Bleach TYBW E21 Review: Named Vollstandigs!

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 21: The Headless Star

Huh, that was not the extended battle that I was expecting. But that's not to say that this isn't a good episode, no! I thoroughly enjoyed watching this episode and perhaps it's becuase I had no idea what's going to happen for a good chunk of it. The past couple of episodes focusing on the fights for Komamura, Renji, Rukia and Kenpachi were by and by pretty excellent adaptations, but ultimately they have been playing things relatively safe. The Rukia and Kenpachi fights in particular got a huge amount of improvement thanks to their respective pacing, but from this point on is where I feel like the Thousand-Year Blood War started to show the biggest cracks in its writing. 

And the manga version of this entire sequence basically boils down to Kubo bringing in everyone important that's still conscious on the Seireitei, have them face off against each other... and then Ichigo and Uryu shout some words at each other, we cut away a bit and then the big battle melee that's promised is over only Pepe to show for it. Rereading this sequence in the manga, the best action scene is Ichigo and Candice fighting for a bit in the manga, and it was highly inconclusive. This manga doesn't quite make it as well as it could've been, but a combination of the Bambis having more of a fight, as well as the hectic action scene of the Sternritters dogpiling Ichigo makes the whole sequence feel a bit more faster-paced in a good way. 

We start off this episode with yet another representation of the cult that worshipped him in the past, again, from the chapter 'God Like You' that's been interestingly chopped up and divided up across the various episodes. I do wonder if we'll get a proper explanation of Juhabach's backstory in a proper monologued fashion? Juhabach wakes up and thanks the soul of the dead for allowing him to wake up -- which implies that him absorbing the souls of the fallen Quincies to be a necessity for him to essentially 'recharge'. Again, the improved execution scene of BG9 and Cang Du a couple episodes back really does help to sell this sequence, and while I'm not sure if it works with Arrancar Quincies, we shold remember that Ebern and Luders were both also executed by Juhabach. 

We then cut away to the aftermath of the Kenpachi/Gremmy fight, with the giant stone fort collapsing, and Kenpachi taking stock of his wounds before walking up to find Yachiru's clothes and badge. This is probably one of the few times that Kenpachi got so rattled, and he yells at the nearby Squad 11 goons to go and hunt down Yachiru. Again, it's really kind of sad considering what happened to Yachiru -- a mystery that was set up pretty damn well in the manga but we just fall short from a proper conclusion back in the day. It would be a low-hanging fruit -- even lower than anything else in my wish-list -- and I really do hope that this gets a proper payoff. 

And then... Kenpachi gets bullied by Candice Catnipp, Sternritter "T" of the Thunderbolt. I've always felt like this was such an annoying moment back in the day, and... I've warmed up to this sequence a bit. Mostly because I've warmed up a bit to Gremmy in general -- back in the day I really did wish that Kenpachi got a more 'traditional' brawler fight instead of Gremmy's bullshitting, and to see Kenpachi wounded and then nearly get taken out by four kill-stealers who also take the time to murder Kenpachi's minions in front of him felt particularly bad for him. 

What is bad, however, is the shading on the wounded Kenpachi throughout this whole scene and when he's talking to Ichigo. It felt particularly unfinished and honestly rather comical, and I really wonder if they simply didn't have time to finish the clean-up for this scene. The rest of the episode flows pretty fine and I get that much of the quality control probably went to the action scenes, but even as someone who normally doesn't care about these things it felt particularly jarring.

We get a showcase of the powers of the four Bambis from the manga -- "Thunderbolt" Candice Catnipp launches lightning bolts, "Power" Meninas McAllon is really powerful, "Glutton" Liltotto Lamperd can extend her mouth into a giant mouth and eat anything, while "Zombie" Giselle Gewelle is able to heal from giant gashes, and her blood, when splattered onto people, allows her to take control of them. I actually really like the contrast between the four voice actresses of the Bambis, particularly Liltotto Lamperd and her utterly deadpan delivery. You can just tell she's just not that enthused about the whole thing and is tired that her buddies are so easily distracted and/or are just dumb.

For what it's worth, Kenpachi still tries to move even while half-dead, which the anime expands a fair bit. That's very much appreciated. The end result is still the same, but we really get to see Kenpachi still trying his damnadest to survive while he keeps getting zapped again and again by Candice and megaton-punched onto the ground by Meninas. And then, of course, we get Ichigo's dramatic entrance. Or, well, not-so-dramatic entrance. 

As we covered a couple episodes back and is recapped by Juhabach later on in the episode, Ichigo's clothes are essentially a form of Oken, allowing him to pierce through the 72 layers of barrier between the Soul King Palace and the Seireitei. We still have the comedic moment of Ichigo crash-landing through a random building, but a lot of the distracting jokey dialogue is cut in favour of the Bambis reacting in confusion, and then Ichigo speed-blitzing through them to talk to Kenpachi. It's actually a nice, sweet moment between Ichigo and Kenpachi that gets drowned out in how action-packed the story before and after this moment are, and it reminds me of Ichigo arriving to see the near-death Byakuya in the first invasion. 

And then we get a vastly expanded version of the original Ichigo-vs-Candice fight. And I do really like that Ichigo doesn't quite hold back against the Sternritters. The anime actually removes a bunch of Ichigo's lines about how fighting girls, other than the 'idiot, dodge!' after Getsuga Jujishou. Again, while Ichigo isn't particularly brutal about it, I definitely appreciate that he's treating the four Bambis as actual opponents, happy to kick or punch them in the sternum to knock them around. 

And I really do like the sequence of the Bambis charging towards Ichigo, and he just tosses them around and overwhelms them with his superior speed slamming them into buildings. This entire scene is actually from the manga, including Liltotto's Glutton trapping Ichigo's cape, but it went by so quickly and so much of the focus is on Candice that the manga version of this fight didn't really feel like Ichigo fending off four combatants at once.

We get a pretty funny sequence of Candice unleashing her lightning blasts and ranting about the effort that it takes for her to keep her hair that way. I do like the little pop-up bags that the Bambis hit to cause their customized Quincy bows to get launched into the air and expand, which are pretty cute. Candice launches her Galvano Blast attacks at Ichigo, destroying the outer layer of his outfit and revealing his inner clothes, and shows off his brand-new twin swords. The barrage of bitch-basic arrows obviously does nothing, though it leads to the comical moment of Candice being thrown onto a building... and then Meninas, Giselle and Liltotto slam onto her one at a time. With Liltotto deliberately kicking her in the face for good measure. That's fun!

Meanwhile, Juhabach begins his ritual with Uryu and Haschwalth, and Askin cryptically wonders if he will be 'chosen'. 

Candice then tells her allies to activaet Vollstandig, and... in the manga, the other three refuse to do it because "it's tiring", and while Liltotto complains a bit in a modified version of her manga dialogue, they actually do so in the anime. We start off with the manga's version of Ichigo fighting Candice, who uses two of her lightning-bolt wings as swords... and Ichigo draws a line with his sword and unleashes a tiny Getsuga Tenshou. 

Giselle, Meninas and Liltotto then all activate Sklaverei, absorbing Reishi from their surroundings to go into their holy forms, which... I don't think we've seen anyone but Quilge Opie do? It basically confirms that all Quincies (or Sternritters) can use Sklaverei, and, well... we actually get names for these three ladies' Vollstandigs. We can't get BG9's Schrift, but we can damn well get their Vollstandig names, huh? This is all done in a bit of a parody of transformation sequences, with Giselle and Meninas hamming it up, and Liltotto just... hovering in place and deadpanning the 'Sklaverei' line. 

Giselle's Vollstandig is called Azhalbiora, with skeletal wings and tail; Meninas's is called Pornipora with a lot of pinky-pink stuff, and Lilttoto's is called Gagael with giant bear traps for wings. The three Vollstandig-upped ladies attack Ichigo, with Meninas going in with her Dumbbell Dusters that expand and retract. Liltotto also joins in the fight by extending her jaw-like constructs, creating an attack called 'Spork', and later on 'Spife'. 

Giselle meanwhile rattles off a bunch of cartoon bones and creates a quartet of Spooky Scary Skeletons Dancing Dead Boys Club to attack Ichigo... she's not in her full zombie-mancer mode, and it really is interesting to see just how varied the 'Zombie' powers are. Ichigo scatters the skeletons, which rise up and pin Ichigo in place while Giselle swoops in with two skulls on her hands called 'Munchy Munchy Babies'. We don't really get to find out what this does, however, becuase Liltotto summons a gigantic bear-trap construct called 'Golden Crunch' and eats up both Ichigo and Giselle. Meninas also zooms in with 'Halteres', transforming one of her dumbbells into a giant axe... and the end result is Giselle getting comically decapitated by Liltotto's Golden Crunch. 

