Bleach TYBW E28 Review: bAckstory

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 28: Kill the King

Oh yeah. This cour is really changing a lot of the source material by expanding it a whole ton. That was why this episode (and the next couple) took a bit for me to review, since I reread this chunk of the manga that this cour adapted. And, to be frank, from here on out, with the exception of one or two fights is where Bleach basically self-destructs. Juhabach's plan is nonsensical and too oblique to care about, while alleged main characters Ichigo and Uryu do jack-shit and are kept out of the climax until it's way too late and the story rushes to its abrupt end.

But not here, no. We start off with another flashback, this one showing us the apparent dismemberment of the Soul King from Juhabach's POV. It's al a bit confusing and still non-voiced, and I do wonder if we'll ever get a proper showing and monologue of the Soul King backstory... or if these fragmented flashbacks are the compromise between keeping the ominous feel from the source material while still giving us some context that we could piece together if we rewatched the whole thing (or read the manga, so these scenes feel less random). 

We see the Soul King doing some ritual with a sword in an ethereal lake, before Juhabach gets submerged into the water, gets younger and younger, and gets turned into a baby which leads to the creepy cult-baby imagery we've seen in the previous season. We see more flashes of the Soul King being cut apart and then chained up in his crystal chrysalis-prison-throne, a young Juhabach crying at the sight... and then a bizarre sequence of the Soul King being wrapped around by Ichigo's skin as Juhabach looks over. 

Again, I do wish we get some proper explanation at the end, but there are enough clues to put into more context why Juhabach wants to kill the Soul King and thus 'free' him from his humiliation.

We cut away to see some of the Shinigami and surviving Sternritter reacting to all the shaking, with Mayuri theorizing about the 'wedges of the three worlds' being disrupted... but we also see some of the scenes in the real world. Isshin reacting is nice, but what's more important is Ryuken, who is holding some diamond-like fragments in his hand while looking at a picture of his dead wife. This isn't explained, but if you're familiar with the source material, this is the Still Silver he extracted from his dead wife's chest, and the very thing he used to create the Plot Device Deus Ex Machina Arrow that Icihgo and Uryu use to seal the Almighty in the final battle. Actually giving us some foreshadowing... still won't make that arrow scene better, but hopefully this builds something up for something extended with Ryuken in the anime.

The opening credits roll, and Ichigo and his four companions arrive, with Juhabach giving a 'I've seen it all' monologue. Ichigo's allies note how off Juhabach seems, and then Ichigo pulls out his two Zanpakuto -- his brand new Shikai that he spent a whole season reforging. In the source material... none of what is going to take the majority of this episode actually happens. Ichigo and company arrives while the manga keeps cutting away to the Shinigami assembling on Urahara's location, and when Ichigo arrives, Juhabach monologues a bit, they see the Soul King stabbed, and Ichigo immediately jumps to pull it out. It's all done for shock value, which there is merit in that for sure, but boy it really made Ichigo not do anything after his training other than battle Candice. Here, even though the end result is the same, having Ichigo battle a non-Almighty Juhabach beforehand actually makes him feel way much less of a dunce, while also maintaining Juhabach's threat level. 

We get a badass speedy clash between Juhabach creating some blue Reishi flames an Ichigo charging in, and then there's a cool little spin-around shot mid-air as Ichigo and Juhabach flies towards each other and Ichigo unleashes Getsuga Tensho. Notably, at around this point, Juhabach's eyes return back to their one-pupil stage which is a nice way to not shake up the power balance of the story, but is also a nice "by the way, I am not left-handed" moment.

A nice sequence is that Ichigo then charges and slams Juhabach down onto the Squad Zero realms, making landfall in Tenjiro's hot springs. It's a nice usage of these areas which aren't relevant for the rest of the story anymore, while also makes he fight not just be a static sequence of them charging and clashing in the sky. 

Juhabach blocks the sword strike with Blut Vene, then unleashes a ring-like spell called Sankt Bogen, which creates a pretty impressive explosion. We get a badass shot of the smoke clearing away while the shrouded Ichigo crackles with lighting. Ichigo apparently used the little Getsuga to block it, and, again, I do like that the animators picked certain stuff that both Ichigo and Juhabach have been shown to be able to do previously to script this fight, and they're not just pulling shit out of thin air.

