Even with all the filler material, I still thought it was a pretty decent episode.

I'm actually glad the animators cut corners when it came to the spacey out scenes with Kairiya, it's not as if many people actually cared about his screentime to begin with. The way I see it, it's better to save up a good budget for more important and memorable scenes like the Ichigo and Grimmjow fight, (God, I loved that episode) rather than share it out evenly.

Even if it would have been more enjoyable to see Ichigo and his hollow just fight the whole episode instead. Somehow the whole idea of Ichigo confronting his past enemies while in a mind daze seems kinda clichéd.