![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyI went to see "Bleach the Movie 2" this afternoon (hooray for ladies' days at movie theaters, quite possibly the only time I will be pleased to be a victim of gender discrimination), and it was quite fun. My personal review is below.
First off, I have to say, this was a much better movie than "Memories of Nobody" on all counts. The animation was better overall, the music was better, or at least more interesting, and there were real emotions in it! It was almost like someone with feelings had written the script!
The movie opens with a progress straight out of the Jidai Matsuri--a company of the King's retainers are transporting his seal, and the 10th squad has been assigned to provide security. One of the most interesting things for me about the movie was that it did involve the King of Soul Society, or at least his seal and a bunch of his underlings, which makes this the first real sight we've had of anything to do with him except for the picture of the key to his realm in that long "this is Aizen's plan!" chapter. Of course things go awry almost immediately when two girls who look like Arrancar crossed with schoolgirls (short skirts, Arrancar shoes, bits of skull on their heads) show up, along with their masked leader, who is straight off the preview posters. Another advantage of this movie over "Memories of Nobody": the enemies are actually cool, and plausible, with cool powers (fire and lightning, specifically). So of course the seal gets stolen, and after crossing swords with the masked dude Hitsugaya follows him, leaving no word to anyone (which subsequently reminds Matsumoto of Ichimaru, somewhat poignantly). Ichigo is introduced flying around Karakura (since this all took place in the real world) like Neo in "The Matrix Reloaded," which I just found amusing. He stumbles around the battlefield, the Onmitsu Kidou nearly kill him, Soi Fong tells him what's what and kicks him out just in time to run into Ishida, who apparently walks around in his new Quincy duds on a normal basis. That's right, our human heroes got more than 5 minutes total screen time in this one! I told you it was better than "Memories of Nobody!" As Ishida and Ichigo are talking in their usual way, Hitsugaya shows up and collapses in front of them, since he's been wounded. After Ichigo takes him home, Hitsugaya refuses to tell him anything and leaves his captain's robe behind on Ichigo's desk.
Back in Soul Society, after the 10th squad are all forced to hand over their swords and Matsumoto is more or less placed under house arrest, various people are running around trying to figure out who this "Kasuka" dude that Hitsugaya mentioned is--it turns out, eventually, that he and Hitsugaya were at the Academy together (he was probably Hitsugaya's only friend) and that somehow they both had zampakutou named Hyourinmaru, which the Central 46 was not very keen on. Though Hitsugaya offered to give Hyourinmaru up, Central 46 insisted the two of them fight, and as the loser, Kasuka was executed by the Onmitsu Kidou. Mayuri used a lot of vocabulary I don't know when Byakuya and Ukitake went to grill him about the possiblity of a twin zampakutou, so I'm not entirely sure how it was possible in the first place for both Hitsugaya and Kasuka to have Hyourinmaru, but there it is. Except Kasuka should be dead, and oh wait, there he is in the real world attacking Ichigo and Rukia for harboring Hitsugaya. ZANGETSU SHOWS UP!!!! Not Shirosaki-Zangetsu, but Zangetsu like in the good old days, which indirectly inspires Ichigo to understand how Hitsugaya is feeling--the line went by a bit fast, so I'm not sure if Ichigo said he felt he was drowning in sorrow or directly said that he was planning to drown himself after his mother was killed, but there are several flashbacks to childhood Ichigo which make it clear that he was indeed thinking about doing just that.
Eventually the action shifts back to Soul Society, but not after we get to see Ishida and Chad and their new supercharged abilities in action--it was quite cool on the movie screen, I have to say. The power of the King's seal is of course central to the denouement, but at the climax and throughout the movie what I enjoyed probably the most was that almost every character we've come to know and love (with the exception of Hinamori, and the welcome exception of Hanatarou) gets some screen time showing off his or her abilities in a very natural way, unlike in "Memories of Nobody" which just degenerated into exhibition combat out of a deus ex machina at the end. Even the Vice-Captain of 1st squad gets a lot of screen time, which was a nice change. Of course, we did get Ichigo making one of his "feelings/lessons" speeches about how people shouldn't try to bear difficult things alone, which I'm sure most Western audiences (or at least American) would probably interpret as teamwork, but which to me smacks of amai, to which I am developing a serious allergy, but which seems to be quite common in shonen if I think about it. Still, all in all it's very much a movie for the fans, and it was great.
