Bleach TYBW E14 Review: Civilian Real-World Opening!

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 14: The Last 9 Days

Where has the time gone? It's already time for cour two of Bleach? Apparently it is, and reportedly we're going to get a whole lot of additional scenes in this and the next cour. Excellent!

Which is nice, because honestly this episode doesn't give me a whole ton to talk about. The good guys train, and the bad guys have their big Sternritter meeting -- one of the best parts of Bleach has always been to hype up its villains, and while the second half of the manga's version of this arc kind of crashed and burned, the Sternritters' meeting in this one was pretty great in establishing the personalities of the Sternritters we already know, and introducing a couple more that are going to be prominent in the future -- like Bambietta's little girl squad and Askin Nakk le Vaar. 

Here, though, we get all the Sternritter. Even the elite guard and Gremmy, in a far more epic version of Juhabach showing off Uryu to the entire Vandenreich. It's logical for this to happen, while at the same time being extremely epic at the beginning of this arc. Admittedly it was perhaps a bit too much to keep so many different people like Pepe, Askin or whoever in the background for so long and hinting at their existence when there are so many Sternritters running around. 

But that's not just it. We also get a bunch more context and explanation here and there, with the prologue before the opening being a creepy scene as baby Juhabach is formed from a bunch of... souls? Souls or sperms? And then thousands of hands with holes in them hold him up, forming a gigantic pyramid of chanting worshippers that chant the name of "Juhabach". These hands also start to break down as a massive network of red roots or blood vessels or something that sprout from Juhabach. 

And then we get the opening! I don't normally talk about openings in the body of the review, but this one is special! Bleach hasn't been a stranger of putting its supernatural characters in contemporary outfits, but it's extra-silly to see the Sternritters and the Shinigami's fights treated as how they would happen if these guys are just civilians in the real world. We've also got, uh... crime boss Yuhabach recruiting Uryu with a goddamn Quincycopter, and then Uryu facing off against Ichigo in a music store with a violin and a double-necked guitar respectively? Get it, cause a violin has a bow? There are many fun moments with the secondary characters, but my favourite has to be the sheer wackiness of the visual image of As Nodt as this goth skater being blasted full in the face with a fire extinguisher by Rukia. 

Anyway, back to the episode... we do jump around a lot, and I think I'll just cover the individual events. 

And let's start with the big one that happens and takes place mostly in the middle of the episode. This scene is 'remixed' from the original manga version in that a lot of the dialogue is kept the same, a lot of the interactions are kept the same, but there's a fair bit more context and the visuals showing all the Sternritter does help to give Uryu being shown off in front of the entire Vandenreich empire have a fair bit more gravitas than it actually does in the manga. 

Juhabach, of course, declares Uryu as his successor, something that shocks basically the entire Sternritter crowd. Juhabach repeats the manga's proclamation that the Uryu will show off his power to everyone in the coming battles, which... combined with the opening and the fact that manga!Ichigo doesn't really get a proper 'rival' fight before the final villain, hopefully this leads to an Ichigo-vs-Uryu fight at the end of this cour? 

A lot of the scenes between the Sternritter that basically establishes their personality for the second invasion takes place here, like Bambietta cutting up a random handsome Soldat, the introduction of the four female Sternritters, Bazz-B grousing and getting absolutely angry at Haschwalth when he comes into the room, and Askin stopping them with a glowing Deathdealing ball. One notable omission, however, is Pepe, who geh-geh-geh's into the end of the Bazz-B/Haschwalth/Askin scene, but since Pepe really doesn't live up to anywhere of his buildup, having this scene focus on the three others works a bit better. 

Again, it's kind of interesting to see the sheer amount of differing opinions within the Sternritter, and how they clearly revere Juhabach and respect Haschwalth, but they still are independent enough to throw a hissy fit in the employees' break room. 

We also get an extended scene of Uryu drinking the cup of blood from Juhabach to obtain his Schrift, and there's some more intrigue there on why Juhabach decided to appoint Uryu his successor. There's enough changed and extended from the manga's equivalent of this moment to really sell this creepy evil ritual, as well as tying it to Uryu's little silent sidequest in the background of the first cour. There is a great visualization of Uryu standing in front of a cross-shaped grave, and for the camera to pan out into a massive field of cross gravestones -- all the dead Quincies, leaving him as 'the Last Quincy'. 

