English Dub Review: Bleach Episode 344

Last week was your typical Kubo fare. It was just a boring season opener to the final season of a boring show. What does this week give us? Well, I’m glad you asked. It gave us one thing: exposition!

Ichigo’s replacement, Uryu, punches the shit out of one guy, clear across the yard. This incites the entire gang of students, getting Ichigo to come out of hiding. The head guy starts talking, which only attracts a punch from both Ichigo and Uryu. They only fight more, and argue more than that while they’re fighting the street gang. More guys show up, only to get their asses kicked by Ikumi, Ichigo’s boss. She palms his head, and drags him into the van to get him to work. They make it to the job, which gets misconstrued as a take-out place. Ichigo gets a bunch of work, but the wonder goes to Ikumi, who manages to go from bitchy, uptight boss to warm, pleasant mother. The big dude with the black hair shows up to the shop, offering a bowl of ramen.

Back at school, Orihime is still as stupid as ever, thinking Ichigo got kidnapped. She finally puts two and two together, and is told that he got taken to work. Uryu still senses spirit energy around Ichigo, and gets all broody. Back at the shop, Ichigo is trying to figure out what’s up with the guy, but he doesn’t really give an answer. He needs a job done, and pulls out a picture. Outside, two guys are playing baseball, and Ginta throws a fastball into the kid’s stomach. Turns out, they’re at the old Soul Society hangout. Turns out, the picture is of Ichigo’s dad. He infers that Ichigo doesn’t really know his dad, telling him to go to Uehara’s shop. Karin sister tries to buy stuff, but Uehara gives it to her on the house. He asks how he’s doing, but Karin says that Ichigo doesn’t need his powers back, and he’s better off. The man meets up with Ichigo on the side of Uehara’s shop, and gives his name, Kugo Ginjo. He throws a black card at Ichigo, and tells him he should act fast.

At the Kurasawa house, Ichigo is STILL brooding about his powers, until Orihime shows up with a bin of bread. She’s figidity, for some reason. She finally comes out and asks if Ichigo has anything happened to him recently. She thinks he’s in trouble. She concedes that she may be imagining things, and Ichigo gives her back a manga he borrowed. Uryu is in front of the house, and sees a guy walking the electrical lines. He jumps off, and Uryu gives chase. He notices the green light under the guys feet whenever he jumps, and the guy comes back around, and all we see is a blood splatter. Ichigo is looking at the black card, which says Xcution, when he hears sirens. We jump back to the cop car, and we get Uryu laying in the street, presumably dead.

Nothing makes an ok episode better than a murder cliffhanger. The story advances loads in comparison to last episode, finally giving us the name of the stranger. We also get to see more members of Ichigo’s crew, with Uehara making an appearance, finally. The schoolyard fight took up a decent chunk of time, and the only payoff we get is Ichigo get bitched by Ikumi. In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t West Side Story. Orihime is still useless, because she can’t even stammer out a complete sentence properly. The real star of this episode, is definitely Ikumi, and her badassery. She bitched out an entire school gang, Ichigo, and then switched it up and was ridiculously tender with her son. Second place goes to her kid, because he hates Ichigo as much as I do.

To be completely honest, the episode was enjoyable, but I don’t have a lot to say about it. It was a safe episode, giving us plot that we needed to actually give a crap about this season, while just playing it very safe. In a story of side characters that are more interesting, Ichigo often gets lost in the shuffle. He gets lost when he’s arguing with Uryu. The good news, I guess, is that Ichigo is going to be thrust back in the limelight, which is a good thing. There’s only 19 or so episodes left.