One Piece 1102-1103 Review: Bonney's Pain

One Piece, Chapter 1102-1103: Kuma's Life; I'm So Sorry, Daddy

I wasn't able to review either of these chapters in a timely manner, but there's the typical new year break for One Piece anyway, so... eh? I will very quickly breeze through chapter 1102, "Kuma's Life", mostly because... it's very emotional, but it's ultimately a long, recap montage. We get to see bits of Bonney's career as she makes a name for 'the pirate that beats up the elderly and children', and Kuma's been both avoiding Bonney for her sake.

There was a lot of discussion as to why Kuma doesn't just grab Bonney and go on the run together, but I guess it's to stop the World Government from coming down on Bonney hard with all the power of Buster Calls at their disposal, as opposed to what actually happened -- Akainu even apologizing to Bonney after arresting her. 

And I'm not going to go through every part of 1102 because we've got another chapter to go through, but it's cool to see scenes like Luffy getting a bounty for defeating Arlong, or the slow transformation of Kuma into Pacifista PX-0, and even a recreation of the 'Nothing Happened' moment, where nothing happened. Again, we get to see Kuma's thought process through everything in Thriller Bark and Sabaody, his two major appearances, and it's pretty nice! Again, it's a bit arguable whether all of the places that Kuma sends people to actually works for a training arc -- particularly Brook's -- but eh. 

Also really love Jinbe's confused reaction to Arlong being beaten up by some brat, and Ace being super-duper proud of Luffy. That's glorious. Another great moment is the acknowledgement of Bonney putting a piece of jewelry under her right eye... and the acknowledgement of Bonney's very questionable lipsticking, since it's what a little girl and a bunch of older men think lipstick should be applied. 

And right before Kuma starts popping Straw Hats, of course, we've got a nice little addition of the giant figure of Kuma sneaking around the restaurant where one of the Ten Supernovas, Jewelry Bonney, is eating and gorging herself, and Kuma just peeks from the window and wishes her well. We also get to see Kuma's train of thought as he witnesses the auction house incident, with him pointing out the significance of them doing all of this to rescue a Fishman... something that Kuma, from a persecuted race himself, would especially understand. 

1102 ends with Vegapunk arguing with Saturn on the phone, yelling and basically trying to negotiate ways to get the World Government to stop putting nonsense to fuck Kuma's life up even more. From how it's implied, Kuma's implanted with a self-destruct bomb. Vegapunk also mentions a 'dual personality' switch, but that gets immediately vetoed by Saturn. We also learn the previously somewhat-questionable detail that Saturn actually is a scientist himself, he's just too lazy to do his own legwork. 

And then we get Kuma as he sits in front of like, this MRI machine. This is right between Sabaody and Marineford, where we can presume that Sabaody was the last time that Kuma has any kind of free will whereas during Marineford he is completely soulless, shocking Ivankov and the others. We get some discussion, and Kuma noting that he believes in the 'Nika' that is Monkey D. Luffy. And... we get some great and heartbreaking panels of Vegapunk's face as he breaks down crying with his tongue lolling out as he essentially pulls the switch that fucking kills Bartholomew Kuma. 

And we get this absolutely glorious page just showing Kuma running in four different parts of his life. As a slave, as a rebel priest, as a Revolutionary, as a Warlord of the Sea... while the faces of people from his life like Ginny, Bonney, Vegapunk, Dragon, his parents all show up around him. 

And it really is just such a powerful scene. I was going to skip talking about 1102 in general, but this was the page that made me... really want to acknowledge just how powerful this scene is. Kuma's last words are even something along the lines of "man, I was kind of a nuisance in the end" when Vegapunk is just fucking crying and telling Kuma some great words of affirmation, where his death is the real nuisance to all the people who loved and cared for Kuma. 

And as in the past, PX-0, the being that has been Bartholomew Kuma, activates with glowing robotic soulless eyes, we cut to just slightly in the past, in the middle of the Egghead arc, when Jewelry Bonney has just finished witnessing all of these flashbacks and is now bawling her eyes out, as Kuma's last words -- "tell Bonney happy tenth birthday" plays in the background. 

Holy fuck, Kuma. 

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And 1103 starts off where the Bonney-crying scene leaves off. This whole sequence happens earlier in the Egghead arc, basically right before the 'missing time' as everyone's figuring out the York traitor stuff. We get a very powerful scene of Bonney reverting to her true, 12-year-old age, and hugging uncle Vegapunk and the two of them reconciling. Vegapunk gives Bonney a tenth-year-old birthday gift from Kuma, which is... a sapphire necklace that seems rather obvious as some kind of plot device down the line. 

And we cut to the present day. Finally. After several months. Jaygarcia Saturn, Godhead of Science, Gorosei and Celestial Dragon, and giant spider-centaur-demon of doom, is holding a crying, struggling Bonney in his grasp. Rather interestingly, Saturn's weird ability to freeze characters like Sanji, Franky, Vegapunk and Atlas is still active, and I really wonder what that is. Just some kind of weird Haki? Rather interestingly, we get several shots of Kizaru thinking about his younger friends in this episode, and I do think it'll lead to a little figurative middle finger from him later on. 

Interestingly, we get to see a brief shot of people reacting to the news that Egghead Island is under siege by a Yonko fleet, including Dragon and Ivankov, who are just discussing things in Kamabakka. I'm not sure if he's going to make a move, but if Dragon's ever going to be relevant, I really do hope he does something in this arc. 

Bonney tries to attack with a "Nika-ish Future", but her arm just bounces off of Saturn. She ends up feeling weak, and Saturn begins a bit of a villain monologue. This is rather bizarrely intercut with a scene of Luffy stuffing his fat ass up with a bunch of food that seems to have come out of nowhere. Saturn yells at his minions to slap seastone cuffs on Luffy, and while we don't see the Marines succeeding in doing so, the panel right after that is Kizaru, in a slightly different pose from before going "...", implying that he might've had a hand in helping out? It doesn't gel perfectly well because Kizaru's lightspeed is usually extremely flashy, but I wouldn't mind it at all if this is the moment that Kizaru finally makes a decision. 

Saturn then explains a lot of things about Bonney, and confirms something that was implied by the flashback but was something I missed entirely -- Jewelry Bonney was never shown to eat a Devil Fruit, and the Sorbet Kingdom people were even confused when she manifested those powers. Bonney does have the power of the Toshi Toshi no Mi, it's just that Saturn was experimenting on extracting and infusing the power of that fruit into a baby without having them eat the fruit. Bonney did eventually inherit the ability, but it seems that the ability has left the original fruit when Bonney manifested the ability... which I guess means that the 'only one person can have this fruit' rule still holds strong, with, of course, the exception being Vegapunk's creations. 

Saturn also explains a major drawback of the Toshi Toshi no Mi. The ability has the insane power to transform into any state that matches "futures perceived to be possible", but as someone ages and grows, and their futures become more certain, possibilities become naturally limited. It's a neat way to basically create a power that's only really effective for a kid. I guess it's like how when you were young you'll look at Superman or Batman or Spider-Man and go "wow gee, I'd sure like to grow up to be like that!" but when you grow up the logistics of physics and, in Batman's case, practical money, starts to bog you down?

And in Bonney's case, she's starting to doubt Nika as anything beyond an 'impossible myth' -- something that from Saturn's dialogue is a fact that he needs to hammer home to Bonney, lest she actually realize that Nika is a couple feet away. Just to rub the salt in even further, Saturn confirms that he is the Celestial Dragon that tormented Ginny, calling her a 'failure' and 'Wife Number Eight', and talking about how the Sapphire-Scale passed on to Bonney as well. 

And as Bonney is crying, Kuma lands like a goddamn superhero in the distance. 

Vegapunk yells at Saturn in rage, a very stark contrast to how he's bargaining and trying to explain and negotiate and treat Saturn as an equal even in a chapter as recent as 1102. But Saturn's reply? "Do you comprehend the feelings of the insects you step on? Of course not." Yeah, Vegapunk, rather pointless to negotiate with psychopaths when they are unwilling to even entertain the notion of compromise. 

And Bartholomew Kuma has arrived, terrifying the Marines as they realize that this is the real Kuma.

The Marines report this to Saturn, and they are bamboozled that the authority chips are not working. Bonney's mind has snapped, and she's just thinking to herself a thought that poor Nami and Robin and Momo and Ace have all thought of before. "At this point, I think I'd be better off dead."

