Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War E08 Review: Hope They Do Something!

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 8: The Shooting Star Project [Zero Mix]

Okay, a shorter review this time because these two couple of episodes that I have to catch up on are a bit more... slowly-paced? But they are still pretty interestingly done. Basically it's a bit of a breather before the heavy Kenpachi/Unohana drama of episode 10, introducing the Squad Zero and... well, let's just say that I truly hope they do a lot more with Squad Zero after this little mini-arc of rest and relaxation, and not do what they did to them in the manga. 

Episode 8 does start off with a pretty grim sequence, and... I think more than any other episode in Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, I think episode 8 compresses and cuts out the most comedy out of any of the anime adaptations. I guess it's to make everything super-serious until the jarring wackiness of Squad Zero showing up and them putting on a little dance and show and end up giving us something truly jarring, but, yeah. 

I do find that the anime does a pretty good job at showing the aftermath of the war. The scene takes place in the manga version as well, of course, but it's a lot more different with the music and lighting and the characters yelling here and there. Again, we get a bunch of explanations -- particularly about how Unohana and the Fourth Division were ordered to stay in their barracks by Yamamoto; the captains finding the crater where Yamamoto was killed; Ikkaku roaring in rage; and finally a great, quiet moment when Shinji brings Ichigo to talk to Rukia, who has just regained consciousness. There's a really neat moment that shows how close these main characters are when Rukia notes that there's something weighing down on Ichigo that's more than simply being defeated in battle -- whatever Juhabach told him about his origins.

It's interesting, too, to see the captains start to bicker. Soi Fon gets pissed off at one of her messengers delivering bad news (...even though said bad news includes Byakuya and Kenpachi not dying), then Kensei admonishing her for being so emotional. Soi Fon then all but accuses Kensei for not caring about Yamamoto thanks to the Vizards' estrangement, and then Komamura gets super angry... and Kyoraku calms them all down, basically reiterating the function of the Gotei 13 as soldiers and not as people who mourn the dead. A neat little showcase and foreshadowing to how he would succeed Yamamoto as the new Captain Commander. 

Mayuri, meanwhile, talks to Ichigo about the destroyed Tensa Zangetsu and goes into a long talk about destroyed Bankai... but the anime cuts out around 90% of the explanation in the manga. Which I'm actually kind of pissed off about, since I personally would've moved the hot springs scene in this episode to the next one, while this episode could've had a bit more explanation about the destroyed Bankai? The manga version of this scene has Mayuri talk about Ryuumon Hozukimaru, Kokujo Tengen Myo'o and Hihio Zabimaru, but the anime version removes all of them just to have Mayuri briefly mention his own Bankai.

At least, however, the anime still preserves this in text form... if you can read Japanese, because the explanations are put in the little pink ad-breaks where they talk about a certain aspect of the Bleach universe. I can recognize enough kanji and particularly the square brackets to know that they're talking about at least Zabimaru and Tengen in that one break. 

Also, they cut out nearly everything about Kon and his buff form in this part of the episode, but that one I can kind of forgive them for cutting out or severely reducing. Kon himself at least still remains, and we do move around some of his comedic moments later on, but I can definitely respect the fact that everything before Squad Zero's arrival is a lot more somber.

And then Squad Zero, the Royal Guard, shows up! And... well, they're goofballs. Just like the manga version, we don't get any of their names yet, and each of their names will be delivered via character cards like the Sternritters, where the episode stops to show their faces in all pink. It's hard to do so in review form, though, so I'll just tell you all the Squad Zero names here. Ichibei Hyosube, the big monk guy. Tenjiro Kirinji, the punk pompadour guy. Oetsu Nimaiya, the darker-skinned guy with funky glassses. Senjumaru Shutara, the lady with metallic puppet arms. Kirio Hikifune, the big lady with purple hair. 

And instantly, they do show off how much more powerful they are than the Gotei 13, while also showing that their priority, being the Royal Guard, is to protect the Soul King while the guarding of the Seireitei falls under the Gotei 13... and that they don't get to cry and bitch about not getting help when they fucked up royally in protecting their charge. We get to see how they're basically running circles around the Gotei 13. Senjumaru is able to bypass Mayuri's insane laboratory off-screen and retrieve the wounded bodies of Byakuya, Rukia and Renji, as well as Tensa Zangetsu. Kirinji mouths off to Unohana and she's not fighting back despite being clearly pissed. Kirinji also manages to outspeed Soi Fon, the leader of the Gotei 13's ninja squadrons, and twist her arm. 

Again, it's pretty interesting to show just how much the Squad Zero is at the peak of Shinigami-ness, and how their priorities are completely different. Of course, it'd be nice to see them actually do something beyond being an excuse for a training montage. 

