Reviewing Monsters: Elden Ring, Part 3

Anyway, more monsters! Some of these I actually found while doing the 'part 2' article, but I moved them here so that one didn't go too long. 

I've done a bunch of stuff, and... I love this game to bits, but it really would benefit from a less 'yolo, figure things out' quest system. Like... I thought a lot of the stuff with Melina, Ranni and the Roundtable Hold was pretty well done. Not hand-holding a lot but not out-of-the-way to confuse you. But man, after finding several NPC's that are clearly there to teach other classes (the Faith spell vendor in the Hold; the Skills vendor in one of the shacks...) it's a bit unfair that Sorceress Sellen, the lady who sells Glintstone spells and who allows me to even read the Glintstone spell scrolls I have, is in a rather out-of-the-way part of Limgrave where I have to kill a bunch of flowers... then find the secret stairways into the cellar... then beat another boss... then realize that there's a door at the back-end of that room. It's easy once you know what to do, but it's so easy to miss her!

And the extra spells like the Carian Slicer did finally give me the extra oomph for me to beat Margit, meaning that I can slowly explore Stormveil Castle, the first "legacy dungeon", as the game calls it. I still alternate between going into Stormveil and running around the overworld, though it is nice to know that I'm making progress in the main story!

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled monster reviews!

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Skeletal Slime

We'll start off with some overworld enemies before we go to Stormveil Castle. And... okay, so basically the game's basic 'slime' enemy is... the Skeletal Slime here, who's just a mass of viscera and bones. It's actually a bit hard to tell what's going on here without knowing the name. It's actually surprising that the game designers didn't actually make the 'skeletal' part a bit more obvious like having a skull (or several skulls) be a bit more prominently displayed... but I guess it is just a mass of rot and clump. 

While visually not the most interesting, and gameplay wise I think they're there just to be annoying (they're not strong, they just absorb damage a lot) I do like the flavour of this one... the idea that necromancy doesn't just bring back whole zombies and skeletons, but sometimes just... just this butcher-shop... slop of nothing but gunk, yeah? A bunch of indistinguishable meat-blobs and random bones sticking out here and there... with the amount of people that die in the Lands Between, you can see how some of the undead that manifest would take this form. 

And from a gamer perspective? I find it cute that we have a traditional 'slime' enemy but done a bit differently. 

Miranda Sprout

Bizarre-looking flowers, aren't they? They're also deadly. I took them to be part of the surroundings, just... just a nice part of foliage, y'know? They dealt me the most humiliating death I've gotten so far. It's not even the big boss version that I'll cover shortly after this. It's these roughly child-sized flowers with nice pink petals and very visible plant anatomy... my botany isn't good enough to identify flowers, I'm afraid, but I do know that this guy's got stamens, and they also kinda remind me of like snail eyes or something. 

I do like that they resisted the urge to make this an obvious venus flytrap or some kind of a humanoid plant-man. No, it's just a big flower that actually does look rooted to the spot. Those roots actually wiggle around and allow the Miranda Sprout to move like the Pokemon Bellsprout, which is adorable. Speaking of Pokemon, these Miranda Sprouts are also extremely weak to fire magic, which will stun the plants and destroy the spores. 

Giant Miranda Sprout

The Giant Miranda Sprout is a fair bit bigger than its tiny buddies (you can see the regular Miranda sprouts near the roots of the one in this picture) and... it's still ultimately a big flower. There are some growths that might be intended to be teeth, and the pistil looks a bit mutated, like a fungal growth is growing out of it... but it's still just a flower. It's not mutated into a plant-animal monster like a Carnivine or a Audrey II or a Sarlacc! It's still a big, fat flower that shoots out clouds of poison.

...and orbital laser beam barrages. I'm not shitting you. I really was bamboozled by this one. Again, I was attacking the giant poison flower from afar after being screwed over by its younger cousins, but then it extends its stalk to lift the flower into the sky... and then a rain of heavenly white laser beams rains down from the sky. 

I mean, sure, why the fuck not? If I can believe that Grass-type Pokemon can launch Solarbeam, why not this girl, right? Though honestly, considering how the ever-present giant glowing Erdtree is basically god in this setting, it actually doesn't feel too far-fetched that 'plant magic' in this setting translates roughly to 'light magic' as well. 

Commoner

Okay, technically I have to beat up Margit (who I've mentioned many times now) before I can enter the first 'true' dungeon of the game, Stormveil Castle, who is ruled by the mighty demigod, Godrick the Grafted, infamous throughout the lands of Limgrave for his deviant acts of grafting, which means that I was anticipating a whole Resident Evil, Frankenstein's Monster level of body horror. 

...instead, we just get... humanoid enemies? Huh? Newer ones, sure, but the 'Commoner' here is really not that different from the 'Wandering Noble' enemies other than the shackles around their neck. Sure, a different kind of raggedy cursed human, I admit. Some are assholes who throw fire grenades to blow up explosive barrels. It's rather surprising that all the Commoners in Limgrave seem to be in Stormveil Castle, while only soldiers and nobles wander the overworld.  

Exile Soldier

Apparently, Godrick didn't care for the knights running around in tabards to guard his castle. Instead, these Exile Soldiers wearing a different set of armour and red hoods form the bulk of the soldiers in Stormveil Castle. I thought that maybe we'll get something cool with them, maybe these guys are grafted with Godrick... maybe if not visually, then maybe some abilities, like, maybe they can sprout extra limbs or something... no? 

Oh, wait, we've got these thorns running up their shields and leg armour and we've got thorns all around the castle! Aha! We established that the Erdtree magic has something to do with plants, maybe these guys have something related to plants and... huh? No? They just... shoot crossbows? Wow, Godrick, your soldiers are lame. 

These guys are 'soldiers sent to penal colonies', which... at this point, feels like it's a distinction without a difference from the lore given to me about the Wandering Nobles, except these guys get to run around in hoods and swing axes in the castle. 

Banished Knight

One of the stronger 'common' enemies in Stormveil Castle are these guys in full-plate armour. I respect them, and they are just the right amount of difficult to get me to tense up and get ready to throw down whenever I spy them. There's even one that ambushes you in a locked, dark room. It's a bit hard to tell, but there are several different helmet variations, too. Their lore is... they're 'knights sent to the fringes, where they were forced to start anew'. Because they're not as much losers as the other vagabonds sent to the Lands Between, they can still remain knights. They can create giant whirlwind shockwaves and there's a variant that breathes fire. Okay, neat. 

And... they're cool, but they're still just regular knights. I don't mind humanoid enemies, I really don't, but you can't really build up someone called "Godrick the Grafted" and not deliver with his minions! 

