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R2 DVD Reviews
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Friday, 06 August 2010 00:00 |
 After rather too long of a spell in Seireitei, Ichigo and the gang are back in the 'real' world – and just as you would expect, more problems are close on their trail...
Ichigo's finally back in the real world, and thanks to all his training while rescuing Rukia, he's finally able to beat his father's sneak attacks. That's progress, I suppose. A more immediate problem is the new school term - while his sisters both have their holiday assignments done, Ichigo has had other things on his mind. There's another surprise when he finally gets into class: the appearance of Renji, who's been tasked with keeping an eye on the area. While Ichigo's not exactly pleased to see him, he's got good reason for being there - with Ichigo leaking huge amounts of spiritual pressure into the area, he's a magnet for Hollows, and someone's got to fight them. Orihime, meanwhile, is beginning to feel that she was more of a hindrance than a help during Rukia's rescue... Later, a new trio of troublemakers appear for Ichigo and the others to deal with, while vampires also appear to be on the menu...
Well, the Seireitei arc is finally over, which earns Bleach a heartfelt 'amen' from me, as it was the poster child for storylines that went on too long. With that journey over, then, the series can get back to the sort of storylines that so impressed me before the Soul Society took centre-stage, right? Well, yes, they can. This set gives us twenty-eight episodes to deal with, mostly concentrating on the one main storyline, and as ever we'll start at the beginning.
The set gets off with what turns out to be a little training interlude that also introduces a few new characters. Renji's initial explanation that Ichigo's excess spiritual pressure has been attracting Hollows turns out to be something of a red herring – the real problem for the gang to deal with comes in the form of a troublesome young girl, Lirin, and her companions Noba and Kurodo. Between them, they possess something that seems very much like a hellgate, and soon take to kidnapping Ichigo's friends and classmates, setting little challenges for him to solve before he can get them back – and with dire consequences threatened should he fail any of Lirin's challenges.
The main thing with this story is that the challenges aren't physical, they're mental – which means (cue Hallelujah Chorus) that there's no real scope for any of the characters to wave their weapons around in long-winded, inconsequential battles. Instead, we get the unusual sight of Ichigo trying (and failing, until Ishida gets in on the act) to work out mazes, figure out which of his companions is a doppleganger, and other things that tax the grey matter rather than the muscles. It's a surprising (if temporary) change in tone, and to be perfectly honest I thought it was a great way to do something slightly different yet interesting. There's also a lot more to Lirin and her companions than there seems at first, and the way then end up being treated by Ichigo and the others certainly brought a smile to my face.
The main arc of the season is a bit more action-based, but no less enjoyable, as it introduces one of my favourite types of creatures to the series: vampires. Although Bleach doesn't call them that – here, they're known as Bounts, and they come with suitably supernatural powers to make them more of a challenge. One of the more powerful Bounts has taken a special interest in Ishida, it seems, and as a result he's about to become the centre of an awful lot of trouble - and given the situation Ishida has been in since returning from Seireitei, though (somewhat depressed at his lack of special abilities, compared to the others in the 'rescue team'), getting him into the centre of the story and having to deal with a threatening situation gives him a real challenge to deal with and works very well.
The Bounts live off the souls of others – usually the souls of the dead (as they won't miss them), but evidence grows throughout the set that they're now harvesting the souls of the living as well: a far more potent powersource for them. The Soul Society, through their head of research Kurotsuchi, has records of this happening in the past at various times, and it's never been a good thing – but it now seems as though someone has been accessing his records and deleting information on the Bounts, which sets alarm bells ringing within the Soul Society.
If living souls are a potent powersource, though, the soul of a living Quincy is the more powerful of all – and since Ishida's the last remaining Quincy, you can see his importance to Kariya. But since one soul will only power one Bount, that's also the cue for the inevitable power struggle within the Bounts for who that one will be. That's the excuse for some decent set-piece battles, but for my money that wasn't the highlight of the mid-season episodes. Enter Yoshino, the first Bount we met and one who has become ever more disillusioned with her comrades over the course of her long life – a life that she's now seeing as a curse. That may not sound like the most interesting thing to hang a plot thread off, but bear with me – her story, presented both through flashbacks to many years ago and in the way she handles her dealings with the other Bounts now, is the most fascinating piece of this set. It's almost worth watching just for that alone – there's just something about the way her character is built up and developed before going on to essentially self-destruct that makes for some compelling viewing (and, perhaps not coincidentally, gives Kariya a way to go beyond that one Bount, one soul restriction).
Less interesting is the arrival of Ichinose, a former member of the Soul Society who has thrown his lot in with Kariya and the Bounts. The reasons for this are explained in detail, but given that they boil down to "things didn't go the way I wanted them to", I can't say I was ever able to work up much sympathy for him. He sees in Kariya someone who he can trust and work with, and his change in sides seems to be more borne out of a personal (and somewhat misguided) sense of honour. That's all very well, but he's clearly made a suspect decision there, and I'm just waiting to see his loyalty "repaid" in ways that he's not expecting.
As the set moves towards its ending, the true plans of the Bounts are revealed and are grander than we’d been led to believe so far; Kurotsuchi’s predecessors at the Research Division have clearly been up to far more in the way of illicit experimenting than he’d been led to believe, and the consequences of their past work are now about to come back to haunt the Soul Society; and Ishida is still dealing with the aftermath of Yoshino’s death and some leftover baggage from his own early training as a Quincy. All of this is pulled together quite well, given how little time is spent on fleshing the details of it out, to leave the set ending on a neat little cliffhanger as one phase of the battle ends and another is set to begin.
Dotted throughout the set, other character-development issues are being dealt with as well. Chad and Orihime are both upset (or concerned, maybe) by how under-powered they are compared to Ichigo and are looking for ways to improve their usefulness – as distinct from the usual shounen "I must get stronger!" plotline – while Urahara has some concerns over Ichigo's development as a fighter, and Kon has some new challenges to deal with in the "lifelike plush toy" department that provided some good comedy moments to the volume and help keep the fighting from completely overwhelming the story.
When Bleach puts its mind to it, it can produce some really good stories that go beyond just fighting and give you characters – even on the fringes – that you can connect to and stories that have a real sense of going somewhere, and this volume delivers nicely on that front. Yes, it's wrapped up in over-long fight scenes – that's just in the show's DNA – but it's done well enough that, even if you're like me and don't usually go for "that sort of thing", there's still enough going on to keep the interest. Worth checking out.
For full episode summaries and screenshots, check out the reviews of the individual releases:
» Volume One
» Volume Two
» Volume Three
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