Revisiting Bleach: The Rescue Episodes 42–63

The third season of Bleach sees the conclusion of Ichigo’s efforts to save Rukia. In many ways, The Rescue and The Entry feel like one big season, not two separate arcs. Not only are our main characters still in Soul Society, they’re also still dealing with the same plot threads introduced in The Entry. The Entry introduces us to a lot of conflicts—Rukia’s execution, Ganju’s dislike of Shinigami, Byakuya’s strained relationship with his sister, etc.—and those conflicts don’t get resolved until the conclusion of The Rescue.

Once again, there are spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t watched this.

Revisiting Bleach: The Entry Episodes 21–41

As much as I loved The Substitute, The Entry is where Bleach really takes off and starts to get more interesting. We left off with Ichigo and his friends invading the Soul Society so they could save Rukia from her impending execution. This is the first time we’re really going to get to explore the spirit world, so The Entry deals with a lot of worldbuilding. This is also around the point in the series where our cast starts to grow and we’re introduced to no less than twenty new characters.

Spoilers ahead in case you don’t know how the story goes.

Revisiting Bleach: The Substitute Episodes 1–20

Other than Studio Ghibli’s films, it’s been quite a while since I’ve watched anime. Though I enjoy the occasional manga, it’s not something that I go out of my way to consume. This is probably because I’m not the biggest fan of either shounen or shoujo. I personally find both these genres much more structured than I would like. All too often, one shounen will feel too much like another, and that goes for me and shoujo as well.

But despite my feelings against this kind of narrative formula, there still remain some aspects of the shounen genre that I really do love. And if there was one shounen that I knew I wouldn’t mind sitting down and rewatching, it was, without a doubt, Bleach.