What's a bit surprising is that we don't even get to see some of the creepier enemies in Stormveil Castle. Not the Skeletal Slimes, not the Pumpkin Heads (apparently Godrick wasn't responsible for fusing pumpkins onto people's heads), not the Trolls (in fact, the only Trolls we see are hung upside-down)... just knights and hooded mercenaries. 

Warhawk

All right, at least something that is 'grafted'! The Warhawks are giant eagles that... have... fucking swords grafted in the place of their talons. You know what? That loops around into being so ridiculous, I actually appreciate the game designers for doing it. It's both whimsical and would've been a nice little 'oh, that's cute, Godrick also did that?' if the rest of the dungeon actually had some body horror enemies. 

The Warhawks, despite their goofy-looking appearances, hit hard, hit fast, and are gigantic assholes who can somehow perch with those giant samurai katana attached onto their feet. HOW DO YOU PERCH, HAWKS? To make things worse, these yahoos are intelligent enough to actually pick up explosive barrels and chuck them at you like a goddamn grenade. I would've been impressed if I wasn't so mad!

A stronger black-feathered variant also has a mask, and the mask has a pokey blade pointing out of it. I remember him, because he was hiding under a ledge ready to impale me as I jumped down off that ledge to try and progress. I like the Warhawks. 

 

Stray

Not exclusively found in Stormveil, but also showing up in some exterior parts of the castle (in particular a large clearing with a pile of dead corpses) are Strays, which basically behave similarly to the Wolves and Dogs. But where the dog looked rabid and diseased, the Stray model here just looks... rabid, diseased, and dead. Look at how its torso is basically already showing muscles anad ribcages underneath, and I don't think it's even got an abdomen left. This thing looks like a nasty undead dog, and I think they might've gotten transformed from feeding on the nasty corpses all around the castle. 

Grafted Scion

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, now that's a 'grafted' creature for you. The Grafted Scion is actually a monster we meet in the prologue, where it drops out of the sky and kills you, right before you wake up in what's basically the tutorial cave. I think having seen what a 'Grafted' monster looks like, I was expecting milder versions of the Grafted Scion to show up as Godrick's minions. 

The Grafted Scion reappears again, in perhaps one of the few genuinely nightmarish parts of Stormveil's Castle -- a giant dining room with severed limbs hanging down from the ceiling as if they were chandeliers. This giant Grafted Scion just scuttles around, making large noises that you can hear from elsewhere in the castle, and you even meet a poor near-victim of the grafting process, a poor traumatized lady called Roderika whose entire squadron was grafted and 'fused into the spider'. Turns out that this is the spider.

And it's just an amalgamation of many limbs! It's just scuttling around, this giant mass of meat and corpses, on a dozen human-sized arms... as well as some arms that are multiple human arms merged together. There's also a random bird wing stuck onto it. But I think the creepiest thing here is the contrast between the Resident Evil anatomy horror show and the fact that the main 'face' of the Spider is... a youngish-looking child, who was grafted mostly with an intact upper body and merged into this amalgamation of nasty limbs.

The end result does really look quite nasty and visually impressive, and I love that while there's a clear 'head', there's not a clear set of 'main' legs, which makes the whole thing look extra creepy. It just mostly makes use of its size and the swords it's holding in its massive hands... and honestly, while the initial encounter in the prologue was pretty terrifying, the actual Scion I meet in the Stormveil Castle felt quite... pathetic. It just wanders around and it's so stupid that you can sneak past him many times. And even if you do fight him, he's trapped inside the big building he's in, so you can really cheese him by shooting him from outside the door he's too big to get through, or use it as a way for him to 'cool his aggro', so to speak. Ultimately the Grafted Scion is just a mass of victims grafted together by Godrick, so we're essentially just mercy-killing this poor thing. 

People who are able to peek and inspect the model find out much more horrid moulded detail that you can see here, including features you wouldn't be able to see normally like feathers and multiple spines fused together to form this creature's 'main body'. It is pretty nasty-looking, even if you don't really get to see any of these in the game itself!

Margit the Fell Omen

And Margit here is our first boss in the game's main story, blocking the way to enter Stormveil Castle. He's a pre-dungeon boss fight, and honestly a fair bit harder than most of the dungeon's actual content. 

After an epic speech, Margit engages you in an epic battle above the bridge where he literally gatekeeps weaker players from getting past him. Expect 'YOU DIED' to show up multiple times as you challenge this guy, and expect to listen to him yell "put this foolish ambitions to rest" a whole lot of times. As a complete beginner to this whole 'SoulsBorne' genre, I actually do think Margit is a perfectly nice and challenging boss fight when I stumbled upon him -- it's clear that he's hard, and I can't beat him right now... but I can beat him with a bit more skill in dodging, in attack pattern observation, and maybe some better gear. It's nice. And it's a nice way to show that the game is not intended to be speedran, at least not without some skill in the genre. Go around and explore the big open world game you paid for, dummy, instead of rushing through the dungeons! 

It's not that easy to get a nice, clean screenshot of Margit since all of these bosses move around a lot, but Margit is a cloaked, humanoid figure with a massive knotted cane, and a giant scorpion-esque tail bursting out of the back. His face and eyelids are encrusted with some kind of... coral? Is that coral? Writhing worms? It's a bit hard to tell, honestly, and that's not taking into account him jumping around and trying to murder you with his stick and his magic glowing knives. 

He is a pretty impressive setpiece visually. There is some lore about 'Omens' that I don't want to read yet. But I do like the fact that this ragged, weakened-looking demigod looks more like a wanderer but actually is a very powerful threat. But how does he fare as a monster? My verdict is... he's all right. How he made me feel and the epic music and voice-acting and the presentation and role of him as the beefgate boss is certainly impressive. We haven't really seen the last of him yet, based on his taunt after defeating him. But at the end of the day, he is just a giant guy with some growths on his head and a giant scorpion tail. That's pretty cool, but that's also pretty 'first boss of the game' material, y'know?

I can't really complain, at the end of the day, not when I feel like Margit and I have a fair bit of kinhsip after how many times we keep bumping into each other. I'd spend all my runes on upgrades, I'd run in, I'd test Margit out, over and over again, until I finally went in a run where I finally felled him. It was satisfying. 

Bleach TYBW E36 Review: deAth of the dreAm

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 36: Baby, Hold Your Hand 2 - Never Ending My Dream

So this is the second part of the Mayuri/Pernida battle! And just as I mentioned in the previous episode review, we get a replay of the first scene of the previous episode where Mayuri realizes that Pernida is not dead after all. Except we also get a couple of extra lines from the manga before Pernida breaks out, about how Mayuri notes how he's glad he made an Ashisogi Jizo without teeth to stop it from crushing and creating a bunch of new little Pernidas. And then we have the scene of Pernida destroying the Ashisogi Jizo. It's really weird why they felt the necessity of adding part of this scene last episode, then, if we're going to have a longer one here, but oh well. 

Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo screams in agony and explodes as Pernida shoots a bunch of arrows within it. Pernida fires a bow at Mayuri from within the pile of viscera that used to be Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo, and we get the surreal and hilarious shot of Pernida Parnkjas, giant hand of a god, wielding a gigantic energy bow with their fingers. What a sight. Pernida mocks Mayuri with the same mad laughter, and proclaims proudly that Pernida is a Quincy, and Pernida kills with a bow and arrow. Mayuri retorts that he did not, but honestly? Considering the whole point of Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo is that it's designed to fit with Mayuri's extremely specific details to counter certain types of enemies? I have an inkling that, yes, Kurotsuchi Mayuri totally forgot that he was fighting a Quincy and focused too much on the whole 'strange undiscovered giant hand creature' aspect. 

Mayuri mocks the idea of the Left Arm of the Soul King declaring itself a Quincy, but Pernida questions just how this is shameless. I really do wish we would get some clarity about this, although I do have faith that in some of the upcoming anime-exclusive content that we would actually get a lot more discussion about the Soul King and its specific connection to Quincies... and why Pernida is so proud of being one. I really am a bit disappointed that we didn't get more about Pernida's tie to the Soul King, Ichibei and that nameless lady Sternritter, but, again, we have plenty of episodes to tie those loose ends up. 

It also bears noting that Pernida's voice actually fluctuates throughout this episode. In the previous episode it went from screechy high-pitched to a lower, more gravely tone, and it also flip-flops between the two voices in this episode. In particular, we got a nice reverb effect as Pernida regrows its missing fingers and declares to Mayuri that Pernida Parnkjas has always been a Quincy. Mayuri realizes that Pernida's vocabulary has been steadily improving since the start of the battle. One of Mayuri's theories is that Pernida is regaining its memory as the Soul King, or somehow evolving -- with one of Pernida's lines being very similar to Kenpachi's way of speaking seeming to confirm the latter hypothesis. 

Pernida creates a bow on the tip of each of their five fingers, and starts bombarding Mayuri with Heilig Pfeils. Mayuri is surprised to realize that each arrow has one of Pernida's Compulsory nerve endings attached to the end. One of the arrows pierces Mayuri's left arm, and he detonates his arm to prevent the nerves from infiltrating the rest of his body. However, the arrows are able to bend mid-air, catching Mayuri off-guard. He thinks to himself that he can't evade that particular Heilig Pfeil... only for Nemu to come in the rescue. 

Nemu jumps through the air, grabs the Heilig Pfeil with her arm, and slices off the arm immediately. She falls to the ground separate from the arm (which is immediately meatballed). Mayuri uses his Hirenkyaku boots to reorient himself and charge in, grabbing Nemu and rescuing her from Pernida's nerve-swarm on the ground and the two regroup in a building. I say regroup, but Mayuri kind of dumps Nemu and sends her rolling. Mayuri gets super-pissed at Nemu for intervening without being ordered to. Again, this is the closest that an utterly depraved sociopath like Kurotsuchi Mayuri can get to feeling emotions or attachment, and I've always found this character analysis interesting. 

Nemu tells Mayuri that she is exerting judgement that Mayuri needed a shield in this battle, and Mayuri retorts that he never taught her to assist ate her own discretion. Nemu confirms this, saying that it was something she learned on her own without his teaching. Mayuri remarks -- not entirely pleased -- that Nemuri Nanago (Nemu the Seventh) has been learning a lot of things since Ichigo showed up in Soul Society. 

Again, this plays out a bit like what you'd expect. The morally evil character has someone he loves (as a daughter, in this case) but would never admit. And honestly, the sheer difference in Mayuri's treatment of Nemu in this battle versus the first time we've ever seen Mayuri -- literally using Nemu as a disposable golem-shield against Uryu -- is night and day. I love that we're almost leading to a 'typical' heartwarming story for Kurotsuchi Mayuri, where he realizes that he actually does care for Nemu, as much as he hides it behind excuses like 'do you know how much effort I'll have to put in to grow you to this degree of sophistication'. And to be honest, I do actually think Mayuri was leading to that specific avenue of character growth... at least until basically the midway point of this episode. It's an interesting subversion that I think I appreciated a lot more after the series ended, a way to give the extremely self-centered Kurotsuchi Mayuri character development without neutering what made him so edgy.

Anyway, Mayuri yells about how it's going to be so difficult and troublesome to get Nemu to grow to the degree that she currently is, and she does not have the freedom to die by her own judgement, and that she'll only die when Mayuri deems it to be her time. Again, in a roundabout way, it's Mayuri telling her not to put herself at risk and die... particularly since Nemu realizes that Mayuri is calling her by her preferred name 'Nanago' again. 

Nemu hands Mayuri a Hojikuzai, the flesh-mending drug. Apparently Nemu observed that Mayuri just simply... forgot to go through his potions rack before leaving for Wahrwelt. I'm not exactly sure why Mayuri is a bit out of sorts, and I don't think there's ever been a reason for that other than maybe cockiness? Or nervousness? Mayuri did drop his super-overconfident-always-prepared ball a couple of times in this Pernida fight, after all. I do like that Nemu is basically doing Mayuri's usual MO. We get a nice scene of both Mayuri and Nemu regenerating their respective dismembered arms, while watching as the gigantic Pernida looms before them. 

In the manga, by the way, we never actually see Nemu regenerate her arm. Her missing arm just appears in-between chapters, but I appreciate the anime showing her jabbing her limb-stump with a Hojikuzai. 

Mayuri goes back into battle with his Hirenkyaku flying boots, dodging a storm of arrows fired by Pernida and a bunch of newly-created clones. While Mayuri is dodging the arrows, Nemu literally runs down the side of the building. Mayuri reveals that he is releasing a highly concentrated anesthetic to neutralize the nerves connected to the holy arrows. However, the anesthetic is powerful enough to affect even him (but, apparently, not Nemu), and instructs Nemu to execute the next part of the plan, which is injecting a nerve-freezing agent into one of these neutralized arrows. Mayuri doesn't exactly know what Pernida is made up of, but he did spurt out blood so biological agents should work on it. 

Again, I do like the fact that Nemu is finally bantering with her 'father'. Mayuri goes into an ecstatic ranting about how his nerve-freezing agent causes all biological functions to freeze in place. "Open eyelids cannot close! Contracted hearts will not expand! Closed mouths will not open!" To which Nemu -- who probably knows what the agent does -- just tells Mayuri that he's being too loud. 

Nemu runs across the ground, safe from most of the nerves, and manages to infect one of the heilig pfeils with the nerve-freezing agent. This causes two of the Pernidas to freeze and turn dark purple. Mayuri gloats that he's won... only for the last Pernida to sever his own thumb before the coagulation can spread through it.  It's at this point that Mayuri realizes that Pernida has been learning from Kenpachi (even the limb-severing trick is something Kenpachi did) and yells at Nemu to get back. 

