AWTY 101 - ASRAB (Bleach with Abby Salcido)

Yeah, chat.

I mean, you could end up bringing the whole house down, you know?

Hello and welcome to our weep there yet in exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert. dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime sunk. Cost fallacy. Just get out. Don't put more time into it. It's not going to get better.

But one more food.

Come on.

It's just going to get worse. You're going to regret this, cliffhanger. Use this time to better yourself. Learn a skill, learn an instrument. Just stare at a wall for a while.

I love this bit. But I don't know what you said. I don't know what that thing is.

I don't know if it's a financial principle, but it's the idea of, like, I already put this much time into it. It's got to pay off eventually. Like gambling.

All right. The more, you know, we learn lessons here.

And we have someone else joining us who will help us learn some new things. We worked in the trenches of anime together, and they still continued working in anime. We're joined by our friend abby.

Hello. Hi.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Welcome, Georgia.

Thank you for having me. I'm sorry that we're making you watch something incredibly cursed.

Yes. As the title might tell you, listeners, for this episode we're watching, bleach and I've talked about it a lot, at least on my other podcast. I don't know if we got into it here. I got issues with Bleach.

Hold on, Brendan. You talk about Bleach a lot. No way. No way. I never would have guessed.

Oh, it's definitely come up.

Okay.

It's just all a haze at this point. I lost concept of time.

Okay, listen, I have to say something. I'm just using my platform as guests on the show to say I want to congratulate dana on being bold and brave enough to defend boba. Bobabo. Because I think that is 100% going to be me this week, defending Bleach.

Oh, thanks. I mean, I don't have any, like, emotional ties to that show. I just liked it.

Yes. So brought on abby specifically because you recently got back into Bleach. Stopped with the anime, whereas I kept reading the manga after the anime ended and we got very different feelings about it as a series.

Well, I read the manga too, up to a point, but I dropped it during the final arc, so I never finished it.

I kept going because I put so many years into it and I figured it's got to pay off.

No.

Call spouse.

It has to.

No.

All right. I've warned everyone else on the show, listeners beforehand, like one piece, they're going to have to put me on a timer limit and cut me off because I might just start ranting.

Just going into a blind rage.

I have a stopwatch set up. I am ready. I am here to officiate your hatred. It's a sports anime. This episode, you got to fit everything into 10 seconds if you want to rant about this.

Oh, no.

It's a rodeo anime.

It's come up a lot, but each burst we need to limit to 10 seconds.

Please.

It's a rodeo anime. You have to wrangle me this time. I'm the bull. You got to surround me into my case. I'm apologizing now because I do just go into a frenzy about it.

Oh, my God. I'm ready. I've been ready for this. I think you brought up the idea of doing an episode on Bleach, like, months ago, and I was like, Because I know exactly what you're talking about.

I had to work myself up to this point. dana dugan, do you have any experience with this god forsaken show?

I've never watched it, but of course I know about it because it's been on for 26 seasons.

Since the dawn of time.

Yes.

Yeah, this is definitely, like, in my mind. Like the narrow toe caliber of yeah, it's everywhere. If you don't know anime, you've probably heard Bleach mentioned at least once in your middle school. But that's about all.

Yes, for a long period of time, it was one of the big three of Shonen Naruto, One Piece and Bleach. And Bleach was the first one to end. Of those three.

Which is which of the Father's, Son, and Holy Ghost?

I would say one piece is the Father, naruto is the Son and Bleach is the Holy Ghost. Because Bleach is technically done, it's dead, and One Piece is still going. So it's like the father. It's the alpha and omega. It'll exist before and after our bodies.

Wait, I'm so sad. I thought you were making a pun by calling it the Holy Ghost because of what Bleach is about, but that might be spoilers, so never mind.

Kind of I'm not that clever accidentally. Any humor I do is purely accidental.

Hey, it's okay.

Yeah, so it's a big one. And like we've mentioned, it's coming back. So the anime ended while the manga kept going. And now they announced in 2021 they're going to restart the anime. Not reboot it, I think, but just start where it left off and continued. So they're going to try and make an anime of all of the canon manga and probably seven more filler arcs.

But sorry, already getting listen, I'm actually excited.

Well, someone is.

I'm happy for you, abby.

Thank you.

At what point did you get into Bleach? Since this has been around forever, was this something that helped you get into anime? Was this something early on you latched on to? Or are you a late comer to.

This show for me? I've kind of been a big dweeb for a while. I started with pokemon, not realizing what anime was because I was a child. sailor Moon tokyo meumu. Specifically the bad four kids dubbed of Tokyo meumu. I loved your episode on that one. And then I caught yes, those.

And mark my girl. lettuce.

Lettuce. pudding mint. We love these girls. But I caught bleach on Adult Swim. I think it was like ten or eleven, which is arguably too young to be watching Bleach. So I started it's literally the only anime other than cowboy bebop where I prefer the English dub simply for nostalgia. Because every other time I'm strictly a subs girl. I know I shouldn't say that because I work in tubs, but yeah, so I started watching it on Adult Swim when I was like ten or eleven. I don't know where my parents were. And then I was in bed.

It was Adult Swim.

Exactly. They were asleep.

That anime out of your hand?

No, Bleach is a gateway anime. Because then after that, I got into more anime and it just spiraled from there. But yeah, and I started reading the manga around twelve or 13 in middle school. Like, openly reading manga in school, but somehow didn't get bullied for it. So, yeah, that's my journey with Bleach.

Oh, boy. Yeah, pretty much the same. Caught it on tunami or Adult Swim one night and just kept riding the wild ride, chasing that wild dragon high of anime. And boy. God.

Boy God.

Cheers. Boy God. From Game or no Game or whatever the anime was gamer. No.

Game, no life. Is that what you said?

That is why I try this.

That show is bad. I hate that show.

I want to remember absolutely nothing about that show. Oh, God. But yeah, the anime for Belief started in 2004, I think.

2006.

2004? Yeah. So it's been almost two decades.

Disgusting.

It's a lot. It's too much. It's by far too much.

Yeah. I believe the day this or not the day, but like the week this episode comes out is the 19th anniversary of Bleach.

Yes, I believe so. Yeah. Bleach can almost legally drink and try to impress all of those memories of its adolescence like we all do.

Got to suppress.

Got to get rid of those memories.

