Bleach Recaps: Ep. 178, The Nightmare Which is Shown, Ichigo's Inside the Mirror

As I predicted last week, Episode 178 isn't good.  You'd think coming right on the heels of two pretty good episodes with some decent fights, that the Ichigo vs. Purple-Hair (whose real name I refuse to use since this guy is pathetic) fight would be the most epic of them all, or at least passable.  But it isn't, it just isn't.

I think during episodes like this one, its best to remind ourselves this:  we could be watching the Bount arc.  This week's fight might be absolutely terrible, but it could be so much worse.  We need to keep up perspective here.  I personally haven't seen the entirety of the Bount arc*, but I saw enough.  Ichigo vs. Purple-Hair is a bad fight, but how about the skull-crushingly boring fight between the entire cast and those two water twins?  I remember suffering for what felt like an eternity, screaming at the TV for Ichigo to just use his Bankai already.  The animation here is fine, the animation in the Bount arc was so ugly and off-model that it sometimes looked like I was watching the show through a fish tank of cloudy water.  You think the NINJARS are a silly enemy, remember how silly those vampires that fought with dolls were.  Oh and if you think that Princess Lampshade-hat and her guardians are annoying, say hello to those three stupid dolls from the Bount Arc.  Those comic reliefs had to be graduates from the Jar Jar Binks College of Comedy.

I suspect that the Bount arc is going to become a running issue on this recap series.  Its very useful defense:  "yeah, this episodes sucks but at least we're not watching that Bount crap."  When things start getting more and more silly in Hueco Mundo once we return to the main storyline, I bet I'll bring the Bounts up again.  I can write the sentence already:  "Wow that [insert stupid asspull plot twist here] was stupid, but at least we're not watching that Bount crap."

While we're on the topic of Bounts, I should note that Purple-Hair is voiced by Tony Oliver, who also voices Ulquiorra.  Unfortunately Tony isn't using his cool Ulquiorra voice, instead he's using the same voice he used for Ryo, a particularly jackass Bount with a silly painted-on goatee.  You know, I try to escape these Bount references but here we are:  the show keeps dragging me back to them.

So as we remember, Purple-Hair sucked Ichigo into his mirror last episode.  So this entire fight will basically have to happen inside a crazy dream world.  That means there actually won't be a fight, and the best we can hope for a crazy freak-out episode like viewers of shows like "Evangelion" are all too familiar with.  There is potential for some really freaky stuff.  By the end of this episode, I should be out of mind screaming my head off:  like this.  I'm not sure what my expression actually was by the end of this episode, I might have fallen asleep, there's truly no way to know.  Purple-Hair's Bankotto power gives him the ability to create any kind of nightmare so as to drive Ichigo completely flippin' insane.  He can dive straight into your psyche and create a horrific collage of your worst memories, your darkest fears, and your most repressed desires until you're left a lunatic mess, giggling in between the screams.  Unfortunately, Purple-Hair has a really crappy imagination, so nothing Ichigo sees in this dream is particularly scary.  There was unlimited potential and what he shows is so... lame.  Its like going on a Haunted Hay Ride on Halloween, only to be so bored that you consider jumping off and walking back.

Ichigo, while inside the dream-world, wakes up in what I think are the opening credits to ".hack//SIGN":

"How come I must know, where obsession needs to go?"

Inside one of the floating TVs is Ichigo's memories.  Ichigo sees a young version of himself with dead eyes and they have a weird stare-down for a moment.  Okay, that's freaky, maybe there's potential here.  So its time for a flashback!  And what is a sorer place in Ichigo's memory than the day his Mommy got eaten by a Hollow?  We start off with Little Ichigo fighting Little Tatsuki in Junior Karate Class and Lil Ichigo gets beaten pretty soundly.  This is actually pretty funny considering that these days Ichigo is the ultimate badass of the universe, routinely fighting the darkest abominations from the darkest depths of what is essentially "Bleach"'s version of Hell, and back then he got beaten up by a girl - a human girl.  (Also I'm pretty certain this all a reused scene, since we had to have seen this before someplace, maybe I'm wrong.)  So then Ichigo's Mom picks him up and tells him that boys that big shouldn't cry.... an odd thing for a Mom to say, considering that Lil Ichigo is like four here.  What's with this woman?  And then we cut to Lil Ichigo crying over his mother's bloody corpse.  I guess he hasn't learned not to cry yet.

The whole freak-out that Purple-Hair has devised is just to summon Ichigo's Mom (I don't know her name, don't care to learn it).  Since its his Mom he can't possibly fight back, right?  Right?  Eh... This seems like a bad plan.  Even the biggest Momma's Boy in the universe would probably give Mommy a push if it meant suffocating.  This is hardly very freaky either, its just Ichigo - now back to being a teenager - getting choked.  His Mom isn't saying anything creepy like "give Momma a hug" "Mommy loves you, that's why Mommy is going to have YOU FOREVER" "oh you're so cute I could just eat you up, SO I WILL!!".  She doesn't turn into a lizard monster or anything.  Her face doesn't disappear.  She doesn't suck his head into her body.  Jesus, Purple-Hair, is this the best you can do?  I've seen scarier episodes of "Little Bear".  If this is supposed to be a Mind Rape, then obviously Purple-Hair must have a wicked case of ED.  Man, the Japanese version of "Inception" SUCKS.

