Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 20 – Impure Imagination

Stern Ritter “V” Gwenael Lee interrupts Isane’s healing of Muguruma and Rose, and Yachiru’s slash-first, ask-questions-later approach seems to be ill-advised, as Gwnael is able to mask his existence from her sight, touch, and even memory. However, Yachiru doesn’t have to rely on any of those things to score a hit on her opponent: she can use instinct alone, a “tingle” Kenny told her to trust.

Yachiru draws her sword for the first time, revealing her Shikai, Sanpo Kenju. It take the form of two big fluffy buddies copying her every move, such that the more an opponent tries to gauge distance and timing, the more they misjudge it and get struck by one of her synchronized blades.

It’s pretty damn cool, and Yachiru drawing her sword and demonstrating some of her true power has been a long time coming. Unfortunately, while it seems to be enough to defeat Gwenael, he turns out to be nothing but a figment of the imagination of the real Stern Ritter “V”—Gremmy Thoumeaux (voiced by Tanjirou himself, Hanae Natsuki).

Called the “Visionary”, anything Gremmy imagines becomes reality, whether it was Gwenael Lee (whom he un-imagines when he’s beaten) or something absurd, like Yachiru’s bones turning into cookies. Anyone else would have been screaming in pain, but Yachiru is made of sterner stuff. Still, with cookie bones she’s essentially at Gremmy’s mercy.

She and Isane are bailed out by the return of Zaraki Kenpachi. He gravely informs Isane that Captian Unohana is dead and he killed her, but Isane doesn’t seem to harbor any ill will. In fact, knowing Zaraki rightfully succeeded Unohana’s Kenpachi title brings tears to her eyes.

Gremmy uses his imagination to build a venue suitable for his battle with one of Soul Society’s strongest. He blocks Zaraki’s first strike by imagining his skin is stronger than steel, but of course Zaraki’s blade can cut steel. He tells Gremmy, with perfect confidence, that his “puny” imagination can’t create anything he can’t cut.

Gremmy accepts that challenge, and the mayhem commences.

Gremmy declares he’ll kill Zaraki not even with one finger, but only with his mind. He summons flame, but Zaraki cuts through it. He conjures a cube of water around Zaraki that follows him as he rescues Yachiru from falling to her death, then has the stone fortress close around him. But again, Zaraki slashes through.

When Zaraki puts it to Gremmy that if he considers himself the strongest Quincy, doesn’t he want to crush the strongest Shinigami? That’s when, for the first timy, Gremmy actually has the desire to kill someone: Zaraki. He conjures hundreds of guns, but all the bullets hit is stone Zaraki kicks up. He conjures missiles, but Zaraki slices through them.

Then Gremmy splits himself into two Gremmies, which he says gives him double the imaginative power—which he uses to conjure a damn meteor.

He also imagines that he can no longer be killed, but even if Zaraki manages to do so, he can’t stop the reality of the meteor bearing down on Soul Society. When it impacts, nothing will be left but Gremmy. But yet again, he doesn’t get it: anything he imagines, Zaraki can cut. Befitting Zaraki’s squad number, this battle is taken to 11.

He unleashes his Nozarashi’s Shikai and cleaves the meteor clean in two, which is an extremely cool sight to see. Even then, Gremmy decides to ditch matter altogether and open a pocket to outer space, and casts Zaraki into the vacuum. Unfortunately for Gremmy, Nozarashi can cut through the fabric of space.

Gremmy then switches to what looks like the power of blue giant stars to blast Zaraki to smithereens, but his blade continues to cut through all. Gremmy calls him a monster, and inadvertently imagines that he is one in reality. While that is pretty much the reality anyway, the key fact is that Gremmy got lost in and undone by the logic of his powers.

As he decorporealizes, revealing his true form as an inert brain in a jar, Gremmy admits defeat, as only Zaraki’s body, not the body he had imagined for himself, can withstand Zaraki’s powers. He may be gone but thanks to Hanae Natsuki and one all-timer of a battle with Zaraki, he won’t be soon forgotten.

Horimiya: Piece – 08 – There’s Something About Yanagi

Last week contained the most significant Yanagi Akane screen time since the first season, and he was never the most present of the nine principal characters. That changes this week as it’s all Yanagi, all the time. In the cold open, Tooru finds his lost contact on the floor.

Remi and Kyouko put on a whole song and dance as cover for the fact they simply don’t want Yanagi to wait for a late bus alone in the cold. While Ryouko has Izumi, Remi has Sengoku, etc., Yanagi seems to be the one whom everyone likes, and belongs to everyone. So everyone wants to go out of their way to be kind to him.

