Bleach Series 14 - Part 2 Fall of the Arrancar 2   Starring (voice): Fumiko Orikasa, Masakazu Morita, Hiroki Yasumoto and Kentarou Itou Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £29.99 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 06 April 2015

So another month comes around which means another Bleach release, this is the long awaited conclusion to the long running Fall of Arrancar.

Bleach: Series 14 - Part Two (eps 304 – 316) comes as somewhat of a disappointment. Fans have been following this particular storyline for sometime and it should have been a mega mash down of a fight. Two worlds are at stake as Ichigo goes head to head with Aizen, being the only person with any chance of stopping him, as the humans and Soul Reapers realise that they alone do not possess the power required.

It comes as a bit of a disappointment that the actual denouement takes up only two episodes, the whole conclusion only takes up five of the episodes leaving eight whole episodes of filler, although they are interspersed between the actual storyline. Personally, I’m not particularly precious about what is canon from the manga and in the past have enjoyed some of the filler stories, but this bunch feel exactly like filler, fairly pointless after the enormity of the final fight.

The show still plays to its strengths and there are a few twists to enjoy before the final fight. There are parts of the story and fight choreography which reminds you just how good Bleach can be, silly filler aside. The animation remains strong.

For extras disc one has the textless opening sequence with subs for the song so that you can sing along. Disc two has the same for the closing song.

Okay, so the fact that is closes a long running story makes this three disc edition a must have for fans of the show and likely there will be some who enjoy the filler, but it would have been a better package with more story.

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Charles Packer