Bleach 1.12

A Gentle Right Arm

Ishida Uryū releases something that lures lots of Hollows to Karakura Town. He is supremely confident that he can kill them all but he challenges Ichigo to try and kill more of them than him. Ichigo thinks Uryū's actions are reckless but he has no choice but to take up the challenge now that there are Hollows on their way to town.

The Hollows target those with a greater amount of spiritual energy, like Ichigo's sisters. He goes to find them so he can protect them. It doesn't occur to him that there are other people he knows (Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki) who also will be prime targets for Hollows.

Rukia visits Urahara's store. She keeps getting Hollow alerts on her phone that disappear fairly quickly, leaving her very confused.

Chad crosses paths with Karin. He is being chased by a Hollow at the time they meet. She can see it but he cannot. She helps to guide him. He reaches back to a memory of his grandfather and strikes a mighty blow that robs the Hollow of an arm and bestows it upon Chad. Chad uses the arm to destroy the Hollow.

Thoughts

The Hollow invasion is still ongoing when the episode ends.

I don't see how Uryū can justify what he did. He might have been able to kill all the Hollows by himself but not without some loss of human lives.

The Chad / Karin team up reminded me of Chad's team up with Rukia in Bleach 1.05. The Chad and Karin parts of this episode, both before and after they met, took up most if not all of the second half of this episode.

The way that Chad gets his superpowered arm is very hand-wavy. There is no real explanation. He punches the Hollow and then the Hollow is missing an arm and Chad's arm has been transformed. Chad's new arm does not look like the Hollow's arm but it is distinctly different than his other arm.

There is a little bit of Orihime and Tatsuki in this episode but I think that there will be much more of them in the next episode.

This is a decent episode, good but not great.