Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Bleach TYBW E39 Review: tobiume vs. the mirAcle!

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 39: The Visible Answer


And so we begin the two-parter finale for the third cour of the Thousand-Year Blood War anime. This episode combines a lot of the scattered scenes of the other two Schutzstaffel members that hasn't been covered in the two-parter episodes, which are Sternritter "M" Gerard Valkyrie and "D" Askin Nakk Le Vaar. We've gotten a fair chunk of Askin content here and there throughout the previous episodes, and while I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't actually get to see Askin beat Ichigo on-screen, it is nice that the anime at least gives us a reason how Askin takes Ichigo out. Meanwhile, keeping all of the Gerard scenes out of the way helps to streamline all of the previous major fights, removing the random distractions while also making the entire Gerard sequence flow a lot better here. 

But we start off with another interestingly ominous scene of the 12th Division scientists in the Soul Society, watching as the twitching maybe-corpse of Captain Ukitake begin to twitch with the Mimihagi shadows. The resulting scene is a bit ambiguous on what's exactly happening, with the shadow tendrils seemingly curling around and making a tree-shape? I'm really not sure what's going on here, or if it'll lead to a more elaborate Ukitake death scene or something, but it's nice that it seems like we're going to have something more out of Ukitake's sacrifice.

The scene then cuts to Ishida Uryu standing in front of a Gate of the Sun before Jugram Haschwalth, fresh off of his fight against Bazz-B, shows up. The action flows a lot better here since Haschwalth ins't MIA for 20 chapters in-between 'Friend' and 'Visible Answer' this time around! Haschwalth puts up a bit of a cocky look here as they recap the power-swap thing, and Haschwalth shows off his Almighty triple-pupils. I do wonder if the slight change in Haschwalth's demeanour has something to do with Juhabach's powers seeping into him? Uryu asks Haschwalth if he sees him becoming a traitor, while Haschwalth muses that he hasn't said anything about treachery and asks if Uryu is confessing his true agenda before the supreme power of the Almighty... wihch Uryu immediately denies.

I really do wish we did get maybe one or two extra scenes of Haschwalth (or other Sternritters -- Lille, Bazz, someone) confronting Uryu about his loyalties to the Sternritter. Obviously with scenes of Uryu actually participating in seeming deathmatches against his friends, this scene of Uryu's allegiance has a lot more weight in the anime as compared to the manga. Haschwalth draws his blade and continues to glare at Uryu... and his eyes briefly flash blue. I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to represent, but the Uryu/Haschwalth fight is one of the fights that needs a big rewrite and I hope we get to see something more interesting here since that was one of the fights that got very chopped up in the manga. 

We cut away to setting up the Gerard Valkyrie fight, another sequence that was also famously chopped up a lot in the source material. Just like the 'gateway' sequence earlier this cour, the anime has wisely gathered all of the various short scenes of Shinji's group encountering Gerard Valkyrie and merged them together in this episode. 

And what a fun entrance! We get the big group charging in towards the castle, only for Gerard Valkyrie to slam down and crash in front of our heroes like a meteor. Urahara and Shinji both have some smart-aleck comments to make about this, but Gerard is a big, hammy showman and gives a whole boasting speech. Unexpectedly for the anime, we get an adaptation of a scene from the manga where Abarai Renji uses Zabimaru to restrain one of Gerard's arms. This is a scene lifted from the manga, but since Renji got a brand-new fight that left him in an incapacitated state in the anime, I was wondering if this scene was going to instead be given to one of the others.

And... we get a flashback to how Renji survived the Uryu shot to the heart, which is... a bit of a weak explanation, I feel. Hiyori and the other Visored are apparently just wandering around that area. They comment about how clean the wound is, which allows Hachigen to create a Kido box and heal Renji. It's... it's honestly a bit too simple. Hopefully a future episode would add in some of the obligatory-but-necessary 'I knew it wasn't a killshot' moment from either Uryu or Renji. Crucially, though, this does mean that the Visoreds actually do something in this adaptation, where they were very famously forgotten in the manga. 

