reading page @ wickedcherub

I got to episode 237 of Bleach and am now in the midst of filler again, sigh. Even during the parts adapting stuff from the manga, the anime team thought we needed two episodes of Omaeda. And adapting fake Karukura town stuff but not being able to show gore meant that when Matsumoto was gored and everyone was panicking they couldn't show that and it seemed a little silly, because there was no visible wound. But at the same time, the horrors of Ayon were otherwise well realised... I do love the complicated interactions between Matsumoto and Hinamori.

As far as the filler arc I'm in now. Mixed bag, tbh. I've long heard it's one of the better filler arcs, but being better than the Shunsuke Amagai arc isn't saying much. I had the bad taste to actually enjoy the Bount arc 🤣 though.

I have just finished rereading the early urban fantasy parts of Bleach and the Soul Society arc. They're so tightly written and have an energy that leaps off the page. There are certain things that don't hit the same way now that I know the twists, but that just means I admire the skill that goes into making it all come together. It's been said before that the problem with later Bleach is that it's overstuffed, and it's really not wrong. Soul Society arc is such a ride. I feel like I love different things every time. I was especially vibing Renji and Byakuya this time, but sometimes I'm most unhinged about the Chad stuff, or about Ishida, or the 11th div, or the Shibas, or Yoruichi and Soi Feng.... The "why didn't you take me with you" always gets me.

Honestly there's a lot of later stuff that felt like asspulls at the time, but if you reread this arc already knowing it seems fairly well supported, like Yachiru turning out to be Kenpachi's sword, or everything with Gin. Which like, don't get me wrong, plenty of stuff in later arcs is still obviously asspulls like everything KT did with Unohana. But there's a lot of things later on that I feel would have more impact as obvious character growth moments if it weren't so overstuffed with characters that you forget between chapters about such and such. There's so much cool stuff in the fake Karakura town arc, and a bunch of things that pay off later on, but there's so much time and plot and excess new characters between the things set up there and when a lot of them pay off that if you're not paying close attention to a specific character's arc you might not even notice it. Like when Iba lectures Ikkaku to grow the fuck up and get over your bullshit and try to win a fight, even if it means stabbing someone in the back, and the next time Ikkaku shows up in the Fullbring arc he's stabbing someone in the back. But there's so much crap between those points it's easy to miss there's actual character growth there.

There's some great more obvious character stuff I've always loved with Matsumoto, Hinamori, Yumichika and Kira in that arc. But then there's also old man Yama being super boring.

Even in Hueco Mundo I don't get why we spend so much time on Szayelapporo, but then I love the never ending Ulquiorra v Ichigo stuff. But the latter has a clear emotional component and the former is just mad scientist that is hard to kill. Szayelapporo takes forever to defeat, Renji & Ishida are stuck against him forever and then Mayuri shows up and it's like, okay, this guy is just in the way, why should I care?

Whereas with Ulquiorra v Ichigo, there's an obvious emotional issue as well. Which is that even though Ulquiorra literally has a hole where his heart should be, he's obviously fallen for Orihime, and she's there watching the fight so there's something at stake.

It turns out that a few years ago Kubo dropped a Bleach oneshot that has updates on old characters, and some new characters and a bunch of lore, and when people asked if he's ever going to add more his response was basically 'I will if people stop nagging me about it'. Never change, Kubo.

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I've now watched through episode 220 of Bleach. The pillar fights really are so cool. I love Kira's speech about his weapon, and his squad being about despair. Truly, none more goth. Yumichika v Charlotte was just as stupid and yet cool as I remember it being in the manga, and Hisagi's fight was cooler than I remember. I love Ikkaku's failure and Iba giving him the 'grow up and get the fuck over yourself' speech so much. And Komamura ♥ ♥ Komamura is so good.

I made it to episode 216 of Bleach! Yes, I did watch the two episodes of filler about Urahara being so bored he creates his own super sentai team. They were not without amusement but they were also… not great. The ~comedic sexual harassment~ thing Honshou Chizuru does isn't funny to me in 2025. I was going to say that KT loves his predatory lesbians, but I guess none in the series come to mind other than Chizuru and Giselle, and of those only Giselle is a villain… Can't tell if that makes it better or worse. But at least these episodes aren't as boring as the Shunsuke Amagai filler arc.

But 215 and 216 are non-filler, yay! Finally getting to see stuff I've wanted to see animated forever and really should have gotten around to when it came out so I wasn't catching up like this. I do wonder if the filler would have been even more annoying if I were watching the series as it came out, though. New opening credits song and animation! Feels like it's all bad shots for the Seireitei pin up calendar. TBH, I liked the previous opening credits better.

Anyway, resumption of the Ulquiorra v Ichigo fight. I do love Ulquiorra, and it's a great fight, and there's some great tension with Orihime.

And the four pillars! My boy Yumichika is back on my screen ♥ ♥ he and Ikkaku are so dumb, I'm enjoying their bits immensely. TBH, I don't remember much of the other pillar fights beyond thinking Kira's misery guts thing got kind of interesting. I don't remember anything about who he fought, though, so even though this part of the story isn't actually new to me, it feels new to me.

On the weekend I caught up with friends for dinner and mentioned I got back into Bleach, and someone made a comment about not liking one of the final pairings of the series and I had to be [jokingly] like 'are we going to have a ship war at this dinner table'. I am 100% Renji/Rukia trash. But it's not really a series for romance, and I can't say I care that much about Bleach ships in general. I have like two ships I care about in Bleach, and all my other opinions are about the fight scenes and outfits and weird nonsense. And the friendships. The high quality dumbass friendships. People try to engage me with their thoughts on Ichigo ships and I'm always like he could have ended up with Kenpachi for all I care, idgaf. And like, Ishida's in a beautiful long term relationship with his sewing kit, I don't care if he ever dates a human being.

Movies: I just watched Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) this week, which was creepy fun, if a little slow for me. (I felt that it had a cracking pace in the beginning, then really slowed down; the people in my horror club mostly felt the opposite.) Creepy from the beginning, especially with that doll, showing off a particular horror of the child star. Bette Davis is like a haunted doll come to life in this, but Joan Crawford keeps pace with her. They are so good at their characters' particular varieties of co-dependent dysfunction, and the twist at the end (which you can see coming, tbh) just intensifies the horror of what they've done to each other. And I know Joan Crawford was an odious person but, my gosh, she was so beautiful.

TBH, though, some of the other camp, like the voice acting on a couple of side characters, was a little too much for me, and I did think it dragged at some points, so it wasn't unqualified enjoyment for me.

Bleach: I have continued my watch and I've now finished 212. I enjoyed the flashback arc. Urahara is so terrible 💔 sometimes I love his terribleness and sometimes he's just the worst. ( Read more... )

Random, but I do always laugh at the backstory that reveals why Hisagi has 69 tattooed on his face.

I thought maybe if I'm getting back into Bleach I should also get back into Naruto, but when I reread the first few chapters of that I mostly felt too old for it 🤣 Last time I read Naruto I think I dropped it one arc after the timeskip. I got to see some cool Gaara stuff and then was like, okay, I'm done. I feel like Bleach I can reread because it's slightly more mature, even if not actually particularly mature. Like, at least he's 15 when it starts and half the characters are 100+ years old.

Weirdly on this reread & watch I've gotten really hyped by Kenpachi's moments of mature adult-ness?! Like obviously mostly he's there for a bit of biffo, but I love the flashback where he tells Ikkaku to knock it off with the death wish and grow tf up, and the bit in Hueco Mundo where he tells Ichigo it's not his job to save everyone and everything because the captains are there to do that.