Bleach TYBW E30 Review: treAchery

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 30: The Betrayer

And here we go. This review took a long time to write because, frankly, it's something that I've kind of been anticipating the TYBW anime added, but never believed would happen. The adaptation of Bleach's final arc has been relatively consistent and faithful to the source material... up until the Squad Zero battles. And this string of chapters was the beginning of Bleach's whimper of a finale. There were some great fights interspaced between them -- individual fights like Mayuri vs Pernida, Haschwalth vs Bazz-B and Kyoraku vs Lille were always a glimmer of hope within the messy final set of chapters that made up Bleach's finale... but with the anime expanding upon the Squad Zero fight and the Ichigo/Juhabach confrontation, one of the big question was how they were going to handle Ishida Uryu.

Uryu's arc in Bleach's final chapters was infamous for being clearly truncated. It's clear that author Tite Kubo was saving Uryu's chapters for one big flashback or confrontation at the end... which never materialized. The end result was that one of the theoretically main characters seemed to betray the good guys in a completely unconvincing way, glared at Ichigo a couple of times... and then just hung around the baddies before betraying them. Who could've seen that coming? Everyone. Everyone could. It was unsatisfying, and the only moment of 'true' betrayal was Uryu shooting an arrow or two at Ichigo maybe twice throughout the arc. And this chapter fixes that by changing the extremely flaccid source material confrontation -- which amounts to Uryu shooting the floor below Ichigo into a full-blown fight.

Again, just like the Squad Zero fight or the Ichigo/Juhabach confrontation; just like Ichigo's confrontation with Juhabach; just like Ukitake's flashback... the actual major events that happen didn't change. Squad Zero still falls. Juhabach still beats Ichigo. Ukitake still dies because of the ritual. And here, the final shot is Ichigo falling down from the Soul King's Palace thanks to something done by Uryu, and the Schutzstaffel welcome Uryu into their ranks. It's execution that really mattered, though. 

Anyway, on to the episode. The episode starts off with some reused scenes from the previous chapter, re-establishing Ukitake's sacrifice with Mimihagi. We get a bit more focus on Juhabach's reaction to Mimihagi. After a repeat of the scene where The Almighty doesn't work on Mimihagi, Juhabach walks forwards and the two godlike beings do a bit of a reiatsu shockwave thing back and forth. At one point, Juhabach inverts the colours all around him which reminds me of The World from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Juhabach wonders why the Soul King's will would be different with the Mimihagi, and... the anime team made the interesting decision to have the Mimihagi entity emote,  and I don't know about you, but it almost looks like it's actually mocking Juhabach in that scene. 

Meanwhile, a different 'arm' battle is going on near him (and I wonder if this parallel was intentional), as Ichigo charges his own Blut through his arm to purge out Juhabach's influence. That's pretty cool, again, and makes the whole sequence of Juhabach taking over Ichigo's Quincy heritage a lot more dramatic than just being one plot device moment which didn't get much of a follow-up. Having Ichigo actively resist and break through -- even after he has cut down ol' Soul King -- is pretty cool. 

We get the scene from the manga where Yoruichi sets up her holy talismans, the Sankotsu no Jufu, with the intention of solidifying Mimihagi as the new Soul King to stabilize the three worlds. This gives us another last-stand scene as Ichigo charges in to stop Juhabach as they try to stabilize the Soul King. And this is a lot better than the manga's version of events, where people aren't just standing around doing nothing. Ichigo prepares a Getsuga Tensho only to be blasted by a gigantic manifested arrow by Juhabach. 

Ichigo and Juhabach clash a bit, and we get a line from Juhabach where he mocks Ichigo for being unable to kill his mother's killer -- I don't actually think this is part of the manga's version of events! I know Ichigo finds this out in 'Everything But the Rain', but to have Juhabach mock Ichigo so is pretty nicely cinematic. And then... an arrow slams onto Yoruichi's back! And it's from Ishida Uryu, gasp! 

