Bleach Volume 11

It’s crunch-time for the Soul Society. Jin Kariya, the Bount, has come to wreak vengeance on those responsible for creating him. After centuries of persecution in the world of the living, Kariya has lost sight of everything except this single desire – and now that he has discovered the Joukai Crest, he plans to use it to annihilate everything and everyone in the Seireitei. Ichigo and his friends plan to stop him. The only question is whether the Soul Reapers and one substitute Soul Reaper can pool their knowledge and skills in time. And time is running out…

Once the bread-and-butter battles with the other Bounts and their Dolls are out of the way, this arc takes on a new lease of life and delivers something of the old Bleach sparkle that makes the series so addictive.

All this culminates in the inevitable showdown between Kariya and Ichigo on Sokyuko Hill. Will Ichigo’s hidden inner Hollow reappear for a few moments’ crazed mayhem? And will that appearance sway the final outcome of the battle – or destabilize Ichigo’s sanity? 

The last episode, the calm after the storm, feels just a little anticlimactic as Renji and Ichigo reminisce and bicker at Rukia’s bedside (the poor girl is trying – with little success – to recuperate from the injuries she received fighting the Bounts.)  It’s only in the closing moments, where we see a mysterious stranger gazing down on Ichigo’s hometown, that clues are planted for the return to the ‘proper’ plot (left hanging at the end of Season 3) and Series 6. 

If the curse of filler means that no significant character development can take place, we’ve nevertheless learned a little more about Uryuu’s Quincy past, and been granted some revealing glimpses of the grotesque Captain Mayuru Kurotsuchi of the sinister Shinigami Research Institute and his ‘daughter’/lieutenant, Nemu.

With the brief flashes of humour confined to the all-too-brief ‘Illustrated Guide to Soul Reapers: Golden’ that come at the end of each episode, it feels as if something’s missing (although that isn’t a request from me for more appearances by Don Kanonji.)

As the number of Bleach episodes goes way beyond the three hundred mark, it’s maybe worth pausing to note that at the end of Season 5 we’re only a third of the way through and that these episodes were first broadcast way back in 2006-7. In terms of Dragon Ball Z, we’ve roughly reached the moment when Namek explodes – and DBZ never made it as far as a 300th episode, concluding at #291. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that we’ve a long way to go before we catch up with Japan.

This set is light on extras, as usual, with just a production art gallery and closing textless song.

After stating my reservations, I still find myself awarding this 7 out of 10. And why? Because, when I compare these episodes with Romeo x Juliet, a series with higher production values and considerably loftier intellectual pretensions, I have to confess that I enjoyed Bleach a heck of a lot more. Roll on Season 6!

In Summary
If you can overlook some cheap animation, the conclusion to the Bounts Arc is still well worth watching, even if not true Bleach gold. Filler though it is, there are some genuinely touching and thrilling moments. And I’ll happily watch anything in which Kenpachi Zaraki draws his zanpakuto!