When his teacher warns Yanagi’s class that future tardiness will be punished, he gets anxious, because he is simply rubbish at getting up in the morning. When he tries to go to bed earlier he just wakes up at odd hours. He has two alarm clocks, but one always seems to be broken.

Sengoku, Izumi, Ryouko and Tooru hear his story, put their heads together, and come up with an ironclad solution to get him up on time: Izumi and Tooru will call him, and Sengoku will text him (though that bit is just because everyone thinks Sengoku’s texts are unintentionally hilarious).

The next morning, Yanagi’s alarm goes off, but he holds it upside town and thinks it’s only 1:30 rather than 7:00. When Izumi calls, Yanagi refuses to wake up, but after Tooru calls and Sengoku texts, he can’t help but get up. He thanks them for their help, but assures them he can get up on his own tomorrow. Alas, his one remaining alarm clock is busted!

The final segment of this episode of Piece involves Sengoku being self-conscious about Yanagi speaking to him so formally, and as Yanagi explains it, he only speaks casually to people he wants to be good friends with. Sengoku takes this to believe Yanagi doesn’t want to be good friends.

Tooru assures him that’s not the case; Yanagi is initially formal with everyone, including him, so Sengoku shouldn’t despair. Sure enough, when their vending machine mixup is reversed, Yanagi buys Sengoku a drink more to his taste, and is a little more casual with him this time.

Still, Sengoku is a little envious of some of his friends being closer with Yanagi than him. Call it a bro-crush if you must! He notes that Shuu and Yuki, the biggest “airheads” of the group, seem to be the ones Yanagi gets along with best, but doubts he could ever bump into a wall, apologize to that wall and glare at it.

Tooru tries to show him how to simply be spontaneous by walking up to Yanagi and tickling him, but when Sengoku practices with Tooru as Yanagi, it doesn’t go well. To Tooru it felt like being molested. Izumi overhears this and confuses the issue further.

That’s when Yanagi defends Sengoku’s honor and says he’d never molest anyone. In the end, Sengoku doesn’t have to worry about how close he is to Yanagi, because from Yanagi’s perspective they’re plenty close already.

P.S. I never skip the Horimiya: Piece ED. It’s one of the best of the summer and it’s genuinely moving every time. It’s a sweet mélange of moments of young love, friendship, and bittersweet yearning that perfectly captures the gentle kindness of the cast.

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 31 – The Ruka Line

It’s August 26th, Ruka’s birthday. And for her birthday she wants to go on a date with Kazuya, so on a date they go. Her goal is to make her heart race as well as his, so she has Kazuya take her to the pool, she dons her first bikini, and she asks Kazuya to apply sunblock to her back and legs. It turns out to be an overload of stimulation for the both of them.

After the pool, ice cream, and a sumptuous hotel buffet feast, Kazuya and Ruka head to the beach, which both note is a place where several other couples are getting frisky. Kazuya feels guilty for continuing to lead Ruka on as her “trial” boyfriend, and tries to lay the groundwork for gently extricating himself from the relationship.

Naturally, he tries to make it about him not deserving a girlfriend as angelic as Ruka, and apologizes to her for making her go out of her way for his sake. The tack doesn’t work. She slaps his shoulder and tells him he’s not doing this for her sake, or to get one up on Chizuru. She simply had a dream of going on a fun date with her boyfriend on her birthday…that’s it!

Kazuya really is a cad for not so much as bringing a physical birthday gift, but Ruka forgives him even for this, because she wants a gift he can give her right there and then. She wants to drop the honorific and call him simply “Kazuya”, he agrees, and makes her happy beyond belief.

We’re now past the halfway point of this third season, so it made sense to re-introduce Ruka as a legitimate threat to Kazuya and Chizuru getting together, and they don’t encounter one another in the whole episode. Instead, Sumi comes with flowers for her gran, along with some much-needed words from a third party.

Sumi tells Chizuru that Kazuya worked so hard, and how many times he almost gave up, only to get back on his feet each time, all for Chizuru. She says Chizuru’s desire combined with Kazuya’s support to make something amazing together. The sentiments bring tears to Sumi, and Chizuru’s genuine smile shows that she appreciates them.

After Sumi departs after shyly saying hello, Granny Sayuri notes how Chizuru seems to have made more friends since meeting Kazuya. Unbidden, Chizuru starts talking about Kazuya, initially with irritation with how little he knew about filmmaking at first and eventually with admiration and fondness, her whole face lighting up as she remembers him falling in the drink and having to cross dress.

Watching Chizuru go on like this about someone brings a smile to Sayuri’s face, and she tells Chizuru that true love begins when you’re having the time of your life talking about them. Chizuru insists it’s not like that, as is her wont, but her blushing face suggests otherwise.