Lack of Posting this month

Hi, for those who do read this blog.

I have had little chance to post during July and August due to doing extra shifts at work.

I am doing extra shift till mid Sept, so I am afraid there won't be any posts till then.

Come September it will be time to write up reviews for the pick of the Summer J-Dramas (yes I have still been watching them) and previews of the Autumn shows.

Also Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, Bleach and Naruto catch ups (Yes Bleach is back on track and Naruto is progressing well).

Also a whole slew of Man United photos to upload to Flickr.

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Updates?

Hello folks, sorry for the lack of updates recently.

I have either been unwell or at work!

I still have to write up summaries of Yamada taro monogatari, Ushi no negai wo, Tantei Gakuen Q and Yama Onna Kabe Onna all of which I have seen and First Kiss with Inoue Mao! There will be a preview of Life (which I don't think has been subbed yet) as well as the current state of Bleach, Naruto (not much happening there) and Higurashi.

Stayed tuned, I am in Manchester this week to watch Manchester United's friendly with Inter Milan and also the Charity Shield match vs Chelsea - so lots of Photos to upload next week!

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Hotaru no Hikari - Drama Summary

Wiki Entry @ D-Addicts

Haruka Ayase (Tatta Hitotsu no Koi, Byakuyakou, Sekai...) stars as Hotaru Amemiya in this Manga adaptation.

This show starts off easy going, but you soon get an idea of Hotaru's character - even though she is in her 20s she has no interest in finding love and all her spare time is spent at home being lazy and messy. This all comes as a shock to the new home owner - her boss (Fujiki Naohito), who is forced out of his wife's home and comes to live here only to find the place a tip thanks to Hotaru "squatting" at his parent's home.

Hotaru's life starts to evolve when a new employee named Makoto (Kazuki Kato) comes back to the company after studying in London and develops a liking for her - you can see her reaction to getting a peck on the lips in the photo above!

The funniest point of the episode was when her boss finally decides to let Hotaru stay (considering he is still married etc) because she isn't from the female race! She has no traits from opposite gender, so he agrees to let her stay - calling her a "dried fish"!

This drama demands your attention with bold contrasting characters, conflicting life styles of Hotaru and her boss and her almost childish reaction to falling for the new boy at work (since it has been so long since she was last interested in a guy).

This is being hard subbed by DoReMi so don't expect it to be released as quick as say a soft sub, which is a shame as I clearly didn't get my fill from one episode - a must watch, but not in small doses!

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Links to most softsubs

Hey, if you are like me and you cannot wait for hard subs to come out on D-Addicts, then this may be of interest.

Here is my collection of links to pages (mostly at D-Addicts) with the current soft subs for those series.

Most are from this season (summer 07) and there are some from last season (Spring - Liar Game, Bambino, Jodan Janai, Hotelier, Jikou Keisatsu 2 and Proposal Daisukusen).

Please feel free to share this link with anyone it's my google notebook and will be updated when a new season starts or a new drama is on my watch list:

http://www.google.com/notebook/public/11986609191240181779/BDUkRQgoQuYSGp6si

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Papa to Musume no Nanokakan Episode 1

Wiki Entry @ D-Addicts

Aragaki Yui stars as Kawahara Koume and 16 year old high school girl and her beleaguered father Kawahara Kyoichiro (played by Tachi Hiroshi).

The show starts off with the father lamenting the fact he cannot confirm his existence - his wife ignores him and his only child refuses to talk to him. One day on their way back from the home of Koume's grandmother the train stops in a tunnel and there is some sort of accident.

Only 3 people survive, 2 of which are the father and daughter but they soon realize when the wake up in hospital that they have switched bodies!

Now, I know there has been loads of US films about father & son or Mother & Daughter switching places but I don't think I have seen two different genders swap over?