And it's a couple of short panels before the end, but all shots of Kuma's face has him with blank eyes... but gritted teeth. 

A very, very sharp contrast to the soulless expression that the robotic Kuma has in Marineford, or in Sabaody, or in Marie Geoise.

The Marines fire at Kuma. Cannons fire. Explosions fire. Kuma runs, because that's what Bartholomew Kuma does. But he's not running away for once. He's running towards his daughter, who's crying, whose heart is breaking. 

And Kuma's expression is angry as hell. 

This is a man out for blood. 

The Marines take aim at the head of the 12-year-old Bonney. Kuma's eyes glow, and by my count at least five Rear-Admiral-or-higher child-shooting Marines get blown the fuck off by two Ursus Shocks in a very cinematic shot. 

Saturn chucks Bonney to the ground, and is about to impale her with his big-ass spider claw. 

And Kuma is here. 

Holy shit what a badass panel. What a great payoff to all the buildup of Kuma as someone who's beaten down by life, who's hurt and tormented and forced to see everything good in his life fucked up by this Gorosei jackass. And he just zips in, smoke wafting off his body, as he cradles Bonney and takes Saturn's claw to the back. 

And with the most glorious angry expression on a robotic face that you've ever seen, Kuma grapples Saturn's claw, and prepares to punch the shit out of Saturn. That's one of the best panels I've seen in One Piece. Keep in mind that Kuma's supposed to be soulless for two years now. He's angry. He's probably going to die at the end of this fight. But those eyes. That gritted teeth. And I just realized as I type out this paragraph that his fist is glowing with Haki. With ambition, with willpower. This is a man that's been fucked up beyond repair by Saturn, and... and I honestly don't even care for Luffy or whoever to beat up Saturn. Luffy can become Nika and inspire Kuma, sure. But it has to be Bonney or Kuma that lays the smackdown on Saturn, and even if Kuma dies next chapter, I really, really felt like this is such a badass moment that it has to amount to at least something. 

Anyway, what a chapter to end/start off the year. 

Random Notes:

• In a glorious little attention to detail, the two restaurant guests that get terrified of Kuma's giant face in the window can actually also be seen in the original chapter that Bonney appeared eating a pizza in. 
• Also a nice attention to detail is that Usopp and the obscured-by-speech-bubbles Nami and Sanji are actually in the correct poses that theyw ere at when Luffy reacted to his Arlong Park bounty. 
• Smoker's random cameo in 1102 is so random and has so little to do with any of the major characters in that story that I wonder if Oda's just really excited about that Netflix final episode post-credits scene. 
• Apparently Luffy punching a Tenryubito and Usopp falling on another is an "act of high treason that has never been accomplished in centuries". 
• If Hunter x Hunter has taught us anything, random super-nuclear bombs implanted within badasses are at the height of power-scaling ladders.
• Seemingly to quash all the 'Kuma will return with the memory bubble' theories, 1102 establishes that Kuma's memory bubble literally is just a one-time use thing, vanishing after being touched without equipment. And Bonney basically has just 'consumed' all of it.
• I was wondering why Kizaru was so willing to laser-beam Sentomaru or lob Bonney into the laser grid earlier... but I guess that was before he saw his boss transform into a giant spider demon and rant all this nonsense about how he views all humans as ants. It's just my guess, but I think Kizaru's okay in killing his friends if it's really for justice and a good cause. But tormenting them because Saturn feels insulted by them is one step too far for him. 
• Another theory as to who gave Luffy the food is Caribou, which... fair enough. I guess if Saturn's powers require him to focus on whoever he is 'locking' down, he would've missed an icky swamp man gooping around in the background. 
• At the time of writing the review, all the reviews are ambiguous on whose 'Wife Number Eight' Ginny is. I think the implication is either Saturn or Imu, otherwise I don't think Saturn would care or keep track of, oh, St. Charloss's sex slaves or whatnot. 
• It adds an extra layer of nastiness when you realize that as Saturn yaks on about humans being insects, he's potentially including his own bio-child in that assessment. 
• Kuma is notably missing all the damage that he had from his fight with Akainu. His face isn't half-melted, and he's got both feet. But we'll chalk that up to his determination as a dad. 

Let's Play Pokemon Violet - The Indigo Disk, Part 2: Ants in a Terrarium

Apologies for the delay of this one. Some real-life stuff came up, and as thus there's a sizable gap from when I first played the Indigo Disk and when I finally continued on with this playthrough. Anyway...

So yeah, I think it's a given that in any Pokemon game with an overworld, I'll go around and ignore the main story for a couple of hours to run around and explore the overworlds. This time, I tried to shiny-hunt for the other outbreak -- Flabebe -- but the damn things are so small and after three entire swarms, I kind of decided that I don't care for Flabebe enough to waste my time there. 

(I'll probably get another shiny Litwick before the day is over, though).

 

But there are a lot of fun stuff, and I'm just running around the Savanna and Canyon biomes right now. The savanna biome only looks like the Kanto Safari Zone in the earlier areas, but there are some very Pastoria-esque swamp areas with Tynamo, Eelektrik and... Bruxish swimming through them? Bruxish, who is based on a colourful tropical fish, hangs out in muddy water? Yeah, that's... that's really weird to me. 

Oh, and Kantonian Tauros are around here, since this whole thing is just a love letter to the original Safari Zone. Capturing a Tauros isn't anything exciting, I've done it at least ten times over ten different games now, but it's reading online and finding out that appaerntly Tauros was already available in Kitakami -- since it doesn't count as Paldea, hatching a Tauros egg in Kitakami (and presumably Woopers, too) would result in the original, default breed instead of the Paldean Tauros. That's cool!

There is also like a mini-desert populated with Trapinches and its far more aggressive evolutions, Vibrava and Flygon. Flygon's just angry that it's somehow been passed over for Mega Evolutions, Regional Variants, Gigantamax Forms, and whatever the hell else is available. 

I hop over to the Canyon area and it's kind of a nice mountainous area, with a bunch of Scraggys, Tyrogues and, interestingly enough, Alolan Geodude. I didn't really think too much about what kind of regional variants would show up because I would default to the 'original' ones, but it's pretty fun to take this exercise into trying to think as to why the Alolan Geodudes flourish in this Terarium instead of Kantonian Geodudes, while the Exeggutors I meet are the Kantonian instead of the Alolan ones. 

Or maybe I just have to not take these things seriously and have fun. 

The Coastal Biome has a lot of the expected sea-dwelling Pokemon. Tentacool, Luvdisc and Finneon swarm the ocean, while Crabrawler scuttle in the beaches. We've got Pikipek being the coastal birds, which I'm not sure is accurate for woodpeckers or toucans. But most fun are the fact that apparently Espurrs and Meowstics hang out in the Coastal Biome. Don't cats hate water? Some of them are even found on some random mini-islands in the water itself. Did they accidentally teleport or levitate themselves there? That's hilarious if that's the case. 

I also got lost in the underground labyrinths of the Coastal Biome, which is infested with Galarian Slowpokes, Magmars, Miniors and... Happiny for some reason? Do Chanseys reproduce in subterranean caves with access to the ocean? Okay, sure?

I guess the big gimmick for the coastal biome is that it's filled with a whole lot of regional variants, both Alolan and Galarian variants. Or well, Galarian Slowpoke, at least. Loads of Alolan Grimer, Diglett and of course everyone's favourite Exeggutor show up and wander around the location. 

Eventually I deign to do the main quest before I explore the Canyon and Polar Biomes, and the 'class' basically involves of the teacher standing in a gazebo and giving a brief talk about Regional Variants, and tasking me to capture something from Alola. I already have a couple of Alolan variants in my box, so I immediately complete this quest with no real trouble. Lacey congratulates me for completing the first Blueberry class.

And then she talks about some aspects of the Blueberry academy, and this is something that I do enjoy from Legends Arceus and a bunch of other RPG's -- the generic sidequests. Pressing the otherwise-useless right arrow button will now give me access to the Blueberry Quests, gloriously abbreviated into "BBQ", and it's things that are simple like catch 10 Pokemon, photograph a Pokemon in the water, that kind of stuff. it's going to be something nice that'll allow me to play Pokemon while I watch episodes of anime, which at this point is something I really do appreciate.

