Bleach Recaps: Ep. 202, Using Both Hands

In tonight's episode the long epic tale of the Spoony Experiment comes to an end.  You know, we've had some fun with Spoonz for a while now, mostly because of his ridiculous spoon-shaped hat, but honestly we've been unfair to him.  I mean, I never pointed out how stupid his curly elf shoes were.  I kid, I kid.  But the guy did manage to survive some twelve episodes of pure combat against the good guys, defeating Grimmjow, Ichigo, and Nel, all while giving Kenny some trouble.  ...Of course Grimmjow and Ichigo were both exhausted from pounding each other, and Neliel spontaneously devolved into her child form.  And Kenny's entire modus operandi is to hold himself back so that the fight is more fun.  Okay Spoony, maybe your battle record isn't all that good, but you at least put on a good show.

But of course first we have a recap...  Yeah, I know Kenny is fighting Spoony.  Yeah, I know that Kenny lost his eye-patch and then cheesed like a maniac.  I know that Spoony grow four six arms and just ripped out Kenpachi's guts.  Can we move on?  I'm the recap man (self-declared) but I deserve better than this!  Stop stealing my thunder "Bleach" guys.  I do good work every week and this is how you repay me?  By making this entire thing superfluous!  I will not be redundant!  From now, readers, I command you to skip the first two minutes of every "Bleach" episode so that way my recaps will not have any competition.

So last week Kenny was seriously injured and seemed ready to keel over.  Spoony stands triumphant with all of his arms including the two magic ones.  Then he shots out spears from little holes in his wrist a la Spiderman.  Weird...  "Its all over... Soul Reaper" shouts Spoony.  Ichigo desperately tries to help but Yachiru won't let him because its Kenny's fight.  We're getting a lot of opinions about the situation, but let's ask Kenpachi what he thinks of it:

"They sure don't make straight jackets like they used to, and I should know!"

He's loving it!  I think I'm starting to see a pattern here:  Spoony hurts Kenny, Kenny looks hurt, Kenny laughs then kicks ass.  "NOW WE'RE TALKING!  THIS IS GREAT!  WE'RE HAVING SOME FUN NOW!!"  ...You just got to admire somebody who takes joy in his work.  Either that or Kenpachi has officially lost his damn mind.  I think Spoony hit him a bit too hard time, because a screw seems loose.  In the next round of combat Kenny just keeps on rushing his opponent, not even stopping when the Spoonman drops a building on his head.  He just keeps on laughing.  After awhile Spoony looks understandably freaked-out:

"What is with this guy?"

Kenny might be taking all the hits, but its pretty clear that his personal brand of madness is far greater than Spoony's.  I have a sneaking suspicion the Spoony Experiment will soon be coming to an end.  Of course, Spoony keeps on repeating to himself "I am the strongest".  I don't know who he's trying to fool when his opponent has transformed into this:

BERSERK Mode!

I note that if you're a first time viewer to this show you'd probably come in having no idea which one of these two fighters is supposed to be the "good guy".  One has six arms and the other one is... that.

In the ensuing rush, Kenny gets a nice blow to his neck.  Orihime gasps in horror (just about the only thing she can do anymore)*.  At this point Kenny does the most incredible thing:  realizes that he actually could get killed fighting this way.  So he decides he likes living, and then unleashes his final card.  I'm stunned that Kenpachi would ever actually take an interest in his own safety, and more stunned that he's actually doing something semi-rational.  Will this break his Insanity Drive?  

But what's really funny is what Kenpachi's super mode actually is.  You see, in anime, there are lots of way to summon super modes.  Some people go Super Saiyan, some are filled with the power of Love, some have Bankais, and some transform into monsters.  Kenpachi just uses both hands.  Before, Kenpachi only fought with one hand and swung his sword like an ax.  He never had any technique or style to his fighting because he was that strong and that tough that he didn't need any.  Now that he's using kendo - you know, swinging the sword competently - the results are catastrophic:

BOOOOOOOOOMM!!!

After the commercial break (and the same scene being repeated again) we find out what effect this nuclear blast has done to our old friend Spoony.  I don't think it will be pretty:

"Ha, just a flesh wound!"

