Bleach 120

[masamuneehs]

regardless of whether or not Renji's weakness from the Limiter and his getting pushed around by a nobody Arrancar pissed people off, I thought the main problem with his entire fight was how it was set up and carried out. I'm talking about the animation and sequencing.

First, I'm never a big fan of jumping back to a fight in the middle of it. The beginning of a fight is the most important, in my eyes, because it reveals the fighting styles and approaches the combatants use. So I didn't like that all of a sudden Renji had his Bankai out and was bloody while this other guy looked like he wasn't breaking a sweat.

Second, purposefully avoiding animated fight segments. They show Renji's Bankai flailing around a lot, and some of Ilforte's dodging and blocking, but I felt like they wanted to save money and animate the fight as little as possible. This is most evident when Ururu steps in, where she's hitting Ilforte but all we see are shots of her grabbing him (arms outstretched way beyond her possible reach...) and supposedly hitting him. The fight is also shown from an angle near Renji, where Ilforte and Ururu are tiny, flailing objects in the background. This seemed like pure laziness to me, and I hate that.

Third, like before, I think the idea of being Limited in such a high stakes mission is bogus bullshit.

Fourth, the goddamn dolls stepped in and they started playing that shitty new music track during that sequence. I hate bad music, especially during fights.

That's all for now.

[animus]

Renji's bankai is lackluster don't you think? It's just an overextended huge, heavier, version of his shikai. All he does is fling it around. It can break apart and re-attach itself, though I don't know if that is a pro or not. You can only do so much with something like that.

[StillAlive]

I think this ep was pretty good. Maybe the animation wasn't at its best but they gave us some interesting informations about the power restriction of the shinigami and what the arrancar numbers stand for. Also there was a wicked Ururu who actually fought better against Ilfort than Renji in (restricted) bankai even if she suddenly was strangly weak after Ilfort released his zanpakuto - I would have loved to see her fighting a bit longer. But this leads me to the question: What are Ururu and this red-haired boy (don't know the name)? Are they artificial souls? They are probably neither humans nor shinigamis. Did I miss the explanation in an earlier ep?

[DB_Hunter]

BTW, is the one with the ice a guy or a girl? I still can't tell. And that countdown, for me, feels more like a bomb ticking down. It feels like something super powerfull will release itself when that happens. Dunno, I can't wait to see if it gets there.

Hitsugaya Toushiro? That's a young guy.

Speaking of Toushiro, I think it was pretty cool how they made Toushiro out to be just at the beginning of using his Bankai. Shawlong said his Bankai was immature... was he possibly referring to the fact the Bankai was restricted, or was it a geniune observation of Toushiro and his current skill level?

[mage]

Renji's bankai is lackluster don't you think? It's just an overextended huge, heavier, version of his shikai. All he does is fling it around. It can break apart and re-attach itself, though I don't know if that is a pro or not. You can only do so much with something like that.

In the preview it's shooting energy out of its mouth, so it probably has more abilities when hes not limited.

[animus]

Hitsugaya Toushiro? That's a young guy.

Speaking of Toushiro, I think it was pretty cool how they made Toushiro out to be just at the beginning of using his Bankai. Shawlong said his Bankai was immature... was he possibly referring to the fact the Bankai was restricted, or was it a geniune observation of Toushiro and his current skill level?

I'd assume that Toushiro has one of the most potentials to become extremely powerful. Probably 2nd to Ichigo in the potential department, but thats cause Ichigo is the main character. He's young, has already achieved bankai, and attained captain. Though, I don't know if that means he'll get stronger.

[iMUSTbeTHEdevil]

I'd assume that Toushiro has one of the most potentials to become extremely powerful. Probably 2nd to Ichigo in the potential department, but thats cause Ichigo is the main character. He's young, has already achieved bankai, and attained captain. Though, I don't know if that means he'll get stronger.

I could have sworn that they said something about him being a genuis or a decendent of someone special, so I will agree that he has room to grow. -dg-

[Necromas]

In the preview it's shooting energy out of its mouth, so it probably has more abilities when hes not limited.

Lets not forget that Renji also just recently learned his bankai, as compared to the usual 10 years of training needed to master most bankai (Ichigo's is an acception because it retains the same exact fighting style of a normal sword and isn't wierd or oversized or anything). So he probably has something more then just an energy attack that he'll learn in future episodes (though for now it's prolly just a generic energy beam and the ability to break up).

I could have sworn that they said something about him being a genuis or a decendent of someone special, so I will agree that he has room to grow. -dg-

From the bleach wiki, Removed link full of spoilers
"During his duel with Gin Ichimaru in the anime, Ichimaru remarks that Hitsugaya is the embodiment of the heavenly guardian that is born into Soul Society every few centuries. This may explain his rapid growth and why he is a respected captain despite his age. Alternatively, Gin may have been speaking sarcastically, saying that Hitsugaya did not seem to live up to his title. His given name is also a homonym for a casual Japanese term meaning "amateur" (藤四郎), possibly referring to Hitsugaya's young age and inexperience relative to the other captains of the Gotei 13."

