Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 8 review
It’s been so long since Kon appeared in Bleach that I started to think he wasn’t even a canon character. That he was a filler-only guy, someone who just got added for comic relief and never actually appeared in the manga. And who knows, maybe that’s true, I haven’t read the manga (yet). But Kon shows up in this episode, as basically a TV antenna, and that leads to some hilarity.
The more important stuff, however, is that Ichigo can’t get his Zanpakuto fixed, so how are we going to fix that? Introduce a brand-new Squad: District 13, or, I should say, Squad 0. Just like “there is no District 12” and Katniss waking up in District 13, suddenly we’ve got a new Squad, complete with just five members. They’ve come to save the day, via becoming Ichigo’s newest training partners and healing Byakuya, Renji, and Rukia.
The most entertaining part of this episode has to be Soi Fon blowing up in a meetup of the remaining Captains. She absolutely goes off, and it’s glorious to watch. Then she does the same with Squad 0, but one of the Squad 0 guys makes sure she knows that she can’t hold a candle to him. That’s all good and all, but where the hell were you guys just 5 minutes ago? Oh, you show up after the Head Captain’s dead. Good timing, guys!
Then the Squad 0 guys take away Ichigo’s gang and say they’re bringing him to the Soul King. Ichigo’s like, if it was that easy, then why the hell was it so hard for Aizen to get there? Didn’t he need the Oken? Squad 0 comes up with the retcon of “our bones are the Oken, Aizen was just trying to make an imitation of our bones.” So, Aizen must have been a real idiot all this time, because as much as he was succeeding in embarrassing all of mankind, he could have gotten into the Soul King’s domain a whole lot easier simply by going straight to Squad 0 and beating those guys instead. Ugh, retconning.
Great episode, by the way. Yeah, I’m serious, despite my complaints. Soi Fon’s rant, Orihime and Ichigo’s interaction via “Kon TV,” Ganju Shiba showing up for the first time in forever, Unohana and her motherly wisdom, Byakuya getting tossed into a pool of bubbly blood in order to heal… lots of stuff to like here. The only problem I see is that we had the main conflict happen too early, and that by the time the season ending rolls around, Ichigo will be stuck in a training arc. But things are moving a lot faster than in old Bleach, so maybe things will work out just fine.
Best girl of the episode: Soi Fon (2)
Episode rating: 8/10
Tommy A. Phillips 