Bleach TYBW E26 Review: This is How Squad Zero Fights

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 26: Black

So the final episode of the second cour picks up right where the previous one left off. Juhabach announces to his Sternritters to 'show their wings', and the Schutzstaffel stand with their Vollstandigs activated alongside Uryu and Haschwalth, while Squad Zero poses to take them on. The Auswahlen rain still falls around them and bathes the entire scene in this nice blue colouration, while Juhabach gives his 'no one can take anything from me, everything in the world exists for me to take' line. And as Juhabach disengages Auswahlen, we get to see a brief shot of the Soul King's strange eyes before Juhabach declares the battle is on. 

The opening credits roll, and this episode begins with the ending of what is basically the Squad Zero fight in the manga, right before we cut to the Juha/Ichibei multi-chapter battle. Nimaiya gets a gigantic hole blown up in his shoulder by Lille Barro's X-Axis power, and we get the discussion of whether this is the power granted to Lille Barro with the power of Auswahlen. Lille corrects Nimaiya, saying that this is his original power that he didn't have time to use earlier. Lille then fires again, piercing through Tenjiro and Kirio's sealed Zanpakuto (Kirio's is a giant spoon!) and drilling a hole through all the way to Nimaiya's chest. Lille boasts that his X-Axis draws a line between his muzzle and his target, and it's not a bullet but just pierces a hole through. 

And then we have the Squad Zero's counterattack! I guess Kinpika's power is just light, because Tenjiro unleashes a blast of light from it to blind Lille a bit while Senjumaru flies into the sky with Nimaiya's holey (heh) body wrapped up with her puppet arms. She prepares a ball of string and just nonchalantly places it into the gaps in Nimaiya's body. The string and the goopy substance within stitches up Nimaiya's hole, restoring his body into perfection. 

And... since Senjumaru's compared explicitly to Mayuri in her earlier appearances, I can't actually be mad at this. Having an instant-wound-closer ready at hand does feel like a 'Mayuri is prepared' thing that he would do. "DEAD MORNING! EVERYBODY, MY BUDDIES!" Nimaiya announces loudly as he is revived, and Nimaiya boasts something that's honestly pretty much music to my ears. "Were you expecting a comeback just because you grew some wings?"

...yes, yes, Nimaiya, that was what they did in the manga. You steamroll them, they steamroll you, you reveal your power and steamroll them, then they Auswahlen + Vollstandig and steamroll you. Without any resistance or any kind of a real fight. Not very entertaining of a sequence of events. Again, I am very pleased to see this actually be shown and played out. Before watching this episode, I just expected the Quincies in their Vollstandig to wipe the floor with Squad Zero. They'd still lose poorly here, but we'd see them taken out by the Schutzstaffel in their Vollstandig, y'know? But no. No, there's an actual fight, and the ending of this episode actually shocked me a fair bit. 

Tenjiro repeats the boast that the five members of Squad Zero is stronger than the entirety of the Gotei 13... and then the fight resumes in earnest. Basically everything in this episode other than the Ichibei/Juhabach scenes are completely original to the anime. Kirio (who barely does jack-all outside of being responsible for maintaining the Womb in the manga) goes all Shodai Hokage and summons a whole damn forest of tentacle wooden branches, recreating a larger version of the Womb.

This sets up multiple platforms which sets up a bunch of 1-v-1 battles between the Sternritters and Squad Zero, which... hell yeah. Again, this isn't something that I was expecting at all, but it's definitely something that I really appreciated! We get to see actual clashing that isn't just utterly one-sided. 

Gerald Valkyrie faces off against Senjumaru Shutara, stabbing her immediately through the chest again... only for the 'Senjumaru' to literally be a puppet. It's some Naruto substitution jutsu shit, while the real Senjumaru zips in, wielding a sewing needle with her mechanical arms and actually using the strings to hold Gerald into the roots! Gerald mocks Senjumaru's needle, and we actually get a name-drop for Senjumaru's weapon: Shigarami, or 'Thorny Enlightenment'.  

Kirio Hikifune launches a bunch of brambles down towards Pernida Parnkjas, and this is probably the least interesting of the fights. Pernida is the Sternritter who has the most to be 'revealed' later on due to his true nature, while Kirio was always the Squad Zero member who did the least (I don't think she even fought in the manga). It's just basically Kirio launching plant attacks that get scrunched up by Pernida. 

