Bleach 343: Back on Track

17 months have passed since Ichigo defeated Aizen and now Ichigo finally leads the normal life he always wanted. But how long will that normal life last?

Finally we are back to the real thing. There is such a difference between the fillers and the main story you can tell when it changes from one to the other immediately. Even if nothing really happened this episode it was still way better than all the episodes of the filler arc combined.

The episode was a little too silly at some point for me, like when Inoue showed up, but overall I liked it. After all Inoue only appeared for a fraction of the show and the rest was mostly serious and fun stuff. Ichigo is still kicking ass, even if now it is normal people’s ass instead of Hollows. I really wonder what Ichigo would do with his life if he cannot fight hollow and swing swords anymore. After all he might have intelligence above average and super athletic skills, but he has no ambition what so ever. I guess that “Saving Princess” is not a valid option when looking for a job either. I guess we will never find out what he would do, since he will get himself into trouble soon enough it is certain.

I’m actually surprised he was able to lead a normal life for so long. I mean a lot of people must be after him since he was the strongest man alive and he most likely pissed off many people by stopping Aizen.  That would explain at least why there are now a team of 5 weirdest looking for him, or someone else. I actually have no idea what those guys are looking for.

They mentioned that they found the new substitute shinigami, but I have no clue what they mean by that. Are they referencing to Ichigo’s old title? or have they found someone else to replace him? This is the part that confuses me a little. They really seems to be after Ichigo, but they must know that he is not a substitute shinigami anymore, or that he doesn’t even have any spiritual pressure left. I have no idea who those people are and what they are looking for, but I guess we’ll learn real soon. One thing is certain, Ichigo won’t have to worry about the future too much.

One thing I really liked of the episode is that we saw that Karin was the next great shinigami of the family, her spiritual pressure increased again and now she seems to speak with ghost daily, soon enough I’m sure we’ll see her running around with a sword and shooting pink getsuga tensho everywhere. Actually pink might be a little too girlish for her, we’ll go for purple instead.

In the end I’m glad that the show is finally back to the real story and that I won’t have to suffer and watch any more filler for a little while. Hopefully it will even be good, but so long as it doesn’t sucks, it will be a great step up from the fillers.

ZeroG signing off