This also nicely adds a little bit of a reason why Renji sticks to his Shikai for a majority of the sequences we see him fight Gerard -- recovering from such a brutal fight with Uryu, it makes sense if he has to recharge and recover a bit. 

Renji tells the other Shinigami that he's going to handle Gerard, and Shinji is about to lead the group away... but Gerard knocks Zabimaru away, and in one of the most ridiculous but funniest sequences in the manga, Gerard jumps in front of Shinji's group... and his cape expands and hardens and slams down on the ground like a wall. It's such a random ability that has nothing to do with Qiuncy powers or The Miracle, but there you go -- Gerard's sentient wall-transforming cape. That exists!

The other surviving Schutzstaffel, Askin, we've seen confronting Grimmjow and later Ichigo, and... well, Ichigo still gets beaten offscreen, face-planted onto the ground. It's still a bit annoying that this happens, but I really did think that the addition of Askin muttering about changing the type of dosage of his reishi poison a couple of episodes ago was a really good way to make this a lot more believable.  Askin also drops some lore about the Elite Guard, reiterating that Lille Barro was the first Sternritter to receive a Schrift... but Pernida and Gerard were not. They had their powers even before becoming Sternritter, and were assigned honorary Schrifts that matched their powers instead of the other way around. Askin then notes that there are rumours that Pernida and Gerard are respectively the Right Arm and Heart of the Soul King. 

Orihime and Chad arrive to assist Ichigo, and Chad tries his Brazo Derecha de Gigante attack... only for Askin to quickly create a field of 'Gift Bad'. Unlike how the rest of Askin's powers have been shown in the anime (which are glowing purple reishi effects) Gift Bad takes the form of an area that kind of looks like an oil spill or something. This essentially takes Chad and Orihime out of the fight as well, while Askin finally explains what "The Deathdealing" does. He can select any kind of substance he wants to turn toxic to someone else, and he needs to ingest a large amount of whatever he designates -- such as reishi (which is natural to Quincies) or blood (as in the Nimaiya fight). It's one of the relatively more complex and weirder powers in Bleach, and while we did breeze through Askin's first power exposition during the Nimaiya fight, I'm glad this longer explanation is retained. 

As Askin gloats, we get a legendary line from Yoruichi, who is hanging upside-down from a chunk of rubble behind Askin, identifying him as "one of those guys who likes to talk a lot of nonsense". Lady, that's like 90% of the Bleach cast! Yoruichi makes a morbid comment about how since Ichigo, Chad and Orihime are incapacitated, Askin could just walk up and, y'know, snap their necks. Askin notes that he had this conversation with Bambietta before, musing about what is it about beautiful women asking him to do such 'distasteful' things. 

Askin then does an amazingly-animated spin-kick while Yoruichi does a very elaborate spin-around in the air, and... the animation for this episode ratchets up a lot. Both Askin and especially Yoruichi are animated very fluidly and beautifully, and while this has been something common with the Thousand-Year Blood War anime in general, it's especially noticeable with the Yoruichi scenes in this episode... especially when you compare it with the Yoruichi-Askin scenes from the next one. 

Anyway, Askin tells us a bit of his philosophy -- his way of killing people is utilizing his lethal dosage Deathdealing gimmick to kill them, and he's not about all that brutish strangling thing. He then talks about how while people like Yoruichi and Bambietta are beautiful, the most important thing is style. Yoruichi responds with a badass Shunko transformation as we do a very highly-detailed spin-around of her while her outer clothes burn away, revealing her skintight bodysuit beneath. 

We get a very cool sequence as Askin launches several arrows at Yoruichi, who speed-blitzes forwards and does a spinning sequence as she evades one arrow, grabs the other arrow mid-air, and chucks it at Askin. The repurposed arrow slams Askin with so much force that he gets throw through a building and into another one. Askin is tough enough to be unharmed, but Yoruichi unleashes her next ability, which is probably one of the single coolest interpretation of one of the manga's attacks to make it into animation. 

