Baccano!

I just finished watching this series, and I have to say, it's been a long time since I had so much fun watching a series. Baccano! is a total romp! It's a series that's unique in so many ways, and you know how I'm always drawn to the unique. Still, it surprises me that this series satisfied me on so many levels because it's not at all like what I'm usually attracted to.

I didn't watch this series when it was coming out. I bought the complete series (16 episodes) on DVD the other day on a whim. It's also been quite some time since I've done that. I used to pick my anime that way when I first started watching anime. Fushigi Yuugi and Rurouni Kenshin were random, whim picks that worked out. As was Trigun. Texhnolyze was an example of a less-than-great whim pick. Can't win them all, right? Still, since I was shown how to download anime, I've pretty much only bought anime DVDs of series that I've already seen and liked. Buying random anime DVDs is fairly rare for me now. I'm not sure what drew me to Baccano! Just lucky, I guess.

Baccano! is unique in a bunch of ways. For one thing, it really doesn't have one or two major characters. Most of the cast gets about the same amount of screen time, and it's a large cast. So no one gets a lot of screen time. My favorite character is the guy in this picture, Firo. He lives! Yes, a favorite character of mine actually survives the series. Sugoi, ne? Actually the vast majority of the cast lives. The other character in the picture is Ennis. Like the rest of the cast, these two appear infrequently enough to be considered minor characters in any other anime series, and yet they play a huge role in the plot. The two characters that appear most often in Baccano! are Miria and Isaac, a pair of totally clueless, totally inept, petty thieves, who manage to accomplish things quite by accident and just generally make everyone around them happy. They are childishly silly, and should have no more role than occasional comic relief, and yet they end up as central to the plot as any of the rest of the gang. Plus they provide an added bit of continuity by appearing frequently.

The series needs that added bit of continuity because it is FAR from chronological. The story is told in bits and pieces, flashbacks and flash-forwards and flash-sidewards. Something that makes no sense when you see it, is totally important to the story later. Usually I don't like things quite this scattered, but this is really well done. From the perspective of looking at the whole series, I'm amazed by their ability to dance around as much as they do, and still tell a coherent tale, and also make it fun to watch. The plot is also far from predictable, and this is aided by the way everything is presented. This back and forth presentation of apparently random scenes is another of the unique things about Baccano!

Baccano! is a story about immortal gangsters, so the plot is a tad unique in itself. Or I should say, it's a story about immortals who happen to be living as gangsters during the early 1930s, and being immortal has a decided advantage in that role. Parts of the story are relatively bloody, and it has it's share of seriously deranged characters, but it's only briefly gross. For example, madman concocting the immortal elixir tests it on a rat and then smashes the rat with a hammer. (Ewww!) Luckily the elixir has been perfected and the rat draws back together and lives. And the wacko characters in the series are often as not pretty amusing too. Plus Baccano! is a love story, or rather several of the subplots are love stories.

I really think one of the reasons I enjoyed watching this series so much was partly because I wasn't overly concerned about character death. Because of the timeline jumping around that the plot does, often when the characters are facing imminent death, you know they've survived it because you've already seen them in a scene that occurs in time after the one you're currently watching. It's very comforting not to be all tense about whether a character you like is about to bite the big one.

Another unique part of Baccano! is that they successfully tie up ALL the loose ends in a sometimes incredibly scattered plot. Which also makes it very satisfying to watch. I didn't have to wonder about what happened to any of the characters. It's all in there. And there are MANY subplots going on, with all the characters having specific stories that intersect with the larger plot.

And the most amazing thing of all, which also made me laugh my ass off. The last episode, one of the characters gives a treatise on "why stories should not have endings"!!!! All good stories don't end. They continue on. I just died. How could a series like this appeal to me on sooooooo many levels? It's like they pushed every button I have, and made me enjoy it. After all my rants about non-ending endings, I watch a series that actually gives me a lecture on why stories shouldn't end. I was nearly crying, I was laughing so hard.

Is it obvious that I liked this series? I think I'll watch it again.

