Bleach Ep. 7: Greetings from a Stuffed Lion

Ichigo continues to battle the mod soul in his real body, a stuffed animal toy joins the cast, and a tragedy from the past starts to be revealed. The themes of free will, the right to live, and rain are the high points of this increasingly moody episode.

Instead of directly continuing from the cliffhanger of the previous episode, we are presented with another look at the denizens of the black market shop, The Urahara Store. Kisuke Urahara, the shady owner and wearer of hat and clogs, comforts a distraught Ururu over her mistake that caused the mod soul to be sold. Maybe his isn’t such a bad guy after all. Preparations are made to retrieve the “defective merchandise” and it looks like they are well armed.

Back at the fight, Ichigo saves the three kids from the wrath of his stolen body, only for the artificial soul to make his escape when an emergency call comes in. Duty comes before retrieving one’s body, apparently.

While Ichigo and Rukia search for the monster, it turns out the mod soul can sense it – and sense that it is endangering the kids he was about to beat up. A tortured decision leads him to return to protect the children, but he is clearly outclassed despite his incredible leg strength.

Fortunately for him, this is a heroic show about heroes, so the main hero comes in to save the day. Unfortunately for him, Ichigo is very angry about the damage his body has taken. When the Hollow decides to butt into the argument, it is the last mistake of his existence.

An interesting heart to heart conversation between a somewhat sympathetic Ichigo and the mod soul follows. The idea of everyone having a right to live is discussed and the idea of free will being important is touched upon as they watch a trail of ants marching. One thing the creator of Bleach, Kubo Tite, has going for him is the ability to create characters with fully formed personalities and that is on display here.

Alas, the interesting conversation ends when Urahara shows up to take the mod soul away to a mandatory death penalty. An intervention by Rukia leaves the now pill bound mod soul in the possession of Ichigo. For someone who insists on following the rules, she does a lot of rule breaking. She tries to be the Sheriff of Nottingham but keeps behaving like Robin Hood instead.

Still angry about the damage to his body, Ichigo wants to castigate the mod soul further but can’t since he’s just a pill again. This less than noble motivation leads to a mad scientist experiment using a thrown away stuffed lion. To their surprise, Rukia and Ichigo witness the toy animal come to life. For the mod soul, it is more like sheer horror. After all, how will he get the girls when he is made of fabric and stuffing?

So now the stuffed lion in the opening credits makes sense (relatively speaking) and we have a new cast member. Named Kon to his great annoyance, the mod soul refuses to give up his perverted tendencies despite his utter impotence and this becomes a running gag in the series. But at least he gets to host the joke sequences after the end credits to bolster his oversized ego.

Needed downtime from all the action begins, but why is Ichigo staring at his watch? Tatsuki knows and reveals the secret to Orihime, but not before we get another example of how the redhead’s mind works. That, uh… unique piece of art she drew of how she sees her future self makes me think she is in need of counseling, ASAP. Mecha-Orihime?! Disturbing but funny.

Another face from the opening credits makes his appearance and he seems to be watching Ichigo and Orihime closely. The bespectacled boy also likes to do needlepoint. Sinister, don’t you think? The needlepoint, I mean.

Watching Isshin conduct the Kurosaki family meeting is inspiring. The way he suckers Karin in with a political move is hilarious and reminds me of how real politics works, sadly. But it is so effective.

Bleach occasionally reaches emotional levels that belie its aimed at demographic of young teens and preteens. As Ichigo’s secret is revealed, the theme of falling rain is used in a very poetic series of scenes that make for a very moody moment in the series. Sweet concern from Orihime about the object of her crush leads to one of the more memorable passages in Bleach:

If I were the rain… could I ever merge with somebody’s heart, like the way rain merges Sky and Earth, never meant to connect…

But things are afoot in Soul Society too, which looks a great deal like ancient Japan in our first glimpse of the place.

Thoughts

For an action show, Bleach doesn’t shy away from drama or slower moments of introspection. The recipe of action, manic comedy, and serious emotion is very present in the seventh episode. This is also the beginning of rain being associated with Ichigo’s heart and is a theme throughout the rest of the series.