But yeah, let's forget by watching some more episodes. We're going to be watching the first three. Three episodes. ah, ancient soul eater.

Perfect.

I love it.

Pretty much. Yeah.

The predecessor, the original grandpa.

Solid poppa. Holy Ghost.

Holy Ghost, right?

It's a lot of memories.

I loved it. I really had fun. I know that I rewatched this, like, at the start of Quarantine. Not all of it, but most of it. And I was still, like, pumped to watch the first three episodes again.

Well, I'm very happy again. Very happy for you, abby.

Based on all the moody art I've seen of this, this was goofier than I thought it was going to be. It was a pleasant surprise.

Yeah, it's definitely got angst and the art, mostly because the curator, kubal, just loves character design and fashion. So he draws the characters in a bunch of different outfits. Like we see in the opening and stuff, there's no reason for it, but you see a lot of stills and prints and stuff of just them in very high end fashion stuff or like street wear. And it's like it looks great, but yeah, it really gives it angsty feel and at least in the beginning is a little sillier than that.

I really like kubo's art style, especially in the beginning, you see it change a lot throughout the manga and by the end it's a little bit more generic and like softer lines. But in the beginning, and especially the anime reflects that. His style is really graphic and angular and cool and doesn't look like traditional anime. And I really liked that. And that's kind of one of the things that drew me to him. Drew me to him. I really liked that. But definitely watching it in 2020, it feels like a product of its time. It definitely looks like an anime from the early two thousand s. Oh, yeah, definitely.

I was like so many doodles on backs of notebooks pointy.

Absolutely.

So sharp.

Okay, well, here we go. I was surprised that we got the opening, like, right off the bat that there wasn't like a cold open kind of thing.

Yeah, surprisingly rare that we've noticed that with anime.

Yeah. And the song was like, really low key. Kind of like it was like a bop, but it was also, like, really chill, which I wasn't expecting. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. Bleach has some of the best openings in anime. I'm not just saying that because I enjoyed it and I'm nostalgic for it, but asterisk the first opening song low key slaps.

Yeah, that is. One of my few compliments for Bleach is the music has always been very on.

.1 of paul's favorite jokes to make. We passed time by watching like, best anime openings of the decade videos on YouTube. And there's always this one from Bleach. I don't remember which number it was or whatever, but every time it shows this one character, paul is always like, oh, dana, that guy's sword just gets longer to full power. And he says that every time.

Is he talking about games?

The guy with the mask? I guess. Does he have a mask? No, I don't retain anything. I'm very sorry.

No, we won't get into them in these three episodes. But yet it's like a little foot long sword and it goes to like 1000 foot long sword.

He said the first power is that it gets longer. And then the second power is that it gets longer.

Welcome to Bleach.

Okay, so we see like, some dark clouds over some mountains. Very ominous. And then there are like, dark forces coming out of places and there's like voiceover of angsty, mysterious things that I didn't write down. And then we see a girl with black hair standing dramatically. And she's like, I sense strange spirit energy. And then she lifts off. What's her name?

Rukia.

Rukia. I stand.

And then we see the main boy. Itchygo strawberry Boy. He's out here beating up some randos because they knocked over a flower vase while they were skateboarding, I guess.

Can we agree that he's straight up beating up undercover cops because these guys were, like, 43?

How do you do?

Yeah, they're so much more detailed in their faces than ichigo, who's 15.

Yeah.

Hey, kids, I'm looking to score some narcotics.

I mean, to be fair, even ichigo doesn't look like he's 15. He looks like he's 25.

Yeah.

I mean, that's the anime curse.

Yeah. And then he explains that the flower vase was for a dead kid, so that's why he's mad. And then the randos run off, and he's like, oh, I brought these flowers here today, but I'll bring more tomorrow. And there's a ghost girl that he can see. Apparently, the boy sees ghosts.

Ghosts.

It was so funny to me. He's like, I'll bring you more flowers tomorrow. And then she's like, I'll finally rest peacefully. And I'm like, Why? Because he beat up some 40 year old? What did that do for you?

She was an eight year old girl that loved beating up teenagers. She's like, I can finally rest at ease.

I died before I could go to florist school.

And then ichigo introduces himself, and he's like, I'm a 15 year old high school student, but the way they say it in English is so fucking funny. It's so good. He's like, he says, I'm 15, so I'm a high school student. And I'm like, okay, I guess so. And then his family runs a medical office, and he walks through the door, and his dad just beats his ass. He's late for dinner, and they yell at each other about seeing ghosts, and then they're just going at each other. And then there's another girl with black hair. Not rukia. This is Karen. I know they say carti.

She was speaking to a manager at the time.

Well, he has two, so he has two sisters, her and another one that is always holding a soup ladle.

Yuzu.

Yuzu. She likes to cook, apparently.

Yeah, they're twins. They don't look like it, but they're twins.

Polar opposites. So while him and his dad are fighting, karine tells him that there's a new ghost behind him. And she's like, whatever. I don't believe in ghosts. And then yuzu is like, but you can see ghosts, too. And she's like, so doesn't mean I believe in them.

I'm in denial.

I love connie, and she's one of my favorite characters for no explicable reason, because she's so minor.

She's got the sass. And then ichigo decides to go to bed without eating dinner just because his dad is being annoying. Is that actually his mom? Like that poster that his dad has on the wall? Okay.

Yes, she did.

Big rips.

Very dead. She's incredibly dead.

Okay?

She's, like, super dead protagonist. I know. Shocking.

So he goes to bed, and we hear his family talking about him, and apparently he's been seeing more ghosts than usual. And then it's the next morning, and there's, like, a news report. Something happened. It looks like a big disaster, an explosion or something. And itchygo sees the newscast, and he's like, that's near here. But that doesn't really lead anywhere. He goes to take new flowers to the ghost girl, but gets distracted by a big old monster. And then I was confused because I thought it was a flashback, because the girl was the ghost girl. But she looks, like, tangible now. She wasn't, like, transparent anymore.

Yeah, they drew her, I guess it was transparent the first time to show that she was a ghost. And this time, the monster can interact with her. So they drew, like, her whole body, I guess. But yeah, it was present day. It wasn't a flashback.

Yeah, it's present day.

I actually didn't pick up. It was the same person.

Oh, no. I actually wrote in my notes the first time she appeared because I know what happens. I wrote check off Ghost.

