I have decided not to continue my reviews on Bleach until the filler arc is over. I’m not particularly keen on watching the 6 or so episodes I have missed since my trip. Once they get back on to the real story I will probably pick it up for review again.

To my surprise this episode turned out to be more fun to watch than a few of the previous episodes. I didn’t expect much from a story focused on Chad, Nova, and Ururu. It must be because Rangiku showed up in the beginning and made the episode that much better than it would have been without her. The art for this episode seemed to be better than a good proportion of this filler, which helped make this easier to watch. We continue to see Chad realize more and more that he isn’t exactly all that helpful with his current strength. He gets saved no less than two times in this episode, one of which results in Ururu getting caught. The most entertaining part of the episode was when Nova saved Rangiku he then zipped up to hide his embarassment. I thought that scene was pretty funny. We don’t get hour-long “Bleach” specials without a cost. Thus the series will not be airing next week.

The good news is this episode was better than last week’s episode. The bad news is I still found this one hour special to be quite boring. The story is moving forward little by little. It really didn’t accomplish all that much for two episodes worth. There was quite a bit more scenes with Orihime in this special than most of the other episodes since the beginning. That’s really about the only positive thing I can say about this special. Everything else was just sleep-inducing. It looks like the story next week will move on to Chad and Nova, but by now I’m not expecting much from future episodes in this filler arc. If you’re suffering from insomnia I highly recommend you watch this.

This episode officially holds the title of “worst episode” for me. While watching this episode I kept wondering when the episode would end. It was pretty much just a waste of time to watch it. Skipping this episode wouldn’t make a difference either because there really was no plot development to speak of. I thought it was almost as exciting as watching paint dry. The only thing worth noting is Kira shows up at the end, just in time to save Ichigo. We do get to see how Bounts get their dolls, but at this point it feels really insignificant. Next week is going to be a one hour special of “Bleach”. It will probably be a lot more entertaining this episode. I don’t see how they can make it any less boring.

Most of the Bounts are now out to test their new powers. Urahara completed the Bount sensor and it turned out to be a silly headband. I must admit I thought it was pretty funny to hear Ichigo say the line required to activate it. It got damaged not long after activating it. I thought it was something that would at least be used more than once. When Ichigo was in trouble I actually thought it would be Rangiku or one of the other shinigami from Soul Society that would save him. I didn’t expect the Hollow within Ichigo to come out at all during this filler arc. It may have looked cool, but it’s seemed too convenient of a way to get out of that situation. I guess it doesn’t matter all that much as long as the episode turned out better than I had expected.

We get a glimpse of what the new dolls’ capabilities are in this episode.  I didn’t find the episode all that fun to watch.  The only real redeeming factor for me is we find out that Rangiku along with 3 others are going to be assiting Ichigo.  Although I feel that this filler arc has dragged on far too long, we do potentially get some benefits.  It gives us an opportunity to get to know some of these  characters better.  Plus, we can never have too much Rangiku.  They are really going to have to change some things around once they return to the Aizen story arc though.  By including things things that were not supposed to happen until they actually get back to the main storyline, we may end up getting quite a different story when they do get around to it.

Instead of moving forward with the filler they gave us a filler episode within the filler arc. I can’t think of any other series that have done this off the top of my head. I actually enjoyed this episode more than a good portion of the other episodes in this filler arc. If you miss the kind of humour that the series included in their filler episodes, then this episode should satisfy you. It looks like they tried to cram in as much humour as they possibly could. Not every joke worked, but overall I enjoyed this episode. They even extended the comedy to the narration of the preview for the next episode which was a nice bonus. As much as I want them to finish this filler arc, this episode was a welcome change of pace to the otherwise stale filler arc.

Tension is still supposed to be running high, but they are still able to throw in a bit of comedy. Renji’s coffee scene wasn’t necessary at all, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. It briefly takes your mind away from the fact that this filler arc is still not over. The filler arc takes another turn in this episode with Jin talking about Yoshino’s ability. It’s unfortunate they killed off Yoshino. With Yoshino gone, it’s one less reason to keep watching this filler arc. I can’t tell for sure if we’re nearing the end of it or not. Although I’d wager we still have quite a ways to go considering the amount of unanswered questions left. One good thing I can think of for having such a long filler arc is we may not have to sit through more fillers before they move on with the Aizen story once again.

After taking a two-week break I expected a good episode. It wasn’t the worst episode, but I was hoping for a lot more than what we got. It felt as if nothing much was accomplished over the course of the entire episode. The art was subpar and there was almost no plot development except for bits of information here and there. The only thing that saved this episode from the gutter were the very limited scenes that were decently entertaining. An example would be the scene that took place in Soul Society where we got a small amount of new information. How they captured video of the Quincy is beyond me though. I still have some hope in this filler arc’s potential to provide better episodes down the line.

I didn’t think this episode was really that much better than the previous episode. The only redeeming factor was the fact that we got to see Yoruichi again. With her appearance it has sparked the possibility of this filler arc turning around. I had almost given up all hope in this filler arc getting better. As for the other events in this episdoe, none of them were particularly interesting. We get to see how Ichinose met Kariya. It might have been an important scene but I found myself zoning out while watching that part. Even though this filler arc has been somewhat disappointing up until now, we can always count on the omake scenes at the end to be entertaining. The series is taking yet another break. The next episode is scheduled to air on May 2nd.