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With all of the new series hitting our shelves this year it’s easy to forget that the likes of Bleach is still going strong. However, with Aizen saga building towards its final confrontation there’s plenty of life in the old dog yet. This volume starts where the last left off, with Ichigo
embroiled in a battle with Privaron Espada Dordonii, a formidable opponent who
has given him far more trouble than he expected. Ichigo knows that there will be
far deadlier enemies to face so wanted to conserve his strength, but can he
afford to do so? He’s not the only one fighting either, Chad is outclassed by a
powerful former Espada but the battle could be what he needs to refine his
powers, the problem is staying alive long enough to find out. Uryu faces a
tricky long-range fighter and has the added distraction of being joined by Nel’s
annoying friend Pesche. However, the hardest fights lie in wait for Rukia and
Renji. Renji is being watched by the scheming Espada Syaezel Apporo, a highly
dangerous enemy who studies his opponents forensically to expose their weakness,
whilst Rukia is forced to come face to face with a ghost from her past. The
meeting brings a lot of bitter memories for her, and as she struggles to come to
terms with her past actions she risks losing the will to fight. There’s more to
the situation than she knows though, and the truth could cause her more pain
than she could know... |
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After a few episodes of running around in Hueco Mundo all of the characters are now embroiled in battles with powerful opponents who are forcing them to dig deep to stay alive. Unlike previous volumes, which would vary the pace by breaking up the battles with exposition, this one is nearly pure action from start to finish. All of the main characters are fighting, and apart from a few moments of dialogue with Orihime and Aizen’s Espadas, everything is focused on the battles. As you could expect the action is pretty impressive with lots of interesting enemies and new powers, and it’s great to finally see Chad and Uryu developing their abilities and showing their strength. Too often the series has |
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become simply an Ichigo show, with many of the other human characters sidelined, so it’s kind of refreshing to see them have their moment to shine. It remains to be seen how long their role will last, as Chad usually end up being sidelined, but it’s good to see that they’re more formidable than before. The best aspect of this volume though is Rukia’s
battle. By bringing in a character from her past and forcing her to face
up to some painful memories her battle has an extra layer of drama that
the other don’t have. Rukia’s emotional torment as she flips from
happiness to suspicion and from despair to anger is brilliantly realised
both by the animation and by the voice actors. The battle threatens to
push her over the edge, and because of this it’s more gripping than the
others in this volume. It’s also one of the best dramatic moments in the
series for a long time, and skilfully blends the action with the drama
in a way that enhances both. |
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As always, it’s some of the ill-judged comedy moments that lets the side down, with both Pesche and Dodonchakka remaining extremely annoying. There’s also the problem that despite the dramatic edge to Rukia’s battle the whole volume is just wall to wall fighting, and some of these fights are not even resolved this time round. The action may be a bit too relentless for some, and without the conclusion of these conflicts you are left rueing the fact Bleach Series 8 Part 1 only has 10 episodes on it rather than the 13 you get from most half-series box sets. Admittedly this is standard for Bleach, and if you’ve been buying it to this point odds are it doesn’t bother you too much, but with several fights and plots left up in the |
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air at the end of this volume it is frustrating that there aren’t another few episodes to round some of it off. Another frustration is the increasingly long recaps at the start of each episode, which clock in at several minutes of stuff you’ve already seen per episode. This serves to reduce the amount of content in real terms even further, as the start of each episode often features several minutes of footage from the end of the previous one alongside clips from earlier episodes. Again, this is nothing new for the series (although these recaps do appear to have gotten longer), but it breaks the flow of the action and with an all-action volume like this one it’s more disruptive than usual. Bleach Series 8 Part 1 is still a decent volume which is thankfully devoid of filler episodes and keeps the comedy shtick to a minimum. Characters like Chad and Uryu get to show off a bit, and some of the enemies have some interesting powers that are unlike those featured in the series so far. Rukia’s battle is one of the most intriguing for a while, with a real emotional element that pushes her character and draws a great performance from her voice actress, particularly in Japanese. The action is good, but there’s little story development this time round and the episode recaps really begin to grate after a while. It’s a shame there aren’t more episodes in this volume as it ends up being a kind of middling one, the battles are good but apart from some development for Chad they don’t really go anywhere and some don’t finish. Rukia’s battle adds some much needed gloss to the volume, but you get the impression that the best is yet to come fight-wise. Good, but could be better if it could shake the time wasting recaps. Extras The usual stuff, trailers, production art galleries and clean title sequences. There’s also a series of short segments after the credits on each episode which summarise some of the characters or abilities seen through the previous few episodes. Not bad. Ratings Feature:
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