The show is great with lots of detail paid to the characters inheriting their previous habits (Koume in her father's body - she talks like a girl, has girly actions and texts at lighting speed :-) and it is quite amusing to see them getting to grips with their new bodies, Koume tells her father to keep his legs together when seated, while her father has to prepare a whole book to help Koume get to work and full dossier on all his workmates!

Other bits of comedy are in bits like when they first need to go to the toilet or when they go for a bath (nothing 18 rated thank you).

Koume has to deals with issues at work like the customer who doesn't think highly of women and gets told off by Koume, while her father has a fatherly chat with the high school boy who is trying to run away from the responsibility of being a father.

Big notice is their dialect, Koume continues to talk girly in her father's body while her father talks slowly and surprisingly polite - much to the surprise of her school friends - so they have the challenge of trying to fit in to their surrounding environments too.

Big thing at the end of episode 1 is when Koume's father agrees to go on the date Koume had arranged over a week ago, but Koume can't trust him in her body so ends up trying to spy on him!

This series will grow on you, there is good humor and of course you get to see lots of Aragaki Chan on screen too - so it is a win win deal!

Technorati Tags: papa to musume no nanokakan, episode, 1, summary, j-tv, jtv, japanese, drama

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Hanazakari no Kimitachi e - Summary

Wiki Entry @ D-Addicts

Extract from Wiki:

"Horikita Maki (Teppan Shojou Akane, Kurosagi, Nobuta wo Produce) plays a Japanese girl (Ashiya Mizuki)in the U.S. who one day sees the young athlete Sano Izumi played by Oguri Shun(Hana Yori Dango) compete in the high jump on television. She begins to idolize him, and decides to move to Japan to attend the same school as him. However, Izumi goes to an all-boys school, so Mizuki disguises herself as a boy to achieve her dream of being with her idol."

Well, well, well. This is purely a school comedy of sorts, there is not much school either - poor Maki Chan she must be well embarrassed in this role, having her hair cut, no makeup, have to wear something to flatten her chest etc.

She disguised herself as a boy to get transferred into this all boys school which has everyone in dorms.

In the 1st episode everything went so quick, she got into the same dorm room as Sano kun, won a marathon to become popular and even have her identity revealed. I was left thinking maybe the story is moving too fast.

But in the 2nd episode Ashiya san is trying her best to convince Sano kun to return to his sport, while the school doctor who discovered Ashiya's real gender is actually supportive of her as long as it is to get Sano back into the track and field team.

I might grow to like this, it has humor and lots of well known actors and also trying to figure out why Maki Chan looks so strange!

Technorati tags: hanazakari no kimitachi e, j-tv, drama, review

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Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai episode 1

Yes it's a new anime and what a mouthful to say or type!

This episode seems to be a summary one, trying to explain some of the bizarre occurrences of the 1st season, the series as a whole is based on Type-Moon's PC game of the same name (I think), season 1 had several mini stories taking place at the same time just in different dimensions/time planes (I think) all of them ended in some gruesome bloody death. This episode tries to tie some of them together, we follow on about 20 years into the future returning to the scene of the carnage. There was only 1 survivor of the catastrophe and even she seems mentally disturbed - seems she wants things to go back to how they were.

This sets the stage for future episodes back in the original timeline and more psychological horror of some sort - yummy can't wait!

Technorati tags: higurashi no naku koro ni kai, anime, review

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Bleach

On a side note - Bleach is still airing fillers, this week seems to be a football related one...

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Naruto Shippudden Episode 19 Summary

Sorry for the delay - but there isn't much to report on this one.

As you know Team Gai are up against a new enemy - clones of themselves. This means Team Kakashi are left to take on the Akastu members themselves but even this is split further with the old granny and Sakura taking on the puppet master and Kakashi and Naruto going after the fellow with the model bombs who has the body of Gara.

There is nothing else to be said in this episode, only thing of interest is the new ending (screen above) which seems to be a story in a comic book fashion depicting life at a middle school where Naruto has just joined, the music is easy going and nothing to write home about.

