Bleach: "Reality of the Despair, the Assassin's Dagger is Swung" Review - IGN (original) (raw)

This week's episode had the daunting task of following a very good episode from last week. Ichigo and Byakuya's fight was just great and the ending to it was definitely the right way to end it. In this episode, Bleach surprisingly continues the momentum it's had for quite a few episodes and possibly might even top the previous half-hour. It was an episode riddled twists and some really great scenes. It's just another reason why everyone should be watching Bleach right now.
This episode takes the focus off Ichigo altogether and starts us off where we left last episode with Hitsugaya and Masumoto infiltrating the Central Office. Up until this episode we had no idea what this building that he was infiltrating did, so it was definitely great to learn that it's basically where the their judicial system takes place. While the explanation might have been lengthy, it was needed, because it explained the whole process that took place that almost sent Rukia to her death. It definitely gives us added information about just how everything in Soul Society works.

When Hitsugaya and Matsumoto makes it into central room, all of the forty two members of the council have all been killed and Hitsugaya is able to tell that they had been dead for weeks and weeks. This means that someone else and not the council have made all of the rulings for Rukia's execution. The first person that appears is Izuru who immediately starts running. The two chase him, but Izuru tells Hitsugaya that it was a trap, because while chasing them Momo has escaped her room and followed Hitsugaya to the central room, where trouble possibly awaits her.

Soon enough we see Momo entering the central office. The first person she sees is Gin. Anytime Gin is around, we always know that something evil is afoot. Gin tells Momo that he'd like her to meet someone. Momo turns around and she sees Aizen. As you may remember a long time ago, Aizen was presumed dead. Why did we presume him dead? Well because we saw his body hanging on a wall with a sword through it. Momo is just as amazed as we are that somehow Aizen is still alive.

It was easy to see from the beginning that Aizen had most likely faked his own death and him and Gin had been working together. Momo though was so overwhelmed at having Aizen come back that she was just happy to be alive. Even though we could tell Aizen was evil it was still shocking to see him stab poor little Momo.

When Hitsugaya makes his way back to Central Office, he's shocked that Aizen is alive. He's even more surprised to see Momo just lying there with a stab wound. He unleashes his Bankai and confronts Aizen, but Aizen is able to defeat him no problem with his Zanpakto (which I'll get to in a minute).

As an added bonus, we got a little bit of Matsumoto fighting Izuru. Izuru's blade was cool and its ability to make a Zanpakto heavier was something different. Matsumoto's was the same and it's really great how different the creators have made all these blades.

The twists in this episode were done very well. Bleach has done a great job of giving us a feel of what these characters are like therefore unlike some anime Bleach can have a great episode without having Ichigo even be in the episode. In doing this, it allows us to watch episodes with different characters or plots with different characters and it really adds a bit of variety to the show.

There was one big problem with this episode and that was the explanation of how Aizen faked his death. Aizen's Zanpakto apparently has the power to hypnotize anyone that looks at it and apparently one look at it and he can control you anytime he wants. So basically, everyone was hypnotized into believing that he was dead along with the fake body.

It seems a bit far-fetched for some reason to think that nobody can tell when they're getting hypnotized, even the higher ups. This also makes Aizen's Zanpakto one of the most unbalanced swords in Bleach. Actually, to my knowledge I can't think of any Zanpakto that has such an overpowered ability. Even General Yamamoto's Zanpakto is powerful, but it doesn't have an ability like that one. There should be some sort of a downside to his Zanpakto, to balance it out, and it'd be nice to find out sooner rather then later.

We also have no idea exactly why Aizen decided to turn on Soul Society, so it'd be nice to get some clarity into what Gin and Aizen are trying to accomplish. Tosen working with Aizen was also a big surprise. Tosen seemed like a man with morals, so maybe there's a good reason in his mind why he's doing it.

It was a brief moment, but it was interesting to see how surprised Renji was. Renji's character has totally changed since he attacked Ichigo in the very first season. Back then, he came off as just cocky and powerful, but since this arc, we've seen him defeated and confused. He's still cocky, but we've at least gotten to see that he has weaknesses just like everyone else.

We can't wait to see how Renji and Rukia are going to try to escape Aizen, Gin, and Tosen when they seem set on having Rukia killed. This was a very good episode, especially since it had to follow the last episode. Bleach continues to prove just how good of an anime it is. This has been a great storyline done perfectly and after all these episodes we still can't wait to watch the next episode.

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Bleach: "Reality of the Despair, the Assassin's Dagger is Swung" Review