Best Friend / Best Enemy

Best Friend-Best Enemy (BF-BE) is a theme that's pretty common in anime. It's not particularly one of my favorite plot devices, but it's so common I thought I'd just talk about it. With this theme, two best friends, usually childhood friends that have grown up together, end up fighting each other. They fall out onto opposite sides in the grand scheme of things. The reason it's not among my favorite types of anime is because usually a LOT of angst is involved in them having to fight each other. Plus it seems like there's often a LOT of character death in this type of anime. Plus I always get frustrated and want to knock their heads together and tell them to get over it and just TALK to each other.

A classic example of this type of anime is Fushigi Yuugi, with childhood friends Miaka and Yui fighting against each other in a series of world-spanning battles for supremacy. Of course they don't fight each other directly. They both have seven protectors/fighters/minions who spend the series slowly killing each other off ... after you get to know and like them of course. This series is a good example of the extensive character death often seen with this this type of plot.

Other examples of BF-BE anime include Trigun and Dragonaut. Dragonaut is a pretty messed up series, as well as being overly fan-service-y, but one of the basic premises of both these series is two central characters who grew up together as best friends and then the best friend goes bad and spends most of the series trying his best to kill the main character. In Trigun this theme doesn't become apparent until later in the series, but it's there. The main character's best friend in these two anime series becomes a total whacko, but in both cases and in Fushigi Yuugi as well, that best-friend-gone-bad (BFGB) is essentially redeemed in the end. Redeeming the BFGB is always the best possible ending for this type of anime, but unfortunately it doesn't always happen.

Sometimes the main characters and their 'Best Friends' just aren't that lucky. In Garei Zero, the BFGB ends up being killed by the main character who never stops loving her even when forced to kill her. This is another reason why this isn't my favorite type of anime. It often ends up being really tragic. Code Geass is like this also, although they do leave you feeling in the end that Suzaku didn't really kill Lelouch, that Lelouch survives in some form.

A series that is totally tragic (2 Kleenex box series), essentially from beginning to end and is probably the ultimate example of the best friend - best enemy type is CLAMP's X. Not only are the main characters childhood friends who must battle each other for the future of the world, but the BFGB (Fuuma) actually kills the main character (Kamui). Fuuma also ends up redeemed in the end. And on top of that the theme is repeated in lesser characters. Subaru, a character from Kamui's group kills his counterpart in Fuuma's group, Sheishirou. The plot is complex here because Sheishirou is a figure from Subaru's past, who Subaru both loves and hates for killing his twin sister. Of course, CLAMP are masters of the twisted plot, as well as the tragic anime. Sometimes it's hard to believe they also did Card Captor Sakura.

Sometimes the BF-BE theme is not such a major part of the plot, but is still present in some form in a series. Often it's just that people on the opposite sides care for each other to some extent. Examples of this include Nabari no Oh with Miharu and Yoite, Withchunter Robin with Robin and Amon, and Saiunkoku with Shuurei and the red-haired guy. In all these cases, the two characters are on opposite sides in the main plot battle, but they care about each other and it affects their actions.

Occasionally the BF-BE theme appears in a series in a slightly different form. It comes up as a person the main character cares about and trusts betraying him/her. This is my least favorite form of BF-BE. I'm not fond of the betrayal theme. Examples of this are Third in Jyu Oh Sei, Durant in Chevalier D'Eon, Yuuya in Bakumatsu and Mansairaku in Otogizoshi. Even Bleach has an element of this although Byakuya's 'betrayals' have all been logical. Hmmmm. Byakuya would make a good Mr. Spock come to think of it.

In the end I suppose I'm not fond of the BF-BE theme because you shouldn't be in conflict with people you care about. Still it's prevalent, and I've enjoyed watching most of the anime I've mentioned here. I like it better when it's a smaller part of the overall series and not the main theme itself.

Wolf's Rain and re-watching anime series

I seem to be having trouble posting more than once a month lately. I'm going to have to see if I can find something to blame that on. Or should I be glad I can get to it once a month? Hmmmmm.

