Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 42: Son of Darkness
I just didn't expect Inoue Orihime's big moment to be in the middle of a fight against Juhabach, in ways that recalled her original status as an anomaly whose 'power treads upon the realm of the gods' to use Aizen's faction's words, or that they managed to make her feel badass without downplaying either Ichigo or Juhabach. That's awesome. A lot of the payoff happens in the next episode, but even here we do get a fair bit of buildup for that.
The episode starts off with a flashback with Orihime and Tatsuki in happier times, discussing flowers and Orihime comparing Ichigo's heart to a flower that looks particularly like a flame. And as Ichigo and Orihime does that trademark Bleach-run-to-an-action-scene sequence, Orihime reflects on how much she wants to protect Ichigo -- a contrast and a nod to Ichigo's own declarations that he wants to protect everyone. Ichigo at this point in the story has risen so much above the power levels of his friends, particularly his human ones, that it isn't unfair to say that characters like Chad and Orihime are utterly outclassed. And that clearly bothers Orihime here.
While most of the episode deals with the Askin/Urahara fight, the final one-thirds of the episode covers Ichigo and Orihime entering the throne room of Juhabach, who at this point has absorbed the Soul King and transcended everything. And Ichigo still treats Orihime as essentially an equal, trusting defense to her. And as they climb up the stairs together, Orihime muses that she can finally fight to protect Ichigo... which does admittedly fall a bit flat if we're basing it on power levels. Which is what both the original script of the manga -- and the anime adaptation -- is trying to deconstruct.
The confrontation has Juhabach monologue a lot, noting Ichigo's immense power and the power he is supposed to have, and then even mocking Isshin and Masaki. Ichigo is having none of the 'you are my son' business, especially since Juhabach is responsible for Masaki's death. Being an asshole, Juhabach just brushes off Masaki's death and starts ranting about how Masaki should be happy to die after fulfilling her purpose, like a tool. Ichigo, of course, isn't taking this lying down and charges in to fight. Fair enough.
There's a couple of really cool sequences in the Uryu/Haschwalth fight as well, like Uryu placing glowing reishi runes on the walls of the building they're running through, before they unleash barrages of arrows at Haschwalth. A lot of cool showcases of Haschwalth's shadowy powers and Uryu's Vollstandig form, which is just a delight to watch for what was notoriously the final arc's worst fight in the manga.
As this is going on, Juhabach also manipulates the power of the Soul King, again in the form of roiling shadows, to push Ichigo backwards. Orihime summons her Santen Kesshun shield and it gets shattered instantly. Juhabach even mocks Ichigo, asking him why he brought her along... and Juhabach, interestingly, seems to be a bit drunk on power. Instead of instantly killing Ichigo and absorbing his power or whatever he's planning to do, Juhabach talks about the amount of miracles and effort needed to create a being like Kurosaki Ichigo, how his body and power doesn't only belong to him, and how Juhabach essentially wants to toy around with Ichigo a bit before he 'expends his power and dies'.
And, again, the actual Ichigo/Juhabach lines are essentially identical to the manga counterpart, but the additional focus on Haschwalth/Uryu and Orihime really does make it a whole lot more exciting.
Oh, all that talk about Orihime, but almost the entirety of this fight wraps up a faithful adaptation of the Askin fight. And I feel bad focusing a lot on the great new Orihime content, because the Askin fight is one of the more fun fights of the Schutzstaffel. My annoyance about Yushiro's inclusion and Yoruichi's Raiju Senkei aside, I do enjoy the sequence -- and the amazing voicework by Askin and Urahara's voice actors make this so much better. That whole influenza 48-times-in-a-second stuff ends up being brushed off by Askin, saying that he basically Uno-reversed the situation, since Hasshein can just instantly adapt to any poison.
There's a bunch more wordy explanation going on, but that's brushed aside in favour of the colourful spectacle of Askin summoning his interconnected Gift Ball constellations, which look amazing animated. Askin notes how he doesn't like boasting, but notes that his Gift Bereich is impossible to escape from. Urahara then asks Askin why he's doing all this, since he's not someone who looks like he'll ever be properly loyal. Askin's always a goober, but he then gives his own motive rant. He is just interested in seeing the world that Juhabach will create after he destroys the three worlds... and Askin can't think of anyone other than Juhabach that can do it. It's just curiousity.
Urahara counters it very quickly, although thankfully we don't get a repeat of the Urahara/Mayuri spiel about scientists and experimentation -- just a note that a proper scientist, even if they are curious, wouldn't want to see it created by someone else's hand.
The fight then continues, and I really like seeing Askin's glowing purple powers animated -- him flash-stepping backwards by moving in a zig-zag pattern on his little circle-and-line patterns, or expanding one of his bracelets into a chakram to blind Urahara, is all quite neat. Askin talks about the destructive potential of his Gift Ring, blinds Urahara... and Urahara summons his Bankai at last, the creepy giant doll that is Kannon-Biraki Benihime Aratame.
