Reviewing Bleach Fillers -- The Bount Arc, Part 2

Bleach, Season 5: The Bount Invasion Arc [Episodes 92-109]

So yeah, despite a slow but otherwise relatively well-paced first half, I have been surprisingly enjoying the Bount arc. Of course it doesn't quite have any of the highs of the rest of canon Bleach, because ultimately it's still a filler, but it's pretty interesting that they try to do a fair amount with what limited information they are allowed to reveal. It also is kind of interesting that this is basically a prototype and a much less-stakes version of the Vandenreich arc, with a bunch of Reishi-absorbing superhumans invading the Soul Society. 

And... the fifth season, or the 'Bount Invasion' arc where the Bount army arrives in the Soul Society to get revenge against the Shinigami... I don't think it quite flows as well, for one big simple reason -- the Bounts feel utterly and absolutely outmatched, so for a significant portion of this 18-episode season, the heroes just look like they're twiddling their thumbs and not even trying. The real-world reason is obviously because the writers are only allowed to use the powers revealed prior to the Arrancar arc, but there's honestly also no real reason why the Bount Invasion should be allowed to last that long other than, of course, we needed to fill 18 episodes. Where the fourth season had the brilliant excuse of limiting the good guys to the ones bound to the human world, plus a couple of vice-captains, there really was no reason for the Gotei 13 to hold back so much, especially because they don't have the "some of us don't really want to fight the Ryoka, and some of us are traitors" reasons that made them rather ineffective during the original Soul Society arc. 

The arc starts off rather strong in its first couple of episodes, with the Bounts seemingly going in and beating up some of the less-intimidating named characters like poor Iba and Omaeda, and we get the explanation that the Bounts are able to absorb the Reishi from Soul Society's surroundings in order to enhance themselves, explaining their power-up to fight captains. 

...and then we just spend a couple of episodes with Ichigo's group hanging out with the Shiba family, and it's honestly pretty boring. These scenes really do feel dragged on, with there being a subplot across the first six episodes or so of Ganju and a bunch of minor Rukongai characters trying to investigate what the Bounts are doing, and... I'm sorry, it's just not that interesting. None of Ganju's friends are memorable, Ganju himself is even more grating than he was in the source material, and even Kukaku doesn't really do much other than give some exposition about the Bounts' creation by Ran Tao, a member of the science and research division that caused the dispersal of Bount powers into the reincarnation cycle.

We get a couple of early clashes, and while it's later handwaved as a distraction so Ichinose Maki can sneak around and do some tampering of data, it is bizarre that none of the other captains and vice-captains really manage to do anything to fight the Bounts. We get Yoshi fighting Rukia, and, again, thanks to 'we haven't revealed this in the canon parts' reason, poor Rukia is unable to really do anything without a Zanpakuto. This fight is also coupled with a rather eye-rolling sequence of Lirin being jealous of Ichigo's relationship with Rukia, and the visuals just aren't particularly interesting since it's basically a rehash of the first clash Rukia has against Yoshi in the real world.  

This fight seems to just be a way to take Rukia out of the equation (since I guess they can't think of a better reason to explain the lack of Sode-no-Shirayuki), and to basically give Byakuya some real tranquil fury as he sees his sister being hurt. Now I'm not sure why Byakuya doesn't just murder Yoshi then and there, but it is pretty fun seeing him keep his normal cocky, calm composure while basically being one of the two captains that do anything in the early parts of the season. 

And then after these conflicts... the tension just drops, and these episodes were the hardest for me to get through because nothing interesting really happens. Kariya and company goes to the Rukongai and start making up a lot of havoc in the gambling dens, recruiting an army of malcontents and dissenters, basically creating a rebel army. This is an interesting expansion of the lore we do get in the Bleach manga, except it really goes nothing. The investigation by Ganju and his thug buddies don't amount to much other than to drag the non-Ichigo characters around and give them something (or rather, nothing) to do.

And then we get something interesting as Byakuya tracks Kariya down. Byakuya and Kariya clash, and this is later joined by Ichigo. There's some pretty fun shots in this fight, particularly the showcase of Ichigo's Tensa Zangetsu speed as he almost seems to teleport behind Kariya all the time with his sheer speed. Byakuya also gets to release his Bankai, and we get to see Kariya's real power -- wind powers from his doll Messer, that allows him to counter Senbonzakura pretty well. I really have no complaints about this fight, actually, with Ichigo and Byakuya making pretty good showings of themselves against the main big bad, and the fight ending only when Ran Tao shows up, distracting them. Kariya then levaes with Koga, whose barrage of metal balls distracts Byakuya and Ichigo enough.

