User blog:CathalOHara/Cathal's Bleach Recap Episode 353, a very large banter and a thank you.

Righto all, this week we lack the manga chapter. No fear though! As there will be a big banter about this arc after I finish the review! So, let's get started, wanna get the episode review to be swift.

Anime
Episode 353: Ichigo, Mastering the Fullbring!

A nice episode this week no doubt! Like I said last week, this episode was going to be filling one of my favorite chapters in the manga. And it did not disappoint. Mostly. I say mostly because there are a few awkward scenes with Kugo and his Cross of Scaffold. Also, Ichigo's Fullbring looks a bit too out of place in some frames. Most of the time it looks excellent but there were the occasional moment where I was "meh" at it.

As for the fight itself it was a nice one, Tsukishima is taking his cool to a whole new level in the anime. Moe's scene was a nice touch, and I'm finding a liking of him in the anime. Which is a big thing for me to say as I did not like him in the manga, at all.

Omake was hilariously awesome. And I'm loving Xcution Diary more and more. Can't wait to see more of this! Giriko's acting is hilariously convincing! And that wasn't even sarcasm!

Pros
 * Ichigo's Fullbring in motion, still cool.
 * Nice to see some proper action, been too long since we had one.
 * Omakes get better and better.
 * Yukio's Fullbring looked really nice for a first impression.

Cons
 * Awkward animation moments, don't lose your touch Pierrot!

The episode gets a 9 out of 10 from me, next week should hopefully be a nice episode too.

Overview of Bleach 2011
Now, I could just conclude the blog this week. After all, there was no manga chapter. But nope! I'm going to still give you guys something! A big moan! (Not really, well kind of I guess)

What is this going to be about you ask? Well, everything generally. This wiki and my thoughts on this arc as a whole mainly.

Well let's get started with the arc, an interesting individual known as Avolling recently posted a blog revolving around his perspective and opinions on the arc, so I thought I would let my thoughts on the arc get a little turn, I left my comment on what I thought of it, I said (and I quote this mind)

"Agree with God's point here. People just miss all their favorite Shinigami and thus, complain about it. I finally hoped for an arc more in the style of 'back to basics' and we got it to a certain degree in this arc, something I wanted ever since watching the first series, back when Bleach was in a much simpler time. That side of Bleach, I've missed for years."

Now, this is a good time for me to properly express my opinion on the 2011 year of Bleach. I only caught back up on the manga in June after not reading it for two years (I started reading Bleach back in late 2008) and after I caught up I could not believe I stopped reading for so long! So much cool stuff happened! I immediately sought out a wiki of it as I have a tendency to, and somehow (I don't even remember now) I became a proper contributor through this wiki overtime.

Well that was quite a banter! But now we'll get into the real deal of this read, it's to talk about the current arc, "The Lost Substitute Shinigami arc" while my thoughts on this arc are mostly positive most people see my positive points as the negative points, and vice versa. What I like that most people seem to hate? Simple, Xcution. Kugo, Riruka, Jackie, Yukio and Giriko are a rather mixed bunch by fans, I for one think Kugo is one of the best things to come out of Bleach in years. I also like Riruka and Giriko. Jackie and Yukio on the other hand... "Meh". But I'm once again, getting too ahead of myself! Characters will be talked into detail a tad bit more when the time comes! For now, let's talk about the parts of the arc I <3ed and the parts I didn't as much <3.

Now, I love slow starts. Video games and TV Shows that have a slow pacing start to see peace and tranquility only for them to have a big poop thrown in their faces is one of the key aspects to any great entertainment in my book. After all the fighting Ichigo went through during his battle against Aizen and losing his powers the first thing I thought was; "Okay he's clearly going to have a long break before getting back into things." And I was currect, a full on timeskip with him living the normal teenage life, all was fine and dandy, until of course he helped a man who lost his bag. And this leads me to one of my favorite parts of this arc thus far, the fact it took its time with the story.

People complain and complain that they miss their favorite Shinigami on and on, and can't handle change, seemed everyone hated Xcution before we were even given a first impression on them. All I remembered was everyone hating on how far fetched it was. Okay sure, shrinking down into a dollhouse/fish tub is weird. But saying far fetched? Bleach wasn't far fetched to begin with?