Pernida's main double-eyeball body sheds the dark-purple 'nerve-frozen' outer layer, and Mayuri also realizes that this is an ability copied from the modified Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo. Turns out that the Left Arm of the Soul King is constantly learning from everything around it. Pernida's main body looms over Mayuri while we get a badass shot of Nemu glaring at the sight... and we get a flashback!

...a flashback to a young child Nemu talking to Third-Seat Akon and a bunch of other scientists. Little Nemu is confused why Mayuri has been calling her 'Nemu' instead of 'Nemuri Nanago', and we get a backstory to the Nemuri Artificial Soul Project. Akon shows Nemu the first three iterations of Nemu -- all of which are essentially dead pre-embryonic lumps of flesh held in tubes. Akon then notes the fourth, fifth and sixth iterations are slowly and slowly more advanced. One of them led to the fixing of that one 12th Division member with a bandaged head; another one allowed Mayuri to achieve Bankai thanks to modifying his Zanpakuto.

We get another conversation between Nemu and Akon about the name, and after some discussion about whether or not Mayuri would be able to feel embarrassment, Akon notes that to Mayuri, the ability to create an artificial Shinigami is nothing but the dream of all Shinigami. Mayuri had called it 'Project Nemuri' (sleeping) because it's ridiculous to dream while you're awake... but it seems that seeing Nemu grow is the culmination of Mayuri's personal dream more than anything. Nemu then asks if Mayuri would continue calling her 'Nanago' if she hadn't grown as expected... to which Akon dismisses as ridiculous, since there was no way a creation of Kurotsuchi Mayuri wouldn't grow as expected. 

In the present day, a resolute Nemu launches herself towards Mayuri. The velocity of her jump is so powerful that she literally bursts a hole straight through Pernida. Mayuri is confused where Nemu got this power, to which Nemu responds that this was the power she received from him. Nemu has enhanced her power to just 0.8% below the threshold where it would break down, which is such a fun, technical way to 'reach your limits' for these science-oriented characters. Nemu deposits Mayuri on the side of a building and he's a bit pissed because he did not give Nemu the order to do this. They have a bit of an argument on what Nemu's true mission is -- Mayuri says it's to grow, and Nemu claims that she will show her growth by protecting Mayuri. As Nemu leaves Mayuri behind, Mayuri snidely wonders at what point Nemu starts learning to talk back, and what a humiliating feeling to leave a battle entirely to her. 

And we get the badass sequence of Nemu charging towards the final Pernida. She gathers energy around her right palm, shaving off 6% of her soul to create a gigantic, beautifully-animated blast called the Gikon Jurinju. It looks badass, the sound design and animation and lighting is super cool. And holy shit, the anime didn't need to go so hard on this specific scene. The effect blows a hole through Pernida and a whole bunch of buildings. And Nemu falls while the pieces of Pernida rain down around her. 

And suddenly the pieces of the broken hand sprout eyes, stab nerves into Nemu, and causes her to swell up and BLOW THE FUCK UP. 

As if to add one final bit of insult, instead of merely twisting around, Nemu gets turned into a gigantic, deformed meatball before blowing up. It's sudden, it's surprising in the middle of all the haunting vocal musical playlist that cues up for the scene.

Mayuri watches in mute shock as this happens, as his daughter, his creation, is reduced to nothing more than a shower of blood, some of which splatter onto his face.This is a scene that's paced and done a lot better in the anime. In the manga, the relatively slower pacing (and the positioning of the flashback) makes it sink in a bit more that Vice-Captain Nemu isn't going to be the one to kill one of the Schutzstaffel. The death flags for either one of the Kurotsuchis were also a fair bit more blatant. But here, jumping from one scene to the next, and the sheer change and suddenness as we go from triumphant to a surprise, instant death? That was brutal, and amazingly executed. 

Mayuri watches this and processes this very numbly. And in his mind, as Pernida reforms, grows a mouth (?) in his eyeball (???) and begins greedily lapping up Nemu's remains, we get to see the inner machinations of Mayuri's mind... with the surprise reappearance of the hallucination of Octava Espada, Szayelaporro Granz!

Szayelaporro is just there to mock Mayuri, asking him if he is feeling grief or despair, because after all either one of those would be hypocrisy. After all, Mayuri was the one who gave him the whole epic speech about how a scientist cannot find perfection and should abhor perfection. Hallucination!Szayel mocks Mayuri, telling him that he should celebrate Nemu's death because, hey, turns out this one experiment wasn't perfect after all, and Mayuri can create something better. As Szayelaporro continues to mock Mayuri, he grabs the hallucination by the face and crushes it, and he tells himself that he has really fallen to a sorry state to need a dipshit scientist like Szayel to remind him of his negligience. 

And at this point, Mayuri goes back into being cocky. I guess one could say that he 'gets back into character'? Mayuri goads Pernida, telling him to feast on Nemu's remains... except for her brain. Mayuri zips in and pulls Nemu's brain out of the pile of flesh. He does a weird thing where he plugs a cord into his... ear-hole thing and zaps Pernida with electricity, before delivering a whole speech about the properties of Nemu, which is essentially an anime-ified version of an endocrinal feedback loop homeostasis. Pernida had eaten Nemu's pituitary gland (which... is in the brain, but okay) which contains an "Involuntary Cell Division Acceleration Organ", which solved the problem that killed Nemuri #6. However, our Nemu regulates that involuntary cell division with another organ in Nemu's parietal lobe in her brain. In other words, ingesting that pituitary gland alone is causing Pernida to grow out of control and self destruct. 

And Pernida does, essentially getting weaponized cancer and blowing up, splattering its flesh all over the buildings. Goodbye, Strernritter C. I really hope you get some more explanation about your nature and backstory in the future. 

Mayuri walks off into an alleyway with Nemu's brain, before his legs shatter from one of Pernida's last attacks. As Mayuri bemoans his recent string of uncharacteristic failings, Ikkaku and Yumichika show up. Mayuri insults them for being stupid enough to stick around, but also praises them for not interfering with his battle. Ikkaku and Yumichika bring Mayuri to some body preservation pods that are hanging around (the anime doesn't explain how they got up there either). Two of the pods open to release Hitsugaya and Rangiku, restored from the chalky gray skin of zombification. Histugaya and Rangiku thank Mayuri before leaving. 

Ikkaku and Yumichika place Mayuri and Kenpachi into the recently-vacated pods, and we actually get a nice scene where Ikkaku and Yumichika kneel before Mayuri and thank him for saving their captain, a rather touching scene that calls back to the antagonism between the 11th and 12th Squads back in the Soul Society arc. 