And I really do love this. It really does make the three Sternritters here do something in the interim, and makes Ichigo look even more impressive than his manga counterpart at this point! Candice then pushes her friends aside and continues the manga's version of events, although she enhances her own Vollstandig with Sklaverei, getting some additional tattoos and revealing her holy form to be called Barbarriel. 

And then we get the epic sequence where Candice literally hurls a massive wave of electricity called Electrocution, and Ichigo counters with two swords -- Getsuga Jujisho. This leads to an impressive blast that slams onto Candice... and, well, it blows up her arm. Typical Bleach. We retain the truncated sequence of Giselle healing Candice's arm, and Candice yelling at Giselle to not use blood. 

And then... Bazz-B shows up and Burner Fingers all four Bambis, which I thought was still kind of a silly thing for him to do. This was always a bit confusing, but there was a greater focus at these guys arguing about who gets the credit -- the Bambis earlier when they are hovering over Kenpachi, and now Bazz-B wanting to take the credit for Ichigo's defeat. However, three more Sternritters -- Pepe Waccabrada, Robert Accutrone and NaNaNa Najahkoop all show up. Robert briefly wonders if they can share the reward, but the Bambis recover quickly and say that it's nonsense and the one that deals the final blow will receive all the glory. 

And with all the hectic action scenes of Ichigo fighting the four ladies, it really makes it a bit more sensible that he doesn't even realize that Juhabach is doing some kind of a ritual from his tower, essentially taking advantage of Ichigo's recent arrival to make use of the however many seconds that the barrier is open to create his path to the Soul King's Palace for 6000 seconds.

I do like that the original lengthy explanation by Juhabach is actually split up, with Mayuri delivering around half of the original chapter's exposition instead. In context, it definitely makes more sense, and we also get the ide that the Shinigami are also now aware of what Juhabach is trying to do.

It also is curious that the Zero Squad allowe Ichigo and his allies to do this. They would know that Juhabach can make use of the temporary opening of the barriers to rise up to the Soul King Palace, right? I really do hope that we get more context to at least Ichibei's motivations throughout all of this. Mayuri even calls out the Zero Squad on this, which I thought is interesting. Kyoraku also gives us an explicit line where he deduces that Juhabach is hunting for the Soul King, and we also get a brief cut of a non-speaking Aizen in his prison. 

Ichigo charges towards the tower, but the Sternritter dogpile him. Interestingly, they removed a sequence where NaNaNa tries to jump at Ichigo and cuts out his involvement in this whole sequence entirely. We do get Meninas, Robert and Bazz-B's attacks intact, particularly the very cool shot of Robert in full Grimaniel form shoving his gun in Ichigo's face. 

However, Renji's Zabimaru swoops in to block Bazz-B's Burner Finger before he can shoot, and we get the arrival of Ichigo's allies -- Renji, Rukia, Byakuya, Ikkaku, Yumichika and Shuhei.

...No Shinji. They even cut out his confrontation with Bazz-B, which should've happened slightly before Bazz-B's arrival in this fight. Poor, poor Shinji. 

Anyway, Byakuya uses a wave of Senbonzakura petals to stop the Sternritters from chasing after Ichigo, who darts straight towards where Juhabach, Uryu and Haschwalth are. He's yelling at Juhabach, but then gets even more surprised when Uryu steps up and starts shooting Heilig Pfeils down at Ichigo. This was where I thought they would add a Ichigo/Uryu fight, and honestly, I still really think a proper clash between the two would've worked a bit better here. 

But... again, maybe it's the music and the pacing of the anime, but Uryu's rain of light arrows onto Ichigo is done pretty well. Ichigo's yelling, Uryu's calm stoic look, and the slow shots of the light arrows piercing Ichigo's body from head to toe as he yells at Uryu at what the fuck he's doing. As the arrows rain down towards Ichigo while Uryu tells him ont to stand up against His Majesty...

IN COMES CHAD.

Chad with hs motherfucking Brazo Derecha de Gigante, the giant skull-Fullbring shield arm, which shatters and protects Ichigo from the arrows. This is 100% more Chad action than what Chad actually did (which is jack-all) in the original Thousand-Year Blood War arc in the manga! 

Orihime then arrives with Santen Kesshun to deflect the rest of the arrows, and the three friends watch as Uryu goes into the light pillar, with Juhabach ominously declaring this to be an 'eternal parting'. Uryu confirms that he has said his farewells, leaving Ichigo screaming out Uryu's name as the three main Quincies rise up to the sky. 

And... we'll see! This has been a very bombastic episode thanks to the added sequence. I am still slightly disappointed that the Ichigo/Uryu fight didn't happen, but I will also concede that they really did elevate the source scene with the pacing and music. Now the next sequence of fights really did feel like Kubo skipping through around 20 chapters and a half-dozen fights and leaving our heroes with just Giselle and Pepe to deal with, but I really do hope that the events leading to the Aushwalen to be rearranged and done a bit better... and for Squad Zero to do something more, too. Anyway, I enjoyed this episode!

Random Notes:

• While I appreciate trimming down the jokes, I am disappointed that they cut out Candice yelling at the other girls that Juhabach will reward them with whatever they want. Meninas thinks of girly sparkly stuff, Liltotto thinks of food, and Giselle thinks of an entirely blank panel... and I thought that punchline was kinda cute.
  
• A fair amount of the combat banter that's cut -- Lil, Meni and Gigi complaining about being tired; Ichigo saying that he's not used to fighting women; and Ichigo and Candice comparing the amount of swords they use -- are all cut and it's for the better. 
• We also cut out a comedy sequence of Ichigo complaining that Renji's Zabimaru rescue cut his neck and hair. 
  
• Okay, without making too many fanservice jokes... but the camera really likes Candice, huh?
• They cut out Shinji and Momo saving Omaeda from Bazz-B, and preventing Bazz-B from attacking Kenpachi and kill-stealing him as well. While I get why they cut out the Renji/NaNaNa sequence, this one really could've been expanded into something. At least if they didn't do anything with it, though, we didn't have to have the assumption that Shinji just got jobbed off-screen by Bazz-B.  
• Another scene cut is the ritual of Haschwalth creating a giant six-pointed rune in order to create the giant pillar-lift thing, though obviously the effect is pretty much the same. 
• Haiiii, seppuku!
• The Kuchiki siblings realize that Kenpachi is near-death. Byakuya tells Rukia off because she hasn't recovered fully from using Bankai. Okay, fair enough, but you are still completely fresh and hasn't even been in a battle, Byakuya. Are you just holding off until the last possible second before saving Kenpachi, you petty nobleman?
  
• Also, if Byakuya had actually died in the first invasion as Kubo originally planned, then Ichigo's arrival just in time to save Kenpachi would be a nice reversal of that since he's gotten power. Oh well. 
• Liltotto at one point straight-up calls Candice a 'bitch' in English. 
• I really did have to look up the original designs of Liltotto, Meninas and Giselle's Vollstandigs before the Sklaverei enhancements and boy, they were really boring! It's just literally weird custom wings and a halo -- something that Bazz-B also suffers from since his holy form is literally just two sticks. The manga version of Liltotto's Vollstandig is also extremely bland, just being jagged wings instead of the jaws-as-wings that she gets here. Generally, I do think that this puts the other Vollstandigs more in line with characters like Quilge, Mask De Masculine, As Nodt and the other elite guard characters and I really do hope that at the very least Bazz-B gets a similarly anime-upgraded holy form. 
• ...Kyoraku my man, what are you doing? The other captains are fighting, okay. Urahara and Mayuri are doing tech and support stuff. But you don't even have the excuse of being held back by a barrier this time.

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5, Part 22

So yeah, after the gigantic flashback (it took, what, three hours total with several brief points where I can save?) and cutscene-heavy sequences between the end of the Niijima arc, the recap to the resolution of the framing story, Joker's allies expositioning about how they faked Joker's death, the recruitment of Niijima Sae into their rank of conspirators, some extra scenes with the two primary villains (Shido and Akechi), following straight into the typical pre-dungeon investigation... I finally am able to start the Shido palace! It's on a boat!

Anyway, it was admittedly a bit too much, and while I didn't mind the cutscenes per se, I would've liked if they had allowed me to walk around a little as Joker (or even Sae or one of the other allies), similar to how I controlled Joker when running towards Shido's campaign car. It's essentially a cutscene with several extra interactive steps, but I felt like it would've done a lot more in making it a bit less monotonous. 

Anyway, new palace! I'm kinda panicking to rush all my Confidants to Rank 10 -- I think I should be doing the non-party Confidants first? Currently I kinda have to rush particularly Futaba, Iwai and Shinya, though a lot of my other Confidants are nearing completion.

