Bleach Episode seven, Greetings from a Stuffed Lion is an episode that does not have too much going on but has a few key elements that are relevant all the way through the series. This is an episode that sticks with me and one I am always happy to rewatch.

Arc: Agent of the Shinigami arc / Manga Chapter: 16-17

What happens in Bleach episode seven

A quick recap of episode 6: Fight to the Death! Ichigo vs. Ichigo. Kisuke Urahara receives an apology from Ururu Tsumugiya for her blunder of giving out a defective product to a customer.  Urahara and his team then set out to collect the defective merchandise. 

Ichigo and the mod-soul are still confronting each other when Rukia catches up to them. Ichigo is finally able to counter and dodge all of the mod-souls kicks. Rukia then gets a hollow notification, so she and Ichigo leave the mod-soul to go and deal with the hollow. The mod-soul can detect the hollow and that it is near the school with the kids that upset him. After briefly remembering what upset him about the kids, he still makes the effort to save them.

The mod-soul, inside Ichigo’s body, starts fighting the hollow and gets injured before Ichigo can arrive. Ichigo complains to the mod-soul that he is damaging his body and that if he can’t take on a hollow without getting hurt, he should not take on a hollow. Ichigo asks the mod-soul why he saved the kids. The mod-soul talks about how he was sentenced to death and waited for his elimination while all his fellow mod-souls were erased around him. While he waited to die, he did a lot of thinking about how the world should be. Shortly after defeating the hollow and their talk, Kisuke Urahara and his team arrive. Urahara performs a very simple extraction and retrieves the mod-soul. Ichigo is able to get his body back. When Ichigo asks Kisuke what he is going to do with the mod-soul, he is informed that it will be destroyed. Rukia takes back the mod-soul from Kisuke, claiming that she is completely happy with her purchase and that he can not just take it back. Rukia gives the mod-soul to Ichigo after stating that Uruhara is running his shop outside of the law and that she has already caused a lot of trouble since she arrived in town. 

Ichigo is frustrated at the state his body is in thanks to the mod-soul. He asks Rukia if there is any way he can communicate with it. Rukia informs him, not unless he puts it in a body without a soul. Looking around, Ichigo spots a teddy bear lion and puts the mod-soul pill inside of the bear’s mouth. Much to Rukia’s surprise, it works. Ichigo gets his payback. Ichigo takes the stuffed lion home with him and Rukia. The next morning, the mod-soul tries to wake Ichigo up. Ichigo calls the mod-soul Kon. Ichigo is almost caught with Rukia in his room by his sister as she informs him that his friends are waiting for him downstairs and that he is running late. Going by his friends’ behaviour, Ichigo realises that Rukia has replaced their memories again. 

Ichigo becomes weird after seeing that it is the 16th of July. At school, the girls are discussing their school assignment with Orihime, who completed it in a weird way. After Ichigo behaves weirdly, Tatsuki asks what the date is and then explains that Ichigo will have the next day off from school. 

At the Kurosaki residence, the family is having a meeting and delegating tasks for the 17th. Rukia tells Ichigo that the family meeting sounded fun and that the family picnic sounded nice. Ichigo then asks for the day off from his soul reaper duties. Rukia declines. Then Ichigo explains that it is the anniversary of his mother’s death, the day she was killed. Orihime is watching the rain and wishes she could understand Ichigo’s pain. Ichigo dreams of the day his mother is killed. He blames himself for his mother’s death. 

We cut to a man in Soul Society who has been commissioned to find out what is going on around Rukia.

Memorable moments of the episode:

The ease with which Kisuke Urahara reclaims the mod-soul just to have Rukia snatch it back from him in mid-air. Knowing Urahara’s history, he completely let her get it. The arrival of Kon after Ichigo put the mod-soul in the stuffed lion teddy bear.

Fights in this episode:

• Mod-Soul vs Ichigo (concluded)
• Ichigo Kurosaki & Mod-soul (Kon) vs. Millipede-like Hollow (concluded)

Bleach Quotes I like from this episode

“Like they say, guess what’s done is done”

– Kisuke Urahara

“No one should have the right to kill anyone”

– Kon

“I exist and I should have the right to live my life for as long as I want to”

– Kon

“Why is it the rain makes me want to cry? Sometimes I wish I were the rain, so I could touch people and feel their feelings and maybe connect with their hearts. Maybe then I might understand his pain.”

– Orihime Inoue