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Review

by Carl Kimlinger,

Bleach

DVD 15

Synopsis:
Bleach DVD 15
As Renji spirits Rukia away from the execution grounds, Ichigo fights to prevent her cold-blooded elder brother Byakuya from executing her with his own hands. It's bankai on bankai as two towering martial talents clash, neither to escape unscathed. Elsewhere Captain Hitsugaya is investigating the conspiracy that pitted his childhood friend Hinamori against him, only to come to the horrified conclusion that someone has been issuing false orders under the authority of Central 46, Soul Society's lawmaking body. When Captain Aizen seemingly returns from the dead, Hitsugaya realizes that something is terribly wrong indeed, particularly when the newly resurrected captain begins to act in ways very unlike the compassionate Aizen of old. Hitsugaya has always had an inkling that something large and ominous was moving behind the scenes, but he finds he greatly underestimated the sheer monstrous scope of it. And, as luck would have it, the one thing that may be able to prevent the evil machinations from grinding to their sinister conclusion are the humans he and his fellow shinigami have worked so hard to destroy.
Review:

If volume fourteen was an exhilarating fulfillment of expectations, volume fifteen is Bleach proving that defiance of expectations can be just as exhilarating. The final episode of the Ichigo/Byakuya fight is replete with all of the hairpin turnarounds, lengthy explanations and terminal coolness that one expects of the series, but its conclusion marks, not the end of the arc, but rather its ugliest turnaround yet. What follows is the series at its most brutally unpredictable as Aizen reveals the last stages of his plan and instigates one of the genre's most shocking festivals of defeat. This isn't the viscerally satisfying violence of the previous volume or the Byakuya fight; it's a series of frustrations and revelations. But in a way it's just as satisfying, if not more so. The questions it answers have been dangling since the opening of the Soul Society arc, and it answers them in the most sensationalistic manner it can. That of course entails more than a little pure exposition, but it's chilling exposition, delivered with style plus an un-expository level of gore. If only all villain grandstandings were so thrilling.

It is a climax of sorts, orchestrated with, if anything, even more skill than that used during purely action-oriented climaxes. Hinamori's reunion with Aizen is a masterwork of raw emotion and subtly implied potential violence, while Ichigo's confrontation with him is a beautifully tailored reversal of the usual tropes of the genre (including possibly the most memorable use of silence ever to grace a shonen series). Perhaps even more remarkable is the skill with which the series weaves a plethora of unresolved personal issues into these final episodes: Hinamori's devotion to Aizen, Hitsugaya's concern for Hinamori, Rangiku's conflicted feelings about Gin, Gin's reasons for turning on Soul Society, Tosen and Komamura's reasons for joining the Thirteen Court Squads, and perhaps most of all, Orihime's inward agony at being unable to help Ichigo. And that's just a sample of the highlights. There are more potentially interesting personal developments in these final five episodes than the entirety of the story arc to this point, and tellingly not one of them is resolved, despite episode 63 spelling the official conclusion of the arc.

This is the final leg of the series' longest story arc, and Noriyuki Abe obliges with a full complement of visual fireworks. Ichigo's fight with Byakuya is positively rife with imaginative touches and memorable images, and his loss of control to his dark side is a study in weirdly cool distortion. The other fights, as brief as they are, include highlights such as the runaway ice-trains of Hitsugaya's bankai and the swirling metal snake of Renji's zanpakuto as he makes a desperate last bid to stop Aizen. The raw quality of the animation is a step or two above the series' norm, and Tite Kubo's hard-edged designs are as immensely appealing as they have ever been.

