Bleach TYBW E34 Review: tAlk to the hAnd

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 34: Baby, Hold Your Hand

So after the past couple of episodes having been extremely radical changes and restructurings to the plot of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, it seems almost quaint to note that the next five episodes are extremely faithful adaptations of five sequences in the manga -- two episodes for the Mayuri/Pernida fight, two episodes for the Kyoraku/Lille fight and one episode for the Haschwalth/Bazz-B fight. The only major change is the ordering, where 'Friend' is moved to the very end of the sequence while the Kyoraku and Mayuri fights alternate with each other and makes it seem like they're happening simultaneously instead of one after the other. Also, all scenes of Gerald Valkyrie facing off against the rest of the Shinigami are essentially moved to after everything that has happened, so we can assume Gerald is still just screaming into thin air.

And it's quite interesting because for the most part, episode 34 of the TYBW anime, 'Baby Hold Your Hand', is extremely faithful to the source material, making it both simultaneously easy for me to write this review but also... it's not the most interesting one to talk about. Which is an odd feeling, because I've always felt like Pernida-vs-Mayuri is the best fight out of the three Schutzstaffel fights that we get before Bleach rocketed to its abrupt conclusion a decade ago.

Anyway, we start off with a bit of a follow up to 'Gate of the Sun' last episode, where Uryu looms over the fallen Renji. We get a nice extra follow-up to that sequence, where it's revealed that Sternritter "X", Lille Barro, has been watching the whole interaction with his sniper rifle, which is a nice little follow-up to Uryu being distrusted by the rest of Juhabach's Sternritter.  

Almost the rest of the episode just adapts canon material, however, as we see Kenpachi and Mayuri's group run and come across the mysterious hooded figure, Sternritter "C", the Compulsory, Pernida Parnkgjas in their way. Throughout most of the initial battle, Pernida's almost entirely silent, and I absolutely love the banter between Kenpachi and Mayuri as they're technically allies but they really hate each other's guts. I'm not going to replicate all of the banter here, but it is quite hilarious as they just continue to throw snide remarks at each other. 

Perhaps a little goaded by Mayuri's remarks, Kenpachi charges in and unleashes a slash towards Pernida. Mayuri notices something at the last second and yells at Kenpachi to wait, causing Kenpachi to leap backwards. As he lands, Kenpachi notes that he's "merely" lost an arm, with his sword hand all mangled like most of Pernida's victims. However, Pernida's head is cut in half, and blood begins to geyser from the strange creature's hood.

Again, the mystery behind what Pernida is was stretched out for a long time in the original manga, but it flows quite well in the anime. Pernida contorts their hooded form, and expands tendrils from his hood and crushing the building walls. Kenpachi and Mayuri continue to banter, even as they're both bewildered by what the hell Pernida is. There's some fun snide remarks back and forth as Mayuri snipes at Kenpachi's that he's just 'talking to himself'. 

While all of this is going on, the vice-captains have a little tete-a-tete session. And... it is kind of a shame, honestly, that Ikkaku and Yumichika don't get to do anything in the entire Thousand-Year Blood War arc, despite them both having powered-up forms of some sort. But Ikkaku and Yumichika take note that Nemu has been surprisingly vocal in voicing her opinions. Even if Nemu is just agreeing with her other allies, it's a stark difference from the quiet obedient golem that she has been throughout her entire lifespan. 

Kenpachi's mangled arm begins to rotate and twist even more, and Kenpachi does an absolutely metal thing of just using his left arm to rip the wounded arm off at the shoulder and tossing it away. Oh, and he makes a point to retrieve Nozarashi from the discarded limb. I know this is Bleach, but the sheer badassery of Kenpachi doing it with the calmness and ease of someone who's just picking up a dropped phone from the ground. Kenpachi's arm, like many other things that are attacked by Pernida, gets balled up into a ball of viscera and gore. Even as he acknowledges that he doesn't know jack shit about the entity before them, Mayuri continues to verbally joust with Kenpachi throughout this whole encounter, leading to a hilarious scene of Kenpachi charging straight back in, yelling at Mayuri that he's just "talking to himself". 