So that's what he did with that gun.

No.

So then rukia comes to save the day with her big sword. Thank goodness. And the explosions from earlier were caused by the big monster. And then it's later that day, and ichigo is laying awake in bed thinking about Sword Girl, and he sees a butterfly outside. And then rukia appears in his room, and she's looking around, but not talking to him. Just, like, acting like she doesn't even see him. And then he knocks her down, and she's surprised because normal humans can't see her, so he must not be normal.

Oh, no. This is a protagonist room.

Quick, get out.

Captain.

Truly, that's all this is. This was hilarious to me, too. There are just some lines in the dub that I'm just like, what? He's like, who are you? And she's like, you want to know who I am? I'll tell you. And I was just like, okay, great. No secrets here.

Please continue answering my question.

No, this is one of the reasons why I love Bleach. It's just so earnest. It's not always good, but it's so earnest.

Every character says exactly what they're thinking. So she says that she's a soul reaper, and that's it for now. She doesn't really explain further. And then we see the ghost girl getting chased by a monster. The same monster, I guess. No, it's a different monster now. That was like a cutaway. And while that was happening, rukia explains what a soul reaper is to itchygo. So, of course, we don't hear her explain it. We hear itchygo retelling it to her.

So you're telling me you're telling me.

That you're here to fight monsters and that's pretty much it. There's a longer explanation. She explains whole souls, which are good souls, like the girl ghost and hollow Souls, which are bad souls, the big demon boys. And he's like, well, okay. I don't believe you. And then she paralyzes him with a spell.

I don't believe you. I just thought you defeat a massive demon earlier today. But I don't believe but I don't.

You're a girl. I don't believe you.

Get out of your girl.

I have to say, though, really fast, I love the way that ricky explains things with these really childish drawings of cute animals. And watching this episode alone, and both all three of the episodes, there are so many iconic early 2000s memes that came out of these episodes. The part where she draws a mustache on and she goes, face was like a reaction image used a lot in the early 2000s. It's just so nostalgic messaging board.

And she tells him that she's lived ten times his lifetime, so she deserves respect. And I'm like, you're right, girl. And then she sees the ghost that was, like, following ichigo when he got home earlier. And she says that she sends him to the Soul Society, which is a good thing because he's a good one. Okay, so he gets to go home.

I don't know.

And this is when she explains the good soul bad soul thing. And he makes fun of her drawings, and that's when he draws the mustache she draws. I'm losing it.

It's okay. brendan's dying to lose it.

Fucking salsa. Thought he bullshit.

I'm surprised you haven't jumped in already after dana was like, a better place, because you rant to me about that all the time, biting my tongue.

Are you sure? I have a stopwatch right here. You have your platform tempting the fucking Soul society's bullshit.

Because it's like feudal Japan, and people go there. They end up just being poor scavengers on the side of the road. So it's not heaven. It's just you go back to feudal Japan and you fucking suffer for eternity. It's not good. There's nothing good about it.

And stop. Okay.

Soul study sucks ass.

Wow. Secret bad. So soul represent the good souls to the Soul Society. I guess to just live the slaves for the rest of their lives after life.

Slaves to capitalism.

Am I dead?

Yes.

Is this the soul society? Got you. We're in Bleach.

This is hell shit.

And they exercise the bad ones. So our ghost girlfriend before is still being chased by the bad demon. And he smells the soul.

Reaper the smelly smell, the smelly smell. The smell smelly.

And then rukia is like, oh, I can sense that there's a demon nearby, but I can't detect its exact location. And then ichigo is like, oh, what's that loud howling? And then she hears it after. So he heard the demon first, so oh, boy. Who's this kid? He must be extremely powerful.

Who's this upstart that's ear strength?

Who's this Luke skywalker mastering everything as soon as he touches it. So she goes out into the hall and she sees yuzu and she's all beat up. And she says before she passes out, she's like, ichiko, you have to save her. And then we see the big demon thing is trying to take kareen karine. Sorry.

Karen.

Karen. Oh, no. And then he tries to break out of the spell, but ruki is like, you can't do that. You're going to damage your soul. But then he does it anyway because oh my God, he's so powerful.

Impossible.

And he runs to attack the demon, but the demon just smacks him out of there because he is a 15 year old child.

Bitch.

I just love the juxtaposition of oh, shit, he's so strong. And then immediately gets thrown across the street.

Welcome to reality, big boy.

And then rukia is like, oh, it's looking for a specific soul. And then rukia says to itchygo, he has strong spirit energy, of course. And Matthew soul is exposed and the big demon guys are coming after him.

No.

And then the demon comes back and ichigo is like, OK, I'm ready to fight it this time. And then ruki is like, you still can't fight it. You don't have a weapon. So she has to save him. But then she's injured from attacking it and she's like, that was so irresponsible of you. What's your problem? Take my sword. So she offers him the sword to fight the big demon, and in order to get its power, she has to stab him with it, right? Of course.

Naturally.

And she's like, I can't guarantee that you'll live. But he is also like, okay, you.

Can either definitely die or possibly die. Your choice.

Perfect. So he takes the stab, and there's so much spirit energy bursting out of this that it cuts off one of the big demon's arms. And then he has the outfit on, the Soul Reaper outfit on. He's a Soul Reaper now, I guess he's got the power. And Rookie is sitting there and she's like, I only wanted to give him some of my power, but he took most of it. And I'm just like, dude, that's so fucking rude.

That's a high school boy for you, am I right?

You give them an inch and they take a mile, am I right? And she's like, what makes him so powerful? And I'm like girl same. This kid fucking sucks. And this is oh my God. She's watching him fight with his sword. And she's like, I've never seen a Soul Reaper with such a huge sword. And I'm like, oh, come on. That's a little on the nose, don't you think? Bleach.

And also remember, he's 15. Can we not? Especially when you say she's ten times older than him.

Listen, that didn't even occur to me. But it's because later on in the series it's explained the reason why his sword is so huge is because his spiritual power is just completely uncontrolled. So it's just in its released form constantly, and it's not supposed to be. And I don't know if that makes that any less of an inuit now that I'm saying it.

So his soul count is so high. That's fine.

Like, Deck is a new game hero, academia, before he learns to control the one for all this new game.

Plus, for hgo, he's already got all an upgraded gear.