And... despite all his talk about 'all enemies of the Soul Society must be destroyed', Byakuya just... leaves? This one felt particularly bizarre. Byakuya leaving Yoshi earlier can be excused because Rukia is hurt and he's understandably distracted, but I felt like this was a bit of a miss in the writing in that they could've really given Byakuya a better reason to not fight here. 

Ran Tao gives Ichigo (and Uryu, who shows up) some additional exposition, which is contrasted a bit with Mayuri going through some data on his own in his office. Everyone realizes that Uryu's Quincy Bangle is actually a ticking time bomb, and that Mayuri's been manipulated by planted information to give it to Uryu. The Bounts' creation story is also revealed to our heroes, and the (honestly rather random) revelation that Yoshino's essentially a clone of Ran Tao. 

And, again, it is rather odd that none of the Shinigami do anything about the Rukongai malcontents creating giant siege weapons and even attacking the four gates. It's not like the goons do it in secret either, we had a scene of Hitsugaya explicitly getting a report of them cutting down trees. And while you could think up of excuses for some of the other captains, you'd think the likes of Hitsugaya, Komamura and Byakuya would've put a stop to the siege by the Rukongai goons? I dunno. 

We get a fight between Maki Ichinose against Ichigo and his allies, but the long-awaited clash between Zaraki Kenpachi finally happens. The buildup for Maki has been pretty well-done, and I actually really do like this sequence. Kenpachi offers Ichinose a choice -- stay behind and fight him, or try and stop Ichigo and the others. The latter would fit more with Ichinose's constant talk about how he's loyal to Kariya, how he's found a cause in Kariya, how he's fighting for Kariya... and Kenpachi basically calls Maki's bullshit when Maki elects to fight Kenpachi instead. 

Maki does pull off some light-based attacks with Nijigasumi, but Kenpachi basically brute-forces his way through a couple of tricks he pulls, like the invisibility attack or the light bombs. All throughout this, we get some pretty great showcase of Maki's self-delusion breaking down as he realizes that he does value his grudge more than his loyalty to Kariya, while Kenpachi basically mocks Maki for lacking his own cause to fight. Kenpachi at this point doesn't have a cause to fight in other than the fight itself, but at least he doesn't lie to himself about that. Maki unleashes his final ability, Saigyoku Nijigasumi, which creates a dome of light that compresses and would destroy Kenpachi... but Kenpachi rips off his eyepatch and blows it apart with his Reiatsu. 

The two clash one last time, Kenpachi confronts the fact that Maki is still unable to 'stand on his own', and Maki gets absolutely cut down. It's a pretty great moment, honestly, and I think they did a pretty great job trying to expand on Kenpachi's might-makes-right mentality through this mini-arc. 

The following couple of episodes basically have your typical captain-vs-enemy-goons sequences. Kariya blasts away the Rukongai goons with his wind powers after he has no more use for them, and instructs his Bount minions to run wild while he goes and hunts down the plot devices. Orihime stays behind to help heal Jidanbo, while the rest of our cast spread out to hunt down the Bounts.

We do get to check in on our heroes fighting a bunch of others, especially when Mabashi starts taking over random low-rank Shinigami with his creepy flower-fox doll Ritze. His fight ends up being against Soi Fon, and it's... it's okay. I am rather disappointed because Mabashi's reduced to just being a completely psychotic "mwahaha I will control you and make you suffer before you die" lunatic, when previously in season 4 he's been shown as being the only one that's trying to uphold the no-killing Bount traditions? There was a pretty neat moment where Soi Fon is faced with her Punishment Squad subordinates being taken over and mind-controlled, and herself being stabbed by a Bitto, but she ultimately just powers through it with her own poison, and stabs Mabashi to death with Suzumebashi. 

We then have Kurotsuchi Mayuri heading out to fight Sawatari, and I do really like Mayuri's little arc here. Mayuri is a very proud person, and while he's spent the majority of the previous episodes disparaging the other captains, he gets absolutely livid when he realizes that he was played by the Bounts and by Maki sneaking in and altering data without his realizing. Mayuri ends up tracking down Sawatari and his teleporting Bount Baura.