Sometimes I'll just randomly watch an old series for the fun of it. Lately there hasn't been a lot of great new anime out, but even when there is I'll often pull an old series on a whim and watch it again. The nice thing about doing that is that you know what to expect. You can just sit back and enjoy the music or the animation style, the details of scenery or plot, anything about the series without having to concentrate on the subtitles, or worry about who's going to die next. Plus in the case of Wolf's Rain, you know which episodes to skip.

I'm not an episode skipper as a general rule. I'm anal retentive enough that I have to watch a series through from episode 1 to episode whatever, in order, as they come. Even re-watching, I usually watch the whole thing in order. (Ask me how many times I've seen Nuriko die in Fushigi Yuugi.) But Wolf's Rain is a little different for some reason.

I'm not sure what they were thinking when they made Wolf's Rain. I have to say up front that I like this anime series, but it did make me crazy in several ways. First of all, there are four entire episodes in the middle of Wolf's Rain that are unnecessary. They are total flashback/rehash episodes from the perspective of the four main characters. Hello. We just saw all that. Then, to add insult to injury, they stop the series at 26 episodes but release episodes 27-30 on the DVDs. So you're thinking, okay you could have left out those four recap episodes and used 27-30 and still ended with 26 episodes. Then, to add insult to insult to injury, although ALL the characters are alive at the end of episode 26, when you actually get and watch episodes 27-30, they kill off the ENTIRE cast in those last four episodes. So I ask you, what were they thinking?

For all that, Wolf's Rain is a good anime series. The story centers on four wolves, Kiba (Fang), Tsume (Claw), Toboe (Howl) and Hige (Whisker). Kiba is determined to find Rakuen (Paradise) and he ends up dragging the other three with him. Along the way they come across Cheza, who is the human incarnation of a moonflower who will lead them to Rakuen. The plot premise is completely unique, wolves who can appear as humans, searching for Paradise as the world is coming to an end. I really like unique plots that aren't the same predictable story over and over again, and this one meets that criterion perfectly. The series' music is beyond awesome. Yoko Kanno of course. She is superb in the soundtracks from this series. The animation style is extremely good. Everything about it is good, except that they drop the plot at the end and they kill the whole cast. As you know, the end of the anime makes or breaks it for me, and this ending broke this series. It went from a great series to a good one. Still I liked it enough to buy the DVDs and to re-watch it.

Interestingly Wolf's Rain is a reverse-harem-type anime. I know, I know, the main female character is really a flower not a girl, but that also adds to the series' uniqueness. And I do have more tolerance for reverse harems that regular harems. I suppose any type of harem anime can be done well with a strong plot, or it can be too focused on the character surrounded by his/her opposites to have a good story line. In Wolf's Rain the harem is subtle enough to be missed, not only because the girl is a flower, but also because there are other character side-stories on-going besides the four wolves finding the flower girl and trying to escort her to Paradise.

Basically Wolf's Rain is one in a long line of anime that I've found it necessary to alter reality and find my own, much more satisfactory ending. Like: At least some of them survive and find Rakuen and all their struggles weren't totally futile. Doesn't seem like too much to ask.

All that being said, I've watched the series a number of times and will no doubt watch it again, although I may watch eight less episodes than the full series. You can do that when you're re-watching.

New season

It's always amazing to me how fast the time passes. It's been almost a month since my last post, and November is almost over. Where does the time go?

I've started watching some new series from the group which started in October. I usually have great expectations for the October series because it seems like some of my favorite series have started in October. This year, I'm not so sure about. I'm certainly watching fewer series now than I have in a long time, and that's at least partly because I'm not that excited about the new series. There are some that are drawing me in though.

Tegami Bachi (Letter Bee) is one of the series from this season that I really like .... one of those that are drawing me in. The first picture here is from Tegami Bachi. This series has got a unique plot and the setting and characters are pretty cool. Interestingly, the character in the first episode that I thought was the series' main character turns out not to be, but they continue to introduce interesting characters, so it's keeping me entertained and coming back for more so far.