Perfect. And then after that, he fights the big demon. And at this point, I was like, this feels like it was written by a teenage boy making a self insert oc, because it's like, oh, yeah, he's got these amazing, huge powers, and he also has a giant dick and girls just fall in love with him.

Oh, my God.

But yeah, that's pretty much the first episode.

It's a product of its time, for sure. I think it's because this stuff was a little bit less passe when it was first being done in the manga. And it's so foundational to the shonen genre now that we've seen this repeated over and over and over and over.

Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like overpowered boys who are just they just swoop in, especially when the person they swoop in and meet is a girl and she's like, really good at it. And then all of a sudden he shows up and she's like, oh my God, he's amazing.

What? Well, to be fair, the only reason she gets put in that position is because, like an idiot, he tries to get the Hollow's attention away from his sister, and she throws itself in its mouth because it was going to eat him. And that's literally her job, to protect humans and good spirits. So the only reason why that happened to her was because he was being a freaking moron.

Well, it just goes to show, I don't like him.

Also, to be fair, kubo is not a good writer, so it's a bad story.

Oh, boy. No, let's not that's too much.

Don't worry. In this next episode, we don't have a boy saving a bunch of girls that are in love with him. So we start episode two. Dad attacks to wake him up, and he's like, Why isn't anyone hurt? What happened? No one remembers the monster attack from last night, and they all think a truck crashed into the house. And miraculously, no one was hurt. Cool. We'll leave it there for now. So we go to school and ichigo runs into two of his classmates, totski and Otahime, two girls who definitely don't love him. So Odahime runs off because she's all embarrassed because she crashed to the floor. tsky is the feisty one who tells him yeah, tells that he's an idiot and is more resistant to his bullshit.

She's in love with Orohimi. And that's what I've decided. And that's all. I'll accept.

No, you have no idea. I actually was messaging Brendan when I was doing my initial rewatch, and I was just like, taskey and Oreheme.

Taski deserves better.

It's true.

So we see him in class talking about the truck crash, and I can't gloss over one of the classmates. Chad is.

Paul Love.

What?

Chad?

I know Chad is the best boy.

I'm biased because I'm half Mexican and Chad is Mexican, and I think that's the first time I've ever seen an explicitly Mexican character in manga and anime. So I just latched on Chad.

This is a big old hambo, and I love him.

I love him. And he calls his grandfather abuelo in the dove and everything. It's great.

Very good.

That's good in this, just being so giant. And he says, like, one threatening word of love help you clean up. I was like, oh, villain. Cool. villain.

Got it.

I'm glad he's not. Is this just a very poorly disguised ghost?

No.

Giant.

He's a sweetheart. There's a whole episode about him, like, trying to save a bird.

Wow. Why did we watch that one?

I don't know.

I need more Chad in my life.

Damn right you do.

So they're in the classroom talking about last night when a new student, transfer student, comes in on the bingo card. And this is a new girl. Her name is rukia never host Ho. I don't know.

I really wanted it to be a hollow, like, in a school uniform, like, oh, full of demon.

Hi, I'm here to learn. But it's rookie. And she goes like, all right, let's discuss.

What the fuck?

What the fuck? And they go outside and she's like, hey, you took all my powers, you asshole. Now I can't go home. So I live in this shell of a body now. Thanks for that. So she has to blend in and pretend to be human. And since he absorbed all of her powers, he has to take her place as the Soul Reaper. And he's like, no, I thought that one time, because it was my family, I don't care about anyone else. But she takes his soul out of his body so they can go on a mission. So they go to a park and they see a little boy being attacked by a spider thing. Just a lot of insectoid ghosts.

There's also just a lot of casual destruction of this town that everyone seemed to be fine with the light. Oh, I guess just the gas vein exploded.

Not again.

Just daily explosions, and everyone's like, no underlying issues to address. Perfect. Great. Good stuff.

You shouldn't move.

Yeah, no, this is fine. So, yeah, ruki is like, okay, if you don't give a shit, I guess you're going to stand idly by and watch this boy die. Or you can save him, and then you're honor bound by the duty of being a Soul Reaper to do it every time. So it's up to you.

This reminded me of moto Comeagica, where qb is just like, you got to become a magical girl. Or all your friends are going to die. Yes, real quick tripping.

Just sign this paperwork, please. Thank you.

Ricky is just such a badass. I really missed her. Oh, my gosh. How she's just like, oh, you don't want to be a soul reaper? Let me come take you to this park to watch a child die.

Just watch this poor boy get eaten.

Technically, he's already dead, but you know what I mean?

Like, extra die.

Super dead.

Double dead.

Dead time, too.

So, of course, Ichigo is like, no, I'm my own man. I'll do whatever I want. I'll say people because it's my choice, not because I have to. So he has an edgy little moment where he's like, I'm a loose cannon. I'll play by my own rules, thank you very much. But he slays the beast and stamps the kid's forehead so he has postage to get into the next afterlife. And he's like, okay, that was a fluke. You get that one, but I'm still not going to do it.

What if you go did let him die again? What if you just like, all right, fine. Let's watch this kid get murdered.

I mean, bleach wouldn't be over 300 episodes long.

Oh, God.

You would be free.

Brendan sliding doors. So after the park, we see that night. A soul is watching Otahime study, and he's just creepily floating up in the air. But he's abducted by some hollows and then a creepy voice vo monster is like some vague, cryptic bullshit. And they monster by this soul. So the next day, walking down the street, ichigo and rukia see that Otahime was just hit by a car.

Just a casual hit and run. Yeah.

She's so unlucky.

If only I had another orange haired person to take care of me.

Oh, my God.

So they run to her and she's like, no, it's fine. I probably hurt the car more than I hurt me. He's just so deferential about it. And rukia is like, hey, that bruise on your leg, is that from this car? And it's vaguely like ghost handshaped. And she's like, oh, yeah, probably. Well, anyways, I'm too bashful to hang out with you, so goodbye and runs away. So, we see. Ichigo tells rukia the backstory of Oteime because she's been living on her own since her brother died in their family clinic. So he sort of feels close to Otahime because she went through so much trauma about her brother who died at his family's place. So they're sort of linked through that.

Romantic.

Yeah, nothing. I'll cheer you up.

You all ever seen the movie The Killing of a Sacred Deer?

No?

Okay, never mind.

Herdington, though.

It was interesting.

