Bleach TYBW E49 Review: finAl bAttle

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 49: The Blade

This review was... an interesting one to write. The two final episodes of TYBW, episodes 49 and 50, were delayed a bit as the anime team went to polish the final episodes. And I did my original review of 49 as the episode came out, with a gigantic chunk of speculation on what could be plot threads that may or may not be resolved in episode 50, which I genuinely thought was going to devote at least some parts of its runtime (about less than half) to tackling some of the questions and unresolved plot threads here. Then episode 50 came out before I had the chance to review this, so it ended up feeling a bit disingenuous giving a huge chunk of speculation. And I also didn't want to clog up 50 with a lot of rant on what should have happened in this episode. 

And let's be clear -- this episode, 'The Blade', was a fantastic, adrenaline-filled rush to the end. For what was maybe a couple of pages in the manga, this is an insane improvement to Uryu shooting Juhabach with an arrow and Ichigo slicing him in half. We get an actual climax, and I don't even disagree with what some people are calling the biggest fouls in this episode. It's just that... taken as a whole, there are a bunch of stuff that the anime adaptation introduced that was literally dropped for no reason, stuff that could have been impactful and good, and they even took extra time to work on this episode. So... yeah. I have saved a majority of my ranting about the 'what could have been's  at the bottom, but I would acknowledge these two things: that the episode rocks, it's a massive rollercoaster of an action-packed episode, I enjoyed this whole season... and I'm still dissatisfied with a bunch of stuff specifically because the anime had promised to address them. 

Anyway, this is going to be a long review. Everything here except maybe five shots are all brand-new as we gear up to a final battle. 

_________________________________

The final battlefield is finally set up, and it's a bunch of ominous red and black shadows and trees and tentacles filled with eyeballs. Loads and loads of eyeballs. There's a nice establishing shot, before Ichigo and Uryu charge in and do what they've been doing for a couple of episodes now. Ichigo unleashes a nice giant Getsuga Tenshou (not the big ink-moon thing from his hell-chain Bankai, though) and Juhabach unleashes a barrage of cool laser blasts from the eyeballs that open everywhere. It's something that he does a lot, and just so that I don't repeat it too much... the laser effects and the explosions are animated quite well. They're nice. They're cinematic. 

Basically the final battles are set up. Ichigo and Uryu face Juhabach in Soul Society. A group of Hollows -- Harribel, Grimmjow, and Nel's trio -- are in Hueco Mundo. And the rest, a large group of captains Kyoraku, Hitsugaya, Soi Fon and Byakuya; plus Tatsuki and the two young cadets Shino and Ryunosuke are in the human world. We get a brief check-in with Tatsuki, Shino and Ryunosuke in the human world where they are protected by Okikiba. ...who gets identified, gives a nod, and disappears for the rest of the episode. I mean, I guess somebody liked 1st Division co-Vice-Captain Okikiba enough to give him a scene? 

Shino and Ryunosuke have gotten a fair amount of extra lines and scenes, all of which amounting to basically the same hot-blooded 'new young recruits showing bravery in the face of crisis' stuff common to shonen anime fare. Which is all right. It's basic as all heck, but I get where they are going for, and at least we always get the sense that Kubo had wanted to make a point with these two losers ever since the beginning of the TYBW arc. I don't like how they are handled here, but at least I can appreciate the thematic cohesion. 

But a bulk of the screentime are still the captains doing captain stuff! Kyoraku slashes. Hitsugaya uses ice blasts to freeze some tentacles. Byakuya does a cool pose and slashes the tentacles. Soi Fon, angry that she was forgotten throughout the entire last cour, gets a slow-motion pan as she juliennes a bunch of tentacles. In Hueco Mundo, Nel, Pesche and Dondochakka run away from the laser beams, while Harribel and Grimmjow slash the beams. Ditto in Soul  Society, where Ichigo and Uryu float away from the big explosion in the cold open. Uyu's quad-bow thing looks really cool! There's a lot of split-second shots of Ichigo and Uryu charging in and using their abilities. Ichigo rams the blade down as he slides down one of the tentacles, and it's always a fun delight to see Uryu flying around shooting arrows. 