Another series that's got me really intrigued this season is Tatakau Shishou: The Book of Bantorra. Yes, I know. The name is too long. This series has really kept me intrigued, and after seven episodes I still haven't figured out all of what's going on. I like the characters, the music, and what I can figure out of the plot. In fact, one of the things that keeps pulling me in is trying to figure out what's going on. What I've got so far .... when people die their lives become books, which are saved in a library and protected by armed librarians. Which doesn't really do justice to describing what the series is like or what it's about. Maa. When I figure it out I'll let you know. I'm a little crazy with this series currently because for whatever reason, I have trouble with files from the only group that's subbing it. The timing on the audio is off which is hugely irritating. One episode I re-downloaded, and another I got through by jumping back and forth which would make the audio sync for a while. Irritating. Despite that, I keep watching Bantorra. The only thing I'm not really happy about in it is a fair amount of fan-service. Lots of breasts.

I've also started watching one called Winter Sonata that I find interesting. This one takes a significant amount of tolerance to watch. It's disconcerting because the voice actors are Korean. This anime series is based on a Korean live action show, and they've gotten the actors from that to reprise their roles as the voices in the anime. So the series is subtitled in Nihongo, and underneath those subtitles, the subbers have put English subtitles. Watching it, I find that I have a disconnect with the sound of the language, especially when you can read "arigatou" in Japanese, and "thank you" in English and the sound is completely different from either of those. Add to that Korean character names and no Japanese honorifics. Plus it looks as though a significant portion of the series may be a long flashback. I like to watch two episodes at a time when I'm watching new anime and each time I watch this one it takes the better part of those two episodes to get used to how it sounds. The story interest me though, so I keep watching it.

Three of the "new" series that I'm watching in this group are actually continuations of old series. Inuyasha, Darker than Black 2 and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. Railgun is a spin-off of To Aru Majutsu no Index. Two of the characters are from the original series and the plot follows their lives. Inuyasha picks up right where it left off and it's really great to be watching new Inuyasha again. Darker than Black picks up following Hei some time after the events of the last series. They've added new characters and the events that happened between the end of the first series and the start of this one are not clear yet. I'm also enjoying this one quite a bit.

I'm watching two other series in this batch, Kimi ni Todoke and Nyan Koi. Kimi ni Todoke is a fairly typical high school romance between a popular boy and an awkward, unpopular girl, but so far it's been very watchable. The characters are good, so we'll see if the plot manages to stay interesting enough to hold my attention. Nyan Koi ... I'm close to dropping. It's a harem anime, which is not my favorite genre. I thought it would be amusing because the male lead is cursed by cats, and the curse involves understanding and helping them, and he's also highly allergic to them. But it's not really keeping me interested.

Of course I'm still watching Bleach, Gintama and the new Fullmetal Alchemist. That covers all my current anime viewing. Just 11 series, which is amazing come to think of it. Many times I'm watching 20+ series at a time. I must be slacking off.

Non-ending endings

I've finished all the series I was watching that started in April this year or over the summer (except for Fullmetal Alchemist 2 which is more than 26 episodes), so I thought I'd talk about them a little. The main theme for this set of series would have to be "Non-ending endings". I've talked about non-ending endings (NEE) before, so I won't go into that, but the majority of the series I've been watching "ended" this way, and not all of them were good NEE.

One of my favorites in this group of series turned out to be Higashi no Eden, despite being a NEE. They left it as an on-going story, but successfully tied up the current issues, which is the proper way for a NEE to be done. Another series in this group that did the same thing is Canaan. I'm not totally happy with the way Canaan ended actually, but it's a NEE done right. They tied up the major conflict and left the story to continue. So I also liked Canaan even though I wish they hadn't killed the girl with the deadly voice and her lover, and I wish the issues with Alphard had had a little different resolution.

From this season's shows I also liked Shangri-La very well, and it was not a NEE. Unique plot, great music, amazingly unique characters who were fun, unusual and nice to look at, plus the series had a decent ending. More characters survived than I expected to survive. There were only a couple things I didn't like too much. One was Miko's token death. Yes, I know she/he wasn't the only character to die, but that death feels token-death-ish. I suppose it was necessary for the plot, but I didn't like it. The other thing that lost me at times was the carbon market dealings. Huh? Wakannai!! . . . were my thoughts after watching certain segments of several episodes. Still, this rates up there with my good series. Interestingly though, I didn't have a favorite character in this series.

