Bleach TYBW E19 Review: Todesangst

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 19: The White Haze

That's a fair bit better in terms of an adaptation! Just like the previous episode that focuses on the Mask de Masculine fight, this one is primarily just Rukia versus As Nodt... but this one doesn't eliminate anything in the source material, extends a lot of the action scenes well, and actually does something that I don't think people would really notice unless they actually compared scenes... like I did. And this is the sort of plot tightening-up that I really enjoyed when they did it, and I'm talking about the Haschwalth/Uryu scene and the execution. And since that's the more interesting adaptation in the episode, I'm going to talk about it first!

Basically, the anime has merged two scenes -- the execution scene of Cang Du and BG9 (which was one of the biggest, most glaring wtf moments in the manga) as well as Uryu and Haschwalth's rivalry and arguments about the nature of what we will know as Auswahlen, and Haschwalth's nature as Juhabach's 'shadow side'. Unfortunately, combining these scenes does compress a lot of the dynamic between Uryu and Haschwalth. In the manga, Haschwalth is all but outright hostile to Uryu, being extremely passive-aggressive about Uryu's position as successor. However, here their relationship is more friendly... which I think is a change for the better? It helps to 'sell' Uryu's betrayal of his friends, it helps to give a reason why Haschwalth would explain things to Uryu, and it's more consistent with Haschwalth's initial argument with Bazz-B about how he's willing to follow whatever Juhabach decides, no matter how weird it is. 

Also, having Cang Du and BG9's execution moved to this place -- after we've seen Juhabach absorb the Reishi of the fallen Mask De Masculine, and in the middle of an explanation by Haschwalth -- is a lot more sensible. Because I still feel it's kind of stupid that the Sternritter would execute Cang and BG9. Sure, BG9 got beaten by Soi Fon, and Cang Du got frozen... but Cang actually agruably wins his fight, since at the end of the fight he managed to kill Matsumoto, and Hitsugaya collapses and gets abducted by Giselle. 

But either way, the anime makes it a bit more clear that Haschwalth and especially Juhabach don't really give two shits about their troops, and if they can't function as combatants, then they're going to just function as Reishi power-ups for Juhabach. They added a couple of extra lines for Haschwalth that makes the execution scene feel a lot less random, since he's enforcing a point to Uryu about how all Sternritters will return to Juhabach one way or another. The execution is also done in a more elaborate chamber, with a bunch of Soldat watching, making it feel a bit more ritualistic than the honestly rather random scene in the manga's equivalent of this. 

However, one thing that I do feel like the anime didn't do as well is removing almost all of Cang and BG9's lines here. I get that Haschwalth and Juhabach are the primary focus of this scene, but in the manga we get to see the robotic BG9 in panic, and Cang being defiant to the end, insisting that only Juhabach can execute him. I would've at least liked that line to be retained for Cang, honestly. 

I do really like that Haschwalth using 'the Balance' on Cang Du also has the dialogue to be tweaked to be a bit more... sensible. It's a bit more clear that he's using the Balance to return the fortune/misfortune of Cang using 'the Iron' to block Haschwalth's first blow, instead of how it was phrased in the manga where it looked like Haschwalth's dialogue could be interpreted about the war as a whole. 

Also, in a series that has censored a couple of moments of brutality (BG9 stabbing Mareyo, Renji dicing up James), Cang Du and BG9's deaths are not only extended, the brutality is exemplified! Instead of an offscreen cut, Cang's head straight-up explodes and his blood geysers all across the room. Ditto for BG9, though he explodes oil and has his robotic eye peter out. It's an extremely well-done moment of brutality, and after last episode not being quite as ideal, I do have to give praise where it's due and note that this episode handles the merging of two Quincy-heavy scenes well. 

And before we get to the Rukia fight, I'll just quickly cover a couple more other scenes that this episode adapted. The episode opens with Ichigo jumping down from the Soul King's Palace after getting his new outfit (sadly offscreen) from Senjumaru, and... I'm kind of disappointed we don't get to see Senjumaru's training. It's not the biggest loss, though. A lot of the dialogue in this segment -- which is just fluff -- is cut from the anime, and is replaced with Ichibei noting enigmatically that Ichigo has 'surpassed' the existence of a regular Shinigami. Again, actually showing the training in Irazusando, even if it still wouldn't make much context to someone who hasn't read Can't Fear Your Own World or the wikis, the Soul King backstory is still near-impossible to piece together from what the anime has shown... but there's definitely a larger sense of gravitas to this scene.