I love Kenpachi, but I have to admit that his strategy is insanely dumb, because he just plans to cut Pernida in half before he can uses his powers... except he doesn't unleash his Shikai? You'd think that would be something he does here, which would at least make logical sense. Instead, Pernida's 'head' wraps around the blade of Nozarashi, and their Compulsory powers strike Kenpachi as his legs and other parts of his body beginning to twist and contort.

Then out of nowhere Mayuri stabs Kenpachi with Ashisogi Jizo's three-pronged blade! Kenpachi curses at Mayuri, but Mayuri just calmly notes that this is proving one of his hypothesis because Ashisogi Jizo is paralyzing Kenpachi's limbs. Mayuri stabs his thumb into the baby face on the hilt of Ashisogi Jizo to activate "Fear Factor Four". Why does he need to do that? Why doesn't he? Ashisogi Jizo unleashes a loud scream that paralyzes anything that hears it... which includes Kenpachi's whole body, stopping his neck from being contorted even further. We later get a brief final pot-shot as Kenpachi's eyes glare at Mayuri for this very undignified rescue, to which Mayuri just handwaves as him needing to improve the paralytic properties of Ashisogi Jizo. 

This is Kenpachi's contribution to the battle, which is unfortunately quite short, but we're basically beginning Mayuri's big battle in this arc. It has always felt a bit abrupt, but what are you going to do? Mayuri reveals that he has understood the powers of 'the Compulsory', which involves Pernida slipping nerves into their enemies to control their movements and twist limbs and stuff. Mayuri also ties this into how Quincies can control stuff with Reishi, which... I'm not sure is a comparable analogy, but there you go.

Pernida attacks Mayuri with their nerves, and Mayuri does the hilariously logical thing to do against a nerve monster... he takes out a vial of acid and just splashes it in front of him, burning the very exposed nerves and causing Pernida to screech in high-pitched pain. As Pernida howls, Mayuri gloats about all the dissection that he is going to do... and waxes lyrical about the 'touching sacrifice' of a Gotei 13 Captain in the name of discovery, much to Ikkaku and Yumichika's frustration. 

And Pernida finally explodes the hood, revealing itself to be...

A GIANT FUCKING HAND! With an eyeball with two eyelids, and, initially, a bunch of chains around the fingers.

Mayuri is as flabbergasted as the audience, noting that this isn't what he was expecting. None of us did, Mayuri. Mayuri is quick to realize that Pernida is the Left Arm of the Soul King, and Pernida assumes its full form, extending a full arm to loom over Mayuri and transforms into a giant form. Pernida, by the way, is done in CGI as most people expected. I will be the first to say that it doesn't look as good as Dangai Joue or Kaka Jumanokushi Daisojin, mostly because Pernida is meant to be a giant organic being that's supposed to move naturally. It's not as bad as people made it out to be, though, particularly in motion. 

Mayuri gives a bit of an exposition on the Left Arm of the Soul King (which is mostly repetition of what we've heard in the Ukitake episode) and we get a nicely improved scene as Mayuri pulls out a collapsible umbrella with a face to block the nerves. As the nerves hit the umbrella, it screams and dies... which is a lot more black-comedic in the anime. Mayuri does this a couple of times too to block Pernida's nerve attacks as he calmly converses with Ikkaku and Yumichika about the Soul King, which is darkly comedic.

Mayuri then addresses Pernida, saying that as a scientist, he is extremely happy now because he's found an object that he has never met before, and is exceeding every single one of his expectations. Pernida is a bit nonplussed, and he begins to speak to Mayuri in a slightly deeper voice. Pernida begins to tear apart the ground around them with nerves that spread everywhere, forcing Mayuri to leap around. Mayuri keeps addressing Pernida as the 'Left Arm', to which Pernida asserts -- in caveman speech -- that their name is Pernida Parnkgjas, a Quincy. Mayuri delivers an extremely petty response to that, noting that being the 'discoverer' of Pernida, Mayuri has the right to name it. He then admits that he's willing to make a special exception since Pernida itself is making the request... but Mayuri will decide the spelling regardless. Mayuri's dialogue throughout all of this fight is just hilarious.