The worst NEE of the season was PandoraHearts. I liked this series but they tied up exactly nothing. And I mean nothing with a capital NOTHING. This series may rival Spiral as the least conclusive ending of all time. If there's no follow-up season, I'm going to forever wonder what the hell happened 100 years ago in Sabrie to screw up everyone's lives so badly. I liked this series right up until they forgot to finish it. It has some AWESOME music though, so I have to give it points for that.

Only a little behind PandoraHearts for bad NEE was 07-Ghost. I had high expectations for this series because I was collecting the manga before the series came out. Unfortunately, to me it seemed that the plot pace was too slow, and the "ending" can't really even pretend to being an ending. Again, without a follow-up season, this one will have been something of a waste of time to have watched ... even though it's quite beautiful to watch and the characters are pretty cool.

Another really bad NEE was Wolf and Spice second season. NO progress at all in the main plot line, although I will admit to some progress in the relationship between Lawrence and Horo. Still, it's going to take another season to 'end' the series, and the merchant talk is getting old enough that I'm not sure I can take another series.

Another series I liked that had a real ending was Tears to Tiara. I have something of a hard time figuring out why I liked this one so much. There's nothing really special about it except the music. The music is awesome, but the characters are okay, plot line is okay, ending is okay. I just liked it. Maybe because Arawn didn't die. Wow. Come to think of it, that's pretty unusual. My favorite character in a series didn't die.

Two other series I watched this season include Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom and Valkyria Chronicles. I can't say that I really recommend either, and not just because in both cases my favorite character was killed. Phantom spent too much time killing off people and resurrecting them. Ein, Zwei, Scythe Master, Cal. These main characters were all killed, but not really, and then finally killed, except for Ein who was the only character to survive the series. So I spent much of the series wondering if a particular character they had just killed would appear later and not really be dead. I will say though that through a lot of the series I wasn't sure where they would go next with it, which is probably why I watched it to the end. Also the music again is really good.

Valkyria Chronicles I also watched through to the end, probably because they didn't kill off my favorite character (Faldio) until very late (ep 25 maybe?), so I kept watching in hopes that he might survive even though I really knew he wouldn't. This series played the emotional games very well, to the point where I consider it a "full box of kleenex" series. Of course, I tend to cry easily, but that's beside the point.

The only other series I watched this season was Sengoku Basara, and it also has a NEE. I liked the series, but geez! Another NEE. So basically I'm still waiting for all these series to conclude, but I did get some totally awesome music out of the season. I guess you can't have everything.

A Perfect Series?

Lately I've been thinking about whether there's such a thing as a "perfect" anime series ... one that has no flaws at all, from my perspective. I mean, I've watched well over 200 series since I started watching anime. Surely in all that, there is at least one perfect anime series. So I'm going to see if I can come up with a definition for a perfect series and then see if I've watched any that fit the definition.

Let's see. What requirements would a series need to qualify as "perfect"?

1) No main character death. I'd love to say no character death at all, but that would rule out 99.9% of all anime (*laughing* and 54.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot). Anyway, it would rule out most anime, so I'll say no main character death and let some deaths slide by. However, token death will take a series right out of the running as far as I'm concerned.

2) Awesome music. The music usually makes or breaks the series, so a perfect series should have some pretty great music. It has to be at least good, and the better the music, the better the series.

3) A plot. The series needs to have some sort of a reasonable plot line going, not so convoluted that you don't know who's related to what and why, nor so non-existent that you get tired of people posing while you wait for something to happen.

4) Resolution of the plot. This one's tricky. There are times when a plot is totally resolved and I'm totally unhappy with the end result, so this condition is not simply resolution. It has to be an acceptable conclusion to various plot lines. There's bound to be a happy medium between finishing out the character's life 20 years in the future and not tying up any plot elements at all. Many, many, many series have trouble with this requirement.

5) Pretty is nice. The look of the series attracts me to it in the first place, and though it's just one element, it's still important. This factor is not a make-or-break one. As a rule I just tend to like pretty anime better.

6) Lack of gratuitous violence. I have no real problem with violence as such, but prefer that it's in some way necessary to the plot. And I don't necessarily see the point of spraying blood everywhere as often as possible.

