Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War E05 Review: Not This Weak

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 5: Wrath As A Lightning

Another pretty fun episode! This episode basically encapsulates three huge moments from the manga's version of the Wandenreich invasion -- the titular 'wrath as a lightning' with Sasakibe's sendoff, Byakuya's defeat at the hands of As Nodt, as well as Kenpachi's brief but very badass moment. We also wrap up the Hueco Mundo storyline, but that bit always did feel a bit more like an epilogue even in the manga. And instead of going scene-by-scene, because we actually do jump around a lot in this episode I think I'll go subplot-by-subplot.

Ichigo is still trapped in Quilge Opie's 'Jail', and really is unable to do anything but unleash Getsuga Tenshos impotently. It is a factor of the anime format, but I did find that one of the most impactful panels in the manga -- with Ichigo hearing all the Shinigami screaming and dying because of the communications device being connected to his spirit-flip-phone -- to feel a bit less of an oomph in anime format. Yeah, there is still voice acting but it's like... maybe four, five overlapping voices as compared to the claustrophobic full-page spread of voice bubbles in the background. Bit of a shame. 

Also, Quilge Opie, after ranting about how he is "J of the Jail", gets bisected by a mysterious new arrival... which I'm going to spoil here. It's Grimmjow. The secret was drawn out forever in the manga and it was never really worth it. They still keep his identity a secret, but I'm going to say that anyone that's watched the older manga could probably guess that it's big ol' cat-man. 

Speaking of the communications network, we also get a couple ofshort scene of Akon, Rin and Hiyosu in the 12th Division base... when a mind-controlled Jidanbo shows up and starts beating people up. Like Grimmjow, the identity of 'keh keh Quincy' isn't made known for much longer, and... we still don't get to see Pepe Waccabrada's face, but at least we get more than a shoe with pointy-toes, and we get to see his distinctive staff. Neat!

Then let us go through the Byakuya/As Nodt scene yet, because a good chunk of it does happen after the Hueco Mundo subplot is over. As Nodt finally displays his power of fear, and... we get Guinness World Record holder Matsuoka Yoshitsugu as the voice of As Nodt. And... boy, there's a great balance between As Nodt being creepily emotionless but also absolutely enjoying this. As Nodt is such a sick fuck, and... again, I did get pretty sick of his fear monologues in the manga during the rematch, but this sequence of As Nodt just playing with Byakuya like a cat playing with a mouse, noting that his fear abilities strike an experienced warrior like Byakuya much more he's someone that thought that he's conquered fear is pretty damn creepy. A lot of the monologue flow a lot better with As Nodt's creepy voice narrating how it's terrifying to consider every single aspect of what do to in a battle, how it's easy to think that you've conquered a fear with a cause when what As Nodt does is to create a source-less 'true' fear...

And there are the images from the manga all translated beautifully (or terrifyingly) into animation. Like Byakuya seeing the face of Rukia just slough off into a rotten corpse, or the mass of crawling insects consuming Byakuya. But I do think that the most unsettling thing about As Nodt's encounter with Byakuya is just how frantic Byakuya is when he charged in and swung his sword like a lunatic, bereft of all the stoicness we associate with the character. 

And then, of course, As Nodt shows off that he's probably one of the few Sternritter to actually use the Bankai he stole, unleashing Senbonzakura Kageyoshi upon Byakuya. And... man, seeing this scene animated is much more cruel in the anime, yeah? There's a scene of Byakuya toppling after the blood bursts out of him. And then after a brief clash between Renji and As Nodt, Byakuya stands up again... then As Nodt just shoots stream after stream after stream of cherry blossoms at Byakuya's face. 

An addition to this scene that thankfully fixes one of the rather questionable parts of the manga was Rukia running back to try and aid Byakuya. We actually see her attacker, and it's another Sternritter -- Meninas McAllon. In the manga, this attacker is never really made known and it just feels like Rukia just got taken out by a nobody. 

Anyway, Byakuya just got eviscerated as he gets pounded and cratered onto a wall painted black with his blood. Poor Renji is about to go Bankai himself, but in Renji's case this time around I actually understand how emotional and panicked the poor dude is. ...and then Mask De Masculine dropkicks him like halfway through the Seireitei, which just feels needlessly cruel. 

And... again, it is a pretty dark moment, yeah? Byakuya, one of the most favourite characters and one of the most powerful members of the Gotei 13, torn up and seemingly killed. The two people most precious to him, Rukia and Renji, lie beaten on the ground. His sword shatters, and he apologizes to them. Now admittedly... yeah, this was done more for shock value than anything, but I really do think that the final arc would've actually been so much more shocking if they were allowed to kill off characters like Byakuya and Kira here. 

Still, the same emotions that the desperation in the manga had is still reflected here. Where 'Yhwach' and Jugram Haschwalth are wandering around, we get Zaraki Kenpachi walking up like a goddamn boss, dropping the bodies of three Sternritters he just killed... not off-screen this time! Now the explanation is word-for-word from the manga, but we do actually get to see how Kenpachi murderize "The Roar" Jerome Guizbatt, "The Question" Berenice Gabrielli and "The Yourself" Loyd Lloyd. Some additional bits of brutality as Kenpachi bisects Jerome down sideways, and literally tear out Berenice's throat! 