The two then charge each other all Dragon Ball Z style, with Ichigo surrounding himself in yellow aura to match Juhabach's blue, and they just shoot through the air and slam towards each other again and again, before clashing swords. Juhabach mocks Ichigo for daring to even take it easy towards him, and summons his anime-excusive spell Qualkreis, creating a bunch of spectral arrows around Ichigo that fire, which Ichigo blocks with his twin swords. Ichigo unleashes a Getsuga Jujisho, which Juhabach blocks with Sankt Zwinger. The massive Jujisho creates a gigantic cross that dwarfs the Soul King's Palace, and we rotoscope around it for a while, which is quite cool. Juhabach gets sent slamming down to someone's temple, and Ichigo acts all victorious while backlit by the Jujisho cross, which is, I'm not going to lie, pretty damn cool even if I know what's going to happen next. 

Juhabach, while lying on the ground, commends Ichigo for his training with Squad Zero and walking through Irazusando. Juhabach then says that he's finally going to get started, activating Almighty and his creepy triple-pupils as he creates a gigantic pillar of Reishi and summons another Qualkreis. This time Ichigo is forced to Getsuga Tensho to survive the barrage, bursts out of the smoke to attack Juhabach... and then Juhabach does the "I've seen it" trick he uses against Ichibe and seemingly teleports behind Ichigo during their little clash. Juhabach then grabs Ichigo in the face, both of them glowing with Blut, and he mocks Ichigo for daring to fight him despite knowing the difference in their strength. 

In a very cool scene that's a pretty neat callback to the old-school inner realm sequences of Old Man Zangetsu and Ichigo, Juhabach blasts Ichigo to the bottom of the Soul King's palace, before he lands upside-down and talks to Ichigo. They have an exchange that's taken from something actually much later in the manga, where Juhabach tells Ichigo that he's going to feel more and more hopeless the more they clash, while Ichigo does his "I will protect everything" declaration. Juhabach then beats Ichigo again, punching him up to where Yoruichi and the others were left behind. 

We briefly see a couple more scenes of the Shinigami on the Soul Society, with some comedic moments here and there -- like Renji having no sense of direction, or Soi Fon noting that there would be more survivors since a fool like Omaeda survived. We get a brief scene of Ukitake helping the medical team heal those that are injured in the previous cour like Kenpachi, and we have a short scene of Nanao asking Urahara about why, if the Quincies are doing this because of a grudge match against the Shinigami, did they leave so many Shinigami survivors and go to the Soul King Palace directly.

But Juhabach monologues to Ichigo, talking about the world of darkness that came before, and how that world of darkness was driven away by the Soul King. But despite these heroics, the Soul King was used like a tool to keep the realms stable. Juhabach notes that with those magic eyes, the Soul King can see the future... including the misfortune of the Quincies. So why did the Soul King Adonaeus let the tragedies happen? Especially since they were almost wiped out twice because they 'didn't fit into the world's rules'? It's a nice little bit that gives a fair bit more depth to Juhabach's plan and feelings towards the Soul King, and giving the Soul King a name is pretty cool! 

Again, while it is obviously hypocritical for Mr. "I'll Kill My Own Sternritter If They Are Of No Use To Me", Juhabach, in principle, has an actual motivation for his whole recreate-the-world agenda. It's something that was sorely lacking, and presumably would've been revealed later if Bleach wasn't rushed to its conclusion. 

At this point, Ichigo faces off against Juhabach again, crossing his swords after trading some more 'protect the world' barbs against Juhabach. In a very nice touch, Orihime zips in and uses Santenkesshun to heal Ichigo's wounds from the extended fight, while Ichigo readies a massive Getsuga Tensho. While this happens, Ichibe, sitting legs folded where we left him, apologizes to the humans for sending them to a fight they can't possibly win. Ichigo and Juhabach clash, leading to a fade to black .

We cut back down to the people below, where Rukia notes that while he initial shaking seems to be from Squad Zero using Bankai, the shaking still hasn't stopped -- which of course is a reference to Juhabach already stabbing the Soul King while all of this is happening. Rukia and Renji arrive at the research lab.

Back to Ichigo and Juhabach, and we take another conversation repurposed from elsewhere in the manga (after the Mimihagi sequence, in fact), where Juhabach mocks Ichigo and why keeps doing it, to which Ichigo replies that others might be able to do it, but he can't just ignore it and walk away. Juhabach prepares to monologue about the Soul King being a sacrifice again, but Yoruichi zips in with her death-strings attack, which happened after the Soul King's death in the source material. 

Juhabach burns off the strings, and the flames from the strings fall onto the curtains covering the Soul King's body, revealing the fact that Juhabach has already stabbed the Soul King last episode, and the sword is still embedded within. Ichigo zips in with a very cool super-speed sequence and tries to drag the blade out of the Soul King. His crystal have also turned all red, which is interesting. This is dragged out a bit, but ultimately just like the manga, Ichigo's Blut takes over his right arm and forces him to slice the Soul King's crystal prison completely in half while Juhabach monologues about how the Quincy blood within Ichigo will absolutely deny the existence of the Soul King.