In a very welcome fight, Askin Nakk Le Vaar finds himself facing off against Kirinji Tenjiro, where we finally get to hear the Shikai command for Kinpika (Tenjiro just calls out the sword's name last episode). We get some epic dodging skills from Askin, before he summons a glowing staff with balls which he separates into his Gift Balls. It's still unnamed here and Tenjiro blasts away the Gift Balls with his blood pool attacks, but I do love that we're seeing hints of more elaborate abilities that these Schutzstaffel will be using in their proper fights. Askin, very hilariously, just runs the fuck away with a gloriously terrified expression, yelling that Tenjiro is a 'fatally bad matchup' for him.

Again, I am such a fan that these matchups aren't just here for fighting purposes, but we even get a lot of great character moments that feels like something that Askin would do. Also, it makes total sense that Squad Zero would pit Tenjiro against Askin, considering how he nullified The Deathdealing last episode with his blood-replacement abilities. 

Sternritter "X" Lille Barro meanwhile faces off again in a grudge match against the Number One Zanpakuto Creator, Nimaiya Oetsu, who seems to be having the time of his life just jumping around and avoiding the holes that Lille is punching into the trees around him. (Presumably Uryu and Haschwalth are just elsewhere in the newly-formed Womb). We don't get to see a lot of this fight initially, because we cut away to canon material!

And I really don't want to downplay the Juhabach (or rather, just 'Juha' at this point) and Ichibei fight, but... but I know what happens in the Juha/Ichibei fight. It's still impressively done, of course, but I love that this is just one fight taking place alongside four others now, Ichibei mocks Juha for not realizing that he's giving him some face by leaving half of Juha's power so that he wouldn't be humiliated by losing at full strength. I've always thought that this was such a dick move from Ichibei, regardless of how true it is. Really does illustrate how much the Eyeball Monk is just playing and even toying around with the immortal King of the Quincies! 

Ichibei unleashes Hyapporankan, which is animated pretty nicely as spinning around Ichibei before being launched in a line towards Juha. In retaliation, Juha uses Blut Vene Anhaben, creating a forcefield dome around him. Ichibei then unleashes Secret Hado: Teppusatsu, creating a giant puffy dragon-head that unleashes a goddamn hyper beam that blasts away Blut Vene Anhaben. Ichibei then grabs Juha by the neck, but Juha sends Blut Vene running down Ichibei's arm (which is foreshadowed well in the anime-original flashback in episode 24!). Ichibei just flexes his own blood vessels, which bulge rather creepily and seemingly corrupts Juha's own blood vessels, causing an explosion in Juha's face. 

God, the blood vessels rippling across Juhabach's face is something that wasn't super obvious in the manga, and most certainly not as graphic. 

That's like, a whole chapter in the manga of Juha and Ichibei exchanging mighty spells reduced to, what, a minute or two? This is really the TYBW anime's greatest strength, where the action scenes really do flow much quicker and makes the events that happen not feel dragged-out by the characters themselves. In the manga I've always felt like Ichibei and Juha are showing off a bit too much before activating Ichimonji and The Almighty respectively, but now it just being a quick exchange of spells between the two really makes this feel less silly. 

And then Ichibei just draws a line across the entire screen with his paintbrush. "Paint it black... Ichimonji." 

The ink splatters don't quite look as good as the manga, again, but at least it's a bit more evident here than the previous one. Juha is briefly bamboozled when in his vision Ichimonji warps back and forth between its blade and brush forms. The two of them clash their weapons, and Juha mocks Ichibei for using a brush-blade that just splashes ink around. Juha then boasts that he's about to use his sword, before realizing that he can't say out the blade's name. 

Ichibei then reveals the power of Ichimonji -- anything that its ink splatters on loses its name, and anything that loses its name loses its power. It's a bit metaphysical, but I've always loved the idea that recurs across various cultures of the power behind certain names and words. 