So, Ichigos, rukia, after this is like, I have to go. I have to be cryptic. You can't my house. Goodbye.

Hold on. I feel like I have to explain myself. That wasn't irrelevant. It also involves the death of a loved one in a hospital, and then someone who has to pay recompense for it. So I was like, Is itchigo going to have to pay recompense to Orehimae?

Worse. He's going to drag her into his bullshit.

Yeah, great.

Yeah. We don't get her story. What is this? Who is she? A protagonist?

No, we get her story. Light. Yeah, light for now.

We get the sidekick story. So, ichigo's sister, later that night, he's in his bedroom. She comes in like, I'm missing so many clothes. What are they in here? Where are they? And we see rukia is living in his closet in secret, and is stealing her clothes. But she gets a notification that there's a Hollow nearby seconds before it crashes through his wall. So, a very good, effective warning system.

I actually, in my notes wrote, Snape has arrived. Because the Hollow looks like snape to me from Harry Potter.

Yes, it is close. Yeah.

It's got the long hair and it's got the snake body.

Yes.

So he fights off this monster. He hits it in the head and cracks, like, its skull. But he sees a familiar face underneath it's. hema's brother nanny. He's been monstrified. And rukia is like, yeah, this is why you attack from behind, so you don't see their identity. Hey, what the fuck? What the fuck? And she's like, yeah. All Hollows are souls that were corrupted, either through their unfinished business or regrets about their lives or things. So if you kill a Hollow, you are actually killing a person you may know, so don't worry about it.

The modica magica similarities continue.

Well, I think technically, you're like, cleansing them, but yeah, you're still stabbing a dude that might have been your mailman.

Yeah.

Oops.

You're technically releasing them from being tormented monsters, but you still get, as she says, stab them in the head. That's rough. So we see Tatski and Otehime are having dinner at Otahime's house. Tatski is definitely wearing pot leaf pants.

I thought that, too. I almost wrote that down, but I was like, I don't know. Is that appropriate for the podcast?

That is when I'm talking about this episode, baby. But as they're having dinner, some ghostly shit happens. Just poltergeist stuff. Things are knocked over, teddy bears are ripped open, and that's where we leave episode two.

It's interesting that they bring up the whole Hollow identity thing with the mask breaking open and him seeing the person inside. it'd be a shame if we ever saw that again. Oh, well. Too bad.

Oh, boy.

Oh, my gosh, you're so show. You're so bitter.

I mean, I do like, ishigo's dad. He is a crazy, whimsical character. I would really enjoy knowing any backstory to him that actually contributes to the overall story. Won't happen.

Listen, anyway, I didn't have my stopwatch open, but I think you're done.

Half of this podcast will understand what.

You'Re ranting about for anyone who has followed with police like, you get me?

I hope so I like his backstory, and I like seeing more about misaki. It's not good, but I'm just here for a good time.

It causes questions and answers. I got problems. I know it's because I sunk all the time into it is why I'm so angry. If I just dropped it when I didn't like it anymore, I'd be fine.

Yeah, I dropped it, and I think that made all the difference.

This is my own mistake. This is what I have to deal with.

Yeah, this is a you problem.

This is me. I'm fully aware it's me that caused these problems for me.

And now we have to hear about them. God bless.

Hey, you invited me onto an anime podcast. That's your fault.

I should have done my homework. I didn't do a background check.

You should have just read off my anime list and see which triggered me. Can't talk about that one.

No, I can't do that. Not this.

All right. Episode three starts off with a little recap of the last scene of cutting open the mask and seeing it already hemi's brother and him running off. And then rukia theorizes that there's a bigger Hollow that's kind of controlling him. And that's when she says that a bigger Hollow can capture, like, a soul. Don't finish this. And turn them into a Hollow. And if they do that, they have some sway over what that Hollow does. Like, they can kind of mind control them a little bit. So good to know there's a hierarchy with these demons. And then we cut to Orihimi and tosky talking about food. It's like a running joke that Orihimi doesn't know how to cook. So Tosky's family cooks her food, and tosky brings it over for her. And then we see a rip appear on that stuff there, and that's when they hear all the ghost poltergeist noise going on. And then cuts back to each go running across rooftops and on power lines with ruki on his back. And they're trying to get to Oregon, because once they realize it's her brother, they realize, oh, she's probably going to be a target next. So when we cut back to the girls, we see Orhimi holding the bear with a cut on his head. And then we see blood just appear in her hands. And then we see, like, a big translucent hand appear and hit her, knock her out, and then grab toski. So the Hollow is here, but they can't see it. And we see Orihima gets, like, knocked out right away. And then toski is struggling to fight it, but she can't see what it is. She just knows something's there. And then we see where he may kind of wakes up, and she can see the Hollow now attacking taski. And that's when you see the big chain coming out of her chest, and you see her real body knocked out, still on the floor. And this is where he may spirit now.

Yes, she was absolutely yated, just straightened to another dimension.

Exactly, yes.

Quite literally knocked the soul out of her. And we see Or hemi goes to help tosky and kind of swings at the arm and try and gets toky free. And that's when the Hollow sees her and start talking to her saying like Or hamid, you forgot about me. And that's what turned me into this monster. It's your fault, you woman.

This is all your fault.

Why didn't you pray for me every day and throw your own life away?

I mean, yeah, that's pretty much what he was saying.

Yeah.

You dare to move on, child.

And then we see Echo shows up just in time with the sword block to hit. So he sees orihime from getting hit again and we hear some of the music come in because I say it after 16 years, echo's theme is still a fucking bob. It still slaps hard as shit. It's like Disney hercules level pipe.

No, I wrote down while I was watching the episodes notes about the ost because even now it's still cemented in my mind. And I even remember specific song, like what they're called nothing Can Be Explained and Going Home and Number one, number one, after all these years, they're still just like burned into my brain.

Yeah, despite all my problems with pleats, I'll still just have all the songs playing, like in the background if I'm working or something. So the music is rock solid. So each year stops the Hollow tack for a bit and then the Hollow runs away and we seem to fade into the other dimension, another dimension we get in later seasons, but it's not well explained. It's just the reverse soul society. We won't get into it.

This is a point of contention between Brendan and I.

Like, the Hollow world, we won't get into that. That's the downhill of the series.

No, it's the best arc anyways. We're not going to do this. We're not going to get into this.