They did not need to go this hard for this one attack, but it was so awesome how we just follow Yoruichi's hand as she taps and creates six floating orbs of electricity in a ring around her, with appropriate 'bang' sound effects and flashing screens. The camera pans out as Yoruichi announces the name of the attack -- Shunko: Raijin Senkei -- as the reishi and electricity explode around her. Yoruichi then brings the mother of all thunderbolts down upon Askin, vaporizing every building other than a small, vertical strip that Yoruichi herself is standing on. That is so cool. 

As this happens, we cut back to the Gerard Valkyrie fight, where he isn't faring particularly well. Gerard points out just how many adversaries he is facing, and rants about how it would take a miracle for him to defeat all of them. He gives a little speech about how miracles are only miracles if the odds are truly stacked against someone... and Byakuya recognizes this as an anime villain about to pull off some dastardly trick and just unleashes Senbonzakura down and shreds Gerard. The anime still cuts away from the actual impact, but the state of the helmet implies that Byakuya most likely blendered Gerard's head into a paste. We get an interesting moment where Momo asks if Byakuya should've taken things that far... but Shinji admonishes Momo, and, well, considering the amount of shit the Quincies has done, and how Gerard was actually talking some shit that implies he's got a trump card, Byakuya did the absolute right thing.

...except, unfortunately for Captain Kuchiki, he didn't. Against any other enemy in Bleach, this "kill them before they finish their monologue and unleash their trump card technique" would have been so useful! It would be a rare moment of genre savviness for our heroes. But alas, Team Shinji just pushes forwards, leaving Gerard's body in a pool of blood. 

We briefly cut away to see the human world in Karakura Town where an earthquake shakes the Kurosaki clinic, causing Yuzu to panic while Karin is blasé about it. The tremors continue, though, and in Digimon Adventure style we even see rifts in the sky and the Soul Society appearing in the skies above Japan. The same tremors also shake Hueco Mundo. We cut back to see the silent forms of Juhabach and Kamikake!Ukitake, and while we don't really get a full explanation, I think the implication is that Juhabach hasn't been enacting his plan due to resistance from Ukitake and Mimihagi, and the tremors are caused by Juhabach finally winning and getting ever so closer to what he wants to do with the Soul King's power. 

As the tremors subside, Yoruichi tells Orihime (who's been healing Ichigo and Chad) to keep going while she deals with Askin. As Ichigo and company goes off, Askin returns with a huge chunk of his uniform torn off, and laments about how Juhabach is going to tell him off for letting Ichigo through. Askin then gets the name of Yoruichi's technique wrong... causing a very offended little bratty voice to protest that it is called Raijin Senkei, and it's an honourable technique, and his sister is the best, and... yeah, welcome to no one's favourite Bleach character, Shihoin Yushiro. 

The anime, thankfully, dials down Yushiro's obnoxious scenes a fair amount here, keeping the funniest joke and purging the rest. Yushiro was such a random last-minute addition to the cast and such an utterly irrelevant character who adds nothing to the story other than being beaten up by Askin here. With so many other characters who are struggling for screentime, back then a lot of people are wondering why Yushiro's role in this fight wasn't taken up by Soi Fon, or Shinji, or Chad, or anyone else.

Anyway, we get the funny scene where Yushiro has absolutely no concept of sarcasm at all. Yoruichi isn't particularly pleased at her snotty little brother being here and is quite sarcastic about it but everything goes over the moronic Yushiro's head and he just misinterprets everything as praise. Askin accidentally calls Yushiro a 'young woman', prompting Yushiro to angrily declare that he's a dude, then charges in and delivers the mother of all sucker punches to Askin's face. Yushiro then follows this up with an actually very well-animated barrage of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure style punches while Askin yells and tells Yushiro to slow down while he clutches his face. Yushiro culminates his attack with Shunko: Baku'en Muso, creating a gigantic explosion of flame. 

