Summary:
As Nel continues fighting Nnoitra, Ichigo struggles to get back up so that he can go help her. However, he gets kicked back down by Tesla, and Tesla threatens Inoue in order to prevent Ichigo from interfering. Long ago, Nel and Nnoitra had sparred, but he couldn’t beat her, and she refused to fight him to the end because she had no reason to. What’s more, she thought of him as a beast and didn’t acknowledge him as a warrior, and that just made him hate her more - he already despised her because she, a female, ranked higher than him, a male. Sometime after that, Nel had discovered Pesche and Dondochakka with their masks forcefully torn off, courtesy of Nnoitra. Determined to make him pay for it, she had fought him again, but when she swung at him in the middle of the battle, he suddenly vanished. A split second later, he slashed her across the face, breaking her mask. It turns out that he had the help of Szayel, and the Szayel watched as Nnoitra literally threw Nel, Pesche, and Dondochakka out of Las Noches. To their surprise, Nel then changed into a child, and Szayel theorized that her spiritual force had flowed out of her broken mask. This pleased Nnoitra, and he abandoned Nel out there.
When Nel regained consciousness, Pesche and Dondochakka realized that she had lost her memories, and Pesche decided that there was only one path they could take. He declared the Neliel Tu Oderschvank that they knew to be dead and vowed to protect Nel. Back in the present, Pesche watches as Renji struggles unsuccessfully against Szayel. With Szayel occupied, Pesche is able to shoot his saliva onto Szayel’s hand, and that causes Szayel to drop the dolls, right into Pesche’s hands. Once he has the dolls, Pesche tells Dondochakka to bring out Bawabawa, so Dondochakka does exactly that by spitting the giant worm out of his mouth. Pesche explains that Bawabawa is actually a spirit insect that Dondochakka keeps inside of himself, but they never told Nel this because they were afraid such information would could cause her memory to return. They thought that quietly protecting her was their mission, but now that Nel has shown her will to fight, they’re determined to join her. Nel meanwhile continues her fight against Nnoitra and eventually decides, with much reluctance, to change into her released form.
Maybe I’m just getting used to it, but I thought Nel’s voice wasn’t so bad this episode. At the very least, it didn’t bother me like it did previously, and I thought this episode overall was pretty good. It didn’t have any blatant censoring like last week, and I always liked how this part of the story finally gave Pesche and Dondochakka some decent character development - the anime did a good job adapting that. I’m also curious to see what the two looked like originally without their masks, which is hinted at, but never fully shown. In any case, things should get pretty exciting from here on out, and a certain someone might show up as soon as next week (if it does happen, it won’t be until the very end of next episode). With no preview though - more movie commercials this week - there’s no way of knowing for sure until next week roll around.
http://randomc.animeblogger.net/2008/11/12/bleach-194/