I want to hear about it.

Society arc is the best, but I think Wacomudo arc is the best. The end. I'm done. That was my 10 seconds.

When it's bigger like this, I go home and see my family once a year. So it comes back, cuts back to Orymay saying that now that she's a spirit, she's effectively dead. So they're just kind of like, sorry, you're dead now. And then while they're talking about Or hemi surprise, a Hollow is back. He just disappeared for a little second and now he's back and smacks each go out of the apartment building to get some distance from him. And that's when find out. The Hollow confesses like he's Orhimi's brother and he asks if orhime is forgotten about him. And that's when she looks into his eyes and threw the big glowing red eyes into his human eyes and recognizes them. And it's sora her brother and also kingdom hearts tie in.

Yeah.

I was like, why aren't they saying his name exclusively for two episodes? Call him her brother?

Because it doesn't matter until the last ten minutes of this episode. So when each guy gets knocked out of the building, rookie is there, like, picks him up and kind of gives them the pep talk of like, yeah, sack up, son. Yeah, step up and kill this motherfucker.

Honestly, ruki is a bad bitch. I love her wife. Me, please calm down.

She says, yeah, he was her brother. He's now a monster, and there's really no way to save him besides killing the monster form. So you got to do it. And cuts back to Sora talking to orhima kind of saying like, yeah, she was born when he was 15, and then their parents abandoned both of them. He doesn't say die, he says abandoned.

A tragic backstory or things. What?

I guess they're just like, hey, you know what? After the second kid, I think I'm fucking done. Let's just bounce.

Our work here is done.

I produced them, I shall not care for them. Farewell, children. Yeah, so Sora says like, he's basically raised her since he was 15, so he's more of a father figure to her than a brother. And that when he died. She was like twelve or something, and she was praying for him every single day back when he finally first died. And the prayers were what were keeping at that peace, although he was still a ghost for all that time. So I don't think it really was peace he didn't pass on, but it was keeping him from being so lonely.

Yeah, this was something I was curious about. If a Soul reaper's job is seemingly to help whole souls move on to the Soul Society, why is there any opportunity for them to become hollow?

Because soul reapers are shitty.

Okay?

That's it.

Especially they don't do their fucking job.

No. And once you like the series in a later art goes to this whole society and you learn more about how that works, and the whole thing is just super shitty.

Right.

It very quickly stops being about, you're a civil servant that does a job to help these people in the real world, and quickly becomes, here's some bureaucratic military bullshit, and we never go back to the real world ever again. Yeah, so it very quickly loses track of what saul reaper's duties are.

Yeah, they have like a very militarized system and they don't do very much to help the suffering of the souls in the Soul Society. And they kind of a lot of them seem incompetent, especially the lower ranking.

Sounds like America militaristic civil service that.

Is ineffective and puts people in danger.

I mean, there's a few that are super cool, but those are like the super high ranking ones who don't really seem to go out and do much themselves.

There's 24 of them and we'll start reciting all their names right now.

I mean, from the first quad or from the 13th.

I'm not even joking with you, abby. We will not do that.

I know.

All soul Reapers are bastards.

It's fine. So, yeah, Sora is saying, like, if origami still loves him, she won't betray him again, and she'll let him go off and devour each go and rukia, and then she'll go back to praying for him every day. And he's being super shitty, but also he's a monster mode right now, so, yeah, it makes sense why he's shitty. And then when she's like, he goes off to try and devour each goat, she stops. I was like, no, wait. I'll pray for you, but don't devour more people. And he's like, oh, is that the game we're playing? And just start choking her. Like you betrayed me. I'm giving you one last drop. Yeah, he's a monster quite a lot.

This was super intense when I was in elementary school. I was watching this when I was like, eleven.

And ichiko shows up at the last second to cut off sora's arm that saves orhime. And Echego gives this big empowered speech of like, you want to know why big brothers are born first? So they can protect their younger siblings. That's not why they're just born.

Their siblings are their own people.

It's true. But a lot of each year's, identity becomes kind of obsessively around protecting people and always being the strongest. So it makes sense that he would say something like that.

It's almost like that's the only thing his identity becomes, and he loses off any other defining characteristics of them.

No, I agree with you. He becomes kind of bland.

So, yeah, he gives that speech and sort of talks about how he raised her since he was 15 and he's more of a father to her, blah, blah, blah. And then he notices the hairpin that or he may is wearing. It's this little kind of snowflake hair pins on the side of her hair, and he get flashbacks. It's awakened something in his human hearts. And we just get a little montage of like, Sora and Orihimi as they're growing up, and he starts freaking out and he's trying to stop the hollow version of him, and he kind of throws himself out the big hole in the building again. He attacks each go again. When he's like, freaking out, each go knocks him back outside again, and each go goes to attack him. And I know it happens a lot in anime, maybe it's my biased sort of bleach, but I just noticed a lot back and forth, like sora each guy, each guy sword each guy just a lot of back and forth. And Sora sprays acid on each of his hands to stop him, which I guess he can do now.

Power them?

Sure, why not? Then when Ichigo drops the sword, sora goes to attack Origimate again. Or. No. Sora goes to attack Ichigo again, and Orihimate jumps in front of it and takes a bite.

Familiar.

She defends Ichigo, and kuji keeps getting in all these women's way, trying to do shit. And while she's being bitten, she hugs her and apologizes, saying, while you were dying in the ambulance, I prayed and asked for you to never leave me alone. And I feel like because of that ask, that's what forced you to stay around me even as a ghost for all these years. So she's apologizing to him.

Because, again, it was all the girl's fault.

Sorry. Don't worry. Origimi will get some agency and it will quickly lose it and become the downstones of stress for, like, four arcs.

Two arcs. Okay.

And orie, he may says, like, oh, Sora was the one that pulled her out of the way of the car the other day from a hit and run. So she actually didn't get hit by the car, she just got yanked away. And she thought if she could prove that she's happy and that she's moved on with life and that she's able to, like, live without him, that it would ease his burden and allow him to pass on to the other side, so she wouldn't so he wouldn't have to watch it hurt all the time. And he saw it as the opposite of her forgetting about him. And then Sora starts fighting the Hollow part of him and starts, like, resisting it. And rukia says, a soul devoured by Hollow is controlled by that Hollow. So Sora is fighting that Hollow, that big voiceover Hollow we saw in the last episode. And then we see Sora scream and freak out. It breaks the Hollow mask off his face. And then orihima passes out. rukia says as long as the chain of fate that's coming out of Orhimi's chest is still connected, she can still return back to her body. But in the meantime, she has the little keto spell and starts healing Orhimi's soul again. And then we see the hair pin flashes on Orhima, and she goes like, her hair pins. She told me that was a gift from her brother, and she's worn them every day since he gave it to her. And it's the way she always remembers Sora. And Sora grabs Ichigo sword that he dropped and just puts it up to his throat. And he's like, all right, time to die.

