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Bleach TBYW 7: Luke I am your father

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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

anime

Bleach 2025: The Year of Bleach

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So, I have an announcement to make. You know how there’s 366 episodes of the original series of Bleach? Well, there’s also 365 days in a year. (Sometimes 366.) Since I don’t feel like waiting for the next leap year, I’m going to leap into this as soon as I can.

That’s right, I will be reviewing one episode of Bleach per day for every day of the year. (The overflow episode will be reviewed on the first day of 2026.) Now, I can’t promise I’m going to do this perfectly. I’m planning on going to at least two anime conventions next year, as well as a couple of football conventions, and I fully plan on getting sick at least twice. So, there’s going to be some times when I fall behind. But I will do my best to review every episode of the anime and try to do them at the rate of one per day, all the way up to January 1, 2026.

Check back every day to see my daily reviews of Thousand Year Blood War and then the daily recaps of Bleach in 2025!

anime

Bleach TYBW 6: Substitution jutsu

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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

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Bleach TYBW 5: Ichigo, it’s Rukia. Renji’s here, Byakuya’s dead, call me back.

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Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 5 review

Way back in episode 52 of the original series, the first review I ever wrote was titled “Rukia, it’s Ichigo. Byakuya’s here, Renji’s dead, call me back.” It was a play off the old Seinfeld line “Jerry, it’s Frank Costanza. Steinbrenner’s here, George is dead, call me back.” So I felt it fitting to use the same title here.

Only… that’s exactly what happened in this episode. Byakuya gets beaten by his enemy with Renji watching as he goes down. Then the Soul Society, including Rukia, calls for Ichigo to come and rescue the whole place because they’re getting wiped out.

And the biggest problem going for TYBW at this point is that there’s actual concern that characters might actually die. When you watched the original Bleach, you knew there was no chance of any good guys dying, so you could get yourself swept up in the shounen excitement. There was nothing to lose there; the worst thing that might happen is that they’d lose an appendage but get it back later.

But now we’re closer to the end of the manga, and everyone can’t live forever. Plus, there are spoilers. But even without spoilers, you’ve got to figure… some of these characters are going to die, and it’s going to be painful.

So, watching Byakuya get the crap beat out of him makes you wonder… is this the end for one of the pillars of the Bleach series? And then it happens to Kenpachi at the end of the episode. Is this really it? Or are these guys going to make us all happy in our shounen feels, like they always do?

Old Man Yamamoto never had a backstory, and certainly his Lieutenant didn’t, either. (Or Vice-Captain, I can’t remember which one is the correct term.) So, we finally get one for both of them, even though one of them is already dead. And the Old Man’s still got it; he easily defeats his opponent in front of Shuhei Hisagi, the guy who is popular and important but never actually does anything.

So, Ichigo’s in “Jail,” Yamamoto’s forced to go out on the front lines, Byakuya’s beaten to a pulp, Kenpachi’s in a chokehold, and Rangiku cut her hair. All of these issues are very troublesome. Can everyone hold it together for the next 47 or so episodes?

Best girl of the episode: Rukia Kuchiki

Episode rating: 9/10