Gin's attempt at taking down Aizen doesn't exactly go as planned.
What They Say:
Gin recalls his past and the fateful event that led him to become a Soul Reaper serving under Aizen. Meanwhile, Aizen's overwhelming Spiritual Pressure forces Tatsuki, Keigo and the others to fall helplessly to the ground, when Ichigo finally arrives after completing his training.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Bleach took something of an unusual turn in the prior episode when Gin ended up going after Aizen when Aizen least expected it after Gin claimed he had dealt with Rangiku. With gin having served with Aizen for so long, dealing out quite a lot of pain and hardship on others through the various fights and encounters, having him make his move like this wasn't exactly a huge surprise the moment it happened, but it wasn't one that I was sure they'd make. Having missed a large chunk of episodes between where the DVDs are at and where I picked up the simulcasts, it's hard to say exactly how clear Gin's motivations have been as he makes his move against the man he's sided with for so long.
Because of the fate that Gin is about to suffer as we see Aizen tearing him apart fairly easily, since the Hogyoku is so completely bonded to Aizen, that means we get some nice little flashback material. The relationship between Gin and Rangiku is one that definitely falls into the realm of a tragedy and bringing his end in front of her is definitely a brutal moment. Thankfully, what we avoid is a full on Gin history episode, which wouldn't be entirely bad but would slow things down, as Ichigo arrives on the scene just a moment too late to do anything about that. But with Rangiku unable to be strong enough to deal with Aizen, she can pin her hopes for some form of revenge and justice on him in dealing with Aizen.
The match between these two has certainly been built up in this arc in particular, delays and all, especially with Ichigo going through all his training in between the worlds. What he's learned there has definitely given him a different feeling now that he's in the World of the Living as even his sister can tell there's a very distinct difference between the two as Aizen exudes incredible spiritual pressure while Ichigo seemingly has none, having converted it all to another form within his body. Having Ichigo portrayed as so calm and in control, emotionless, is certainly a welcome way to handle it considering previously he was either frozen with fear or running around like mad with emotion. With so much of what Ichigo has gone through being a part of Aizen's forced evolution for him, it's hard to say just how this will play out in full, but it's not something that will end quickly or even cleanly.
In Summary:
Events in Bleach are moving a bit faster than I expected as I really thought Ichigo would spend more time in between worlds training, even as he mastered things. I figured there would be more time with Gin trying to carry through on his plan and Aizen causing more immediate damage to the World of the Living with his abilities. With everything happening there now, it'll be interesting to see just how long it takes to play out and how far Aizen will go to stop Ichigo, or to force him to evolve even more for his own plans. Gin's participation in this episode is surprisingly small, more so than I would have wanted it to be, but the lack of a full flashback episode of events and his life is definitely a positive for the show so that it can keep up a good flow is definitely a positive.
