Bleach 84: “Dissension in Substitute Team? Rukia’s Betrayal?”
Review
Since Yoshino’s death five episodes ago Bleach has taken a dip in quality. A major factor of this is because the writers have shifted the focus of the show from Ichigo and gang to trying to flesh out the remaining Bounts. And outside of Kariya, and maybe Koga, all the Bounts are dull one dimensional characters. Yoshi and Mabashi, the Bounts Rukia, Orihime, and Kurudo, are great examples of this and a lot of their dialog, especially Mabashi, feels to forced. It doesn’t help that the fight between Yoshi, and later Mabshi, and Rukia, Orihime, and Kurudo isn’t at all interesting. Also since Rukia’s return I am wondering why she is fighting using her gigai instead of her shinigami body? I know that Rukia is still recovering all her powers but shouldn’t she still be able to use her shinigami body to fight instead of her gigai?
The only real saving grace of this episode is Ichigo and Kira’s fight with Koga and Dalk. I like Kira’s zanpakuto’s special ability. Its is great seeing how imaginative Tite Kibo is with all the different special abilities of every shinigamies zapakuto that makes them unique. Hopefully the other shinigami that were deployed to Earth show up to help the other fights become interesting
Episode Rating – 6/10
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion 24: “Collapsing Stage”
Review
With only one episode left in this season the writers still have a lot of plotlines still unresolved. But given that past episodes the people behind Code Geass get the benefit of the doubt that they can rap up some of these plotlines while leaving some for the next season and creating new ones. Even with this problem some might have it should not take away the enjoyment of this episode. Props have to be given to the anime department for being able to create some great action scenes in this episode involving the Knightmare Frames. This show is not known for the mecha fights but the animators did a good job in showing how violent a war is especially when it involves people fighting in giant mecha.
Now outside of all the fighting the writers were able to create a lot of character work in this episode as well. There was Kallen revealing her true self to her Ashford Academy friends, Ogi getting shot by Villetta after she recovered her memory, Milly going nuts and ready to blow everyone up to kill Zero, Cornelia seeking revenge for her sisters death, and so on. Code Geass is definetely not lacking in the amount of characters it has been shown and fleshed out, even if it was slightly, that now they have found a way to involve just about every character in this war some how.
The biggest character development in this episode is from the co-stars of this show: Lealouch and Suzaku. Throughout this series these two best friends life have drawn many parrallels with each one fighting on the other side and in this episode both characters have let go of their previous beliefs and have descended down a much darker path than they started the show in. I thought the argument Lealouch/Zero gives Suzaku of who is the bigger hypocrite to be a very strong statement. In the end it looks like Lealouch and Suzaku will have one final confrontation in the season finally. This is made much more interesting with the mysterious VV appearing in front of Nunally to what seems to kidnap her which may affect all of Lealouch’s plan.
Episode Raing – 9.4/10