Pernida is just confused about the big words coming out of Mayuri's mouth, but rightly assumes that it's an insult. Pernida unleashes his nerves to the ground and creates giant stone hands to crush Mayuri, who is actually a bit surprised that Pernida can extend his nerves into inorganic matter. And I think the brief shots of Mayuri being surprised -- since unlike his other fights, he hasn't had the chance to observe Pernida's full abilities -- is really important on the theme of Mayuri's character development throughout the Pernida battle. 

Mayuri pulls out a throwback from all the way back in the Soul Society arc, extending his own arms into multi-segmented tentacles and starts doing a Spider-Man sequence, moving across buildings while Pernida rampages and uses their nerves to blow up everything. This is, I think, the main part of the Wahrwelt arc where the 'Shinigami can't fly!' comes into play. Pernida's nerves snake up the sides of buildings and Mayuri keeps trying his best to jump off of buildings, but eventually he's cornered and two giant stone hands slam and squash Mayuri like a bug...

...seemingly. Mayuri detonates his glowing sunflower outfit before the nerve-infected stone hands slam down on him, and he rockets away. Mayuri falls down to the ground as the nerves also swarm around the ground below him... and Mayuri presses a button on his shoes, creating floating discs of reishi under his boots. Mayuri notes that he has been studying Quincies for years, and this is the Quincy technique of Hirenkyaku -- and also briefly notes that it might have a different original name since Hirenkyaku is what the Ishida clan called it. 

We never learn what the original (and presumably German) name of Hirenkyaku is, by the way, in either the manga or anime, so I wonder why this line is kept in. I also kind of wished we had a bit more tie-in to the fact that Kurotsuchi Mayuri is an insane Quincy-dissecting psychopath, which would've been interesting to bring up in this fight against a non-human Quincy. It's a bit of a missed opportunity.

Mayuri continues being cocky, tossing out a snake-like explosive... which of course is also alive and is groaning in pain as it wraps around Pernida's pinky finger and detonates, severing Pernida's finger as they scream in pain. Mayuri walks up and confidently douses it in preservatives to keep the sample after the battle... and Mayuri gets caught off-guard as an eye appears on the severed finger, stabbing Mayuri's right arm with nerves.

Mayuri's own pinky finger snaps and breaks, and he uses his good hand and some stitches to rapidly operate on himself. He crows about how he's just able to reconfigure the arrangements of nerves, muscles and blood vessels to neutralize the infiltrating Compulsory abilities, but it's also quite clear from Mayuri's expressions that the unflappable, always-prepared scientist was actually caught off-guard. He's nowhere in control as he was in the fight against Szayelaporro or Uryu. 

Pernida even mocks Mayuri a bit for panicking, before causing the severed finger to morph into a full hand. This second Pernida-clone charges towards Mayuri like a goddamn Wallmaster from Zelda. Mayuri tosses another suicide-bomb worm dude to slow the second Pernida. Meanwhile, the main Pernida body snaps off its middle finger to create a third Pernida. That, uh... that is sure a very interesting-looking visual for sure. 

Another fun dark comedy moment is Pernida screeching about the blood from the stump dripping into his eye. That's the consequences of your actions, Pernida! Mayuri goes into a speech about how fun it is to experience both in succession as the three Pernidas rear up, and Mayuri unleashes his Bankai. Ikkaku and Yumichika panic at the possibility of Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo coming out and flooding the area with poison, and they evacuate Kenpachi... but Mayuri's Bankai is a bit different! It's Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo: Matai Fukuin Shotai, the latest in the Gotei 13's upgraded Bankai. The anime has a very cool sequence of a large purple embryo-like mass emerging from the tip of Ashisogi Jizo before exploding into a giant purple reclining baby. 

Mayuri notes that this new modified version of his Bankai has the abliity to give birth to new Ashisogi Jizos based on the data he sends it. Which feels like a distillation of Mayuri's surveillance-and-countermeasure combat tactics. The original form of Matai Fukuin Shotai roars and its stomach splits open to give birth to another Ashisogi Jizo that looks a bit more familiar to the Bankai form we're more used to. Yellow skin, black eyes, multiple caterpillar-like hands.

