Baby, Hold Your Hand 2 (Never Ending My Dream)

Best episode in bleach and anime history!

What a great episode.

I've been waiting for this episode since I read it in the manga 10 years ago.. What a perfect anticipated event and what feelings, an episode that lacks nothing, it was really perfect, I'm happy that they made the most anticipated event for me this beautiful, great OST, drawing, animation and everything in this episode is a real masterpiece, the years of production and waiting were in exchange for this result? So it was worth the wait, I'm happy that I was able to watch this masterpiece, thanks to Kubo and the entire production team for the fun they have provided before and are still providing... I'm happy that I followed this work and am part of its fans.

Overall rating: 10/10

The episode was overall about the continuation to the Baby Hold Your Hand Pt. 1 which is a fight between Mayuri and Pernida, two symbols of constant and continuous evolution and progress in the verse. The left hand governing evolution, and the number one perfection hater, considering it as obstacle of progress.

Nemu:

His own masterpiece the ever evolving Nemuri Nanago alias Nemu, what a name choice Kubo and Mayuri, well Nemu means to sleep in Japanese, and a dreamer needs to sleep to dream and Mayuri needed Nemu for his dream, she was a great character (R. I. P)

Pernida :

This hand Pernida governor of evolution the core Quincy belief, and its layers and thematics are too engrained in science and specifically neurology and whatnot, so Kubo attributing the neuro-control to it was nothing short of brilliant, learning constantly is the Compulsory.

The Flashback:

The flashback and the story of Nemu is truly heartwarming and at the same time heartbreaking, a sultry dose of melodrama laced with a perverted sense of possessiveness and control, protection and preservation from Kurotsuchi to Nemu, proving my point of him being villainous.

Szayelaporro Granz appearance:

Oh this moment the recall to his instance where Mayuri flagrantly rejected perfection, and the self-blame of Kurotsuchi manifesting in Szayelaporro spectre within his psyche, honestly gnawed at my soul from how real it is, it's a reality check to Mayuri, outstanding.

Mayuri and His Neverending dreamscape:

The conclusion of this fight was something of a dream, a dreamscape of an ever evolving scientist, a hater of perfection because it's a hinderance to his progress in research, I understand him as an engineer myself, but a scientist should not overly dream, to achieve.

Post-Credit Scenes:

1. The Bambies Fight:

Oh these addition are too intriguing to say least, I am curious as to how they will progress from them, it raised numerous question marks in my mind, let's trust Kubo and carry on!

2. The Jugram vs Bazz Clash Teaser:

The appearance of both Jugram Haschwalth and Bazz-B serves as a teaser for their upcoming duel and retrospective that's the finale, and oh my God my anticipation is on the rise here. Not only that, but also an underlying feeling of anxiety tinged with a sorrowful melancholy.

Artistic Talk:

Speaking about the artistic direction of this episode, it wss nothing short of an accumulation of brilliant: storyboard, KA, VA, OST, Fx, SFx, truly and honestly immersive, plus a commendable effort on the CGI department, Pierrot once again outdid themselves.

Truly one of Kubo's many great masterpieces this was one of the best anime episodes I've ever watched and emotional roller coaster about mad scientist and his daughter(greatest masterpiece) take on one of the creepiest villains in all of Bleach. The story of Mayuri n Nemu dates all the way back to the Soul Society arc the constant progression of their dynamic throughout Bleach's story is a thing of beauty with one of the most bitter sweet endings you find in manga. Truly one of Kubo's many great masterpieces this was one of the best anime episodes I've ever watched and emotional roller coaster about mad scientist and his daughter(greatest masterpiece) take on one of the creepiest villains in all of Bleach. The story of Mayuri n Nemu dates all the way back to the Soul Society arc the constant progression of their dynamic throughout Bleach's story is a thing of beauty with one of the most bitter sweet endings you find in manga. Truly one of Kubo's many great masterpieces this was one of the best anime episodes I've ever watched and emotional roller coaster about mad scientist and his daughter(greatest masterpiece) take on one of the creepiest villains in all of Bleach. The story of Mayuri n Nemu dates all the way back to the Soul Society arc the constant progression of their dynamic throughout Bleach's story is a thing of beauty with one of the most bitter sweet endings you find in manga. Truly one of Kubo's many great masterpieces this was one of the best anime episodes I've ever watched and emotional roller coaster about mad scientist and his daughter(greatest masterpiece) take on one of the creepiest villains in all of Bleach. The story of Mayuri n Nemu dates all the way back to the Soul Society arc the constant progression of their dynamic throughout Bleach's story is a thing of beauty with one of the most bitter sweet endings you find in manga.

