Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War E13 Review: Zangetsu: The Origin

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 13: The Blade is Me

The final episode of the first part of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc ends with a rather... interesting episode. It's still climactic in that it really settles a huge part of Kurosaki Ichigo's character development, and honestly arguably is the last huge character development our good ol' strawberry boy will ever get.

We start off right after the 'Everything But the Rain' two-parter, with Ichigo all badass after realizing the true scope of the backstory and the Quincy connection... and then Isshin asks Ichigo how he's going to get back. What a hilarious gag that was, actually. And honestly, the very convenient magical portal that sends Ichigo from the Soul King's Palace Realm all the way to the human realm is very much a deus ex machina, isn't it? Especially since a couple of episodes ago we made such a huge deal about how they used that gigantic pillar and cannon to shoot the Zero Squad up from the Soul Society to the Soul King's Palace. But anyway, Mera shows up to pick Ichigo back up, and Ichigo returns to the Ho'oden in front of Nimaiya. Ichigo ends up walking through the crowd of Asauchi, who all kneel down before Ichigo and they all turn black. Ichigo manages to single out 'his' Asauchi which transforms into a simplified version of White/Hollow Ichigo.

With the explanation we've received in the previous episodes, I suppose Ichigo has finally poured out the parts of his soul that he normally draws on to activate his Zanpakuto, and has created a "proper" Zanpakuto Spirit, so to speak? 

We then get a brief check-in with most of the captains whose Bankais got stolen, which is actually not a bad thing to do in an episode where we end off the first segment of the season! Hitsugaya trains again in the basics of zanjutsu. Kensei and Mashiro train Shuhei so that he can achieve Bankai, and... this scene is really interesting to me, because I really do hope that they can show it off? I'm not sure if we'll adapt Can't Fear Your Own World, or if Shuhei is going to be allowed to use it against Lille Barro's owl-demons or something, but keeping this scene but not giving it any payoff would be odd.

Akon, meanwhile, spies on what Mayuri is doing in his lab, and the dialogue in this scene is actually altered from the manga. In the manga, Mayuri is working on either Kira or the Privaron Espada, talking about how 'they're moving', but here he's specifically dealing with modifying Ashisogi Jizo? I don't think that zombie cyborg Kira would be adapted out, but this does actually foreshadow all the nonsense that Mayuri's going to do with the big red baby later on. 

We also keep the character development with Maerchiyo Omaeda and get a scene about him mulling about how Soi Fon didn't bring him along for training (she's doing one-handed pushups on the cliff) and... honestly, I've grown a fair amount of appreciation for Omaeda and his character development as a side-character from the Soul Society arc to the Fake Karakura Town arc and the Sternritter invasion. The scene we have of him here is neat, basically him talking to his little sister, who just wants to play. 

But the biggest side-character subplot is definitely Komamura, who shows up in a mysterious cave to meet up with the Wolf-man Clan Elder, his great grandfather who is a gigantic, dinosaur-sized big dog. Big Doggo, who I don't think ever gets named, isn't in good terms with Komamura, and gets pissed off that Komamura has the sheer, unmitigated gall to ask for their clan's secret technique. Big Doggo Grandpa wants the beast people clan to just hide out the crisis, since it doesn't matter to them whether the Shinigami or the Quincy rules the world, and gets even more pissed that Komamura pretended to be a human with that straw helmet all the way back in the beginning of the series. Again, it's been a while since Bleach ended, but it was pretty interesting that good ol' Komamura gets the backstory of why he's a dog given in the final arc. 

And then we get the sword-crafting scene and... we do get a fair amount of gravitas to this, and the Sword Five get animated pretty well. I do like that one girl who cries and her tears become the water used for the forging, and that one lady who pulls out her teeth to become a giant mallet. And... I do really like that for all the dickery that Nimaiya has done in episode 10 and 13, Nimaiya is in full-on serious mode when he's reforging the Zanpakuto, reverting Zangetsu back into his sword form and hammering on it without the aid of his sunglasses, because he needs to gauge the colour of the flames with his own eyes. 

Nimaiya explains that Ichigo's Zanpakuto and the 'inner Hollow' is one and the same, and notes how the creation of White is similar to Nimaiya creating his Asauchi... and White has merged completely with Ichigo's natural Shinigami powers, and thus it's his real Zanpakuto spirit. It kind of goes unsaid, but presumably the whole 'lack of training' and lack of Asauchi is why Inner Hollow Ichigo, or the 'real Zangetsu', is so feral. 

Ichigo, of course, asks the very important question -- who is 'Old Man Zangetsu', the mysterious old man who Ichigo has been calling 'Zangetsu' all this while?

Nimaiya calls him the 'man masquerading as Ichigo's Zanpakuto spirit'... and we cut away to Ichigo's inner world, animated even more beautifully in the new animation style. Nimaiya explains -- and it's even more evident in the anime with the voice-acting -- that Old Man Zangetsu is actually the manifestation of Ichigo's Quincy powers, taking the form of young Juhabach. There's also a couple of neat acknowledgements and a neat little nod to how Ichigo knew instantly to go straight for Juhabach when he arrived after escaping Quilge Opie.