Our eyecatcher is Dr. Tae Takemi, one of the first non-party Confidants that the game pushes you towards. I do feel like Takemi's story is neat, and she's got a pretty cool civilian 'goth' design. As someone in the medical field, I can definitely appreciate the story around the corruption of a medical higher-up, though I really do think that at the end of the day, her Confidant storyline kind of ranks in the middle-of-the-mill. Her story's interesting, but I really do feel that with aspects of Joker faking his death revolving around corrupt doctors, that there could be a bit of a tie-in? 

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Seth

• Monster Name: Fratricidal Destroyer
• Arcana: Tower

Okay, okay. Seth (more accurately, 'Set') is another Persona that needs a 'special fusion', and is specifically wanted by the Velvet Room Twins. I have talked a fair bit about Seth when I talked about Anubis, Isis and Horus in the previous parts, and Set is basically the antagonist in those myths. While not particularly evil in the original myths, Set would be demonized by later Egyptian dynasties and their myths. Set is normally depicted as a humanoid with the head of a Set Animal, a four-legged creature that no one could agree what it was supposed to represent, with guesses ranging from anywhere from a fox to a hyena to a antelope. 

...and Persona just said 'fuck it' and interprets Set as a giant black dragon with multiple trailing wings and a giant square-shaped upper jaw. Okay? He sure is a weird beast for sure, and a pretty cool-looking dragon, and as we'll describe below, Set has some overlap with the serpent-god Apep, and in fact in some older SMT games Seth is just a giant snake. But a dragon's cool! I can appreciate launching blasts of energy from a dragon-shaped JoJo Stand.

In Egyptian mythology, Set is the deity of deserts, storms and chaos, and was married to his sister Nephthys. Set would fight constantly with the snake-god of chaos, Apep. Out of jealousy, Set confronted and fought his brother Osiris, dismembering and murdering him. As described before, Osiris's wife Isis would reassemble Osiris and he would rise as the god of the dead, while also giving birth to their child Horus, who would fight Set, leading to the cycle of day and night. Set was also associated with foreigners, and as Egyptian relations with foreigners like the Kushite and Persian empires, Set would be treated with a lot more negativity by the Egyptian people... ironically associating many traits originally given to Set's old enemy Apep to Set.

Chernobog

• Monster Name: Black Avenger
• Arcana: Death

Oh! Ohhh! This one is cool! I don't normally talk too much about older designs in the SMT franchise, but it's, I think, worth noting that Chernobog was originally a generic-looking purple demon man with a scythe, which is very much a dime a dozen in this franchise. And then later on Chernobog was reinvented as this... utterly badass mushroom reaper demon guy! Mushrooms as a motif for death gods and general evilness in general is kind of something that I wished more media did, and I love this design! The starking pale-blue skull growing up into a toadstool cap, the rigid cloaked body, and the tendrils of mushrooms rising from Chernobog's skirt... pretty cool! Pretty badass!

Chernobog is an alleged Slavic deity of darkness and bad faith, associated with destruction, darkness and winter. It was rather difficult because the traditions of the Slavs were oral-based, so any records of the original myths of Chernobog ('Black God') and Belobog ('White God') are influenced by the Christian influence. Whether they were deities, or simply personification of 'good' and 'bad' fate is debatable. Chernobog, obviously, became associated with the devil. 

Black Rider

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Tower

Our final, highest-leveled Horseman of the Apocalypse, bizarrely, is the third one in the Bible. As far as levels go, they ranked the Black Rider above the Pale Rider, when you'd think that the Horseman representing 'Death' would be the most powerful of the four? The Black Horseman is the one that represents Famine,. Just like the biblical description, the Black Rider holds a pair of scales, representing the money needed to purchase specific weights of wheat and barley. Interestingly, when the Black Rider is sent forth, he is allowed to destroy life-sustaining food, but specifically given orders not to harm oil or wine. I guess it's one of those things where luxurious food will still be there, but primary sources of food aren't? 

And... I really don't have much to say here in design. All the Horseman being represented is nice, but they kind of blur together after a while. It would've perhaps been a bit more interesting if either Famine or Death had a skeletal horse? I felt like that would've been an easy, low-hanging fruit. After how creative the White Rider is, I actually feel a bit disappointed with his three siblings. 

Trumpeter

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Judgement

But that's not all! There's a final member of the set, formed by the 'special fusion' of all four riders, and... it's the Trumpeter! The Trumpeter is based on the fact that the Book of Revelation has a series of apocalyptic events. First, seven seals are broken -- the first four of which unleash the Four Horsemen. The seventh of this seal summons seven angels with trumpets, and these trumpets herald seven more apocalyptic events, all of which will destroy large parts of the world. 

And we never really get a description of these 'trumpeter angels' in the bible, and technically the Four Horsemen were released by the seals, not the trumpets. But hey, this sure is a skeletal angel guy with a long trumpet! I do fine the combination of a skeleton face and wings to be cool, and the pose of him coming down from the heavens is a neat one that makes him distinct-looking from the other angels we've seen. 

King Frost

• Monster Name: Monarch of Snow
• Arcana: Emperor

Oh, okay? We've got King Frost, which is basically taking the mascot of the franchise, Jack Frost, and making a 'king' version of him. Is there a Queen Frost somewhere? Get it, Jack, Queen, King? It's honestly a rather fun design, keeping the goofy face of the Jack Frost and putting it on a giant dome-shaped man with one of those fancy-looking Isaac Newton wigs. There's a door and padlock in front of King Frost's "clothes", and couple that with what looks like a entrance to the side really gives the impression of some kind of furnace or igloo. I like that the scepter he holds with his pudgy hands also has a Jack Frost face on it. 

As far as I know, Jack Frost doesn't really have a 'king' equivalent in the original myths, but this is obviously meant to be a mascot mook. The characterization notes that King Frost 'has the power to freeze the entire world, but is unaware of it because he's naïve'. Okay!

Emperor's Amulet

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Hanged Man

Another dungeon, another Treasure Demon. As the description notes, this is Charlemagne's Talisman, this is a piece of jewelry that purportedly belonged to Charlemagne, and supposed to contain either (or both of) a piece of the Cross of Jesus Christ, or a lock of hair from the Virgin Mary. It was supposed to be buried with Charlemagne, but ultimately was passed around until, at the present day, it's kept in the Palace of Tau in Rheims, France.

Oh, minibosses aside, the theme of Shido's palace's Personas seem to be a mixture of high-ranking deities themed after rulers, with a smattering of 'guard dogs' like Cerberus here and there. . The whole idea is that it's a gathering of all of the influential people flocking under Shido's banner, so I guess that makes sense. 

Yamata-no-Orochi

• Monster Name: Drunken Serpents
• Arcana: Judgment

Another very common creature to see in Japanese-based material is the Yamata no Orochi, an eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent from Japanese lore. The Yamata no Orochi's body reaches across eight valleys and eight hills, with plant matter growing all over its body. The Orochi is heavily featured in the tale of Susano'o. During Susano'o's exile from the heavens after a fight with his sister Amaterasu, Susano'o finds a couple who was terrorized by the Orochi, who comes every year to devour one of their daughters. Thus Susano'o hatched a plan to rescue the eight and final daughter, Kushinada-Hime.     

Susano'o disguises himself as Kushinada, and then with the aid of Kushinada's parents prepared multiple jugs of sake. The Orochi, when he arrives, began to drink towards the sake, drinking with each of its head. Thus disoriented, the Orochi is left vulnerable to the strikes of Susano'o, who slew the Orochi with the blade called Ame no Habakiri. However, within Orochi's body, Susano'o finds the legendary blade, the Sword of Kusanagi (or Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi), which Susano'o would present to Amaterasu to reconcile from their earlier conflict. 

Anyway, the design is... pretty much a bunch of snakes emerging from a center, kind-of-unseen body. I much prefer the more regal look of Ananta, but I do appreciate this more feral and monstrous 'mass of snakes' design. 

Forneus

• Monster Name: Rhetorician of the Sea
• Arcana: Magician

The second miniboss, and later showing up as a common enemy in Shido's palace, is Forneus! We haven't gotten an Ars Goetia demon in a while. Forneus is a Great Marquis of Hell, and commands armies of fallen thrones and angels. Forneus normally takes the form of a sea monster, can transform into a human form, and when summoned will teach men in rhetoric, foreign tongues, and make them trusted by friends and foes. 

I love the design here, though, where they took great liberties with the 'sea monster' moniker. Obviously a pun on 'Devil Rays' -- and a similar phrase exists in Japanese, too. It's a lot more clear as Forneus undulates in-game, but the lower half of his body is literally just a ray's body! Love the whip-like tail, and the fact that everything on the upper half of Forneus looks genuinely demonic. The artwork here makes it a bit more clear what we're supposed to be looking at, and the best description is that Forneus looks like a human that's fused with a manta ray, with the skeletal, bony fingers attached to the giant stingray fins like a bat's fingers. I love the creepy, bulging human body, and how the head eventually merges with the stingray's "head". Like the lower half of the 'human' part's face is sinking into a snout that resembles a chunky shark more than either a stingray or man. 