It's a feast for the eyes to see the latest episode, and every single picture creates an illusion from which one can get lost. The artistic renderings of the animation are extensively detailed compared to what it means to view an animated series. It uses animated quality to convey the narrative, and it's done to perfection. Something that resonated was the idea of the framing of the animation itself. The overall framing and composition appeared to play a great deal into rendering a lot of rendering. For instance, during more dramatic parts, the frames grew clipped more to box people in and their emotions. During more tranquil moments, the extended frames rendered expansiveness of space to emphasize how small one might feel or how intimate the space might be. The angled renderings and the general zooming in and out of scenes made it as if everything was actually happening almost around you. Something else that was huge was the color wheel. The colors weren't for decoration-or at least, they weren't in the end-but rather they helped with the emotionality of the scene. Where there was more danger, more blood reds and black tones were used. Where softer, calmer scenes existed, viewers experienced light blues and greens. Therefore, warm and cool colors were used deliberately for proper emotional guidance and adjustment. Illumination was crucial as well. Not just for visibility but for depth and strength. When there were fight scenes, strong lighting hit these battles even harder as the strength behind each character with each blow was adequately framed. Whether a harsh spotlight on a character during an unexpected twist or a low, hazy, soft light that froze a character in a pensive, reflective look, the scenes were more about character growth due to the lighting instead. The quality of the animation, in fact, was extraordinarily fluid. Movement, gesture, even facial expressions were rendered in perfect timing. The characters existed and were interactively layered such that even the wind blowing through a character's hair was animated as if it was something the viewer would (and did) notice. Such a level of quality in detail added to the animation's realism and allowed the viewers to become even more invested in the characters. In addition, the animation helped solidify the timing of the episode. For example, when scenes had emotion that required a slower gesture, it rendered in slower quality, a poignant manifestation of meaning; when moments required a faster gesture, it rendered as such, creating the immediacy of action. Either way, every moment that transitioned into another did so effortlessly to ensure the episode retained its momentum. Ultimately, this episode worked beautifully as a film through techniques like hand-drawn animation, color and lighting choices, and the fluidity of movement throughout.

Acting: 10/10 Pace: 9/10 Storytelling: 10/10 Animation: 9.5/10 Writing: 9/10 End: 9/10

An amazing episode avenging episode 8 with an astonishing animation and great cgi.

This episode was near perfect for every category in my opinion with the ones suprassing a 9/10 being the storytelling and acting. Probably my favorite episode of the cour regarding storytelling, Nemu's backstory was really interesting to watch and the story development of the episode had you on the edge of your seat all time long. Mayuri's voice actor gotta be at least a top 5 bleach voice actor in the whole series, he is amazing and his character is so well written in my opinion.

Regarding the categories i consider a 9/10 are pretty much everything else. The only reason i didnt not give the animation a 10/10 is because i thought there was quite some room for improvement, some specific scenes made me not want to make it consider it a 10/10 but it was fine. Same goes with the pace, not bad yet not a 10/10. The end is a cliffhunger for the next episode, which is either going to be the deflector quincies against the remaining of the royal guards(according to the aftermath scene) or the continuation of Shunsui's front. Either way, it is going to be fully hyped up.

A category i think was missed on is the writing, maybe they could give Mayuri some humanity, a change in character showing how he has developed as a character and that he isnt heartless, simply a scieintist looking for perfection. His goal remains the same, being surpassing Kisuke, i think they could add a massibe layer of character development which they replaced with the last scene.

My only problem with the cour as of episode 10(not the episode) is how much ground they need to cover in the last 3 episode which seems abnormal to me. An episode for shunshui, an episode at least for ichigo and askin and another for the quincies which seems to be splitten up in 2. Maybe when you look at it a way of 1 episode a character it kind of muches but i think some of this fights will need more than 20 minutes of screen time if they want to be executed well and i dont really see how they are going to do it. As of now the cour had some pacing problems in the earlier episode which were on the edge of a slow story progression. Thankfully this was fixed and i hope they dont ruin this amazing cour(also my number 1 so far) in the last 3 episode.

Overall... just read the review, anything between a 9-10 stars is good. I Think thats everything for the episode, cant wait for next saturday.