They didn't really change too much about Benihime Aratame here, still depicting her as a giant puppet that appears and disappears as it modifies Urahara's body. I do like the way that she crawls out of the void that Urahara summons her out of. Benihime Aratame slices up Askin's arm a bit (a la Sticky Fingers from JoJo) and fixes Urahara's eyes. In a bit of a nice visual expansion of the original fight, we see more stitches appear and disappear, as Urahara's hand and later feet get split apart by Benihime Aratame and then stitched together -- giving him a boost in his sword swings and speed respectively. As Urahara is moving around, he's also trailing white stitches in the sky, as if he's skating -- which helps to later explain the 'left a line for Grimmjow to follow' thing.
Askin summons a giant pole of his Deathdealing orbs and gets a bit angry that this fight has turned into a clash of brute force. Urahara uses Benihime Aratame to make stitches in the sky to split apart the Gift Balls, while Askin channels the full power of the Gift Ball Deluxe, creating bigger and bigger balls of poison (or, well, of deathdealing aura) while his staff gets nicely bigger. It's appropriately chaotic and spectacular, up until the big clash before Urahara zips away...
Urahara gives a bit of a monologue, noting that Arrancars can turn their reiatsu into Hollow powers, and Urahara thought 'it would be useful', so he prepared for perhaps needing to use that bit. Urahara then gives a badass speech about how he 'takes one thousand precautions, and if even one is successful', then he's happy. After all, they are at battle, and if you lose, you die. There's a very cool shot of Urahara's dead eyes as he says that, bereft of any of the gloating or comedy he's been doing these past two episodes.
Grimmjow then interrupts Askin's final soliloquy by stabbing Askin again until he dies. Grimmjow then notes that the contract between the two of them is done (we still don't know the extent of this contract, whether it's just the healing or something more). As Askin dies, he apologizes because he notes that Gift Ball Deluxe would actually go haywire and be more powerful, since Askin himself is a bit of a coward and normally has a subconscious power limiter on Gift Ball Deluxe... but then as Askin dies, he also muses that Urahara probably prepared for this eventuality... as he subverts his catchphrase, and the Deathdealing goes haywire, Urahara and Grimmjow fall.
It's a nice, fun exit for Askin. I've always felt like considering everything that's going on in the final set of battles Askin's fight really often doesn't get the respect it deserves since most discussion around this part of the story often centers around the fact that the Juhabach storyline is unresolved... but it is a pretty fun fight, and Askin himself is a fun little asshole. I like him.
And as this happens, Neliel stands outside of Gift Bereich, noting that this is 'one of five possibilities' that Urahara told her would happen, and while we don't see it in this episode, clearly Urahara has left Neliel around as an exit route.
Overall, again, we're rather rapidly going through the final couple of volumes, which is nice. I do really feel like the primary parts where the story isn't satisfying are the parts with Ichigo/Juhabach and Uryu/Haschwalth, and having their original fight from the final volume be wrapped up alongside the Askin and Gerald sequences is definitely a good sign for them revising and expanding on whatever's going to happen with the primary players of the series.
Random Notes:
- Askin Nakk le Vaar -- he has twice the loyalty of a Pomeranian. As the owner of a couple of Pomeranians, they are, indeed, good dogs.
- I know nothing about flower symbolism, but Bleach loves its flower symbolism.
- In the cinematic showing of the first three episodes, it was noted to be especially jarring for the movie to jump straight from Askin's Hasshein reveal straight to the Orihime/Tatsuki civilian flashback.
- Askin's lethal dose and Deathdealing ability is a bit weird, huh? I have known about his ability for near a decade now so it's not a huge surprise to me, but it would be a bit weird, and the 'no, you', 'no, you' sequence did feel a bit too much of an info-dump.
- Lost in the whole discussion about everything is me having to appreciate Urahara actually thinking that not even Kurotsuchi Mayuri would want to see what Juhabach creates.
- Benihime Aratame still looks like Unohana to me, I'm sorry.
- Urahara notes that he has never used his Bankai around 'present company'. While he is exiled and probably wouldn't be under the Vandenreich's shadow-surveillance, surely Urahara would've used his Bankai at least once during the captain exams to confirm that he has a Bankai, right?
- It is subtle and barely seen, but Urahara in the manga actually also does skate and move around on the stitches as well; it's just not as clear and most scenes show him already leaping off of the sky-stiches.
- A nice detail is that as Askin lies dying, his Blut Vene actually goes a bit haywire around the hole that Grimmjow punches through, as if Askin reflexively had tried to block the assault but failed.
- While Urahara monologuing about the Hollow reiatsu is appreciated, I kind of wish there was some more reaction about Hollow reiatsu being poison to Quincies, which would make the Arrancar and the Visored relevant. While the Visored next episode would prove fodder as usual (poor Visored!) I had thought that it would've been appropriate to hype up Grimmjow's big moment here.
- In a nice touch, we get to see Benihime Aratame try to protect Urahara before dissipating.
