Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 44: The Perfect Crimson
We start with a nice little cold open original to the anime, with the 12th Division staff panicking as the border between worlds start to collapse. We also interestingly see a bit more of Ukitake/Mimihagi twitching in place. In the manga Ukitake is forgotten essentially after his brief sacrifice, but I like the idea of his big dramatic moment mattering a fair bit more after his initial death scene.
We then cut to a nice, artistic scene of a crow in the real world and looking up, seeing the Seireitei appear interposed with the night sky, Digimon Adventures style. Again, through these short scenes we're really hammering home what Juhabach's main plan is and how he's going to destroy the three worlds.
Following up from last episode's post-credits scene, we continue with Gerard fighting Kenpachi, Hitsugaya and Byakuya. Gerard continues to spout about how his power makes people's hopes and dreams into a miraculous reality. Gerard and Kenpachi go and yell big boasts at each other, which I thought was fun -- as is Hitsugaya's unimpressed reaction. Some really cool shots as Kenpachi runs up Gerard's sword and leaps up the giant, while Hitsugaya flies around the massive cape.
There's a bit where Kenpachi knocks Hitsugaya down, before going back on his 1v1. Hitsugaya and Byakuya reflect that this isn't an opponent Kenpachi can beat alone, especially since he has even instinctively removed his eyepatch. We get a couple more nice shots of Gerard wailing on Kenpachi, while Byakuya and Hitsugaya take little potshots at him. Kenpachi gets speared with the tip of Gerard's sword Hoffnung, leaving him a bloody mess on the ground.
And Kenpachi explodes in a gigantic pillar of reiatsu, his skin transforming red and sprouting oni horns as he enters his unnamed Bankai form. Gerard boasts and tries to smash Kenpachi with his fist... only in one of the sickest moves in this fight for Bankai Kenpachi to scream, stand his ground, bite Gerard's giant fist and rip it off so hard that Gerard's arm gets torn off at the bicep. What the fuck! This is so ridiculous, I love it.
Gerard regenerates the arm in a glowing light form, but Kenpachi just wails on Gerard. The fight is fast, snappy and adapts a couple of chapters from the manga in the span of less than five minutes -- but this works very well to showcase Kenpachi's madcap rampage. He slices and splits Gerard's shield and forehead, before slamming onto his chin and knocking him off of the Wahrwelt. Gerard the sprouts his glowing red angel/valkyrie wings to fly back up. Gerard continues to rant about how powerful he is supposed to be... but Kenpachi just jumps up and splits him in half. Boom!
We get an anime-original scene of Momo walking up to the (honestly not really that wounded) Shinji Hirako. I guess Shinji understands that he's not a main character? He tells Momo to assist the fallen Renji and Rukia, to heal them for their battle ahead. This is not in the manga, and both Rukia and Renji just kind of go MIA after the initial Gerard Valkyrie chaos. It is really kind of a shame -- I really did feel that even if the rest of the Visored were disposed quickly, Shinji deserved better. Oh well.
Gerard's two halves rise up and merge together, and the anime showcases a little detail that was in maybe two panels in the manga -- Gerard's core is a Quincy cross that gathers blood around it... which forms a beating heart, before merging Gerard's halves back together. Gerard also activates his Vollstandig, becoming even bigger and gaining a funky helmet. This is 'Ashtonig', God's Warrior.
In Ashtonig form, Gerard fires a couple of massive beams which Kenpachi parries mid-air, which looks extremely cool. In a nice new scene, Hitsugaya goes around using his ice to rescue some of the other characters, like the out-of-commission Kyoraku and Nanao. A lot of emphasis is placed on the petals of Hitsugaya's Bankai shattering one by one.
Kenpachi's Bankai is also not doing so well, as after the quick rampage, mid-leap his arm snaps off. In the spiritual world, Yachiru apologizes to Kenpachi for releasing too much of his power, and that his body couldn't handle it. That's the end of Kenpachi's Bankai, but it's Hitsugaya Toshiro's turn to enter a powered-up form. As all the petals shatter, Hitsugaya's Daiguren Hyorinmaru becomes complete and he becomes an adult form. Back in the day, it was a bit of a cute point of 'awww, you didn't plan this Kubo' with this -- but it is true that it was always other characters that assumed that Hitsugaya's shattering petals were a timer for his Bankai.
Gerard is baffled about Hitsugaya's Bankai, but tosses his shield like Captain America. There's a cool, fast scene as Hitsugaya freezes the shield, and even shatters Hoffnung. Hitsugaya's ice is apparently so cold that it prevents Hoffnung from functioning, which is... sure, why not.
