The fifth episode of Bleach, Beat the Invisible Enemy is an episode that I am particularly fond of for a multitude of reasons. It makes me laugh, it makes my heart heart and it gets my heart pumping. It has one of my favourite smiles in it. I adore Chad in this episode and my heart just shatters for the little boy.

Arc: Agent of the Shinigami arc / Manga Chapter: 9-12

What happens in Bleach episode five

Bleach - 005 Agent of the Shinigami Arc - Beat the Invisible Enemy! (2)

A short recap of the episode 4: Cursed Parakeet, and Sado punching the hollow, Shrieker. Ichigo put Karin to bed and thinks over what her crying means. He rushes back to Rukia and Sado. Rukia briefly wonders if Sado can see spirits but changes her mind after seeing him punch wildly in the wrong direction. After getting hit by Sado’s second blind punch, the hollow decides to spread its wings and take to the sky to escape Chad’s reach. Sado realises Rukia can see the monster he asks her to tell him where it is and then makes use of a telephone pole to hit it out of the sky. Rukia and Sado fall for the hollow’s trick but Sado breaks free quite quickly and the Shrieker takes back to the sky, but this time, too high for a pole to hit him.

Rukia comes up with a plan, for Sado to launch her where she aims so that she can attack the hollow in the sky. However, Shrieker counters by attaching exploding leeches to Rukia’s body and setting them off. Sado still does not know Rukia’s name and keeps calling her ‘new girl’. Chad goes in for another punch but is stopped by the bird’s cage suddenly appearing and it being used as a hostage. Chad is forced to stay by the cage while Rukia is chased down by the hollow who torments her by constantly attacking her with his leech bombs. Rukia leads the hollow to where Ichigo is. Ichigo gets involved and introduces himself as a substitute soul reaper for the first time. Rukia pushes Ichigo’s soul out of his body so that he can fight properly against Shrieker.

While soul reaper Ichigo and the hollow are exchanging oneliners, Chad and the bird catch up to Rukia and Ichigo’s body. Chad worries about his friend but Rukia tells him not to and to escape with the bird. Ichigo and Shrieker fight a bit until Ichigo manages to land his sword at the hollow’s neck and demands to have the hollow admit he had killed the spirit’s mother. Then the boy admits that it is true and he just wanted to see his mother again and that he is sorry. The hollow admits to his crimes while he was alive and that he stuck the boy’s soul in the bird. Ichigo gets angry for the boy and the torment he had been forced to go through. To the point where he catches a few leech bombs, breaks the hollow’s teeth to shove the bombs in his mouth and taunts Shrieker, telling him to detonate them with his tongue. When Shrieker doesn’t, Ichigo then rips out his tongue and then kills the hollow. Shrieker does not go out the way the previous hollows have gone, instead his soul gets pulled into the gates of the underworld, hell. Rukia and Ichigo then help the boy move on after telling him he can reunite with his mom in the soul society. Chad also gets to have an emotional goodbye and promise with the boy.

Memorable moments of the episode:

Sado punches Shrieker, pulling out a telephone pole and throwing Rukia. Pretty much the entirety of the interaction Chad had with the hollow while fighting it in this episode I find memorable. Ichigo’s anger and resulting action of ripping off shriekers tongue before killing him. And his smile before that moment. There are a few particular smiles of Ichigo’s that stand out and this is one of them. Seeing the gates of the underworld for the first time is also pretty memerable.