Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 15 review

When was the last time Lieutenants actually were useful? And for that matter, three of them in the same episode? Even the weakest ones? Because that’s what happens here.

First, 10th Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto provides a solid defense core for herself and Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya. Then, newly-minted 1st Lieutenant Nanao Ise also provides a force field to hold off one of the “Stern Ritters” – the term for the new bad guys. Finally, 2nd Lieutenant Marechiyo Omaeda is able to protect his sister until his Captain shows up.

And boy, does she ever show up. Soi Fon comes out of nowhere to fight the Stern Ritter, and she does mostly a good job before eventually running out of gas. Same with Toshiro. He fights a good fight before his opponent overpowers him. Meanwhile, Mayuri is off facing a Stern Ritter in a suit made out of lights. I’m not sure how many lights there are, but my best guess that… there… are… FOUR… lights!

All these battles prove that we’re in for a whole lot of good battles, even if they have to be one-on-one battles. I want to see Soi Fon and Toshiro kick these guys’ asses. I hate the Stern Ritters and hope they get wiped off the face of the Soul Society. And with Kisuke Urahara (Mr. Hat & Clogs!) saying that he might have a way of returning the stolen Bankais… yeah, this could get really good here.

Best girl of the episode: Soi Fon (4)

Episode rating: 8/10

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 14 review

So, everything gets reset in this episode. Ichigo’s training in the Squad 0 lair, Orihime and Chad are training in Hueco Mundo, and Renji and Rukia are training as well. Uryu has joined the ranks of the Quincys and now has been named Yhwach’s successor. And now the Quincys plan on destroying the Soul Society in nine days. These are going to be the longest nine days of our lives.

The most interesting part of this episode is when new Head Captain Shunsui shows up in the world of the living to tell Ichigo’s pals that there’s a 1-in-10,000 shot that Ichigo may never come back, so here’s a few bus tickets to the Soul Society just in case! The concept of the “Soul Pass” might be one of the ironically funny things in Bleach. This entire scene made absolutely no sense, but what made even less sense was that Tatsuki barely got a word in while Ichigo’s other two friends did all the talking. Didn’t Tatsuki use to be important? I thought she was Ichigo’s best friend. Why is she being shoved to the side like this? I wanted to give my “best girl” to her today, but I’m afraid it’s going to have to go elsewhere.

Overall, not a bad episode, but not all that great either.

Best girl of the episode: Orihime (3)

Episode rating: 6/10

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