And there's also a crown and some extra tendrils here and there, but not enough to make the design overblown. Pretty cool sea monster design, and there's just enough addition to really indicate that this is an intelligent demon as opposed to 'merely' being a manta ray. 

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean S05E25 Review: Is This The Real Life, Is This Just Fantasy?

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean [Season 6], Episode 25: Bohemian Rhapsody, Part 1

It's only been a couple of days for you readers, and even sooner for me when I was watching these episodes, but for the people who were watching Stone Ocean as it was released, I believe there was a half-year gap between cour 2 and cour 3? As with all of these part-seasons, we do get a bit of an extended scene in the beginning that also functions as a recap. Jolyne, Ermes and Emporio hang out for a bit, with Emporio being a bit excited about the outside world while the two ex-convict ladies talk about how Green Dolphin Street Prison... was the absolute worst. There's a neat little discussion about the mode of transportation that they are going to take, shooting down Emporio's excitement to ride the bus, and we get a nice shot of Jolyne's prison jacket flying into the sky. 

Anasui and Weather Report also decide to escape, being rather hilariously left behind by Jolyne's little team. During their discussion of escaping, Weather talks about how he's interested in figuring out more about his amnesia, memories and identity... while Anasui realizes that Weather has the same star birthmark that Jolyne and the Green Baby have. It's interesting that this was moved to this part of the episode (the manga's equivalent of this scene happens when the two guys go to a bathroom) but I guess it's to put the foreshadowing that's not involved with the Bohemian Rhapsody storyline out of the way, and to make it clear that Weather's star isn't involved in any of the Bohemian Rhapsody madness. 

We cut to see Pucci in his fused-with-the-Green-Baby form just wandering through Orlando, listening about the outbreaks in Green Dolphin Street Prison on the radio. Pucci began to notice a lot more strange signs around him, like the taxi carrying him running out of gas with $33.33 on its fare meter, or weird metallic objects rolling towards him. There are also a lot of people being delivered to the hospital, with the implication that there has been more accidents than is normal.

One of the men on the stretchers, a drug addict, attacks Pucci with a pair of scissors and Ungalo's design is so generic that you'd be forgiven to think that he's just going to get absolutely murdered by Pucci's near-godlike powers. Pucci, however, is pretty high on the whole 'coincidences' thing, talks about the three shooting stars he just saw... and stabs himself on the scissors. The scissors miss Pucci's nerves by millimeters, and Pucci heralds this as proof of Ungalo's true heritage and destiny. Ungalo freaks out and gets shot by the police, but then gets dragged into the bushes by something (it's the stick figure from a bathroom stall), and the audience gets to see the Joestar star on Ungalo's shoulder. 

And yeah, Ungalo is our first 'Children of Dio'. It's a very logical progression from the revelation of Higashikata Josuke and Giorno Giovanna's existences. We have most members of the Joestar family accounted for, but it doesn't preclude illegitimate children being born in other parts of the world. And, well, Dio is far less likely to send child support than Joseph Joestar is, let's put it that way. 

Whatever the case, we cut away to Anasui and Weather, having escaped from prison themselves. They have a bit of a discussion in a public restroom, not realizing that the little man on the restroom stall is missing. After getting a bit of a discussion about transportation, Weather Report helps an old man from falling, and that man offers them a ride on the truck. We also get a rather sweet moment of Weather using his weather-control powers to part the clouds around the man to prevent his joints from aching. 

While on the back of the truck, Anasui notices a theme park guide book (they are in Orlando, after all) but gets irritated when he sees that the guidebook only has empty space where pictures of the characters are missing. The two of them suddenly realize that they are not alone on the truck, and they attack the crates in the truck only to discover the fictional character Pinocchio. 

Who, uh... looks fucking grotesque. It's more Gollum than Pinocchio, and I'm pretty sure the actual myth doesn't have that disturbing crotch-bulge.

Anasui instantly surmises that Pinocchio is the result of an enemy Stand and began to interrogate him, getting whacked in the face due to Pinocchio's nose extending thanks to his lies. They also discover the Seven Dwarves, of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves fame, scuttling around the truck. I actually like how JoJo really exaggerates the definition of dwarves, making them tiny little gremlin-things the size of a thumb. Oh, and they look absolutely disfigured and disgusting. We get a couple of jokes about their relationship to Snow White, and Anasui is absolutely freaked out. I like that Weather Report's unique status as an amnesiac means that he has no fucking idea what's going on because he has no context for any of these fictional characters... and as such just sits there eating his apple as he's not affected by the 'what character are you a fan of' that Pinocchio and the dwarves keep asking Anasui. 

Anasui then hears the radio of the truck, which talks about how famous characters have disappeared from posters, comic books, picture books, TV, and other forms of media all over the world. Including BATMAN! I would really love to imagine the mental image that somewhere while this is going on, other JoJo characters like Josuke or Mista or Rohan or whoever are meeting Batman. 

There's also the hilarious gag of Pinocchio and the Seven Dwarves being pissed off when a group of Japanese robots including Astro Boy fly through the sky, deriding the Japanese characters' designs. 

It's a bit hard to follow initially, but Anasui is a 'fan' of Pinocchio, because he knows the story of the wooden puppet, but he gets his soul separated from his body. Meanwhile, the old man driving the truck gets also separated. The confused Weather Report manages to save all the passengers with his weather manipulation abilities. 

Anasui (or rather, his soul) attacks Pinocchio, who identifies the ability that's summoning them as Bohemian Rhapsody. Anasui summons Diver Down to tear Pinocchio apart, before going off to try and pursue his body. He then gets assaulted by the soul of the driver, who goes through the "all the better to maul you with" phrases from Little Red Riding Hood, before transforming to the Big Bad Wolf from that story. Anasui summons Diver Down and tears the Big Bad Wolf's head off, while he gives behind an ominous message that events are proceeding as the story is supposed to go. 

It is interesting how they changed a bunch of things around in this initial Anasui encounter with Bohemian Rhapsody, by the way. We get the nice little foreshadowing from the Big Bad Wolf about how it is going 'as the story is supposed to', but we streamline a lot of the conflict and confusion that Anasui had about his body and soul being separated -- notably, the grisly scene of Anasui using Diver Down to rescue his own body being ground up by the truck is cut, and Anasui's soul is the one that encounters the Big Bad Wolf and is able to just summon Diver Down instantly. Also, instead of a conversation between Anasui (whose body/soul thing is still confusing at the time) and Weather, Weather monologues and internally arrives at the same conclusion as he did in the manga. 

Anyway, Bohemian Rhapsody is... kind of an insane little fight. Again, the concept is rather interesting and while obviously we don't go to the 'most ambitious crossover ever' route, I do like what the story manages to do with the public domain characters it has access to. 

Random Notes: 

• New opening! In the second half of Stone Ocean, we get "Heaven's Falling Down" performed by Hana. It's a more conventional shonen battle opening theme, I think, whereas "Stone Ocean" (the song) was a bit too peppy for this anime, I think. 
  
• Bohemian Rhapsody is a reference to Queen's song, Bohemian Rhapsody, otherwise known as the greatest song of all time.
• The basic premise of the Bohemian Rhapsody arc is basically tied to the first few lines of the song -- is this the real life / is this just fantasy? / caught in a landslide / no escape from reality; with the 'no escape from reality' bit being particularly notable to how Ungalo's personality ends up being revealed to be.
• The reason why Anasui can kill Pinocchio is, I guess, because he hasn't been 'associated' with a role in the story as the other people that fell victim to Bohemian Rhapsody would be in the next episode?
• Ungalo's name is named after French fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro.
• I don't think I mentioned this in my review of the earlier Stone Ocean episodes, but Green Dolphin Street Prison is a reference to the song On Green Dolphin Street by Miles Davis.
• Weather Report has a Joestar symbol on his shoulder, which I was confused about because it's not fully explained, but Pucci merged with the Green Baby, which caused him to get the Joestar star (it's from Jonathan's body merged with Dio), and because of the psychic-bloodline-sharing-scars thing, similar to Jotaro and Jolyne sharing the Jolyne scar, the birthmark and its strange Force-sense abilities got transferred to Weather. 
• They're not particularly relevant in this episode and were silhouetted in the original source material, but Riskiel (Sky High's user) is basically shown with his full design on the stretcher. 
• The Seven Dwarves insist that their relationship with Snow White is platonic, despite so many people speculating that they are involved. Okay! I also absolutely agree that Snow White is a fool for eating random fruits given to her by an old granny. 
• In addition to the characters shown visually, audio mentions of Chewbacca, the T-1000 from Terminator, the Elephant Man and Batman. We get a brief showcase of Astro Boy, Mazinger Z and Testujin 28-go, all classic sci-fi robots from Japanese media, flying in the skies. 
• Cut from the episode but present in the manga are mentions of the MGM lion, E.T. (from a Universal Studios attraction) and Mickey Mouse's tail have been removed. 
• Some of the lines of Anasui talking about the mascot of a theme park being super famous is still there, but the memetic "fuck this shit, if there ain't Mickey, it ain't Disney" is cut. 
• Mickey Mouse's reference is changed to Batman, while interestingly, the anime references the T-1000 (an actual character from the Terminator movies) whereas the manga equivalent references the T-2000, something that doesn't exist in the Terminator franchise.
• Presumably, the lack of Miu Miu and the sheer amount of chaos happening thanks to the mess in the Ultra Security House Unit made Anasui and Weather's escape particularly easy. 
• What is the reason that the toilet stick figure protects Ungalo from the policemen? There isn't really a 'story' associated with it. I guess it could be an exception because it's interacting with the Stand user itself?

