Bleach: Arrancar vs Shinigami arc/Turn Back the Pendulum

Bleach Season 10 Part 2 Episodes 202 – 212

Soul Reaper Captain Kenpachi Zaraki is having the fight of his life against Arrancar Nnoitra – in fact he’s fighting for his life. And loving it. But even the seemingly indestructible Kenpachi has met his match; as blood fountains from his many wounds onto the white sand, his friends can only stand helplessly by and watch.

Just as it seems as if the Soul Reaper Captains may actually have managed to stave off the Arrancars for long enough to rescue Orihime, the tables are turned on them yet again. Lord Aizen, it seems, has merely been toying with them and is ready to put the next part of his sinister plan into action. And to Ichigo’s horror, Aizen reveals that he is about to destroy Karakura Town.

And the action suddenly returns to the time of the ‘New Captain Shusuke Amagai’ arc. The sudden – and unexpected – appearance of Princess Rurichiyo in high school startles Ichigo and friends. This two-episode filler is amusing and interesting and all very well, but coming where it does it’s enough to make any viewer throw things at the screen and cuss out loud (guilty as charged.) It’s a real WTF moment – and it’s oddly confusing, as well, because we’ve just learned Aizen’s plans for Karakura Town – and, suddenly, there we are, in Ichigo’s high school. Only we’ve skipped back to the days, weeks, whatever before Orihime’s abduction. Rurichiyo, it seems, has run away from her duties as head of the clan, because she wants to hold a kemari tournament to unite the clan members but Kenryuu blah blah… well, you get the gist.

But then, with episode 206, the tone alters. We’re greeted with the sight of a slowly swinging pendulum and the narrator’s voice tells us that we’ve gone back even further into the past of the Soul Society, over a hundred years, in fact, to follow the fortunes of a certain easy-going, laid-back lieutenant to Captain Yoruichi who’s about to be promoted to captain of Squad Twelve. Kisuke Urahara (Shin’ichiro Miki/ Michael Lindsay) may have the clogs, but he’s yet to acquire his signature green and white stripey hat. Bleach fans are in for a treat as this fascinating trip back into the past is definitely not filler and delivers many insights into characters we’ve come to know and love (or hate.) Most fascinating of all is the introduction of Captain Shinji Hiroka of Squad Five (whom we’ve only encountered on earth in his Visored form) and his bespectacled lieutenant, one Sousuke Aizen. This short arc is called ‘The Past’ and/or ‘Turn Back the Pendulum’ and is essential viewing for Bleach fans.

Bleach looks really good these days, with the new, improved character designs, but what makes this short arc so involving is the direction from Noriyuki Abe and the tight script. If I have a quibble, it’s with the character of Hiyori Sarugaki (feistily played by Reiko Takagi/Laura Bailey.) The diminutive lieutenant is so violent, so aggressive, and so persistently rude to Captains Hiroka and Urahara that it strains credibility that such insubordination would be tolerated in a military context. Tsundere doesn’t even begin to describe her personality; if her consistent punching and kicking is meant to be moe, cute, or even amusing, it just doesn’t ring true.

I still favour the dub, with its snappy rewritten dialogue, over the sub which – although it allows the luxury of listening to the original voice cast – is a pretty wooden affair by comparison.

The Opening “Velonika” is still used throughout this set but there’s a new Ending: “Sky chord ~Otona ni Naru Kimi e~” by Tsuji Shion.

In Summary
If you can ignore the cheerful but largely irrelevant fluff of the two filler episodes, ‘The Past’ makes a gripping and revealing watch that – unlike so much of Bleach – doesn’t drag things out and gets on with delivering the goods. Recommended.