'Bleach' Anime DVD Set #13 on Sale

Once Bleach crests the 200 episode mark, the series' heroes are tired, irritable, and a little wary of just what's around the corner. Perhaps this is a bit too familiar for anime fans in-the-know regarding the long-running Japanese cartoon, but as it turns out, Season Ten of Bleach finds Ichigo and his pals exhausted, in survival mode, and fortunate for the efforts of a little bit of backup. VIZ Media has another pair of Bleach DVD set releases scheduled for the 2012 year, one of which is scheduled to arrive this week.

Relative to the anime's current broadcast on U.S. television, Bleach DVD Set #13 is notable for being the last feather of storytelling in the Hueco Mundo arc before the anime series departs on a number of substories and filler episodes. Here, the battle with the Espadas has ebbed, flowed, and raged for what feels like eons. Ichigo is fresh from defeating Grimmjow in battle and could certainly use some rest. However, when you're on a quest to rescue a close friend in a faraway sub-dimension filled with amorphous demons and unchained souls, rest is but a fairytale. In this chapter of Bleach, viewers trot a short-lived conflict with Nnoritoa and dig into little Nel's past.

VIZ Media's domestic release of Bleach DVD Set #13 ($49.95) covers episodes #194 through #205. Nnoritora is eager to pounce on a wounded Ichigo, but an interesting sliver of hope arrives in the way of sweet little Nel, a charming if annoying Arrancar girl whose past life as an elite Espada suddenly comes to the fore.

Nnoritora and the girl, now transformed into her adult form, spar. Nnoritora eventually finds himself on the losing end of the battle, but circumstances conspire against Ichigo and his allies, and Nel suffers a setback.

As the anime continues, true to its shounen roots, there's always a hero or two within earshot: a handful of captains from the Thirteen Court Guard Squads arrive in Hueco Mundo.

Chief among them is the warmonger Kenpachi, whose affection for bloody and near-unwinnable conflict has earned him a self-sustaining reputation among his peers. The tenth season of Bleach winds its way through Kenpachi's slicing up of Nnoritora, with relevant cutaways to other battles occurring (with other Guard captains) in Hueco Mundo, and ultimately wraps with a dire peek at Aizen's ultimate plan to destroy humble Karakura Town.

It is thus how Bleach looks to split its time between a battle for Ichigo to re-rescue Orihime and the battle for Ichigo's fellow Soul Reapers to save the boy's home town. VIZ has scheduled the release of the next release, DVD Set #14, for early September 2012 (containing episodes #206-#217).

VIZ Media is listed among the globe's top one hundred consumer product licensors, having recorded an estimated USD $200 million in worldwide retail sales in the previous year.

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