One Piece Anime, Wano Arc: Episodes 1063-1065

Even more One Piece! This is a bit less hyped-up than the Zoro and Sanji vs. Queen fights, and I did take a rather extended break from watching One Piece, but it's still a pretty solid batch of episodes! It just took me a while to get to watching them.

I also skipped ahead and watched the Gear Fifth episodes, but I'll slowly work up there. My One Piece watching schedule is very erratic!

Episode 1063:

• Perhaps to compensate for the very high-budget last couple of episodes (and the next couple), I did feel like this episode replays a fair bit of the Zoro/King fight. I mean, I'm not complaining, it's a pretty fight, but it's also a bit noticeable.
• There are a couple of clashes between Big Mom and Kaido against their respective opponents, but I genuinely can't tell if these are just new animation or reused ones from before.
• We also get the CP-0 guy in the room, as well as the narrator, basically outlining what would happen if Onigashima is allowed to crash and our heroes fail. It's... it's admittedly just filler, but it is kind of important to highlight the scope of the battlefield? This feels like one of those 'Oda draws a cross-section of Onigashima' panels. 
• Yamato and Fuga beat that one other Number in this episode. I thought it'd be obvious for them to add the SBS backstory that Oda gave for Yamato and Fuga, but I guess the anime team never found out about the SBS backstories? I want to say that, but we do get Kid's SBS-exclusive backstory, so...
• Usopp helping Kin'emon and Kiku is still a very eye-rolling scene, with the exact exception of Usopp's angry rambling about 'what the fuck is wrong with your samurai culture? I would hold on to life with snot dripping, even if it's unsightly!' 
• The flashbacks to the Dressrosa arc is... it's thematic, actually, and probably combined with the Sogeking moment, the two big 'Usopp is already a legendary warrior of the ocean' moments in this story. He just really needs to acknowledge himself.
• Okay, that was an epic tattoo-showing strip by Izo.
• "God Usopp!" "Eh, you know me??" One of the underrated funniest moments in the arc. 
• Ah, right. Raizo and Fukurokuju. I feel like they added just enough to make their conflict feel a bit more protracted without deviating from the vibe of the manga. I could see a different anime team (like Naruto Shippuden's final saga anime) expanding their whole fight into two episodes of its own. And while this is still a fight I wished we had more focus on, it does fit with the original intent of the manga. 
• 
  Okay, so Guernica taking down Drake and the purple Number is just still kind of an understated moment. These guys, on the other hand, I really wished we had an extended fight the way the Sanji/Page One fight in Wano's first arc was extended. 
• Luffy casually letting loose a little shot of Ryu'o Haki is very clean.
  

Episode 1064:

• We get to see the festival in the Flower Capital again, and... at least we get some new scenes and dialogue? Toko running around and stuff? It's a scene from the manga that we haven't seen before, but I really can't say much about it. I guess it's a bit less repetitive this time around, is all.
• There's a shot before Kaido walks in with the booze of Luffy activating Haki on both arms. One of the bigger complaints about the manga, particularly once we get into the intricacies of Haki, is that we sometimes aren't clear whether it's Armament, Ryu'o, Conqueror Infusion or something else being used, and I do like that the anime does take time to show these off in a cool manner. 
• It is kind of hypocritical for Luffy to get pissed at Kaido for drinking in the midst of the battle when he's been commenting about how fun battle is for the past couple of episodes and scenes. 
• Luffy claims he doesn't like to drink. I know he's not a boozehound like Nami and Zoro, but I'm pretty sure that pre-timeskip, he's downed a couple of beers.
• Ah, yes, the various phases of Drunk Kaido. His sad, crying wororororo is hilarious!
• Happy-drunk Kaido gets to goof around a bit more, and it's... okay, I'm still not the most convinced that this was necessary even as a way to 'lighten up' this long-running fight, but I do like that this does help to explain the suicidal-I-want-to-kill-myself Kaido that we saw for the first time in the manga. 
• Warai Jogo: RAGNARAKU! Lightning Hammered looks great in the anime with purple lightning in the background and black-red Haki lightning splitting the foreground. 
• But goddamn, he does sound like a very happy drunk. 
• Sad 'woe is me' Kaido is... I'm not sure how accurate I am because I'm not an animation buff, but I think it reuses a fair bit of the Tatsumaki animations we've seen before? If they were going to reuse animations in the Kaido/Luffy fight, this is actually a surprisingly 'fun' but ultimately nice budget-saving spot. 

• And obviously Kaido is an insane, evil man, but you can't feel just a bit sorry for him when he starts ranting about how he's just doing his best and nothing goes right for him. If not for the mass murder and enslavement, there's a case to be made for him being just a guy having a bad mid-life crisis. 
• And we get the epic headbutt with the two bright light auras, leading to Kaido being angry that he's being 'sobered up' and unleashing a gigantic blast of hyper beam energy at Luffy. Cool!
• And we of course end the episode with the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Stand ora ora ora rush, between Roc Gatling and Kundali Ryuseigun. It is admittedly a lot more disappointing than the manga's version of this scene, though I think it's just because everything's moving a bit too quickly in this one, relying on motion blurs. 
  
• Again, just like how it was in the manga, this whole sequence of Kaido's different drunk states does seem like it's just there for a palate cleanser between fights, while still kind of 'progressing' the main plot by showing the main hero and main villain fighting each other. 
• Knowing what we do know in this year's chapters about what happened in Marie Geoise during the Reverie, it is hilarious to hear the Gorosei dismiss the 'Shichibukai thing' and the 'Alabasta thing' and focus on Wano. Honestly, you'd think that they'd focus more on hunting down the Revolutionaries ASAP! 
• And we get the scene of the World Government ships and Zunesha all coming in to Wano, which... really was brushed aside eventually, huh? It did really serve to hype shit up in a 'whoever wins, the government will sweep up the losers' vibe.
• We still don't really know their personalities, but it's interesting that it's Ju Peter that's raising such a huge fuss and confronting the other Gorosei -- or at least Warcury -- about the fact that they hid the identity of the Nika fruit. 

Episode 1065:

• Raizo vs. Fukurokuju! They sure are on fire!
• Yeah, I guess extending Jimbe saving those random samurai is an okay usage of extended scene that wouldn't eat into the 'action' animation budget.
• Yeah, Chopper reverting from Baby Geezer form to regular Chopper is definitely something the anime would drag out a bit. It's not as long as I thought it'd be, but it's noticeably longer than it should be. 
• It is still amazingly ambiguous what Zoro's meeting with the 'Grim Reaper' is. I don't know if Oda told the anime team what this scene is supposed to symbolize, but it sure as hell is extended with the surroundings taking a misty, sinister foggy hue; there being a black fog that appears from behind Zoro and coalescing into a dark orb, before the skeleton with glowing eyes manifest out of the shadows. 
  
• When Grimmy is fully shown, he does really look like Brook. Remember that it's a theory back in the day that it's just Zoro hallucinating Brook!
• It is nice seeing Franky running around and trying to reach wherever Zoro is fighting King. The anime made it a bit more obvious that Zoro and King really rampaged across the exterior of Onigashima. 
• Izo totally murdered a bunch of guys with the amount of blood splatters on the ground! I still kinda wished we get to see the specific fight that caused Izo to sustain so many wounds beyond 'damn those Animal Kingdom Pirates', but I do like that we at least do see Izo get a fair bit more screentime before his death. 
• Damn, he words it in a cool way, but in essence Guernica really did just say like 'man, I've got enough shit on my plate', huh?
• It also really does suck that Yamato's final fight is against Kanjurou's weird Kazenbou demon, huh? We get to see her do some ice breath and ice club stuff, but it really isn't the same. 
• It's really not something that's going to match up to the epic animation next episode, but we do get a pretty cool 'Fulgora' attack from Big Mom that blasts Kid and Law. 
• Okay, those random Kid and Law Pirates that charge in for that doomed attack on Big Mom at least tried to do something. It's not much and they got zapped by Big Mom's Tenjin attack before they even reached the old lady, but at least they tried.
• He doesn't do jack shit, but Chopper also at least tries to help in his capacity as a doctor.
• K-Room! Anesthesia! And... it still looks rather ridiculous, but it's a badass standing up moment from Law. I do really like that Law takes the chance of Big Mom thinking the fight is over and hovering up to help Kaido finish the fight with Luffy, and that gave Law the opening to stab Big Mom through the face. 
• Gotta love that while everyone is shocked and surprised at Law's attack, there's this one random orange-haired Beasts Pirate goon that's like 'Big Mom's dead!'
• Okay, Kid talks a lot of shit, but his badass boast as he creates Punk Corna Dio about how 'no damage' is bullshit is pretty well-delivered. 
• Shame that this is kind of the time where I kind of am sure that Kid's out of the running for a serious rival with his speech about being 'driven by a different purpose'. 
• PUNK CORNA DIO!
• And you got to admit, the formation scene of Punk Corna Dio, particularly with the random bull skull roaring and the kanji appearing on the screen looks pretty badass. Shame that the scene of the completed Punk Corna Dio goring Big Mom... is a bit sub-par. It's not terrible, but it is noticeably a lot less impressive than the preceding scene. 

