Bleach: Series 4 Part 2 (Review)
Monday, 22nd February 2010, 14:24

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Extras
Each episode ends in an Illustrated Guide to Soul Reapers Golden comedy sketch.

Disc 1 has a textless closing sequence, along with 14 line-art images in a gallery.

Disc 2 has the closing sequence again, and 19 line-art images in a gallery, as well as trailers for Naruto, the Naruto movie, Bleach, the Death Note live action feature, and the Bleach Video Game.

Conclusion
After the misdirection at the start of the fourth series, with five episodes devoted to a training exercise, you’d think that eight straight episodes centred on the main arc would feel like a godsend. Not exactly though, as while the Bount arc does get into full swing in this two-disc collection, it’s not without its flaws. Of course it is filler, which many would consider a flaw in itself, but the Bount arc actually has surprised me so far, as it certainly isn’t filler as Naruto has taught me to expect it. Naruto filler has been small stories, completely unrelated to the main storyline, and making little or no use of the universe that has been established for it. The Bount arc of Bleach on the other hand is the complete opposite. It takes what has been introduced so far in the manga storyline, and actually uses it, so we get the characters in the real world, joined by the characters from the Soul Society, the same jargon is used, and most worrying of all, there actually threatens to be character development outside of the manga storyline, at least with Uryu Ishida, whose story in this set of eight episodes develops the character more than the rest of the series has done so far. Whether the character development will stick, or whether there will be a whopping great reset button is yet to be seen.

Problem number one is that the Bounts are as uninteresting a bunch of villains as you could possibly expect. They are a cross between vampires and the immortals from Highlander, and other than Yoshino and to a lesser extent Kariya, they get little or no character nuance. The Bounts are a human tribe that extend their lives by devouring souls (usually after death), but are now breaking their traditions and laws by taking the souls of the living. Yoshino is the Bount that Ichigo first encountered, and as we learn in this instalment, her past is a tragic one, and she’s trying to find a positive path for herself, in a life blighted by her nature. Kariya is the leader of the Bounts, and it’s his plan that needs Uryu, the last Quincy, hence the Bounts’ arrival in the city, and the threat that everyone now faces. He’s a ruthless character, but again there is something about him that is masked, his true purpose is yet to be revealed. But every other Bount is a moustache-twirling villain, prone to grand pronouncements and evil laughs. The one redeeming feature is the presence of Maki Ichinose, a Shinigami that has left the Soul Society to seek his own path, after Zaraki Kenpachi killed his Captain and took over his squad. He now serves Kariya and the Bounts, and his presence adds another thorn in Ichigo’s side. It also provides an extra reason for the Soul Society to get involved in what’s happening, as one of their own is effectively betraying them.

The second problem is that this arc is so slow! It seems to take an age for anything of interest to happen, filler of its own expands it; comedy interludes, flashbacks, and pauses for deep and meaningless conversation. Episode 79 gets at least 7 minutes devoted to breakfast, as the team discuss their next move, and then the focus switches to the mod souls in their toy form, who then proceed to have an observational analysis of the breakfast, noting that such triviality helps to distract one from impending doom, allowing one to recollect one’s thoughts and refocus the will. It’s a wonder that I wasn’t snoring at this point. The Bount storyline could easily have been told in a third of the time, but there are still another three discs to go at this point. Of course brevity isn’t the point of filler. You need enough putty to fill the cracks. I suppose stretching out a filler storyline as thinly as it can spread is preferable to actually coming up with more than one story. It just makes it a chore to watch.

It’s not bad filler, certainly not as bad as Naruto’s has been, but it is slow, and it is dull, with only a few moments of inspiration serving to keep me interested. Where this collection leaves the story, with perhaps the most interesting filler character out of the picture, it doesn’t bode well for the final instalment of the arc. It may be a spectacular cliffhanger, and an emotional development in the storyline, but I don’t actually see a lot of room for improvement at this point. I hope that the final three discs will prove me wrong, although we have a slightly lengthy wait to find out.

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