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REVIEW: Bleach DVD Box Set 8

I have now seen up through episode 203, and there's no question in my mind that episode 141 is the single best episode of the series' first two centuries. I fully agree that it's a shame that it requires muddling through so much substandard content to get through, but bright spots like that episode are what keep me trudging along though the series.

Episode 141 has no fights. It is mostly an emotional episode focused around Orihime and she is surprisingly strong through out.

From how much I've seen(up to the end of The Rescue arc; ep 63), my favorite moments was when Ichigo appears and simply lays waste to that executioner Zanpakto, makes (real)short work of the lieutenants, "gently tosses" Rukia to Renji, and starts...
...my second favorite part, Ichigo vs. Byakuya. Great, if a bit simple, ideological fight, and wonderfully choreographed fighting and honorable character decisions(when I later watched Yu Yu Hakusho, the gentlemanly head-to-head point of Toguro and Yusuke brought me back here).

Where does ep 141 stand with that Key?

Ichigo vs. Byakuya is one of the series' best head-to-heads in the first two centuries and Ichigo's rescue of Rukia is certainly one of the series' best individual scenes, although I'd rate Byakuya's apology scene in episode 62 higher still because of the weight it carries and what it symbolizes about Byakuya and his portrayal in the series to that point. In fact, the whole run of episodes through the late '60s may be the best stretch of the series that I've seen so far.

The entirety of episode 141 is on the level of those scenes. Bleach too often apes Naruto in the clunky and forced manner in which it handles its character development episodes and has a bad habit of using them to interrupt fights, but in this case all of the developments in the series have pretty much built towards this Orihime-focused episode and this time they got it exactly right. It also features arguably the series' best writing and unquestionably its most heart-rending content and Carl wasn't exaggerating when he described it as one of the key pivot points of the series. And that despite there not being an ounce of action in it.

Honestly, I'd rate it at least in my Top 20 for all-time great episodes from any series I've seen, maybe even in my Top 10.

Honestly, I'd rate it at least in my Top 20 for all-time great episodes from any series I've seen, maybe even in my Top 10.

Episode ten of Puella Magi Madoka Magica may be one of the most exquisitely crafted episodes I've ever seen, and that's just a recent example.

First, it may be amazing for a Bleach episode, but given just how brain cell-destroyingly awful many of the episodes are in Bleach, that isn't exactly impressive on its own.

Second, you said that episodes like that one are the reason you trudge through the rest of the series. Well, maybe you want the episode to be more amazing than it actually was, because if it isn't, that would mean you spent all those scores of hours of your life for nothing.

Saying that episode 141 was genuinely good (not just for a Bleach episode) is not controversial, and many people including myself would agree with you on that. But saying that it is one of the top twenty best episodes you've ever watched in all Anime, ever, is something I just cannot even remotely agree with. I've watched series in which most of the episodes were as good as or outright better than 141.

If I wanted to get into a PMMM debate with you I would go to the ten-page Talkback thread, which I notice you have already found.

As for RAINBOW, I haven't spoiled anything. It was a subjective opinion, that is all.

I'm curious as to what you think of my opinion about the one-hundred and forty-first episode of Bleach.

even with quite poor big-scale concept, Bleach offers uniquely sharp, probably the most graceful graphics ever