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5, Part 21

And at the end of the Sae dungeon was a super-long cutscene. Like, holy hell. I know it's the conclusion of the framing device story, and it involves a giant turning point for Sae, Akechi and Joker, and there are a lot of great payoffs and foreshadowings that are finally resolved. That's great, but even the game itself warns me that there's going to be a lot of cutscenes, and I felt like I sat through the equivalent of two or three episodes of an anime at once! I'm not complaining about the length, because I am here for the story. But holy hell, at least give me one of those in-between the afternoon and evening segments so that I can save in Leblanc!

Anyway, I think I'm going to kickstart the penultimate arc in the original Persona 5, and we've finally met the primary antagonist! But before I continue, I think I'll do a couple more reviews of some more fusion-made Personas I did in Niijima's Palace that I simply didn't get to talk about last time!

Our eyecatcher this time around is Kawakami, and her story is... okay. A lot of the non-party confidants do have their stories be around some sort of blackmail or oppression from more powerful forces, and I get that it's one of the central themes of Persona 5. There's the interesting wrinkle of Kawakami also being a on-call maid, and while the dialogue emphasizes that she's not part of the sex trade (yet; one of the motivations to the urgency of her story is to prevent her from being recruited into it) there's also the exploration of the stigma that comes with someone that's even tangentially tied to it. There's also the rather... questionable implications of someone that's a teacher dating her student. Oh well! 

____________________________________________________

Komokuten

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Hermit

The third member of our Four Heavenly Kings (it's been a while since we saw them!) is Koumokuten, 広目天, who is also known as Virūpākṣa in the original Sanskrit and 廣目天王 Guǎngmù Tiānwáng (Vast-Eyed Heaven King) in Mandarin. Virūpākṣa is the guardian of the West, and is the leader of the Nagas. As his name implies, Virūpākṣa has divine eyes, which allows him not only to see through great distances, but also to judge the karma of sentient beings. 

The Chinese depiction of Guǎngmù Tiānwáng is commonly shown with red skin, holding either a red naga or a lasso in his hands, a representation of 'catching' people and drawing them into the Buddhist faith. He's often depicted with the rest of the Four Heavenly Kings, or among the Twenty-Four Devas. Koumokuten, meanwhile, is commonly depicted in the Tempyo period as holding a brush in his right hand and a scroll in his left hand. He's often shown wearing Tang-dynasty military armour, while trampling on a Jaki. 

Again, it was kinda neat reading up on them and seeing the differences as the religion and culture moved from one nation to the next, but I never have much to say about humanoid Personas. 

Okuninushi

• Monster Name: Ancient Lord
• Arcana: Faith

Okuninushi (大国主), also known as Onamuchi and various other variations of spelling, is a god/kami in Japanese mythology. He governs over agriculture and medicine. He's one of the central deities in the myths recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon-Shoki. Okuninushi is the head of the kunitsukami -- the gods of the earth, and the original ruler of the terrestrial world. The myths of Okuninushi are numerous. The one mentioned in the description has Okuninushi (then Onamuji) meet Suseribime the daughter of the god of wind and storms, Susano'o. Suseribime and Onamuji fell in love, causing Susano'o to give four trials to Onamuji -- sleeping in a room full of snakes; sleeping in a room full of poisonous insects; being told to fetch an arrow in a field set on fire; and then pick lice and centipedes from Susano'o's hair. Through all these trials, Suseribime aided Onamuji with magical items, and they eventually escaped after tying Susano'o's hair onto the rafters of his palace. Onamuji also took Susano'o's weapons with him. While Susano'o was enraged and pursued them, he grudgingly gave his blessing to Onamuji, renaming him as Okuninushi-no-Kami (Master of the Great Land). Using the weapons of Susano'o, Okuninushi defeats his evil brothers, and rules over the terrestrial realm. 

When the amatsukami -- heavenly gods -- led by Amaterasu demanded that Okuninushi relinquish his rule over the land, Okuninushi agreed to their terms. Okuninushi was given the unseen world, Kakuriyo, in exchange, and he retreated there to rule over it. Meanwhile, Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi came down to govern over the terrestrial world, eventually becoming the ancestor of the Japanese imperial line. Okuninushi is closely associated with the province of Izumo in western Japan, which is now known as the Shimane Prefecture. The myth of Okuninushi's surrender to the heavenly gods may be a reflection of how this area was also absorbed by the Yamato court. 

It's a great time reading about him, but Okuninushi is another one that's just a dude in traditional armour, I really don't have much to say about Okuninushi from a design standpoint. 

Sarasvati

• Monster Name: Strumming Veena Player
• Arcana: Priestess

Sarasvati (सरस्वती) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom and learning, and is associated with the Sarasvati River. She is known as a member of the Tridevi, alongside Parvati and Laskhmi. Sarasvati is generally shown to have four arms, holding in each a book, a rosary, a water-pot, and a veena (which is the musical instrument shown here). Each of these items have a symbolic meaning in Hinduism. Sarasvati is celebrated in the festival of Vasant Panchami, and in that day young children are taught how to learn the letters of the alphabet. In the legends, Sarasvati was born out of Brahma's mind, and would become his consort. 

There are a lot of myths around Sarasvati in Hinduism, but in Japan, she would be known as Benzaiten, who is often shown holding a biwa (a Japanese instrument), and is alternatively shown with two or eight hands. 

And... again, I really could say a lot about the actual mythological Sarasvati, but as a 'monster' in Persona 5, she's... she sure is a lady playing a veena.

Parvati

• Monster Name: Destructive Beauty
• Arcana: Lovers

I feel like the same can be said about Parvati. She sure is a lady in a fancy dress! She has a nice pink aesthetic, and like Sarasvati, Parvati is portrayed as being pretty tasteful-looking. But she really doesn't leave me much to say about her in-game model or design!

Parvati (पार्वती) is the goddess of fertility, love, beauty, marriage, motherhood and children in Hinduism, and is the wife of the god Shiva. Parvati in her complete form is the physical representation of Mahadevi, the primordial power behind the creation of the universe, the creator and destroyer. She forms the Tridevi with Laskhmi and Saraswati. Parvati is the reincarnation of Sati, the first wife of Shiva, and Parvati is born to the mountain-king Himavan and queen Mena. She would later seek out Shiva, and the two would eventually be reunited and give birth to Kartikeya and Ganesha. Parvati is generally portrayed as a gentle, nurturing mother goddess, but is associated with several other fearsome forms like Durga and Kali.

Just like many other figures in Hinduism, there are a lot of slight variations here and there in regards to how Parvati is depicted and the legends around her. I really do feel like I should read much more and wait until I'm a bit more qualified before I talk too much about these myths!

Yatagarasu

• Monster Name: Sun's Emissary
• Arcana: Councillor

And we now go to Japanese mythology! Yatagarasu is a being that should be pretty familiar to people who watch anime. In Japanese myths, Yatagarasu is a great divine bird that represents the will of heaven, or the divine intervention in human affairs. Thanks to some mythological overlap with the sanzuwu of Chinese myths, the Yatagarasu is now very commonly depicted as being a three-legged crow. Yatagarasu is a symbol of guidance, being sent from heaven as a guide for the legendary Emperor Jimmu on his journey through Japan. The Yatagarasu is also often accepted to be the incarnation of the sun, which was why in the previous Persona games (including the vanilla P5), the Yatagarasu is classified as a Sun arcana Persona. Meanwhile, Royal elects to classify the Yatagarasu as a Councillor, referring to when the Yatagarasu served as a guide for Emperor Jimmu during his travels throughout the land. The Yatagarasu is associated with either the gods Taketsunimi or Amaterasu. 