As Ichibei boasts a bit, we cut away to Senjumaru about to stab Gerald with Shigarami... but then Gerald just literally flexes his way out of Senjumaru's bindings and then flexes his chest muscles to drive out the needle. Gerald boasts about the strength of his heart (a subtle nod to how "The Miracle" works) before knocking Senjumaru to the ground and stomping on her. It's time for the Quincy counterattack! 

Elsewhere, Kirio gets even more of her plants crushed into nothing by Pernida, before Pernida launches his Vollstandig arm-wings... like actual arms that try to slap Kirio like a fly. Kirio uses more vine-roots to grab Pernida's wings, then summons more roots to enclose him, and I love the detail from the anime that Kirio actually reverts to her slimmer form, showing the extent of Reishi she's expending. 

Tenjiro seems to have the upper hand in his chase with Askin, outpacing Askin while boasting about his speed. The anime doesn't actually explain it, but does so visually as Askin vaults around while Tenjiro's standing in a pool of random green liquid, and then Askin gives a boast about how he said the same thing to the 'funky' guy that he shouldn't be underestimated, before knocking out Tenjiro. I think that green goop is 'Gift Bad', another one of Askin's abilities that he would use in his manga fights. 

Meanwhile, Nimaiya finds that his sword strikes are phasing through Lille Barro's gun, and intangibility is the ability that Lille gains in his Vollstandig. Again, using these more esoteric Vollstandig abilities to defeat the Squad Zero? I absolutely approve. We don't see Lille opening his left eye explicitly, but he does have a line about his eyes getting used to Nimaiya's speed. I love that Nimaiya's still hollering as he jumps around, thinking that he got around the X-Axis powers in a hilarious gambit as he puts himself in the same 'x-axis' with Juha behind him. But, unfortunately for Nimaiya, it's the second time this episode he got a hole punched in him by Lille Barro, who took the shot because X-Axis only penetrates the space between his gun and the target, not anything beyond. 

And as the new Womb disintegrates at around the halfway mark of the episode. I honestly thought that this was it. And I would've been happy! We saw a couple of extended clashes both last episode and this one, and hey, Squad Zero was defeated by the Schutzstaffel at their full power, showcasing the abilities that characters like Kyoraku and Urahara would have to face off against. It's a good end for Squad Zero, right? They got a fight, we get a couple of abilities being shown off, and they got taken out by fully-powered enemies on-screen I thought the rest of the episode would just be the entirety of the Ichibei/Juhabach fight, and I genuinely thought the season would've ended with the scene where Juhabach reaches the Soul King. 

And it seems like we're just getting the rest of the Juha and Ichibei fight. Juha launches some reishi balls from his fingers, summoning Sankt Altar (wonderfully animated) in the skies to steal Ichibei's power of the colour 'black', and... it hilariously turns Ichibei's hair entirely white, making him look like a monk Santa Claus. Juhabach launches the blast of energy back at Ichibei, setting him on fire and blowing him away. The anime cuts Ichibei effortlessly flexing away Ichibei no-selling Sankt Altar, for the sake of paralleling the Schutzstaffel fight below. 

And then the episode cuts to the Squad Zero's bodies being tossed around by the Schutzstaffel. Gerald Valkyrie mocks this as hardly being 'stronger than the entire Gotei 13', and... okay, when you put it that way, he does have a point. But all we needed to see was how they got overwhelmed and defeated, right? After all, we're about to end the season, and around half an episode's worth of extra fights is probably what I could hope out of an extended fight, right?

And then Nimaiya, with a hole in his gut, stands the fuck back up. Nimaiya then lets out another boast -- they haven't even used the strength of a single Squad Zero member, which sounds a bit like a hollow boast. But Nimaiya's delivery of the line is so powerful, and we get a great zoom-in to his face as he rants about how the Royal Guard can't let some random Quincies get the better of them. The rest of Squad Zero stand back up, as Nimaiya points his blade at Senjumaru, telling her to kill the Quincies. 

Nimaiya then... says that it's time for Squad Zero to get serious...

...by... killing themselves. Or, at least, Tenjiro, Kirio and Nimaiya cut their throats open, and Senjumaru looks positively demonic as the blood of her comrades splurt out around her. Elsewhere in the Royal Palace, some strange seals in a darkened room start to flicker as three seals that correspond to the North, East and South go dark... leaving only Senjumaru's West. Senjumaru unleashes a blast of reishi, prompting Gerald to question how she's going to do anything against all the Quincies when she can't even kill him. 

