Bleach Episode 108

So, Bleach’s first filler arc has come to a close. There’s not going to be a whole ton of screencaps or a detailed episode summary here. Even if I wasn’t too lazy to do that and if I was doing this post immediately after watching the episode, Random Curiosity would have already done it first and better. Instead, you get random nitpicking and commentary. Oh, and a fanfic idea!

The end of this arc is fairly reminiscent of the end of a Naruto filler arc, in that the ending feels anti-climatic and the ending fight is unimaginative and predictable. Then again, the arc as a whole is far superior to a Naruto filler arc, so I’ll forgive it that. Hopefully the next time Naruto goes into fillers it will use a longer arc like the Bounto Arc instead of an endless stream of short, meaningless, mostly self-contained stories.

Actually, this ending kind of reminds me of the end of the Soul Society arc, if only in that I thought it was weaker than the arc it concluded. At least this one does really conclude things, though.

The one really annoying thing was the way the episode went out of its way to point out that there were people who could intervene in the inevitable Icihigo vs. Kariya battle but didn’t.

I mean, okay, I can swallow that Yoruichi and Byakuya need to stand by so they can attempt to contain the destruction if Kariya explodes, though it takes some doing. (Kariya has shown that he’s more or less equal in fighting ability to Byakuya or Ichigo, so one might think that Ichigo+Byakuya+Yoruichi would trounce him in short order.)

Much harder to take is everyone else standing by and doing nothing – in particular Chad and Orihime, who haven’t done much of note since the story moved back to Soul Society that I can recall. Have them get drafted into the effort to seal away all the deus ex machina? Fine. Have them not join in because so much raw power is being thrown around that they would just get obliterated? Fine. Have them conveniently only arrive as the battle is winding down? All right.

Having them stand aside because only Ichigo can stop the Bounto because he bears a similar burden? That’s just silly. Even if only Ichigo has the power to stop Kariya, surely it would be easier if the others helped instead of just watching? One can handwave it away with an explanation like the “too much raw power” excuse but it would be nice if the episode bothered to provide a handwave of its own.

Now that it’s over, it looks like there’ll be one more episode of wrap-up before moving on to the next arc. I’ve seen conflicting reports over whether the next arc is filler; my assumption based on the length of Naruto’s fillers is that it is. When they do go back to the manga story, it’ll be interesting to see how they handle the details like the various new characters introduced who haven’t died or conveniently been shuffled to a permanent off-screen location yet or divergences like Rukia’s early reappearance.

So, how to evaluate the arc from a fanfic perspective? Well, the Bounto are a new addition to the toolbox, I suppose, and they provide some interesting characters and powers. Their surprisingly high power-level, though, does produce some setting coherency troubles if they’re brought in unaltered.

I did have one specific fanfic idea that I liked while watching the arc. Back when Mayuri sends Nemu to give Ishida the power-restoring deus ex machina, it seemed to me that some of the scenes and dialogue were almost hinting that Mayuri had ordered Nemu to give Ishida her shinigami powers (like Rukia gives hers to Ichigo at the beginning of the series). Given Ishida’s shinigami issues, that could make for a very interesting character arc.

Maybe someday I’ll even write it in my copious spare time.