Anyway, Persona 5's Yatagarasu is pretty much just a three-legged crow, with a necklace of three magatamas that kinda look like a claw of its own. Pretty neat.

Pale Rider

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Death

Like Komokuten above, this is the third member of another 'set' of four, although bizarrely the Pale Rider is traditionally the last of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Pale Rider is the fourth and final Horseman of Apocalypse as described in the Book of Revelation, a rider who rides on an ashen/pale horse. Unlike the other three, the rider of the pale horse is specifically identified as 'Death'. Most translations also adds 'Hades was following him'. In art, the Horseman of Death is generally drawn as a grim reaper, a skeletal figure with a scythe, though the source material never describes Death as wielding anything. 

The actual translation of khlōros (χλωρός) has been debated from anywhere from being colourless, pale, pallied, but now more commonly thought to represent a sickly green or yellowish green, probably representing a rotting corpse. Again, it's never not cool to see a badass grim reaper with a scythe riding a horse, but I think the White Rider and his eyeball horse set the Fourse Horsemen of Apocalypse to look so cool that it's inevitably a bit disappointing that this is just a reaper dude on a horse with glowing eyes. 

Baphomet

• Monster Name: Heretic Goat
• Arcana: Devil

And we close this off with another demon that commonly appears in pop culture, Baphomet! Unlike what I originally thought, Baphomet is not from the Bible, or any Biblical material, but rather from the time of the Knights Templar (circa the 1200's-1300's). The Knights Templar were accused of worshipping 'Baphomet' by church inquisitors, and were branded as heretics. This lead to the burning of several Templar leaders... although it was later revealed that this was orchestrated by King Philip IV of France, who wanted to weaken the Templars' influence. 

The name Baphomet eventually bled into various Western occult traditions, particularly in the 18th-19th century, and generally portrayed as some kind of pagan deity or demon. Baphomet became associated with the 'Sabbatic Goat' image in demonology, which was meant to represent the 'equilibrium of opposites' between man and beast, male and female, and good and evil. The head of the goat, with the horns and the beards, fits into an upside-down star, and all that. Thanks to all these imagery, Baphomet's image became associated with the common image of a goat-headed humanoid, associated with pentagrams and often depicted as being a hermaphrodite. Baphomet is said to be able to control women, and is associated with witches and the 'Black Sabbath' for this reason. 

Persona's Baphomet is more or less similar enough to the goat-headed demon, and... it sure is a goat-headed demon with huge angelic wings and a fiery forehead. It's distinct enough from the other demonic Personas in this game, but also something we kinda see a lot in media, so it's not that interesting. 

Bleach TYBW E20 Review: The Strongest

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 20: I AM THE EDGE

Ooooh this is the Kenpachi episode. I don't think I've made it a secret that Zaraki Kenpachi is unquestionably one of my two favourite Bleach characters of all time, and I was a gigantic Kenpachi fanboy back in the day. And while the Gremmy fight isn't my favourite one, I am looking forward to this just to see Kenpachi do Kenpachi stuff!

Yeah, arranged in the anime format, it really is clear that the structure of the second invasion of the Vandenreich basically ended up being the 'Komamura episode', the 'Renji episode', the 'Rukia episode' and now, the 'Kenpachi episode'. I think Kenpachi fighting against Gremmy is one of the biggest and longest fights of this segment of the story before all the chaos with the zombies and Ichigo's arrival throws things into chaos with no one clear matchup, and... it's also memorably one of the most divisive. 

It was around this time that I began reading Bleach, Naruto and One Piece weekly back in the day. I think I started off at around the time of the Soul Palace training arc, and the subsequent fights were the first ones that I experienced Bleach's pretty expanded pacing week-to-week. To put things in perspective, between the Gwenael and Gremmy fights, this chapter adapts almost nine chapters! That's more than two months of serialization, and that's why I remembered that there was a lot of complaints with Gremmy and his frankly rather bullshit powers. This, coming off the similarly controversial 'overpowered' Mask De Masculine, turned off a lot of people back in the day. 

And... a lot of the problems with this fight still exists. Gremmy himself doesn't exactly 'come out of nowhere' since he shows up in the Sternritter meeting with the additional anime scenes, but that's not really much. His status as a brain isn't properly explained either, but the fight zipping through in 15 minutes does make it a fair bit reasonable that Gremmy's imagination just... can't keep up. That his thoughts are just overwhelmed with the arrival of Kenpachi and how strong he is. But I do still think Gremmy is definitely one of the least-interestingly written characters in the Vandenreich.

Anyway, the whole episode is mostly just... fight scenes. We do breeze through Gwenael (the anime namecard spells his name like that instead of 'Guenael') and his fight with Yachiru. Gwenael basically has a brief monologue of the three phases of his power. Even after the As Nodt creepiness last episode, I do appreciate that the showcase of Gwenael reforming after his 'Vanishing Point' nonsense is depicted in full horror-movie vibes with tendrils and a nightmare face and everything. 

This sequence is severely trimmed down to basically its bare bones, though for good reason -- Gwenael isn't the most interesting character. I am honestly surprised that they even kept in his monologue about the three phases of his power instead of relegating it to the eyecatchers, since the post-credits scene of last episode was shown through Yachiru and Isane's POV without any of Gwenael's monologue. Anyway, Yachiru's bloodlust and battle instincts allow her to predict and attack Gwenael even after he activates his Vanishing Point powers, and I absolutely adore the scene when she unsheathes her sword and talks about how 'Ken-chan can't complain' this time around. 

Yachiru activates Sanpo Kenju, and does a happy dance with the two beasts that pop out of her (alleged) Zanpakuto, and beats the shit out of Gwenael. The majority of the explanations of how the two summoned beasts fight with Yachiru is truncated to Yachiru's very childish explanation, and a lot of the banter between Gwenael and Isane/Yachiru is also cut, which... again, since the whole Gwenael fight is just kind of a decoy Sternritter, I don't mind it.  

Again, looking at this through the lens of someone who's read all of the post-series explanations, I do appreciate them keeping Isane's monologue about how strange Sanpo Kenju is. They could've very easily cut this line out alongside with the rest of the Sanpo Kenju explanation, but Isane very pointedly notes that Sanpo Kenju doesn't correspond to the 'form changes' of Shikai and the 'materialization' of Bankai, really highlighting the weirdness of Yachiru. It's basically a hint of the revelation that it's not a real Shikai (something that's not explained in the manga proper). Of course, I really am wondering if they'll address the nature of Kushajishi Yachiru at all in this anime adaptation. That really is very high up in low-effort things that they could do. 

And then Gremmy Thoumeaux shows up, revealing himself as the true Sternritter "V", the Visionary. And his power is the power of imagination. Or, as I called it back in the day, 'as much imagination as the writer wants him to have to make him be a credible threat'. 

Because let's be honest (and I'm going to go on a lot of tangents here; most of the episode is the Kenpachi/Gremmy fight anyway and that's mostly spectacle) anyone with the power of real reality-warping imagination could just 'imagine' themselves winning and that's it. If Gremmy really did have the power to imagine anything that comes to his mind, he could imagine every single Shinigami dropping dead and Juhabach ascending to the Soul King's palace and that's it. There actually is a point to this character and why he isn't actually that overpowered, and every trace of it is from the source material in the manga, but it's just that it's way easier to swallow to see all of the foreshadowing of the true nature of Gremmy Thoumeaux over the course of a 15-minute, fast-paced episode as opposed to slogging through two months of manga. And no, I don't mean the brain thing. And it's not a good revelation, but it's a revelation that makes the character feel a bit less... well, bullshit, basically. 

Anyway, Gremmy reveals that he's already forgotten about Gwenael and he's so useless that he's 'vanished' from Gremmy's mind, before blowing Gwenael up. Yachiru moves in to attack, only for Gremmy to turn her bones into cookie and break her arm and cause her to be unable to stand... which is as uncomfortable to see in animated format as it was in the manga. Like, jeez, my own bones are tingling at bit at imagining them turning into soft cookie. 

Also, I would like to point out just how much Gremmy disrespected his own creation that he took the time to imagine Gwenael blowing up, but doesn't actually annihilate Yachiru or Isane. He does take the time to allegedly 'kill' Rose and Kensei, a claim that we never actually get to verify since next time they show up, they're already zombies under the control of Giselle. Just like Yachiru's bones, Gremmy might have lost his focus on keeping that imagination active during the Kenpachi fight?

