Bleach ep.4

October 29, 2004 | 1 Comments

This is an okay episode in my opinion. I'm not particularly impressed with the storyline but then again, I wasn't either when I read this part of the manga. Anyway, just like the previous episode, there are some minor modifications made to the story. Thankfully, none of the changes are as serious as Orihime brother's reason for turning into a Hollow. Animation-wise, I think this episode looks much better in comparison to episode 3. This probably has more to do with the fact that I didn't have to endure the highly contrasted world of the Hollow for longer than 2 or 3 minutes. However, I am kind of dreading next week's episode because the majority part of that episode will be a Hollow fight scene. I abhor the idea of watching the entire episode in that kind of color. And I actually like that particular fight scene so I'm kind of hoping that the animators will tone down the color saturation a little bit.

In this week's episode, One of Ichigo's classmates, Sado Yasutora aka Chad has obtained himself a 'cursed' pink-cheeked Parakeet who can talk like a normal human. However, since the Parakeet is 'cursed', bad things have been happening one after the other to Chad. First, a construction pole falls on top of him, then he run into a motorbike, and the bad luck continues even after Chad ends up being hospitalised at Ichigo's family clinic. When Ichigo and Rukia sense a Hollow power from one of Chad's scars, however, they suspect that Chad's misfortune has nothing to do with a curse. Meanwhile, Karin, Ichigo's little sister, has been having a nightmare or more appropriately, she's been seeing the vision of the Parakeet's soul. At the same time, Chad has disappeared from Ichigo's family clinic so Ichigo and Rukia decide to track him down. But when Karin appears all of a sudden in the middle of their search, Ichigo has no choice but to take her home and leave Rukia to fight a Hollow on her own. The episode then ends with Chad trying to help Rukia in her fight.

Impression:

I have to admit that 'The pink-cheeked Parakeet' is not exactly one of my favourite Bleach arc. I think I ended up liking the second half of it where Rukia and Chad band together to fight the Hollow because of its cool action scenes. Having said that, I always think the first part is rather dull. I also always wonder what Chad is actually made of. That man is not human, people. He got hit by a humongous construction pole and actually survive without any need for hospitalisation. I'm also a bit disappointed that the humor from the manga doesn't translate as well into its anime form. Rukia and her juice box for some reason is funnier in the manga. It's probably because in this version, there aren't as many close-up shots of her confused face. In fact, I think they cut the rooftop scene short. Oh well, there's always Rukia and her silly drawing and her cool fight scene against the Hollow. I guess that's enough to tide me over until next week's episode.

© memento 2003