Mood.

Big 2020 mood.

Also, I forgot to mention earlier, there is so much sword on teeth. That was so uncomfortable for me.

This is really upsetting.

Just the thought of just a big blade cutting your teeth out, like, nope.

Yeah, the Hollow mask is, like, all bone and real teeth.

So that's their main attack. Sorry.

But yeah. Sora is going to try and end his life while he's still in control of the body before a Hollow takes back over. And each guy goes to stop him. And then ricky goes to stop him from stopping him and saying that the zombie toe, the Soul reaper sword, cleanses the souls of the Hollows they kill So. Yes, they are killing them, but they are passing that soul on. Do those souls go to the Soul Society? Who knows? Do they go to hell? Then what's the point of cleansing them as Hollows? Is there a middle ground? Is there some sort of limbo they go to? Who knows? The world building is carbon.

We know the answer to this because if they're cleansed through the Zompakto, then they do go to the Soul Society. But if they as a living person committed like terrible sins, then they go to Hell. Because remember, we see Hollow go to Hell. Like the Gates of Hell open in a later episode and it's actually really badass.

That's the only time we ever see the Gates of Hell. Yeah, hell is never discussed after that.

Anymore because it was a Hollow who was a serial killer in life. So when he's cleansed as a Hollow because he committed such atrocities when he was alive, he gets sucked in by the Gates of Hell.

Sick. Perfect. Yeah.

So before Sora is able to kill himself, or he may wakes up and tell Sora that the day that he died, the last thing she said to him was an argument. How cliche. And it was an argument about the hairpin saying like she didn't like them. They made her look childish, so she didn't want to wear them. She said they were ugly. And then sort of goes to work. And then Sora dies in a traffic accident that day. So she always felt bad that the last thing she said to him was an argument. So she says now she's got a chance to tell her what she always wanted to tell him for all those years ago. And she says, have a good day, brother. Wow, thanks. Time to kill myself.

Bye. I guess that will last me for eternity.

I legit cried. No, I actually cried on that part. The first time I was rewatching this in like, March, I was sewing face masks because it's 2020 and I had to stop sewing because my glasses fogged up because I started to cry. It's because the song layered over this part is Going Home and it's a particularly good track from the ost. And it just like hit I don't know why, but it made me cry.

It hit different.

It hit different.

Nostalgia time, the despair of 2020. Everyone's crying.

They're all cracking down on you, abby.

So after she says that, he's like, thanks, or. Hey, mate. And then stabs himself in the neck. I get the emotional significance of it. It's just reciting it. It's just funny. So we see him stab himself with each get a sword and he turns to like blue and white butterflies and drifts away. And then Orihima just started to balling her eyes out. And then the next day at school, orihim is telling all of her friends, saying, like, yeah, this crazy sumo wrestler came into my apartment and blew up the wall. Just, like, rambling off some crazy story that no one believes. She's like you're talking nuts. She's like, no, it's true. He goes talking to rookie off to the side, like, what's happening there? She's like, oh, I gave her one of these. And it's like a little pez, dispenser looking thing that when she hits abundant flashes like Men in Black, it erases the memory and replaces it with another memory. But they don't have control over what memory gets, replaces it. So she's like, yeah, she has a new memory. It's nonsense. But she doesn't remember all the hollow bullshit.

Now. If only it stayed that way.

Yeah, I just want a spin off series where someone in this town is like, wait, so this person had a sumo wrestler blow up their house? This person had an explosion. I got to get to the bottom of this.

It's a true crime podcast. It's a podcast. A kotakota town true crime like investigation.

I mean, if we want to call back to it, in darker Than Black, there's a detective who's trying to piece it all together of the main story, but he's a dumb, bumbling detective. So you do get bad. And darker Than Black, which is a good show.

That'S in your opinion.

We already did that episode. We did that episode. It's done. We're moving on.

I'm sorry. Remind me how many talking cats are introduced randomly? One. Yeah, one tone. Interesting. Okay.

We don't even get to cone in this show. Who's a talking stuffed dan on a piece of shit?

I hate cone. No, I actually wrote in my notes on this last scene where oakima was having lunch with the classmates. I wrote, Cheesetoo is so annoying, and thankfully, we hardly see her here. That's a minor character who goes to schools, and I hate her so much, and I'm so glad she barely spoke in that scene.

Yeah, the girls we see around Dorjime are her friends. We see them a bit in the ending credit song. Like, a lot of shots of them. None of them are relevant. No, none of them do anything, so I don't know why they get a lot of attention in the first season. And then, yeah, Rickya says she's like, yeah, I replaced origami's memories. This is what I did to your family the other night. So that's why they remember a truck crushing into the building. And ichiko says he's like, I'm not ready to commit this whole to this whole Soul reaper bullshit, but I can't just stand around and let people get hurt, so I guess I'll commit to it. And that's episode three.

Tada.

Here we are.

Here we are. We're 347 episodes early, and we can just stop right now.

So what did you think?

Are we there yet?

Probably not.

It's definitely more light hearted than I thought it was going to be because just with the such self serious artwork, which was my only exposure to it, I thought it was just going to be extremely edgy. Early 2000s. Everything is the stakes of everything's going to explode. But this was a lot more down to earth than I was liking. But yeah, just knowing that there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of episodes waiting is intimidating. And from the sounds of it, doesn't stay this fun. So, yeah, I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I was going to. Based on brendan's warning, that's my baggage.

That's my personal stick.

Oh, no. Brendan just sent us a picture of something really cursed that happens later in the show. Why would you even do that to us, Brendan? He just sent us a picture I love that.

To give them a taste of what's to come.

He sent a picture of my uri's bancai and it is a giant baby worm caterpillar thing. And it's terrible. It's as bad as it sounds.