Also, at this point Urahara contacts the Gotei 13 via a video screen installed on Kon, which... again, they really cut down the comedy at this point, though not completely. Kon still panics, and there is the inherent ridiculousness of Urahara's antics, but they cut out the scene of Mayuri pressing Kon's doll eyes to try and shut off the transmission.

It's also much more apparent thanks to voice acting that the mysterious figure that the story plays up so much is Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, and with colour schemes it's blatantly apparent that it's Grimmjow. Chad and Orihime chase off Grimmjow by... okay, Orihime throwing rice or beans at Grimmjow is something rooted in traditional ways to drive off oni, which I get. I'm not sure why Chad is shaking a maracas on Grimmjow's face, though. 

Also very much truncated is the initial meeting with the Shiba clan members, where we cut out the reunion between Ichigo and Kukaku, the explanation of the Shiba Clan's big fuck-off cannon to send Squad Zero into the Soul King Palace, as well as the comedic moment with the two giant flexing Ganju statues... though the statues are still there, they're just given a shot and then hang out in the background. We do get a bit more blatant foreshadowing that Isshin is part of the Shiba clan, though, with Kukaku reminiscing about 'making uncle sad' and having a flashback of Isshin from behind. 

Oh, and Ganju walks off with Ginjo, Tsukushima and Time Tells No Lies guy. The Fullbringers! Right. Hope they get to do something more interesting in this anime!

Man, this episode is just filled with people I kinda hope they give a better role in the final fights. Honestly, I don't think they'll have time to adapt Can't Fear Your Own World if they're going to properly expand on the final four or five chapters of Bleach. Give Grimmjow, Shinji, Squad Zero and the Fullbringers something to do in the final battles, for god's sakes! I don't even need for them to take out Sternritters or whatever, but seeing them do something relevant would be nice. 

We get a showcase of what the Soul King Palace looks like, which is pretty cool, and the Oken explanation is left in -- with the (honestly kinda retcon-ish) revelation that the Squad Zero members' bones are essentially Oken. I think the explanation is done a bit better with what Aizen is trying to do and the previous arc depiction of the Oken as a literal physical key .

And then we top this episode off with the first of the five Squad Zero members, with Ichigo being in Kirinji's hot springs that will cure him. We do get an explanation of the two hot springs and how they essentially 'build up' your Reiatsu by squeezing out your damage and then refilling it back in, and we still keep one of the funniest moments where Kirinji takes the wounded, near-death Byakuya and tosses him around... but, again, just like the Mayuri scene, comparing it with the manga, we do lose a bunch of jokes (especially the 'peaches' one, manga readers will know) and explanations (the comparison with Urahara's hot spring, as well as the usage of the towels that Ichigo and Kirinij have). And then we close off with a shot of Kirinji's title. Again, the removal of the jokes and extraneous exposition is... something that's honestly kind of interesting. I don't like removing any kind of explanation at all, but the jokes thing I can at least understand where it's only really noticeable when you take the manga volume and compare it side by side. Oh well. Again, if we're taking out all of these in favour of more engaging content and giving all these people who I hope 'do something'... well, something to do, I'm all for it. 

Speaking of the ultimate 'hey, hope he does something'...

Oh, hello, Soul King, with your weird-ass cross shaped eyes! This scene where he is revealed to the audience as a figure in a crystal is in the manga, albeit the nameless generic attendant is replaced with Ichibei in the anime version -- a good change in my opinion. But man, I really hope they explain a bit more about the Soul King in this version of events!

Fun episode, fun episode. 

Random Notes:

• Man, I still remember the fuss people tossed out about how the Squad Zero members looked back in the day, with pretty much only Shutara being well-received by the fandom at the time. This was around the time I got into the weekly manga community and I was a bit bamboozled for sure. 
  
• Speaking of Shutara, seeing Nimaiya and Kirinji ham shit up is kinda expected from their character designs and the personalities we'd know from them. Seeing Shutara wave around wacky musical instruments with her golden metal arms is far, far more hilarious than that, though!
• I wonder if the Lloyd Lloyd and Royd Lloyd explanation was snuck into one of the ad break segments? 
• I enjoy these little crumbs of Kensei and Shinji getting moments in episode 8. Shinji at least gets to say some dialogue here and there, but you really do get the sense that the writer sometimes forgets the Vizard captains exist at all. 
• Also, while all of the other Squad Zero members are showing off, we get a nice, short scene of Kirio Hikifune talking to Shinji and Shinji himself being completely baffled at the drastic change that Kirio had visually. Kirio is the only character here who has been established in previous chapters, so it's nice that they kept this moment in. 
• I've never remembered that the walls came down from the sky when Ichigo and company arrived, but it's neat that it became a tie-in to the Soul King's palace being above the Soul Society.
• They do skip the explanation for it, but I do love the visual gag of Kirinji wearing the towel on his pompadour .