Anime 53998 Bleach Sennen Kessen-hen - Ketsubetsu-tan Reviews Filter Check 3

The bankai show returned with all the usual bullshit you came to expect from it. Nobody watches it for the plot since there is no plot to play attention to. We got someone becoming the successor of the main villain without any build up, without any explanation, and without any dramatic impact. The protagonist didn’t even know of the betrayal until the final battle was half-way over. Naruto versus Sasuke this is not.

Instead of that we just get more of what Bleach was always about. Stuff happening for the heck of it, such as a slut seducing and then killing her own allies because ... she got a bit annoyed. This was the extent of her personality and her contribution to the plot. She goes to fight some captain and their stories end there, with zero impact. Expect the same for 99% of the rest of the characters. Just hollow (not the monsters) battles between nobodies.

Kubo continues to introduce and kill his characters within seconds, which is the worst possible way to write characters. Did you catch the name of that guy who was sliced in half by the slightly annoyed yandere? Did you get what his powers were? Of course not. He didn’t matter. None of those hundreds of Nazi-wannabe people matter.

Half of every episode is still wasted on people bickering at each other or shit-talking while standing still. “Oh, it’s what’s giving them personality” you might think, but when everybody is yelling and screaming and shit-talking in the exact same way, nobody feels unique since they all feel same-y. In fact, they end up being a design because that is the only thing Kubo had in mind when he created them. He had no idea who these people are or what he was supposed to do with them. They don’t matter in the plot either, they are just there to waste time in unimportant fights.

And yes, people are watching it for the action and not the plot, but there comes a time when you realize all the fights play out in the exact same predictable way as they do since the Soul Society arc and without the whole mysterybait of who is the traitor to keep you guessing. There is nothing to guess here, so you don’t care.

Back with season two, a season after one I thought was a missed opportunity. The hype of the first continued into the second and after being told it was better than the first, I had high hopes when diving into season two.

The thing that I feel I can confidently say was better than the first was the music. There was quite the variety of styles that fit the scenes perfectly. I say it was better than the first because for me, I cannot remember the music of the first. The second however, made me remember it's quality. I would probably give the music overall ... an 8/10. Not sure I can say this for the rest.

Animation wise, personally, despite some people raving about how good it was, I felt it was rather box standard for the times. When you see what AoT delivered, what Demon Slayer delivered, even smaller scale shows like the now 6 year old Inuyashiki and Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu, it's not all that. Character animations are average, the different Bankai have there moments but other than that is pretty standard. I also feel there were lost of opportunity missed here. So much could have been done with more time afforded to the screen time of the action, 6/10. It felt as rushed as the story, speaking of which...

The story, no change here from my opinion of the previous season. Why are these not 25 EPs per season? Everything is rushed. Moments that should explode with anticipation are other before any excitement can begin. I had a moment early on when remember saying out loud 'oh, here we go, now we're talking' (I won't say what it relates to as to not spoil it). Nothing really exciting happens though. Some of the fights were longer than previous season, but where is the bloody story?!? Its just a load of Quincies against Soul Reapers, that's it, soulless action. For me, it's the equivalent of sticking the roster of both sides in a fighting game. Selecting a 7vs7 and hitting the random button to select your sides 7. Once select, they all fight individually until victors of those fights emerge and THAT is your first 10.5 episodes. The last 2.5 has a small smudge of story, which you've been waiting for this entire time for it to be incredibly disappointing. Story is 5/10.

All in all, it's the same faults as the first. Rushed, with little story that could have been something with time and space to develop. I honestly am baffled that it retains such a high review score. Maybe it's the name that clouds objectivity.

In short: There is no actual story, the characters are flat and uninteresting. Shock and awe is used to keep viewer's attention because the writing lacks any coherence and realism.

At length: The characters are pulling new powers one after another without a sufficient buildup. The new saga does not make the effort to properly, in-depth describe the character's understanding of their new powers or the struggle they had to overcome to gain them. They just train, sweat a lot and boom - superpower.

The new villains are very colourful and varied, but lack a depth the previous villains did. All but the main villain. In old ... bleach even the level one enemy felt relevant. They felt like people with a real place in the world and the story of the protagonist, no matter how silly their powers were. Here the enemies are showing signs of a background, but the show pays so little attention to it, that you have not the time to develop any sympathy to the characters. So they are basically foot-soldiers, who get killed of in two episodes, you learn nothing about them and they cry about their unhappy childhood the last few minutes of their lives - this feel arbitrary and unnatural to me.

The story moves forward as in the previous seasons of the show. With large plot-less fights in-between the actual story points. But that has always been Bleach and I don't mind that. What I mind is that the actual story points evoke no emotion. The Major plot twists are revealed and accepted in a matter of seconds. The emotions and strength you feel when Ichigo goes on a rescue missions in the Soul Society arc or Arancar arcs are not here. The motivation of the main characters is poorly presented or almost not there for the most part of the show. And when they finally get the chance to show some of that Ichigo's strong friendship based personality, it is really just one sentence, where he and all his friends say that they believe everything will be good, so let's just move one.

Everything that happens, happens out of convenience. The characters appear on scene just in the nick of time so often it is unreal. They always have the new power ready just when the enemy is about to win. The explanation for why they are where they are and how they've got all these new powers and knowledge is given, yes, but it is all handled to the viewer in such nihilistic manner that I could not bring myself to believe it most of the time. It is like reading a wikipedia page on a battle, instead of feeling the tension and the heat of the moment.

Animation is good.