Yoruichi's fall causes the barrier to crack and explode, and the shock from this causes Ichigo to yell at Uryu before being blasted away again by Juhabach. We get a sequence where Yoruichi fights Juhabach with her destructive spheres, which... feels extremely mundane compared to the other stuff Yoruichi's pulled out. Especially when Yoruichi has to explain that the tools operate in a one-two method, with the second spheres being able to destroy whatever the first set hits. But then Sternritter "C", Pernida Parnkjas, appears behind Yoruichi and does theirstrange arm-twisting ability to snap Yoruichi's arm like a twig. Juhabach then finishes Yoruichi off, blasting her off the Soul Palace and sending her plummeting down. 

Ichigo confronts Uryu at this point, two friends clashing, while Juhabach rips off Mimihagi from the Soul King. Always found this scene to be quite abrupt in the manga, which really added to the feeling that Ukitake's sacrifice was a bit of a joke... but now, with the added struggle and the added context to Ukitake's final exit, it feels a bit less rushed. As he does this, the world begins to shake again, and we get the visual comedy gags of Chad holding Ganju by the collar while poor Pernida slides off the rubble.

Ichigo and Uryu have a terse confrontation -- the latest in a series of 'Ishida what are you doing' yelling contests between the two. Uryu, throughout this episode, keeps his poker face up, and basically acts super-duper threatening and keeps shooting arrows towards Ichigo. The whole point of these scenes is to sell to the audience -- and, in-universe, to the watching Sternritters -- that Ishida Uryu is fully in support of Juhabach's plan. Ichigo tries to out-logic Uryu and point out that all the realms will be destroyed if Juhabach's plan succeeds, but Uryu doesn't give a shit and notes that he is a Quincy and therefore he will do what a Quincy is supposed to do. 

And then... the two former friends face off against each other. 

While this happens, the rest of the Schutzstaffel fly in, with Gerard holding little Pernida under his arm. Good man! The four Schutzstaffel face off against the motley crew of Chad, Orihime and Ganju, which kind of plays in the background while all of this happens. I'll just briefly cover the events that happen in this side-battle, which... again, none of the three here should have any business fighting against any of the Sternritter, let alone the Schutzstaffel. Any one of the four could've wiped out the three goons without batting an eye. But the anime gives us a bit of a confrontation, which takes place in a couple of cutaways from the main event. I'm going to cover them here, for simplicity's sake.

Ganju uses one of his 'ultimate' attacks from the Soul Society arc, unleashing a storm of firecrackers to fill the air in front of the Schutzstaffel. Gerard's the only one who's entertaining the fight, which honestly makes sense in a narrative way since Gerard would be the only one to be able to 'go easy' on them. With their personalities, Lille and Pernida are heartless, and Askin only plays with his prey so long as it leads them to assassination. Gerard's sword slash is deflected by Orihime's Santen Kesshun, and a second slash is blocked by Chad's Brazo Izquierda del Diablo. Ganju then unleashes his trump card: Renkan Seppa Sen, the ability that he used to trap Yumichika in the Soul Society Arc.

The floor under the Schutzstaffel crumble into sand, and all four Sternritter plummet through the sand. Pernida says nothing, but you can just tell that they're really pissed off. This is the second time that the anime gave us an anime-exclusive fight that ends up with Pernida being sucked down by sand! And as Ganju is about to boast his great contribution... all four Sternritters just fly up with their partial Vollstandigs activated. "Did you forget we can fly?" Yes, yes, apparently Ganju did. 

My favourite silliest part of this scene is that the anime team thought that they needed to let Lille Barro -- the most serious of the Sternritters -- praise this little strategy. Take what you can, Ganju. Take what you can. 

We later get a shot of Gerard landing and swinging his sword, blowing away the three of them off of the platform. Chad uses his Brazo Derecho el Gigante to tank the blow, but the three of them fall the platform anyway. I think it's a nice little action scene that adds just enough to give us a short little confrontation between the supporting cast and the Schutzstaffel. 

