User blog:Lemursrule/BLEACH episode 308 review: Ginger, Butterfly, and tears

Well, the aforementioned episode has come, but on the bright side, some insane Gin fan-girls have FINALLY accepted his death. On the other hand, there are some who cannot accept that he has died, even though Gin said in the manga and the anime "I can die and leave this to you." I mean one nutty even said "people who are in the hospital say they are going to die and wake up two days later." SERIOUSLY!!!! The guy gets slashed across the chest, has his arm ripped off, stabbed through the chest, and thrown through multiple buildings. Even by Bleach standards that's pretty bad! I'm not trying to sound mean, but Gin HAS DIED! "E's passed on! This Ichimaru is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-CAPTAIN! Sorry about the Monty Python reference, but it was TOO EASY! I will talk more about Gin's death and my thoughts on the rest of the episode, but before I begin, please remember to vote for March's Featured Article, Featured Picture and Featured Quote! So without any delay, here we go.

Gin's death was animated exactly how I imagined it. I pictured Kubo's "white background of doom," and everything from an animation standpoint was flawless. I also must say that Kōji Yusa is one of the best actors in the Japanese version of Bleach. The way he put the raw emotion into his lines, it was just incredible! I still can't believe they actually put Gin's poem from volume 47 in the episode! I actually started to cry when I heard it, it made his death so much sadder. The only two deaths in the anime that have really chocked me up were Gin and Tōsen's (and I never really even liked Tōsen). The only thing that really was flawed was...Rangiku. By Rangiku I mean Kaya Matsutani. In past blogs I have mentioned my concerns with Kaya's acting abilities. What happened today is what I feared would happen. I am in no way saying that Kaya's acting in this episode was horrible, but at the same time, it was not at the level that it should have been. As of now, this is the only time we see Rangiku completely fall apart. I mean yeah we have seen happy, moody, concerned, and angry Rangiku, but Kubo illustrated levels of emotion that we cannot begin to comprehend, and it just did not come through. I mean a lot of times you can blame it on the script or the animation, but this was not the case. I know some of you may be asking "but you're not Japanese so you can't fully understand the culture and the acting." Last time I checked, crying and screaming are pretty universal actions. I also grew up in a very tolerant household and my mother grew up in a very pro-Japanese household, so asian culture has been a big part of my life, way before I even knew about Bleach. I am also an actress, so perhaps I am a bit harsher on my fellow thespians, but that is only because I want them to improve their skills. In real life, I like to be perfectly honest (plus I absolutely suck at lying), so if you don't agree with my opinion that is perfectly alright, but in my honest opinion as a fan and as an actor, I expected more out of Kaya. I wanted Rangiku to scream out Gin's name, and while the sobs were ok, I wanted more wailing. I mean the person who knows the real you, and perhaps the most important (and possibly love) in your life has been brutally injured and is on the brink of death, I want a little more than "boo-hoo." Another thing is what happened to Kaya's cute kid Rangiku voice from episode 47! The voiced she used in today's episode did not fit at all. I mean what happened!!! Here is a comparison of the two voices: thumb|300px|left|from episode 47 (please start video at 1:31)thumb|300px|right|from episode 308 (start video at 3:43)

Ok enough ranting on with the positive!

FINALLY THE HELL CHAPTER TRACKS THAT MORITA YUSUKE PROMISED! To those who thought they would not come I laugh at you. To those who still think the anime is ending I laugh so hard that I fall off of one of the skyscraper's in Ichigo's inner world. The tracks that were used were track 10 "Snakes Of Despair" and track 17 "4BLM_101_Chokkaku."  We can expect to hear more Hell Chapter tracks in the next few episodes (plus I kinda know since Morita said so).

I also thought the rest of the Seiyu did a wonderful job, especially Shō Hayami as Aizen. The way he had Aizen's cool demeanor crumble away was phenomenal, especially with Hadō 90 EPIC! Plus Aizen has no pupils hooray! I guess the logical justification of that might be that Aizen's 3rd form was not totally complete when he emerged. I did notice that not long after Aizen did the Hōgyoku summon eye glow, whatever the hell you want to call it thing, his pupils disappeared. I loved how Pierrot was able to keep the emotion in Aizen's eyes even without pupils.

The sound effects and animation were wonderful, and we find out what happens to Kon (it is canon, I believe, it was one of those mini scenes that Kubo uses sometimes, it was in volume 48). Overall this was a phenomenal episode, the pacing was excellent, and Ichigo VS Aizen looks like it will live up to the buzz from Morita-San (Yusuke), Kudo-San (character designer, key animator), and Abe-san(series director) have been giving over twitter the last few weeks.

Final Rundown


 * Story 10/10
 * Art/Animation 9.6/10
 * Sound effects 10/10
 * Music 10/10
 * Acting 9/10
 * Omake 7.5/10

My final score for Bleach episode 308 is a 9.4 out of 10. Join me next week when I review episode 309, and don't forget to join me on Saturday/Sunday when I review Bleach episode 191 english dubbed. Until next time, so long! --Lemursrule (talk) 05:03, February 9, 2011 (UTC)