Speaking of Kenpachi, he arrives by blasting through the ceiling and landing like a goddamn boss, and he gets a bit pissed at seeing Yachiru hurt. There is a nice, short scene between Isane and Kenpachi that really does help to put a small pin into Isane's characterization -- even if that's just as Unohana's vice-captain. And after the whole excellently-adapted Kenpachi/Unohana episode, I really do appreciate the portrayal of Kenpachi in this episode as compared to when he was fighting Ichigo or Nnoitra -- he's not manic at all. He's not screaming his head off like a lunatic and laughing and enjoying the battle. He's still sarcastic and prideful, but he's far more subdued about it, because the title of 'the strongest' and 'Kenpachi' now bears weight on his shoulder. This was something that was lost to me when I read this the first time due to the dual frustration of Gremmy's bullshit powers and the anticipation of Kenpachi's Shikai, but it really was very neat to see that Kenpachi's... basically matured. I really did appreciate his brief exchange with Isane, revealing that Unohana died and basically allows Isane to kill him (not even 'fight and kill' him) later on after the war is over. 

Gremmy raises a giant stone arena for him and Kenpachi to fight on, before announcing himself as the strongest Sternritter. And Gremmy's next act of imagination is to imagine his body being as hard as steel to block Kenpachi's blade strike... which proves to be useless since Kenpachi just quickly slashes down through it. (Man, if Kenpachi met Cang Du during the first invasion, Cang would suffer the same fate as the three letters Kenpachi killed offscreen). Again, as Kenpachi slashes through him, he claims that he can cut through anything because he is the Kenpachi. 

We get a couple of the scenes that took a while in the manga just play out very quickly in this anime. Gremmy imagines himself recovering from the wound, then imagines a mass of lava coming out... and then we get the adorable scene where Kenpachi asks Yachiru why she's not running away and then gets absolutely bamboozled by the concept of a 'cookie'. Gremmy then envelops Kenpachi in a water cube to suffocate him, drops Yachiru into a crevice, and Kenpachi zips in only for the crevice to close. All very neat showcases of the Visionary power. 

Kenpachi bursts out of the ground, of course, and he points out that Yachiru's bones have mostly turned to normal (other than the broken arm), noting that Gremmy's imagination loses their effect if he stops concentrating on them.

We keep the scene with Askin Nakk Le Varr observing the battle while reclining on a pillow from a distance, but it's mostly just his line about imagination -- regrettably, Askin's lines explaining about Gremmy being locked up by the Sternritter themselves before the war, as well as the potential for Gremmy to kill everyone present with his imagination powers, are all cut. Far more interesting, however, is that they cut another character, Pepe, out entirely. I guess the animation staff collectively realize just how unpopular Pepe is, and will just keep him for his fight because he's been consistently left out of all the conversations he's had with other Sternritters. 

Now mobile, Yachiru leaves to get her arm fixed. Gremmy then gives a boast about how he knows Kenpachi is apparently the strongest Shinigami, and Gremmy prides himself as the strongest Sternritter. Kenpachi scoffs, and, again, putting out two aspects of the Kenpachi title -- that he shouldn't be distracted by anything but the opponent in a fight; and that he should want to crush the strongest opponent if this is true. Again, a nice distillation of the lessons that Kenpachi learned about protecting his title as a Kenpachi.

We then get another fast sequence of attacks, with Gremmy summoning rock pillars, then a mass of CGI guns that shoot bullets, and then guided missiles. Gremmy is forced to use his arms to block the explosion from one of his sliced missiles, negating his earlier boast that he's not going to use a single finger at all. Kenpachi calls him out on this, and Gremmy replies with a slightly manic look -- which Kenpachi calls a good expression. The whole sequence comes off a bit as Kenpachi trying to 'teach' Gremmy the joys of battling against a worthy opponent, and to enjoy a proper fight instead of unilaterally one-shotting the enemy. Again, is this the best way to showcase this mindset? Probably not, but it's what the fight was going for and I can respect that. 

We then get a couple more attacks. Gremmy creates a giant rock hand that slams down onto Kenpachi, and Gremmy realizes that his momentary lapses of concentration leaves himself vulnerable to Kenpachi's slashes. This causes Gremmy to panic a bit and envision himself losing to Kenpachi, which Kenpachi calls out. Gremmy then 'wipes all thoughts of death' so he can't die, summons a clone of himself, then summons a meteor.

We get, of course, the badass unveiling of Nozarashi. "Drink, Nozarashi!" with a sequence of Kenpachi leaping up towards the meteor to slicing it in half. Gorgeously animated, and while this isn't the first 'big fiery' sequence we've seen (Yamamoto, Bazz-B, Bambietta and Soi Fon's flames and explosions have been animated beautifully) this one does have the spectacle due to being, y'know, a fucking meteor. 

Yachiru watches this and recalls the first meeting with Kenpachi when she's an infant. Again, keeping all of the Yachiru scenes does lead me to being hopeful that we'll get some nice Yachiru content down the line. 

With the meteor cut and Kenpachi's Shikai, Nozarashi, revealed, Gremmy summons even more clones and summons something without form -- the vacuum of space. We get a creepy scene of Kenpachi's eye shriveling... before Kenpachi just slices through space itself or something, cutting one of the Gremmy clones in half along the waist. Kenpachi points out that Gremmy forgot to maintain the hardening on his body. 

Seeing this, all but one of the Gremmys charge in and manifest bombs on their chest, blowing up on Kenpachi. Which Kenpachi of course survives. Ultimately, Gremmy yells that he'll imagine himself as a more powerful monster than Kenpachi, and bulks his body up since he wants to win for the first time in his life. However, his body begins to break apart at this point as he leaps towards Kenpachi. Kenpachi's explanation is succinct and kind of disappointed, but basically Gremmy has built Kenpachi up as this 'unbeatable monster' in his mind... that trying to imagine something stronger than this mental image of an 'unbeatable monster' ends up with Gremmy's body self-destructing, unable to become stronger than what's by definition impossible to overcome. 

After the credits roll, Gremmy lies on the rubble, musing that his imagination was correct in envisioning Kenpachi's power, and drops all excuses before his body disintegrates, revealing his true body -- a brain in a jar. He notes that the child-like body he's been using all along has been an engineered body similar to Gwenael, before reflecting that he kept his word about not using a finger... and then he passes on to a world where he can't imagine anything, leaving only his (presumably dead) brain and Kenpachi looking on. 

And... again, the pacing's a lot better in here, improving what has been in my opinion one of the biggest disappointments from this stretch of the manga. I still wouldn't call it a perfect fight since Gremmy's still... kind of nonsensical, but trimming down the Gwenael fight and a lot of his 'my imagination is supreme' speeches does do a lot to make him more bearable, and making the fight flow and move so hectically is definitely something that improves this sequence a lot. 

Random Notes:

• 
  I am somewhat bothered by Isane's claim that all Shikai must change form. I know that a vast majority of Shikais do, and that it's a hallmark of Bleach to think up of crazy impractical anime weapons with the Shikais, and... I guess one of the few Shikais that don't change the shape of the blade would be Kyoka Suigetsu? Maybe? I guess the shape of the blade changes from a generic katana. Ditto for Sode no Shirayuki, I guess it sprouts that little tassel-thing.
  
• While Gwenael thinking about the three phases of his Vanishing Point abilities are kept, a lot of the explanation about how he can switch from phase 1 to 2 and all that is removed. The actual effects and most of the action scenes are retained, but without dragging on the episode it's a good thing not to keep them around. 
• Tite Kubo would later reveal that Shaz Domino is an earlier 'draft' that Gremmy created as a 'living' being that he created with his Visionary powers. We never get that confirmation here, meaning that once more, people who experience this arc for the first time would be confused once they tallied up the alphabet and realized that there's a letter that didn't correspond to Shaz Domino. 
• It would have been so easy to put Shaz Domino as a brief flash next to Gwenael when Gremmy boasts about being able to 'create life', wouldn't it?
• Alternatively, if that explanation is no longer canon, I assume Shaz is just a Sternritter that got replaced right before the second invasion.
• They cut out Pepe from Askin's scene, which no one is complaining, but what I am peeved about is that they cut out Askin's picnic basket. 
• Most interestingly is that they cut out the explanation that Gremmy has been locked up under the Silbern because his Visionary powers are so powerful. Can't Fear Your Own World would imply that Gremmy is another part of the Soul King similar to Pernida and Gerald, too.
• Also cut out of this episode (alongside many, many Gwenael lines) are shots of other characters like Renji, Bazz-B, Haschwalth and the generic Soldat and Shinigami soldiers reacting to the gigantic meteor's appearance. I remembered a particularly stupid line in the manga version where Haschwalth orders the Soldat to protect Juhabach. As if Juhabach can't deal with the meteor himself, and as if generic Soldat could deal with that meteor and protect Juhabach from it. 
• Honestly, even if Gremmy's imagination is way more limited than what he implies, if Kenpachi cuts through the vacuum of space once, just... vacuum him again! Again and again and again! Or do the bone cookie thing! Again and again and again! That seems to be the only thing that slows Kenpachi down, so do it! But I get that Gremmy's just trying to throw things at the wall and see what works, and I guess it never occurred to him to do the same thing twice. 
  
• So, uh, Juhabach recruited As Nodt from a hospital. Where did he find a fucking disembodied brain?