Mayuri notes how disgusting it is to be thanked all day long as the pod's fluids fill up, but then looks down at Nemu's brain and gloats -- mostly to himself, but also to an imagined vision of Nemu -- that he's finally surpassed Urahara Kisuke since he has created a Soul that evolves on its own.  

It's a nice final battle for Mayuri, who sits out the rest of the series. I think it's nice to actually note that Mayuri does definitely feel some kind of twisted version of pride and fatherhood towards Nemu, but he's also so fucked up that he can't actually admit it or acknowledge it in any reasonably healthy way. I feel like what we saw is a combination of Mayuri's self-centered ego combined with a coping mechanism. In any case, I thought this was a pretty fun fight. 

After the credits we get an anime-original scene, showing Liltotto and Giselle actually attacking Juhabach. This is nice -- I highly doubt the anime would change their fate and defeat, but actually showing us their plan of attack is pretty nice! We also get a bunch of additional lines from them, too. Liltotto and Giselle stand outside 'the arena', noting how odd it is for Juhabach to bring it up alongside the rest of the Wandenreich's city. A group of Soldat appear and confront them -- and in the manga, some random Soldat do still appear in Wahrwelt with no real explanation.

Giselle summons three other zombies -- Bambietta, Meninas and Candice, all of whom have slightly modified Vollstandigs with additional skulls. As the three zombie Sternritters fight the Soldat, Liltotto notes that Giselle had the zombies hide among the rubble as it was being transported up by Juhabach. This changes things slightly from Can't Fear Your Own World, though I highly doubt that novel series will remain canon any more after the end of the anime. Having some additional Sternritter firepower explains why the two are so confident at even confronting Juhabach, but it also feels in-character that Giselle would do the same once Meninas and Candice die. The two's deaths are never confirmed in the manga, but Meninas could be assumed to have died offscreen during the Pepe fight, or at least be weakened enough to be Auswahlen'd. Candice definitely is, having been beaten by Ichigo and Byakuya. 

As Liltotto chomps down on the Soldats and the zombies break them apart, Liltotto is surprised to see that the Soldat... aren't actually regular people, but within the uniforms are inky, eyeball-encrusted black goop similar to Juhabach's new form; or the eyeball monsters that descended down upon the Seireitei. Liltotto and Giselle are horrified by this, and the idea is, I think, for all of Juhabach's bullshit about 'making a new world for the Quincies', he's a gigantic hypocrite that has also fucked over a lot of the Quincies... something we'll see a bit more with Bazz-B and Uryu.

In a scene actually from the manga, we get to see Haschwalth ordering around a group of Soldat. The exitence of the artificial eyeball Soldats does explain their presence here, then! Haschwalth is suspicious of Uryu's movements, and orders the Soldat to investigate... but then all of the artificial Soldats are blown up by Sternritter "H" Bazz-B, grinning and setting up their future confrontation.

Again, for the most part, a very faithful adaptation of the end of the Mayuri fight. I do really like the Mayuri fight from the manga as weird as it is. I did wish we had a bit more explanation about Pernida, but I've always felt like this is one of the few really good fights from the tail end of the manga before shit hits the fan and the pacing gets ratcheted up. Add some additional scenes for the ignored Sternritter, and I felt like this was a pretty well-done episode. 

Random Notes:

• Kubo has been drawing artwork of all the characters that died on his Twitter account, most often giving them a 'modern day' outfit. It's all right for a vast majority of the cast since they're human, and it's just a cool thing to do, but... but just take a look at Pernida's 'death art' here. Just... just look at it. I had a whole paragraph typed out detailing how simultaneously glorious and ridiculous the whole thing is, but I decided the art more than speaks for itself. 
• "Here to Stay" is a pretty great song! I think Shiro Sagisu released the track a while back, but it was never used (at least in its full, voiced form) until this episode.
• In addition to explaining what happened to Hanataro, a low-hanging fruit for the anime to fix is actually showing someone bringing the regeneration pods to Wahrwelt. 
• Two of the pods contained Hitsugaya and Rangiku (and were later occupied by Mayuri and Kenpachi). There are two more pods, and back then it's assumed that these contained the other two zombified captains Rose and Kensei. Whether they will actually show up or not, we'll see. 
• A rather interesting change is that Haschwalth identifies Uryu as going to Zwei Ast in the anime, instead of Ein Ast in the manga. It's just a change of 'first branch' to 'second branch', but honestly, since everything in Wahrwelt looks similar, it feels like a rather random change. 
• Nemu cuts her arm off with a shortsword that... probably is her Zanpakuto? We've never had any confirmation on whether Nemu even has a Zanpakuto. 
• As a side-note, the animation team really likes Nemu, huh? Her close-ups, both facial and otherwise, feel extra detailed even with the TYBW anime's higher standards. 
• It is, I feel, a bit of a shame that not a single new mention of Mayuri dissecting Quincies (among them Uryu's grandfather) was added. I thought that while there was something to be said about Mayuri seeing most of his adversaries as future test subjects and experimentation fodder that this additional bit would've been a nice little thematic touch.
• I love (and hate) the fact that after injecting the flesh-regeneration serum, a gigantic tumorous mass with little fingers grows first before it shrinks back into a proper arm. 
• I don't actually remember if this is revealed in the manga or if it's revealed in one of Kubo's Q&A online sessions, but Pernida (and Gerald's) powers are innate due to their natures, and didn't come from Juhabach. He just assigned them Schrifts as a way to bind them as Quincies or something. In the anime, this is told to us via the commercial break bio for Pernida. 
• I did remember back in the day some people theorized that Nemu regrowing her arm offscreen is a foreshadowing of her rapid cell regeneration properties, which... wouldn't exactly make sense since as long as Nemu's brain is present, those hormones are being regulated. 
  
• Love that little Nemu sleeps with a horrifying Squad 12 doll. 
  
• Mayuri using the fifth Nemuri as a basis to modify his Zanpakuto and have it achieve Bankai is, rather darkly, probably the reason why Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo looks like a baby. Each successive Nemuri has a longer lifespan than the last, and Nemuri #6 lasted until two years old, so Nemuri #5 can't be any older than that. 
• The anime also cuts out a panel from the manga showing the shredded remnants of Pernida twitching, as if hinting at his return (which never happens thanks to the manga being rushed). Presumably, the anime also has no plans to return Pernida, whose story is kind of done anyway. I would still like to know Pernida's (or, well, the Soul King's) backstory, though. 
• Love the wacky 'rawr we are monsters' pose that zombie Candice and Meninas strike when they come in. 