This is, far and away, the most emotional stretch of the series, and for once Viz's English adaptation begins to show some cracks—if only because of the emotional load placed on unsuspecting secondary characters. The superb Michelle Ruff has hardly any lines as Rukia, and Ichigo has surprisingly little screen time given that he is ostensibly the main character (though Johnny Yong Bosch does get to stretch a little while voicing Ichigo's dark side). Instead the heavy emoting falls to supporting players like Karen Strassman, whose Momo is plenty tragic though hardly a match for Kumi Sakuma's painfully earnest rendition, and Steve Staley, who can't quite put the fine point on Hitsugaya's cold rage that Romi Paku, veteran that she is, can. And then there's Kyle Hebert, who handles Aizen's shift from gentle to heartless well enough, but simply can't compete with Shō Hayami for sheer tonnage of slime. The flaws in their work are hardly lethal, and are balanced by equal strengths elsewhere (Stephanie Sheh's grasp of Orihime's speech patterns and emotional undertones is positively eerie), but the English version is, for the first time in many, many volumes, noticeably less intense than the Japanese. It is, however, as loving as ever in its preservation of the original dialogue and shinigami lingo.

In spite, or perhaps because, of the relationship threads left tantalizingly unresolved and the irresistibly open-ended conclusion, this is a strangely satisfying volume, full of meaty drama, nasty surprises, bloody triumph and humiliating defeat. Never before has the series so successfully combined both fulfillment and breathless anticipation. Even the light-hearted wind-down episode is riddled with both healing (physical and psychological) and portents of personal and plot developments to come. Savor the air up here; it'll be eons before the series scales these heights again.

Grade:
Overall (dub) : B+
Overall (sub) : A-
Story : A-
Animation : B+
Art : B+
Music : A-

+ Plot twists, emotional developments and fights galore as the Soul Society arc draws to a close.
Lengthy expository speeches; lots of sad back-stories given sad flashbacks with sad music.

