Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 26 (Part 2 Fin) – Ant Trap

At first, it looks like Yhwach’s Auswählen ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Squad Zero takes the upper hand in every fight, while Ichibei unleashes his zanpakuto, Ichimonji, which he uses to paint things black. Anything painted, like Yhwach’s sword, loses its name, thus rendering it useless. Another point to Squad Zero.

But, as has been so often the case in these high-level battles, the Quincy manage to turn the tables and take down the Squad Zero members, one by one. As for Yhwach, he simply steals Black from Ichibei and envelops him in blue flame. Another point to Team Quincy.

Finally, Squad Zero stops playing around. They reveal that they’d only been using a small fraction of their power, the rest being bound by one anothers’ lives. But when Kirinji, Hikifune, and Nimaiya all kill themselves, the blood oath seal on the surviving Shutara is broken, and she’s able to wield her full power, causing earthquakes on all three worlds.

She summons her Bankai, which has a very long name and takes the form of a colossal loom. The Royal Guard members plus Haschwalth and Uryuu are all surrounded by various patterns of cloth, chosen by Shutara to eliminate them in unique, trippy ways, all while uttering highfalutin poetry describing their demises.

Finally, the blue flames around Ichibei dissipate. Turns out Black wasn’t Yhwach’s to steal. The moment Ichibei released Ichimonji, anything and everything in the three worlds is fair game to be painted black. Ichibei then releases his “Bankai”, which I put in quotes because it technically far predates that concept.

The ink on his brush turns from black to white, enabling him to write a new name for Yhwach on his black ink-covered body. Ichibei chooses “black ant”, and Yhwach becomes so. Ichibei first stomps on him with a gigantic foot, then as he’s falling through the sky he smashes him between two giant palms.

We cut to credits from this apparent but almost certainly premature victory, and afterwards we get a very tonally dissident omake sequence featuring Kon, whom we haven’t seen in quite some time, and whom I wasn’t that interested in seeing anyway.

The weird, out-of-place omake aside, this finale, while featuring plenty of bombastic battles and table-turning, didn’t have quite the luster it could have had for the simple reason that of the eleven combatants, only one was a character I actually cared about: Ishida Uryuu. There’s no freakin’ way he’s dead, either, so we’ll have to wait till next year for his showdown with Ichigo & Co.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 25 – Spring Rain

Sarugaki Hiyori and the other Visored show up to find Urahara preparing…er, something, and Hiyori chastises him for sending Ichigo, Yoruichi and the others before they arrived . Yoruichi’s little sister also shows up; I don’t believe we’ve ever met her, but she’s too late to give her sister a large care package.

Then again, perhaps she and the Visored will eventually serve as reinforcements for Ichigo and the others, whom we don’t see this week. Instead, Ichibei scolds and battles Yhwach, using a painted seal to conjure a giant hand that blasts the Quincy King 1000 ri (or roughly 2,500 miles) away, then slaps him back to where he started.

Nimaiya fights a still-alive Askin in a battle of poisoned blood, Kirinji seemingly beats Haschwalth in a duel of blades, and Ishida’s reishi projectiles bounce gently off of Shutara’s hastily-sewn umbrella like droplets of spring rain. Hikifune remarks that Squad Zero isn’t messing around anymore.

Ichibei seems to indulge Yhwach in a bit of melee fighting before using his brush to cut the very name of Yhwach’s arm, reducing it to “ar-” and halving its strength and speed, then shortening Yhwach’s own name to “Yhw”. All in all, it looks like an overwhelming victory for Squad Zero…but I knew it would be fleeting, because 1.) this is Bleach and 2.) there’s one episode left.

Here I was, taking small comfort in knowing Bambietta Basterbine’s suffering was at an end, but nope, here she is, being sucked dry of the blood Gigi gave her in order to heal herself. When she begs for her life, Gigi is again enraged and violent, then snapping back to swooning over Bambi’s lifeless corpse. What did Tite Kubo have against Bambi?!

Lili finds Gigi, and reports that Candice and Meninas and her faced off against Pepe, with mixed results. Lili wants to ensure Quincy forces are stabilized by the time His Majesty returns to Soul Society from the Palace. It seems all Gigi really wants to do is not die and keep fucking around with what’s left of Bambi.

Neither of them get their wish, as Yhwach—sorry, Yhw—seemingly has enough strength in him to activate Auswählen—German for “select”—which draws all of the powers of the Quincy down below (including Lili and Gigi’s) and redistributes it to the Quincy who need it most (Uryuu, Haschwalth, and the Royal Guard).

