English Dub Review: Bleach Episode 345

Overview (Spoilers Below) 

The ambulance hauls off Uryu, while Ichigo is still in his room. Way to respond to the sirens and the crowd near your house, man. Meanwhile, Keigo and Mizuiro are walking past a construction site, when Mizuiro feels like he is being watched. A beam falls off from the top of the site, and Just in time, Tatsuki pushes the two nitwits aside so the beam misses. They thank her, and Mizuiro asks if she was following her. She says no, she saw the beam drop from a distance.

Next, we get Kugo, who is greeted by two members of Xcution, Ruruka, and Giriko. Ruruka taunts Kugo because he wasn’t able to recruit Ichigo to the group. She furthers it by saying he has no persuasive skills. Giriko then says that Kugo persuaded all of the members of Xcution to join.  Riruka gets angrier, saying she wasn’t persuaded, she just thought it would be fun. He tells them both to shut up, and he starts walking. Meanwhile, down by the river, Ichigo tosses his substitute shinigami badge.  He comes back home to Yuzu showing him her test score of a 95. Ichigo seems happy and tells her to tell their dad. This doesn’t exactly work as planned, because Yuzu just gets rather disappointed at him.

We go over to Orihime’s house, who is having an over-exaggeration of her time with Ichigo. She gets all hot and flustered until she cracks her head on her dresser. She still won’t let go about Ichigo changing and keeping something from her. She then gets a call from Uryu, and it seems rather serious. Back at house Kurosaki, Ichigo’s sisters are going back and forth as to why Ichigo is not eating with them. Yuzu gets even more pissed and storms off. Right after that, Ichigo runs out of the house, leaving Karin wondering where he’s going.

Ichigo makes it to the hospital, with Orihime already there. Uryu is getting the riot act from his doctor, getting called an amateur. Ichigo practically offers to get his powers back, to team with Uryu, but he refuses the help. They leave the room and consult with Ryuken. Ichigo runs off, again, leaving Orihime. Uryu wasn’t attacked by either a Hollow or a Soul Reaver, but Ryuken detected residual spirit energy where Uryu was attacked. Uryu had nothing to say because he knew nothing. Ryuken assumes that the attacker is a human, with powers similar to Orihime and Sako.

Ichigo has a dream that night, involving Rukia, who can’t remember who Ichigo is. Ichigo wakes up, and at breakfast tries to get his sisters to go shopping with him. They seem rather cold on the idea, but warm to it slightly. Ichigo is approached by Keigo and Mizuiro to go bowling, but he declines. They meet up and start without Karin, who is running late. Meanwhile, that street thief is back, in front of Keigo and Mizuiro. Tatsuki finds Ichigo, who tells him that Keigo and Mizuiro are missing. She tells Ichigo what actually happened the day before at the construction site. Yuzu gives him the ok to help, and Tatsuki and Ichigo are off.

They split, with Ichigo going to the construction site. He finds the duo and finds that the thief is responsible. He attacks Ichigo while he is holding up piping, but manages to beat him. Ryuken says there isn’t anything Ichigo can do. Ichigo realizes the only thing he can do is join with Xcution. He calls, and the automated service welcomes him to Xcution.

We’re finally getting somewhere with the story. It’s good to find that Ichigo is finally getting some balls, and trying to save his friends from getting attacked. Unfortunately, it seems that he doesn’t realize that he’s getting played by the villains. Don’t worry too much, he’s really that dumb.

This episode seems like it’s just a reason to get every supporting character some screen time, including Keigo and Mizuiro. I guess it doesn’t degrade from the episode too much but just adds to the tires spinning a bit. There isn’t much for me to say, because not a lot has been revealed, especially with who actually attacked Uryu. I think the action should pick up next week.