There is also a short scene while all of this is going of Juhabach attempting to do the process of ripping Mimihagi off of the Soul King. Due to the necessity that this process needs a bit more time since we need time for the Ichigo/Uryu fight, Mimihagi actually fights back a bit with some crackles of electricity, and the people below note that Ukitake -- or at least whatever left of Ukitake -- is still fighting against Juhabach. That's a nice little touch. There is a nice little touch as Isane of the 4th division tries to help the suffering twitching body of Ukitake, but it's her sister, 13th division third-seat Kiyone, that stops Isane. It's such a small moment for two characters that are probably some of the least relevant supporting characters in this massive cast, but it's clear that whatever message that Jushiro Ukitake had imparted to Rukia and Kaien also hit the 13th Division's lower members. Kiyone is closer to Ukitake and is suffering more, but she understands. That's a nice little moment for Kiyone for sure.

But neither of those scenes are the main event here. The main event is Ichigo fighting against Uryu. And Uryu shows off a fair bit more control over his Quincy powers, manifesting some arrows without having to pull his bow. Lots of really dynamic spin-arounds in this initial clash! We get a pretty goofy but still cool shot of the two rivals shoulder-checking each other, before they do some quick slash-and-clash before Uryu unleashes his signature Licht Regen attack by clapping, bombardiering Ichigo down into a lower chamber. Again, in the manga, this would be where this fight ends. Uryu does some floor destruction, dropping Ichigo down to the realms below in the most anticlimactic way ever. Was that why they used it for the Ganju-vs-Schutzstaffel fight? A backhanded, self-aware acknowledgement at how much this sucked?

We get a fun bit of cat-and-mouse as Uryu rains down even more light arrows down at Ichigo as he jumps around trying to avoid them in the crumbling basement, and there is a very near miss... which Ichigo blocks by having Blut Vene run up on the left side of his neck. I think this is the very first time that Uryu realizes that Ichigo is part-Quincy (did the two even discuss this in the manga?), but there is no room for questions and communications between these two beyond shocked expressions.

We then get an action sequence where Ichigo unleashes a massive Getsuga Tensho and has Uryu briefly dead-to-rights. A sword pointed at Uryu's head, and Ichigo... obviously doesn't go for the kill shot, instead grabbing Uryu by the collar and demanding he stop fooling around. Uryu, meanwhile, tells Ichigo to also stop fooling around and actually fight properly for the kill. It's a pretty simple premise, repeated back and forth. Ichigo goes "you're my friend, stupid!" and Uryu goes "I am a Quincy." However, the context that the two are actually fighting in action scenes here instead of just yelling at each other from a distance is so much cooler. (Also, some very Tite Kubo shots as this scene happens with Ichigo charging in from the light behind him, but the actual conversation has Ichigo push Uryu into the shadows of the rubble)

Uryu then gives a declaration that the world does not need Shinigami... before activating his Quincy Vollstandig. Boom, church bells, giant Evangelion cross pillar. Ishida Uryu has a Vollstandig. Yes. This moment is absolutely surreal. 

We saw a primitive version of this in the Senjumaru fight, but we see the 'first tier' Vollstandig in its full glory. Uryu also activates Sklaverei immediately, and I really love that the anime has turned Sklaverei into a proper 'Bankai' equivalent for the Quincy. 

And for all of the hype... I do have to be honest and say that Uryu's Vollstandig... is... it's all right. I can't really say I find it super-cool or super-badass. But it's a pretty safe design, and I see Ishida as someone who prefers practicality and simplicity. He's got glowing wings, he's got some glowing boots and gauntlets. But it's absolutely a super form that he never got access to in the manga, and seeing Uryu show this off as his full power to match Ichigo, his alleged full conversion to the side of the Vandenreich. It's badass because of what it is and what it represents more than the visual form itself speaking to me. 

One minor complaint I do have with this episode is that Uryu isn't actually using Antithesis, or at least not as his main offensive ability. Instead, he controls a ton of flechette-looking arrowheads or something, which swirl around him like a swarm of controlled minions or Gundam Funnels. That in itself isn't a bad thing. It's a cool power, and it even is a nice extension of Qiuncy arrows. The one problem I have is that this is something that any Bleach fan would instantly associate with Kuchiki Byakuya's Senbonzakura, and I really wonder if they couldn't have thought of a cooler Quncy ability for Uryu. It's a minor complaint, since I really liked the fight that happened, but considering the other anime-exclusive Vollstandigs for Liltotto, Giselle and Meninas have incorporated their schrift powers, it does leave something to be desired.

