Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War E12 Review: Kurosaku Ichigo's Genetics

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 12: Everything But the Rain "June Truth"

So this is like the second part of the 'Everything But the Rain' backstory to Ichigo's complex (some may say convoluted, and I won't dispute that) backstory. 

But it really is nice to revisit the Isshin/Masaki relationship, yeah? We don't go through every single event that happened since the first meeting between Isshin and Masaki, and we condense the manga's version of events relatively efficiently, I feel. We start off in the Soul Society where Isshin gives his report of the incident to Genryusai, and the main point of this sequence is to show how Isshin is covering up Masaki's existence and involvement. Shown to use more or less simultaneously is a scene of Masaki in the human world, thinking about that rugged, handsome Shinigami that saved her life, and thinking about how she really should've asked for his name. The same thing happens with Isshin, and the two basically think a lot about 'man, I really should have asked for his/her name, he/she is such a great person and not at all like what I thought Quincies/Shinigami would be'. The relationship between Isshin and Masaki and how they end up falling in love with each other is basically as good as you could make it with the limited time -- both in terms of screentime and in-universe time -- and the function here is mostly to show off their initial attraction anyway. 

Everything's not okay with Masaki, though, and she' just going through regular high school until she bumps into -- by coincidence -- Urahara Kisuke, who realizes that something isn't quite right with this girl she just passed. Masaki returns home to the Ishida estate, and is immediately confronted by Mama Izumi, who gets pissed off that Masaki fought a Hollow to save a Shinigami. Ryuken is visibly angered by this breach of information, confronting Katagiri about her informing Izumi about this. Poor, poor Katagiri isn't even doing this out of jealousy or anything -- she took Ryuken's rationalization and his speech about the importance of the Quincies as the honest truth of her master's views, and Katagiri just wants Ryuken's goals to be realized. It's really only at this point that Ryuken, in rage, snaps that the whole 'pure Quincy' thing doesn't matter to him. 

To everyone's horror, Katagiri is right, and there actually is a problem. Masaki sustained a grievous wound from White's atrtack, with a very gross and disgusting veiny Hollow hole on Masaki's chest. Masaki faints, and Ryuken picks Masaki up and tries to get help for her. Unfortunately, Ishida Soken is still off training and doing whatever the hell he's doing. Not willing to wait, Ryuken picks up Masaki's body and runs off into the night sky.

And... and in a scene that I genuinely don't remember happened in the manga, we get to see Izumi scream out at Ryuken and beg at him to not be near that 'thing' since the now-infected Masaki isn't pure anymore... and we get to see Izumi's leg be encrusted with what seemed to be a Hollow wound. We never really get to see Izumi after this, and back in the day when I read the manga clearly my attention was focused on the actual main characters... but it does bring a lot of things into a new perspective, huh? It is always kind of weird that Soken and Izumi only had a single child especially since they're all about rebuilding the Quincy bloodline, but if Izumi herself is actually infected and rendered 'impure' by a Hollow attack, her desperation for the Ryuken/Masaki pure blood marriage makes a bit more sense and it adds a bit of tragedy to the whole thing since it ends up being a case of Izumi trying to basically "fix" what she couldn't provide for the Quincy people by hoisting everything on the next generation. 

Anyway, back to the actual main characters! Wracked with guilt for not stopping (or, hell, helping) Masaki on that night with White, Ryuken gets so distracted that a gigantic Hollow appears behind him. Fortunately, Isshin chooses this time to show up, one-shot the Hollow, and the two recognize each other. Ryuken is super-duper pissed, rather unfairly but understandably yelling at Isshin about how it's all because Masaki risked her life for a Shinigami that something like this would happen. Before they can really talk, though, Urahara shows up.

While this is going on, Masaki's "spirit" falls down a peaceful black void... before the gigantic Hollow head of White yawns open and is about to devour her. 