There's also a lot of fun powers that in the manga we only ever see Mayuri do in his original fight against Uryu, like the gross ear-scythe, him melding into the walls as camouflage, the spikes in Konjiki Ashisogijizo's chest and the fact that old-school Mayuri still needs to inject himself with stuff to regenerate his arm. We get a pretty fun 'kaiju' fight between Baura and Konjiki Ashisogijizo at the end, with the hilarious imagery of a giant floating stone fish trying to eat the face of a angel-fetus-caterpillar, and ultimately Mayuri wins this fight with a combination of his poisons (the nerve-disabling properties don't get nullified by wound regeneration) and his information gathering (he was able to track Baura's movements by observing Matsumoto using Kido). It's a way that genuinely feels like it fits with what is going on, and not as 'bullshit' as some of Mayuri's victories in the later canon arcs. 

Uryu's fight against Yoshi is... it's basically what you'd expect from how Uryu's character has been set up throughout this Bount arc, with him trying his best to fight despite the fact that his power is neutered and dependent on a plot device. The actual fight itself isn't the most interesting because Yoshi is a very flat 'mwahaha I'm crazy' and I honestly found the fact that her Doll switches from sentient chained weapons to a shield-armour combo to be a bit underwhelming. They also dragged the hell out of Uryu constantly missing his shots and being unable to control his powers. Bringing a flashback of Soken is nice, though, and I really can't complain about it -- just like Maki, it's a simple but otherwise pretty well-executed story. I just wish Uryu got to take out a more interesting villain than flat ol' Yoshi, is all. 

Likewise, I felt like the story's kind of ran out of steam when Koga (ostensibly the most interesting Bount) faces off against Histugaya. There is a fair bit of emotion between Koga and his sadistic but loyal Doll, Dalk. There's a bit of sadness and melancholy as Dalk gets destroyed by Hitsugaya's Hyorinmaru and shatters despite Koga yelling at her to return, but... ultimately at this point it's kind of clear that the Bounts are over their heads. Hitsugaya, who isn't even the strongest Captain, gets to beat Koga and reduce him into fighting without a Doll without even activating Daiguren Hyorinmaru. And it sure is cool, I would think, at the time to see Daiguren Hyorinmaru get activated for what's probably the second time in the anime, but the conflict is so... so one-sided and basic that it's really hard for me to get invested in this episode. I honestly think that the drama would've been heightened significantly if it was Uryu versus Koga instead, two characters that were built up in the previous system, while Hitsugaya gets to kill Yoshi with her Bankai? I dunno. 

Koga's conflict with Kariya, by the way, was also... rather underbaked. There is enough to see that Koga's starting to lose faith with Kariya, but other than 'he was sad in the flashback when his young charge died', we really barely knew Koga beyond the fact that he's a bit more sane than the other Bounts, so his decision to betray Kariya and try to talk to him or stop him ends up ringing a bit hollow. After the amount of screentime the two characters have throughout the two seasons, it's really a wonder that they didn't manage to do more with this. 

It's also rather bizarre that Koga just... survives the end of the fight, being spirited away by Yoruichi and later lives in the edges of Soul Society with Ran Tao. 

And then we get the final three to four episodes dealing with Kariya's defeat and... after all of the build-up, it really does get hammered home that the writers kinda rushed through the ending. There's a lot of talk about blowing up the Jokai Crests to wipe out all of Seireitei. There is some excuse for the other non-participating captains like Kyoraku, Ukitake, Komamura, Yamamoto and the others to be going around defusing the Jokai Crests, but I really did feel like this explanation was a bit too late, and too unearned. 

Likewise, while all of the more interesting side-characters that had been built up were Koga, Yoshino and Ichinose, barely any of them play any role in the final confrontation. Ran Tao shows up and Kariya gets a bit of a flashback about how Ran Tao rescued him as a child when Central 46 decreed the extermination of the Bounts. The actual flashback's contents are actually well-done and fits with the bureaucratic, lots-of-skeletons-in-the-closet vibe of the Soul Society, but it's also rather rushed. The fact that Kariya apparently forgot all of this until Ran Tao reminds him also made the whole backstory felt tacked on. It's revealed that Kariya is basically pissed off at everyone and wants to return the favour, wanting to drag down everyone to death with him... and it's honestly such a bland motivation.

Uryu at least gets a bit of a better showing this time around, being able to utilize his Quincy Bangle powers and holding him off for the majority of the episode. However, he's forced to forego the killing blow to absorb Ran Tao's uncontrollable Reiatsu into the sky. Uryu... he couldn't have aimed it at Kariya instead? Eh. Uryu loses his power as his plot device breaks, and then Ichigo swoops in and unleashes Bankai. 

