BLEACH EPISODE #72

Ichigo and friends are on watch while Ishida is at the hospital. Ishida gets to have a special room because this is the same hospital that his father runs. Meanwhile, Hanatarou has found a job at a local convenience store. He goes to investigate a large explosion outside, only to find that Ganjuu has arrived in this world. Back at the hospital, Rukia suddenly thanks Ichigo, but it only leads the two into an argument. In the silence afterwards, Rukia gets annoyed at the dripping of the water and tries to turn off the faucet. However, the water starts pouring out and soon fills the sink. Renji and Inoue arrive with water buckets to catch the overflow. But water is also coming from other faucets inside the hospital, and it comes flooding into Ishida’s room when Inoue opens the door. The faucet water starts taking form, first surrounding Renji and then turning into two water balls, with a bottle cap as the nucleus of each. The water attempts to drown Ishida, but Ichigo is able to temporarily stop it with his zanpaktou.

The group escapes from the room and go down a flight of stairs, but the water follows them and tries to drown Sado and Ishida. Ichigo’s slashes have a lot less effect this time, so Rukia uses a blast spell to evaporate the water. As a result, the fire alarm to go off and all of the hospital staff and patients evacuate. While looking for a way out, Ichigo’s group runs into two kids - the Bount. By using bottle caps, the two are able to call forth their dolls from ordinary water. Ichigo decides that the best course of action is to run away. They manage to find the elevator down, but water starts coming out of the elevator shaft. Renji and Rukia’s blast spells evaporate some of it, but there’s just too much to handle. Ichigo spots a lighter and an oxygen tank, giving him an idea: he uses them together to create an explosion that evaporates all of the water (and blows out the windows of that floor). They make their way back to the elevator, and everyone gets in while Renji and Ichigo hold off the Dolls long enough so that the elevator can reach the bottom floor. They then jump down the shaft to join their friends. However, it is raining outside, meaning that they’re unable to escape from the water.

This is a pretty action-packed episode even though our heroes spend most of their time running away. Animation is once again very solid, so no complaints there. The new Bount use the power of water, which isn’t very original, but it does make for some funny ways to combat it (mainly Ichigo with a lighter and a gas tank). I’d guess that Yoshino and the new kids would be direct counters to each other, since they’re fire and water.



I was hoping that, after they mentioned Ishida’s father, Uryuu Ryuuken would actually make an appearance, but it never happened. It’s still possible that he’ll show up since the arc seems more directed toward Ishida (this is where a million manga readers tell me no because that would screw up the next manga arc).