Then Senjumaru drops a bombshell -- a bombshell that makes absolute sense, once you take into account the sheer strength of Yamamoto's Bankai which we saw earlier in the series (and even other characters like Kyoraku, Unohana or Urahara with their reality-warping Bankais, which we'll see later). Senjumaru notes that the use of their true powers would cause all three worlds to tremble, and their 'true swords' were linked and sealed behind those ominous markings to protect reality. 

And then, Senjumaru Shutara says something I didn't expect to hear from her. 

BANKAI.

It's been ten years since I last got excited over a Bankai reveal of a pre-established character, and I didn't expect to get this hyped in the anime. And Senjumaru's Bankai has the same 'let's warp the fucking scenery with some badass imagery' that made Senbonzakura Kageyoshi so iconic all the way back in the early 2000's. A giant torii gate manifests, and a bunch of golden structures start assembling themselves, before a lot of giant cloth-rolls start unfurling themselves. First, red ones, then all sorts of colours start rolling out. 

Bankai: Shatatsu Karagara Shigarami-no-Tsuji.

And the eruption of this Bankai, as advertised, is felt by the skies shaking in the Soul Society, the human world, and Hueco Mundo. We get an Isshin and Ryuken cameo! Do something in this anime, Isshin and Ryuken!

But we'll have plenty of time for those two bumbling dads. This is Senjumaru's show and she's really toying with the Quincies, making onomatopoeia sounds as she walks through her parlour of unfurled fabrics. And this kind of reminds me of Kyoraku or Rose's Bankai with the 'acts', as Senjumaru just traps all of the Sternritters one by one and defeats them all with different hanks. First to fall is Lille Barro. "Unravel One Hank: Abundant Blooming of Eyes". Eyeballs appear in eight-pointed chamber that Lille is trapped in, while Senjumaru's image is reflected all around him. Lille's X-Axis powers are reflected back at him, punching holes in his body as he falls. 

"Unravel Two Hanks: Armour of Blade Metal". Which... seems rather mundane compared to what happened to Lille. Askin is panicking about this bullshit he finds in, and gets crushed by steel-spike walls as the metallic, spiked cutouts of Senjumaru's silhouette crash down onto him like a cage. "Unravel Three Hanks: Bowels of Black Sand" is unleashed on Pernida, where he's dragged down by the cloth, which transform into black sand like she's Gaara from Naruto, crushing Pernida. A nice little detail is that we see, briefly, the true nature of The Compulsory before it gets dispelled by the clothing turning into sand. Nice, anime team!

"Unravel Four Hanks: Freezing Bed Linens." Gerald gets his arms wrapped by frozen cloth tendrils, before being frozen himself. "Unravel Five Hanks: Burning Field." Another very simple one, Haschwalth finds himself in a corridor of red cloth, all of which catch fire and sets him on fire. Haschwalth still looks stoic as ever as he tries to slash the fire, though he's ultimately consumed. And the last to fall is everyone's favourite main character, Ishida Uryu. "Unravel Six Hanks: Star of the Dark Night." Bizarrely, the clothing around Uryu sprouts Vandenreich emblems, and starts to seemingly absorb reishi from Uryu as he's forced down to his knees, while the pattern on the clothing completes. 

Senjumaru then walks down the initial parlour as she says she's about to release these clothing with the villains woven onto them from the loom. Part of the giant loom-structure slams down like a fucking guillotine, calling it "Shide no Rokushiki Ukimon no Hata" as she's flanked by the six hanks of cloth with the Sternritters seemingly sealed into them. 

And that's where we end the Squad Zero fight.

Senjumaru Shutara actually fucking won, 6-v-1, with her Bankai. And while I don't doubt that we'll get yet another turnaround-around, I didn't expect her to dominate so decisively in a scene not from the canon source material, and one that would eventually lead to the same downfall for Squad Zero. I'm really curious how this is going to end! I really want this to perhaps be either Uryu or Haschwalth's big moment with Antithesis and/or Balance. 

