Onihei is undisputed my anime of the season. This episode also proved that it didn’t need CG to portray large crowds, only to do it again but hey, milestones and they were able to pull off a number of crowded scenes without CG. Anyways, the last three episodes now have been absolutely fantastic and I really hope this string of great episodes doesn’t end.
Unfortunately, the other shows ranged from status quo enjoyable to a bit disappointing.
what
My lack of patience made me cancel that Nioh order that was taking a whole month to get me. I was thinking of saving money through my Prime account nabbed me at around 10 dollars but if I really wanted it, I could have just walked to my local Gamestop to pick it up. DMC4: SE has been sustaining me for a bit and I realized at how the PS3 version took 4 gigs on its own. DMC4 was my first PS3 game and I remember it being the only game I had for an entire year and the nostalgia hit me like a ton of bricks but with some more gigs to work with, I can finally practice Guilty Gear.
Anyways, the week already started strong with Onihei’s stellar episode so I’m in great mood for the next few episodes. Looking ahead, we have the conclusion of Tooru’s story in Seiren, Masamune is one episode away from the “final” arc’s start, and Demi-chan is something I still haven’t caught up with but I still have good hopes for more Sensei.
Moving onto the opening for this week, we skip Bleach’s 4 opening since that covers one of the infamous filler arcs in the series. Bleach’s filler arcs are something I thankfully never had to watch but I do hear terrible things about them. I admit to liking one of the openings for the later filler arcs but the Bount Arc is something that never really interested me in the slightest. So on we go to the actual continuation of the Soul Society Arc with the introduction of Arrancars, the advanced forms of hollows. A lot of songs from yui sound similar but coupled with the visuals of urban battle, I can at least say the Arrancar arc is the least boring out of the next few arcs to come.
Here we go.
Onihei pulls another fantastic episode while the other episodes had their own decent episodes but just weren’t able to get the featured image spot. Masamune was still pretty enjoyable and Seiren is finally able to get some romance across but I’m still wary on how things will end. Demi-chan’s episode was pretty good with even more nuances given to the setting, especially with a police force specifically made to profile succubi.
Holding out
I completely forgot the Special Edition for DMC4 existed and promptly got it. Now with around 5-6 modes and 4 character modes to mess around with, I think I’ll be good for a bit until all the actually “new new” stuff release/ship to me. It’s exactly because of my completionism that I’m going through every mode with every character that made me late on this one so at least I’m entertained.
I’ll tell you one thing though, Onihei’s episode from last week and this week’s were absolutely fantastic and I’m really looking forward to some competition if any of this week’s other episodes can entertain me as greatly. Moving on to the music, I had a tough time deciding which version of the prolific 3rd ending for Bleach that showcased all 13 of its variations with their Captain and Vice Captain. So give a real quick rundown, I never cared for Squads 1, 2, and 4 were unmemorable while Squad 3 had all the flak going on. Squad 5 was of course interesting because of smug glasses Aizen which I rarely ever associate with him again because he spends so much time in the series without the glasses, and the whole deal with his subordinate never mattered again. 6 had prettyboy Byakuya and cool guy Renji so it was a half and half. 7 never mattered to me because its captain was jobber #1 who pulled out his bankai willy nilly while his lieutenant NEVER mattered. 8 was pretty cool since Shunsui was always the coolest. 9 had Hisagi and I’m enough of a Katsuyuki Konishi fan to overlook Tousen and his betrayal. I never liked Hitsugaya and Rangiku only remained interesting with her parts with Gin. Squad 11 was never not entertaining but it was somewhat bullshit as the series went on. Squad 12 was the weirdo divison, Squad 13 was also pretty uninteresting and I always notice how Jushiro’s shikai release animation was recycled so many times throughout the series.
Critical stuff aside, these were quite the entertaining things to watch back when the entire Soul Society arc gave us a window to the lives of its big players. The little start with the main crew making their way to their destination always helped with the scope of how large the Soul Society as a geographical location piqued the explorer bit in me. A lot of personality went into these and it was the large part of why Bleach was successful and also why it tapered of. A big cast is always fun to work with but finding a way to constantly incorporate them into other ideas leads to its misuse.
That’s the good stuff
The episode quality rose up this week compared to comparatively weaker stuff from last week. Onihei’s episode was the absolute winner while Seiren finally seems to have gotten back on its track about the whole “romance anime” aspect. Both Demi-chan and Masamune were a bit weaker but apparently we’re due for some exciting stuff next week so we can all look forward to those.
The long haul
Considering on re-purchasing Demon’s Souls for posterity while maybe getting Phantom Pain to hold me over for a month before the last Dark Souls 3 DLC comes out. But I just preordered Nioh so none of that is going to matter for a few months. I appreciate that I can finally get into some serious youkai slaying that doesn’t involve me being a wolf.
And speaking of youkai slaying with or without swords, we continue with Bleach’s music spotlight with its 3rd opening. It still focuses on the Soul Society and its final moments were our resident Mr. Perfect Pretty boy Byakuya fights against Ichigo who just got out of the hyperbolic time chamber and got access to his bankai. I don’t lie that seeing these things were cool but the whole shtick of bankais being only accessible in some ridiculous odds to any shinigami in their lifetime and then having most of the cast show off theirs in the following arcs killed off its specialty. But consider this one of the last markers of when Bleach was still widely accepted as being “good”.
And here we go.
So why did Masamune win again? Partly because that face and Aki’s figure was nice but mostly because the actual winner, Seiren, is something I’m staying cautiously wary on. I like the new arc-girl, Tooru, a lot so I don’t wish for a Tsuneki-tier ending so while I liked the new episode to a degree, I’m trying to be as cautious as possible not to place my hopes in something that will never happen. On the other end, Demi-chan’s episode was par for the course, Takahashi is an intrepid student where monsters are involved and we get a funny little exchange near the end.
Lair of the Idle 