The movie opens with a progress straight out of the Jidai Matsuri--a company of the King's retainers are transporting his seal, and the 10th squad has been assigned to provide security. One of the most interesting things for me about the movie was that it did involve the King of Soul Society, or at least his seal and a bunch of his underlings, which makes this the first real sight we've had of anything to do with him except for the picture of the key to his realm in that long "this is Aizen's plan!" chapter. Of course things go awry almost immediately when two girls who look like Arrancar crossed with schoolgirls (short skirts, Arrancar shoes, bits of skull on their heads) show up, along with their masked leader, who is straight off the preview posters. Another advantage of this movie over "Memories of Nobody": the enemies are actually cool, and plausible, with cool powers (fire and lightning, specifically). So of course the seal gets stolen, and after crossing swords with the masked dude Hitsugaya follows him, leaving no word to anyone (which subsequently reminds Matsumoto of Ichimaru, somewhat poignantly). Ichigo is introduced flying around Karakura (since this all took place in the real world) like Neo in "The Matrix Reloaded," which I just found amusing. He stumbles around the battlefield, the Onmitsu Kidou nearly kill him, Soi Fong tells him what's what and kicks him out just in time to run into Ishida, who apparently walks around in his new Quincy duds on a normal basis. That's right, our human heroes got more than 5 minutes total screen time in this one! I told you it was better than "Memories of Nobody!" As Ishida and Ichigo are talking in their usual way, Hitsugaya shows up and collapses in front of them, since he's been wounded. After Ichigo takes him home, Hitsugaya refuses to tell him anything and leaves his captain's robe behind on Ichigo's desk.
Back in Soul Society, after the 10th squad are all forced to hand over their swords and Matsumoto is more or less placed under house arrest, various people are running around trying to figure out who this "Kasuka" dude that Hitsugaya mentioned is--it turns out, eventually, that he and Hitsugaya were at the Academy together (he was probably Hitsugaya's only friend) and that somehow they both had zampakutou named Hyourinmaru, which the Central 46 was not very keen on. Though Hitsugaya offered to give Hyourinmaru up, Central 46 insisted the two of them fight, and as the loser, Kasuka was executed by the Onmitsu Kidou. Mayuri used a lot of vocabulary I don't know when Byakuya and Ukitake went to grill him about the possiblity of a twin zampakutou, so I'm not entirely sure how it was possible in the first place for both Hitsugaya and Kasuka to have Hyourinmaru, but there it is. Except Kasuka should be dead, and oh wait, there he is in the real world attacking Ichigo and Rukia for harboring Hitsugaya. ZANGETSU SHOWS UP!!!! Not Shirosaki-Zangetsu, but Zangetsu like in the good old days, which indirectly inspires Ichigo to understand how Hitsugaya is feeling--the line went by a bit fast, so I'm not sure if Ichigo said he felt he was drowning in sorrow or directly said that he was planning to drown himself after his mother was killed, but there are several flashbacks to childhood Ichigo which make it clear that he was indeed thinking about doing just that.
Eventually the action shifts back to Soul Society, but not after we get to see Ishida and Chad and their new supercharged abilities in action--it was quite cool on the movie screen, I have to say. The power of the King's seal is of course central to the denouement, but at the climax and throughout the movie what I enjoyed probably the most was that almost every character we've come to know and love (with the exception of Hinamori, and the welcome exception of Hanatarou) gets some screen time showing off his or her abilities in a very natural way, unlike in "Memories of Nobody" which just degenerated into exhibition combat out of a deus ex machina at the end. Even the Vice-Captain of 1st squad gets a lot of screen time, which was a nice change. Of course, we did get Ichigo making one of his "feelings/lessons" speeches about how people shouldn't try to bear difficult things alone, which I'm sure most Western audiences (or at least American) would probably interpret as teamwork, but which to me smacks of amai, to which I am developing a serious allergy, but which seems to be quite common in shonen if I think about it. Still, all in all it's very much a movie for the fans, and it was great.
