Bleach TYBW E27 Review: Almighty Recap

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 27: A

It has almost been a year since 'cour 2' of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War ended, huh? And we're back,

And in a decision that's perhaps not the best look for the returning anime, we've got the decision to spend the first 9 minutes with a recap. It's... it's honestly rather vexing for an anime that's promised to be more modern and be less full of fillers... especially with the amount that's cut from the anime adaptation. I wouldn't mind a shorter episode or an 'season three, episode zero' recap, but taking 9 minutes before we catch up to the end of the previous episode is not a good look. It's like... I like the revelation of Senjumaru and Ichibe's powers; I didn't need to rewatch it again.

Anyway, a little more than nine minutes in, and on the first commercial bumper, we finally catch up to Ichibei slapping 'Black Ant' Juhabach as he falls down from the Soul King palace. The entire episode essentially adapts the last couple of attacks of this Juhabach/Ichibei fight, and ends with Juhabach stabbing the Soul King... as far as source material stuff goes, anyway, since it did add a fair bit on the Uryu and Senjumaru front. And once the episode starts to get going, it's pretty neat!

Juhabach finally activates his extra pupils, and turns a defeated line ("I can't imagine...") into a badass boast ("...I can see this much with my eyes closed!") .As he says this, seemingly in response to Juhabach's activation of the Almighty, the six Qiuncy Elite Guard members break out of Senjumaru's cloth folds. The 'black ant' kanji on Juhabach begins to burn and flicker away, really confusing Ichibei since he's supposed to be all-powerful with all his naming abilities and stuff. 

As he does so, as he dodges Ichibei's giant brush-blade, Jugram Hsachwalth gives a monologue, repeating the Quincies' Kaisergesang, telling the audience that throughout all this time, Juhabach has been fighting with 'his eyes closed', since he needs to follow the timing of the prophecy. And now, he's able to dodge everything Ichibei throws at him, and even bypass those powers, due to the schrift of the god-emperor of the Quincies... "A', the Almighty .

In the realm of Senjumaru's Bankai, another "A" begins to flicker. Markings that look like Blut continue to crackle and sparkle in Ishida Uryu's glasses and wrists, and he pulls out his Quincy bow against Senjumaru. Senjumaru notes that Uryu seems to have gained power in response to Juhabach. She then continues to be sadistic, offering to 'sew shut Uryu's eyes', before Uryu launches a volley of light arrows at Senjumaru. It isn't quite as creepy as her original 'rattle, rattle' appearance in the Bankai realm, but Senjumaru starts walking through her looms and clothing like a moving picture, moving from loom to loom, which does look really cool! Uryu then zips around the realm, chased by the tendril-like cloths. 

Uryu blasts those away with a storm of Licht Regen, but Senjumaru continues to use her different cloths to summon different effects. One of the cloth-rolls turns into some kind of lava, though Uryu shows off some more Blut Vene to neutralize the magma. Senjumaru continues to move from being a physical person to images on her cloth reams, mocking the 'legacy of one forsaken by the Soul King', before delivering a cold line about how Quincies have outlived their time, and after tossing some of the effects she used against Haschwalth (fire) and Gerald (ice), she summons a new roll of cloth with a bunch of holes, and sics a horde of Hollows on Uryu.

This isn't the first time a Soul Society scientist shows off a swarm of captured Hollows for research purposes! It's also really nice to see the fancy acrobatics Uryu is doing to swing around the room, shooting Hollows (which seem to be made up of Senjumaru's threads) before he is ultimately overpowered and strung up with these clothing lines. The seeming victor, Senjumaru notes that she's not Mayuri and laments the fact that Uryu didn't just know his place and just stay in the land of the living. She's about to stab Uryu in the back of his neck with Shiragami, when Uryu states that he 'has a reason for fighting', and starts to glow really brightly. 

Cutting back and forth to a parallel fight also makes the Ichibe/Juhabach scene flow better too, actually! I remembered in the manga how Ichibe just feels like an arrogant twit that just lobs one attack after another after Juhabach showed off how strong he is, and for a character we know very little about, it's diminishing returns, y'know? There's only so much that Ichibe can yell about Juhabach being 'arrogant' or 'weak' or that he's got the power of 'black' and 'names' until it just becomes repetitive. Breaking up Ichibeis monologues and power showcases a bit is a lot better. 

Most importantly, the Futen Taisatsuryō sequence is just so much cooler here. It's the same thing as the manga, where Ichibe reads a poem... but it's an actual poem, like a Japanese opera or a rakugo performance, with the background and character turning into complete black and white, while eerie music plays in the background and Ichibe just sings and does brief little dances before the terrain explodes and Futen Taisatsuryō, the death-mausoleum of broken reincarnation, shows up. 

Unfortunately, just like the manga, this turns into a 'no you' conversation as Juhabach says the exact same thing that Ichibe says. His pupils turn into three as he reiterates that 'all that I know is powerless against me'. And restates his name as JUHABACH, the one that will rob Ichibe of everything. And then Juhabach reaches his hand forwards and explodes Ichibe in an almost-as-graphic-as-the-manga sequence. 

