BLEACH EPISODE #80

There’s been no sign of the Bount since the previous battle. Urahara decides that he and Renji should go and investigate the mansion, but sends Ichigo home with the puppets to come up with Bount countermeasures. Of course, Kon and Ririn don’t get along very well, and Yuzu happens to catch her brother trying to keep the two stuffed animals from fighting. After she leaves, Ichigo’s shinigami badge goes off, so he and Rukia go to fight a Hollow. While they’re gone, Ririn and the other two convince Kon that the Bount are after strong spirit powers, which is what Ichigo’s family has. So, they have to protect them. When Ichigo and Rukia return home, they find the place filled with booby traps laid out by the mod-souls. Ichigo doesn’t take these very seriously, wondering who’d actually get caught by these. But just as he’s saying that, they hear a yell come from outside. Hanatarou, who was doing a delivery job, actually fell for a trap. Ririn thinks that this is proof of their traps’ effectiveness, but Ichigo disagrees.

In order to really prove that these Anti-Bount measures work, Ririn and Claude decide to stage a Bount attack using special suits they got from Urahara. Unfortunately, Rukia catches them off-guard by firing away with her blast spells. Nova teleports them to safety, but Ichigo and Rukia then think that the two are attacking him. Ririn and Claude have no choice but to go on the run around town as Rukia and Ichigo chase them. They try to take off the suits, but the switch on the back doesn’t seem to work. In the process of trying to shoot them, Rukia actually blasts Kurumadani Zennosuke (the afro shinigami replacement for Karakura Town). Ririn and Claude return back to Ichigo’s house, but get caught by Ichigo himself. Renji has also been called in by now, so Ririn and Claude combine their suits and transform. They use their powers to switch Zabimaru with a broom and to tie Yuzu to themselves so that Ichigo can’t attack. For Rukia, they surround her with a bunch of rabbits. Their ultimate downfall lies in the CD trap that they set, which is shining light back into their eyes. But before Ichigo and company can finish them off, Nova takes them and removes them from the suits. Kon explains that these suits actually strengthen fighting power, and the group brings them back to Urahara. Kon can’t help but gloat a little over Ririn, and the two start fighting all over again. Ichigo wonders if anyone put away the traps, but both Claude and Nova shake their heads no. As it turns out, Karin returns home and finds her father stuck under one of them.

Well, this is a funny episode…but it was clearly filler stuff, not even really relating to the main Bount storyline. As some have said, this could be seen as filler of a filler arc. Personally, I just look at it like a comedy episode and found most of it to be quite amusing, from Yuzu catching her brother talking to stuffed animals to Rukia blasting Zennosuke. And was that a new mix of the Number One I heard during the transformation scene? Ultimately though, I was a bit disappointed with the episode given how good I thought last week was. I had hoped that they could keep the plot going, but it felt like this killed that momentum. We’ll see how next week turns out, when we return to the main Bount story.



Actually, I’m not entirely positive if next week has Bleach or not, as there have been reports that some channels showed a message that said the next airing will be May 30th with a double episode. For now, I’m going to assume though that Bleach will still be aired next week, reflecting what syoboi’s calendar still says.

To be continued...