Anime Review: Bleach 89, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 3, and Naruto 204

Bleach 89: “Rematch?! Ishida vs. Nemu”

Review
There isn’t much to say about this episode of Bleach since much of this episode is a set for Ichigo and Renji’s battle against Ugaki and his Doll Gesell. The set up very much felt like that of an RPG game were the hero(es), in this case Ichigo and Renji, are help by their allies to reach and defeat the bad guy, Ugaki. Though I am interested to see what Ugaki does now that the weakness of his Doll was figured out.

In the other part of the episode, I am glad that Uryu finally is getting his powers back with the accessory that Nemu gives him. Though I wonder if this will be a perminent solution to Uryu’s problem? Still it is going to be good to see Uryu back in action with the rest of the crew and not just standing around watching everyone else fight.

Episode Rating – 7/10

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 3: “Imprisoned in Campus”

Review
With each episode of R2 it has become clear that the war between the Black Knights and Britannia is going to be much more of a global war than just a war fought in Japan. The involvement of the Chinese Federation and Suzaku fighting of some rebel group from Euro Nations show the war fought in R2 could be considered WWIII.

With that said Lelouch seems to ready for this event to happen though it is interesting to see how he will be able to evade being seen switching from Lelouch to Zero, and vice versa, without being caught by the Britannia force that is watching his every move. Even though he was able to execute his plan at the mall effectively Lelouch will have to start thinking through his plan out a lot more with Rolo, whose Geass has the ability to stop time, is a major rode block. I am interested to see how Lelouch is able to stop Rolo from shooting his brains out. My money is him playing up the big brother card since it seems Rolo has some serious attachment to his “brother” as shown in the scene were Lelouch tries to take Rolo’s locket and Rolo’s protest it not being taken away from him.

In the other part of the episode I enjoyed the short scenes with Kallen and CC. The writers of this show have definetely given enough fan service with these past few episodes with Kallen. It seems that over the past year Kallen and CC have build up a sister-type bond with how CC playfully teases Kallen about her complaining that they are being keeped out of Lelouch’s plans when as CC points Kallen mean ‘she’ not ‘they.’ With this and the mall scene this episode was yet another homerun in what looks to be an intense season to come, and we are only three episodes in.

Episode Rating – 8.7/10

Naruto 204: “Yakumo’s Sealed Ability”

Review
In this episode of Naruto we got something that we haven’t seen since the Itachi arc: the use of genjutsu. While genjutsu has been shown to be very powerful it seems that not many characters known any genjutsu and only focus on ninjutsu and taijutsu. So it was nice to see Kurunai have a little genjutsu battle with the ninjas that are after Yakumo’s power. While it was a short battle it was something different and refreshing from the typical “Naruto” battles.

It was nice that Sakura, who has almost been non-existent in these filler arcs aside from the recent “Konoha 11” arc, and Gai, who as always has his lame moments, are a part of this arc instead of it being just Naruto teaming up with Team 8 again. The addition of Sakura and Gai should give a little variety to this story. And I will be interested to see what Yakumo’s plan is since she is obviously planning something.

Episode Rating – 7.2/10