Double-Shot Anime Review: Bleach 116 &117

Ep. 116 - "The Evil Eye, Aizen Returns"
Review
This was another episode that was dominated by characters either sitting or standing around talking. While not a bad thing this type of episode is getting old and repetitive. Also since we have gotten a lot of comedy in the past few episode the comedy in this episode fell a bit flat and I did not enjoy it as much as the previous few episodes.

The best part of the episode was probably the first few minutes were we saw the meeting between Aizen and the Arrancars he has working for him. It was cool to see all the different Arrancars animated and it should be fun seeing all of them in action in the future.

Another thing that I thought was pretty interesting was the development with Orihime and her revealing how much she likes Ichigo to Rangiku. Starting with this episode Orihime looks to take a much bigger role in the series and it should be interesting to see how the self-doubt Orihime has could make her resolve to get stronger in the future. Also it does not hurt that the scene had some fan service with Rangiku.

Overall this was a bit of a boring episode with a few nice scenes though with how Grimmjow and his Arrancars arrived to Earth at the end of the episode we should finally get the action we have been looking for in the next episode.

Episode Rating - 6.9/10

"Rukia's Battle Commences! The Freezing White Blade"

Review
Finally we get some action. While it was not a lot of action it was still something. Still this was felt like yet another set up episode as we only get to see most of the matches up that will be dominating the next few episodes. Also while the comedy with Chappy, who was using Rukia Gigia, and Ichigo was okay but I could do without the comedy in Bleach for a few episodes to at least make the comedy feel fresh later on.

After spending most of the series on the sidelines, except for a few instances, it was cool to see Rukia in action. What I found interesting is that Rukia does have a shikai form to her zanpakuto. It was actually questionable if Rukia did have a Shikai since the few times we have seen her wield a zanpakuto she has only used its unreleased form. I like Rukia's shikai, called Sode no Shirayuki, and it being an ice type zanpakuto. Though it was to bad we did not get to see Rukia use her zapakuto more as she made quick work of her opponent.

Also I found it interesting how like Uryu and Orihime it looks like Chad will be going through some sort of training in the future to get stronger. It will be interesting to see how Chad will get stronger as he has a long way to go before he could breach the gap between him and the Arrancars.

Again this was mostly a set-up episode to the match-ups we are going to see dominate the next few episodes. I am looking forward to the fighting and I just we see some solid action in the next episode and from the preview it looks like that is what we are going to be getting.

Episoder Rating - 7.2/10