Ichigo has to zip around to deal with the flying arrow-storms, which can also fire little reishi lasers. Rather importantly, we get a nice shot of Jugram Haschwalth, Sternritter "B", watching over this battle ominously. It's built up quite neatly in both the manga and anime that Haschwalth doesn't fully trust Uryu, and it's nice that this big, epic battle between the two of them is a way for Uryu to prove both his strength and loyalty to the Sternritters -- something that was promised by Juhabach in the manga but was never delivered. 

We get a cool sequence of Ichigo on the defensive as the rampage of holy arrows continues, blocking and smashing them. It's crisply animated, particularly during a scene where Ichigo's just flying through the air while the little feathers chase him like a horde of jet fighters. I do like how much Ichigo is overwhelmed by the arrows raining down from all directions until he is forced to Getsuga Tensho the side of the building just to escape. Ichigo just brute-forces his way with Getsugas to try and reach Uryu, and as the two's powers continue to clash, Ichigo yells at Uryu and calls his motivation as ridiculous. Ichigo asks Uryu if he's really going to kill his friends because of this. Uryu brings up his grandfather Ishida Soken, thinking that once, like his dead grandfather, he thought it was possible for Shinigami and Quincy to coexist... once.

As Uryu renews his attack, he talks about how he's read Soken's journal (which are the background scenes in the first cour) and realized how brutally the Shinigami slaughtered the Quincies... and it's always Quicy blood that is spilled. However, those who know where this is going in the manga would realize that the anime's not just ignoring what happens later, as Uryu says that he 'refuses to forgive the one that took everything from him'. This, of course, is actually Juhabach, whose Auswahlen killed Uryu's mother. And this makes that earlier line about Juhabach mocking Ichigo for not being able to stand against someone who killed his mom seem intentionally meant to parallel this double-meaning line from Uryu. 

Uryu then uses the floating arrows to create a circular cage of pentagons around Ichigo, and then he clenches his hand, causing the cage to implode. It reminds me of Senbonzakura's Gokei attack, which, again, a bit of a shame. Ichigo emerges unscathed, and the two begin to do the anime clash thing. Ichigo sets up Getsuga Jujisho, which is always welcome, while Uryu combines all of his little feathers into a giant five-pointed star called Sternenstaub ("Stardust" in German). He pulls back an invisible bow, and launches the giant five-pointed star like an arrow. It's a Dragon Ball Z esque clash as the Getsuga Jujisho slam onto the Sternenstaub... and the Jujisho wins. Which makes sense from a power-scaling perspective, since Ichigo was able to stand up against Juhabach before, and he's pulling his punches here.

Which is demonstrated pretty well as Uryu just floats in place calmly while the Jujisho blast rockets past him to the distance. A nice visual showcase that Ichigo, despite unleashing one of his most powerful attacks (sans his new 'true' Bankai, which we don't get to see in the source material), doesn't even aim properly because he doesn't want to kill Uryu. 

And as Ichigo continues to talk, making it clear that he's going to try and save Uryu and their friendship... Uryu pulls back his bow and fires one single arrow towards Ichigo. The colours actually dim and fade to gray, as Ichigo realizes what's happening, tries to charge in... and Uryu lets loose the arrow. 

The arrow cuts through the screen, and the camera pans out to a long shot of the two friends staring each other. Ichigo struggles out 'Ishida'... before dropping out of the sky. We pan to see a gigantic hole punched to the side of his chest. 

As this happens. Gerard flies down and laughs heartily, making the proclamation that he accepts Uryu as a member of the Sternritter Elite Guard, something that has a lot more weight now that they've all witnessed Uryu doing what's almost a kill-shot on Ichigo while rebuffing all of his attempts at reconciliation... a lot more dramatic than missing Ichigo and destroying the floor! I'm sorry, that scene in the manga is one of the lower points of the manga's version Vandenreich arc, and I'm just so happy it's fixed here. 