Here's how you do a proper Mind Rape.  Don't accept this off-brand substitute.

So after a minute, Ichigo pushes His Mom away, gives her hug in an honestly touching moment, and then moves on to escape the dream-world with pathetic ease.  Just power up a bit, the entire thing cracks up, and you're free.  Sadly this dream nonsense was Purple-Hair's entire strategy, now he's really screwed.  Speaking of screwed:

The Tentacles have raped him so hard that they've eaten his body!  HARD CORE!

Ichigo immediately yells out:  "Dude, the tentacles are totally so far up your ass that they're coming our you're mouth!"  Purple-Hair's response is:  "I don't care, I'm a HARD CORE NINJAR."  Then he goes on with some stupid speech about how his clan of ninjas have protected the Kasamicasaessucasa Clan (I don't know how to pronounce that word or how to spell it) for generations and they're so HARD CORE they kill Soul Reapers for just seeing them.  Why do they do that?  I don't know, but it is pretty HARD CORE.  Of course, if he's working for the noble family, why is he trying to kill the heir?  That seems pretty stupid to me, must be another symptom of Purple-Hair's desire to be HARD CORE TO THE MAX.  "I can deal with a few a tentacles eating me!  I'm that HARD CORE" says Purple-Hair.  And then... he gets eaten and dies.  I'm guessing he wasn't quite HARD CORE enough, huh?  He didn't quite PUNCH YOUR BALLS OFF, now did he?

Actually its not clear to me if Purple-Hair was so drunk on power he didn't notice getting eaten/raped, or if he didn't care, or if the sword actually makes you not notice that its having its way with you... over and over and over again.  I don't know if it matters.  Ichigo has his own theory:  "that guy was insane!" - funniest line of the episode.  I love how Ichigo occasionally expresses exactly what I'm thinking perfectly.  Either way, that means that Purple-Hair is gone forever, thus killing off the main enemy for this arc**.  Who will take his place?

Meanwhile, back at the Soul Society, Kibune is traveling to the Kasadoublequarterpounderwithcheese compound.  Wait a sec!  The Squad 3 plotline actually has a connection to all this NINJAR stuff?  I was starting to think that they might have been two completely different arcs spliced together.  Kira is following him.  That might mean something later.

Little Arnold (Prince Shoe) is suffering from the Frizz's latest wacky school trip and desperately needs to find the bathroom.  The Evil Old Guy, Kumoi intercepts Arnold and has him immediately escorted back on the Magic School Bus.  No, Arnold, you will not get out of being shrunk to the size of a bacteria and exploring your own intestines.  YOU WILL NEVER HAVE A NORMAL FIELD TRIP, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  Down in the basement, the Evil Old Guy runs into one of the ninjas from last episode, Goofy Hair, who somehow survived his fight with Uryu.  Goofy Hair demands that he become the NINJAR king in Purple-Hair's place.  Evil Old Guy just says "I won't be needing you any longer".

SLICE! Kibune kills Goofy-Hair.  Turns out that Kibune is just as evil as his Espada-brand glasses would have you think.  So now the Evil Old Guy has new minions in which to fight with.  Can it be that Amagai too is working with this conspiracy?  For once, I can't predict what's going to happen next episode!  YAY!  Things are interesting again.

So this episode wasn't good, but at least we're done with this stupid NINJAR nonsense.  Hopefully the next phase of this arc will actually be good, or else I'll be mentioning Shusuke Amagai's name with the same hate that I summon when I mention the Bounts.  Here's to next week!

-------------------------------------------------
* I am forcing myself to watch it for the purposes of this blog.  I feel that I can't really be an expect recapper unless I've seen everything that has happened in "Bleach" in the past.  As with before the Bount arc is... so terrible.  Its awful, so awful.  I can't watch more than an episode at a time, because it can be physically painful to watch.  This is made much worse since the Bount arc comes only episodes after the wonderful Soul Society arc, which was without a doubt the finest season of "Bleach" ever.  The horrifying thing is that Viz Media has the balls to dare sell DVDs of the Bount arc for real money.  That's just criminal.

The Bount arc sucks.  And Bount is a stupid name for a villain.  Sounds like a paper towel brand, minus the "Y".

** The opening credits show the Ichigo vs. Purple-Hair fight taking place in Heuco Mundo for no particular reason.  In actuality it took place in the skies above Karakura Town.  I don't think we'll even visit Heuco Mundo in this arc.