So what does that leave us with?

After consideration, here are some possibilities for the title of Perfect Anime Series:

Noir: This is a series that could justifiably be considered a "perfect" anime series in my opinion. It has really superb music and a great plot which is well resolved. And most importantly, the main characters survive the series. Yup, I have to put this one near the top of the list.

Serei no Moribito: This is another one that's high up there on the "perfect" anime series list. The music is truly awesome and it has a great, unique plot which they wrap up very realistically. Much as I'd have liked Chagum to stay with Balsa, the Crown Prince has to go back to being a crown prince. So even though I might have wanted a slightly different ending, the conclusion was still very good ... which is the criterion. Also this series is very nice to look at. And everyone survives. Just a really good anime series.

Witchhunter Robin: This series also fits all the criteria, mostly. At least you're led to assume that Robin and Amon survive the destruction at the end of the series, so there's no main character death and there's plot resolution. Plus the music is great, and the series is nice to look at.

Fruits Basket: This one is a little shaky on the plot resolution requirement. It's a non-ending ending, and although it's pretty good for this type, I may be stretching it a bit to call it a plot resolution. The rest of the qualifications are pretty solid though. Maybe not outstanding music, but good music.

Natsume Yuujinchou: This one is a little shaky on both the music and the plot criteria. The series music is okay, but nothing special. And there's not an extensive plot although there is a sort of under-plot of Natsume learning to interact with people. The series is gorgeous though and pretty well done overall.

Nodame Cantabile: The first season, not the second. This is a series that meets all the specifications, and does it with class. Of course most of the music from it is classical music, but it's awesome and that's the criterion. It has a good solid plot line which they resolve just perfectly. It's not a "pretty" anime, but not hard to watch. Basically a good solid series.

CardCaptor Sakura: Yup. CCS. It actually meets all my specifications. Hmmmm. Interesting that this was one of the first anime series I ever watched. I wonder if it set my expectations for later series and what I like and dislike?

Rurouni Kenshin: Again, one of the first series I ever watched, and again it meets all the criteria. There are deaths in this one (Shishio Makoto), but no major characters die. The plot is frequently intense, and each arc is resolved as it goes. The larger plot of what eventually happens to Kenshin and Kaoru isn't covered in the series, but for all that I still think it qualifies.

Huh! Surprisingly, there are more series that fit my prerequisites than I expected. Also surprisingly, not all of these "perfect" series are in my top 10 favorite series of all time. Which just goes to show that even with character death, iffy plot, so-so music and/or dangling plot lines, I can still like a series a lot.

Of course, there are a LOT of series that come close and maybe only miss one of the criteria. Here are some of the group of "runner's up".

Close-but-no-cigar series:

Cowboy Bebop: This was also an early series I watched, and it is still waaaaaay up there on my all-time-favorites list. Awesome music, decent plot, fun to watch. And they resolved the plot, but not in the way I would have wanted. They killed off a main character, who also happens to be my favorite character of this series - Spike. That takes them out of the 'perfect series' running, but it's still one of the best series around.

Macross Frontier: So close and yet so far. This one fits all of the criteria except for Michel's token death. Decent plot, which is nicely resolved. Outstanding music. No more violence than necessary for a war series. But they killed Michel, and unlike Spike's death in Bebop, Michel's wasn't necessary. Senseless, token death. No way can this be a perfect series.

Heroic Age: This series actually does meet all the qualifications if you think about it. For me, what keeps this from that perfect series circle is that there were just too many continuous battle episodes for this to be a 'perfect' series. I got tired of battle after battle after battle.

Ergo Proxy: I liked this series. It meets most of the criteria, but the plot is almost overly complex. Even after watching the series multiple times I feel like I've missed nuances. I did like the way they finally tied up the plot though. And I like the music. The series was too dark, though. Not dark as in mood dark, although it was that too. The scenes were often so dark that I had to watch the series at night when it was dark to be able to see what was going on. So it was a good series, but not "perfect".