Yep, it's a baby giving birth. God damn it, Mayuri. 

The new Ashisogi Jizo begins screaming in pain, and Mayuri dismisses it as having nerves on the outside of its body, which causes it intense pain... but Mayuri, of course, doesn't give a shit. Hell, he might've just done it just because. Pernida fires nerves at this new Ashisogi Jizo, but the nerves just pierce... and the outermost layer peels off. This new Anti-Pernida Ashisogi Jizo has 70 thousand layers of nerves, and Pernida can only tear apart a single layer at any time. We get a sequence as Ashisogi Jizo roars and charges towards Pernida, giving us the surreal imagery of a giant golden demon baby swallowing several sentient arms with eyeballs whole, one at a time. 

The episode ends with Mayuri's seeming victory as he does a mad scientist cackle while Ashisogi Jizo finishes devouring the final Pernida... and we get an ominous shot of Nemu watching from the side.

And it's, again, a pretty faithful adaptation of half of the Pernida fight, which doesn't really leave much for me to discuss since most of my commentary is going to be in the second half of this fight. In the manga, the fights just go on uninterrupted, but the anime makes the decision of splitting it up into alternating episodes with Mayuri and Kyoraku, which makes it a bit less repetitive and makes it look like other characters aren't just running around like dorks while a single long fight is going on. I can get why they did it. But, well, any episode where Mayuri is hamming things up is always entertaining if nothing else, even if I was slightly disappointed that we didn't add too much to this one. 

Random Notes:

• Lille watching Uryu through his sniper rifle seems to be the anime's take on a couple of panels removed from the anime; which is Lille glaring at Uryu suspiciously in the scenes after he caused Ichigo to fall from the Soul King's Palace.
• We also get a brief anime-original scene of Bazz-B, Liltotto and Giselle discussing their next move on a rooftop. Giselle is just airheadedly noting how cute Juhabach and Haschwalth would be as zombies, but Liltotto points out Bazz-B's rivalry with Haschwalth, and tells him to go and do whatever he needs to do, setting up the 'Friend' chapters. 
  
• Hanataro just... disappears from the group. This is also something that happens in the manga equivalent of this scene, although the tankobon omakes show a little doodle of Hanataro being knocked out when Mayuri first releases Ashisogi Jizo's shikai form. It's nothing super major, but considering the anime's been great at keeping character continuity, it's a bit of a shame that we didn't get a shot of Hanataro getting knocked out here. 
• There's actually a kinda cute expression on hooded!Pernida's two eyes when it screeches in pain after Mayuri pours acid on his nerves.
• Kenpachi does show up later on, but I remembered that it was super lame that it seemed like the manga brought back Kenpachi just to become the sacrificial lion to Pernida... and he didn't even show off his Shikai again. 
• "You're not fit to call anything creepy." -- Zaraki Kenpachi on Kurotsuchi Mayuri.
• One thing I don't like is that the anime never uses a consistent colour for Pernida's nerve attacks. It was red when Pernida is cloaked, but at some point it becomes white after the CGI model enters the scene. 
• There is a nice little speculation moment from Ikkaku and Yumichika on whether the Soul King is a giant when they hear Pernida being identified as the Left Arm of the Soul King. Mayuri brushes it off as "how the fuck would I know, I've never met the Soul King", but it does raise a question on whether this will be followed up upon in the new anime!
• I like that Mayuri briefly ponders what organs that a giant hand with an eyeball on its palm is using to speak. 
• Whatever happened to Nemu's own 'glowing' outfit with the cute top-hat? It just disappears both in the anime and the manga!
• It is kind of interesting that in the previous cour, we've got an anime-exclusive flashback of Ichibei utilizing what would become Pernida to fight a younger Juhabach. I had thought that it would become a flashback in the "Baby Hold Your Hand" two-parter, but the fight has been pretty faithful to the source material. While at the time of writing this the cour 3 finale hasn't been released, I really would like to know what the heck that is all about!