He's basically had his entire torso sliced open, with everything from the left shoulder down his belly cut through, leaving his left side hanging open.  Naturally if Spoonish here were a human he would be so dead it wouldn't even be funny, but in the magical land of "Bleach" he'll keep on going.  Kenny declares victory and walks away, but his opponent will not give up so easily.  While having to hold his left side in place (it will probably rip off if he doesn't), Spoony demands that the fight be finished.  He's literally become the Black Knight from Monty Python.  Unfortunately for Spoony, Kenny is not King Arthur, and will kill you if you ask for it.  So comes the final attack.

Flashback time!  In the past Spoony and Neliel are discussing a mission they just took part in.  Their job was to final some Vasto Lordes**, the greatest type of Hollow that exists.  But they didn't find any, so Spoony killed all the Hollows in a small Hollow town(?).  Nel is annoyed because there was no reason to kill all of them, but Spoony don't care.  He loves this stuff:

"Yay, burning things is fun!"

Spoony, is pissed that Nel would dare question him (despite being his superior officer) and declares that they must kung-fu fight.  Nel walks away, "you're amazingly stupid, you know".  Then Spoony rushes her, and is knocked down.  When Spoony wakes up, he wonders why she didn't kill him.  Neliel's answer is clear "if I had killed you, we would have lost an Espada".  Remember?  The war they're fighting against Soul Reapers?  So far Nel is showing herself to be the only Hollow in all of Aizen's army that actually seems to care about winning.  Aizen himself is sitting at the top of this bizarre circus and so far he's been on the losing side.  Badly losing.  In the flashback Spoony ends what might have been a vaguely romantic scene by repeating "I really do hate you..."  In an internal monologue, Spoony declares that he hates all people who pity him.  And he's going to kill everybody who is stronger than him so that nobody can ever pity him again.  Guy's got a huge inferiority complex.  He should be more mellow, like Kenny.  Kenny doesn't care if anybody is stronger than him, he's just out for fun.

In the present, while rushing Kenpachi, Spoony declares that he'll never lose.  Then he loses.  Funny that.

While falling to his death, Spoony spots Child-Nel wresting on a rock.  They exchange looks and Nel, slowing waking up says his name.  Then both of them appear reflected in each other's eyes.  Is there something going on between these two?  I mean, that was a look.  Then again, it would be horribly creepy if Adult Spoonz and Child Nel got together.  Just wrong in many ways.  Also, didn't Ichigo tell Orihime to heal Nel first?  She never quite did that, did she?  I mean, Orihime's powers could theoretically fix Nel's skull hat, so I dunno.  But anyway, with that, the Spoony Experiment has come to a close.

So let's take stock of where we are, shall we?  Spoon-monkey just died, meaning that Aizen has lost yet another Espada.  Two weeks ago we lost Granz, and just a few weeks before that we lost Shaq.  Grimmjow was beaten and bizarrely forgotten about at the beginning of this season.  And the pill-head guy was taken out by Rukia back two seasons ago.  That's altogether five Espada.  That leaves us with Yammy, the lord of morons, and the other four, Ulquiorra, and the last three who haven't yet really had any screen time.  So far, despite taking heavy loses, Aizen has brilliantly failed to take out a single one of enemies.  Half of his elite squad were defeated while accomplishing nothing.  I think at this point we can official consider him losing the war.

And for the first time in a long time, there are no fights going on at all right now.  Every battle has concluded, meaning that Tite Kubo has to conjure up some new ones lest we notice how poorly structured this story is.  Let's see what he does next week.

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* Seriously, what happened to Orihime?  She never was a useful fighter, but she at least was useful.  For some reason its taken her three episodes to heal Ichigo, when she should be able to do it instantaneously - it took her three seconds to bring back Grimmjow's arm.  But that doesn't matter as much as what happened to her personality.  Its gone.  She never acts funny or quirky or even silly at all.  I know she's been kidnapped and she doesn't like fighting, but come on!  At least make an insane explanation for things, or something.  Orihime used to actually be funny as a comic relief, now that's just a damsel in distress we have... those two idiots.  Nice one, Kubo.

** Vasto Lorde is very bad Spanish which should have been fixed in the translation.  "Vasto" is a Spanish word meaning "vast", as in really big.  Not great or powerful, just big.  And "Lorde" is not a word, but "Lord" is, and its a cognate.  Technically it should be "Lord Vasto" since the adjective should come behind the noun in Spanish.  The plural of "Vasto Lorde" is "Vasto Lordes" when it should be "Lordes Vastos" because of adjective-noun agreement.  So its altogether three mistakes, and it annoys me.