Bleach the Movie: The DiamondDust Rebellion, Another Hyorinmaru - Review
By Serge Norguard. Filed in Anime-Manga-Cosplay, review/preview |
Plot : High priest and members of the Royal Court is transporting the King’s Seal. They are attacked by what looks like to be a soul reaper and two arrancar who wants to steal the King’s Seal. Hitsugaya Toshiro , captain of the 10th squad who is in charged of the King’s Seal security goes after the attackers. Being injured during the fight, he leaves his position and doubts towards his fellow comrade
Spoilers after the jump and a full review
Spoilers and More :
After the title card, Kurosaki Ichigo in his soul reaper form investigates something peculiar in a forest close by. There he discovers a barrier being put up, he opens the barrier and walks into a field where he sees a lot of dead corpse. Greeted by Soifon, he ask what had happened and was given an explanation but we the viewers were not told what was being said.Later Ichigo meets up with Ishida and was about to tell him what had happened, but it started snowing and a familiar face appeared and fell on the forest floor due to injuries.
At the captain’s meeting, General Commander Yamamoto orders a decree to retrieve the stolen King’s Seal as well as the capture of Hitsugaya Toshiro. Meanwhile, squad 10 is placed under house arrest pending the investigation of their captain. Renji and Rukia talks to Matsumoto who ask them for a favor to investigate someone who might be involved in this.
A scene from the past of a young Hitsugaya Toshiro is shown. There we see him and another student at the soul reaper academy. A student who swears his allegiance to the soul reaper and their cause. Toshiro awakes and finds himself in Ichigo’s house and annoys him by not telling him what had happen, though Ichigo knows that a special task force is looking for Toshiro.
Not wanting to inform Ichigo, Toshiro leaves his house while leaving his captain’s suit on the table. Confronting Toshiro, Ichigo asked him why this needs to be done alone and who Kusaka is. A name that might be muttered during his sleep, he proceeds to attack Ichigo who wants him to either report back to the squad that is looking for him or to go back to his place, as the injuries sustained by Toshiro is serious.
Before he could say anything they are attacked by two female arrancar who controls the elements of electric and fire. Toshiro attacks Ichigo again and pleads with him to let him do what he needs to do. Although Ichigo survived the arrancar’s attack his injury causes him to faint.
Ichigo wakes up being by being punched by Renji who is being accompanied by Rukia. At his house, Ichigo summarized what had transpired between him and Toshiro. Another flashback scene occurs, showing that Hyorinmaru in the past had two owners which is Toshiro and Kusaka. As it it taboo, the two of them has been ordered to fight to the death to determine the true owner of Hyorinmaru.
With the help of Kyoraku, Renji and him enters the house where Matsumoto was and explained to them what had happened so far. At the end of the conversation, they begin their own investigation towards what had transpired so far. Again a flashback scene, Kusaka and Toshiro gains the same sword. Back to the present, Toshiro continues his journey. More questions come up at the Soul Society’s Library. Kyoraku gets attacked by Kusaka.
Kira and Hisagi with a team of soul reapers manage to trackdown Toshiro and ask him to give himself in. Although heavily injured, he puts up a fight and releases his zanpakutou. The screen fades over to a civilian Ichigo who senses the fight and possibly the outcome. Scene shifts to soul society and evidence from the attack places more doubts upon Toshiro back in the real world.
Being suspected to defect, General Commander Yamamoto issues a second priority to execute Toshiro if he resist arrest. Getting inside information, Rukia informs Ichigo about the turn of events and they get attacked by the two arrancar ladies again. Flashback scene and back to the fight between Rukia, Ichigo and the two arrancar. Kusaka joins the fight and reveals himself towards Ichigo and attacks him with his own Hyorinmaru.
Inside Zangetsu’s world, Ichigo realizes what Toshiro is trying to do as he himself has experienced Toshiro’s pain. He then charges forward, at the same time Toshiro goes to where Kusaka is. Back at where Ichigo and Rukia was fighting, the two arrancar open several portal to have the hollows attack Ichigo and Rukia.
Using the power of the King’s Seal, Kusaka reveals the power of the seal to Toshiro and transport him to Soukyoku Hill. Kusaka then ask Toshiro to use his bankai to cut the King’s Seal to release its full potentil. Elsewhere, Rukia and Ichigo manage to survive the hollow onslaught thanks to Ishida and Chad’s help.
In the nick of time, Ichigo stops a group of soul reaper who is about to attack Toshiro. Ichigo then reasons with Toshiro and ask him to trust in him. Toshiro then attacks Kusaka, stating that he will not join him. Angered by this, Kusaka uses his zanpakuto and cuts the King’s Seal releasing its powers. With the power release, Kusaka transformed into crystal dragon.
As the seal was broken by an unrelease zanpakuto, the powers is not stable and Kusaka experiences another transformation. This causes a second transformation and Kusaka taking part of the Seireitei. Time was of the essence as additional delay will cause the outside of the transformation sphere to take heavy damage, not to mention the General Commander and the other captains who aren’t in the sphere are trying their best to stop it from growing.
With the help of Toshiro’s bankai and Ichigo’s hollow mask, they defeat Kusaka and return him to his normal form. Ichigo then ask Toshiro to end this, so that he will be at peace. Kusaka and Toshiro charges towards each other, with the clearer mind; Toshiro wins the fight yet he feels down. Ichigo explains to him to make him feel better. A smile upon Toshiro’s face
The end.
Opinion : Out of the many Jump series in Japan, Bleach is one of those anime/manga which is nice to watch. Serge enjoyed this movie much not because he is a Bleach fan; but as a fan of anime in general. It’s nice to see that about 60% of the movie focus on Toshiro and reveals his past when he was a cadet. One of the annoyance Serge has with the movie is the music, it is all old stock which you can listen from the tv series. At the end of this writing, he give The DiamondDust Rebellion, Another Hyorinmaru, 3.5 stars out of 5.
Tags: anime, bleach movie II, Bleach the Movie: The DiamondDust Rebellion, movie, review/preview
Following Post(s) that relates to Bleach the Movie: The DiamondDust Rebellion, Another Hyorinmaru - Review
Monday, September 15th 2008 at 7:47 am
Correction. The music in the movie is NEW. The movie was released last December in Japan with the new music that the subsequent TV series used. That is why we have heard it before prior to watching this movie. I give it a 4.5/5.
Monday, September 15th 2008 at 8:13 am
New for the movie yes, but if you have been following the TV series edition, that music can be heard months before the movie was screen in Japan last December.