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Production Info:
Director: Noriyuki Abe
Series Composition:
Tsuyoshi Kida
Kento Shimoyama
Masashi Sogo
Script:
Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Miho Imamura
Mio Imamura
Rika Nakase
Masahiro Okubo
Masao Ōkubo
Kento Shimoyama
Masashi Sogo
Natsuko Takahashi
Michiko Yokote
Genki Yoshimura
Storyboard:
Noriyuki Abe
Masami Anno
Koji Aritomi
Tetsuya Endō
Manabu Fukazawa
Kiyomu Fukuda
Shigeki Hatakeyama
Yasuyuki Honda
Masashi Ishihama
Satoshi Ishino
Shigenori Kageyama
Jun Kamiya
Rei Kaneko
Akio Kawamura
Masahiko Komino
Chiaki Kon
Junya Koshiba
Masashi Kudo
Hodaka Kuramoto
Toshihiko Masuda
Tadahito Matsubayashi
Hitoyuki Matsui
Yasuhiro Matsumura
Yukihiro Matsushita
Yuzuru Mitsui
Shigeyuki Miya
Kazunori Mizuno
Yūji Moriyama
Minoru Murao
Takehiro Nakayama
Yasuto Nishikata
Hiroaki Nishimura
Satoshi Nishimura
Mitsutaka Noshitani
Tetsuhito Saito
Masami Shimoda
Ogura Shirakawa
Yoshifumi Sueda
Natsuko Suzuki
Hideki Tachibana
Yuzuru Tachikawa
Jun Takada
Hiroki Takagi
Motosuke Takahashi
Takahiro Takamizawa
Shinichi Tōkairin
Sanzou Tsuyukida
Shigeru Ueda
Atsushi Wakabayashi
Shinichi Watanabe
Hideyo Yamamoto
Minoru Yamaoka
Episode Director:
Noriyuki Abe
Eitarō Ano
Koji Aritomi
Matsuo Asami
Kiyomu Fukuda
Shigeki Hatakeyama
Tomoko Hiramuki
Tetsuo Ichimura
Akane Inoue
Yasuo Iwamoto
Akira Iwanaga
Taiji Kawanishi
Takushi Kimura
Chiaki Kon
Harume Kosaka
Junya Koshiba
Masashi Kudo
Hodaka Kuramoto
Yasuhiro Kuroda
Keizou Kusakawa
Tadahito Matsubayashi
Nobufumi Matsuda
Yasuhiro Matsumura
Yuzuru Mitsui
Ryo Miyata
Kazunori Mizuno
Geisei Morita
Eiko Nishi
Yasuto Nishikata
Hiroaki Nishimura
Kazuo Nogami
Mitsutaka Noshitani
Yoshinori Odaka
Rokou Ogiwara
Yukio Okazaki
Masaya Sasaki
Kazuma Satō
Yuji Sekimoto
Akira Shimizu
Kazunobu Shimizu
Ogura Shirakawa
Yoshifumi Sueda
Yuzuru Tachikawa
Hiroki Takagi
Takeshi Tomita
Shigeru Ueda
Takeshi Yamaguchi
Minoru Yamaoka
Mitsue Yamazaki
Unit Director:
Noriyuki Abe
Masashi Kudo
Shingo Ogiso
Yuzuru Tachikawa
Music: Shirō Sagisu
Original creator: Tite Kubo
Character Design: Masashi Kudo
Art Director:
Natsuko Suzuki
Sawako Takagi
Art:
Tsuyoshi Fukumoto
Masaya Hamaguchi
Yuki Kasahara
Hideaki Kudo
Katsusuke Okamura
Mayu Shirai
Sawako Takagi
Shinobu Takahashi
Mayu Usui
Norihiko Yokomatsu
Animation Director:
MANASITA
Chiaki Abe
Yoshie Anzai
Shigemi Aoyagi
Eiki Arasato
Eri Baba
Bum-Chul Chang
Manabu Fukazawa
Akihiro Fukui
Yeong-Hun Han
Daiki Handa
Kenji Hattori
Yūri Ichinose
Shin Jae Ick
Hidenori Igari
Hiroaki Imaki
Keiichi Ishida
Masashi Ishihama
Tomomi Ishikawa
Nobuyuki Iwai
Gil Soo Joo
Akio Kawamura
Toshihiro Kikuchi
Gi Nam Kim
Hyon Ok Kim
Hyun Ok Kim
Il Bae Kim
Sang-Yeob Kim
Seong Beom Kim
Yong Sik Kim
Yoon-Joung Kim
Seiji Kishimoto
Akemi Kobayashi
Ryo Kobayashi
Yukari Kobayashi
Ryou Kodama
Makoto Koga
Masahiko Komino
Atsushi Komori
Mitsuki Kosaka
Fumiaki Kouta
Tsuguyuki Kubo
Masashi Kudo
Manabu Kurihara
Shinichi Kurita
Boo Hee Lee
Sung Jin Lee
Shuji Maruyama
Ippei Masui
Tamami Miura
Shuuji Miyazaki
Kazuya Miyoshi
Joo Yeon Moon
Minoru Morita
Yūji Moriyama
Tsutomu Murakami
Keiya Nakano
Shingo Ogiso
Masaya Ōnishi
Shigetsune Ōsawa
Chang Hwan Park
Hye-Ran Park
In-Hee Park
Jong Jun Park
Tomoko Satō
Yang Kwang Seock
Sanae Shimada
Makoto Shimojima
Jae-Ik Shin
Kim-Young Sik
Sayuri Sugitou
Natsuko Suzuki
Shin'ichi Suzuki
Shinichi Suzuki
Yoko Suzuki
Hiroki Takagi
Motosuke Takahashi
Akira Takeuchi
Yukari Takeuchi
Masaya Tanaka
Seiki Tanaka
Takashi Uchida
Miyuki Ueda
Tomomi Umemura
Masaru Yamada
Asuka Yamaguchi
Keiko Yamamoto
Osamu Yamamoto
Yoshimitsu Yamashita
Naoki Yamauchi
Teruhiko Yamazaki
Takeshi Yoshioka
Director of Photography:
Toshiyuki Fukushima
Katsufumi Sato
Producer:
Shunji Aoki
Ken Hagino
Kyoko Kobayashi
Mai Nagai
Yutaka Sugiyama
Jun Takibuchi
Yukio Yoshimura
Licensed by: Viz Media

Full encyclopedia details about
Bleach (TV)

Release information about
Bleach - The Rescue (DVD 15)

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