Believe

it or not Naruto is taking yet another 2 week break - what the fu*k!

Technorati tags: naruto, shippudden, episode, 19, summary, anime

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Naruto Dattebayo info and new must watch Anime

Seems that Dattebayo (the group who sub Naruto) mentioned a week or so ago that due to some issues they wouldn't be subbing Naruto anymore, this week they announced it as a joke and released Shippudden episode 19, that leaves me to think that last week there was no episode aired. Anyway review will be up tomorrow.

Bleach episode 131 and 132 are still fillers so I will not bothered with them for now.

A return for the gorish anime Higurashi no Naku Koro ni means I will add another anime to my already tiny weekly watch.

More impressions on the new series are here at Random Curiosity:

Permanent Link to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai - 01

Technorati tags: dattebayo, naruto, bleach, anime

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Proposal Daisukusen Review

Yes I did actually finish watching this one!

D-Addicts Wiki Entry

"Yamashita Tomohisa and Nagasawa Masami play a young man and woman who have been friends since elementary school. Yamashita's character, Iwase Ken, is obstinate and unskilled in love, but he fell long ago for the lively and cheerful woman, Yoshida Rei, played by Nagasawa. But Rei is about to get married to another man. While Ken and other friends from high-school attend the wedding ceremony, a fairy appears and sends Ken back in time, giving him a second chance to win the girl he loves."

Yamashita Tomohisa (Nabuto wo Produce, Dragon Zakura, Kurosagi) plays the part of the useless guy (Ken) who you end up wanted to knock out cold because he is so useless at saying anything of use to Rei (Nagasawa Masami - Dragon Zakura), but what is interesting is that you follow the characters through different intersections of their life (high school, University and beyond) and you see Rei change and develop as a character as she gets older - of course its the same actor and all that, just they put more effort into the script.

While you see Ken try his best to "make a difference" to the present by trying to make his mark on Rei in that segment of his past. What makes this show interesting is that he doesn't always get things his own way, and even ends up giving up towards the end and that's when you can tell there is nothing more he can say to Rei to change her mind.

But you can see with each time travel he is making subtle changes to the present Rei's affections towards him and some of his friends are changing too. 

The last few episodes have twists aplenty and even I was gasping when episode 9 finished, and his contrasting actions in episode 11 were completely unforeseen.

This series is a very low key romantic story which has the viewers willing Ken on in his bid to change the present, I feel this is one that will stay timeless due to its completely unusual story.

I would recommend everyone watches this series at least once!

Technorati Tags: japanese, drama, review, proposal, daisukusen, yamashita, tomohisa, nagasawa, masami

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J Drama watch list Summer 2007

Dramas to watch this summer!

Hanazakari No Kimitache e

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Hanazakari_no_Kimitachi_e

Extract from Wiki:

Horikita Maki (Teppan Shojou Akane, Kurosagi, Nobuta wo Produce) plays a Japanese girl in the U.S. who one day sees the young athlete Sano Izumi played by Oguri Shun(Hana Yori Dango) compete in the high jump on television. She begins to idolize him, and decides to move to Japan to attend the same school as him. However, Izumi goes to an all-boys school, so Mizuki disguises herself as a boy to achieve her dream of being with her idol.

This drama has the Kawaii Maki Chan and one of the best young male performers in Japan at the moment Oguri Shun a winning line up!

This is based on a hit manga and should be worth watching, but I can't see how they can make them look young (although they pulled it off with Proposal Daisukusen!).

Show kicks off on the 3rd of July.

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First Kiss

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/First_Kiss

Extract from Wiki:

In this romantic comedy, Mao Inoue (Hana Yori Dango) stars as a selfish girl named Mio Fukunaga. Because of a serious illness, she lives in the U.S. for medical treatment. Before undergoing an important operation, she returns to Japan, where she meets the older brother she has been separated from since her parents' divorce. She finds Kazuki (Hideaki Ito) leading a good-for-nothing life, but he shows his seriousness when he resolves to find a way for Mio to experience her first kiss. Yuta Hiraoka plays the love interest, a rookie doctor.

