Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 9 review

Half this episode is thrilling, the other is tomfoolery. Let’s start with the good stuff. Shunsui has been promoted to Head Captain, so he’s bringing Nanao Ise with him as one of two Lieutenants. He also has the wish that Kenpachi Zaraki goes for training so he can become even more powerful than he already is. That might help, given his weakness against Yhwach.

So, Kenpachi goes to the bottom floor of the Soul Society, where he meets none other than Captain Unohana of Squad 4. She says that she is actually Yachiru Unohana, a name everyone is familiar with, as Yachiru is the name of Kenpachi’s Lieutenant. And now they go into battle, one-on-one, a battle to the death. It’s obvious who’s gonna win. Why would Kenpachi go for training only to get killed off in said training? So, this is Unohana’s swan song, and we will have to enjoy her final moments, as she does this for the better of the Soul Society.

But until then, how about the tomfoolery? Ichigo and Renji literally have the “training” of having to eat… eat, eat, eat. This is one of my big problems with anime, that there are so many characters who do nothing but eat. Ichigo and Renji fill that role in this episode. They eat and eat and eat, and then they’re ready for the next bit of training. Oh well, at least we know they’re not dead. And that means Byakuya and Rukia have made it as well, I would assume. (Rukia obviously we’re sure of, Byakuya there’s always a tiny chance that he might have a heroic death.)

The Unohana-Zaraki fight continues next episode! Time to say so long to sweet Retsu and revel in Zaraki’s new powers!

Best girl of the episode: Unohana (2)

Episode rating: 8/10

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

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 7 review

“Obi-Wan never told you about what happened to your father.”

And so it goes. Look, I am trying to stay as positive as possible about this, but this episode made no sense. Yamamoto getting split in two? Okay, that made sense, right after we got a brief flashback for him. But how is Ichigo suddenly here after being stuck in Quilge’s Jail? You’d think they would have at least resolved that before just suddenly popping him out here in the Soul Society. Instead, we’re just supposed to think “he got out cause he’s Ichigo.” And while that’s true, it would have been a lot more powerful if we would have gotten a dramatic breakout by Ichigo shown on screen rather than just an assumed one.

But it gets worse. Ichigo battles Yhwach, and he has no chance. Okay, that I can live with, I understand how we’re trying to build up Yhwach and the Quincys to be the most powerful villains since Aizen. But Yhwach decides he’s not going to kill off Ichigo, or even to continue to destroy the Soul Society. Instead, he decides to just… go away. And all of his minions, too. Really? This seems to be a too-easy way to explain away why Yhwach doesn’t triumph right here and now. I would have much preferred if they fought to a stalemate or something. Instead, it’s Yhwach completely dominating and then suddenly deciding he’s not going to continue, for no real reason at all. His parking meter ran out or something. I know we’ve got to pad this out for 52 episodes, but come on.

And then he throws out some stuff to Ichigo, saying he never knew what happened to his mother. And that Ichigo is his “son of the darkness.” This is crazy talk. We now have to retcon Ichigo’s backstory for some reason. I think I know the reason why, via spoilers, but I’m never a fan of retconning. Oh well. At least Ichigo has some secret reason for something to do something to someone.

Not a terrible episode by any means. Just a little too many things that made no sense and could not be explained away, except by retconning. So, hopefully we get an improvement here.

Best girl of the episode: None (not sure a single female got more than a second of screen time)

Episode rating: 5/10