Bleach Anime Catch Up Marathon: Week One

With the announcement that the final episode of the Bleach anime is to air on the 27th March, I decided that it was about time for me to finally catch up. At the climax of the arrancar saga, I stopped watching the anime as the infamous filler was to follow and I had little inclination to watch. That was a little over a year ago and now, fifty-three weeks later, here I am about to start catching up on the anime in time for the finale in just under four weeks time. I've worked out that to catch up in time, I need to watch about two episodes a day, and what follows is... well, frankly, I don't know. Simply put, I'm going to write this as I watch, so who knows what the hell will emerge from this. I could end up loving the filler and praising the anime, or (the more likely scenario) this could end up as one long rant. One day I will actually write a positive post about Bleach as for a long time, it was one of my favourite anime out there, and I do have fond recollections of it. But this is about the here and now, a semi stream-of-consciousness wall of text, and the final year of Bleach anime.

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It's currently 8pm on March the 1st, and after having accidentally had a little too much wine with dinner, I am sufficiently tipsy enough that I figured it would be a good idea to commence my Bleach catchup marathon now. 5 seconds in to episode 311, and I already know that I'm not drunk enough for this to be a pleasurable, or even tolerable experience. Am I really depriving myself of the fun of Lego Harry Potter on my xbox for the (mis)adventures of Karukarizer?! On the upside, I'd forgotten that Bleach has some pretty decent opening songs. On the downside, this is really butt-awful filler. Like, I'd rather be watching Naruto getting his ass handed to him by an ostrich right now kind of terrible filler.
Watched: 2 Episodes

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March 2nd: Day two of the catch-up.
Tonight, I have also imbibed a significant quantity of alcohol and am now determined to focus on the small pleasures in each episode. Oddly enough, while hot sweaty Renji doesn't play a big enough part for my liking, this episode isn't actually too terrible.

Oh crap... next episode in and Kon's back. I used to like him, now he simply signifies the beginning of godawful filler. Yup... this is gonna be bad. Jesus, why I am I watching this?!  Wow... Patches could have a field day with this episode. Guy tries to get back with his girlfriend on the premise of "I like your food" and girl accepts without question. What. The. Freaking. Hell?! Damn you Pat, now I'm thinking all feminist because of you!
Watched: 2 Episodes

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March 4th: Day four of the catch-up.
Yesterday I didn't watch any Bleach, so I now have extra to watch in the next day or so. Now starting episode 315. Oh crap, it's a Yachiru episode. Huh, that actually wasn't bad, Bleach is definitely better when it's being a bit more serious, and this one actually made me like Yachiru a little more than I did.

OH. HELL. NO! No freaking way, not another Hitsugaya footbal episode, please dear god, anything but that! Oh thank heavens, not a football episode, though it is painfully obvious where this is going. Dead kid wants to see snow, oh look, the most powerful ice zanpakutou user just happens to be around.

Ooo, new opening! Plus the beginning of a new arc. Intriguing. If the OP animation is anything to go by, this might actually end up pretty good. Then again, it's still a filler arc, so I don't hold out too much hope.
Watched: 3 Episodes

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March 5th: Day five of the catch-up
The new arc isn't looking too bad, though it seems to be moving fairly quickly at the moment. Hopefully it won't burn out too soon or turn out to be like the zanpakutou arc: interesting at first, but soon turning to crap. Worryingly, I think I'm warming to Rukia.
Watched: 2 Episodes

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March 6th: Day six of the catch-up
Soul society is in crisis, so Orihime organises a barbeque... Seriously. Guh, it's crap like this that's why she's one of the top hated characters on Anime-Planet, well... that and shit like "Oh my, you're a bad guy trying to kill my beloved KUROSAKIIII-KUUUUUUUUN and you're injured. Must. Heal." Oh man this barbeque just gets worse. As much as seeing Kon get tortured is amusing, Ishida getting pissed over a shiitake mushroom is just stretching it. I mean... really?!
Watched: 2 Episodes

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Since this is getting long, I'm going to split this into weekly chunks. Stay tuned for the next part soon!