Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ BLEACH #154]

Aaroniero, while slick, is a silly bastard. He kept on switching between “Kaien-mode” and “Aaroniero/Espada-mode” on Rukia that I could only laugh. Seriously, I think he would have had Rukia completely hooked had he kept on behaving normally like Kaien and surely but subtlely wiggle his way into Rukia’s mind. But noooo, he had to go and ask her to bring her the heads of her friends. What kind of reply did he expect from such a sharp turn of atmosphere and tone? A “Yes, Kaien-dono”? Not a chance, even if she did feel a ton of guilt at that time.

Yeah, it was a decent episode and it hardly felt dragged even though it covered one and a half chapters of manga material with some flashbacks. A pacing like this would probably help slow down the rate at which the anime is closing in on the latest chapters. Though, of course, we’ll have to go to anime-original stuff sooner or later as we’re pretty damn close to the manga, very likely the closest the Bleach anime has ever been to the manga.

Oh. The next episode will air on January 9th.