English Dub Review: Bleach Episode 347

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Why does Bleach always start with the last minute or so from the last episode? We get the recap of the last part of the discussion between Kugo and Ichigo, where Ichigo tells him that his Soul Reaper powers aren’t what brought him to Xcution. Ichigo leaves. Kugo explains that he knew Ichigo wouldn’t accept his proposal right away, and he needs to be convinced. Xcution has a discussion about whether they really need Ichigo or not, with them coming to the consensus that they do. That’s good because we wouldn’t have much of a plot to close the series out, right?

We cut to the next scene, where there’s a guy who is struggling to breathe, and he sees chains everywhere, including through a hole in his chest. This guy is a Demi-Hollow, close to becoming a full Hollow. The mysterious guy from the end of the episode finally shows up, glad that the Soul Reapers haven’t found him yet. He shoves his sword through the hole, shattering the chains, and they both disappear.  The next day, Ichigo is getting spied on by Riruka, with Jackie observing. Unfortunately for Riruka, the 0nly conclusion that Jackie comes to is that Riruka has a crush on Ichigo.

At the hospital, Orihime comes with a shit ton of DVDs to keep Uryu entertained. He’s still in tremendous pain, and Orihime offered to heal him. He turns it down, so she asks about why he was around Ichigo’s place. A “spiritual explosion” (I shit you not, that’s what the closed captions on Adult Swim called it.) happens, heralding in the appearance of a Hollow. Uryu is useless right now, so he just sits in bed and hopes everyone is okay. Meanwhile, Riruka is still following Ichigo, who meets up with Orihime. She tries to protect Ichigo, but the spiritual disturbance stops. After walking Orihime back, he sees the river he chucked his Soul Reaver Badge into and walks to it.

At his house, Ichigo is laying in bed. He is going over all of the people who got hurt or put in harm’s way. He goes back over his talk with Kugo, and he says Ichigo has one day to decide on his powers. Downstairs, Karin tells Yuzu that Ichigo isn’t eating, and an already pissed off Yuzu says she’s done with Ichigo. Karin walks away from that mess to take a bath, but she walks outside when she feels something off. Back with Team Xcution, they are waiting for Ichigo. They all think Ichigo is out, so Kugo goes for a walk. The next morning, The Kurosaki kids are eating breakfast, when Karin tells Ichigo she felt someone was outside. Ichigo dismisses it as nothing important, even though he thinks it may have been Kugo. Ichigo finds Chad on his way to class, who wants to talk about Xcution. They go back to Ichigo helping Chad save something important to Chad, forming a bond. Chad wants him to get his powers back, but Ichigo wants to hear nothing of it.

Team Xcution is feeling dejected because Ichigo seems like a lost cause. Chad tells the group that Karin felt like there was someone at their house. Chad and Riruka found a strange presence close to Ichigo, and everyone seems on edge. Kugo especially seems nervous now. Ichigo actually finds the mysterious man, and they start playing a game of cat and mouse. Ichigo is winded but finds Yuzu. He says he would help with groceries until Yuzu is grabbed by a Hollow. He is completely outclassed and is getting beat. However, Kugo makes the save, getting Yuzu to safety. Kugo then gets his sword out and kills the Hollow in one swing. Back at the Xcution headquarters, the team is pissed at Kugo for leaving Ichigo. Chad brings Ichigo back, who wants his powers back. Kugo tosses Ichigo’s badge back, telling him to protect it this time.

This episode was rather boring. Yeah, Ichigo got his badge back, but does that allow him to actually power up? Does anything of interest happen? I can’t answer the first question. The second, however, is very clear. No, nothing happened. It was a lot of talking. Everyone talked, and then talked some more. Even Chad, the most silent of the bunch, talked all of the time. This episode rivaled the Lord of the Rings in the amount of talking, with the least amount of anything getting done. Kugo killed a hollow, to no one’s surprise. Ichigo got bitch slapped by the same Hollow, also to no one’s surprise.

I realize that was to set up Ichigo’s feeling of uselessness, but god damn. I felt useless because there were other things that could be done. As I’ve been saying since I was first introduced to Bleach, Ichigo is the most useless main character in anime. This guy can have the powers of every type of enemy ever, and he still sucks a big one. If I had my way, Kugo would just kill Ichigo, and continue to be a badass.

While this was in the manga, this felt like a filler episode. Thankfully, things will pick up with that mysterious guy finally making some moves. Hopefully, Ichigo will flex some Soul Reaver or Fullbring muscle and do something decent.