Bleach TYBW E35 Review: kAmi-sAmA no iutoori

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 35: Don't Chase A Shadow

This episode adapts the first part of the Kyoraku/Lille fight, which, again, just like the previous one, is pretty faithful. The biggest change, I think, is just the positioning and the re-ordering of the Wahrwelt saga's various action sequences. We do get a couple of extra fun scenes on the Ichigo/Askin front, but for the most part "Don't Chase A Shadow" is a rather faithful take on the first part of the Kyoraku fight. 

Which, in my opinion, does admittedly make me wished they did a bit more. These later fights in Bleach are some that I wanted them to fix some of the pacing and lack of foreshadowing in. I think the Mayuri/Pernida one is a fine battle from start to finish, but I really did hope that they added a bit more here. Still, not much to complain in this specific episode, since what I wanted to see would revolve more around the second half of the fight. 

"Don't Chase A Shadow" opens up with a bit of a follow up to the previous one, as Mayuri's gloating is interrupted when Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo begins to writhe and deform as Pernida is not quite dead and starts attacking it from the inside. They actually repeat this in the beginning of the next episode, so I'm not entirely convinced that including it here is particularly necessary, but there we go. 

We then cut to the bulk of the Gotei 13 group, with Shinji discussing how this mysterious enemy that's been attacking them is doing so from a location they can't pinpoint. Which... I dunno, Lille Barro shot like five people from roughly the same trajectory. Even if they don't have a ranged attack that can reach that far (Soi Fon does have a magic bazooka, though) they should know roughly where Lille Barro is hanging out at. Said Sternritter is lurking in his sniper's perch, waxing lyrical about how anyone who isn't afraid is either a fool or worthless. At this point, Kyoraku draws his twin blades and stays behind to fight against their mysterious enemy. 

Simultaneously, Kyoraku sees a giant green pillar of light from Lille's location... then gets shot straight through the chest and begins to cough up blood, much to the horror of Shinji and Nanao. This is something that flows a lot better in the anime because we see everything happening one after the other. I remembered being frustrated by the manga's version of this events due to them really prolonging the cliffhangers with constant shots of Kyoraku being riddled with holes. The anime also makes Kyoraku pinpointing Lille's location with Daruma-san a lot more clear. 

Lille, meanwhile, pontificates about how he's seen packs of warriors collapse due to the foolish action of a single person. But then Kyoraku's voice starts singing a children's song creepily, the Daruma-san ga Koronda song. Kyoraku emerges behind Lille unharmed, and slashes down at the Sternritter. Lille dodges seemingly in time, but his sniper rifle Diagramm was sliced in half. 

Lille is baffled by what happened before him, not sure how Kyoraku closed the distance between them so quickly. Kyoraku asks Lille if he's ever played Daruma-san ga Koronda before. We also have the revelation that Nanao was able to keep up with Kyoraku, following right behind his footsteps to the rooftop. The two have one of their typical bantering, which I guess Lille is nice enough to let them talk? Considering Lille's super-serious demeanour throughout this fight, this does feel like a weird action for him to take. 

This is something that has subtly characterized Kyoraku and Nanao's relationship throughout the series, with Kyoraku wanting to send Nanao off to safety back to the greater group... but Nanao refuses. Only when Kyoraku frames it as an order to inform the others to go ahead without him that Nanao complies, but with the snide retort that she will be back. There is also the utterly bizarre but hilarious threat that Nanao makes, threatening to shave Kyoraku's hairy chest bald if he dies before she returns. Nanao departs and Kyoraku compares her attitude to that of Lisa... before finally facing off against Lille again. 

Lille notes that the Wandenreich has intelligence on all the battles fought by the Gotei 13... and I actually like the subtle note that this Daten isn't the most useful when fighting Kyoraku since he can theoretically make new children's games a reality and the games we've seen in his battle against Coyote Starrk is implied to be a mere fraction of what Katen Kyokotsu's Shikai can do. There is an interesting conversation where Kyoraku explains Daruma-san's rules (for most of the Anglosphere, it's "Red Light, Green Light") and Lille identifies it as 'Chocolate Inglés'. Unlike some other manga like Hunter x Hunter or Jujutsu Kaisen, it doesn't appear that Kyoraku needs to explain his powers to Lille, so, again, the two discussing the Daruma-san game and how it lets Kyoraku see the reiatsu of the 'daruma' feels a bit like it's more for the audience's benefit. I've always found this sequence to be a bit odd since Lille is shown to be almost mechanically cold and Kyoraku is previously known as "fuck honourable one-on-ones, I'm fighting to win".

Kyoraku also notes -- and introduces for the first time -- the concept of 'Reikaku', spiritual sensing. Kyoraku reveals that the image of himself with a giant bloody hole behind him is just some 'solidified reiatsu' he left behind in the previous location. Apparently, skilled warriors rely so much on their Reikaku sense that it's easy to fool compared to sight, like a natural reflex, and Kyoraku was able to use that to fool Lille's honed senses. While conceptually this sounds like a cool way to get around a well-trained sniper with honed senses, I always felt -- and still do -- that the whole Reikaku thing is a bit of a random ass-pull and I would've liked it much better if it was just another one of Kyoraku's children's games. 

This does lead to one of the more badass lines in this cour, though, with Kyoraku Shunsui calmly declaring that he is the Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, and he can walk the walk. For as much as I dislike the Reikaku explanation, this bafflement and this badass line from Kyoraku is extremely cool. 

We then have a short scene as Nanao explains the situation to the group. Momo tries to insist that they stay and help Kyoraku, but Shinji gives a pretty cool line to trust Kyoraku and that the weight of the Captain-Commander means something. He also asks them what Ukitake would say if he was here, which Shinji interprets as 'Shunsui will be fine if he says he'll be fine', and notes that Yamamoto would've done the same thing as well -- and that this is what the rank means. It's... it's an interesting character moment for Shinji particularly considering his long and stories history with the Gotei 13 and how he was essentially abandoned by them, and he had to bear the burden of leadership for his people. It's a shame that this is basically one of his last lines in the manga. I do hope that even if we don't get an entire episode that we get some payoff to all the scattered Hirako Shinji scenes we've seen throughout the TYBW arc. 

We go back to the battle as Kyoraku and Lille do the Daruma game again. Really love the effect the anime puts here, with the world turning black and Kyoraku flitting in and out as a golden silhouette. Kyoraku appears behind Lille, Lille shoots Kyoraku, only for that to be revealed to be another 'solid reiatsu' clone. Kyoraku uses Kageoni to glorp out of a shadow and stab Lille... although Lille is able to dodge the strike. Kyoraku praises Lille for being the first person to dodge Kageoni on the first try. Unnecessary Coyote Starrk shade there, Kyoraku! 

