You have to cause a little pain to shed a little light.

I got to episode 237 of Bleach and am now in the midst of filler again, sigh. Even during the parts adapting stuff from the manga, the anime team thought we needed two episodes of Omaeda. And adapting fake Karukura town stuff but not being able to show gore meant that when Matsumoto was gored and everyone was panicking they couldn't show that and it seemed a little silly, because there was no visible wound. But at the same time, the horrors of Ayon were otherwise well realised... I do love the complicated interactions between Matsumoto and Hinamori.

As far as the filler arc I'm in now. Mixed bag, tbh. I've long heard it's one of the better filler arcs, but being better than the Shunsuke Amagai arc isn't saying much. I had the bad taste to actually enjoy the Bount arc 🤣 though.

I have just finished rereading the early urban fantasy parts of Bleach and the Soul Society arc. They're so tightly written and have an energy that leaps off the page. There are certain things that don't hit the same way now that I know the twists, but that just means I admire the skill that goes into making it all come together. It's been said before that the problem with later Bleach is that it's overstuffed, and it's really not wrong. Soul Society arc is such a ride. I feel like I love different things every time. I was especially vibing Renji and Byakuya this time, but sometimes I'm most unhinged about the Chad stuff, or about Ishida, or the 11th div, or the Shibas, or Yoruichi and Soi Feng.... The "why didn't you take me with you" always gets me.

Honestly there's a lot of later stuff that felt like asspulls at the time, but if you reread this arc already knowing it seems fairly well supported, like Yachiru turning out to be Kenpachi's sword, or everything with Gin. Which like, don't get me wrong, plenty of stuff in later arcs is still obviously asspulls like everything KT did with Unohana. But there's a lot of things later on that I feel would have more impact as obvious character growth moments if it weren't so overstuffed with characters that you forget between chapters about such and such. There's so much cool stuff in the fake Karakura town arc, and a bunch of things that pay off later on, but there's so much time and plot and excess new characters between the things set up there and when a lot of them pay off that if you're not paying close attention to a specific character's arc you might not even notice it. Like when Iba lectures Ikkaku to grow the fuck up and get over your bullshit and try to win a fight, even if it means stabbing someone in the back, and the next time Ikkaku shows up in the Fullbring arc he's stabbing someone in the back. But there's so much crap between those points it's easy to miss there's actual character growth there.

There's some great more obvious character stuff I've always loved with Matsumoto, Hinamori, Yumichika and Kira in that arc. But then there's also old man Yama being super boring.

Even in Hueco Mundo I don't get why we spend so much time on Szayelapporo, but then I love the never ending Ulquiorra v Ichigo stuff. But the latter has a clear emotional component and the former is just mad scientist that is hard to kill. Szayelapporo takes forever to defeat, Renji & Ishida are stuck against him forever and then Mayuri shows up and it's like, okay, this guy is just in the way, why should I care?

Whereas with Ulquiorra v Ichigo, there's an obvious emotional issue as well. Which is that even though Ulquiorra literally has a hole where his heart should be, he's obviously fallen for Orihime, and she's there watching the fight so there's something at stake.

It turns out that a few years ago Kubo dropped a Bleach oneshot that has updates on old characters, and some new characters and a bunch of lore, and when people asked if he's ever going to add more his response was basically 'I will if people stop nagging me about it'. Never change, Kubo.

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I've now watched through episode 220 of Bleach. The pillar fights really are so cool. I love Kira's speech about his weapon, and his squad being about despair. Truly, none more goth. Yumichika v Charlotte was just as stupid and yet cool as I remember it being in the manga, and Hisagi's fight was cooler than I remember. I love Ikkaku's failure and Iba giving him the 'grow up and get the fuck over yourself' speech so much. And Komamura ♥ ♥ Komamura is so good.

