User blog:Lemursrule/BLEACH episode 306 review "Canon Again"

Hello Again! We are FINALLY out of filler land, and we have our first new canon Bleach episode of 2011. Plus, here in the US, the last episode of the Amagai filler arc airs this weekend, so canon will return on Adult Swim next week. I am also hoping that iTunes will spoil me and air a preview of episode 190 before it airs (note for all of the Amagai arc, iTunes has had previews on the new season pass packages with the first episode in the season pass a few days before the episode airs on Adult Swim for free). That being said, I am more excited for Bleach than I have been for a while now. Plus, I found out that Roger Craig Smith (Shinji Hirako) is the announcer for "Say Yes to the Dress." It's nice to see that he is getting work outside of anime. But before I begin with my review of episode 306, please remember to vote for February's Featured Article, Featured Picture and Featured Quote!

To start things off, I am very happy over the vast-improvement of Kaya Matsutani's acting, especially coming off of last week's debacle of an episode. However, the best performance of the episode, and one of the best voice acting performances I have seen in a while is Kōji Yusa as Gin Ichimaru. Kōji really embraced his "inner Gin." The GinRan scenes just made feel warm and fuzzy, while at the same time made me kind of depressed because the episode of impending doom is coming. To make things worse, I found out what the red flash over Gin in Bleach opening 13 is. It is a hidden scene with...Well here is the pics (begins to sob). Overall this week the acting was very good, and I don't really have any major complaints. The only thing I wished that the recording staff had done, is to have had both Tensa Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo talk at the same time. The way they did it made it seem like Tensa Zangetsu had completely taken over, which is not the case. Oh well, I guess I can hope that they will do that in the dub. It would be interesting if Johnny Yong Bosch voiced both Tensa Zangetsu (because let's face it the only voice that would really work for Tensa in English is Johnny, and Tensa just looks like a JYB character) and Hollow Ichigo, so that he can voice all the aspects of Ichigo's being.

The animation for this episode was well done. It wasn't super amazing, but it was still excellent animation. I loved how they added to the Tensa Fight. I know a lot of fans, myself included, wanted the fight to be extended in the anime. I believe Pierrot made the right move here. Instead of making an episode or two out of it, they added the scenes where they were needed. This did not drag the pace down, it fact, I believe that it helped the episode and the story in terms of pacing. The episode flowed very nicely, there was hardly a moment were something wasn't going on, but at the same time, you did not feel overwhelmed.

The music selection was AMAZING! The music added just the right amount of emotion to the scene, and as a music nut, it made me very happy. Plus Our good friend Morita Yosuke (the recording engineer for Bleach) confirmed the other day, that music from the Hell Chapter Soundtrack will be used in the next few episodes. So, that made me run in circles, and made be proud to me a member of the royal order of muffins (it's an inside joke with me and my friends, don't ask).

Finally, I found the omake to be very humorous. It wasn't my favorite (my favorites are the Starrk and Lilynette one, and the omakes from episodes 298 and 302), but it was still very good. The preview for next week looks amazing, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Ok Final Rundown
 * Story 9/10
 * Art and animation 8.9/10
 * Acting 9/10
 * Music 10/10
 * Omake 7/10

Overall I give Bleach 306 an 8.8 out 10

Join Me next week when I review episode 307. Plus Remember by English Dub anime episode reviews will begin on February 6th with episode 190. Until Then, Sayonara --Lemursrule (talk) 05:09, January 26, 2011 (UTC)