The lesser Quincy who have their powers and very souls stolen turn into skeletons, but the Sternritter seem to remain alive, if significantly weakened. I wonder it that means Yhwach can still draw from them should the need arise. And I assume if Ichigo’s party and Visored make it to the Palace in time, they’ll be able to re-tip the scales Yhwach just tipped in his favor. We’ll find out in the big Part 2 finish.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 14 – 9 Days

The eighteenth season of Bleach begins with a 2001 style trippy dream sequence in which a Star Child-like babe is born and then uniformly, fanatically adulated by the masses. Just another day inside the head of the King of the Quincy. It’s a vision of the past, but also the future, when the honor of the Quincy is restored. All it will cost is Soul Society, and the World of the Living as we know it.

In other words, No Pressure, Ichigo. Sure, he’s a shinigami again and has a shiny new zanpakuto, but Hyousube Ichibei makes sure he’s aware that he still has a long way to go. In his current form, he cannot defeat Yhwach. And at this point, Ichigo isn’t even aware that Ishida has chosen blood over friends and turned his coat. The return on that betrayal is considerable: Yhwach names him no less than his successor, confusing and infuriating many of the Stern Ritter.

No one’s sterner or ritterer or frikkin’ pissed off than Bambietta Basterbine, who has a terrible name but I still love her to bits. This is no doubt thanks in large part to Taketatsu Ayana having every word she utters drip with contempt. But also, “Bambi” has a penchant for picking a hot guy out of the rank-and-file, inviting him to her room, not to fuck, but to just kill him. The other members of the Female Quincy Caucus take exception to this, not because it’s serial murder, but because the guys are hot.

Like Bambi, the mohawked hawthead Bazz-B is also none to pleased with Yhwach’s baffling decision to name Ichida his successor. For one thing, he thought His Majesty already had one: the Teutonic Haschwalth. When he confronts Haschwalth, calls him a coward, and they draw their weapons, a fight is broken up by their comrade, who refers to Haschwalth as “their future emperor”. Could a Stern Ritter squad really be a match for their king?

Meanwhile, Yhwach has Ishida in a position of subordination, with the camera often placing Ishida’s head right in the center of the king’s crotch before Ishida drinks blood from a cup and it stains his lips. Perhaps I shouldn’t read too much into any of that, but it’s clear Ishida has made his choice and is going all the way into Quincyland.

I don’t think this means he was never friends with Ichigo, Inoue, Chad, and the others. But he’s now putting his destined mantle as the Last Quincy ahead of those relationships…and the general well-being of at least two major realms of being. Blood runs thicker than water.

After a call from Shinji, Hiyori announces to the other assembled Visored that they’ll forthwith be forming the “Fixing the Super-Pain-In-The-Ass Distortion Between the Living World and Soul Society. Her comrades are generally less enthusiastic, but one can’t underestimate a crew of captain- and lieutenant-level fighters.

In without doubt the most adorable scene of the episode, Rukia and Renji are locked in a sweaty staring contest while their wooden swords are drawn. No, it’s not foreplay; it’s training. Renji says it’s tough because he doesn’t like staying still or pointing a weapon at an ally. The chemistry between these to continues to be lovely.

Even lovelier is Rukia’s face upon learning that her brother has recovered from his injuries. Byakuya is well aware his powers aren’t anything he can let get to his head, but he fully intends to obtain the strength to let it very much get to his head, which is very Byakuya.

Another nice scene involves Kyouraku paying a visit to Ichigo’s secondary school friends of Tatsuki, Keigo and Mizuiro, and letting them know they need to be prepared to say goodbye to their boy. He makes clear it’s only a 1 in about 10,000 chance that Ichigo’s training will result in him gaining a power that will keep him from returning to the living world. But it’s still a chance.

Faced with this courtesy, Keigo curses Kyouraku for once again using their friend for their own convenience. All Kyouraku can provide in return are tickets to Soul Society for the three of them, should the need arise for them to say goodbye to their friend forever. These are now Chekhov’s tickets to Soul Society…I expect them to be used!

Finally, we check in with Inoue and Chad, still training with the Arrancar Comedy Troupe. This makes for a quieter, warmer, and more contemplative atmosphere after all the drama and pomp before it. Inoue thinks it’s nice that they can exist in Hueco Mundo, helping out the Arrancar. Chad agrees. Both of these characters prefer the more peaceful route, so this tracks.

Unfortunately, the Quincy are not in a negotiating or forgiving mood. They were nearly wiped out by Soul Society, and now they’re returning the favor, plain and simple. Yhwach amends the timing of this rise by stating that the King of the Quincy shall regain control of the entire world (which is to say, all of the realms living or otherwise) in nine days.

The good guys have a lot of work to do, but I’m looking forward to them completing their training, getting back out to the battlefield, and getting into some very complex rollercoaster-y battles. Bleach has aged like a fine wine, with its cinematic direction and full orchestra operatic score. Every episode is an event, and this was a worthy prologue.