Haha, that’s more like it! Finally we have a really enjoyable episode again. This episode really shows that our modified souls work better as antagonists. Why? Because:
– They’re weak, so they have to use other measures to win than just pure fighting.
– They’ve got some awesome powers, with which you really can perform beautiful strategies.
– They aren’t shadowed by all of the other 40 protagonists that Bleach features, so you can actually see them in action a bit.
– They’ve got internal conflicts.
– They have extremely good personalities for antagonists.
What happens in this episode: basically, the Bounto’s have disappeared into oblivion after the previous episode, leaving no trail at all. The three modified souls are assigned to Ichigo’s house, as his family members posess a lot of spirit power. Kon, of course, doesn’t like this at all, and he starts a flame war with Ririn. When Ichigo has to remove them by force, his little sister enters his room. The scene afterwards was very amusing indeed.
Then, the alarm goes off. Yes, the alarm. Remember? It’s from a loooooong while ago, when Ichigo just met Rukia. I can’t believe the creators actually remembered this. I have no idea why, but I always really liked it when a hollow appeared back in those days. I just loved this scene, as it’s a bit realistic again. We just have two persons protecting a neighbourhood from hollows, just a routine-job. Nothing special at all. (This also was the shortest fight in Bleach ever. They’re learning! ;))
The modified souls then get a crazy idea: set up traps for the bounto’s. These, of course, don’t make any sense at all, so they’re quickly laughed at. They then decide to go extreme, by disguising themselves as a couple of dolls (Bounto-dolls, that is). They expect our group to chase them, miss them, and then catch them with help of the traps they set up. What happens in reality is that they get immediately attacked by a serious Rukia, without any chance to escape.
The modified souls then realize that they can’t get our of their suit, and they can’t communicate with anyone except themselves. Whey they are cornered by both Rukia, as Ichigo, as Renji, they decide to go even more extreme, by using their powers against our protagonists. What follows is an extremely enjoyable fight. Especially the illusion-powers of Ririn work very well, changing Renji’s Zabimaru into its equivalent: a broom.
I keep hoping that the creators realize that these kind of episodes are the things that make Bleach shine. Though I think they’ll never find out, and the next episode will be filled with guys showing off their spirit power to each other again. Sigh. Still, this episode was worth the viewing.
I have to agree with you on Bleach; I gave up just a few episodes into a bount arc. Ririn and co. are fun and quirky characters who can really be used to drive the show and make it different from the Bleach norm, but the Bount are just dull generic villains that just make the show stale.