I could go on, but I guess I'll stop there for this post. Ja

Bleach 3 - and filler arcs

I've talked about filler arcs before, and how much I generally dislike them. Filler arcs are the ultimate 'necessary evil'. If you don't want the series to diverge from the manga, you've got to kill time until the manga gets ahead of the series again. Usually the only good thing about a filler arc is that you know that they can't kill off any characters. The characters will have to come out of the filler arc not much different than they went in ... so that the plot can be resumed from the point where it left off. As a rule, filler arcs are tough to watch because they tend to be fairly insipid, and because they are interrupting a plot line that you really want to know what's going to happen next in. Especially in Bleach, I found these things to be true. (Don't get me started on the Bounto Arc).

All that being said, Bleach is currently doing a really entertaining filler arc. I was dismayed to know we were going to have another filler arc, but was steeling myself for the inevitable, when lo, and behold! A FUN filler arc. Considering the massive size of their cast and the unique setting, this arc has been a long time in coming. With all the material available to them, a Soul Society arc was just waiting to be done. So .... Meet Muramasa. Muramasa is a renegade zanpaktou. For those of you keeping up, that'll sort of make sense. If you don't watch Bleach, zanpaktou take a little explaining. Each shinigami has a zanpaktou. It is their sword, but it is also a part of their soul. As they grow and become more powerful as shinigami they develop a relationship with their zanpaktou, and also develop the ability to "release" their sword. The first level of release is 'shikai', and it causes the sword and owner to be more powerful, but the sword is essentially still a sword at this level. The ultimate release is called 'bankai', and at this level the zanpaktou has a personality and the wielder and sword are REALLY powerful.

In this arc, a renegade zanpaktou named Muramasa (fitting!) has killed his wielder, and has gained the ability to pull the zanpaktou souls free of their shinigami owners. The zanpaktou acquire humanoid forms and independence from their shinigami, and the shinigami are left with just a sword and pretty much no power. For the bankai-level Captains and Vice-captains, to say this comes as a shock would be a small understatement.

The fun thing about this arc is meeting the individual humanoid zanpaktou from each shinigami with bankai-level ability. Bleach has essentially almost doubled their already massive cast. I've posted pictures here of a few of the freed zanpaktou. On the left above is the materialized, independent form of Kuchiki Rukia's zanpaktou. Her name is Sode no Shirayuki. And on the right is Hitsugaya Toushiro's zanpaktou, Hyourinmaru. Down below are two zanpaktou, Renji's Zabimaru and SoiFon's Tsuzumebachi. They're all too cool, and all have personalities that seem not to reflect their wielder's very much, despite the zanpaktous always having been considered part of their respective shinigani's souls.

Muramasa has plans to free all the zanpaktou from their bondage and destroy Soul Society and the cruel shinigami masters who have kept their zanpaktou in slavery for so long. Currently, battles are going on between shinigmai and zanpaktou. I'm looking forward to where this goes and to meeting each zanpaktopu and watching the struggles between them and their individual shinigami counterparts. I'm seriously hoping that they'll run this filler arc for a while. I mean if they can do the Bounto for 50 episodes, why can't they do a good arc for that long?

Along with the struggles between the shinigami and their respective zanpaktou, the arc is also having fun with Ichigo's unique position. His zanpaktou is 'freed' just like everyone else's, but unlike everyone else this doesn't leave Ichigo powerless. Ichigo has a couple of things going for him still. One is the fact that he's human, not just a shinigami. Another is the odd fact that he has a half-Hollow soul. If any one person should have a multiple personality disorder, it's Ichigo. Luckily, his good-guy, human heart always manages to stay dominant, but his really powerful Hollow side has saved his bacon a good number of times. Probably you have to be watching this anime to follow all that. Let's just say that Ichigo has done pretty much everything the hardest way possible and often somewhat backward, so he's ended up with some 'traits' that have been both detrimental and totally necessary and useful along the way. A lot of Ichigo's power comes from the dark side of himself, which he manages to balance most of the time. In this arc, they have fun exploring Ichigo's other personality. Muramasa is trying to figure Ichigo out, totally unaware that Ichigo will probably be his ultimate downfall.

I never thought I'd say that I hope a Bleach filler arc lasts a while, but I do hope so with this one. It's pretty fun.