TwiddleGeek

Finally, the filler has ended! Yes folks, Bleach 110 marks the grand return to the manga storyline, and several bombshells are dropped right off the bat. Firstly, a new transfer student and of course, the usual ominous connotations. Seriously, can’t there ever be a transfer student in an anime who’s just, you know, unimportant? Not this time. This ep also marks the return of an old enemy, and the first appearance of a rather important character for Ishida.

It’s really, really good to see Bleach back again. It was easily one of my favorite anime in 2005 all through Soul Society, though the following filler arc was simply unwatchable. It’s really ashame Bleach hasn’t made the HDTV jump like One Piece and most new anime, getting used to the standard resolution again will take some time. For a first episode back, 110 doesn’t disappoint… though it feels like it’s over in a flash.

Aside from a brief cameo by the retarded filler characters, Bleach 111 is, like 110, everything I used to love about Bleach. Well OK, maybe the constant cliffhanger endings do get a bit old, but they keep me wanting next week’s episode, waiting for it. Ishida gets a surprise visit by his father, who quickly schools him in the art of Quincy. Apparently he’s well aware of his son’s travels, and even says he can restore his powers, but only if Ishida swears to stay away from the Shinigami.

Meanwhile, Kon’s busy being chased around by the Grand Fisher until Ichigo’s father steps in… in Shinigami form. Now, with the constant surprise attacks, relaxed attitude toward Ichigo’s behavior, and so forth this wasn’t really that hard to guess, but it still manages to have a great vibe to actually see it happen — against the Grand Fisher, no less. It remains to be seen just how his father fits into the Shinigami realm, but hints seem to place him at least in the captain class.

So, maybe it’s a little strange that everyone and his brother has super powers now, but who cares. It reminds me much like how in Dragon Ball Z once Goku went Super Sayian, seemingly EVERYONE went Super Sayian. But hey, that made the show arguably that much better, I’d say. And I’d suspect that much like Chad, Ishida, and Orihime having their own powers, this will end well too. I hope Tatsuki gets a bigger role soon.

Hooray for Hiyori! She seems like she’s going to be terribly amusing, though I don’t even want to think about that mutual kanchou scene. *shudder* It seems like the villains of this arc are going to be quite interesting, hopefully we’ll learn a lot more about Ichigo’s hollow side as well. It’ll be good to see Ishida with his powers again too, though could it be any more obvious he’ll break his vow the moment it’s convenient? This arc has definately been leaps and bounds so far over the filler that’s been running.

Ichigo becomes increasingly depressed as the hollow inside him threatens to take over, consuming him in the process. Meanwhile Karin fesses up to Ichigo that she too sees dead people and knows that her brother is a shinigami. In typical anime fashion the conversation is delayed however when two Arrancars come crashing down to earth.

I’ve said many times in the past Bleach is a lot like a modern DBZ at times. Energy attacks, a little flying here and there, form changes, hero in training rushing to the battle field at the last moment… It’s not a bad thing mind you, I’m not ashamed to admit I loved Dragon Ball Z. But it’s simply impossible to look at these two Arrancars and not get a Vegeta and Nappa vibe.