I Call Your Name

It took me a month to do what I have promised (did I actually promise something? ); might have been hard for me to write a post for this blog. My preference seem to have switch over micro-blogging and foru–wait, what the hell. With those crap in mind, I will never update this blog again for eternity.

Cut the crap. In short, above paragraph means I actually am back to my daily basis (of blogging); I hope so do too with my regular blog-walking. As a start, I’d like to give some film review. Well, I’ve just watched Bleach the Movie 3: Fade to Black, and while it’s still hot in my mind, I guess it’s better to write up some commentaries regarding the film.

I realize my lack of proper knowledge hinders me from writing a good entry in English, but I have the intention to write this entry in a language most people could understand I’m not talking about SEO, so please do apologize.

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Bleach: Fade to Black, I Call Your Name

The film started with Kurotsuchi Mayuri doing certain experiment that yields in success, but only to find his memory being taken over by some mysterious scythe wielding figure a moment later. His partial lost of memory resulting in he being mad and destroying his lab by stabbing the central computer several times. Some gray giant “snakes” composed of reiatsu then appears as a result of the R&D Lab’s malfunction and put everyone who have contact with those snakes (it is “eaten” actually) into stone, as similar as what you would’ve become if you have an eye-contact with Medusa. The reiatsu snakes destroys many part of Seireitei and covers 30% of which with grayish substance who seem to turn anything into a stone. Including Zaraki Kenpachi.

The event triggered chaos in the Spiritual World (Seireitei, more precisely). Meanwhile, Rukia, seeing the chaos from afar, is met with two mysterious figures–one of them is that scythe-wielder who striked down Mayuri–dressing in gray. They put Rukia in unconsciousness and possibly take her memories away, just like they (he) did to Mayuri.

In the human world, Kurosaki Ichigo is still sleeping when he suddenly senses danger and wakes up. For a moment he seems to forget his memories about Rukia, but Kon reminds him of her by showing a letter she left for them in similar manner to the one she left before leaving to be executed in Seireitei. They then meet Urahara Kisuke at his shop, and were told about the incident that happened in Seireitei. Ichigo and Kon decide to see what is actually going on in Seireitei, only to find it in ruins with no one there remembers either who Ichigo or Rukia is.

Music and Voice (3.5/5)

I have to say, unlike previous movies or the usual Bleach anime series we watch every week, the music this movie has is simply the best. It has orchestral arrangement that reminds me to several classical (though I’m not sure which one), and it fits the situation given there. I especially like the sudden change of music when Kenpachi was freed from the reiatsu-jail. The two antagonists seem to have their themes too, also in orchestra.

The voice acting here is somewhat better than the 2nd movie. I like how she (Fumiko Orikasa) voiced Rukia here, does not sound like the usual Rukia I know. Instead of heavy-pitched, it is more to lightly-hearted and… cuter.

Oh, and I also liked how Aya Hirano voiced the female antagonist in the movie with her annoying-but-cute voice. She is a perfect cast for this.

Animation (4/5)

The backgrounds are drawn pretty well. I love how they seem to show more panoramic view of Soul Society, it can give the viewers the impression of how BIG Soul Society actually is. We can barely see the horizon even from the center of Seireitei… How the characters move actually is also pretty nice. The only drawback is the way the characters run; their hands… uhh… looked odd, if viewed from back.

As for the battle scenes, it moves quite swift, surprisingly. Compared to battles in the 2nd or 1st movie, this one is much better. First reason, the animation is better; their faces don’t turned weird while having  a little chat in the midst of the battle. The sword fights and skills are also nice. Second, while they, still, use bankai for almost everytime… the crew actually spent some time to draw some battles that rely on sword techniques, as shown in Renji vs Ichigo –though only for about a minute. The biggest disappointment is Komamura Sajin who seemed to never use his shikai and summoned a gigantic bankai instead every time he has to face an enemy. Not to mention how slow (and a bit odd) his bankai moves…

*facepalm*

Story (3.5/5)

Simply said, this movie is all about the relationship of Ichigo and Rukia. Too bad for IchiHime fans, because none of Ichigo’s human friends are mentioned in Fade to Black.

The idea of antagonists being former close-friends/formed a close relationship with the protagonist is not a new idea; we had one in DiamondDust Rebellion. Well, actually, in my opinion this movie resembles a lot of scenes from Bleach earlier chapters; specifically, while Ichigo was still new to his subsitute-shinigami job. There are several other similarities with the old chapters too, as the concept of parasitic Hollow (we had Mestastacia who fed on Shiba Kaien back then), many flashbacks of Rukia’s childhood and her relationship with Ichigo while staying in human world, how intimate Soi Fong and Yoruichi could be (remember their fight aftermath), and some other else.

Good thing is, they also use some concepts that Kubo Tite seemed to have forgotten already –at least, he never mentioned about it again. Such concepts, for example, is the concept of Reiraku (spiritual thread). It is first introduced when Ishida taught Ichigo how to track other spiritual-aware creatures, and is shown here again when Renji asked Ichigo to track Rukia’s location by her spiritual pressure that is similar to Ichigo’s. As for me, such trivia is a nice addition to blend more into the Bleach universe.

They also didn’t spawn too many captains to handle the antagonists here–unlke the 1st movie. I mean, in Memories of Nobody, the antagonists are easily killed and the fights looked boring, but here, since we only have two antagonists to fight (and they actually merged themselves to Dark Rukia), the captains don’t have to sweat over useless enemies; they only have to cut and slash the infinite amount of gray snakes to bits. Ichigo’s fight with Dark Rukia also looked good too, despite of being interfered with unknown reason by Kuchiki Byakuya.

Well, several characters like Yoruichi, Komamura, Mayuri, and Kenpachi are merely plot-device though. That does not mean it is bad, but… it could’ve been better.

Conclusion (3.5/5)

A nice movie to enjoy if you are a Bleach fan, and not too bad also if you are a fan of anime in general–though you may not be familiar with the situation and what actually is going on with the characters. It is a movie, so, well, you won’t find much complains about the animation and drawing; the story isn’t too heavy to understand also. It talked about memories and bonds with every person we have relationship with, not too bad, in my opinion.

At least, Rukia looked cute and sexy in her Dark Rukia form –better than Senna in the 1st– so I guess we don’t have to complain too much either~ <3