Bleach, Season 13: Sword Beast Arc [Episodes 256-265]

Bleach, Season 13: The Sword Beast Arc ]Episodes 254-265]

So I was pretty much quite happy with the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc. It wasn't a perfect filler arc, there were a couple of misses, but overall it was more or less a pleasant watch. 

And then... there are still ten episodes to go in 'season 13', and... yeah, it's clear that the budget of both writing and animation went to the proper 'Zanpakuto Rebellion'. The Toju arc, or the Sword Beast arc, really isn't so much of an 'arc' but literally just padding to close out the 'season'. I'm not really sure about the nature of the production of these older anime, if it really is set in 'seasons' like modern-day shows, but these last batch of episodes really did feel like a completely different level of filler compared to the Bounts, to the Kasumionji Conspiracy, and even to the Zanpakuto Rebellion that preceded this. There really isn't so much of a plot, but really just an excuse plot -- the Zanpakuto Spirits introduced earlier can re-manifest because... reasons. And the strength of any story is built upon their villains, but there really isn't. The Sword Beasts show up but they're mostly just raging beasts, and the couple that actually have lines are so generic that it's hard to really care. 

And each episode really is kind of very much standalone, and far more comedic. And it's nice to see our Bleach characters a bit more comedic, of course, since we don't really spend a lot of time with the non-Ichigo cast outside of crisis moments, but... yeah. Anyway, the first episode of this arc is basically just the setup for the excuse plot. Byakuya throws a party, but then the Sword Beasts attack, causing Senbonzakura and Sode-no-Shirayuki to manifest and attack. Mayuri gives us the actually rather intriguing explanation of these Sword Beasts -- Zanpakuto whose spirits were awakened by Muramasa, but their masters died. This retroactively does make Muramasa's rampage a lot more impactful, and I like that...

...except none of the episodes except for maybe episode 262 really does anything with this concept. It really is just an excuse to think up of some monster designs for our heroes to beat. And, I'm sorry, they enemy designs are not all that creative. There isn't even a proper sentient Sword Beast that at least acts as a generic antagonist. 

Anyway, the rest of episode 256 does act as a nice coda to the Rukia/Sode-no-Shirayuki conflict in the actual Zanpakuto Rebellion, and that is going to be a common theme I'm going to say about the rest of the arc. The actual writing isn't anything to write home about. Sode-no-Shirayuki just gets some impostor syndrome and is afraid that her ideas won't actually help her master Rukia, but the two of them work together to bring down the Sword Beasts. 

Episode 257 is honestly a rather generic 'new enemy arrives in the human world!' sequence, just to give Ichigo some screentime as he learns about this. Plus, even more exposition from Mayuri. Ichigo himself is barely present in any of the subsequent episodes, and although he does some Getsuga Tenshou's here and there, Ichigo definitely takes a backseat in this 'arc'. I do like the moment when Kyoraku basically bribes Mayuri with sweets in order to get him to properly research the Toju. 

Episode 258 puts the focus on Renji and Zabimaru, or specifically Hebi. Hebi, the kid of the two halves of Zabimaru, gets frustrated by Saru always picking on him and goes off on his own. He basically gets a bad influence from the Toju that they're chasing, who talks about how nice it is not to be 'chained down'... and goes around the human world being irresponsible until he befriends Karin. Eventually the boomerang-wielding Sword Beast attacks again, and Hebi learns about responsibility or something, I guess. I don't really care enough about Saru and Hebi, and while it's nice that Ichigo's sisters get a bit more screentime, the episode itself really is kind of boring that it's a bit hard for me to pay attention to this one. 

259 has a rather weird one. We pair up Ikkaku, Hozukimaru, Nanao and Hanataro as they investigate missing chickens, leading to a kraken Toju. Excuse plot, what are you gonna do? Always welcome to see the unorthodox pairing, though ultimately this is just for them to show off Hisagomaru, Hanataro's Zanpakuto whose power is only ever shown off once in the source material. I love the visualization of the 'attacking' power as Hisagomaru sprouting a big fuck-off cannon, but the entire episode just feels a bit mean-spirited towards Hanataro in general. 

260 should have been a great conclusion to the Hisagi/Kazeshini conflict. The two of them always felt like they could've had a lot of story milked out of them, particularly with how Hisagi insists that he hates Kazeshini and how it's designed to reap lives, and this is an arc where his sword finally manifests and can talk to him. And this episode initially seems to set that up, a serious character conflict and analysis... but nope, Kazeshini spends 80% of the episode taking care of a random crying baby, and it's nowhere as funny or charming as the showrunners thought it is. 