(From this moment on, I'll call them H!Zangetsu and Q!Zangetsu, for the Inner Hollow and Old Man Zangetsu, since Ichigo acknowledges them both as Zangetsu). Ichigo meets up with Q!Zangetsu in the inner world -- which briefly takes the awesome pink tinge of the opening -- and demands explanations, and Q!Zangetsu does admit that everything Nimaiya said is true. I'm not sure if it really stands up to viewing, but Q!Zangetsu does note how everytime there's trouble threatening Ichigo's life, it's his innate H!Zangetsu hollow/Shinigami powers that takes over. Q!Zangetsu also notes that he always had help from H!Zangetsu whenever he teaches Ichigo how to master his Zanpakuto, and how the only thing he lied about was his name. Basically, Q!Zangetsu wasn't particularly happy that Ichigo took the path of the Shinigami, but eventually years of seeing Ichigo fight so fiercely basically won Q!Zangetsu over, regardless of the fact that this would lead to a fight between Ichigo and Juhabach in the future. Which is why Q!Zangetsu has been actually suppressing Ichigo's powers, and what he's been using is a mere fraction of his true potential. Gee, it's a bit similar to Kenpachi, admittedly.

Q!Zangetsu, after pulling out a Reishi sword, then basically decides that it was time for him to say goodbye, saying that he now knows the 'joy of separation', and I think the implication here was that he was finally ready to acknowledge that Ichigo has chosen the path of the Shinigami, and he's willing to step aside. But Ichigo begs Q!Zangetsu to stay behind and wait, as he disintegrates and forms into a sword. The music here swells up very dramatically, too -- I haven't mentioned music at all throughout the discussion of this scene, but man it's all on point.

Ichigo then does a declaration where he accepts both the Hollow and the Quincy as parts of his own powers, and how they have both done their parts to protect Ichigo all this while. We cut back to the real world, and Ichigo walks up to the furnace, instinctively completing the final segment of forging the Zanpakuto... and the act of doing so causes such a hgue explosion that it evaporates all the water in the Ho'oden. Ichigo stands with two Zangetsu blades in his hands -- a longer one with a 'hollow' hole, and a shorter solid one. A Shinigami-Hollow sword, and a Quincy sword. Nimaiya congratulates Ichigo, and Ichigo promises both Zangetus that they're both Zangetsus, he will not push them away, and they will all fight together... because THE BLADE IS ME. Title drop!

And... does it make sense? Does it hold up? I did always feel that while the inner Hollow genetics passing down thing was always a bit convoluted, the Old Man Zangetsu twist and how it was a representation of Ichigo's inner Quincy powers is actually done relatively well! And it definitely is a pretty well-executed animated adaptation. The voiceovers definitely really help to sell the 

The episode also closes with a final scene as Haschwalth approaches Juhabach, leading with him Uryu in a Sternritter uniform, setting up for the next part of the season. 

And... and that's a wrap! I definitely do think that the more compact pacing and the amazing animation does help the Thousand-Year Blood War arc a whole lot. Ending in this sequence of flashbacks and Ichigo's resolution and reaffirmation about who he is as a character definitely works amazingly well, I feel. And... well, I'll see you guys with more Bleach when we come back! 

Random Notes:

• The, uh, second 'cour' of this season will be released in July. Since when was that a term for anime seasons? Well, it'll happen in July, anyway! In the meantime, I'll be talking about either Chainsaw Man or Stone Ocean. 
  
• We remove an explanation from Mera about how Nimaiya's method of sending Ichigo to the world of the living has a timing restriction and he'd be pulled back regardless... but the manly mutual look of understanding between Ichigo and Nimaiya works much better, yeah?
• There are a couple of removed minor scenes in the montage of Gotei 13 leaders -- some no-named Shinigami gossiping about Hitsugaya losing his Bankai; Iba waiting in the cave outside where Komamura is meeting big doggo, and a brief scene with another one of Marechiyo's younger siblings, the creepier-looking Marejirosabu, who offers to play with Mareyo.
• There is a cute moment that the anime doesn't really call any attention to, but pay attention to what happens to the poor Hollow-Asauchi-Zangetsu when he and Ichigo falls into the pool. 
• I really don't care about Nimaiya's five Shinigami forging minions, since they don't really matter outside of this one scene. However, one of them, Nonomi Nomino, doesn't actually do anything in the manga's equivalent of this scene.
• Back when I first read Bleach, I didn't understand what a 'Kamen Rider' is, but now I definitely appreciate Mashiro Kuna and her Kamen Rider homages. 
• Also, speaking about that scene, Shuhei gets pissed about Kensei about badmouthing Tosen. Only... Kensei has all the right to badmouth the shit out of Kaname Tosen. Lest we forget, the oh-so-noble cricket jackass hollowfied Kensei and Mashiro, basically did a coup d'etat on Kensei's original Squad, and, y'know, there's the whole thing about the Hollowfiction and painting their reputations dirty. Aizen is the main leader, yes, but Kensei has all the right to be pissed off!
• The two blades of Zangetsu dissipating into differently-coloured Reishi hammers home better than the black-and-white manga did about how the two blades represent different aspects of Ichigo's powers.