BBQ's will give me Blueberry Points (BP's, not to be confused with Battle Points) which I assume will be able to buy competitive items and whatnot, just like the BP's from previous games. 

Not a whole ton to say, and I like that the game just chucks me off to the world to explore. Carmine calls me and asks me to meet in the center of the Terarium, and I do like that the game does give me the option to be a jackass to her, pretending that I don't remember who she is and stuff. 

Carmine is talking to a girl that we later learn is a member of the BB Elite Four (oh, Lacey is also one of them, if I haven't mentioned it). She's clearly the Steel-type trainer, with her hair done up into Magnemite-style screws (how much gel did she need?) and pulling out one of those cool, vintage pocketwatches-on-a-chain when talking to Carmine. Carmine challenges me to a battle and she has a brand-new team after apparently been on a trip to several other regions with Briar, and I don't remember if she had been able to Terastralize before. 

She keeps her Mightyena and her signature Sinistcha (which is terastralized into a grass-type), but swapped the rest of her party for a Toucannon and a Scrafty. The toucan is a bit weird since she otherwise has a full 'spooky' theme, though. I do enjoy Carmine's nonsensical battle banter about how she's not the most pleased that I'm using super-effective moves on her. 

After the battle, Carmine asks me about Kieran, and... we get to witness a scene where Kieran's changed up his hair, and is acting like a stereotypical high school gangster. He's basically bullying another student, telling him off for his lack of commitment to some 'club' (which is apparently a huge thing in this academy) and... uhh... that's not exactly what I expected his little tantrum in the post-credits scene of Teal Mask to turn him into. That hairstyle also isn't flattering at all. Carmine notes that Kieran's been different ever since the school trip to Kitakami and that whole Ogerpon business, and dialogue from other characters like Drayton imply that Kieran's been pretty infamous recently for his antics. 

And then Drayton shows up, and... I'm not about to say every single thing that he gives me a tutorial about, but he and Carmine have a bit of a rivalry -- the scripting of Drayton's passive-aggressive potshots at Carmine is pretty well-done, and Drayton eventually tries to recruit me to their 'club'. The clubhouse is... well, just some random room in the school with half-eaten snacks and treadmills and some really nicely-made digital props of whiteboards and stuff. I like the little character detail from the laid-back Drayton about how he leaves behind half-eaten snacks everywhere in the room. 

Drayton allows me to join the club on a 'trial basis', gives some exposition about the Elite Four (Carmine's not good enough to be part of it, though she insists it's a 'tactics' thing) before giving me access to the computer that allows me to donate BP to do stuff like unlock brand-new Pokemon in certain biomes (this is how I get the previous-generation starters), redecorate the club room and get some new poses or whatever. It's kind of neat. I do really like the idea that the starters take some extra effort to get, and are one of the ultimate rewards of this whole BBQ thing. 

Carmine goes to my room, and gives a bit of an explanation about the whole Kiki situation. After Kitakami, Kieran's been a bit crazy about improving himself and becoming a badass. Drayton used to be the most powerful trainer in Blueberry, but Kieran apparently beat him up, becoming the president of the League Club and the Champion at the same time. So we've got a boss to beat down, okay. Kieran's refused to talk to Carmine, and apparently because I'm still Kieran's "friend", Carmine wants me to stick by him. 

...I tried answering no, but Carmine basically forces me to say yes. 

Carmine also really tells me not to trust Drayton, who looks like a slacker but is actually up to something according to Carmine. Which... yeah, he does feel like he's got something up his sleeve with the writing of his dialogue. I can't really explain it, but even when he's just showing off the clubroom, he does feel like he's just introducing me to the club as some means to an end.

Carmine freaks out slightly about the whole 'date' term that Drayton uses to describe our upcoming meeting, before telling me to go meet Drayton on the 'date' in the cafeteria. Which opens up most of the Blueberry academy map -- multiple classrooms, the same school stores, Carmine's room and I do like that they show that there are a couple of school-building towers above the Terarium. Pretty neat little cut. I've played a bit ahead at this point because of the delays of writing this let's play, 

Random Notes:

• I'm back, though a bit slowly. I'm working on doing some Violet playthroughs first before I catch up with the One Piece manga or the What If cartoon.
• For those of you who're still caught by the Pokemon bug, I released a 'reviewing Abilities' for Generation IV and another part of Infinite Fusion monster reviews over the week. 
• Also, I guess it's not the worst thing for me to wait, since at the rate I'm going, I might hit the epilogue, releasing on January 11th, at the same time that I would hopefully complete the DLC's stories. 
• I really love that EX Sandstorm Trapinch art, by the way. That specific card was my first introduction to Trapinch, and I found the artwork, the pose and the look of him looking into the night sky to be so hauntingly cute. 
  
• Skarmories fly us around instead of Squawkabillies. 
• BBQ, heh. 
• One of the NPC's in the rest area in the Coastal Biome offers to make me the items to evolve Galarian Slowpoke. The, uh, Galarica Wreath or whatever they're called. It's neat. 
• I do like that both Kantonian and Alolan Exeggutor exist simultaneously in the different biomes of the Terarium, and that whatever modifications they did to the environments in the Coastal Biome has allowed all the Exeggcutes to evolve into the long-necked Alolan forms. 
• There is a lot of brand-new sandwich ingredients over the course of the two DLC's, but I barely even engage in sandwiches in the base game, so.
• Between "let's get into position" and the talk about wanting to go to my room so we can't be disturbed, whoever's writing the dialogue for Carmine is having fun with double-entrendes.
• I assume Drayton is related to Drayden, if Lacey is Clay's daughter. Drayton/Drayden seems a bit too obvious not to be. I hope not all the Blueberry kids are related to someone from Unova, though. That'd be too on the nose. 
• Apparently, Drayton repeated the same year three times. Okay, then. 
• There are thankfully wild Hitmontop spawns! I am so glad I don't have to dick around with the Attack and Defense stats just to get this spinning top jackass that I'll never actually use in battle. 

Gotta Review 'Em All - Abilities [Generation IV]

Whew, I still have flashbacks to when I reviewed all the Generation III Abilities en masse! I don't really think we ever got as huge of a glut of abilities -- or at least 'common' abilities -- as much as Generation III ever again. Generation IV will give us a couple more of the ones we consider common now, but unless I am mistaken, from Generation V onwards a lot of the abilities are more specific and 'signature' to certain gimmicky Pokemon.

It is also kind of interesting that when Generation IV debuted, they gave 'signature abilities' to some older, Generation I-III Pokemon that was unique to that line for a brief while before those specific abilities became a bit more common and distributed across the wider Pokemon population in general. I really did wish this became a bit more common later on, but I guess new abilities for older species aren't as marketable as new forms or whatever.

Anyway, not too much to say. On with the commentary!

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Generic Abilities:

Since there are much less new abilities introduced Generation IV, I've grouped them together. First we'll cover a bunch that are 'generic' abilities given immediately to a wide range of Pokemon. 

• Steadfast (Fukutsu no Kokoro/Indomitable Heart) We'll start off with some more 'generic' abilities. Steadfast, given to a bunch of 'tough' Pokemon, raises Speed whenever a Pokemon flinches, and... I get it, it's meant to turn a disadvantageous situation into an advantage, but... but you're still flinched, y'know? I'm pretty sure in any situation you'd rather have your Pokemon hit twice, instead of hitting once with a slight boost in speed. Oh well. 
• Tangled Feet (Chidori Ashi/Tottering Steps) Tangled Feet raises evasion when the Pokemon is confused, which is such a... strange requirement. Spindagets it and it makes 100% absolute sense that the drunk-dancing panda has it, but I would've thought that this is a 'drunken fighting' thing. But every other Pokemon that gets Tangled Feet is a bird, so I wonder if there's a pun here somewhere I'm not getting. 
• Quick Feet (Haya'ashi/Quick Feet) Quick Feet is another one with a similar premise, boosting Speed if the user is afflicted by a status ailment. I... I really don't have anything to say about here, honestly, so let's just move on.  
• Gluttony (Kuishinbo/Glutton) Kind of a useless ability, and we already have a bunch of Berry-related abilities and moves at this point. Gluttony means that the Pokemon triggers its Berry-eating a bit earlier than how the game flags it to be (50% health instead of 25% health). The Pokemon just can't wait to eat the orange it's holding, I guess.