261 is a decently solid one, actually, maybe because of the novelty that it takes place in the real world. Orihime gets to be the focus here, and one of her classmates Kyoko gets basically possessed by a medusa-looking Toju who preys on Kyoko's protectiveness-turned-stalkering. It feels like an episode that would've fit in as a single chapter in the pre-Soul-Society Bleach episodes, I feel. 

262 is another one like 260 where the premise is great. Haineko uncovers a Sword Beast that seems sentient and not at all a card-carrying villain or a slobbering beast. It helps that Narunosuke is very cute, too! There was almost a discussion about the ethics of what's basically an extermination campaign, and if the "every Toju will go mad, no questions" assumption should even be challenged... but the ethics-discussion is relegated to a single conversation. Haineko's conflict is more about secret-keeping than anything, and the entire premise is stretched out way longer than it has any right to be. 

263, meanwhile, is just entirely fluff... but it's actually kinda funny, and I like it. Zabimaru follows Senbonzakura around, and turns out that outside of battle, Senbonzakura is surprisingly childish. This ends up also kind of co-starring Ashisogi Jizo as the two's hijnks lead them to the R&D center, and ultimately a lot of chaos ensue. It's literally just 'hijinks happen', and I like it. 

And we get to the most interesting episode 264, where... I'm not sure just how much direction Kubo instructed to the animators. Nanao spends the whole day with "Kyokotsu", the younger of the two spirits of Katen Kyokotsu. Except that with us having the benefit of the Thousand-Year Blood War, the younger Zanpakuto Spirit of Katen Kyokotsu is actually Nanao's Zanpakuto, Shinken Hakkyoken. And, interestingly, the younger Katen Kyokotsu/Hakkyoken is completely silent, and both Kyoraku and the older Katen Kyokotsu are either drunk or playful. It's kind of interesting that most of what we infer about the two spirits are just assumptions made by Nanao (and Rangiku briefly). 

Taking this as an episode where Nanao hangs out unknowingly with her own sword and finds similarities between each other, it's actually quite a nice one. The original premise of Nanao trying to be a mentor to her captain's bratty, younger sword spirit isn't quite as interesting. The episode itself also kind of runs itself a bit too long for its rather thin plot, though 264 at least had a villain in a Toju with the most disastrous hairstyle ever. 

And 265 finally closes off the 'arc' by having all the Zanpakuto band together to fight the 'main villain', Kirikaze, a minotaur-like monster that the other Zanpakuto Spirits know and dread for having a Reishi-absorbing ability. He's been killing and consuming the other Toju, causing him to be even more powerful than the fellow Reishi-absorbing Ruri'iro Kujaku. All the Zanpakuto band together to fight Kirikaze, but they get a bit overwhelmed until the Vice-Captains arrive, they give a 'fight alongside us' spiel, and Renji uses Hihio Zabimaru to finish off Kirikaze. The finale really lacks any kind of a bite in terms of either emotional payoff or an action-packed payoff.

And, really, I can't be that hard on this one. It's clear that they're just giving some fun stuff while they save up their animation budget for the earlier Muramasa fight in the season, and the upcoming Ulquiorra canon material. I did enjoy some of the episodes out of novelty, for sure, though it really doesn't add too much to the otherwise all right Zanpakuto Rebellion arc.  

Random Notes:

• I am actually kind of happy about the post-credits scenes, with the characters constantly making fun that the two canon seasons before and after the Zanpakuto rebellion was the Ichigo/Ulquiorra fight. It's funny to see Ulquiorra, Ichigo and Orihime just hang out in Hueco Mundo holding scripts like actors waiting for their turn on the stage. 
• But seriously, man, no wonder people hate Bleach fillers if it's placed smack dab in-between literally one of the fight highlights of the entire series. I'm watching all of this Bount and Muramasa and Amagai nonsense on my own time, but I can totally understand why people are extra-angry towards these arcs because of this particular reason alone. 
• The mod souls make a brief cameo in this arc, and... I guess they're just still around? It's really kind of sad that they're just relegated to staying in the background, you'd think that they could work alongside the other filler characters and do something. 
  
• Hozukimaru totally unleashes Bankai in front of Nanao and Hanataro. Let's chalk those two people up again to people who's seen Ikkaku's Bankai in filler arcs. 
• Wabisuke really didn't do jack-diddly squat, and you'd think they would at least animate a scene where he interacts with Kira, but he didn't. We do get a funny scene where he of all people shows up alongside Hozukimaru and Haineko to make fun of Kazeshini's troubles. 
• Suzumebachi gets some lines, but she, Sogyo no Kotowari, Tenken, Gonryomaru and Gegetsuburi might have as well as only really show up in the ending. 
• Gonryomaru's activation of his 'Pierce' command is badass. His rapier turns into a lightning spear, his backpack shrine thing explodes and a cloud pours up into the heavens. Very cool!