Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 13 review

It’s cleanup time for TYBW! The end of one season means the preparation for the next. And that means those Captains who had their Bankai stolen having to go for training. Soi Fon, of course, is the one I think of first, which should come as no surprise to anyone reading this. She can apparently handstand with one hand on top of mountains. Meanwhile, Komamura the wolf (not fox) goes to a much bigger wolf, which I imagine is InuYasha’s father, to unlock stuff from his clan (why didn’t he do this earlier, and why isn’t Big Wolf the Captain instead of Komamura?). Toshiro and Shuhei Hisagi go for training too, with Hisagi taking a gut punch from his training partner.

The most boring thing about Bleach has always been the scenes with Zangetsu. I forgot about how boring they were until this episode. But basically, Zangetsu = Yhwach, whose name is pronounced “Yuwabara” as if he was a mix of Yusuke and Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho. That should come as no surprise to anyone who knew that both characters were voiced by Richard Epcar, but sure enough, it came as a surprise to me. Somehow I didn’t get spoiled on that even though it was plainly obvious.

Finally, Uryu shows up to Yhwach and decides he’s going to fight for him, and now Yhwach’s calling Uryu his son too. How many people did this guy father? I’d be happy to see Ichigo fight Uryu, and even happier to see him defeat him. But that’s getting ahead of us. For now, we’ve got a good setup for the next season, where we’ll see this battle continue. And hopefully it won’t take a thousand years to complete!

Best girl of the episode: Soi Fon (3)

Episode rating: 7/10

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 12 review

Half this episode is simply Urahara cooking up an in-depth explanation for the purpose of getting out of being painted into a corner. It’s retcon city, so to speak. Basically, Ichigo’s mother, out of nowhere, starts getting Hollowfied. Urahara shows up out of nowhere to save her. Then he brings Isshin and Uryu’s father with him and basically tells them that the only way to save Masaki is for Isshin to give up his Soul Reaper powers. Very convenient. Uryu’s father isn’t too happy about it, but what can he do? The retcon didn’t include him.

So now we’ve found a way to make Ichigo’s mother Hollow and Quincy, and his father of course is a Soul Reaper. That covers everything, right? Enough to make it so that Ichigo can be everything to everybody. In between, Urahara comes up with a vaccine to save Masaki from “soul suicide.” But even he can’t save her from Yhwach, who is now the one responsible for her death – more retconning! And now that Ichigo has been told everything from his father, he can now go back to the Soul Society and, in the words of Jeff Probst, “get it on!”

Listening to Urahara ramble on and on about all this Hollow stuff was sort of like watching paint dry. It was in essence an info dump for the purpose of tightroping the line that allows Ichigo to be Quincy yet for everything that has happened to still kind of sort of make sense. At least we’re through with this annoying flashback.

Best girl of the episode: Masaki (2)

Episode rating: 6/10

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 11 review

So, the big news is in: Ichigo’s mother was a Quincy. Which probably was a surprise at one time, but at this point had become very obvious. How else could Ichigo have escaped from Quilge’s Jail without having Quincy powers? (Remember: we still have never seen how Ichigo escaped from there.)

I’ve realized that my interest in Bleach is heavy on the side of the Soul Society/Hueco Mundo and very, very light on the side of the world of the living. I pretty much couldn’t care less what happens in the world of the living, unless it somehow involves Kisuke/Yoruichi. So, I was a bit bored by Ichigo’s quest to learn the truth.

But then we get a flashback as to how Ichigo’s father and mother meet. It’s not bad. It does beg the question, why did it take so long for us to find out if we aren’t being retconned, but at least we’ve got that now established. Toshiro and Rangiku show up, too, as if to tell me, we still are in the Soul Society, so don’t stop paying attention. And I won’t. But this episode wasn’t as good as the last few.

Rangiku, don’t you go and cut your hair, do you really think it’ll make Isshin stay? Okay, enough with the Pavement.

Best girl of the episode: Masaki Kurosaki

Episode rating: 6/10

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 10 review

Oh, Unohana. You provided us with such serenity and stability over the years. When it looked like the Gotei 13 would crumble, you stood strong as a pillar of hope and peace. And now, you have chosen to lay your life down for Kenpachi Zaraki.

From what I get, “Kenpachi” is actually a title more than it is a name, and Unohana used to be “Kenpachi.” She is just as bloodthirsty as anyone in Squad 11, yet she hides it under that interior. And, without spoiling myself too badly, I have come to the conclusion that she purposely lost this battle in order to make Zaraki stronger and allow him to take her powers into the upcoming fight.

But it’s still heartbreaking. Why couldn’t Unohana have joined the fight? Why did she have to die? Wasn’t there another way of getting Zaraki strong? I don’t exactly understand why Unohana had to be killed off, especially after a battle that was straightforward as hell. There wasn’t any strategy to it, it was just simply a sword fight with Unohana’s Bankai not really doing all that much. It was rather disappointing that this is the way Unohana went out – clearly the stronger of the two, but putting the needs of many in front of the needs of one.

As for Ichigo and Renji, they’re in training mode. So there’s more tomfoolery with those two, and nothing much that matters right now. Honestly, Ichigo’s arc has become so ridiculous that I’m almost completely ignoring it, while keeping all my focus on the quickly changing Soul Society. Unohana is gone… but she will never be forgotten.

Best girl of the episode: Do I even need to say? Unohana (3)

Episode rating: 8/10