Bleach 299: Out with a whimper

I should have advertised the liveblog earlier, maybe I could have gotten my loyal liveblog viewer to join. It doesn't matter, I ended up missing most of the episode when I felt rather sick.

The episode was just filler, an advertisement for the 4th Bleach movie, anyway. It starts out with a random Soul Reaper and a random soul and a random Hollow. Then we've got Urahara telling Rukia something about him going on vacation, and when he threatens not to go on vacation, Kenta and Ururu threaten him. And that's all I could stand.

Wake me up when this filler ends. Next week, you say? Okay.

Bleach 299 Liveblog - Farewell to Pittsburgh

My final liveblog on the East Coast. I'll still be around next weekend, but probably won't get a liveblog in for the big #300.

Bleach 298: Best Actress

Bleach episode 298 review

So Bleach decided to take some time off being serious and stuff, and now it's gone to self-parody. Sadly the self-parody is not as much of a self-parody as the normal episodes. The normal "serious" episodes with their "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT"s and overly predictable scenarios are actually pretty much self-parody themselves.

If this episode really wanted to parody Bleach, it needed a "WHAT" at some point, but there was none to be found. In fact, I found myself actually doing some weird things during this episode. First, there was the changing of my expression from a grimace to a smile. Then, there was a bigger smile. Finally, yes, I couldn't stop it - I let out a laugh. Multiple laughs, in fact. This isn't my normal behavior during Bleach.

So anyway, the star of this episode was none other than Rukia Kuchiki, who in her adorable maid costume managed to be everything that I've ever liked about her character, and nothing that I hate. Rukia provided the most laughs in the episode. The "people actually attacking Ichigo" joke got old, but Rukia's fake acting and overdramatic dialogue had to be the highlight of the episode. Rangiku and Renji were also stars, and Orihime provided a few laughs as well. I realize Ichigo was necessary to make some of the jokes work, but he sucked a lot of the joy out of the scenes.

Anyway, I usually hate this kind of tomfoolery on Bleach, but I'll make an exception this time.

Character of the episode: Rukia
Unfortunately, the Bleach Olympics have come to a close.

Episode rating (out of four stars): **1/2

Some personal business

So I have some important announcements to make, regarding my own future, and slightly about the future of the blog.

I am moving to Los Angeles in early June, as I have been unexpectedly accepted to the University of Southern California's graduate school. Unexpected, I say, because I was rejected on last Tuesday, then the decision was reversed on Friday. This means that my entire life as I know it is going to completely change. There's more changes going on than I can possibly imagine or count, moving coast-to-coast.

So what does this mean for the blog? Quite simply, the blog is no longer of any importance to me. I hope to update it for each Packers game this season, as I hope to update it for conventions and other stuff. But stuff like Bleach or whatever else is put on Adult Swim can't really be a priority. I'd love to review Episode 300 (and whine about its inevitable irrelevance to the series) and more, but life has been so crazy lately that I don't know if that will be possible. Hence the two-week silence on this blog. But that's the way it is, and we'll see how things go.

2013 Stanley Cup playoffs prediction

Eastern Conference quarterfinals
#1 Pittsburgh over #8 N.Y. Islanders in 4
#2 Montreal over #7 Ottawa in 6
#3 Washington over #6 N.Y. Rangers in 7
#4 Boston over #5 Toronto in 6

Western Conference quarterfinals
#1 Chicago over #8 Minnesota in 4
#7 Detroit over #2 Anaheim in 7
#3 Vancouver over #6 San Jose in 6
#5 Los Angeles over #4 St. Louis in 6

Eastern Conference semifinals
#1 Pittsburgh over #4 Boston in 5
#3 Washington over #2 Montreal in 6

Western Conference semifinals
#1 Chicago over #7 Detroit in 6
#3 Vancouver over #5 Los Angeles in 7

Eastern Conference finals
#1 Pittsburgh over #3 Washington in 5

Western Conference finals
#1 Chicago over #3 Vancouver in 7

Stanley Cup Finals
Pittsburgh over Chicago in 6 (MVP: Jarome Iginla)

Bleach 294: Dude, wow

Bleach episode 294 review

The title is a reference to the Michael Jordan Hanes commercial where Jordan's sole purpose in the commercial is to come on the screen and say "Dude, wow." That's pretty much all I have to say about this episode.

Old Man Yamamoto fights Aizen and gets stopped by Wonderweiss. He then defeats Wonderweiss but later gets embarrassed by Aizen. We get it, Aizen's super-overpowered and only Ichigo can beat him. Let's just cut to the chase and have that battle already, okay?

Character of the episode: Yamamoto
For getting more lines this episode than all other episodes combined.

Episode rating (out of four stars): *

Bleach 293: Aizen hates Momo

Bleach episode 293 review

So let me get this straight: Aizen has this entire elaborate setup to get beat up and "defeated" by the ragtag group of heroes, for the sole purpose of slaughtering... Momo?

It's now clear that Aizen must hate Momo more than anything else. Of course, had Momo actually appeared sometime in the last 200 episodes, maybe I'd care, but I've gone past that point. Momo hasn't been around in so long that we barely remember who she is.

And what was all that crap that Unohana told Ichigo about not looking at Aizen? He stared at him for half the episode. Surely that was enough to put him under the "Complete Hypnosis" or whatever it's called.

I wish I could say I was entertained even by accident tonight, but nope: there wasn't even any unintentional humor tonight.

Character of the episode: Soi Fon
For going Naruto on Aizen (and failing).

Episode rating (out of four stars): *