[Deadfire]

It seems everytime those filler dolls do anything in the anime the show seems to degrade in animation and sequencing. Hell it also seems everything else in the show be it buildings to other characters degrades in style and coolness everytime those fuckers that noone wanted appear.

It looks like everything about Bleach is rejecting their existence and wants no part in being near them, unless they are forced. We all know how we react when we are forced to work with things we hate.

This means only one thing...the animators themselves hate drawing them and are forced to do it, the result is what we have seen.

Anyways the ep without those fuckers was decent, however those fuckers bought this down to maybe only a bit better then the fillers.

I Want some killer Massive Ownage! after 118 I think my hopes for the rest of these battles went to far...

Time will tell I guess

[DB_Hunter]

I think its pretty obvious Toushiro has room to grow... he's is a kid afterall. I think he will certainly be one of the most powerful shinigami around.

[LobsterMagnet]

I really really didn't like this episode. Mostly because the Ikkaku bankai fight set the expectations so high.

I mean that fight was edited and animated perfectly. It gave me that good'old fashioned bleach feeling that we all shared during the soul society arc and helped make the wait for the end of the naruto fillers just a bit more bearable.

But man were things brought back to earth just in terms of lazy execution. Most of the fights were animated quite sloppily with a good deal of flailing around. No sense of tension what so ever as been mentioned by the rest of you.

Probably what pissed me off the most though was the two Arrancar releases. When they did the first one it was incredible. With the molten magma lava flowing all over the guys arms then solidifying into his armor. It was a sight to behold and held up really nice visually, just a dream to watch, infinitely better then what was shown in the manga.

But here we just get Oh big flash of yellow light and then they get their ghetto hollow armor which really doesn't do much.

My last thing of bitching WTF with the Uru fight. I know how anime people hate it when manga readers bitch but I just feel that you people have been cheated. In the manga when she bounded on illfort he drenched in blood which helped emphasize how much of a beating he was sustaining. As opposed to the toned down version we got here.

Also in the manga uru was pierced by illforts horn with a hole cute clean through her. I really don't see what the point of toning down the violence is especially seeing how blood spurted and flowed so gratuitously before in bleach.

Did the fillers some how attract a younger audience? I know bleach is a shounen series generally aimed at japanese kids ages 5-13 but it just doesn't seem to make sense as to why the violence has been toned down when it flowed so frequently before.

[JaySee]

I suspect the censoring is because it got licensed for U.S. airing. U.S. distributor is probably requesting they censor the first time around so they have less editing to do for Toonami.

I welcome the manga "bitchings." I don't read the manga, so I'd like to know when things have been altered and censored. By all means, keep on bitching.

[RyougaZell]

Oh come on... toned down with this fight? censored because its licensed in USA?
heck... this series has been toned down from the very beginning.

Jidanbou didn't lose an arm. Kukaku didn't walked around without her arm, but with a prothesis (sp?).
You can't think the series just got toned down now.

Bleach, like many other Shounen series (Naruto), get aired at prime time, or at least at hours with a lot of audience. Tv everywhere has censorship. It is not recent, its being around since episode 1.

A bit of blood can be shown freely, but not impalements, lose of limbs etc. They just add it when it is absolutely neccesary.

[Bucket]

What I'm annoyed about is that the writers seem to have taken their sweet time with the story since the fillers, and now I feel like I missed an episode.

[Animeniax]

It's annoying that you forgot why there were fillers in the first place, and sounds like you yearn for another year of fillers when the writers burn through the manga material too fast again.

I thought this was a good episode. I, probably like others, forgot about the power restriction on captains and vice-captains in the real world, so I was really concerned that the Arrancar seemed so much more powerful than the Shinigami. When I realized the reason they were losing so bad, it was uplifting and exciting to see what would happen once the limit was removed.

I appreciated the explanation of the Arrancar hierarchy, but thought it was lame how they used the old "bad guy explains his plans before they come to complete fruition" deal. I think they should have animated more of the fights if they want to drag out the material instead of adding more filler. Surprisingly, I didn't mind the filler dolls getting involved in the fight with Renji. They aren't as weak as everyone is suggesting. Remember they gave Ichigo and Renji a really hard time when they first appeared. The one glitch is, even with Ririn's illusion powers, wouldn't the Arrancar detect Renji's reiatsu and know the illusion isn't him?

[DarthEnderX]

I suspect the censoring is because it got licensed for U.S. airing. U.S. distributor is probably requesting they censor the first time around so they have less editing to do for Toonami.

Except that Bleach doesn't air on Toonami. It airs on Adult Swim and they don't edit it at all from the japanese version.

[Kagemane_no_Jutsu]

You guys expected too much after that perfect Ikkaku episode. Not everyone can be as badass as him. And if I remember correcty, Hitsugaya and Renji's fights were just as dull in the manga compared to Ikkaku's.

And yea that was some bullshit with Ururu. I was waiting for the impaling to go down but she just got poked.

[Sporklover]

Heh, This episode somewhat reminded me of the Jupon Gatana in RK.

[itadakimasu]

the series does seem to be moving pretty slow... i want to see ichigo fight!

[Mizuchi]

I wish they would just start making an anime after its manga is either finished or almost finished, so they can pace it normally without fillers.