• Hydration (Uruoi Bodi/Moist Body) We have a bunch more additional weather-related abilities, and Hydration is relatively simple. If it's raining, the rain will heal status conditions! Not as effective as Rain Dish's healing, but neat. 
• Solar Power (San Pawa/Sun Power) An interesting one! This one is owned not just by Fire-type Pokemon, but by some plants and also the solar-powered Helioptile line. Basically if the weather is sunlight, Solar Power increases the Special Attack in exchange for a percentage of their HP. I guess they are burning through much more enery than normal?
• Leaf Guard (Rifu Gado/Leaf Guard) One that's exclusive to Grass-types, Leaf Guard basically 'guards' the user against status ailments in sunlight. 
• Snow Cloak (Yukigakure/Hidden in the Snow) This one is fun and simple, basically Sand Veil but for the Hail condition. Snow Cloak boosts evasiveness in the snow, and it's always a neat trope of any icy monster to be hidden in the harsh blizzards of the mountains. 
• Ice Body (Aisu Bodi/Ice Body) And this one is Rain Dish, but with Hail instead of Rain. Not too much to say, the Pokemon heals in Hail. 

• Adaptability (Tekioryoku/Adaptability) This one is an interesting one. The effect is very simple -- the STAB (same-type-attack-bonus) is increased from 1.5x to 2x. Not too exciting. This was originally an ability that Eevee and Porygon-Z had, before it was given to a bunch of Pokemon that are based on real-life invasive species. Bass fishes (Basculin, Feebas), crayfishes (the Corpish line) and mongooses (the Yungoos line). While Eevee and Porygon-Z are 'unstable' Pokemon thanks to the nature of what they are, I do like that this is referring to how 'adaptable' a Pokemon is to their environment. Sometimes how easily a species can turn invasive is how they can capitalize on their own strength!
• Rivalry (Tososhin/Belligerence) Oh, this one is cute! Originally almost exclusive to the Nidoran line (Shinx has it, too), Rivalry gives the Pokemon an attack boost if the enemy Pokemon are the same gender. It's something similar to the kinds of territorial dogs that get a bit more... barky or yippy when they're faced with potential rivals to their mating situation, y'know? Very neat.
• Scrappy (Kimottama/Spunk) Apparently, if you're scrappy or 'spunky' enough, you can hit a ghost even though you're a Normal-type! I don't... I don't really get the idea behind this, I personally would've thought that this would be something flavoured more like the moves Odor Sleuth or Foresight, but sure, it exists. As someone who likes to use Ghost-types, I have to admit that this ability fucked me over way more times than it should have. 

• Aftermath (Yubaku/Induced Explosion) Yeah, very memorable for anyone who played the Sinnoh games as being that one ability the Drifloon line has that causes damage after you defeat him. It's not quite exclusive to Drifloon, becuase even in this generation the Stunky line has it (and of course, the original 'bomb' Pokemon Voltorb eventually gains Aftermath as a hidden ability). I do kind of like this, it's like one last 'fuck you' from the Pokemon as it goes out and faints. 
• Simple (Tanjun/Simple) A 'simple' ability (heh) originally exclusive to Bidoof and Numel. Basically the 'derpy' looking Pokemon, and while the original description is 'prone to wild stat changes', what it translaets to mechanically is the dobuling of stat changes. I do like that Pokemon does tend to really capitalize on the charm of these 'goofier' Pokemon. 
• Dry Skin (Kanso Hada/Dry Skin) A very interesting one, that I feel like is extra-applicable for the Croagunk and Helioptile lines. Dry Skin causes the Pokemon to take extra damage from Fire-types and even in harsh sunlight (poor Paras!) but they heal from Water-type moves and from the rain condition. That's like a couple of different weather abilities rolled into one, but I can really get that some organisms are just super sensitive to weather and humidity. 

• Technician (Tekunishan/Technician) Oh, this one! Now, I've never really got the flavour behind the term 'technician' and 'increasing moves that have low base power'. The ide is, of course, is that Technician boosts each individual instance of damage, so multi-hit moves like Bullet Seed would get multiple times of Technician boost. Very useful, but I've honestly personally never really got why Pokemon like Meowth, Breloom, Scizor, Ambipom or Cincinno are more able to be a 'technician' moreso than many of the Pokemon in the Fighting or Dark types. Eh. 
• Mold Breaker (Katayaburi/Mold-Breaking) The idea is that someone who 'breaks the mold' is new and different and innovative, and Mold Breaker basically nullifies other Abilities. I guess with more and more powerful abilities being introduced over the generation, they decided to slap Mold Breaker on some high-statted Pokemon like Rampardos and Haxorus to 'power' through anyone with a broken ability. In practice, Mold Breaker basically ends up getting slapped to a lot of Pokemon later on and, again, it's another Ability that shows up a lot, is rather useful, but I've never really quite 'got' the flavour beyond generic 'make this Pokemon useful in battle'. 
• Sniper (Sunaipa/Sniper) This one is pretty cool! Eventually, they kind of gave it to a bunch of less-thematic Pokemon, but originally it's an ability exclusive to 'gun-like' Pokemon like the Horsea line, the Sobble line and of course, the Remoraid line. It increases critical rate. Some of the others are Pokemon like Beedrill or Drapion that can presumably 'pinpoint' weak points with their needle-like appendages.
• Super Luck (Kyoun/Good Luck) Super Luck increases the critical hit ratio in different way, but the flavour is less about skill, as is implied by 'Sniper', but by luck. I do really find it cute that the Pokemon that are originally able to learn this are Absol (who's associated with warning people about bad luck) and Murkrow (crows are said to bring bad luck), and later on the Togepi line (who are more conventionally lucky). 

• Anticipation (Kikenyochi/Danger Premonition) Honestly kind of a useless ability if we're really talking about competitiveness, but 'Anticipation' basically allows its user to realize that the enemy has a super-effective move against it... or, originally, one-hit-KO moves or self-destruction moves. This is basically that trope in anime or action movies where a character takes a look at something and goes... "oh man, this is going to suck." Anticipation doesn't make you more likely to dodge the super-effective move, or to gain resistance against it, or to get a buff... it's just poor ol' Croagunk here realizing that the enemy has a 4x-effective Psychic and goes "aaaaaaaaah shit."
• Forewarn (Yochimu/Prophetic Dream) Forewarn is a bit of a more interesting variation, in that Forewarn tells the trainer the most powerful move that the opponent has. The Japanese name is literally 'prophetic dream', which is why the Drowzee and Munna lines -- both based on dream-eating monsters -- have this. Not particularly useful once you realize the pool of 'high-power moves' can easily be inferred by any half-decent trainer, but it's a cute one regardless. (The other line that can get this is Jynx, which... okay, she's a Psychic too I guess). 
• Tinted Lens (Iromegane/Tinted Glasses) A play on the pun of 'viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses', Tinted Lens boosts the power of your moves... if they're not very effective. It's like a less-useful version of Technician, I think, but wher

• Storm Drain (Yobimizu/Pump Priming) Similar to Lightning Rod, Storm Drain draws in all Water-type attacks, and then in later generations, Storm Drain offers immunity to Water-type damage and a free Special Attack buff. It's admittedly a bit less intuitive to imagine compared to Lightning Rod (which already happens based on real physics), though the idea of giant storm drains absorbing floodwater is pretty neat. I also like that some of the Pokemon that have Storm Drain are actually plants like Lileep and Maractus! It makes sense, they use their roots!
• Frisk (Omitoshi/Unobstructed Sight) The Pokemon can check the opponent's item, which isn't the most useful ability to have in battle, really. I do find it interesting that while the English name is 'Frisk', which implies physically touching and frisking the enemy, the Japanese name is 'Unobstructed Sight', which is why a lot of the Pokemon with this ability have big, prominent eyes, like Dusclops, or Yanma, or Stantler; as well as a bunch of Psychic or Ghost types.  
• Anger Point (Ikari no Tsubo/Anger Point) A bunch of Pokemon that are particularly 'angry' by default, like Primeape and Tauros, have this ability naturally and... it's another one of the 'get a buff after something bad happens to you' abilities, and this is probably the best of the ones here? A very high Attack boost after you get hit by a critical hit. Very flavourful, too, you can just see a Primeape or something going insanely furious and beat the shit out of whoever pissed him off. 

