Bleach: The Sealed Sword Frenzy

Bleach OVA: The Sealed Sword Frenzy is just a silly 32 minute special where a guy named Baishin undoes his seal and needs to be either killed or resealed.

While it can be considered an extended filler episode, it has its merits. That being the humor. Despite being portrayed as something very serious, the silliness that was missing in Bleach after the first arc can be seen such as using the lack of understanding of Renji and Rukia about the living world and how Ichigo or others react to it.

A lot of characters are involved mainly just because. Unlike in the movies, there is no massive ... Bankai spam. In total only 3 Bankais are released but only 2 mattered for the story.

The fight against Baishin is entertaining somewhat, certainly more than most Bleach movie fights.

Criticism is that some characters have some plot induced stupidity by not doing the obvious. There is also a massive inconsistency in power jumps like between Ichigo's Shikai to his Bankai compared to other characters. Also the fact there is another enemy that can summon hollows for some reason especially when there is no hint justifying for such ability to exist. Also there is a scene where Rukia in her Shinigami form tries to lead human to safety which is hilarious knowing she is invisible to them.
Finally Baishin's implied motivation why he does what he does makes no sense as we can't sympathise why he wants what he wants.

If you like early Bleach humor, it is definitively worth a watch. Otherwise don't expect too much. The concept of what Baishin is, is also interesting and hasn't been done in Bleach before or after.

STORY: 6

I have to say, the story left a lot to be desired. It seemed to cram in a whole lot into the short period of time that was alloted for the whole episode. Also, battle scenes lasted for a very short period of time, and one of the things I like about Bleach is the action scenes.

Also, the reason I picked up the OVA was because I was wondering how a few characters who hadn't met in the Anime actually knew each other, when I didn't recall them meeting. The OVA explains it, but the time line is messed up as there are certain ... things that get rearanged, but it IS an OVA, no? However, there is a big question of when would this have taken place in the time line... it really can't be awnsered.

ART: 7

This was a disapointment. The Bleach anime has more line quality then the OVA does. The shadows are scethced in with aditional lines. There is no leaving anything to different colors in the Anime. However, here... it is pretty much base color scheme for all of the art work.

On the side, there were a few perks. The special one time showing of the new character... let's just say, his design was very detailed. However, again... there was very little added shadowing that I have come to expect, at least by this time in the series.

CHARACTER: 10

This is what I think the OVA is worth watching for. It gives a tiny little bit more depth to all of the characters. Characters that weren't fleshed out, become more fleshed, and some of our favorite characters are given a nice twist to them.

ENJOYMENT: 9

I have to say, my favorite part of this was the humor, and the utter sillyness of this OVA. That is the other thing that it is worth watching for. It does a very good job of buidling up the humor here.

OVERALL: 7

It could have been definatly better. I was actually expecting something more then this, but it was rather... how to put it... rushed.

Bleach is a weird series, it has so many fans and way too little content, especially compared to the rest of the big three. Out of the only three OVA episodes, this one had it the most with the most boring and convoluted villain of the week that gets both introduced and nerfed in the same episode, somewhat, an analogy of what every unnecessarily long filler arc in the series should have been. Looking at you “The New Captain Amagai” arc.

The animation was inconsistent with what the quality of the art offered, the music is good but utilized badly, sometimes not matching the tone of ... the scenes they were layered on top of. However the comedy was nailed, Renji handling a shotgun at the beginning is now one of the comedic highlights of the entire series.