The shroud of mystery this arc spilled the whole way through with Uryu being injured and where the heck Chad was were all things I enjoyed, Ichigo was powerless. And protagonists have tendency for this happening to them frequently (or for Ichigo's case, twice).

Ichigo learning Fullbring I was all "huh?" at and even now after roughly 40 chapters later were still in the "huh?" section. I don't think it ever will be explained in full detail, and get this, I don't mind if it isn't. Didn't Kugo cover enough when he mentioned Ichigo had the powers of Hollow in the past? I always thought that as a fair reason and another good reason to make us think it was going to take forever and forever for Ichigo to regain his lost power. Nice prank there Kubo.

And speaking of Ichigo's Fullbring, I liked form 2 and 3. Yes, I liked his third one that made him look like a... well I don't even really know. Why? Well because its different of course! As a writer, I admire creativity dearly, and Kubo can still deliver a great plot, and of all honesty, I found the Shinigami to become slightly repetitious. This on the other hand, crazy different! People complaining saying "It's not Bleach" are all being silly I think, it was very creative to change the pacing and style like this, it was like as if Bleach was even going to change its genre to er... something!

I like the Fullbringer's abilities. Not Riruka's though, too daft. But all the others I liked. Tsukishima's was my favorite though, was very creative and a very unusual ability.

Lets skip forward a good bit though! Most of what you read were my opinions through the entire arc Let's skip to "End of the Bond 1" this, is where Bleach was getting brilliant beyond brilliant. All those End of Bond were fantastic and a much more darker and stylish atmosphere to why Ichigo was fighting, could he actually kill another human? Seriously, these chapters were really intense and a much more dangerous way of making fights work. But then we got the most popular chapter of this whole arc (well, I'm pretty sure it is) "Death & Strawberry 2" or as I like to call it; give the kids their candy back. That whole chapter was pure fan service, okay I admit, I loved seeing Rukia back and with her new hairdo giving the chapter extra points. But Ichigo getting his powers back that... suddenly? All of the sudden Bleach went straight back to what it used to be when it was all about the Shinigami. Yes, chapter 459 is where I was getting "oh dear" at what was going on.

Now, I LOVE Rukia. If you don't know she is my favorite Bleach character ever, and seeing her back made me smile, but ONLY her. I was not so fond of seeing all the Shinigami tag along nor Ichigo getting his powers back all too suddenly. And all the fights with Xcution concerned me not long afterwards. Because everyone fought someone with a somewhat resemblance. Rukia fought someone with a very similar name to her, Byakuya fought Tsukishima, both very calm guys. Toshiro fighting Yukio, both look the same age. Ikkaku fighting Moe, both baldies. And Renji fighting Jackie who... actually I don't see much a resemblance with that one.

Most of the fights were underwhelming. Except Byakuya's one, which I gave a full 10 in the chapter where he defeats Tsukishima. Such an awesome moment that was, from that point onwards, things started to get really good again.

And now with the concluding paragraphs on the horizon I can begin talking about the Ukitake controversy. What do I think of this? Silly, pure silly. I already talked about this in my review of the chapter which is this one, if you're inclined to read it. And as I said in it, Ichigo is not an idiot, and thankfully that was shown. Kugo was being the idiot there. Ichigo needed to be reinforced at all times as he has the strength of a captain. Ichigo's resolve in the following chapter is what I would of said if I were Ichigo at that time, and I'm glad he knew what to say. And I was confused with Kugo's Bankai, everyone was and still is. And then we had the fight of Ichigo and Kugo, underwhelming except for the conclusion with Tsukishima and Riruka. The final page made it for me, hopefully in the near future we will see more Kugo's history, please, PLEASE Kubo! Make it happen!

Thank You & Conclusion
And to conclude I'll say this, I love this arc, it had the perfect pacing throughout UNTIL chapter 459. Other than that it was a great read and I enjoyed the change of pace, Bleach would of got bland if it stayed traditional all the time right? Seems this arc will be hitting it's conclusion real soon. Well, I wouldn't know though because I'm not Kubo Tite.

And now I come to the conclusion, I'll keep my thoughts to the wiki short, but sweet. I'd like to thank everyone who shown me the ropes here. Sun, Lemurs and Arrancar and for getting me started on this wiki, so all I can say is thank you. Hopefully I can become a larger asset in the future. Thank you for reading, even if you just skimmed it.