However, Lille reveals that he has pierced a hole in Kyoraku's foot, and boasts about the difference of their information about each other. Lille boasts that his Schrift is "X", the X-Axis, and explains that his power penetrates everything in front of him. Lille fires at Kyoraku again, who appears to dodge... but turns out that this is an afterimage created by a game called Kageokuri, involving projecting a shadow they stared at to a different location. I don't know if Kageokuri is the source of the other 'solid reiatsu' clones, but the way Kyoraku and Lille reacts, it seems to be different. 

We get another badass line from Kyoraku who tells Lille how scary and unpredictable children's games are, with the visuals of a child dragging Kyoraku's hand and forcing him to play. I think the child is meant to be a child version of Katen? Kyoraku says that when a child asks you to play, you need to play all the way to the end. As if to punctuate this, Lille's rifle is cut in half once more, and falls to the ground. Kyoraku notes that he should've moved in a bit closer to sever Lille's arm, but Lille just reforms Diagramm (with a different barrel!), revealing that the big fuzzy sniper rifle is, in fact, his Spirit Weapon.

It's at this point that Kyoraku appears behind him and slashes again, before disappearing in darkness and warning Lille that seeing his shadow will cause him to see silhouette afterimages from Kageokuri. Kyoraku mocks Lille, noting that many children are scared of their own shadows... before a swarm of shadowy Kyorakus burst out and descend on Lille. The real Kyoraku's blades stab Lille from behind, and Lille... slowly opens his left eye and observes that this is the third time. 

Lille then pontificates that he's actually been fighting with half of his powers sealed, and he can only utilize the full capabilities of The X-Axis with both eyes open. Where normally X-Axis allows his shots to penetrate his opponent's body, with both eyes open his body can penetrate the opponent's sword. As this happens, Lille's body seems to become incorporeal and Kyoraku's sword slides through it. Lille reveals that he has opened his eyes three times throughout this battle, which the anime is nice enough to actually show us the three times that he did so from Lille's POV. I briefly rewinded to those scenes, but I guess they were moving fast enough that it's excusable for the anime to handwave it as 'wrong angle, can't see his left eye'. In the manga, this was a big fat retcon. 

I love Kyoraku's response to this, blithely commenting that he wouldn't mind if Lille closed his eye again. 

Lille Barro then declares that he is the first Sternritter to be granted a Schrift, that he is Juhabach's masterpiece, and the closest one to god... and he activates his Vollstandig, Jilliel. I like the brief shot of the 'X' tattoo around Lille's eyes expanding and glowing, and we get the pillar of light and the church bells. And... I've always gone on record that while I can appreciate Lille's Vollstandig forms, I feel like they are so much less cool than his original 'badass sniper man' form. 

But we do have to adapt what has been written, and Lille's whole concept goes from 'badass sniper' to 'Tite Kubo's take on a biblically accurate angel'. Lille's Jilliel is like a weird cocoon that covers all of his body below the face, and eight massive wings each with holes on the wings. It's green, which... somehow works? I'm not sure. If you'd described this to me, I would've said that it would suck, but it actually works quite well here. In a display of power that Lille never shows again, Kyoraku is rooted to the spot and can't move, leading Lille to pierce Kyoraku with three shots. 

We get the title drop... and we cut to Kyoraku running across rooftops to reach a tower, resting and nursing his wounds. He's shot through his right shoulder and left hip... and also his hat. It is admittedly a bit silly that Lille was somehow able to freeze Kyoraku in place and... shoots him in the hat? Eh. Kyoraku gets a brief monologue, noting that it would've been so much easier to die instantly and laments that he's actually so strong that he can't use it as an excuse. Kyoraku muses that there's no point to bitching if Nanao-chan isn't there to listen, before leaping out of the tower he hides in... right as Lille Barro annihilates that tower with a barrage of shots from his wing-holes. Lille appears in front of Kyoraku, boasting of his invincibility. Kyoraku tries Kido, casing Hado #78: Zangerin. It's actually nice to see a Kido spell, even if this ring-shaped explosion does nothing to Lille.

We get a brief cut to Ichigo battling against Askin Nakk Le Vaar. In an anime-original scene, Askin actually asks Ichigo if he did some training in the Soul Palace. While it's a fair enough question for an opponent to ask Ichigo, it is curious that out of all people, it is 'promoted from the lower ranks' Askin that is asking Ichigo about this. Askin confirms that apparently this training is what's stopping Ichigo from getting Reishi poisoning, and Askin gets ready to adjust the flavour of his attacks. I'm not sure if we're going to extend this scene a whole lot more, or if this line is just there to give an explanation as to how Askin is able to off-screen defeat Ichigo, which canonically is what happens in the manga when we check in on them later on.

Kyoraku escapes to another building, noting that even though he didn't expect Zangerin to seriously beat Lille, he's disappointed that it doesn't even do a little bit of damage. Kyoraku notes that he is at the end of his rope, but he's also returned to the part of the city that the Shinigami arrives on. Kyoraku notes that everyone else should be far enough, apologizing briefly if Nanao gets caught up in this... poses with two of his blades pointed downwards, and then speaks the legendary word everyone has been waiting from the Captain-Commander... Bankai.

The Bankai activates with a huge area of effect, bathing the world around Kyoraku in a golden aura. Panels like a those on the screen doors in a traditional rakugo play appear in the sky (this bit is anime-original, I believe!), and we get shots of Ichigo and Askin; Shinji's group; Orihime's group and others reacting to this activation. Inky, shadowy tree branches extend from Kyoraku's position as a rakugo yell is heard in the background, and a shadowy figure lurks on Kyoraku's shoulder. This is Katen Kyokotsu: Karamatsu Shinju.

Lille swoops down and the bottom of his cocoon unfurls to reveal a set of strange prong-like centaur legs. Lille questions what this strange sensation is, and Kyoraku walks up calmly. Kyoraku asks if Lille sees the world as being gloomy and full of despair. Lille confirms this, realizing that this is the effects of Kyoraku's Bankai... and then starts ranting about how he is God's Messenger, and God's Messenger does not feel despair. He opens fire with all of his wing-holes, vaporizing a chunk of Wahrwelt, and gloats that a Bankai will disappear with its owner's death. Which... isn't strictly true, but I guess close enough of a boast. 

However, Lille is startled when a wound is made on his side, when he should, by rights, be invincible. Kyoraku identifies this as the First Act: Hesitance and Apportionment of Wounds. They're in a play now, a shinju or double-suicide play, and the story will go through several acts. This first one causes wounds inflicted on the enemy to appear on one's own body, and another wound corresponding to Kyoraku's appears on Lille's shoulder. As Lille panics, Kyoraku tells Lille to not talk between acts, and remain silent for the rest of the performance. 