There isn't much of a lineup in this one, but it will be interesting to see how well Inoue Mao can rise from the ashes of her success with Hana Yori Dango and establish her self in the J Drama world. Yuto Hiraoko was a real talent and shone well in Proposal Daisukusen so will be interesting to see how they hit off on screen.

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Detective School Q - Tantei Gakuen Q

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Tantei_Gakuen_Q#Renzoku_Series

Extract from Wiki:

Adapted from the manga by Tadashi Agi(Seimaru Amagi), Tantei Gakuen Q revolves around a team of genius students studying in a detective academy run by a famous detective, Morihiko Dan.

Kamiki Ryunosuke and Shida Mirai (Suppli, 14 sai no haha) star in this drama, I am interested to see Mirai's progression since 14 Sai no Haha (not seen all of that series yet).

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Hotaru no Hikari

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Hotaru_no_Hikari

Extract from Wiki:

Haruka Ayase stars as the title character, Hotaru Amemiya, in this adaptation of Satoru Hiura's "Hotaru no Hikari" manga series. Hotaru is a twenty-something office lady who has become a "dried fish" - she has "retired" from love, and she prefers to spend her time lazily at home. Then one day, her world gets shaken up when she unexpectedly ends up living with her boss (Fujiki Naohito). To complicate her life even further, she begins to find romance with a new employee named Makoto (Kazuki Kato).

Ayase Chan (Tatta Hitotsu no Koi, Byakuyakou)is back after a break after Tatta Hitotsu, and we all know about Naghito from Proposal Daisukusen (seems a lot of actors from that show are getting new roles!) but Kato Kasuki seems a new comer, this is another show I might look at 1 or 2 episodes to see if it whets my appetite.

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Others to watch out for:

Yama Onna Kabe Onna

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Yama_Onna_Kabe_Onna

Starring Misaki Ito (Densha Otoko, Suppli)

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Jotei

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Jotei

Starring Kato Rosa (newbie) and Matsuda Shota (Fresh from Liar Game).

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Seven days of Daddy and a Daughter

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Papa_to_Musume_no_Nanokakan

Starring Aragaki Yui (My Boss=My Hero), comedy type.

Technorati Tags: jtv, drama, japanese, summary, summer, 2007

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Bleach Episode 129 & 130

I hadn't watched Bleach last week as I knew it was a filler, therefore I am even more disgusted that this week's is also a filler, seems the whole mini story will be dragged on for a little while longer - I am so disgusted I am not even going to bother reviewing them - there was no non filler scenes at all...

Technorati Tags: anime, review, bleach, 129, 130

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Naruto Shippudden 18 Summary

This episode again is just transitional before the real fighting begins.

Neji uses his eyes to look past the barrier and can't explain what's happening, but Kakashi discovers that this is a Five Seal Barrier and would require all five seals to be removed at once.

Neji pinpoints the seals and the other 4 are in distant locations.

Team Gai split up 4 ways and locate all the remaining seals.

Meanwhile Akatsuki member's are starting to leave and Sasori tells Itachi that the Kyuubi will be his and he and the his colleague stay behind to welcome the outsiders.

All 5 seals are removed and Sakura destroys the boulder, at the same time some enemies are beginning to appear in front of each of Team Gai's members.

Inside the hideout it seems as though the monster/statue thing that was used to contain the monster sucked out of Gaara is transported elsewhere as the head of Akatsuki cast some seals and they both vanish from the "hideout". Team Kakashi know they are already too late when they see the two remaining Akatsuki members sat on the lifeless body of Gaara.

They didn't need to figure out who has the Kyuubi inside of them when Naruto flips and starts calling up his Kyuubi strength in a bid to launch an all out assault on the Akatsuki.