Gerard then does this cool sequence of clapping his hands and summoning a massive multi-spoked Quincy Bow... but Hitsugaya freezes Gerard solid with 'Shikai Hyoketsu'. It is kind of funny that apparently Daiguren Hyorinmaru's 'ability-freeze' only applies to Hoffnung and not to Gerard himself, who ends up breaking free immediately, attempting to crush Hitsugaya. However, Kenpachi (out of Bankai) trips up Gerard by grabbing onto his foot; Hitsugaya unleashes an aura that freezes Gerard who has made contact with his body; and in probably the coolest visual in this episode, Byakuya summons Senkei Senbonzakura Kageyoshi... and with his 'Ikka Senjika' attack, unleashes waves upon waves upon waves of magical swords slamming down on Gerard. The animation is smooth, and looks really cool.
This isn't the end of Gerard, though, as he miraculously wakes back up, transforming into an eldritch giant being of light with a giant centurion helmet and a robotic faceplate.
Byakuya then grabs Rukia and Renji, blocks some of Gerard's random attacks with Senbonzakura, and tells them to go to Ichigo. He makes a whole sequence of 'your help isn't needed here', and 'Ichigo does not need your help', but Hitsugaya calls Byakuya out as the two Vice Captains leave, noting that Byakuya is being nice by sending them to be alongside Ichigo as friends. Hitsugaya and Byakuya make some discussion about Shinigami teachings... before the episode rolls into credits.
Again... this is basically what I expected of the Gerard fight. It does always read a bit awkward to me even in the manga, with Kenpachi and Hitsugaya both unlocking power-ups, neither of which ultimately really did anything. It feels a bit less bad for Kenpachi since he got his Shikai power-up and a huge character moment earlier in the arc, but it always felt to me that Hitsugaya got a rather inconsequential power-up while Byakuya was barely there, only showing up to do Senkei. I don't think the fight would be expanded a lot more, but it would be nice to have a more satisfying ending here compared to its manga counterpart.
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A bunch of other minor Shinigami also show up -- Lieutenant Okikiba, who is the barely-seen 1st Division 3rd-Seat (and Vice Captain, after Sasakibe's death), 'afro Shinigami' Kuramadani, and the 11th division jerk that got taken hostage, Maki-Maki... and a couple others that I genuinely don't even remember. So it's kind of nice to see that they are doing something... even if I kind of wish this role would've gone to people I actually care about, like Ikkaku, Yumichika or Matsumoto.
And then we get around two minutes of Juhabach vs. Ichigo again. Orihime is momentarily stunned by Ichigo's "Horn of Salvation" form and gets a PTSD flashback to his rampage in Hueco Mundo, but Ichigo quickly assures that he has full control of this form. Ichigo speed-teleports out of Orihime's barrier (and I suppose it's fair that after her amazing showing last episode, that the anime now focuses mainly on Ichigo). Ichigo blows up the throne room, Juhabach draws his sword and Ichigo clashes with him in a cool, snappy sequence.
Ichigo then charges up a Getsuga Tenshou. Repeating what I've said while I read Bleach initially, Juhabach mocks Ichigo for constantly doing the same move over and over again... before realizing that it is not a Getsuga Tensho, but rather a nice, colourfully-animated mixture of Getsuga and the Espada's Gran Rey Cero. The resulting crescent blast slams and slices into Juhabach's shoulder, and that's where the episode ends.
Random Notes:
- In his online web-page, Kubo has explained that Yachiru can take the form of a younger self and an older self to represent Kenpachi's Shikai and Bankai -- which Zangetsu also does. While we don't see the adult Yachiru, when she tells Kenpachi to activate Bankai we do hear her voice overlaid with an older woman's voice.
- The pseudo-canonical novel Can't Fear Your Own World established that Gerard Valkyrie is the Heart of the Soul King; and that imagery seems to be played with at least in showing how Gerard regenerates from his bisection. Also in the same online website, Kubo implies that the Quincy cross seen in that one panel is Gerard's source of regeneration/miracles. I do hope we get to see more of this fight and have it end in a more satisfying way for our heroes.
- Ikkaku and Yumichika do their typical battle commentary, but Matsumoto also has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo!
- It is quite interesting -- and I didn't comment on this in the Lille or Askin fight -- that we have seen some of these super-form wings during the expanded Schutzstaffel vs Squad Zero battles in the anime.
- Over the previous episode and this one Hitsugaya is really worried that Gerard's going to fall and destroy Seireitei by dint of being a giant.
- While we could assume that all the Visored are out of commission, I really wished we also had an answer to who defeated Soi Fon and where he is in all this. With her having zero participation in the Askin fight, I really wished that we at least got a shot of her either defeated or trying to fight Gerard.
- In the manga, this is essentially the end of the Gerard fight. After the combo move and him entering his big giant glowing fourth phase, we don't really get a fight before Gerard gets unceremoniously killed off by Juhabach's Aushwahlen.
- There's a nice little random note about 'the bird' by the 12th Division staff, so Lille Barro's weird owl monster forms are still probably stalking outside. While Izuru Kira is fighting them, I do think the obvious way to take them out would involve Aizen's grand entrance back to the story.
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