Is that all the 'generic' abilities? Yeah, a lot of them aren't... aren't the most interesting. The ones I'm going to talk about next are going to be a bunch of signature abilities, and then we'll cover some interesting previously-signature abilities, which I think I have a bit more to talk about!

• Multitype (Maruchitaipu/Multitype) This is around the generation where Pokemon realized that a legendary Pokemon's transformation ability could be represented in their abilities, similar to Castform! Which means that Deoxys ends up becoming this little weirdo who does some transformation but doesn't have a signature ability. Multitype here is the ability of Arceus, the 'god' of Pokemon. Multitype allows Arceus to transform into any type that you attach the respective 'type' to, changing the secondary colours of Arceus and changing the type of his signature move Judgment. In practice you can't change plates mid-battle, so it is admittedly a bit underwhelming because the type of Arceus is already locked in at the beginning of the battle, but lore-wise it's extremely cool, especially with the implication (and confirmation via tie-in material) that the Plates are basically all aspects of Arceus's power that are scattered in Sinnoh. Pretty neat!
• Flower Gift (Furawa Gifuto/Flower Gift) And this is the signature ability of Cherrim, allowing it to 'open up' from its Overcast form to its Sunshine form when the weather is sunny. In addition to the form change, Flower Gift also gives a boost in Attack and Special Defense. It also powers up Cherrim's allies in multi-battles, which isn't something I knew! 

• Bad Dreams (Naitomea/Nightmare) Just straight-up 'Nightmare' in the original Japanese, which is already used as an English move name, 'Bad Dreams' is Darkrai's signature ability, which just passively deals damage to any sleeping opponent Pokemon. Darkrai's whole deal is that he's the embodiment of nightmares and night terrors, and coupled with Darkrai's own signature sleep-inducing moves, Bad Dreams is a pretty creepy and flavourful ability! Again, just like Groudon and Kyogre's Drought and Drizzle, it really does a great job at showing how Darkrai 'embodies' his element. 
• Slow Start (Suro Sutato/Slow Start) Otherwise known as 'why Regigigas sucks', this is kind of a self-damaging Ability similar to Slaking's Truant. There is some flavour to this -- the idea is that Regigigas is slumbering for so long that it takes time for him to actually fully awaken and embrace its full strength... but halving its Attack and Speed stats for five turns? This ability would've been plenty of a debuff if it had its effect in two turns, let alone five. Pretty flavourful, but man, poor, poor, Regigigas. Recently, in Generation IX, Varoom of all things gets this as a hidden ability. I guess some car engines are just inherently broken. 

• Unaware (Ten'nen/Airhead) This was previously the signature move of the Bidoof line, until it was given to a lot of other Pokemon. I think it works best with its original user, because the idea is that Bidoof is so unaware, such an airhead, that he doesn't really realize that the opponent's stats have changed. It's such a flavourful ability, I think, and it definitely fits a lot of the other recipients like Wooper. Frankly, I'm surprised Slowpoke didn't get this ability!
• Honey Gather (Mitsu Atsume/Honey Gather) Originally Combee's signature ability and later given to other honey-gathering Pokemon like Teddiursa and Cutiefly, Honey Gather allows the Pokemon to suddenly get honey as you travel around in the overworld. Not useful since Pickup is better, but a cute ability that Combee loses as soon as she evolves into Vespiquen -- and the queen bees don't go around gathering honey anyway!

• Snow Warning (Yuki Furashi/Snow Fall) The equivalent to Tyranitar's Sand Stream, 'Snow Warning' is basically automatic Hail in the beginning of the turn. This was originally the signature ability of Snover and Abomasnow, though it has cropped up as hidden abilities in other Ice Pokemon. I kinda feel like this works well with Abomasnow's whole 'yeti' vibe. It's not that the yeti only shows up when it's snowing heavily, but rather the yeti summons the snowstorm to cover his appearance!
• Unburden (Karuwaza/Acrobatics) Bizarrely, this was Drifloon's signature ability! This doesn't even really feel particularly signature-y, and I mentally associate Drifloon more with Aftermath anyway. This was given to a lot of Pokemon eventually, and I kinda... approve? Unburden raises speed if a held item is consumed, which I think is meant to evoke the mental image of someone in a hot-air balloon tossing ballasts to make the hot-air balloon to rise, but any sufficiently 'sneaky' Pokemon dropping some of their weight to move quickly, Rock Lee style, works well flavour-wise!
• Klutz (Bukiyo/Clumsy) Originally the Buneary line's signature Ability, Pokemon with Klutz are so clumsy that they can't use held items. It's a reference to that honestly rather tired anime trope of 'oh no, this girl is so clumsy and kawaii, dropping everything she's holding', which is kinda eye-rolling since it's attached to a bunny girl. There's a bit of a usage where the Pokemon can hold damaging items and then fling or swap it with the opponent, but it's otherwise kind of useless.

• Heatproof (Tainetsu/Heatproof) It's as it implies -- the Pokemon takes less damage from Fire-type moves. This is originally exclusive to the Bronzor line (and currently Rolycoly is the other one that has it) and it does make fighting Bronzor and Bronzong a bit annoying. The two common abilities for that line is either Levitate (nullifies Ground) or Heatproof (resistance to Fire), and this was back when Steel-type resisted Dark and Ghost types. This means that it's a bit of a crap-shoot on what works best on the Bronzors and Bronzong you meet in wild. 
• Motor Drive (Denki Enjin/Electric Engine) Huh, only Electivire has this? It's weird that his budy Magmortar doesn't get a signature ability, but this one does make sense. Motor Drive allows a Pokemon to absorb Electric attacks and increase its Speed instead, because shooting lightning at a lightning-tiger-man powers its 'engine' up. It's actually surprising that this doesn't get given to more Pokemon, with only the Blitzle and Emolga lines getting this after Generation IV.
• Stall (Atodashi/Going After) This is the signature ability of Sableye even until now, allowing Sableye to move last. It's... I guess it's useful for some specific moves like Payback? But you very rarely ever want to move last, and countering moves already have reduced priority anyway. Honestly, you really do think of 'Prankster' when you think of Sableye, and that's an ability that increases priority of specific moves. Kind of a shame, this Ability could probably have something interesting going on for it if it was revised for Mega Sableye (who looks like it could stall with its giant gem) and gives a damage bonus in exchange for going last or something, but nope, Stall is just kinda... terrible. 

The ones after these are all signature (or formerly signature) abilities given to older Pokemon, which I want to highlight and call out special attention to. I really do love this, and I really wish this was something that they would do... but with modern Pokemon games cutting entire Pokemon and moves out of the game, it's kind of a shame! They barely even do this anymore, leaving a lot of older pre-Gen-V Pokemon with underwhelming abilities, and when they do change abilities it's to nerf Gengar. Admittedly adding new abilities to older Pokemon isn't quite as flashy as adding a new evolution or regional form, but still...

• Skill Link (Sukiru Rinku/Skill Link) It's surprising that this originated as a signature ability... of Shellder and Cloyster! I guess it's supposed to work with Icicle Spear, except that Skill Link gets given to a lot of other Pokemon that could make use of it better than Cloyster ever could. Cinccino, Ambipom, and especially Mega Heracross. This basically guarantees any move that has a 'attacks 2-5x' like Pin Missile, Rock Blast or Bullet Seed to always hit 5 times, which isn't very impressive with Cloyster's sub-par stats, but terrifying with someone like Mega Heracross's stats. 
• Reckless (Sutemi/Risking Life) Another one that got given to a lot of Pokemon as a hidden ability, in Generation IV Reckless was specific to just Hitmonlee... and I guess Hitmonlee is a bit more reckless than your average Pokemon? I do agree that it fits aggressive, dumb-charging Pokemon like Rhyhorn, Basculin and Bouffalant, though! Reckless powers up moves that deal recoil damage.
• Iron Fist (Tetsu no Kobushi/Iron Fist) A lot more thematic for Hitmonchan than 'Reckless' was for Hitmonlee, Iron Fist powers up moves that use punches, except for 'Sucker Punch' because its original Japanese move doesn't actually have 'punch' in its name. There are some fighting-types that get this ability just because, but I do like that some Pokemon like Crabrawler or Ledian, who are all about punching, get Iron Fist as an ability. 

