Bleach - Vol. 2 Review

The Story

The volume opens with the closing of the canary story arc. Rukia is fighting a hollow with Ichigo nowhere to be found. With Rukia's powers still gone, the fight is really taken to her until out of nowhere she gets a blind assist she didn't see coming.

In the second episode, Rukia is still worried about her lack of powers and so after paying a visit to a friend to pick up on some new supplies, she also picks something up for Ichigo in the form of a piece of candy that can force his soul out of his body and replace it with a substitute soul so that no one will know the difference and he can go after hollows without any worries.

The substitute soul has decided that it's having too much fun in Ichigo's body and refuses to give it back, going on a rampage in the process.

In the final episode of the volume though, we learn something new about Ichigo and his deceased mother while also seeing a new side to Orihime. It couldn't come at a worse time though as someone has ordered Rukia spied on.

The Good And The Bad

With this volume, the series closes one story arc and begins two more by tying them together neatly making for a volume that flows well and has fun while doing it. With four more episodes on the volume and going in the vein of telling multiple story arcs within the first few episodes, I was really looking for something special from each episode and on many levels I was quite satisfied.

Starting with the writing, the stories and characters on this volume were really quite special and fun to watch. The writing closed one story arc in a very strong fashion and managed to link two more story arcs together and introduce us to a couple of new characters while we were at it. While I can't say that I am wild about Kon so far, I think that he was a needed third to the team so I'm sure that he'll grow on me before too long, especially with how fast he became such a strong comedic device.

I was really impressed with the level of development on this volume as well. Both characters and relationships were really fleshed out on this volume in a real hurry which impressed me. I really liked the new sides to Orihime that I saw on this volume and I especially liked that she got to have a couple of scenes to herself which started to develop the relationship she has with Ichigo.

Going into the details about Ichigo's past and what happened to his mother was also something that this series really did well. With this volume, we see a brand new side to Ichigo that most everyone knew was already there but with this new piece of character development, the audience is now that much more interested in him as a person rather than just the orange haired guy that kicks the crap out of hollows and has a big sword too. Ichigo was shown to be a complex character from the start and it'll be very interesting to see how this is played out in future volumes.

Another relationship that I was really happy to see developed into something a bit more tangible was the relationship between Rukia and Ichigo. The development between these two has been very slow and with good reason but there is one scene in particular on this volume that really impressed me with how it so simply advanced their relationship to a new level. The scene in question is near the end of episode eight in which Rukia and Ichigo are running together and the conversation they have during it. This conversation alone shows just how far these two have come in just eight episodes and everything that isn't said tells you just how much further these two might go.

The constant switches in animation style continue to amuse me on a very wide range of levels as well though I was kind of disappointed that Rukia doesn't draw more on this volume to get her point across. For those who keep count, there's only one scene on the entire volume in which she draws.

Music

As with the first volume, the music on this volume is strong and enjoyable with every piece really complimenting the scene in which it accompanies. I'm fairly certain though that most of this music will not play well out of context but it's still fun to listen to while I am watching the anime itself.

Dub vs. Sub

Both tracks on this volume were strong but neither track really won me over. I really liked the Japanese performances (Masakazu Morita as Ichigo really stood out to me) and in the English cast Michelle Ruff as Rukia and Stephanie Sheh as Orihime really continue to impress and entertain me.

Extras

The extras are fairly slim on this volume and include a clean animation, production art and a preview of the manga.

Overall

This volume came at me at precisely the right time. While I admit that I am very late in reviewing it, it still came at a great time... specifically a time when I have been going through a slump with anime and I needed something that I knew I would enjoy watching while I worked on reviewing it. The action in this volume is solid and the characters tell stories that are worth watching. This series is getting off to a great start and it's absolutely no wonder why it's such a hit with everyone.

Final Grade: 91% - A