The destruction of the Soul King is drawn out a bit, while everyone looks on in horror, and Juhabach gives his whole "my will is your will" speech... but also adds a bit of a caveat, in that to completely destroy the Soul King's seal, Juhabach needed someone with all the qualities of Quincy, Human, Shinigami, Fullbringer and Hollow powers. 

This line wasn't in the source material, but it was implied to be the case in the Can't Fear Your Own World novels, and most certainly explains a couple of things. Firstly, why Juhabach took the time to dick around with Ichigo and spare him in both of the fights they had, and secondly, why he even bothered to enslave Hollows very early on in the arc instead of just exterminating them entirely, presumably in the case that Ichigo wasn't ready for this sequence. 

And then the Soul King seemingly explodes, radiating out an explosion of aura that goes through and rattles the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo and even the human world, giving us some nice pretty shots of the real world as well as a cameo from Ichigo's human friends. The Shinigami on the ground level react to this in panic, while Juhabach acts all ominously about how this is the end of the Soul Society.

Ultimately this is a very great expansion. Being the supposed main characters of the arc, both Ichigo and Juhabach are actually severely lacking in confrontation, screentime and even motivations. Giving them an extra fight and rearranging some scenes to make Team Ichigo's arrival and the Soul King's death a fair bit more dramatic and played out fixes one of the pacing problems I had with this part of the source material. But more importantly is giving some context to the weird things that Juhabach does beyond just some vague 'creepy eyes tell me the future' handwave. The motivation, as well as the reasoning around the Soul King's seal, are all pretty nice additions. Again, I don't know if we'll get much more about the prehistoric era of the Bleach universe, but even giving us these kinds of additions go a long way to making this ending feel a fair bit more cohesive. 

Random Notes:

• Adonaeus seems to be a combination of "Adonai", a Hebrew term for God, as well as "Deus", a Latin term for God.
• Among some of the scenes cut are a sequence of Juhabach killing the nameless, strange hooded attendants of the Soul King. Any previous scenes that these guys had, the anime moved to Ichibei, which I thought was always a nice way to condense things by trimming the fat of non-named characters. 
  
• Also cut is a scene of Soi Fon getting shocked and overwhelmed-with-cuteness at he presence of Shihoin Yushiro, because Yushiro is about as irrelevant as those nameless hooded attendants.
• Notably, out of the surviving Sternritters on the Seireitei, we see Bazz-B, Liltotto and Giselle (and zombie Bambi), all of whom go up to the Soul King's Palace in the source material. We have no confirmation about Candice and Meninas's fates (who just disappear in the manga, but would be retconned/revealed to be alive in Can't Fear Your Own World, or NaNaNa Najahkoop (who would have a short scene afterwards), or Robert (whose death scene closeup was adapted out of cour 2).
• It is admittedly thanks to deviations from the source material, but it is rather silly that Ichigo's backup really just stood around in the background while all of this is going on. Can't really blame Orihime, Chad and Ganju, but Yoruichi is a captain-level warrior famous for her speed. The anime moves her little string attack sequence to happen before Ichigo's defeat instead of after, so it's a bit better in that regard, but it is kinda embarrassing for them.
• In the source material, Ichigo only ever unleashes Getsuga Jujisho exactly once to beat Candice, which always felt pretty strange for the fact that Kubo finally gave Mr. One-Trick-Pony a new move. 
• While not a surprise, the anime having cut Shinji and Bazz-B's confrontation means that we also have Omaeda's comment about Shinji doing "something really cool" to save them offscreen (which always felt tongue-in-cheek) was cut out. Will Shinji get to do something this time around? Hopefully. 
• Also cut is another physical-abuse comedy between Soi Fon and Omaeda, though we get a verbal-abuse sequence as replacement. More significant is a huge chunk of exposition that Urahara does in 612 when describing their plan to storm Reiokyu, which is condensed and combined with anime-original dialogue of them reacting to the realms shuddering. 
• The novels would later give it an explanation, but in the manga, this was the final appearance of Ichibe, giving his cryptic 'sorry humans' line.  
• Yoruichi's unnamed strings attack is given a name in the anime: Tenshiheisho: Hissaki Kumoi, translating to Heavenly Gift Armaments: Shredding Spider's Web.
• The scene is tense and dramatic, yes, but presumably Juhabach had to go and put the curtains back in place after the first stabbing of the Soul King, just for the dramatic flair of what he knew was going to happen in the future. He's got a flair for the dramatic, that Juha.