reaching their limit because it feels like there’s only so far they can go with it and no matter how much they push, they’re not actually gaining any ground against their counterparts.
The other main fight here is a solid one as we have the smaller and more diverse group that’s going up against Kagezora. He’s become a heck of a lot more powerful but still constrained by his emotions and humanity, but he’s intent on winning which gives him plenty of drive. Ichigo’s return to things after his run as a Hollow still has him intent on rescuing Nozomi, but nothing is as easy as it seems. Kagezora certainly has earned his stripes here and his villain’s rant is definitely justified considering what he’s accomplished, but at the same time you know it’s just the turning point to his fall as it inspires Ichigo all the more. And foolishly, Kagezora doesn’t strike at this point and just accepts being manhandled. It’s comical, but it plays well to explaining the way the Reigai are fighting as we see from Byakuya’s perspective, adding a little more insight into things.
In Summary:
Bleach hits all the expected marks here in order to set things up right for the final showdown. It has its cute moments when certain characters come back into play in a surprising way, but mostly it’s about the action and the sudden exposition from Kagezora in which he reveals things rather than just fighting. His moment of talking about wanting to save killing Ichigo for later is just one of several examples of sloppy and pointless writing that can be handled much better. And should be handled much better. It’s just plain lazy and impossible to believe considering the situation and circumstances. Still, from an action perspective and setting things up for a big ending with emotion to it, it does it fairly right.
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.
