Bleach: The Thousand Year Bloody War (TYBW) Part 4 The disaster It released its first episode today and with it comes the return of one of Shonen Jump’s Big 3 members – my personal favorite of the trio. Bleach: A Thousand-Year Blood War It first aired in October 2022, marking over a decade since the original release ovary The anime aired and fans were completely stunned by the series’ return. The second court of TBW The third aired in 2023 and the third in 2024. We’ve had to wait a very short time for these versions and it’s fortunate that this final court was available as quickly as it was.
What is most exciting about Bleach: A Thousand-Year Blood War It is the opportunity it gives ovary To make updates and revisions to the story and its characters. This is at least partly due to the somewhat fast pace and abrupt ending of the film ovary Manga, a lot of characters were either left underutilized or relegated to employer status. Squad 0 was introduced with aplomb before being quickly killed off, Yhwach’s background and motivations felt somewhat vague, and Ichigo’s development during the war was somewhat lacking. All this and more has been improved in TBW (Although I still think Squad 0 ended up sloppy.) This gives me a lot of hope for a much better ending than the one we saw in the manga. If such an ending were to come to fruition, it would be in this final court.
Speaking of the first episode, it was a good adaptation of the corresponding chapters, but it wasn’t impressive, with the battle scenes seeing the most notable improvements. This was especially true for Uryu’s part, now that his combat abilities had been extensively upgraded TBW. The star of the episode was Yoruichi, whose unique abilities and… origins took center stage along with some prodding (literal and figurative) from Urahara. This episode seemed like an appetizer, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. This was recently confirmed to be a 10-episode series, based on approximately 25 remaining chapters of the manga. Consider some early episodes of TBW Covering roughly 4 chapters in one episode, this means the anime has plenty of time to bring the pace steady and hopefully fill in any lulls with original anime content. Overall, this episode did its job.
Oreo is back on track
The episode opened in a way that I liked very much, as the first moments showed Ywatch dreaming that Ichigo was attacking him and interrupting him. This dream, which Yhwach describes as “no better dream than a nightmare” is interesting – the vignette style in which it is depicted reminds me of the flashbacks to the primal world that have appeared in previous cycles, Yhwach in the dream does not make use of the Almighty, and Ichigo and Shikai’s outfits are ones that match his appearance from long ago in the series before his Fullbring awakened. Perhaps the most notable thing is that this dream occurs now. While I won’t reveal any major details about this dream other than what was shown in the anime, I will point out that this is not where it takes place in the manga. However, I think it works well as an opening section. Suddenly cutting music is annoying and requires single focus. The events of the dream itself make the audience immediately start asking questions.
This immediately transitions into a comprehensive look at where everyone has been since the events of the Third Hall. I appreciated this gentle reminder of the status of most of the characters rather than a long recap; Although the pacing needed to be adjusted from the manga, I don’t think it was necessary to air a recap episode as part of the season. The rest of the episode’s opening sequences send various characters to their stations to fight. Ichigo and Uryu have an honest conversation as Ichigo leaves Haschwalth to him, smiling. Ichigo leaves an assortment of stone statues for Chad (weirdly, frowning at the thought even though he just smiled in the same conversation with Uryu) and hurries to the throne room alongside Orihime.
Returning to Uryu, the episode gives way to a fight between him and Haschwalth, who is now using Almighty. The anime includes a new action sequence with an impressive set of interactions between the powers of the Almighty and Uryu’s updated powers. Haschwalth can dodge all of Uryu’s arrows and constructs with relative ease, moves smoothly and leaves behind a sort of visually pleasing image effect. The fight choreography was good but not great. I can’t help but compare it to Ichigo and Uryu’s fight, which had a lot of up close and personal events that had more of an impact on it. In contrast, these combat arrows look much more CG than before and don’t move quite as smoothly on screen in my opinion. The parts that Haschwalth avoids looked smooth precisely because the Heilig Pfeil itself looks like rays of light when moving quickly and linearly. This quality seems to be improved in the episode’s final scene for Uryu, which makes me think there were some conscious choices made about where and how to move her. Overall, this was again a good but not great fight. One final note on this topic – I found it very interesting that Oreo’s glasses are strong enough that they don’t shatter when stabbed with a sword, making them seem more durable than Oreo himself.
Poison and cat
I was never a huge fan of Askin when I read the manga, but he honestly impressed me quite a bit, and I think that’s largely due to his great voice acting. He perfectly conveys a fair amount of the smugness and laziness that I’ve come to appreciate in contrast to how utterly broken his abilities are. This portion of the battle involving him, Yoruichi, and Urahara (and Yoshiro I believe) was a very faithful adaptation of the manga, right down to the episode’s title card proudly emblazoned directly to Yoruichi’s left. This section of the episode drags a bit (as does the corresponding section of the manga). ovary Taking the time to reiterate all the special threats as well as having a decent long conversation between Yoruichi and Askin.
Eventually, someone throws a punch, and we’re treated to a nice hand-to-hand sequence. It’s very smooth and has some satisfyingly fast movements, but I can’t help but think that the quality and clarity of the background has dropped a lot. It made it easy to focus on the combat itself, but it was strange that a lot of what was on screen was out of focus, at least for me. This only lasts briefly; Once we finally He does Cue the long-awaited reveal of Yoruichi’s new form, and it becomes immediately clear where the focus of the episode is supposed to be.
Yoruichi’s Thunderous Black Cat Battle Princess model is gorgeous, at least visually. On the face of it, I don’t like that Yoruichi’s strongest yet managed to remove more of her clothes, and have her rub all over Urahara, a figure in which she has no real control over her actions. Putting that aside, it’s a pretty cool combination of her cat abilities and her Shunko abilities. TBWBiggest promotion for ovary Maybe it’s her lighting, an ability she takes full advantage of. The lightning effects are incredibly bright and dynamic, with energy crackling around Yoruichi’s body the entire time. Although she is only active for a few minutes, the blows she delivers are real strikes, and the anime (mostly) shows the effect of fists and claws rather than slashing. This fight was definitely the better of the two, although it was a bit slow in the first half. Askin isn’t down for the count though, and I’m excited to see Urahara fight himself, as he is without a doubt one of the most entertaining fighters in the entire series.
Looking ahead to BLEACH: TYBW Part 4 – Cataclysm
Overall, I give this episode a 7/10. It was presented well in places, but the slow animation during parts of Uryu’s fight and the unevenly distributed quality during Yoruichi’s fight made it frustrating for me. However, it was a great entry into this court that has me excited for the battles to come. It’s adapted roughly 3 chapters from the manga, which means that at the current pace there’s plenty of room for more original anime content. This is more exciting.
You can watch Bleach: The Thousand Year Bloody War (TYBW) on Holo and Disney+.
© Tite Kubo/Shueisha, TV Tokyo, Dentsu, Pierrot