And then the last leg of the episode is basically, well, the Yamamoto/Sasakibe sequence. We get to see Sasakibe's killer, "The Overkill" Driscoll Berci, who is beating up Hisagi Shuhei. Driscoll boasts about killing Sasakibe in the previous encounter, and creates a gigantic spear-sized arrow that he's about to chuck at Shuhei and murder him... but then Genryusai Shigekuni motherfuckin' Yamamoto jumps in, casually slaps aside the gigantic arrow, and calmly walks up towards Driscoll... who then gloats about how he's going to use Yamamoto's vice-captain's Bankai to kill him. 

We get a great, silent surprised reaction from Yamamoto before the screen goes black and we just get to see the kanji for "Bankai: Koko Gonryo Rikyu".

And then we get a full flashback. It is interesting that they cut out Byakuya's eulogy about Sasakibe during his funeral, but replacing it with actual scenes about Sasakibe and Yamamoto? This sequence felt very truncated in the manga, and it was bogged down by the neat (if, in the manga, a bit pacing-disruptive) talk about the change from Eijisai to Jujisai to Genryusai. The flashback is expanded in all the right places. We get to see young Sasakibe wanting to become Yamamoto's right-hand man, then mastering Bankai in under a month...

And, I think, the most important part is that we actually get to see Sasakibe unleash his own Koko Gonryo Rikyu, which is different, interestingly, from how Driscoll Berci uses it. The lightning that Driscoll uses in the present day is purple, whereas Sasakibe's true Bankai is gloriously yellow. (Senbonzakura Kageyoshi also becomes a bit more purple, but it's hard to tell unless you're screencapping As Nodt's usage and Byakuya's usage side by side)

Sasakibe also shows us how Koko Gonryo Rikyu is supposed to be used, with him gathering the lightning pillars at the tip of his rapier, before charing forwards engulfed by an aura of lightning. It's something similar to Wild Charge from Pokemon, and... and it did explain a question I had in the manga. How does summoning a thunderstorm cause a single clean scar on Yamamoto's forehead? It also gives a neat explanation and showcase on how the Quincies are just taking the Bankai and treating them like blunt instruments instead of using them properly. Because, well, Driscoll is just dropping lightning bolt after lightning bolt on Yamamoto, who takes it on like a boss. 

And then he just walks up to Driscoll calmly, with only his captain's cloak being burned by the lightning blasts... and talks about how Sasakibe must be angry in the afterlife, because his Bankai that he spent years perfecting... WAS NOT THIS WEAK!

Yeah, this is a very cool moment, especially since current anime and how they animate flames just hits different. From all the duller colours and the purples of Driscoll's perversion of Sasakibe's Bankai, we suddenly cut away to the absolutely insane blazing flames of Ryujin Jakka as a gigantic curtain erupts and burns Driscoll away to bones, and those bones get turned into ashes, and those ashes get turned to dust. 

Great voice acting by Yamamoto's new voice actor, too, and the episode (mostly) ends on a pretty cool sequence as all the other soldiers of the Gotei 13 start to stand back up, reinvigorated by the flames and Reiatsu of the Captain-Commander. A lot of pretty cool lines from the other Shinigami while Yamamoto just rockets around like goddamn Superman... and then the credits roll. 

Of course, that's not quite the end! This episode features a Marvel-style post-credits scene, showing "Yhwach" holding Kenpachi by the neck after defeating him off-screen. Neat place to cliffhang the episode on, with both Kenpachi's earlier scene and Yamamoto's own scene both being very triumphant on the good guys' side. Yamamoto lands right behind Yhwach and speaks his name for the first time for the audience.

Pretty good episode, overall! The changes in this episode aren't exactly new scenes like the Uryu ones, but there is a surprisingly large amount of changes that really do add to how the action scenes flow, as well as how the chess-moving of characters across the board feel a lot more smoother.  

Random Notes:

• I always did find it pretty fun that in the midst of a goddamn Quincy invasion, Kurotsuchi Mayuri still has time to mutter under his breath about how Akon is using the communications network without permission. 
  
• Actually, considering how Pepe's powers are revealed to work later on in the story, Jidanbo being glassy-eyed and quiet is kind of an inconsistency, isn't it? Not the first one we see in this arc, for sure. 
• Matsuoka Yoshitsugu, As Nodt's voice, among his insane list of roles, had also voiced Kirito, Yukihira Soma, Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti, Hashibira Inosuke and many others. 
• The narrative reason is that Renji is going to be relevant later on, of course, but I do really love that Mask De Masculine's city-long dropkick leads to an admonishment from As Nodt, because Mask had no idea Renji even had a Bankai and As just basically sighs (as best as a psychotic fear-demon can) that Mask should really pay attention to the briefing.
• Apparently Bernice Gabrielli is a man. Who knew? Not me!
• Among Byakuya's flashbacks is a shot of the anime-only Kuchiki Koga from the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc. I think? I never watched the Bleach filler. But allegedly, that arc was the one that Tite Kubo supplied the most artwork and direction to, so maybe it is canon? 
• "Quincies use only bows and arrows!" Well, Quilge or someone did say that it's an archaic point of view, but Driscoll definitely used an arrow. A big-ass one. 
• I did gloss over it, but it is really nice that Yamamoto respects that Sasakibe is extremely uncomfortable about being the reason that Yamamoto's name is changed, and adopts a completely different name (based on the tree on his courtyard) to honour Sasakibe's wish. 
• In the manga, I've always thought Yamamoto was actively hunting down Sasakibe's killer, which was why it took him so long to properly join the battle. But here he actually seems surprised when Driscoll makes the proclamation. So I guess he was just shaken by the invasion and Sasakibe's death, then, just standing in his ransacked barracks?