Urahara explains the Hollowfication phenomenon quickly to Isshin and Ryuken, telling them that he has been researching the phenomenon for quite some time now. Urahara also shatters Ryuken's hopes, noting that Masaki can never return to being normal, especially with how the Hollowfication process breaks apart the boundaries between different kinds of souls. Urahara talks about how the original Hollowfication process will end up with the afflicted to self-destruct in a process called Soul Suicide, but then offers an option that will safe Masaki, by injecting Masaki's soul with a substance that will maintain the balance between the boundaries. She won't be a pure Quincy, but she would at least get to live. Urahara notes that he cured the Hollowfied Shinigami with a vaccine created from a Quincy's arrow and a human soul, allowing them to remain in a stable state... but it's a bit harder for an infected Quincy like Masaki, since she has no resistance against Hollow. They need a counteracting force that has to be by Masaki's side constrantly -- this will save Masaki's life, prevent Hollowfication and allowing her to continue existing as a human. Since Masaki is currently a Quincy-Hollow, they need a Shinigami-Human, the opposite of the two components of Masaki. 

It's a wee bit complex and this is the double-abridged version (the anime abridges the manga, and I abridged the anime explanation) but, well, clearly Ishida Ryuken is much smarter than me, and he is absolutely distraught and pissed-off at this solution. The only choice for this counteracting force is another Shinigami -- which is Isshin -- to give up his status, his Shinigami powers, position in the Soul Society and basically hang around Masaki indefinitely. And Ryuken, having had a pretty negative view of Shinigami... well, the thought of Isshin giving up his life for a Quincy is completely impossible, especially since there is absolutely no merit in it for Isshin.

...and, of course, Isshin immediately agrees, to the astonishment of Ryuken and Urahara. Isshin notes that, yes, of course he's not happy about giving up everything he's known all his life, and I do like that we acknowledge it instead of just handwaving it completely with 'shonen protagonist go yolo'. Isshin notes that, yes, he's not happy about it, but he can't live with himself if he has a chance to save the person that saved him in the first place, and didn't take that chance. 

And then we cut to Masaki's inner world, where Isshin shows up and rescues Masaki from the giant Hollow head with a Getsuga Tensho. The original version of this chapter in the manga is notorious for showing Masaki completely nude, with visibly-drawn nipples, something that still surprises me was allowed to run in Shonen Jump. With the power of glowing anime auras, though, Masaki gets the typical barbie-doll anatomy this time around. 

In the real world, Masaki stops her self-destruction and is finally stabilized. With their two souls bonded, Urahara confirms that Masaki will survive. A still-slightly delirious Masaki then starts to giggle about meeting Isshin again. Ryuken walks off into the rain and meets Katagiri, and while Ryuken is a bit in despair for his inability to protect the Quincies, Katagiri refuses to leave his side, and yells about how it's her duty to devote her entire life to serve him... and while it's certainly nowhere as bubbly as the Masaki/Isshin moment, I think this is when Ryuken ended up realizing that Katagiri loves him. And... well, we don't get to focus on the Ishida family, but all context clues did point to Ryuken and Katagiri loving each other in their marriage, and since Izumi is clearly a 'pure blood' supremacist, it's a form of Ryuken choosing love over traditions.

We kind of extend the little montage of romance and marriage a fair bit, which I think is kind of necessary and sweet. Masaki graduates from high school and leaves the Ishida estate and the Quincies after that, while Urahara helps Isshin set up the Kurosaki Clinic. And I do like that the two isn't just immediately in love with each other. There's the matter of Masaki's age, of course, but the two got closer over time as Masaki keeps showing up to 'make fun of Isshin's white coat', and scenes of them eating sushi together or watching movies together definitely does sell the romance between the two in the limited time available to us in this episode. That line about Masaki being Isshin's sun is very sweet...

And then we cut to the present day, where Isshin tells Ichigo that he was born after that moment, and we get a brief recap of, well, Bleach. Isshin also confirms that his Shinigami powers returned only after Rukia stabbed Ichigo with her sword. Since Isshin's Reiatsu could no longer suppress the Hollow powers that transferred to Ichigo, Isshin's Shinigami powers returned to him for the first time in 20 years... which also neatly explains why Isshin never participated in any of the battles up until the Fake Karakura Town arc... and more importantly, why he never saved Masaki from a scrub Hollow like Grand Fisher...