And... the fight is okay, I guess. I think I like the earlier fight where Byakuya's hanging around with them. I know I'm a bit spoiled because the modern 2023 animation of wind powers in Bleach with Soi Fon is so much cooler than Kariya's, but all he really does is use some wind punches and wind blasts, and later unleashes some lightning. Ichinose Maki turns out to have somehow survived Kenpachi's slash earlier, and then show up to challenge Kariya's false justice before being murdered. It really should've been Koga in this spot, huh? Koga dying here would've filled in Ichigo's "you killed your comrade and treats him like a pawn" righteous anger, and actually solved the Koga/Kariya storyline whereas I felt like Ichinose abandoning Kariya's mission to fight Kenpachi already spoke volumes for the character. 

We do get some moments that you'd expect to show up in a filler arc or a movie climax, with Ichigo's Hollow form taking over for a bit; as well as powerful characters like Byakuya and Yoruichi showing up but not helping out in the climax. Ichigo's other friends also show up, but for all of the talk in season four about how they're training to be useful to Ichigo, it really is kind of bizarre that they just stand around and wax lyrical about Ichigo's burden as a half-human, half-Shinigami and whatnot. It does really feel like it runs a bit contrary to what was built up, and I think that's my frustration about everything in this arc. 

Ultimately, some random injection by Ran Tao has been preventing Kariya from recovering, and in one final clash, Ichigo delivers the killing blow and reduces Kariya to ash. The final episode is a rather long epilogue which really is just a long, extended monologue about Ichigo's duty and the cycle of hatred flowing through history.

And... and ultimately, I really did feel that the fourth season did an okay job at setting up a filler arc. But like so many things in Bleach, the finale just feels rushed, and a lot of the promised development for some of these characters ended up falling flat. A lot of the final clashes like Hitsugaya vs. Koga and Ichigo vs. Kariya also feels very perfunctory, and... yeah, I can really see why this filler arc wasn't regarded particularly well by the fandom. It's really a shame because the first half really did feel like it has a fair amount of ideas that feels unique enough while remaining in the realm of 'filler', but they simply really didn't do enough to spotlight either the protagonists or antagonists. Again, the fact that the uber-powerful characters are just quietly standing in the background hoping you don't notice them. 

Extra Random Notes:

• For how much they got a buildup in season four, Lirin, Noba and Kurodo really are completely irrelevant here, huh? Lirin gets to use her illusion powers maybe once to help Rukia, but either as power-wielders or as characters they are completely useless. I really wished that they were either integrated better into the plot or just left behind on the human world with Urahara. 
• Okay, I do really like Uryu's armour in this arc. Shame that he never really gets it again. Between his Letzt Stil and Sternritter outfits, Uryu does get a lot of cool looking one-off armour!
• Yeah, the Rukongai socio-economic disparity is really something that Bleach brings up all the time, particularly relevant in the Soul Society arc but it keeps showing up all the way to the Thousand-Year-Blood-War arc. Even the Can't Fear Your Own World novel doesn't really bring any kind of resolution to it, though, beyond acknowledging that it's shitty but it also exists. Kind of a dropped ball there, honestly, for the Bounts to stoke the flames of rebellion behind the poor citizens and not to have Soul Society at least do something about it. 
  
• I really do like the scene where Kyoraku and Mayuri talk about the bombing of one of the buildings in the Seireitei, and Mayuri casually scoffing about a 'distraction'... before realizing that he's being played by the Bount and getting so pissed off about that. 
• I also do find it pretty fun that Mayuri's personality when interacting with the others is still more of a complete and utter jackass instead of an entertaining troll. Again, it's a bit more noticeable after seeing Mayuri show up in the later arcs like the Espada and Vandenreich arcs. 
• There's a nice nod to the Mod Souls being able to sense the Bounts, due to the fact that the Bounts' original creation also used the artificial souls. 
• Okay, seriously, though, how did someone with a light-based kido Zanpakuto like Maki Ichinose end up in the Eleventh Division?
• Sawatari, unlike some of the other non-Kariya, non-Koga Bounts, even gets a brief little backstory. He's the one that breaks the most taboos among the Bounts, eating even more living humans before Kariya's rebellion, which explains his old age. I felt like they really could've done more with expanding these minions! 
• The side cast commenting about a 'black getsuga tenshou' being special and associated with Ichigo's inner Hollow is hilarious considering the canon (and the Thousand-Year-Blood-War anime) colour for Getsuga Tenshou is black.