We cut away to Team Shinji, and a giant shadow looms over them... and the gigantic form of Gerard Valkyrie arrives, slamming down and forcing Rukia and Urahara to dodge the gigantic foot. The gigantic Gerard declares his Schrift, "The Miracle", and explains its abilities -- he can convert damage done to him into 'God Size', and this is apparently the largest he has became with the power of his Schrift. Gerard rips off random spires and starts launching them at the Shinigami. 

In a sequence lifted straight from the manga, Shinji grabs Momo before she's thrown off Wahrwelt, but giant Gerard rushes in and slams down his palm on the two of them. In the manga... this was it for poor, poor Hirako Shinji. Multiple aborted fights with different Sternritter, a whole lot of dialogue, and ignomiously taken out not even with a proper named technique.

In the anime, however, Hirako Shinji, Captain of the Fifth Division, isn't going down without a fight! He and Momo burst out of the smoke, and we get a pretty fun sequence as Momo uses a combination of Tobiume's flames and a Bakudo spell to create a giant reishi trampoline. The Bakudo spell is Tsuriboshi, which Momo used in the Fake Karakura Town fight. Momo releases Tobiume and this allows the reishi trampoline to launch both her and Shinji into the sky -- because the choreographers remember that the Shinigami can't freely fly in Wahrwelt! 

Once in the sky, Shinji unleashes Hado #91: Senju Koten Taiho, without an incantation, creating a storm of machine-gun flames that pepper Gerard's face. This was the Hado spell that Ukitake used against Aizen in that battle, which is awesome. And as Gerard reels back in pain, motherfucking Momo unleashes a gigantic fireball from Tobiume into Gerard's mouth which explodes and it really looks quite painful! This is the true miracle, that Hinamori Momo got such a badass sequence given to her in this anime. What a nice addition! Again, I don't want a rewrite where Shinji randomly uses his Bankai to beat Gerard or whatever, since that isn't true to the spirit of the source material. But actually showing them do stuff and not just take up space is really cool! I don't doubt most of the secondary cast will still be taken out by Gerard, but just like the other extended fights, showing that they at least put up a fight instead of being taken out like bitches is so much better.

Gerard does swat Shinji and Momo onto the side of a building after that sequence, though they're not quite out yet. Byakuya attacks with Senbonzakura but it just pings off of Gerard, and... poor, poor Soi Fon pulls out her Bankai, Jakuho Raikoben... but doesn't even get to fire it as Gerard smashes the building that the two of them are standing on. Poor Soi Fon! She didn't even get to use her Bankai against the shadow-blob monsters either. Could've at least let her fire the damn thing! Gerard then does the giant breathing attack that he does in the manga to blow away Rukia and Renji as well, boasting that not even a miracle can save them. 

We cut back to the Askin/Yoruichi fight. Yoruichi berates Yushiro for butting into her fight, although she also praises Yushiro for being able to master Shunko so quickly. Askin, however, emerges from the dust and rubble, still alive. The dark wounds on Askin's body begins to flake off as he tells them that he can control the lethal dose of anything he intakes, and in this case, Yushiro merely nearly kills him. And now, Askin is immune to this particular flavour of Reiatsu. Yushiro is as confused as most Bleach readers at this proclamation, however, and charges in with Shunko again. 

Yushiro's Shunko, however, doesn't even move Askin, and we get a very badass sequence as Yushiro is just impaled by three arrows that fall from the sky while Askin calmly walks past him. If nothing else, at least Yushiro got an appropriately painful-looking exit! Askin drops his 'lethal mistake' one-liner as we cut away from them. 

The final scene in the episode is a continuation of the Haschwalth and Uryu scene. Haschwalth notes something about scales and balance, and tells Uryu to prove that he isn't a traitor... and attacks Uryu, blowing him through a wall... and right in front of Ichigo, Chad and Orihime. Uryu and Ichigo glare at each other as the credits roll. And the post-credits scene is Isshin and Ryuken in a massive graveyard, discussing that it's about time to go. 

So, yeah. I am really happy with the changes made here. While we get a rather all right first half of a fight with Askin Nakk Le Vaar, both the battles against Haschwalth and Gerard were always messily handled, being chopped up and inserted in-between other confrontations. The anime also has clearly a much better track record to at least keep track of the secondary characters and hopefully give them better exits in battle. But in general, this is just a really fun episode to watch!