Ichigo, meanwhile, gets a highly expanded scene with Ichibei Hyosube's training, and we get a bit more of a conversation between our main character and the Eyeball Monk. Ichigo kind of disappears at this part of the manga, and it is great that we're getting the main character being, y'know, present. There are a couple of nice hints at the sheer amount of power-up that Ichigo's going to get, as Ichibei seems pretty aware of Ichigo's true nature and wants him to surpass even a Shinigami. To that end, Ichibei gives Ichigo a stick and then the surroundings around them start to peel off as Ichigo finds himself at a psychedelic, spiritual path under a torii gate. Ichibei says that this is a sacred place that even the Royal Guard can't enter, seeing if Ichigo's going to be able to surpass even the existence of Shinigami. 

Again, as someone who's read all the manga and even the spin-off novels, it's easy to see how Ichibei's additional dialogue about the role of the Royal Guard not being to fight enemies, or how this is interposed with Kyoraku's scene as he meets up with Ichigo's human-world friends, to really realize that this is going to lead to some nice revelations about the Soul King, Juhabach, and how they relate to Ichigo's destiny. 

There are a couple more extra scenes here and there that take place in the manga -- Urahara continuing his research; Chad and Orihime (and the silhouette of Grimmjow) training in Hueco Mundo and musing about war and peace; the aforementioned scene of Kyoraku realizing that the Zero Squad's plan with Ichigo is and going to meet the three human classmates; Shinji contacting Hiyori in the human world to fix distortions (a plotline that was cut out of the first cour); Renji and Rukia having their own training; Byakuya rising up from Kirinji's hot springs; plus cameos of Yukio, Riruka, Isshin and his daughters...

By the way, I do really like that the scene of Kyoraku meeting Ichigo's friends is actually given a fair amount of screentime relative to how I thought it would be. I guess they really are hammering home Ichigo's major role and the potential of his death or disappearance in this arc. 

And then Orihime muses about how peaceful everything seems, and the Vandenreich could attack anytime. And, of course, this triggers the fusion of the Schatten-Bereich with the Seireitei, causing the red skies to appear as the two realms bleed together and the buildings in the Seireitei are replaced with the Quincy buildings. The CGI is... interesting? It's a bit more 'uncanny' compared to Yamamoto's Daisojin skeleton, I feel. We do get a cool shot of the entire Sternritter army just walking with impunity through the streets, which is a nice new shot... while Juhabach and Uryu talk and recite the Kaiser-Gesang, the song of the Quincy king regaining his heartbeat in 900 years, his intellect in 90 years, his strength in 9 years... and regain the world in 9 days. 

And boom, title drop. 

Pretty great episode -- it's mostly setup with a couple of additions, but I really absolutely loved these additions and what they represented. I do think that returning a lot of the focus to Ichigo and Uryu's respective storylines is a great, great move and frankly one of the biggest frustrations that people had with the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, other than the abrupt finale. This is definitely a strong start to the second cour, particularly with the promise that all the existing plotlines and storylines are still going to be maintained, just heavily expanded upon. 

Random Notes:

• At least in the version that I watched, in the eyecatcher explainin the Schrifts with the ones that are already revealed in the first invasion, the Lloyd twins is erroneously listed as 'L' instead of 'Y'.
  
• It's not played for laughs, but I did giggle when Ichigo turns around to leave Ichibei's temple to return to the Seireitei, and Ichibei just deadpans "do you want to die?"
• It is interesting that Askin stops the Bazz-B/Haschwalth fight, but also seems to be extremely supportive of Haschwalth being the next emperor? It's kind of a plotline that kinda goes nowhere outside of Haschwalth and Bazz-B himself, so I wonder if this little internal conflict within the Sternritter on who the next successor will be ends up coming into play later on. 
• Between Ichibei's dialogue, we really hammer home the fact that the Zero Squad is basically preparing Ichigo for a backup plan in case they have to make him into the Soul King... hence Kyoraku going to the human world and acknowledging Ichigo's human friends and giving him those passes. This was already alluded to (and figured out by many of the fandom) in the final days of the Bleach manga, and basically spelt out in Can't Fear Your Own World. 
• The confrontation that Bambietta has with Liltotto, Meninas, Giselle and Candice in her room is cut short, although the banter is moved to the common room -- allowing them to have their catty arguments while discussing topics that are relevant to the discussion of successors, with Giselle telling Candice to seduce Uryu. This is a pretty fun change, with the essence of the scene being similar (Giselle being a mean bitch that slut-shames Candice) while making the conversation not be a non-sequitur. 
• The entire Bambi clique wasn't present when Bazz-B is causing a scene, and because this episode points it out, it does make sense for them to be there since their leader Bambietta is pretty obviously ticked off about the appointment of Uryu as Juha's successor. 
• In the manga, a lot of the Sternritters that have dialogue here have their Schrift revealed as part of their name boxes. They don't, here, but it's kind of a moot point since we'll be having them in the next couple of weeks. 
• The unfortunately-designed Pero, who guides Orihime and Chad, is cut entirely from this episode.