Score: A-

Going a week without Bleach was surprisingly difficult. Not sure how I’ll hold up during the much longer break between this part and the next season’s worth of episodes coming next year. But for now it was great to just get the story moving. Even though Yhwach has made his move his troops are still extremely dangerous and the Soul Reapers are still under siege. Some of them like Byakuya are much more surrounded than others. But that’s just how it goes. These next episodes will probably focus on cleaning up the remaining Quincy so that even the option of going after Yhwach can be entertained. And right now we’re in a Zombie movie!

This guy is out there…

I will say that they got me pretty good with Giselle. One of the better traps I’ve seen in the past few years because it was reasonably well hidden. He was hanging out with the almost completely female Bambi group, and just fit into that group. Credit to his VA Nao Touyama because she does a great job with the range of crazy and evil that Giselle is. Regardless, it’s a pretty small element to the show. But props to Yumichika for “smelling” that out XD. Definitely pissed off his opponent enough to stop holding back on the zombie hoard. And at that point things got difficult for Yumichika and Ikkaku. With one of them just being unwilling to use his Bankai and the other hiding the true abilities of his sword they really aren’t capable of handling a fight like this.

Lucky break that Giselle didn’t pull out the zombie hoards when Ichigo turned up. Maybe it took time to get things ready, but it would have been more effective than against Mayuri. Ichigo is a much more decent person that wouldn’t particularly enjoy cutting up victims just to get to the main target. And also a lucky break that Giselle was a trap. If it was obvious that he was a guy then Ichigo might have killed him off instead of just knocking him around during his arrival on the battlefield. Not sure if his blood would be effective on Ichigo or not. But best to avoid that question!

Well, this isn’t good!

Sorry to Bambietta, but I’m jumping right to the Hitsugaya situation! How much more is this franchise going to put him through? Last time we saw him there was a pretty satisfying recovery in bringing down the opponent that took his Bankai. But obviously with the injuries he suffered due to Bazz-B there was only so much he could handle. And now he’s been turned into a zombie. Sure, the outfit is nice but that’s not much comfort! Obviously this does answer who showed up when Hitsugaya went down. I was really hoping it was a friendly face. Unfortunately the answer here is Giselle. Dirtbag showed up at the perfect time to take advantage. Not sure what this means for Matsumoto or if she’s also been turned into a zombie. But regardless, it’s a bad situation.

I’m sure Mayuri and company will be fine. As we saw from Bambietta, these zombies aren’t exactly bright. If Hitsugaya is just fighting blindly based on whatever orders he’s given then handling him should be possible. But that doesn’t resolve the major issue that he’s a zombie and taking him out seems to be the only real option. I’d say this poses a greater challenge for Mayuri than just slaughtering some generic low rank Soul Reapers. But Mayuri is evil. He’s hardly going to care about bringing down Hitsugaya beyond how challenging it will be. I just feel bad for Hitsugaya. He’s been taken out in a lot of ways with his sky high potential being mentioned often. But now…here we are. Unless Mayuri is sitting on a zombie cure this is probably the last we’ll see of Hitsugaya.

This invasion was a total loss for her

Now I do feel a little pity for the state Bambi is in. Obviously, the girl was an antagonist and didn’t exactly treat her allies all that well either. Her habit of killing hot guys to vent her frustrations wasn’t a good one. But…that’s rough. We saw in the previous episode that Giselle absolutely had the ability to heal Bambi without killing her. And I’m sure she would be more effective like that then in this near crazed state she’s been reduced to. All the fire has been drained out of her. There are elements of the same girl there. But she’s clearly unable to fight back against Giselle’s control and is absolutely at the psycho’s nonexistent mercy. Honestly, I’m not sure if she “survived” the cero fired at her. But maybe for the best if she didn’t. Sad fate and no wonder she panicked when her “allies” showed up.

This group can take a little break

I’m glad that there is a plan to go after Ishida and Yhwach. Part of me thinks that Ichigo is better off helping finish off the Wandenreich while his ride gets ready. But I do get why Ichigo, Inoue, and Chad are hanging out right now. Ichigo did just fight several opponents and the big bad is coming up. Using up his energy now could be costly. We already saw how Round 1 went when Ichigo fought while he was kind of a mess. Yhwach is probably much stronger now and facing him at less than his best would be suicide.

That does leave his allies to sort things out themselves. I’m sure Mayuri, Ikkaku, and Yumichika can handle things with Giselle. Renji has powered up so I’ll presume he can handle Bazz-B. Even more so if Rukia is fighting with him. But she might get a random opponent to fight while all that is going on. Byakuya seems to be in the tightest spot with multiple opponents around him. But he does seem collected and more in control of his power, so I’ll presume he’ll manage just fine. I also wonder if Shunsui will get off his rear end and start doing something!

Mayuri seems to have this under control

The Arrancars showing up was a nice little move on Mayuri’s part. Makes sense that Szayelaporro was gathering fallen Arrancars and basically turning them into his personal zombie force. Mayuri is the type to make use of every card he has and the threat Arrancars pose to Quincy makes them even more valuable. Even if these guys aren’t insanely powerful, they are still useful bodies. And Mayuri is a bad guy in his own right, so you know he will be merciless. He’s great for an opponent like Giselle that would take advantage of emotional weaknesses. His tech is pretty good too. Absolutely shut down Bambi’s assault without much trouble. Curious if he’ll bust out his Bankai or resolve all this without it…

This zombie flick likely ends at 2

This was a pretty good episode. Obviously, I don’t love that Hitsugaya is apparently dead. That’s a rough break. Probably not getting some kind of miracle where Hinamori (who I think is still alive) shows up and everything turns out fine. The fighting continues and I’m curious if all the action in Soul Society will be wrapped up before this second part is over? At the very least we have a clear direction for everything right now. Ichigo and company can keep on their pursuit while the remaining Soul Reapers try to put down the remaining Quincy while they have the chance. Next up though will be a part 2 to this zombie story! Guess we’ll see if the sequel holds up in this case XD.