• Magic Guard (Majikku Gado/Magic Guard) We've got two 'guard' abilities, with Magic Guard being given to Clefairy's evolutionary line originally. Magic Guard causes the Pokemon to be protected from all indirect damage like poison, burn, weather effects, entry hazards, Leech Seeds, recoil damage, et cetera. A cute enough ability even if it's not the most useful. It is interseting that other than the Clefairy line, all the other ones with Magic Guard are Psychic types (the Solosis, Abra and Sigilyph lines), though I suppose this decision was made before the advent of Fairy-types. 
• No Guard (No Gado/No Guard) Meanwhile, No Guard was originally the Machop line's signature ability, and it kinda is a far more flavourful idea of 'Reckless' above. With No Guard, things basically become a gamble, because all moves used by this Pokemon cannot miss... but all moves used against this Pokemon cannot miss either. A bunch of other 'reckless' Pokemon have this ability too, like Midnight Lycanroc, Karrablast (before character development gives him a shell) and Golurk (a rampaging golem), but my favourite recipient of this ability are Honedge and Doublade, but not Aegislash. Aegislash finally wisens up from having 'No Guard' since it manifests a shield in evolution!
• Filter (Firuta/Filter) Filter is Mr. Mime's signature ability, and it basically reduces super-effective attack damage from dealing 2x damage to 1.5x damage. Not... not the most interesting ability, but I guess they had to try to make this a bit more balanced? I do like that Mr. Mime's barriers are at least represented in his abilities, though. The other Pokemon that have this ability are those with armour plating, like Revavroom and Mega-Aggron. 
• Solid Rock (Hado Rokku/Hard Rock) Solid Rock has the exact same effect as Filter, although it's flavoured as being made of such 'hard rock' instead of a defensive shield or armour. This is the signature move of the Numel line, and later given to the Tirtouga line. I'm actually surprised this ability hasn't became a bit more prevalent!

• Download (Daunrodo/Download) Obviously the signature ability of the Porygon line, this was later shared only with Genesect, which is a cyborg bug and it kinda makes sense. Download is supposed to represent Porygon's ability to turn itself into digital form or to 'download' data or something. In the battle it allows Porygon or Genesect to 'scan' the enemy and raises its Attack or Special Attack stat depending on which respective Defensive stat is lower for the enemy. That's cool!
• Poison Heal (Poizun Hiru/Poison Heal) The signature ability of the Shroomish line, and only later shared with Gliscor, Poison Heal basically allows the Pokemon to be healed instead of damaged if they are poisoned. This allows for Breloom (Grass/Fighting) and Gliscor (Ground/Flying) to have essential immunity to the Poisoned effect, since they are kinda Poison-coded, being a mushroom and a scorpion respectively, but not actually Poison type. Cute. 
• Normalize (Nomaru Sukin/Normal Skin) Normalize honestly feels like the prototype for the other 'change moves used to another type' abilities that would appear a lot later on. Normalize is the signature ability of the Skitty line, and turns all moves they use into the Normal type... which is interesting but not particularly useful. 

Phew, and that's it! This article took a fair bit to write -- mostly cause it's pretty long but not long enough for me to split into two. I am reasonably happy with it. I don't think the next batch of 'Abilities' articles will be particularly interesting to write since a lot of the more 'generic' abilities are already covered in Generation III and IV, whereas a lot of the abilities introduced particularly from Generation VI-VII onwards would be pretty specific to the gimmick of the newer Pokemon. Oh well, see you guys next time!

Reviewing Bleach Fillers -- Shūsuke Amagai Arc

Bleach, Season 9: The New Captain Shūsuke Amagai Arc [Episodes 168-189]

And we're back with another filler 'season' discussion for Bleach! Last time, we covered Bleach's fourth and fifth 'seasons' (technically, 'series') which covered the two-parter Boutn arc. This time around, our filler lasts a season and it was aired in-between the Espada arc... but time-wise, I think it's supposed to take place around after the Bount arc and before the start of the Espada arc. There needs to, of course, be a bit of a stretch of imagination because no one in the Espada arc mentions anything about the events of this substitute captain. That is, of course, the structure of a lot of the filler arcs and movies in Bleach, where the anime staff realizes that the most popular parts of the series is the Soul Society and the captains, but everything after Ulquiorra and Yammy's arrival in the human world all the way to Aizen's defeat and Ichigo losing his powers are so tightly-paced that you can't just sneak in filler arcs the way you could do in, say, Naruto where you could put in a couple of extra one-note missions between Akatsuki members. 

Anyway, interestingly, the first episode of this 'New Captain Amagai Shusuke' arc is the introduction of the titular new captain. It is admittedly a bit of an oddity that the captaincy seats left vacant by Aizen, Tosen and Gin are just left empty until the end of the Aizen arc and the Visoreds come to take back their old jobs. I guess the idea is that none of the vice-captains (Shuhei, Kira and Momo) have Bankai yet?

Either way, Yamamoto announces without preamble that he has selected a brand-new captain for the Third Division, Amagai Shusuke, who previously has been out on some kind of a surveying mission outside of Soul Society. Amagai comes in with his former teammate Kibune Makoto, into a Third Division that's not particularly accepting of him. The focus of this first episode is, interestingly enough, Kira Izuru. Always love it when these less-prominent vice-captains get a bit more screentime in these fillers, and we focus more on Kira's lack of self-confidence and people skills. Kira tries, bless him, he tries, to make Amagai be accepted by his very grumpy division. He uses a suggestion from Matsumoto (a nice nod to the canon manga factoid that Kira and Matsumoto are actually drinking buddies) to throw a party, only succeeding in getting Amagai drunk. We learn a bit that Kibune's the hypercompetent sidekick to Amagai (kind of like Nanao to Kyoraku), but while Amagai ends up seeming like a competent -- if carefree -- captain, we learn through Kira's eyes that Kibune seemingly has something a bit more nefarious up his sleeves.

Again, this is what I really felt was one of the stronger segments of the Bount arc -- the focus on characters that didn't quite get as much shine in the source material, and Izuru Kira getting a fair amount of screentime as he struggles with what's basically a combination of impostor syndrome and an extreme lack of confidence ends up being the focus. This eventually just devolves into him investigating Kibune, but I also do like that early on there's a sense that Kira is struggling with the idea that his previous captain Ichimaru Gin might be sabotaging the Third Division's growth rate, particularly with how much more effective his subordinates end up being under Amagai's training. 

Of course, all of this suspicion on Kira's part on Kibune ends up being true, with Kibune being willing to straight-up sacrifice an unseated officer for the crime of being weak during a Hollow investigation. This leads him to fight a bit with Kira, but ultimately nothing comes out of it because Amagai's very willing to handwave things away in the interest of peace. However, Kibune constantly disappearing into the Kasumioji estate raises some suspicions from Kira, leading to... a relatively simple investigation where it turns out that Kibune, the shifty third-seat, turns out to be evil. Kibune does have a pretty cool Shikai, Reppu, which takes the form of a giant blade... thing. I am not sure if it's even based on a real weapon or not, but it really does feel very old-school Bleach as this giant, impractical funky weapon. 

We also get a couple of episodes focusing on Amagai's attempts to train the Third Division, and later promote inter-Division teamwork during a Menos invasion (which is Yamamoto testing out his troops) which I thought is kind of a nice way to show that the Gotei 13 aren't just entirely useless. It ultimately doesn't amount to anything within the arc, though, as Amagai himself gets dragged on into the main Kasumioji Clan conspiracy, so at the end of the day all the joint-Division training exercise ended up coming up to nothing.  

Also, in the early episodes, we cut away to the human world, where Ichigo and company, in their regular Hollow-fighting sequence, meets a mysterious bratty girl and her two sycophantic retainers that go head-over-heels to accommodate her wishes, treating her literally like royalty.

The little girl Rurichiyo, and the two bodyguards Kenryu and the silent Enryu, move into the house next to Ichigo's, and even show up as transfer students. A lot of this, I feel, particularly the school stuff, is just a handwave to stretch out the opening and to involve the human side-cast. We learn that Rurichiyo the last surviving member of House Kasumioji, one of the higher-ranking noble houses (just below the Four Great Houses, ensuring that they don't contradict anything in canon)... but is caught in the crossfire of assassination attempts by Kumoi Gyokaku, one of the vassals. Thus, they go to the human world to seek protection from Ichigo. 