The episode's final scene (essentially functioning as a post-credits scene) is the beginning of the fight between Yachiru and Guenael Lee, which I really don't have a whole ton to say about. In the manga it's not the most exciting thing, and I bet this will be also shortened in the anime to give as much screentime as possible to the Kenpachi/Gremmy fight. But I do appreciate that it's adapted pretty faithfully from the manga. There really is a neat, almost JoJo-esque vibe to Guenael's ability that's able to literally vanish from people's memories, not just their sight. 

Anyway, back to the main meal of the episode, which is the Rukia vs. As Nodt fight. The meeting between the two is done amazingly well for two reasons -- one is that As Nodt just has spectacular voice-acting. Matsuoka Yoshitsugu is a veteran voice actor and he just shines and sells As Nodt's lunacy and obsession with 'fear' and everything that comes with it. He gets more and more ravenous and insane as the episode goes on, as he keeps ranting quickly about his fear -- particularly when he finds great motivation in fighting for the sake of not being scolded by Juhabach. 

The other reason? The way they mixed the sound. I was wearing headphones when I watched this episode and As Nodt's voice did just come from one side, and when he's listing all of the reasons that people experience fear, his voice really does come from all around me alternatingly. I wouldn't go as far as saying that it actually terrified me like a horror movie or whatever, but damn if it's impressively done to make As Nodt's creep factor rise up by a lot. 

As Nodt initially begins the fight by asking where 'his' Senbonzakura Kageyoshi is, before launching giant Reishi thorns at Rukia and causing the fear from his liquid to hit her. I did remember not liking this sequence all too much in the manga, but with the addition of voice acting and shortened into basically a couple of minutes at most, it flew much better. The fact that As's fear is described as being unblockable and everything yet still manages to take the form of goop is always weird, and Rukia going quasi-scientific with her powers, talking about how Sode no Shirayuki reduces temperature instead of summoning ice/snow has always been a bit off in this setting for me. Rukia asserts that her body is basically a walking corpse due to her lowering the temperature to absolute zero and reducing molecular movement, and As Nodt being bamboozled about being able to move around at such a scientifically impossible temperature is also rather bizarre considering they're both spiritual beings using reality-warping powers. But I digress. Again, the fact that this episode adapts the entirety of the As/Rukia fight and this initial back-and-forth about the nature of their powers is just taking up a couple of minutes really does help a lot in making it breeze by quickly. 

We also have As's wonderful monologue about places of safety and places of fear, about reasons to feel safe and reasons to feel fear, reasons for living and reasons for dying... fear has always been a subject that I personally really am fascinated about so all of this are definitely a fun monologue for me. Rukia then blitzes As Nodt, freezing his wounds so fast that blood didn't have time to bleed out, before the badass slash that turns As Nodt frozen in the foreground, which I remembered was the cliffhanger for one of the chapters. 

We then get Rukia slowly increasing her body temperature, reflecting that despite the increase in power, she did get a bit of a drawback and she's not that experienced at regulating her powers. We then get a glorious 'sense' of a demonic face of As for a split second, and we cut away to the As Nodt flashback. It's short, but I appreciate that this was kept in the episode considering we lost Lloyd's flashback -- and I'd argue that having the revelation that As Nodt was a sickly man terrified of dying, and Juhabach rescued him and gave him salvation... only to kind of 'carve' a single new fear in his heart -- the fear of failing and being scolded by Juhabach -- always helped to make As Nodt more than just a fear-monologue machine. The anime also shows the blood of Juhabach solidifying into a giant 'F', which I thought was a nice touch. 

As Nodt then goes Vollstandig, ranting about fear, ranting about how he does not fear Rukia, and we get a disgusting zoom-in to his eyeball as it rattles around and reveals his Quincy star before the Vollstandig cross happens and we get a nasty transformation sequence with stitches manifesting out of nothing and a shot of As Nodt's organs spilling out a bit. In Tartarforas form, Rukia is unable to have her blade reach As Nodt's body due to the fear... caused by As Nodt's Vollstandig fear now affecting Rukia through optic nerves. 

...it really is the part of this fight that I felt was the weirdest. The source material and the anime are pretty great at showcasing the combat, the body horror of As Nodt, and even the fear monologues, but I find it rather bizarre when we go from these magic powers to 'the cells may be frozen, but your nerves are still active!'

We get a gigantic dome of eyes surrounding Rukia, which the anime does pretty well with CGI, and we get a repeat (an anime-exclusive one!) of Rukia being surrounded by insects similarly to Byakuya. And... Byakuya's inclusion in this fight is thankfully minimal. I do really like As Nodt's taunts about Byakuya having his internal organs gouged out and mocking Byakuya for losing weight... and then summons a whole lot of the eyeballs from his dome attack, which is rendered entirely in CGI that I think is intentionally not-as-good as Dangai Joue or Yamamoto's skeletons. 

