Bleach/Breakthrough! The Shinigami's Encompassing Net

Breakthrough! The Shinigami's Encompassing Net
Season 2, Episode 9
Airdate	April 26, 2005
Production Number	29
Written by	Genki Yoshimura Masahiro Okubo Masashi Sogo Michiko Yokote Natsuko Takahashi Rika Nakase
Directed by	Noriyuki Abe
ADR Writer(s)	Carl Macek Liam O'Brien Mark Ryan Michael Sorich
ADR Director(s)	Kirk Thornton Wendee Lee
← 2x08 Orihime Is Being Targeted	2x10 → Renji's Confrontation
Bleach — Season Two

Breakthrough! The Shinigami's Encompassing Net is the ninth episode of the second season of Bleach and the twenty-ninth episode overall. Kenpachi reconnects with Ikkaku, who tells him about the man who defeated him. Meanwhile, Ichigo and Ganju take Hanataro hostage to little effect on the swarms of soul reapers after them.

Co-Stars: Wally Wingert (Tsubaki), Peter Lurie (Jiroubou Ikkanzaka), Kyle Hebert (Ganju Shiba), Cam Clarke (Yasochika Iemura), Spike Spencer (Hanataro Yamada), David Lodge (Kenpachi Zaraki), Kari Wahlgren (Yachiru Kusajishi), Terrence Stone (Mayuri Kurotsuchi), Michelle Ruff (Nemu Kurotsuchi), Vic Mignogna (Ikkaku Madarame)

Plot Overview

Uryu overwhelms Jiroubou almost immediately and defeats him with only a couple of strokes from his bow. Uryu offers to let him go with his life intact, a move which makes Jiroubou try and attack Orihime during Uryu's moment of weakness. But the moment of weakness was false and Jiroubou only manages to show how cowardly he truly is. Instead of killing him, Uryu severs the spiritual device which manages spirit energy, making sure that Jiroubou will no longer be a soul reaper when he awakens.

Ichigo and Ganju finally meet up, but unluckily for both of them, they're heavily outnumbered by guards. Ichigo takes out several with a surprise attack, but that still leaves a great number of soul reapers in their way. In a coincidental twist of fate, Hanataro stumbles through the crowd looking for his unit and winds up being taken hostage by Ichigo and Ganju. The crowd doesn't really care, though, because Hanataro is in squad 4 and they're squad 11. Squad 11 are the first into battle and hate squad 4, which is relegated to cleaning duties. During their speech, Chad takes out half of the squad's numbers but misses Ichigo, who takes the diversion to run away. Chad is discovered by more soul reaper riff raff, but they're also taken out by Chad's arm.

In the sick bays, Ikkaku doesn't tell Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi anything of use. He claims that he neither saw Ichigo's face nor heard his voice and refuses to give up any information about the attackers. Mayuri tries to discipline him, but is stopped by Ikkaku's captain, Kenpachi, who sends Mayuri packing. He tells Kenpachi all of the details of his encounter and that Ichigo is growing in strength so that his forthcoming battle will be a satisfying one.

Ichigo and Ganju have ducked into a building to avoid being pinned down by more soul reapers and have unwittingly brought Hanataro along with them. While bickering over how to get to the white tower Ikkaku told Ichigo about, Hanataro speaks up and tells them that he knows where the tower is and that he'll help them as long as they trust him, since he knows a secret way into the cell.

Trivia

The Show

• Closing Credits: The closing credits animation of this episode features Mayuri Kurotsuchi, captain of Squad 12, and his lieutenant Nemu Kurotsuchi. Kisuke Urahara also makes an unexplained cameo in these credits.