Bleach: "Gin Ichimaru's Temptation, Resolution Shattered" Review - IGN (original) (raw)

Bleach is back and still awesome.

After taking an almost four-month break, Bleach is back. While Death Note has done a good job at easing the pain, there's nothing like the action that comes from Bleach. The show hasn't missed a stride or become uninteresting since it's been gone. This episode had some great action along with a great scene involving Rukia. The episode wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn good.
Last time we were watching Bleach, Ichigo was training to achieve Bankai so that he could rescue Rukia, who is going to be executed very soon -- within hours, possibly minutes. Now it's the day of the execution and Rukia is heading to the execution ceremony. Along the way she runs into Gin. Gin has always been a rather odd character with his squinty eyes and cheesy smile. Gin tells Rukia that he could free her if she wanted too, and then went on to say that he wouldn't. A scene that could have otherwise been just regular dialogue turns into something much more as we see that Rukia's spirit and determination have been lowered. She seemed angrier that she allowed herself to get her hopes raised. It was a pretty great scene, especially when Rukia talks about how she's always hated Gin and that she didn't know why. These are strong and somewhat powerful words. To hate a man without knowing him must mean that there's something wrong with him. It was a great scene that really seemed to cause upon the loss of all hope by Rukia.

Somewhere close is Kenpachi, who's still searching for Ichigo, but along the way ran into Captain Tosen and Komamura. There were some interesting things that came out of this with Tosen expressing his dislike for Kenpachi. He also brings up the fact that Kenpachi is some kind of demon. Basically Tosen doesn't agree with the way Kenpachi runs things and decides to take him on. Of course Kenpachi is never one to run away from a fight and takes him on. In the beginning it definitely seemed like Kenpachi was going to have the upper hand, but things took a turn when Tosen uses his Bankai, which slows the opponent down dramatically, almost freezing him in time. When it looked like things were going bad for Kenpachi, sure enough Kenpachi is able to somehow dodge blows. Not only that, but he realizes that whenever the sword makes contact that he's able to counter attack. Kenpachi is able to defeat Tosen, but refrains from killing him.

Any battle with Kenpachi is always fun to watch just because of the fact that he has so much fun in his battles. Even when things seem to go wrong for him, he always seems to be in control, possibly even letting himself get into trouble on purpose to get some longevity out of his battles. It was a pretty nice battle, and definitely seemed a bit lopsided towards Kenpachi, but then again almost every battle seems that way due to the fact that Kenpachi enjoys the battle all the way through.

There were short scenes of Ichigo continuing to train and he's basically out of time. He's going to have to save Rukia at whatever level he's at now. Oh and Renji got healed, luckily. It's nice to see a nicer Renji compared to the jerkish character we were introduced to. Renji's determination to save Rukia is admirable really makes him a much more likeable character.

The animation is great in this episode, continuing the level of quality we expect from Bleach. Bleach's story continues to work and be entertaining. We're eagerly awaiting Ichigo's arrival to the execution which should definitely be an event. It'll also be interesting to see exactly what Gin's part in this whole plot is. It's just great to have Bleach back and this episode is a reminder just exactly why we love the show. The animation, the action and just enough emotional dialogue is just enough to keep us wanting more.

Bleach: "Gin Ichimaru's Temptation, Resolution Shattered" Review