Byakuya unleashes Senbonzakura and annihilates it all, and shocks As Nodt when he reveals that this is his Shikai, not his Bankai -- and Byakuya losing Senbonzakura Kageyoshi allowed him to re-discover the essence of his blade's powers. I don't really think this goes anywhere other than justifying how much more powerful Byakuya became after the Royal Palace training. 

And then we get the moment that I was wondering how the anime is going to adapt, as As Nodt transforms into his giant form. It's a bit more clear in the anime that he's absorbing all the reishi from the weird eyeball-structures, turning into a gigantic tumour-blob, before his smaller body literally births a gigantic form with the original body hanging down from his chin like a weird lower jaw. Nasty! 

And as Byakuya praises Rukia for being strong -- and it's such a simple moment, but a great cap for Rukia and Byakuya's dynamic in the original Soul Society arc -- we get 'Endroll' playing over As Nodt's defeat. Byakuya tells Rukia that she doesn't have any more fear born of insecurity anymore, and... again, looking back at how messy the Thousand-Year-Blood-War arc is in juggling characters (Rukia practically doesn't do anything more after this) this moment feels a bit hollow, but I really do feel like it's a great way to end their sibling dynamic.

Byakuya then walks away from As Nodt, delivering probably the most insulting condemnation towards As Nodt -- that the only grotesque fear he's reflecting is his own, and not Rukia's. Rukia then unleashes her Bankai: Hakka no Togame -- a literal nuclear eruption of ice and snow. As gets a brief monologue as he realizes that he's terrified, that he's going to die, and he apologizes to Juhabach just as half his face shatters. A nice showcase of his fragile fear, represented with the 'F' letter seen earlier, crumbling away. 

And... yeah, that's a pretty great adaptation! I do really feel like the visuals, the speedy pacing and especially the voice-acting of the Kuchiki siblings and especially As Nodt carried this fight a lot better than the Renji/Mask fight last episode. Not too sure about the end credits music playing over the Bankai activation, but it does feel neat. And, of course, as I mentioned before, absolutely adore the condensed and much more streamlined scene for the Sternritter execution. 

Random Notes:

• 
  So we don't get any clarification about what BG9's "K" schrift stand for. I mean, I guess it was kind of obvious that it's the Knowledge or the Knowing... and to be fair, As Nodt's F standing for 'Fear' was never actually stated out loud -- not in the way that 'the Jail', 'the Iron', 'the Explode', 'the Superstar' and 'the Heat' had been throughout the events of these past couple of fights... but I am surprised that we don't get a clarification in the mid-episode ad break scenes. 
  
• Man, you got to feel sorry about Senjumaru. I genuinely thought that after seeing her parlour a couple of episodes back that she's going to be the focus of at least one more post-credits scene... but nope, it's just cut. I mean, I guess she just makes the clothes for Ichigo, but it felt weird that we don't at least get to see a short scene of this. 
• Special note has to be given to those two random Soldat that cart away Cang and BG9's bodies on gurneys like they're transporting delivery crates or something. 
• A lot of people were theorizing that Guanael Lee was going to be cut because his voice actor was never announced, but since they kept that punk Shaz Domino in, I highly doubt they would cut out Guenael entirely. 
• However, actually cut from the chapters that were adapted into this episode was a short scene where Renji takes a break after killing Mask and falls asleep, and is observed by NaNaNa Najahkoop. NaNaNa is one of those Sternritters that are entirely dropped by the story, and... just let Shinji or Ichigo or someone beat him, please? So he gets to do something? Was he even killed by the Aushwalen? Or was it Aizen? I know he shows up in Can't Fear Your Own World, but he doesn't even get to do anything there. 
• A lot of the comedy conversation between Ichigo and Squad Zero is cut, and what's added is Senjumaru explaining that Ichigo's brand-new outfit is going to help him break through the barriers separating the Soul King Palace and the Seireitei. 
• The anime also removes the line about BG9 and Cang Du saying that they could be useful by activating Vollstandig... which the anime already shows at least Cang doing to break out of the cross-shaped icy prison. Presumably, he's so weakened that he drops out of Vollstandig afterwards?
• In the manga, Rukia's being affected by 'the Fear' has her imagine Ichigo, Byakuya and Orihime with blacked-out eyes. Here, we get to see an extended version of it that pays homage to the first cour's Byakuya freakout, by having the three imaginary faces turn rotten, then turn into a giant swarm of flies that surround Rukia. 
• Understandably, the anime cuts out the Bible from As Nodt's flashback. 
• It really is weird that they kept in Rukia's line about not being able to sense any Gotei 13 members when the previous episode added an anime-original scene about the Gotei 13 troops surviving...