Bleach ep.16

January 27, 2005 | 8 Comments

Wow, what is going on here? All of a sudden the animation quality goes up a notch. The look is now crisp and clear with some drool-worthy sakura petal scenes to spice up the episode. It's like Pierrot suddenly fired the former animation team and hired CLAMP to direct and animate this episode. There are some wonderful camera angles used in this episode as well. I really hope this new, much, much better style continues in the future. I'd hate to see the animation quality drops again to the earlier version of the series. Now, if only they'd fix those early episodes to match the quality of this one, I'd buy the R2 right away. As it is now, however, I'd much rather wait for the R1 since there's no point paying extra for better encoding when there isn't much to be seen to begin with.

Anyway, the episode itself begins with Rukia reminiscing about the time she spent with Ichigo. Well, I can't exactly remember what she remembers because I'm trying to forget the anvillicious Ichigo and Rukia scenes. :P While on the run, however, Rukia is intercepted by the cool Shinigami from last week's episode, Abarai Renji. Renji quickly asks Rukia the whereabout of the human who took her power. Rukia denies that any human took her power but Renji doesn't buy the lie and tells Rukia that he doesn't like a supposedly elite Shinigami like her looking like a human especially after she's adopted by the Kuchiki family. Upon saying this, Renji calls the other Shinigami to come forward and he turns out none other than Rukia's adopted brother, Kuchiki Byakuya.

Renji then begins to attack Rukia while her own 'brother' does nothing about it but looking smug. After manages to injure her cheek a little bit, Renji tells Rukia that transferring a Shinigami power to human is a crime but the Shinigamis have allowed them to privately take care of the matter and kill the offender who took the power. Rukia is then seen trying to deflect Renji's cool attack but eventually ends up cornered by the Shinigami. However, just as Renji about to deal a heavy blow on her, a blue arrow streaks towards Renji, forcing him to move away from Rukia. The attacker turns out to be Ishida who claims that he's simply a classmate who hates Shinigami and happens to be around after visiting a sewing store. Rukia, of course, does not believe his lame excuse.

Anyway, Renji is unhappy with the intrusion, especially after Ishida introduces himself as the guy who will defeat Renji. Renji immediately tells Ishida that he'll kill the bookworm right there and then. Cut to Ichigo inside a restroom wondering of Rukia's whereabouts especially since it's already 2am in the morning. After taking a leak, however, he hears muffled sounds coming from the back of the toilet. Upon an inspection, he found Kon tied up and gagged at the back of the toilet bowl. Gross. Kon then thanks Ichigo for 'saving' him but is unhappy when Ichigo sprays him with air refreshner. Kon then tells Ichigo that Rukia is the one who did this to him and the reason is because she's in trouble. Kon then shows Ichigo the letter that Rukia has left for him in the desk.

After deciphering the letter using Rukia's weird encryption method, the message simply told him that Rukia had to leave but they should not worry about her. She also told Ichigo to burn the letter and go into hiding for a while. The letter causes even more confusion for Ichigo but thankfully Kon is smart enough to deduce that Rukia must be in trouble with Soul Society and that is why she told them to burn the letter and go into hiding. Upon hearing this, Ichigo decides to transform into his Shinigami form but Kon refuses to have Ichigo's hand going down his throat as usual. Thankfully for them, Urahara and his trusty cane then appear and offers their assistance. Back to Rukia and the others, Ishida is easily defeated by Renji and now looks like he's half dead.

Before Renji can deal the final blow on him, however, Ichigo appears in his Shinigami form and strikes Renji with his Zanpakutou. Renji is surprised at the size of Ichigo's Zanpakutou and wonders why the hell it is so big. He knows that the size reflects the spiritual power owned by the Shinigami but he refuses to believe that a brat like Ichigo possesses that kind of power. Renji then begins to fight Ichigo and eventually manages to injure Ichigo's shoulder. He then tells Ichigo to die already so they can take Rukia back and execute her. Ichigo, however, manages to strike Renji's chin so Byakuya warns Renji to not underestimate Ichigo since after all, this is the kid who beat Menos Grande. Renji, however, is unnerved and transform his sword, Zabimaru, into one that looks like multiple see-saws chained together and strikes Ichigo's shoulder again.

Impression:

I like this episode mostly because of it's animation and because Renji is such an interesting character in comparison to Ichigo. Admittedly, story-wise it's not as funny as last week's episode but since the storyline is gearing up towards a serious arc, there's not much that the animators can do about this. Anyway, it's interesting to see Byakuya being as cold as a sashimi. The animators do a good job in showing his lack of interest or care as Renji tries to slice and dice Rukia. I think it's pretty obvious that in the general scheme of things, Byakuya don't give a dime about Rukia's safety. Renji, on the other hand, is a much more interesting character. He is as hot-headed as Ichigo but for some reason I can relate to him better maybe because he doesn't have that angry look on him the whole time. At any rate, it'll be interesting to see the showdon between the two.

© memento 2003