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So I watched the filler, because it was there, basically. And it was very filler-ey, but better on the whole than the soul-crushing Bound arc and a lot of the other filler, episode 132 notwithstanding.
I really like the filler Captain, he's goofy, charming and genuinely likable, and he has a great look. The seafoam blue lining of his Captain's cloak is a fantastic touch, and his zanpaktoh's shikai is suitably cool and powerful-looking. He had great scenes with Kyouraku and Ukitake (who I adore) so he's a home run for me.
Also great has been all of the love Kira has gotten. He's been just dead on in-character the entire time, and I've loved every minute of it. Kifune was by no means a great villain ("I'm evil because I want power!" Never seen that before...) but he was really hateable, and that's all that matters in the end. Kira got to beat the living hell out of him, and I was cheering for him the entire time. That fight was ten kinds of great. Totally agree with Seth though, it would have been a waste of time and a tremendous disappointment if Kira had lost. I had no interest in seeing Ichigo or somebody else fighting Kifune after how nasty he was to Kira. Turned out awesome, though.
All of the Soul Society stuff was pretty great, honestly. And it just served as a terrible, terrible reminder of how awful the other storyline has been. Princess Whatsherface is every bit as annoying and unlikeable as Amagai is endearing. I just wanted Ichigo to tell her to shove it and leave her to the lame ninjas so we could get back to Kira. The clumsy attempts of the writing staff to get the viewer to like her just irritated me more. "Sure she's spoiled and bossy and idiotic, but here's why you should like her anyway! It's so hard being that rich!" they say to me. "Not buying it," says I. Especially after the reveal that she *gasp!* knew who was sending the lame ninjas all along! ...And still snuck off by herself to go to a fucking tea party.
Although that did lead to a gratuitous Zaraki Kenpachi cameo, which is always welcome in my world. He shows up to walk around, kill a ninja and then say "I don't even know what I'm doing here, either." It was fantastic.
As for where we're at now, at least Princess Obnoxious and her stooges are offscreen, so we're dealing with characters I like. I'm looking forward to both of the good-guy fights that are imminent. I like Hitsugaya, and particularly his fight scenes, and I want to see what they cooked up for Amagai's Bankai. Matsumoto and Rukia is going to be quality too, for all the reasons Seth mentioned. Still, I'm fresh off of the amazing Ichigo/Grimmjow fight and rewatching the Rukia/Aaroniero one, so I'm going to have to keep my expectations low to be able to enjoy them. I think I can do that. I have some feeling invested in all of the participants, unlike the double-episode snoozefest of battles against the lame ninja leader and his nearly-as-lame henchmen.
So anyway, good filler on the whole, but it was disappointing to stay away from the show for months to build up a stack of episodes to watch, and then have 80% of them be filler. *Sigh*
Oh, also a public service announcement. The essay on feminism in Bleach that Maat linked to is very good, but it is also full of SPOILERS for those of us who don't read the manga. I found something out that I'm really pissed that I know, and I'd hate for that to happen to somebody else.
I'm glad to be watching this awesome show again, now let's hope the manga adaptations start up again soon. |
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