Reviews of a Nerdaholic

Bleach: Season 4

Bleach is a very popular anime that many people seem to enjoy for some reason that quite escpes me. I can see the positives of the show, they stand out well in the series, but I can also point out the excrutiating bad points that make me want to throw a frying pan at the nearest OAP and see the wrinkles burn off their face. I myself enjoyed the first few seasons of clichéd anime goodness and I have watched the first few seasons quite a few times because “Why the fuck not?” So you might find it a bit shocking when I write about how annoyed and frustrated I am at the fourth season of this otherwise brilliant series. 

You see so far the series has revolved around Ichigo (Protagonist) and his friends battling “Hollows” (demons) and going to the Soul Society (Purgatory) to rescue their friend Rukia (Possible love interest for protagonist) from the clutches of the Soul Reapers (You can figure that out yourself) who want to execute her for doing bad things. But that was the first few seasons that ended quite spectacularly with a nice little cliff-hanger for future seasons. And I say future seasons because this fourth season does not continue this story ark. 

The series starts with Ichigo doing some soul reaper activities after proving his worth in the soul society by beating the seven shades of shit out of anyone who got in his way and can now turn into a soul reaper without the help of his friend Rukia, very helpful since the bitch is nowhere to be found. Anyway, this is all going quite nicely until one of his friends, the really big chested Ourihume, is captured by some assholes who make them play some games, games in this term means running around the city looking like prats who have lost their bus passes at a German orgy, they then have to play some weird maze game in a museum and then they realize is all a plot for training or some shit by a character that mysteriously looks like Owen Wilson.

These few episodes are actually quite enjoyable, although they seem to drag on quite a bit, since you see the relationships and personalities of the characters, but when you find out that these seven or eight episodes have pretty much been to introduce three new characters and nothing else will kinda make you feel a bit cheated out of your time. Now the only reason I actually watched any further than this is because I was stuck in a deal with my brother (Watch the entire series and I can use the portable DVD player for the rest of our boring holiday because I very cleverly left my laptop charger at home.) and it doesn’t get any better, in fact it gets worse.

The hollows in the first three seasons were interesting enemies because they were not human, they could have any design they want and be of various shapes, sizes and abilities. The new enemies that are introduced in season four of Bleach are called “Bounts”, also known as….VAMPIRES! What a fucking surprise that even Japan has been affected by Twilight fever and now vampires are all hip in the world of slashing swords and ugly-ass demons. But to make these “Bounts” seem more powerful enemies they added two things later on in the series to make sure that that the watchers didn’t bitch about the fact that the enemies should be easy to defeat and instead made them ridiculously over-powered by giving them “Dolls”, also known as Pokemon!!!!!

The Dolls are kept all kept in objects of different shapes, e.g a ring, and the owner can call upon them when in battle to use their various abilities of fire, strength, water and some others that are pretty shit. The “Bounts” then admit in a furious battle in their mansion (Real estate is very important when trying to destroy the world apparently) that without their Dolls they are helpless, too bad that they never let go of them (Kind of a spoiler but who cares this series sucks shaft anyways) to actually be vulnerable at any time in the series!

Another way that the Bounts seem to get an upper hand on everyone in the Bleach universe is the introduction of some new Dolls that are tiny insects like things (which actually leads to a rather funny and entertaining episode where the teddy bear characters, don’t get me started, dress up as the Dolls to try and prove that they are helpful) which suck the souls out of humans and deliver them back to the bounts so they can chug them like orange Gatorade. These new souls make the Bounts EVEN MORE powerful so that the good guys have no chance of beating them, even though most of them get beaten anyway later on in the series. 

And this is as far as I’ll go into the spoiler territory since the last two episodes are actually good. But this doesn’t make up for the fifteen or so episodes that drag on longer than the Olympics opening ceremony and the ridiculously over-powered enemies. In fact most of the events in this series would’ve been interesting if it didn’t take about five hours of watching to get to it, it feels like I’m watching a anime version of Avatar (The blue people) instead of Bleach. This season has some pretty high notes but is constantly overridden by crushingly bad or annoying sequences that last four three episodes. For fans of the series, watch it only to see the next season which is apparently quite good. For people who have never heard of it, watch the first three seasons and then stop because the fourth season of Bleach isn’t worth your time.

5/10- You can do better than that!