Second Act: Pillow of Shame activates, and brown pockmarks appear on Lille's body. This is disease, apparently, and Kyoraku notes that a man who failed to kill his adversary will collapse from shame and suffer an incurable sickness. I guess there are certain conditions for the acts to progress? And then the world around them is covered with the ocean as the Third Act: The Severing Abyss activates. This is the man and his adversary accepting their fates, and tossing themselves into the waters until their reiatsu is exhausted. 

We get a frankly comical sequence as Lille in his wacky Jilliel form tries to flap his wings like a trapped bug towards the 'surface' of the 'ocean', but the surface is continually moving further and further away from him. Kyoraku talks about the inevitability of what has been done, and about Lille's selfishness. A second voice joins Kyoraku, and the figure of one of his two Zanpakuto spirits, the older Katen, joins Kyoraku. 

Back in the day, this was a huge deal as people went into debates about the seeming canonization of an aspect of a filler arc. But that filler arc is still that -- filler -- while the designs themselves are canon. Katen teases Kyoraku a bit, noting that Kyoraku got what he deserves for wearing another woman's kimono and pity is what's keeping her bound to him. Katen also bemoans that Kyoraku doesn't 'play' with her as often. Kyoraku also refers to Katen as 'O-Hana' (flower) and with the revelations about the true nature of Zanpakuto Spirits, it is very interesting what aspects of Kyoraku's soul and being that Katen and Kyokotsu manifested from. 

Similar to Cang Du way earlier in the saga, Lille demands to know why Kyoraku is talking to thin air, since he is unable to perceive the Zanpakuto Spirit. Lille rants that a mere Bankai cannot kill him, only for a wispy, ink-like white splotch to appear from Kyoraku's hand. Kyoraku narrates about how cruel a woman's pity is, and how a woman will not listen to a petulant man. He then describes the 'glistening white thread of regret' wrapping around the neck of a man... and then we get a very cool, artistic shot of Final Act: Thread-Cutting Shears upon a Bloody Throat. The background around them turns white as the aforementioned string turns read, and it just looks so fucking cool. 

The cut on Lille's neck expands and whether it's because of Lille's unique physiology or because of the effects of Karamatsu Shinju, the wound begins to swell and expand upwards, creating a tumorous mass that ultimately explodes, leaving Lille's headless body to plummet down the sea/sky. It's a badass sequence, and even though Kyoraku's Bankai leaves more questions than answers, I just really like him talking about a completely different play about a man and a scornful woman while Lille is just being continually bamboozled by the bloody effects of the play. 

The final sequence of the episode has a wounded Kyoraku falling down and falling into Katen's lap. Kyoraku flirts with Katen a bit, causing Katen to comically try and jab her fingers down onto Kyoraku's good eye. Katen notes that she is also missing her right eye, musing that fate has a way of playing games with them. Katen admits that she is glad they won, and Kyoraku is about to say something as the episode cuts to a close. Bit of a weird thing to close the episode in, since this 'something I have to say' doesn't actually lead anywhere and would be interrupted in two episodes' time. I wonder if the episode would've had a better stop when Lille reveals himself to be alive; or if it should've stopped a couple of lines earlier when Kyoraku's head falls on Katen's lap. 

Ultimately, I did like this portion of the fight. I think I made it quite clear that I'm not the biggest fan of the Reikaku stuff, but I do like expanding a lot more on Kyoraku's Shikai abilities. Lille's powers, I felt, could've been foreshadowed a bit better, particularly the 'both eyes open' part, and I kind of wished we saw a bit more of this 'enemy attacks can't harm me' in his Jilliel form. The Theatre Suicide parts of the fight, with Kyoraku's Bankai, are all pretty great, though. The visuals and music make the Bankai work so well, and while it did go on for a bit long, I felt like this was a pretty awesome showcase of Kyoraku's long-anticipated Bankai. All enigmatic, confusing but badass at the same time. Not much in terms of surprises in this episode, but I did enjoy seeing Katen Kyokotsu: Karamatsu Shinju brought to life on the stage of animation. 

Random Notes:

• The review title is a reference to the somewhat bloody but pretty great manga, Kami-sama no Iutoori, which features a supernatural force forcing people to play deadly, fucked-up versions of children's games. The very first game, and the mascot of the manga, is also Daruma-san ga Koronda. 
  
• It perhaps seems so quaint right now, but it was such a huge deal back in the day that Kubo canonized the otherwise non-canon designs for the Zanpakuto Spirits of Katen and Kyokotsu. While it was common knowledge that almost all the Zanpakuto Spirits were designed by Kubo, it's a bit of a surprise to see them actually show up in such a major part of the canon.
• Katen's voice actor was recasted from Fujimura Ayumi to Koshimizu Ami, but apparently becuase Fujimura is taking a hiatus from her career. 
• Katen notes the similarities of their missing eyes, which I wonder whether it was part of Kubo's plans when he designed Katen for the filler arc. The Zanpakuto Rebellion arc, after all, was animated way before the Thousand-Year Blood War arc was published in the manga and most certainly before Katen's appearance in the manga.  
  
• It really is weird that the Gotei 13 gang acknowledges that they can sense Mayuri's reiatsu fluctuating... but not a single one realize that they 'left' Mayuri and Kenpachi behind?
• The anime removes a scene where Urahara and Renji discuss the surviving Vice Captains, because we added a scene in 'Gate of the Sun' showing just who got sniped by Lille... but it's also frankly a line that makes Urahara look a bit incompetent.
• I can't actually find which culture 'Chocolate Inglés' is from, though 'Inglés' does imply Spain. The game seems to be called Pollito Inglés or El Escondite Inglés in Spain; and Hot Chocolate in the UK, so it's possible that Kubo just mixed the two. 
• There is a line where Kyoraku notes that 'a game cannot begin until both sides understand the rules', but that is clearly bullshit since throughout both of his battles against Starrk and Lille, Kyoraku is shown to pull off Katen Kyokotsu's abilities without explaining or calling out the game that they're playing.
  
• We never really know who puts these limiters on Lille's powers. Is it Juhabach? It has to be Juhabach, right? But what purpose does this serve? "Being unfair to sinners" doesn't seem to be something that either Juha or Lille would really care about.
• Also removed from the episode are the dialogue in Ganju, Chad and Orihime's scenes about how 'cold' the Bankai activation is. They still get a cameo reacting to it, but the lines are gone. 
• I don't think I processed it that well when I read the manga, but the whole point why Kyoraku's Bankai is so powerful in this case is that it was able to damage Lille's undamaged form. I almost wished they had shown us a bit more of Jilliel's ability to phase through things to hammer this threat a bit more.
• Apparently the Wandenreich does not have Daten on Kyoraku's Bankai. I guess they hadn't set up the data-collection when Kyoraku unlocked his Bankai? We don't know from when the Quincies began gathering data on the Shinigami. Or Kyoraku could alternatively have utilized his Bankai in another realm that's not the Soul Society.