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It was pretty cool seeing all the captains again like that, though I think the manga did a better job of it by only showing a bit of their clothes as they are gathering for the captains’ meeting. It makes them seem more ’special’ and of a higher status. Hehe, it would have been pretty sweet if they included some funky fantasy background music. This is also another example of how the episode was stretched.

I’m glad the quality has gotten higher, but that’s obviously because there’s no action in this episode, and a lot of scenes are reused. Even so, it looks good, apart from Orihime, who still looks rather weird. And Ichigo without eyes is kinda creepy, as is what’s-her-name with the red hair when she’s jealous! I didn’t really pay much attention to that part in the manga, so it served as a big shock to me. And Tatsuki didn’t step in!

Hiyori’s anime-ification is rather well done, and I like her voice too. It’s exactly what I had in mind, unlike Shinji’s, which was a bit of a disappointment. However, it’s been three episodes now and I’ve gotten perfectly used to it. I love the little childish things he and Hiyori do though, especially the butt-poking lmao! I really want to see their future getups animated. Hiyori, if I haven’t mentioned before, is my favourite Vaizard. She’s cute in the bratty way.

The Bounto sensors still live! Well yes that’s obvious, but I mean they continue to contribute to the show, regardless of how small or insignificant their roles are. And this episode, they show us how to write Vaizard and Arrancar in kanji! Though unfortunately the producers don’t know how to animated hands when writing. Hands don’t just follow the writing like that, the fingers DO move. This is a similar problem to animating walking…

Next time, the ‘real’ Arrancars arrive, and we’ll get to see how our heroes face up to them. You can already guess how things will turn out right? Remember how Renji and Byakuya came to take Rukia away and presented themselves as the first true enemies to Ichigo? And yeah, who got his ass handed to him bad? But at least this time, Ichigo is obviously not the only one in the fight. Remember the group in the ED? *hint hint*

Rukia fans, rest assured, Rukia will appear again, but she will no longer be the damsel in distress. But do you know who will be the new princess? Think about the only other girl in Ichigo’s life. Well ok, he has more than just one girl in his life, but the main one. And speaking of involvement, I’d like to see some more contribution Ichigo’s friends make, instead of just providing comedy material for the non-action episodes like this.

And while I’m talking about involvement, rest assured, Chad and Inoue will not continue to be the side-kicks who fail at fighting and rely on Ichigo for everything, and nor will Rukia. It’s pretty obvious what’s going to happen to Ishida concerning his powers, now that he’s agreed to his father’s conditions. And I’m interested to see more of his dad fight, as well as the captains.Hitsugaya gets far too many fights IMO though (and he’s not that impressive).

Overall I really enjoyed this episode and it clears up a lot on the subject of Vaizards and Arrancar (with help from Nova lol). It is clear now that they are not working together. It’s pretty exciting, as all lead ups to battles are, and in this case, all out WAR. Or so it seems. By the way, the manga scans I have aren’t that good, which is why the manga pics don’t look too clean. Some were too small even so I didn’t include them.