Score: B-

Well this episode was kind of bleak. I guess if you really love Mayuri this was a great episode. But honestly, I’ve never liked that lunatic. And with him being the main…good guy (I guess) it definitely made the episode a bit of a slog to get through. The least enjoyable episode of Bleach’s return that’s for sure. But hopefully this means Mayuri won’t be doing anything until at least the next part of this story. Just have a few Sternritter left to clean up and get Ichigo up to face off against presumably Ishida (if the OP can be trusted on this).

Yeah…this guy is trouble

Mayuri’s drugs are basically magic. I don’t even know what to say about this one honestly. Some absolute BS niche drug that forces a person’s mind back to the past if they kill Mayuri? What? I know considering the nature of Bleach and these powers that anything should be on the table. But how the heck does that even work? I’m less shocked at him turning enemy zombies into his zombies. The blood thing has a bit more logic to it. Giselle’s power is all about blood usage and Mayuri broke things down pretty clearly. Honestly, I’m surprised Giselle couldn’t keep up with what Mayuri was saying. That was way easier to follow than the time travel drug thing.

At least he fought well

“A fate worse than death.” That is thrown around a lot. But I think we found a pretty perfect example. What is worse than being turned into Mayuri’s zombie slave? Not sure, but I’d rather never find out! What a sad way to go out for Hitsugaya, Rangiku, Kensei, and Rose. I guess you can include the Arrancar in this. But first they got taken out, then they got turned into zombies by Giselle, and now they are Mayuri’s lackeys. And all of that after going through a pretty horrific and agonizing bit of drug testing. God I hope someone competent is going to be around to make sure these characters aren’t just left in that state forever. Counting on you Byakuya!

The only good thing I can say there is that we got to see some of Hitsugaya’s best fighting in the show. Honestly, he was all over attacking in whatever way he could. Obviously, I felt bad for Ikkaku and company, but it was kind of amazing to see Hitsugaya just wrecking people. So often he just doesn’t get to do anything or looks ineffective when he does get to try. But here he was just all over his opponents until the magic drugs got in his way.

I do love that Bankai

Byakuya saved this episode in all honesty. Not only was he taking down several of the Sternritter, but he was just being a good guy. Whether he was trying not to kill his mind-controlled allies or disparaging Mayuri for being a moral black hole. He was helped by circumstance and said moral black hole. It seemed like his outfit provided when he was up in the Royal Palace provided serious defense against various Quincy techniques. It also helped that Candice ran out of gas and that’s probably due to her fighting Ichigo earlier.

But Byakuya still deserves props. He didn’t hold back when he needed to act. His use of Shikai and Bankai were on point. For being surrounded by enemies to start that situation he was able to hold his own. Things just got complicated when his own sword got influenced by Pepe’s ability. My only question for his fight was how a sword without the ability to move on its own was able to attack him? I could see the issue if it used Shikai on its own or something, but that was a bit odd.

Guy isn’t overly bright

Pepe was a troublesome individual. His mind control is certainly effective, and he can spam it as he pleases. And it doesn’t seem like the person can really resist it since they don’t even consider themselves as being controlled. They just have to be put down and stopped as quickly as possible. That was a situation where Byakuya needed a bit of support and Mayuri is certainly better than nothing.

Thankfully Pepe represents the stupidity of the Quincy. There’s no teamwork there. Attacking his own allies using his ability just left him with fewer allies when the Soul Reapers turned the tables. And it left him in a very vulnerable position when Liltotto understandably got pissed and finished him off herself. No idea if Meninas is ok, but at the very least she took care of business enough to be free to attack Pepe at all.

The enemy is making progress

At least things are almost cleaned up here. There’s still Renji’s fight to consider, but it seems like the story can now move ahead to have Ichigo and company chase after Ishida. Maybe we’ll get a look at a fight from the Zero Squad. They basically invited Yhwach into their stronghold. So, either they are absolute traitors, or they intend to defeat him themselves. I guess we’ll find out which it is. This was my least favourite episode of the second part of this season. It might be my least favourite of the return of Bleach overall, but that is something I’d have to think on. I just felt awful for all the good people left under Mayuri’s control. It might be a useful option considering how dangerous this war is. But that is the last person that should have control over the lives of others.