I made it to episode 216 of Bleach! Yes, I did watch the two episodes of filler about Urahara being so bored he creates his own super sentai team. They were not without amusement but they were also… not great. The ~comedic sexual harassment~ thing Honshou Chizuru does isn't funny to me in 2025. I was going to say that KT loves his predatory lesbians, but I guess none in the series come to mind other than Chizuru and Giselle, and of those only Giselle is a villain… Can't tell if that makes it better or worse. But at least these episodes aren't as boring as the Shunsuke Amagai filler arc.

But 215 and 216 are non-filler, yay! Finally getting to see stuff I've wanted to see animated forever and really should have gotten around to when it came out so I wasn't catching up like this. I do wonder if the filler would have been even more annoying if I were watching the series as it came out, though. New opening credits song and animation! Feels like it's all bad shots for the Seireitei pin up calendar. TBH, I liked the previous opening credits better.

Anyway, resumption of the Ulquiorra v Ichigo fight. I do love Ulquiorra, and it's a great fight, and there's some great tension with Orihime.

And the four pillars! My boy Yumichika is back on my screen ♥ ♥ he and Ikkaku are so dumb, I'm enjoying their bits immensely. TBH, I don't remember much of the other pillar fights beyond thinking Kira's misery guts thing got kind of interesting. I don't remember anything about who he fought, though, so even though this part of the story isn't actually new to me, it feels new to me.

On the weekend I caught up with friends for dinner and mentioned I got back into Bleach, and someone made a comment about not liking one of the final pairings of the series and I had to be [jokingly] like 'are we going to have a ship war at this dinner table'. I am 100% Renji/Rukia trash. But it's not really a series for romance, and I can't say I care that much about Bleach ships in general. I have like two ships I care about in Bleach, and all my other opinions are about the fight scenes and outfits and weird nonsense. And the friendships. The high quality dumbass friendships. People try to engage me with their thoughts on Ichigo ships and I'm always like he could have ended up with Kenpachi for all I care, idgaf. And like, Ishida's in a beautiful long term relationship with his sewing kit, I don't care if he ever dates a human being.

Not just reading Bleach again, but watching it again. I never finished the old anime (and I guess the new one of the final arc isn't done yet but should be this year?). I wasn't sure where I was up to last time I watched, which would not be an issue if it were still on Crunchyroll, but alas... I was pretty sure I'd already seen the Shunsuke Amagai arc, which is the absolutely most boring filler arc. I will take no arguments on this. So I started the episodes just after, and it seems like that's a good choice, because it all seems to be Hueco Mundo episodes I haven't seen.

I remember last time I was watching I was excited to get to the end of the boring filler and get to animation of bits I enjoy from the manga, but I must have gotten distracted by the dozen other things I was watching at the time. Now I've reached episode 204... which turns out to be more filler, hahaha! But at least I got to see some cool fights before that.

Nnoitra v Kenpachi felt a little dragged out animated, but I do like the ending, the way the flashback makes it clear that they fight for totally opposite reasons. Kenpachi is so fighting obsessed that it's always a shock when he has his moments of adult sense and maturity, but it is in character for him, and I do like him telling Ichigo that fighting everyone and saving everything is not his job (I mean, we know that Ichigo is the main character and that therefore saving everything is his job, but it is good to see a semi-responsible adult tell him he doesn't have to be responsible for everything). I feel like Byakuya vs the guy with all the eyes was more exciting to me in the manga; the problem with how slow the anime is (and I get it's A. because they didn't want to outpace the manga too much and B. because this is aimed at 12-15 year olds, and therefore characters talk slowly; tbh, it's helpful for me as a language learner that they talk slowly) is that some things hit stronger for me in the written form where I can read at a pace that makes the impact strongest. But I do love Byakuya being ice cold in service of saving Rukia and how far he's come since the soul society arc. Mayuri vs Szayelaporro is like, fine, whatever, I liked it in the manga but I don't like Mayuri so I mostly wanted it over and done with.

But as soon as this new to me filler is done (please be only one episode), I get to see more cool stuff animated! For the first time for me! More of the Ulquiorra-Orihime-Ichigo not quite love triangle, my boy Yumichika showing up again, that fuckhead Ikkaku getting absolutely told, etc. etc.