And with the remaining five minutes or so, we get the remainder of Ichibei and Juhabach's fight... but minus the last chapter of the fight, which I genuinely thought was going to be the end of this cour. I thought the cour would end with the Squad Zero defeated, but no! It's a cliffhanger for the bad guys, and I really didn't expect that. Anyway, Ichibei survives Juhabach's flaming assault, and we get to see Ichibei's own universal effect on the Soul Society before. The black colour from people's clothes and hair in the Soul Society start rising up to the heavens, and later on from Juhabach's own person. 

And then Ichibei slashes again with Ichimonji, giving us another great nightmare face and a gigantic ink-splash line that extends across the sky. Juhabach (or 'the one that used to be Juhabach') is now painted entirely black, and Ichibei decides to give Juhabach a brand-new name. We get yet another badass nightmare face from Ichibei. He announces this ability to be "Shinuchi Shirafude Ichimonji" as white ink starts steaming away from the tip of his brush. Ichibei notes that this is his evolved Zanpakuto, the equivalent to the modern-day Bankai except Ichibei is so ancient that Shinuchi Shirafude Ichimonji evolved before the term 'Bankai' was coined.

We get a badass painting of kuro-ari, or 'Black Ant', as Ichibei assigns that new name towards Juhabach. And with the kanji stamped onto Juhabach's body, he struggles to speak as Ichibei boasts about the sheer difference in power between them, before he rants about how he's about to be crushed to death and pay for all the Shinigami he's killed. And as Ichibei stomps, a gigantic spectral foot zooms down from the heavens, stomping down Anthabach through the bridge, plummeting down as Ichibei pantomimes slapping a bug, and two more giant hands manifest and slams down on Anthabach.

And then 'Endroll' plays right after Ichibei jumps in front of the seal. 

But there's like six minutes left, and 'Endroll' takes like two minutes, so we've got four minutes of post-credits scene, right? Bleach: TYBW does that a lot, especially in the first season, right? Are going to see a bit of more of the fight from chapter 609, with Juhabach finishing his 'I had no idea' line and revealing The Almighty? PSYCH, NOPE! SHINIGAMI ZUKANNNN! Shinigami fucking Zukan. Fucking Kon. I can't even be mad, that's a stupidly well-done cockblock. Good job, anime team. 

And... yeah. The cour two ending is amazing. Again, the Squad Zero versus the Schutzstaffel is the highlight of the episode, particularly the individual fights and the showcase of Senjumaru's Bankai. As I keep repeating like a goddamn broken record, I only expected a slightly expanded scene showing just how the Schutzstaffel beat the Squad Zero. Some showcase of the Quincies' abilities, and to fix the powerscaling logic of the Schutzstaffel winning without going into their strongest forms. Maybe we can learn what Kinpika can do, and what the ladies of Squad Zero's Zanpakutos are. But we got so much more than that, and we even get a fun showcase of the Shinigami of Squad Zero being so powerful that their Bankai activation would tremble across all realms... something that even has basis in canon material, with Ichibei's Ichimonji (and Yamamoto's Zanka no Tachi) already shown to have far-reaching effects. As the characters point out, this fits the prestige and the buildup for Squad Zero a lot better... and I didn't expect any of these. 

It's a great, great feeling. I was so giddy watching Senjumaru show off all of her abilities. This feels like all the way back in 2014 or something when I was reading the manga equivalent of this cour weekly. And the excitement of seeing Rose reveal his Bankai, or Kenpachi reveal his Shikai, or Rukia's Bankai, or Renji's new Bankai... it's that level of excitement of seeing a character I've known for a while finally show off the insanity of what they can do. This really fills me with so much excitement for cour three, because I really want to see what other expanded fights and exposition we're going to get for the next part of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War. Amazing, amazing stuff. 

