Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 6 review
There’s a real problem when a non-main character fights the Big Bad only six episodes into a 13-episode season. You know for sure that said character is going to die and that the Big Bad will survive. Even if it is Captain of Squad 1, Old Man Yamamoto.
Yamamoto shows off his Bankai to Yhwach, which predictably ends in disaster. He fires up his flames to 15 million Celsius (as opposed to the much cooler 15 million Fahrenheit) and then goes on to revive everyone he’s ever defeated as skeletons, like those are going to stop his opponent. It’s a lot of cool animation, for sure, but we know Yhwach’s not going to die six episodes in. So, after all these attacks, he’s blown a hole into Yhwach’s body. Yeah, that’s it.
But it wasn’t even Yhwach to begin with! Because Yhwach used a substitution jutsu to turn that Quincy, whoever he was, into a fake Yhwach who was just there to get Yamamoto off his guard. And now Yhwach goes and steals Yamamoto and probably kills him. I say “probably” because we haven’t had the sad flashback yet, so that death may have to wait an episode.
If this fight had occurred in the last episode of season 1, even though I’ve been spoiled, this would have been thrilling to watch. But knowing that the Big Bad can’t die this early, it makes things obviously clear that this is the end for Yamamoto. Put Rukia up against him, and we know Rukia can’t die. But Yamamoto is disposable. You can always get a new Squad 1 Captain.
And besides, Yamamoto’s decisions made very little sense. After he pulls out those skeletons, he walks away as if the skeletons are going to finish off Yhwach. Then he blows a hole in Yhwach and again walks away, instead of finishing him off. Yamamoto waits 300+ episodes into his existence to pull off his Bankai, and then couples it with this stupidity? Come on. The old man can’t be that dumb.
One brief note: Yhwach visited the imprisoned Aizen, who is arrogant as ever. Now that’s a storyline I want to see – whether or not Aizen gets involved in this fight, something I haven’t even been spoiled on for the most part. Could that turn into something really cool? Or are they just teasing us? We’ll see.
Best girl of the episode: Retsu Unohana, for that one brief scene where she’s with Isane Kotetsu
Episode rating: 6/10
Tommy A. Phillips 