And... they're just... kind of insufferable. I tend to have a fair amount of leeway to these anime-filler guest stars, since they're like... NPC's in a video game sidequest. They're never meant to be all that interesting, just a vessel so the plot can continue and the characters we actually care about can save the day. I kind of expect that. The trope of a movie or filler arc exclusive bratty little girl that has a crush on the main hero is also one that makes me roll my eyes but I can kind of ignore.

And... there's a somewhat cute moment where Ichigo and his sisters kind of get Rurichiyo to consider the feelings of the farmers, but between Rurichiyo's bratty and stupid decisions, as well as Kenryu being a gigantic sycophant who's also forcing Ichigo to keep the entire situation a secret from the bratty noble, it really does make watching the early couple of episodes a bit frustrating due to how much I didn't care for Rurichiyo and Kenryu. 

There are action scenes with these ninja assassins without names and funky Zanpakuto, which turn out to be forbidden weapon called Bakkoto -- they are delightfully creepy, looking like parasitic things with tentacles and eyeballs. The first couple of users of the Bakkoto are nameless assassins who die rather horribly after Ichigo takes them out, and this is the source of a rather repetitive sequence where the Kasumioji conspiracists send more and more nameless ninjas after Rurichiyo. It really is this sequence that drags on the most. I guess it's there to help Rurichiyo grow and realize what a spoiled brat she is, and I agree that this needs a bit of time... but considering that we later back-load the middle portion of the arc with fights against named goons, I wonder if those fights could've been instead folded into the earlier part of this season. 

Anyway, after a brief detour to the Soul Society where Rurichiyo needs to attend the tea party of one of her noble friends that is to be married off (I really wished this extended to the rest of the Soul Society portions of this season), we go back to the human world, where we get Ichigo and his non-Soul-Society supporting cast fight against an army of more experienced Bakkoto users. 

Ichigo gets to fight the ninja-like Hanza, who uses the mirror-based Bakkoto called Saiga used by a nameless assassin before, and we get... a rather interesting sequence where Ichigo hallucinates a guilt-tripping by his dead mother. Neat -- if obvious -- way to draw on canon information, but ultimately I did feel like dragging this sequence for almost an entire episode was a bit too much. Hanza reveals that the Bakkoto becomes much stronger depending on the user... but he ultimately gets overwhelmed as he tries to draw too much, transforming into a monstrous form before dying, being consumed by his own cursed weapon. 

Oh, the other assassins, who have even less personality and individuality than the Bounts, also get to fight Rukia, Chad and Uryu, and they all invariably end up getting their asses kicked. A hideous giggling goblin of a man called Doko Jinnai fights Rukia, and uses the Bakkoto Retsurai to sprout a bunch of swords from his body parts. Rukia gets to use Sode no Shirayuki in this filler arc, and Jinnai eventually also blows up from overusing his Bakkoto. 

Chad fights a big buff dude called Genga, who inherits the very cool Kakuyoku, allowing Genga to create giant walls of stone wherever he slashes. This one ends up being kind of a fight of strength, but Chad just uses the badass La Muerte to turn Genga into a crater in the ground. The last assassin is a generic-looking ninja called Kuzuryu, who uses the mist-generating Shiragiri to create fog, illusions and creepy tentacle hands to fight Uryu. Uryu uses... Sprenger, I think? To beat him? You can tell that these generic assassins didn't leave too much of an impact in my head. Kuzuryu actually survives to return, only to be killed off by one of the main villains for his failure. 

And while these one-note assassins and their repetitive fights aren't the most interesting, I actually do find the Bakkoto storyline to be pretty neat! The idea that there being a weapon system related to but completely different from the Shinigami's Zanpakuto is a fun one, and instead of being personalized, individual weapons that require personal understanding and mastery, the Bakkoto can just be passed on to the next soldier and the next and the next, with the qualities of being a cursed weapon causing there to be a potential for the weapon to overwhelm and kill the user. Very simple, very typical storyline in these shonen anime, but one that fits for a filler arc. 

The problem is, of course, that even compared to fellow filler arc villains like the Bounts or the movie villains... none of the bad guys are particularly compelling enough. The assassins are boring as hell, and the two primary villains that drive around 80% of the arc before the 'big twist' at the end are so... bland. The creepy old man Kumoi Gyokaku is just a bland, ugly, and utterly mean-spirited cranky old man that conspires to take over the Kasumioji Clan. And while there is some intrigue to how Makoto Kibune seems to be able to have a veneer of calm friendliness to fool the other Shinigami, he drops the fake personality very quickly. It really would've been a bit more interesting if the rivalry between Kira and Kibune was dragged out a bit to be more about Kira's insecurities, or how they present themselves to the people around them... but then Kibune turns out to be a very generic mwa-ha-ha-I-seek-STRENGTH filler villain that's secretly super-duper evil and kills weak Shinigami and assassins that fail him. 

Again, there is some intrigue when Ichigo and company go to the Soul Society, where Rurichiyo is to be married off to her arranged fiancé, Kannogi Shu, who has about as much personality as a towel. Shu is at least well-meaning, but it's clear from the first scene that he's just a puppet that Kumoi is manipulating as another way to get power in the Kasumioji Clan.

Meanwhile, Rurichiyo, finally realizing that there are assassins sent after her, realizes how hurt some of her protectors are and ends up opening a Senkaimon and returning to the Soul Society. It initially seems that she just falls into severe depression and is willing to do whatever Kumoi tells her to do, but turns out that Kumoi replaced Rurichiyo with a body double, and locked Rurichiyo up in a literal cage. And... I dunno. Maybe I'm being too hard on Rurichiyo but she just takes up so much space and the plot drags on because of her... Ichigo's protectiveness is nice, but otherwise I really couldn't bring myself to care much about her beyond her status as a character that needs to be saved. 

I really did like the scene where Ichigo, Rukia, Kenryu and Enryu interrupt the wedding to yell at Rurichiyo (who turns out to be fake), which is a watered-down of Ichigo's rescue of Rukia's execution... but the coolest thing is that Ichigo is confronted by Soi Fon and the Second Division. Again, it's a bit of a repeat of the 'we have a good reason for doing this, you bureaucrats' storyline of Rukia's rescue arc. The confrontation between Ichigo and Soi Fon is pretty neat, though sadly it doesn't go anywhere -- I would've liked to see Ichigo try and dodge Soi Fon's Suzumebachi a bit. 

(Omaeda tries his best to take down the bodyguards, but while Kenryu's Benishirade is kind of only useful to bamboozle ninjas, Enryu's Daichimaru takes the form of two giant metal fists attached to him by chains and that's actually cool). 

Ichigo ends up meeting up with Shu, and Shu turns out to be a decent guy -- just kind of an idiot. Ichigo takes Shu as a fake hostage as they go out and regroup, only to be confronted by Amagai. Amagai at this point is firmly characterized as a discount Kyoraku -- all the friendliness and willingness to accept alternate viewpoints, but without the suave charm and creepiness that Kyoraku can exude. And Amagai ends up becoming Ichigo's ally for the a chunk of this arc.

Far more interesting at this point is the clash between Kibune and Kira. Finally receiving ample information that Kibune is in fact a gigantic suspicious person, Kibune... starts playing the card-carrying villain, attacking the random generic Third-Division goons that has been following these two guys around, leading Kira to finally confront Kibune and his involvement with the Kasumioji conspiracy. Again... it's a bit of a shame that Kira's character arc about him having to continue serving without Gin's influence, or his impostor syndrome, really kind of all get dropped at this point in favour of a very generic 'I value my friends, you value only strength, therefore you suck!' conflict. 

...and that's what Kibune's characterization amounts to. He has been someone who's so obsessed with becoming powerful, but ended up being turned away by the Gotei 13 for his utterly bloodthirsty nature and his willingness to abandon his allies to their deaths if they're weak. It's surprising that he somehow couldn't find a place in the Eleventh Division, but he ends up discovering the intoxicating power of the Bakkoto. Kibune reveals that his ability to telekinetically manipulate Reppu (which negates Wabisuke's weight-increasing abilities) is actually the power of the Bakkoto, and we get a fun sequence as Kira just bounces around and just keeps trying to get a hit in on Kibune. Ultimately, Kira manages to shatter the Bakoto, causing Reppu to slam to the ground probably weighing several hundred tonnes with how many times Kira had hit it, and the power of the forbidden Bakkoto overwhelms Kibune and burns him out alive. 

