English Dub Review: Bleach Episode 357

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What is Ichigo’s plan now that he has his Fullbring abilities?

 

Spoilers!

For an episode that had very little to do with Ichigo, it was very enjoyable. Episode 357 was all about Chad and Orihime trying to piece together what Tsukishima’s plan was all about. Unfortunately, Chad and Orihime get caught inside Tsukishima’s web. I wasn’t expecting for Tsukishima to go full bore into attacking Chad and Orihime, because I was expecting it to hold off for an episode or two, while Ichigo finishes the polish on his Fullbring abilities. Apparently, I was wrong.

This seemed like another setup episode for the final push. I always find Chad intriguing, because the dude barely says anything. This season seems like Kubo decided to give Chad some face time, finally. Watching Chad show some real power is really cool, because I viewed him as the ancillary character to the ancillary characters. I’m hoping he figures into the finale of the season in a big way, because it would be viewed as a pretty big waste of time if he isn’t.

I was trying to figure out how powerful Tsukishima was after that gang fight on the roof a few episodes back, but I couldn’t really say anything. However, after this week, all he had to do was dodge and wait for Orihime and Chad to have a breakdown from Tsukishima’s attacks earlier in the season. The question still begs to be asked, however: How many others have been hit by this attack? And then there’s Riruka, who presumably got all jacked up by Tsukishima by getting his sword run through her chest. I can’t really say I’m surprised, because Riruka has zero backup. It’s also expected when you go against what Kugo wants you to do. Boom. You lose, time to move on.

I can’t really say much else on this episode. It’s kind of disconcerting, because I was expecting more going into the last 8 episodes. I understand that you want to jam in as much as possible for a finale, but come on. When you have too much to stuff into a very small amount of time, the story will get very convoluted. When you have a show like Bleach, that has a problem with being convoluted, better pacing would be fantastic. Unfortunately, that really isn’t possible. This show had very little to offer outside of Chad and Tsukishima, but that was maybe six minutes out of 30. It was just barely above average, at best.