Bleach Recaps: Ep. 201, The Deadly Mantis

Kenpachi is definitely one of the more broken characters on "Bleach".  His ludicrous Spirit Pressure allow for him to basically be an unstoppable killing machine for regular Soul Reapers and Hollows.  Yet still somehow Ichigo was able to beat him, that doesn't seem to make much sense.  Ultimately Kenny runs not only on a nuclear-powered superstrength, but also on complete insanity.  He's an Lunacy Drive.  Cut him and he just gets more excited.  Cut him again and he only smiles.  Stab him the heart and he'll laugh hysterically, continuing to fight on until the end.  Physical damage simply does not matter - he's so crazy that you can't kill him.  He's like the Strong-Nuclear Force, no matter how much you try to pull the quarks apart, the stronger their bonds become.  The more strength you throw against Kenpachi, the more fun he's going to have, and the more murdered you're going to be.  Unless you're Ichigo and have protagonist Plotkai, you aren't going to beat Kenpachi, its simply impossible.  The more damage you do the stronger he gets.  Even Aizen himself would be unable to win.  In short, Kenpachi is completely undefeatable, he's a "Bleach" version of "Hellsing"'s Alucard.

In short, Spoony is completely screwed.  He might as well lay down his funny spear right now and pray to his impotent God.  Maybe if Spoony could grow six arms he might have a shot...  Actually no, he's still done.  If "Bleach" went so far as to have Kenpachi lose, I would be shocked to the very core.  Horrified actually.  I would have no choice but to respect Tite Kubo for actually killing off a major character.  Then I would change the channel, because Kenny is the best character on the show.  And without him, I don't think I'd have much reason to want to watch anymore.  But that won't happy, so I'm still happy.  Tite Kubo never kills off any good characters.

Last night's episode, I gotta say was really really good for one reason:  it was nothing but Kenny fighting Spoony the entire time, beginning to end.  No comic reliefs, no long conversations, no Granz (because he's dead, yay!).  Only fighting.  And that's how it should be.

When this episode was broadcast in Japan, it included a promo for the third Bleach movie, "Tree of Might" or whatever its called.  They didn't include it here, which is odd since interestingly the third Bleach movie is on its way.  I don't know if I'll have a review for it though.

Anyway, Spoons once again tells Kenny that he can't be cut.  Kenpachi, being insane, is very happy about this and starts laughing.  Spoony is a very insecure person, so tries kicking Kenny with his silly curly elf shoe, but that doesn't really work.  Full of maniac glee, Kenny announces that he's going to cut Spoony right in half.  Then they fight fight fight fight and fight fight fight fight.  And they fight more.  Little Yachiru says "Now its getting good!" and I must agree, it is getting good.

Battle of the fashion victims

Spoony says "How many times do I have to say it, you can't cut me moron--".  He gets interrupted when Kenny actually manages to cut him.  You see, the awesomeness of this battle has driven Kenpachi just a bit more insane, meaning that his sword is even more sharper.  Then Spoony is like "oh lucky shot" and Kenny is like "you're an idiot, I'll cut right through your sword-thing" and then does.  Kenny cuts right through the top chunk of Spoony's spear and slices him right through the face.  Turns out that somehow Kenpachi has become "used to" the tough Spoon-skin. Yup, Kenny was just a little out of shape lately, too much time spent sitting on the sidelines with nothing to do during the Amagai Arc.  But now he's in peak condition, ready to kick ass.

"Too bad that didn't kill me."

Spoony then tries giving Kenny a little tongue action.  He spits out an energy ball from the tip of his tongue, hoping that Kenpachi will just get blown away.  However, Kenpachi just grabs the energy ball and flings it away.  For a moment Kenpachi turns into a giant... then Spoony rushes like a maniac without his weapon.  Then he does something really really stupid.

"Laaaadies..."

Ah Spoony, you're fucked now.  You're so dead.

You see, Spoons wasn't the only one hiding something under his eyepatch.  Everything Kenpachi does from his hair down is to make his battles more difficult so he can have more fun.  The eyepatch sucks out Spirit Energy, and now Kenpachi's power is like fifty times what it was before.  Spoony takes a nice blown right to his chest, but barely survives.  He can't die yet, he hasn't unleashed his Super Form yet.

After a blast of wind and energy, Spoony's Santa Teresa is born.  Even Yachiru seems a bit worried, and she's never shown any concern for anything before ever.  I think that's just a trick by the animators, since I still suspect Yachiru is actually stronger than Kenny, but whatever.  The choral theme song that plays here is actually in rather good English, since I can almost make out the lyrics without help:  "You're no good and you mean no good, treacherously!"  Let's see the funny new form:

"GILGAMESH:  THE GAME", coming soon

At this point Kenny might have a small problem.  Four arms is a serious threat, especially when each one of them has a blade.  So Kenpachi gets knocked down for a second.  Then Spoony moves to attack Yachiru.  Bad move.  I don't know what Yachiru can do, but Tite Kubo has been keeping it a secret for some reason.  I wouldn't mess with her.  If she can hang out with Kenpachi and not have her brains crushed in by his superpower energy, she must be pretty tough.  But Yachiru is saved by Kenny and his new plan:  CUT OFF THE ARMS!

I must say, for a Kenpachi plan this is about typical.  When fighting Tosen he let himself get skewered so that he could grab the enemy and cut him down.  Unfortunately for the good guys, Spoony's new form has some Piccolo in it, and he just grow his arms back.  Cheating!

So now they fight fight fight fight more, until suddenly Spoony reveals his secret:  SIX ARMS!

"Shenanigans!  Shenanigans!"

How the Hell do you hide an extra pair of arms?  And not only that, how do you hide the swords they're holding?  What the bullshit and a half?   Did Spoony have these thing hiding up his anus??  Are these Heisenberg arms, depending upon whether we observe them, they either exist or not?  Plotkai is rarely this sinister, I must say.  So that's where things end, Spoony tears a hole through Kenpachi and the episode is over.

So even though Kenpachi ends bloodied and beaten, I really don't think he'll be down.  He's Kenpachi.  He doesn't go down.  And if he did, it wouldn't be to this jackass.  Take him out!  Rip his face off!  Ra ra ra!  Kenny!  Kenny!  K-E-N-N-Y!!

See you next week.