And... yeah, it's a very simple fight and Kibune himself ends up being another flat character with very bland motivations. If the protagonist of this fight wasn't Kira, who has been severely out of focus before this, I would've complained more. As it is, giving good ol' Izuru Kira some spotlight in a filler arc is definitely a-okay for me, even if... even if they kind of forgot about Kira and left him on the sidelines literally for the entirety of the remainder of this arc. 

We do get a couple of shorter scenes here and there of more prominent like Renji and Ikkaku defending Ichigo and confronting characters like Iba and Shuhei. Renji ultimately manages to make his way to where Amagai, Ichigo and Rukia are gathered around the remnants of the Kira/Kibune fight, and Renji bringing the Bakkoto-infused Reppu to Yamamoto ends up kickstarting the final segment of this arc. 

But not before we get a brief fight scene between Hitsugaya against Amagai, and Matsumoto against Rukia. Sadly, we don't get too much about this. 

Upon receiving evidence, Yamamoto orders all the Gotei 13 to drop what they're doing and storm the Kasumioji Clan's grounds. We later get the explanation that everything has been dancing to Yamamoto's tune the entire time with the exception of maybe Amagai's identity. Because of pressure from Central 46, Yamamoto can't openly investigate the Kasumioji Clan, who has been mass-producing Bakkoto, but not without some irrefutable proof. And he's kind of using Ichigo as a convenient way to do so. Again, this is a neat way to make old man Yama not look like a complete moron, which various other captains like Kyoraku, Ukitake and Byakuya pointed out at different parts of the arc. 

Of course, with the raid seemingly about to be over, we get the big plot twist as Amagai slashes evil old man Kumoi to death... but turns out that Kumoi is confused because he's working for Amagai. 

And, dun dun dunnnn, plot twist, Shusuke Amagai, who has been nothing but nice and decent (and a bit dim) throughout the entire arc turns out to be evil, just like Sosuke Aizen, another captain whose names start with "S" and "A" and looks like a generic guy in the midst of more colourful designs and obfuscates normalcy before turning out to be evil! 

Amagai confronts Yamamoto on the First Division barracks, intending to kill Yamamoto and also the Kasumioji clan heiress. Amagai claims that he is taking revenge for Kisaragi Shinetsu, the name of a Shinigami that Yamamoto has killed before. Throughout all this, Amagai has been re-gathering all the eyeballs of the Bakkoto of the defeated Kasumioji goons, and attaching them to himself. We get a brief fight as Kenryu and Enryu attack with their respective Zanpakuto, but obviously they're no match for him. 

And Yamamoto finally gets to become serious, flexing to destroy his outfit and then releasing Ryujin Jakka... at which point, again, out of nowhere Amagai reveals that his Bakkoto is able to nullify all Zanpakuto. Just... all Zanpakuto? Again, while Ichigo using the power of his Hollow Mask to break through Hanza's illusions was certainly something that was done before, this property of the Bakkoto was never mentioned when it could've very easily been shown before (Ichigo, Uryu and Chad were all non-Shinigami, after all) in either the Rukia or Kira fights. It's a very randomly broken ability that only really serves as an excuse to nullify the supremely powerful Yamamoto and make him somewhat vulnerable for the next fight. 

That said, Amagai unleashing his own Bankai: Raiga Goen Kaku is pretty cool. Raiga Goen Kaku takes the weird hook-shaped blade with a giant fire 'exhaust' of Amagai's shikai and turns it into a gigantic bazooka-sized weapon that really does look like something from a Resurreccion. Meanwhile, Amagai's Bakkoto takes the form of black, scalloped spiky armour on his other arm, terminating in a green lightsaber.

And the fight, lasting over two episodes is... it's okay! I think I like this a bit more than the fight against Kariya Jin and his wind/electric abilities, mostly because Amagai does feel a bit more interesting in how Raiga Goen Kaku and its weird hook-blade and exhaust vent/cannon thing works. But ultimately, turns out that Ichigo's Hollow Mask allows him to circumvent the whole 'nullifies Zanpakuto ability' thing. Ichigo just keeps using Getsuga Tenshou until one finally lands, and the fight, again... it's okay. 

Ultimately, as Ichigo and Amagai both burn themselves out, Amagai falls as the Bakkoto prepares to consume him. Yamamoto reveals the truth to Amagai, however... that Yamamoto killed Amagai's father Kisaragi because he was actually an undercover agent sent to investigate Kumoi Gyokaku, only to be infected with a Bakkoto and driven mad. Amagai, only listening to the final words of his dying father, mistakenly thought that Yamamoto was instead colluding with Kumoi. 

And... and it is admittedly a tragic reason as Amagai realized that he's been working with the killers of his father and trying to kill his father's benefactor all this time. He ends up covering himself with a ring of fire and immolating himself to death while everyone else watches... but it really does rankle that the whole thing could've been avoided if Amagai did a better investigation or if he had communicated a bit better. From a writing standpoint, I really wished that either Kibune or Kumoi explicitly tried to fool Amagai, making his ignorance feel more like the malicious act of another character instead of him just being kind of a buffoon... but eh. 

Anyway, the arc ends with the status quo returned to normalcy with no captain in the Third Division. We get a hilariously somewhat meta scene of Ichigo and company saying goodbye to Rurichiyo, Shu, Kenryu and Enryu and them saying with no uncertain means that they will never ask Ichigo for help in the future because their clan needs to handle their own problems, thereby having an in-universe reason why they won't reappear in the anime. 

And... ultimately, I really do think that this one felt like there's a bit less content and more content at the same time. The Shusuke Amagai arc runs for 20 episodes -- a single season and a whole lot shorter than the two-season affair that was the Bount arc. But it really did suffer a lot from villains that weren't engaging, and heroic guest stars that were borderline annoying. The Bakkoto stuff and seeing Amagai's Bankai are all pretty fun, admittedly, and I continue to praise Kira's spotlight in this arc. Trying to develop a different aspect of Seireitei's society -- namely the nobility and the corruption in the higher parts -- is pretty interesting. This arc still kind of self-destructs around slightly after the halfway point, but being only a single season long does make this a much easier filler arc to get through. 

Random Notes:

• 
  A part where we have to kind of squint and handwave this as being filler is that Rukia is out and about, when the Bount arc puts her back in her injured state before the start of the Espada arc. At least she's using Sode no Shirayuki liberally now, which is always questionable that she's unable to do it during the Bount arc beyond 'the ability hasn't been revealed in canon'. 
• Interestingly, other than Hitsugaya, most of the other prominent captains don't do much in this arc, which does help to let the arc breathe a bit. Kenpachi gets a brief cameo stopping an assassin, Mayuri gets a brief gag yelling at the other captains for disturbing his Hollow specimens, and Byakuya shows up here and there, but it's interestingly averting the trope so common in Bleach movies where all the popular captains get to take out an enemy or two. 
• There's a brief subplot that's basically dropped halfway through the arc where two other captains agreed to let Amagai hold the captaincy seat, but since it's all Yamamoto's plan all along it turns out to just be Kenpachi, who's so dreadfully bored about all this. 
• I didn't mention it in the main body of the review since I think the season work just as well ignoring these details, but there are a lot of mentions about the 'royal family' and how the Kasumionji Clan has responsibilities in creating weapons for it. This was back in the earlier days of Bleach where the Soul King is implied to be similar to the Emperor of Japan from the time period that the Soul Society is based on... and we can really just chalk that up to filler arc weirdness. I mean, they tried to incorporate lore stuff! 
• There is a handful of recurring Third Division goons that constantly talk to Kira, Kibune and Amagai, though these guys are all anime-exclusive characters. I actually thought they were the three Third-Division guys killed by Bazz-B in the beginning of the Wandenreich arc!
• My favourite joke in this arc is early on, when Ichigo compares Rurichiyo to 'Byakuya', and in the background we get to see Rukia getting absolutely livid that her honourable brother is being compared to the bratty noble. 
• It's mostly played for laughs as Kira drowns his sorrows in alcohol, but I really do like that this gives a chance for characters like Renji, Iba and Matsumoto to show what they're like off the clock as they try their best to cheer Kira up.
• There is a bit of an interesting sequence where Amagai actually brings up the fact that three whole squadron captains ended up betraying the Gotei 13 is because each division is so cloistered and separated from the others, which is technically true. Other than the squadrons working with each other in some exercises in this arc, this really doesn't end up being something that ends up being a point in the manga, unless you count the captains teaming up against enemies.