Again not much content in this episode, I am a bit disappointed with the quality as there were some scenes where the quality had dropped a bit. Looks like the fighting will start next week, but seeing as it might be split into 5 fights I expect this might take sometime before any more story progression...

Technorati Tags: anime, naruto, shippudden, 18, review, summary

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Liar Game - Summary

LIAR GAME D-Addicts Wiki Entry

This is a must watch. If you are like me and enjoy watching things like Hustle on the BBC and enjoyed Kurosagi then this is a must watch!

I call it a psychological suspense type of show in which the lovely Toda Erika (as in the picture above; features in the last 2 episodes of Hana Yori Dango 2 also in Nabuto wo Produce) plays the dumb Kanzaki Nao - who is so gullible she gets tricked by just about anyone and cannot see the dishonesty behind what people say or do, ie she never doubts what is said.

She gets accidentally snared into a deadly game called Liar Game, where each contestant is sent 100 million Yen (around £40 million) to their house and they cannot refuse entry once they open the cash (which she had already done), you are chosen an opponent who you must steal his money from in order to win. You have 30 days to do this. If you win you keep half (100 mil), if you lose you owe the Liar Game Secretariat 100 mil which they will take back by making you take out a loan or something.

She is assigned her old High school teacher as an opponent, thinking that she can confide in him, he tricks her into handing over her money (for safe keeping) and she manages to enlist the help of a ex con genius con man called Akiyama Shinichi (played by Matsuda Shota - Hana Yori Dango) to try and win her money back.

The plot thickens when they realize they are in something allot deeper then just this one opponent...

I enjoy the action (up to episode 4 so far) in terms of suspense and not knowing what the game or Akiyama will throw up next. Akiyama is less sharp in comparison to Kurosaki but the tricks and cons he has up his sleeve are only shown at the last given moment - so you are kept guessing till the end.

I recommend this above all the other J-Dorama I have seen this season, of course having the nice Toda Erika alongside the sly and sharp Matsuda Shota is a winning combination!

Technorati Tags: japanese, tv, j-tv, drama, liar, game, toda, erika, japan, matsuda, shota, review, summary

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Joudan Janai Episode 1 Summary

Oda Yuji is back with a BANG!

D-Addicts Wiki Entry

Oda Yuji (Odoru Daisousasen, Last Christmas) back as Takamura Keita - a 40 year Computer Design Technician who is hitched up with a 20 year University student Ellen (Ueno Juri - Nadame Cantabile) who fly off to France to visit Ellen's parent's and seek permission for Marriage.

Keita bumps into his ex girlfriend from his University days, Hirose Rei (Ohtake Shinobu) while in Nice, France. What he didn't know that when he meets Ellen's parents, Rei is her Mother!

Still going ahead with the marriage Keita shows an awkwardness towards Rei and if new ever got out that he used to date Ellen's mother all hell would break loose. The episode ends with Rei returning to Tokyo and staying unannounced with the newly weds. Seems like she is out for revenge and wants to be the thorn in the pair's marriage.

As typical of Oda's previous Drama outings, this is filling with great little comic moments in amongst the crazy script and wonderful cast.
A couple of noteworthy mentions are Ueno Juri looks wonderful and looks to be the up and coming j-tv actress for 07/08, and also Oda Yuji has aged quite a bit in the 4 years since he last did a drama!

The Subs are only up to episode 4, lets hope it continues to progress. As usual all the subs and stuff are over at D-addicts.

Tags: oda yuji j-tv joudan janai review

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6 a side football in Hayes

www.soccerfeva.com

In the spring we decided to enter a new league that was starting at Vale Farm sports center (our local astro pitch), but when the league was canceled due to lack of support from Vale Farm themselves, we were invited to join the newly formed Hayes league.