As Ichigo falls down to the ground, the credits roll, with a bit of a remix in terms of the order of the scenes. After the credits, Juhabach finally overwhelms and rips apart Mimihagi, declaring that while they both came from the Soul King, Mimihagi is far inferior compared to Juhabach in his full power. Again, nice to see that there's some struggle here even if ultimately Juhabach dismantles Mimihagi quickly. In the source material, it's not exactly clear what Juhabach is doing here and what we learn would later be told via inferences, but with Mimihagi gone, we get a brand-new scene of Juhabach and the assembled six elite Quincies around him. They do a ritual of summoning  a bunch of reishi swords, and Juhabach combines all of them into a massive sword that he uses to shatter the crystal containing the Soul King. 

The shattered body of the Soul King then hovers up (something that's a bit surreal). And then the body of the Soul King unravels like string as Juhabach absorbs the godly being. with the visual imagery that's not dissimilar from Sklaverei... and a massive tornado of energy forms and dissipates, giving Juhabach his final appearance of being clad in shadows and covered in eyeballs.

Again... so much of this episode is brand-new. There are a couple of lines and scenes lifted from the manga in the beginning and a couple in the end, but this is a much needed emotional climax for our main characters. Whether it's Ichigo or Uryu, I felt like this is probably the best thing that the TYBW anime has given us. It's been teased a couple of times in openings and in the previous cour, but actually giving us a satisfying narrative end, taking us through an alternate version of the story if Tite Kubo wasn't rushing through it and was allowed to give his characters and his story the big emotional impact and narrative progression that they deserved.

Random Notes:

• 
  Alternate blog title for this episode: ishidA vs. kurosAki.
• There are some rumours that Pernida may or may not be related to the unnamed lady Sternritter in the anime-exclusive flashback. But until that's confirmed, I'm going to use "they" for Pernida, which seems appropriate for a sentient hand-person. 
  
• A lot of Pernida's limb-mangling, I feel, would've been heavily censored in the old version of the anime. 
• One unfortunate aspect of this expanded fight scene between Juhabach and Team Ichigo is that... even though Ganju, Chad and Orihime got stuff to do in the previous sequence of events, this time around they end up feeling like they're just standing around until the Schutzstaffel arrive. Not that they can do much against Juhabach, but still...
• There's also a short, anime-original scene that happens in the middle of the Ichigo/Uryu fight of Urahara and Hiyosu discussing the destabilization of the realms, and Ukitake/Mimihagi being the thing that is holding stability together. It's not much, but it does help to move some exposition pieces that was skipped over in the Ukitake episode to this one.
• The anime staff hid the Soul King's name, Adyneus, in Soken's journal all the way in cour 1, but no one realized what it meant until we flash back to that scene in this episode. Well played!
• Yeah, changing Ichigo's Getsuga blasts from purple-black to orange really helps in making the clash of Ichigo and Uryu's attacks really flow much better, huh? The contrast -- particularly one shot as Ichigo Getsugas a bunch of Uryu's feathers and bathes the area in orange light -- is pretty great.  
• Pernida just levitates a sword -- presumably with invisible nerves. More interestingly, his 'eyes' can whirl and take the form of a Quincy pentacle. 
• The ending, "Monochrome", has a lot of visual imagery of two sides of the same coin with Ichigo and Uryu facing off against each other. It works amazingly well coming off of this battle, and they do a bit of changes to Monochrome's ordering of scenes to fit the tone of this episode a bit better! 
• The chapters have been rearranged a lot, but one line that's exorcised completely is a line where Juhabach says that Ichigo's entire life has been for his benefit (which functionally is replaced with the less hammy explanation in episode 28 about Ichigo's nature of a fused being), as well as obviously the floor shattering from Uryu's arrows that causes Ichigo to fall from the Soul Palace.
• In the manga's version of events, Yoruichi's string attack on Juhabach happens here after Mimihagi has wrapped around the Soul King. 
• I think we've gone on deep enough into the arc that I do think that the anime team is avoiding saying the term 'Schutzstaffel' outright. Probably because out of all the Vandenreich terminology, it's the one that's actually drawn from a Nazi term. 
• I know I'm almost a month late for these Bleach reviews. But they do take a bit more time for me to write, since I need the time to sit down and look at the differences. And I do really care about this series, which is why it's taking time for me to produce.