Bleach/Back to Back, a Fight to the Death!

Back to Back, a Fight to the Death!
Season 1, Episode 14
Airdate	January 11, 2005
Production Number	14
Written by	—
Directed by	Noriyuki Abe
ADR Writer(s)	Carl Macek Liam O'Brien Mark Ryan Michael Sorich
ADR Director(s)	Michael Sorich
← 1x13 Flower and Hollow	1x15 → Kon's Great Plan
Bleach — Season One

Back to Back, a Fight to the Death! is the fourteenth episode of the first season of Bleach. Ichigo and Uryu meet their endgame when Menos Grande makes its presence known.

Co-Stars: Quinton Flynn (Kon), Michael Lindsay (Kisuke Urahara), Jeannie Elias (Jinta Hanakari), Michael Sorich (Tessai Tsukabishi)

Plot Overview

Ichigo bids Uryu to fight him to prove his worth and not to take out his inadequacy on the innocent people living around town. He hesitates and runs off when he sees the hollows gathering in a crack in the sky. When he declares that he's "the last of the Quincys," Rukia relates the store she heard from Urahara bout the destruction of the Quincys at the hands of the soul reapers. She defends these actions by saying they needed to keep the balance of the souls between the human world and the soul society, lest the destruction of the souls create Armageddon. Ichigo assumes that this was why Uryu is so bent on hating soul reapers, but actually he agreed with them. It was the murder of his sensei that set him off. He wasn't killed by soul reapers, but Uryu believes that the reapers allowed five hollows to overwhelm him. Uryu gives a long elaborate speech about how he wants to prove his superiority, but Ichigo corrects him and makes him realize that his sensei would want him to work with the soul reapers and not against them.

After more posturing from both parties, they agree to protect each other so they they can fight after they're no longer in mortal peril. Shortly after, the two hands of a hollow called "Menos Grande" pull open the crack in the sky. Urahara and his employees appear to take care of the smaller hollows, allowing Ichigo to concentrate on the massive hollow ahead of him. They try to take him out with a full on approach, but are quickly knocked aside. Uryu's bow is empowered by siphoning energy off of Ichigo's sword. Uryu suggests that they tie the sword to his head and release all of his spirit energy at once so they can fire one big arrow. Ichigo doesn't know how to release that energy, however, and instead uses his sword to block a "doom blast" from the hollow.

Ichigo sends the energy back at the hollow and manages to repel it back into the fold of the sky. But, because Ichigo released all of his spirit energy at once, the power starts to break down his zanpaktau and run out of control. Uryu tries to release his spirit energy by funneling the excess power into arrows shot into the sky and succeeds, but the strain exhausts both of them.