It's a rough ride. It's a rough go of things once it gets to the soul society semblance of a plot.

That's a friend. I don't know about you guys. This is a friend.

I've said it before. bleach has good music and some great character design.

Yes.

There is nothing else there, though. So, like, this character was it mayori? You said his name was maui. He changes like, every time you see him and it's just super crazy and insane. And I love him. He's a great character.

I hate him.

He's an amoral piece of garbage, but he's like the mad scientist type and he's very entertaining. But God, do they do nothing with him and it's just disappointing.

I think the downfall of a series like bleach is kind of similar to other really long running shonen series in that they introduce a huge cast and a lot of them are really interesting. But because the cast is so large, a lot of them don't end up really being a lot of them end up immaterial.

It's a big thing with shown on you.

Yes. There's a ton of characters in bleach that I love. One of the ones that I really love is Hanatro. Totally immaterial. He's a soul reaper. He's basically a medic. He's like really shy and wimpy and yeah, he's not really that important, but I love him. And it's just one of those series where you'll pick a couple of weird minor characters and be like, I love you, and then you never see them again.

One of my favorites is a captain of the 13 guard who's just a dog and that's never explained. He gets no air time. His zombakteau. What's the first one? kikai shikaikai it's shikaikai and bakai are essentially the same thing. So he gets gypped power wise too. He gets shaft. It's so fucking hard. And. He's the coolest looking character and it's bullshit.

Well, I think you should explain what shikai and Bonkai are because I don't.

Think I don't want to.

My timer.

Quick first level. Your first level attack. bonka is your, like, huge, crazy pull out all the stops, like Mega Attack, but it's supposed to be super rare and only the strongest shinigami and Soul reaper have them. But of course, later on in the series, they're thrown out to everybody like you're at an oprah show.

What a time. This show isn't for me. I don't think it would have been even if I watched it when I was younger. But I would much rather listen to abby talk about it. Any more of it? Because I've said this before. Like when we watched Coroch. No basket. And when we watched well, I love natsumi's book of Friends, but listening to Brian talk about natsumi's book of Friends, I just love listening to people talk about shows that they love. So I would much rather just sit down with abby and just have her tell me the entire story arc by.

Arc and tell me you don't want to be across town with Brendan just head in my hands, just getting screamed at.

Another thing.

Dana and I will be enjoying some nice iced tea and just having a chill conversation, and Brendan will just slamming whiskey cakes.

Yes, I will be slamming whiskey just to endure.

The major thing is Brendan and I mostly agree about our opinions on the series, but I've just hit a point where I know that it's shitty, but I just love it. Anyway. It's a similar I don't know. This is a video game, but it's a similar relationship I have with the video game Dragon Guards Three. It's an old PS two or PS three title. I don't remember it's bad, but it's one of my favorite video games. But if someone were to be like, should I play it? I'd be like, absolutely not. So if someone's like, should I watch all 366 episodes of Bleach? I'd be like, probably not, but I did.

If I can do it.

You got out when the getting was good. Yeah, I stayed in too long.

I want to know if same opinions.

It's a matter of feelings, Dan.

Are you telling me you don't want to hear some straight, white CIS nerd angrily yell about something that does not fucking matter on the Internet all day?

Well, so here's the thing.

That's the Internet.

That's like all the Internet.

That's true. And here I am doing it on a podcast.

This podcast may not be for you, but might I recommend a thousand other anime podcasts?

I mean, you've checked off, like, two diversity boxes with me. I'm gay and I'm Mexican, so hey, wow.

I'm nonbinary. We're making it happen. We're trying.

Finally, more queer folks.

Yeah. Actually, I have to say, one of the reasons I hate the character of Cheese andrew is she's, like, that old.

I can grab your tiss because we're both girls.

Yeah. She's like a predatory lesbian stereotype, and it was never good in the first place, but it definitely hasn't aged well. So every time I saw her again in the rewatch, I forgot she existed. And every time she came on screen, I was like, no, dang it. Yeah, it's bad.

Get out of here.

It's bad.

Let aurahima and ToSky be happy. Leave them alone.

I know. Well, thank you for enduring. I'm sure it was super, like, your favorite animal you've ever seen.

Yeah.

Better than B stars.

I mean, that's duggan's favorite. That's the most he's watched.

I know. It's good.

I've seen more my love story than I've seen B stars because there is more my love story than B star.

But you didn't finish either.

You know what? Maybe Duzing will pull it out and just be like, I watched all 366 episodes of Bleach.

I'll put money right down to say he won't.

No, he won't.

I do. I'm so tempted all the time to just in secret be like, oh, yeah, I watched all the one piece and just subtly drop it in, like, episode. Probably by that point, if I do it episode 500 of this podcast.

The character is just like Dufflingo. What?

But, yeah. Thank you so much for joining us and bringing the joyful side of Bleach.

Thank you for having me. I knew you'd need someone to, like, beat back brendan's, like, because Brendan and I agree, but we have different ways of expressing it, for sure.

Oh, God. Yeah, we do.

You made it, Brendan.

Thank you for coming on. Thank you for enduring this episode, listeners. Thank you for enduring me most of all. Thank you for putting up with me for 101 episodes.

Blanket statement.

Have, like, a bonus episode of just brendan and I, like, ranting about Bleach.

There'Ll be a four hour part.

Yes.

We'll have a structured debate.

Yes.

It's the reverse of a patreon you have to pay to stop hearing.

Yes. Oh, my gosh, you guys will get so much money.

We will flood the main feed with it unless our patreon hits $1,000 a month. But, yeah. Thank you so much for joining us. Where can people find you? Online.

Yeah, thank you for having me. I don't have very much social media that you can find me on Instagram. My handle is peachings. Peachings. And it's mostly cosplay oriented. It hasn't been super active because cons have gone away. But that's where you can find me.

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much. If there's a show you the listener would like us to watch, you can send your recommendations to us. Our email is arweieryet@gmail.com. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram. Are we there yet? On both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.

You can find me on Instagram at queen.

Period.

Weebu and on Twitter at queen underscore weebu and Queen underscore weeaboo art.

Find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan stands for Almost Better than Silence, which is a video game podcast I.

Also rant about bleach on Sorry there's no escape.

There really isn't.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork and thank you to Louis zong for theme song stories. You can find all of Louis music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Don't even get me started about the quincy.

Video. You.