Random Notes:

• So the Kon post-credits scene adapts a couple of comedic scenes that are cut from the anime, namely Kon running around in his buff form in the background of Mayuri's lab when he's talking to Ichigo after the first invasion (they still left out the Zanpakuto explanation) and a comedic scene between Renji and Rukia as they flashback to Senjumaru's palace and her threats to castrate poor Renji. Not... not exactly the highlights of comedy in TYBW, I'm sorry. 
• As of this episode, this leaves Kirio Hikifune as the only Squad Zero member whose Zanpakuto name is still unknown. 
• I forgot to mention it when reviewing episode 25, but Pernida never activates his Vollstandig in the manga. We get to see Jilliel, Hasshein and Aschetonig in the manga when the Schutzstaffel fight against their final opponents, but this makes Pernida's unnamed Vollstandig (it's probably 'Hand of God', isn't it?)
• Speaking of Pernida, while the other Sternritters are either dodging or ripping apart the wooden tendrils, Pernida just... kind of lets himself be grabbed and moved around, as if he's just accepting his fate. 
  
• On one hand, it makes total sense that Lille Barro's X-Axis was always there, otherwise how could he have climbed up to the ranks of the Schutzstaffel over guys like Bazz-B and As Nodt? But on the other hand, 'I don't have time to use it earlier' seems like such a weird comeback. I guess Lille, Gerald and Pernida were literally all one-shot within seconds of Nimaiya's entrance. And that Lille was shooting real reishi bullets when he fought Nimaiya in episode 25? Despite having X-Axis powers? Lille's not very smart, or just super-proud, I guess.
  
• A small moment cut from chapter 604, right after Lille blows holes in Nimaiya, is Pernida blowing up the wood-Womb by mumbling and rippling apart under his cloak; since in the anime it's the sheer force of the Auswahlen that blew it apart; and Juhabach exited the cage much earlier in the anime's version of things. 
• While it's all pronounced 'Juha', the official subtitles properly write out Nimaiya's nickname as Y.H., the way it's framed even in the original Japanese manga. 
• "With your thousand arms, killing six people should be easy!" What a fun one-liner from Kirio to Senjumaru. 
• Actually, picking Senjumaru as the one to deliver the supposed killing blow makes sense. The way the capabilities of the Squad Zero members were shown, Kirio has always shown to be more supportive in creating cages or separating the Quincies. Tenjiro, despite his thuggish appearance, does more good doing support with his hot springs. Nimaiya and Senjumaru are the two that constantly rack up a high body-count (or, well, win-count) but I think Nimaiya recognizes that he got damaged a bit too many times by Lille and Askin; while Senjumaru is more or less still fresh. 
• A 'hank' is a coil of cloth, if you're wondering. 
• Yeah, Mask De Masculine apparently is just talking bullshit, because this is definitely a Zanpakuto that's manipulating multiple elements all at once!
• The scene where some random salamander and deer in the Soul Society get their black siphoned away from them is cut, though it's replaced with the far more effective shot of the Shinigami and Quincy corpses getting the black drained away from them.
• Is that why Shinigami uniforms are black? To facilitate Ichibei's power? We do know that Senjumaru, another member of Squad Zero, designed those clothing...
• Is this a slightly-less harmful mirror to Juhabach's Auswahlen, only that Ichibei just steals the colour from their clothing instead of ripping away their souls with flesh-searing pillars of light?
• 
  Cut from the Juhabach/Ichibei scene is Juhabach acknowledging the fact that he's being praised by the effective leader of the Shinigami. Considering his utter disdain about anything the Shinigami is all about, this cut line makes sense.
• Also cut is Juhabach's unnamed spell (right before Ichibei's monologue about allowing Juha to save face) where he draws a magic circle on the ground, and a bunch of light pillars rise up and charge towards Ichibei, and he claps to destroy the energy projectiles. 
• I am very disappointed that the title chapter of 608, 'Blacker than Black' in kanji, made by the splattering of Ichibei's Ichimonji release, isn't the actual title of this episode. I'm normally indifferent to Bleach's giant title pages, but this one not only looks cool, it's also canonically accurate to how Ichibei uses his ink to draw kanji anyway. 
  
• Unlike the manga, which nonsensically shows black being stolen from Urahara's hat (which is always depicted to be green-and-white, even in the manga), the anime alters the black from coming from Urahara's shirt instead. 
• Reviewing episodes 25-26 really ended up causing me to basically reread the entirety of the second half of the Thousand-Year Blood War, from the chapter that Juhabach arrives on the Royal Palace all the way to the individual fights between the Schutzstaffel and their final opponents, just to see the extent of what Deathdealing, Compulsory, X-Axis and Miracle can do.