Now after 5 games we finished the table (Championship) in first place and are the group winners and will be promoted to the top group (Premiership) for the next round!

Our team's name is Ghetto Fabulous (Sounds silly but the captain came up with that on the day of registration) and here is the squad as well as our results:

Nauman (Captain)

Sajid (Manager)

Umair

Zeshan

Zuhair

Gary

Yasaar

Sameer

Hamid

Adil

Sanjee

Sandeep

 

Fixture	Result
Ghetto v Football Club UK	5-0 (Umair 3, Zeshan, Hamid)
Ghetto v Alpha 6	1-2 (Zeshan) (Ghetto awarded 3-0 win as Alpha 6 were thrown out)
Ghetto v Vasco	0-1
Ghetto v Last orders	1-1 (Umair)
Ghetto v Last orders	2-1 (Gary, Umair)

Technorati tags: football, 6 a side, astro

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Another cooking Jap Drama - Bambino!

Matsumoto Jun (Hana Yori Dango, Gokusen) plays Ban Shogo - an over enthusiastic young assistant chef who works part time at his local family restaurant while at university. He is arrogant and wants to promoted to a full chef but the head chef recommends he move from the small town to Ropponji in Tokyo where he can work under the head chef's training college at a  popular Italian restaurant as a helper.

The head chef tests him early and puts him in charge of Pasta, but fails miserably. The favourism he is shown by the head chef turns everyone in the kitchen against him - with all colleagues betting he wont last even a day. He gets put under the charge of Katori Nozomi played by Sato Ryuta who doesn't take long to knock seven shades out of our "pretending to be too great" main star. But Ban comes back for more and earns the nickname "Bambino" because he is like a infant deer and needs supervision (Bamby - Italian for baby deer?).

Jun does well to portray his usual character and a good scene is when he steps into the kitchen at his new work place and is stunned (see picture), he is even more blown away by the pace and intensity when the orders start coming in. The cast are all mostly known figures (not starring ones like Jun) and there isn't much to judge them on yet. I seem to be a fan of the cooking type of drama (Lunch no joou, Teppan Shoujo Akane, etc) and I enjoyed this and will be watching it very closely.

Technorati Tags: bambino, matsumoto, jun, j-tv, japanese, drama, review

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Naruto Shippudden 17 Summary

I am going to review Naruto now every week (released Friday mornings (4am) by Dattebayo) since after power watching through 220+ episodes of the regular series, I found the new series on par - sometimes better - than Bleach. The story is like thus: Naruto is back from his 2.5 years of training and teams up with Sakura and Kakashi into a new 3 man team. They are sent to help the Village of the Sand after their leader Gaara is beaten and taken by the group known as Akatsuki (Itachi Uchiha is a member). En route Gai's team and Naruto's team are slowed down by Akatsuki fake's. This episode is more of a transitional one, since the team are resting and then finally get to Akatsuki's location. In the meantime we hear that it was the old granny (in the picture above) who sealed away the "one tailed" demon into Gaara on his father's request. We also see what seems to be the death of Gaara after Akatsuki finish extracting the demon from his body.

Would be a real shame if Gaara is dead because he was one of the more powerful and psychopathic characters who really lit up series 2 and 3.

The next episode won't be out for another 2 weeks - NOOOOO!

Technorati Tags: anime, review, naruto, shippudden, 17, summary

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Bleach Episode 128 summary

The time wasting and uselessness of the bleach cast continues to confound me! In this episode we see about 1 minute of anything remotely useful - Ichigo is able to keep his Hollow transformation for a mere 30 seconds longer while he continues to train. The rest of this episode is just Matsumoto wasting time shopping and getting involved with a pre formed arrancar - which gets everyone suspicious as to why Aizen would send that into the real world. So no meat to this episode as usual and the void still remains in my stomach - when will we get some decent entertainment in Bleach again?

Technorati Tags: Bleach, 128, anime, review, summary, ichigo, matsumoto

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