Simultaneously as Juhabach claims victory over the commander of Squad Zero, something is happening to Ishida Uryu. Two gigantic energy wings appear on his back, and... this is basically his Qiuncy Vollstandig, isn't it? Thanks to the rushed nature of the manga, Uryu never has a Vollstandig form and barely even has a fight in the arc that was supposed to be all about Quincies, so seeing this sequence play out was certainly a massive delight for me. 

Uryu also turns the tables on Senjumaru, as she realizes mid-mockery that she's actually trapped within the cloth bindings of the Bankai, where Uryu was supposed to be. This confirms that Uryu has used the Antithesis, his Sternritter Schrift that he only ever uses once in the manga. 

Uryu then says something that he said in his first major fight against a Shinigami -- Mayuri -- in the manga. "I am Ishida Uryu. On my honour as a Qiuncy, I will kill you." He lets loose an arrow, and it pierces Senjumaru's chest, drilling a hole through her which drips in blood. 

And as Senjumaru falls, other characters react to this, while the Bankai realm slowly fades away. So does Uryu's Vollstandig, and... I really like this. Combined with the last two episodes, this really fixes the problem of 'Squad Zero died offscreen, while also giving Uryu an actually cool scene, a proper fight scene, and even a moment where the audience goes 'oh shit, so he's evil now' instead of the laughable 'yeah, sure he joined the enemy' betrayal that he did in the manga. Now I'm not sure how the confrontation is going to be, but Ichigo versus Uryu would have actual stakes now that it's slightly more conceivable that Uryu is evil.

And with the Qiuncies victorious, Juhabach mocks Ichibe, blows up the giant ink seal, while the magical candle-seals that corresponded to Squad Zero peters off with the deaths of Ichibe and Senjumaru. Uryu and the rest of Juhabach's Royal Guard bow down as Juhabach walks up towards the Soul King's Palace, and it's a rather drawn-out sequence as Juhabach disassembles the random reishi pillars around them and turns them into footholds all the way to reach the Soul King. Juhabach monologues about the crusade he's been doing for a thousand years while we get the flashes to the representation of his backstory given to us earlier in the anime. Again, the framing and dialogue did a rather good job at framing the Quincies as villain protagonist who see their cause as justifiable. Great music, too. 

Roll credits, and we then cut to three scenes. Team Ichigo arrives, and they find the corpses. Thanks to Ichigo calling Ichibe's name, he's able to reform with ink, though he hasn't really regained his power. Always found this to be a bit anticlimactic, though at least he makes it clear that he's not going to fight. Ichibe lays on the stakes and tells Ichigo to stop Juhabach. 

We cut briefly to Kyoraku in the dark basement, walking up to the imprisoned Aizen, which is a scene that's supposed to happen a bt later in the manga... I guess they really wanted the fans excited for Aizen, huh. 

And finally, the final scene of the episode is Juhabach stabbing the Soul King and dropping the random bombshell that the Soul King is Juhabach's father. And... in addition to the Uryu stuff, this has been another point of contention from me. I hope this also gets some expansion in this anime. 

Overall? Pretty great opening, once we get past the recap. I've gushed enough about the addition of the Uryu scene, but I also really like that it actually enhances the Juhabach/Ichibe fight a fair bit. This cour is presumably going to cover a lot of the Elite Guard fight, and I wonder just how much beyond that is going to be expanded. 

Random Notes:

• There is technically a brief scene of Ichigo and company discussing a bit about the Zero Squad and Senjumaru's Bankai activation while on the delivery pillar. This is an original scene to the anime, and actually is a nice little touch of giving some context (both in-universe and out-of-universe) about how important it is when a Squad Zero member activates her Bankai. I kind of wished that this would be the way that the recap is done, but oh well. 
  
• I like the new opening a fair bit. The music's great, though I do miss the zaniness of the second cour's opening with the civilian outfits and gangster boss Juhabach.
• I almost want to say that this might be Uryu activating his Sternritter "A" powers for the first time, but he did utilize the Antithesis in cour 2 with the medal. in a very blink-it-and-miss-it moment. 
• When Senjumaru pierces Uryu's neck, a shot of dropping blood set against a background of white can be seen. Either Senjumaru actually did stab Uryu, or this is a flashback to the drops of blood that Uryu drank from Juhabach. 
• I really love the show of Ichibe holding a whirling semisphere of black that turns into the sake bowl. 
• Futen Taisatsuryō steals 100 nights from the future of Soul Society and, if Juhabach isn't so overpowered, would've burned him away so entirely that he's out of the cycle of reincarnation. 
• I really do hope that if we get a Juhabach flashback, we do focus a bit more on his identity, and whether that identity is actually a huge theme in his life. I have a feeling that it might be, and it would make him reafirming his identity to Ichibe the naming monk a lot more powerful. 
• The ending really teases the Uryu/Ichigo fight. Please, let that happen. 
• As the episode closes, the 'A' in 'BLEACH' glows red, and the other letters fade to black before the 'A'. That's cute.