We start the episode with several 12th Division guards loitering outside the Bureau of Technological Development. They immediately burst into a monologue explaining why their location is relevant to our storyline. What a coincidence! It is awfully nice of them to remind us that Kariya is after something really dangerous. Then Kariya strolls up and comments on how nice the weather is. It's a good day to die. I mean, for everyone except him to die.

As Kariya crushes the red-shirted guards off-screen we get one of the highlights of the episode: Nemu demonstrating that when she isn't with Mayuri, he doesn't store her in a booth for recharging. Rather nice to see her working with underlings. Well, Ichigo and Chad both sense Kariya's overwhelming reiatsu while he crushes the guards and head in that direction, together. I hope they'll be in time to rescue Nemu.

Then Yoshi and Quincy Boy meet. Ishida runs away from her so that he can lure her to a rooftop that looks amazingly like the one where he fought Jirobo Ikkanzaka, the Kamaitachi. I guess he is only allowed a limited number of battle stages. Or maybe he just wants to relive the memories of that easy victory. Ah, sweet nostalgia.

I'll make the description of their battle short, but informative. This is easily the best fight of the entire arc. Ishida is fighting at a serious penalty because his weapon is unpredictable. This makes him slower than we're used to. It also means that he will do something we've never seen before. Ishida misses his target. Not once, but again and again. It's the fault of his weapon, so don't get upset about it. We also learn a lot more about Yoshi's powers. Her weapon is actually rather cool. It seems that when she is in absolute defense mode she cannot attack. This explains why she has used it sparingly in previous fights and I was happy to see that there was a reason. She also has an absolute offense mode that freakin' rocks! It's cool watching her switch between modes with her weapon and I'm really wishing we'd seen this before. I guess she had to keep it hiden until now or else Rukia would have died big-time. It's also interesting watching Ishida try to choose the times to fire his weapon when it's fluctuating power level is strong enough to hurt Yoshi, but not too strong because at max strength it will explode and kill him.

Meanwhile Kariya has broken into 12th Squad HQ and Nemu is crushed under rubble. She never even got a fight. :sob: :sob: Kariya is here for the crest. Crest? His ultimate weapon to destroy Soul Society is a crest? Well Ichigo lifts the rubble from Nemu and chases after Kariya into the vast storage vaults of this building. Kariya finds a place that resonates with his powers, but before he can locate the crest, Ichigo is there.

Ichigo steps up to Kariya and without a second glance goes, "Bankai Tensa Zangetsu," so easily that he's looking as if he's just going to bitchslap a punk. Cue the "Number One" song. Ichigo exclaims, "I'm not going to keep losing to you!" Lord knows I hope that's true. Of course, Kariya ain't no punk and he's a bit harder to smash than that, but Ichigo seems to have the better of him. Yay! Bitchslap that punkass loser! Unfortunately Chad is only an annoyance. Am I the only one who keeps fearing for the objects stored in this room every time Chad fires that blast? Then all of a sudden something erupts from below the floor during Kariya's attack. OMG! It's the crest. Jeezus that thing is bloody huge! Apparently it is a huge Bounto doll crest. He merges with the crest while Ichigo and Chad stand there gaping. They nicely give him time to do what he came there for. I thought that was very polite of them, but not very smart. Morons. Well, it seems that this crest is "Joukaishou," the Healing-Destruction Crest. Possessed of all the power that was used to create the Bounto, this crest has sufficient energy that if it was unleased on Soul Society, the whole region would be completely devestated. If Kariya is attacked he'll destroy everything. If they don't attack Kariya he will release it in 24 hours. Sounds like a win-win for Kariya. Or a lose-lose for anyone else. I wonder if Kariya will survive it? I guess since he only cares about revenge, it doesn't really matter to him. I guess he's got a terminal case of "I am an artificial life-form so I have to destroy the world." I see that a lot in RPGs by Squaresoft.

At the end of the episode, both Kariya and Yoshi are still alive. Kariya took off while we gape at his awesome master plan of total devestation. Yoshi and Ishida are still fighting.

The coming attractions is one of the funniest bits of the episode when Nemu offers Rin-rin an experimental gigai that Mayuri created for research purposes. Rin-rin loves the idea until Nemu offeres her the choice of squid-shaped, octopus-shaped or hand-shaped. Suddenly it doesn't seem quite so appealing. :heh:

Shinigami Cup Golden! Fun with Mayuri. Unfortunately the studio seems to be saving on their animation budget. We get to watch the same still picture throughout the entire segment while we hear Ichigo, Chad and Mayuri talking off-camera. Still, I had a good laugh, so it's all good.

Bounto death count: Unchanged. But next episode Yoshi is toast for sure!

The "ultimate power" Kariya gained seemed too generic, and the Shinigami cup at the end was terrible. And Chad was just... there. Like he always is.

Ichi relies too much on Bankai >_< I really wanted to see Blood Guts n Glory . Also the funny part, despite Bankai he gets Bitch Slapped around . Bankai is like the last power up/the secret weapon

i thought yoshi's powers were awesome... she should totally pawn ishida, but i think ran tao will save him... too bad she has to die, as i think she's a decent character... best character design of all the bounto

chad is a deadman walking when mayuri returns to his lab