Why Bleach Episode #169 Just Doesn’t Make Any Sense
Its been a long hard 2 weeks, and finally the Bleach folks have managed to make such a wait worthwhile. Episode 169 was funny, action-filled, suspenseful fanservice…but there a few things about it that are not quite right logically (in terms of the storyline, lets not delve into whether or not there actually are Shinigami in the real-world)..
Firstly, the most obvious : Chad, Rukia and Ishida are there. Now this is just impossible. Especially taking into the consideration the following point about Ishida’s bow which places the timeline of this story after Hueco Mundo or towards the end of the Arrancar arc. This then places them as being either beat up or too busy to be logically placed in the current Amagai Shuusuke arc.
The second peculiarity is Ishida’s bow. In fighting some hollow which surfaced over Karakura Town, Ishida, Chad and Inoue assisted Ichigo and Rukia in disposing of them. Interestingly, Ishida whips out his latest bow, the one he revealed in Hueco Mundo.
If we were to refer to Episode #144 : Ishida, Chad, the Quickening of a New Power” we would see that this is the first episode where Ishida revealed his new, improved, and certainly more bad-ass bow weapon, Ginrei Kojaku (Silvery Mountaintop Sparrow). Prior to this, Ishida did not show any signs of having the ability to create a new bow or even officially regaining his Quincy powers after losing them as a result of using the Quincy “Final Form” and training with Ishida Ryūken in Episode #126 : Uryū vs. Ryūken! Clash of the parent-child Quincies. Even if he did, the episodes succeeding #126 and #144 were irreversible ; they could not have gone back to the living world, or took a break after having entered Hueco Mundo or beginning the fight with the Arrancar. I would like to see how this is explained.
Is this “Jumping the Shark”?. Is the entire arc one of Aizen’s illusions? Are the people at Bleach running out of ideas? This is what happens when you try to dilute a series with so much bullshit. I’m interested to see how these inconsistencies are explained.
Is it that they totally ignored the threat of the Arrancar (who also conveniently stopped attacking) and also “vowed never to speak of it again” for the entire arc, even though the only possible timeline where the arc can be placed, with a large stretch of logic is between Episodes 127 and 135 where the Arrancar were an imminent threat? Coming to think of it even that is illogical because we saw a cool, nothing-is-going-on Hitsugaya in Episode 168, and between Episodes 127 and 135 where we are attempting to place the timeline of Episode 169, he was fighting Arrancar!
So in conclusion, Episode #169 of Bleach (New Development, the Dangerous Transfer Student Appears!”) and therefore this Amagai Shuusuke Arc, pending some fantastic logical bending and explanation, doesn’t make any sense at all. This could have well been fanfiction. It is however refreshing to see Ichigo and his dad fight in the morning, Keigo greet Ichigo, Tatsuki, Kon, Ichigo’s sisters, Rukia, Chad and Ishida. Now if only it all made sense.
*EDIT – a fellow fan is telling me that they “went forward in time” with Episode #169…still doesn’t make any sense..so they’re leapfrogging arcs now? Now she’s saying they can “do whatever they want to do” with regards to the timeline. Right…I can dance the macarena naked in the middle of the quadrangle at UWI, but it doesn’t have to make sense to other people…
sepreiku said,
May 10, 2008 at 7:06 am
i thing bleach right now……. kind of boring…. too much enemy, too much war. just war and war………. endless war…………………… i hope the writer will notice this.
Anime Home Planet Blog » Blog Archive » Why Bleach Episode #169 Just Doesn’t Make Any Sense said,
May 10, 2008 at 10:59 am
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m said,
May 22, 2008 at 5:40 am
I completely agree when I get invested in one story line and then all of a sudden it changes and doesnt make sense, it makes me uninterested in continuing watching.
Serenity said,
May 31, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Seriously… does ne1 watch the shinigami cup golden after the end credits?
Ep. 169 is just a filler! Kubo Tite went on vacation for a while and they needed something to fill in till he wrote/drew more of the manga… apparently the manga is supposed to be a particular distance ahead of the anime.
In the end of ep 168 after the credits, there was a piece where Ichigo appeared in the physical world wielding his zanpuktou, still in bankai form and Nell came to say goodbye while Rukia beat the shit out a him to change back into normal clothing…
Just watch the rest of the episodes, it’ll come back to normal soon enough.
jim said,
June 17, 2008 at 8:03 am
agreed. the anime bleach has gone to shit. contemplating sticking to the manga now.. so disappointed i am.
SexyFish said,
August 15, 2008 at 7:40 pm
‘the hell’s wrong with you people?
It’s a filler, it doesn’t need to make sence.
Wouldn’t it be really weird if Ishida didn’t have any Quincy powers? Or had the Quincy powers he had during the first 3 seasons? Ofcourse he has his new power! Think!
The whole arc is like fanfiction, it doesn’t take place in the Bleach universe, it’s all made up. I hate it, and won’t be watching it until it’s 2 weeks from being over. Then I’ll get drunk, watch the whole lot, and think it’s amusing. After that, we can return to good old Ulquiorra “Trash” Schiffer.
masteroftheundisputedtruth said,
August 15, 2008 at 10:07 pm
the bounto arc filler made sense, hell even Spongebob makes sense all the time, nothing should “not make sense”, especially Bleach which I always thought had very little plot holes and was very detailed in explaining everything that went on.
Kira said,
September 10, 2008 at 11:12 pm
the filler arc is almost over the lat fight just start lets see april, may , june, july,septmeber.5 well i guess soon bleach will return back to normal soon….i hope
Anime Fan said,
April 23, 2009 at 6:00 am
I agree. I was kinda of lost when I watched the next episode after the gang was rescuing Orihimie. At first I thought I clicked on a different episode since I’m watching all of it online, but then I realized it was right and was completely puzzled when everyone (Rukia, Ichigo, Chad, etc) came back and how they managed to escape. I guess it will clear up later in the show, but I do agree that this kind of thing kinda makes the viewer quit watching the show because you have no idea what’s going on.
I’m glad everyone’s back (the gang) and things are back to normal again, but I’m still curious about how they saved Rukia (when she was on the brink of death when we last saw her) and how they escaped Aizen or if they defeated him successfully or not. And of course, what happened to Ashido since Rukia said she would come back for him.
We’re all just a little confused, but I’m hoping that things will make sense soon because I really enjoyed watching Bleach since the beginning, but things have become….blah lately. It isn’t as interesting as it was when I first began to watch it. I certainly hope that the next few episodes will change that. =)