Random Notes:
  •  I really do like that the 'excuse' for Gerard being absent throughout the past five episode is just him being lost and yelling after picking a corner where the Shinigami wasn't attacking from. In the manga, this 'being lost' only delays him for a little and a lot of the fight sequences we see here are seen piecemeal throughout the Pernida and Lille fights, but the restructuring here is really nice; keeping Askin as the only 'piecemeal' fight and collating all the Gerard sequences here. 
  • Removed from this episode and the next is everything about the Reishi-diffusing chips that Uryu has scattered all around Wahrwelt, which means that Uryu either has a different plan, or something.
  • A removed line from Askin is him noting that Gerard should use his Schift because Lille Barro has fallen, which always felt a bit weird since Gerard's Miracle isn't really tied to anything Lille does. Some of the lines are altered a bit as well, in response to them rearranging the scenes of Gerard going giant, as well as Yushiro arriving a bit later than he did in the manga. 
  • Ironically, despite the title of this episode, nothing from the chapter titled "The Visible Answer" is adapted into this episode, with content from that chapter being adapted into the next episode instead. 
  • I really do find it a bit of a shame that we don't get a bit more of an extended fight for Grimmjow and Askin in particular. While there's still time for more in the second part of the Askin fight, I've always found it to be ridiculously anticlimactic -- even among Bleach's other many underutilized characters -- that we've been building Grimmjow's return for literal years and he barely had a confrontation with Askin before disappearing into the background. 
  • Since Askin needs to ingest something to turn it toxic against someone else, theoretically if anyone else fighting him drank cafe au lait before the fight, they would be royally fucked against Askin.
    • I also find it funny that despite Askin bitching about how he is 'full' during the Ichigo fight and he needs some time for his stomach to process more substances, he's been going around having picnics and drinking cafe au laits throughout the arc. 
  • It's a bit of a throwaway line, but I really like the idea that some of the more 'human' Sternritter like Bambietta and Askin just kind of hang around and gossip, talking shit about each other's methods. 
  • I always love it that Askin has like these... gym wristbands or something that spin around and holds his bow in a compressed form. It just feels so... weird. I can't describe it, but it really does add to the charm of the character.
  • Sorry, Sternritter "T" Candice Catnipp, your thunderbolts ain't got nothing against Yoruichi's Raijin Senkei. 
  • Back in the day, people wondered if another member of the Shihoin clan appearing is going to tie in to the ancient clans that dismembered and sealed the Soul King. While nothing of the sort was ever explored in the manga, maybe these ancient Seireitei clans might get some relevance in the anime's final cour? 
  • Wait, whatever happened to Ganju?
  • But seriously, in the manga there was no reason for Juhabach to... essentially do nothing after absorbing both the Soul King and Mimihagi. There was no reason for him to sit while his Schutzstaffel run around and do battle, other than maybe he wants to take a nap. Even if it's not outright stated, having Ukitake still be alive and Mimihagi still writhing and doing stuff makes it a lot more palatable. 
  • We get a brief cameo of Nanao looking over Kyoraku from where the two of them dealt with Lille when the shaking is going on. That's whatever. When Gerard goes giant, however, we have a random shot of Hanataro and Matsumoto looking from a distance... which is interesting! In the manga, Hitsugaya joins in the Gerard fight (which presumably is happening), but Matsumoto and Hanataro just disappear. While Hanataro not being accounted for kind of peeved me during the Pernida fight, I am curious to see what they're going to do with them. Matsumoto at least should do something, right? 
    • The ominous zoom-in to Matsumoto's face is quite curious, since in the Can't Fear Your Own World manga, we get a revelation that the mysterious orbs that Aizen extracted from Matsumoto when she was young -- something never actually brought up in the manga -- are revealed to be other fragments of the Soul King. Is Matsumoto reacting to giant Gerard because we're going to tie this in finally? 

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