Which is what we go to now, after the credits roll -- we get a super-long post-credits scene. And it really is kind of sad that a character as developed as Masaki was in these short flashbacks ended up having such an undignified death at the hands of Grand Fisher, and... it's not that Isshin could do anything. He couldn't even see a Hollow, much less fight it, and while it does initially sound like 'man, you dropped the ball', even if Isshin arrived at the place he really wouldn't be able to do much other than be a bit of a distraction. But more to the point, Kurosaki Masaki is a full-fledged Quincy, and a hollow like Grand Fisher would be relatively easy prey to someone like beginning-of-the-series Ishida Uryu, let alone an experienced Quincy like Masaki. As Isshin put it -- the gulf in strength was so high that it would be stupid for him to think Masaki was in danger. As an Echt Quincy, her Blut Vene was naturally insanely powerful.

...except Auswählen, or the Holy Selection, happened right at that point.

(It's nice, by the way, that the anime actually animates the moment where Masaki's Blut Vene shuts off and she gets impaled by Grand Fisher, showing just how sudden it is and how much she was ready to tank the attack.)

Both Masaki and Katagiri (who was sickly) died that day from Auswählen, and I do like the anime-original Uryu scenes shows a brief scene of Ryuken finding the journal underneath the bridge where Uryu was reading it from -- with the implication that Uryu found out most if not all about the Quincy Purge and the truth of his own mother's death at around this point. Again, they really didn't add as many Uryu scenes as I thought they would, but the little they added definitely really help to build up Uryu's character to explain his eventual recruitment to the Sternritters. 

Anyway, Auswählen. It ties to the mysterious Juhabach and his resurrection -- power in 900 years, mind in 90 years, and strength in 9 years... which falls in line with how Juhabach took back the powers of the Quincies he deemed to be impure or weak. I'm not sure why Katagiri qualified for it, I guess because her body was physically ill? But Masaki, marrying a Shinigami and 'tainted' by a Hollow, definitely would fall under that category. 

We also finally get the confirmation of the identity of the Juhabach, the immortal king and father of the Quincies... which I think we can already guess over the past 12 episodes. Ichigo, having a full picture of his own origin story and that of Juhabach, thanks Isshin. The rain (everything but the rain! It's symbolic!) clears up, and we get a short scene of Ikumi showing up to return the substitute Shinigami badge that Ichigo left behind in her shop. Ichigo thanks Ikumi, before leaving with determination. 

So yeah. I really do think that these two episodes of 'Everything But the Rain' tells the original story and adapts it amazingly well. The pacing of those chapters really did make it a bit frustrating to read week-by-week and reading Bleach's sixtieth tankobon does give us a much more pleasant reading experience. The same happens here, and... again, there's always going to be some debate on whether Ichigo's backstory is 'too convoluted', or if it should've been told to the audience in a different way. I do think that retrospectively the flashback and where it was placed was definitely fine. How it tied to Juhabach and his Auswahlen is a bit debatable, and honestly while I really enjoyed the Ryuken/Masaki/Katagiri/Izumi Quincy purebloodedness family drama, it's not something that would be followed up on in the rest of the arc. That's for me to complain in later episodes, though. For now, it's a fun episode!

Random Notes:

• There is a nice little bit of scene where Mayuri grouses about Isshin not recovering the remains of the super-unique Hollow and how it's a huge breach of conduct, but we all know Mayuri just wants to dissect some interesting new specimens.
  
• Actually, I've never really thought about it, but did this incident and Soken's unavailability be one of the huge bridges between Soken and Ryuken? I also wonder if Soken approved of Ryuken and Katagiri's marriage -- presumably Izumi didn't. 
• It is kinda weird that Isshin does a Getsuga Tenshou, huh? How does that work, considering Ichigo's very unique Shinigami-Hollow powers boosted by Quincy heritage with a weirdly inactivated Asauchi thing? The new anime, at least, makes it a bit more clear that Isshin's Getsuga is a different thing, with different colours corresponding to the flames of Engetsu.
• Another somewhat more dated joke/content that's removed isn't a fanservice thing, but Isshin's comment about not wanting to receive thanks from men.
• In the manga, one of Masaki's friends noted that she would jump Ryuken if she was in Masaki's position, cousin or not. Ooookay.
• A little nice moment of Isshin recalling that Ryuken was the one that let Masaki leave the Ishida household after graduating high school is also cut.
• There was also an explanation -- which I assume got shunted into one of the commercial break infodumps -- about how Echt Quincies can use Blut naturally while Gemischt Quincies need to do some training.
• Don't ask why Urahara casually has a Gigai created from a human soul or whatever. Just... just don't ask, and don't ask which unfortunate human got turned into that thing.