What They Say:
Kon goes out to search for Nozomi and finds her wandering aimlessly. Meanwhile, the Soul Society has assembled a special team, including the Reigai of Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Hisagi, to apprehend Ichigo. The Reigai arrive in the World of the Living where they encounter their originals, and a battle ensues!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Distrust is one of the themes of the day as those who have worked with Ichigo in the past in the Soul Society are finding it hard to believe that he’s responsible for the events that are now being attributed to him. It’s actually a welcome moment to see that everyone isn’t just blindly following orders by the unknown fakes that are out there taking over various positions of power and are instead actually using their own heads in order to determine what’s going on. Of course, they’re playing a careful game, but it’s one that’s at least visible to the viewer so we know they’re not all just going after him simply because they’re told to. Some of it was difficult at first when this arc started, but since we learned that some of them were fakes at the time, it helps to ease that overall problem.
Events in the World of the Living are kind of all over the map to some degree, as Ichigo has discovered that Kon got tied up as Nozomi has run off after all that’s happened. The gang is coming together in a good way with the Earth based characters having a bond that stands well after all this time, even when they’re off screen for dozens of episodes at a time. In addition to that, several of the Soul Reapers that have come down to help have found themselves dealing with their imposters that have turned up, and amusingly enough, some of them are making a few changes to how they look, such as the new Yumichika who has thinned out a bit and doesn’t quite have the same facial structure. It’s an amusing piece since it frustrates some of them, amuses others, but makes for a fun action sequence since all of those emotions run rampant through it.
There are a few background moments that are slipped into the episode that takes place in the Soul Society where some jailed character is seemingly going to become important, though I don’t know if they’re new or not but they’re not familiar to me. The larger story that’s developing here is still kept fairly undefined overall, but right now we’re getting a fair bit of action and some setup pieces strewn about here and there to try and slowly draw it all together. Thankfully, the action here is fun as it brings in some of the second tier characters as well as giving me more time with Ikkaku, a character that I really do find to be very enjoyable overall and he has a really good bit here when he sees the Yumichika imposter. Though they’re not heavily used Soul Reapers, the fun is there from what we do know of them and it’s the perfect light moment before it gets serious.
In Summary:
While the action here is fun and there are some good character moments, this episode overall has the feeling of just a bit of filler/buffer material to spread things out a bit. There’s nothing of real significance here to take to the bank, but it has some small yet important setup moments that helps to push things forward a bit more. The heavier focus on the action isn’t a surprise, and it has a certain charm and fun to it because of how they mess with Yumichika, but it’s largely just a pointless fight in the end. With the core characters out of the picture for most of this, it’s something where you’re glad to see the second stringers get some time, but you wish they had a more important role to play in here rather than just stretching the story out a bit more. It’s not bad, but it’s not great, it’s just kind of there.
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.
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