We get a nice bro moment between Ichigo and Uryu, and as much as I'm going to complain about this episode later on (and believe me, I will), I am so happy that none of this moment between the two most major characters of the arc was in the original manga. In fact, none of them even have character moments in the finale, I'd argue. Uryu makes a chuckle here, a pretty typical 'cool guy doesn't show emotions' chuckle, tells Ichigo that it's just like the good old times, and they do a combo attack. Ichigo attacks Uryu with 'all he's got'. Uryu expands his cross-shaped bow, Ichigo yells Getsuga Tenshou, and the yellow reiatsu wraps around Uryu's arrow and he launches a big motherfucking giant golden-blue arrow at Juhabach. The animation is awesome, and a giant path was carved across the terrain. 

It does nothing to the invulnerable Juhabach, of course, but nothing will until the end of the episode. At least it looks cool. 

Speaking of looking cool, what follows next is another set of really cool scenes. Soi Fon makes a crack that they are the Gotei 13, and jokes that future generations will make fun of them for sending the Stealth Force as a vanguard. She strikes a pose, wind whirls around her, and she charges forwards with her Shunko, unleashing a string of giant wind-blasts as she rockets forwards. Tier Harribel gets a very cool close-up shot as she unleashes her Cascada attack, green water filling up and contrasting well with the red background, and unleashes the torrent of water at Juhabach. Juhabach laser-blasts the water away, but this is a distraction for Grimmjow to attack, flipping and unleashing a ton of claw attacks (Desgarron, although Grimmjow doesn't yell the attack name) to turn Juhabach into cubes. Byakuya does his 'ultimate move' that he's only done once in the manga, Shukei: Hakuteiken, where he gathers all the petals around his sword and charges at Juhabach like a spear. The animation for Byakuya is particularly cool, giving us even a split-second of a demonic face when the petals gather. 

And of course, none of this awesome barrage really matters. It looks cool, though. Ichigo, Grimmjow and Byakuya all deal slashing blows to Juhabach at the same time, and Juhabach just monologues and mocks them. Byakuya in particular gets fucking impaled with a close-up of him coughing up blood. The cubed-up Juhabach speaks even as the cubes reassemble, impaling Grimmjow with a ton of shadow spears. There's s couple of cool shots as the Cube-habach reassembles, all the while Harribel's green water and Juhabach's pink lasers contend in the background. And then Harribel gets slashed, and the two Espada fall. And Juhabach begins beating up more people. Ichigo's sword gets caught and starts to crack again. Uryu jumps up but a giant eyeball opens up next to him and zaps him with a big laser. Ichigo also gets stabbed through the back and he also vomits out blood. Soi Fon and subsequently a very unbothered-looking Kyoraku also gets zapped with lasers. There's a chaotic scene where Ryunosuke, Shino, Tatsuki and Hitsugaya all cover each other from attacks, but the volume and frequency just knock everybody down. 

(Tatsuki is just out at this point. She's... she's got no powers, so it's unsurprising, but really, is she the best of the human world representative that we could get? At least Shino and Ryunosuke were deflecting lasers with their swords). 

We see a shot of everybody that gathered for this finale all taken out... and I genuinely thought this was when we're going to get more reinforcements. And we kind of do, but the main fighters are still the batch we saw at the end of 48. Holes in their chests and stomachs and whatnot, and everyone just stands the fuck back up. 

Juhabach does a monologue, with the animation focusing on the shadows making a dome around where Juhabach is, and how this is the first step that Juhabach needs to do to merge the three worlds together into one single sea of blood spanning the entire world or whatever. I gloss over Juhabach's monologues since we've heard it for like seven episodes straight at this point, but I still have to note the great work that the voice actor put in. 

We then cut to the Twelfth Division. And can I say that these guys get an unreasonable amount of increased screentime in the TYBW arc? Insanely so? I have kind of looped around to liking them now, actually. I used to be unable to name any of them other than Akon! But no, put some respect to Akon, to Hiyosu, to Rin, and to Kuna. They've gotten a lot of lines, and even though it's a typical action movie countdown or whatever, they try their best to do something about it. And I do think this is the theme of this finale, even though they don't actually go out and say it -- even the weaklings have something to contribute. As Akon refuses to give up as his three fellow scientists panic, we cut to crybaby Shino in the Human World, trying to protect his wounded friends even as Juhabach's monsters goop in. 

And of course, this is when Kyoraku and the other three Captains praise him, cut up some tentacles and strike a cool pose. It's a bit cheesy that we just got shown them all blown to bits, but I like it. 

Ichigo and Uryu also get a conversation as they both lie down on the battlefield. There's a bit of a barb-trading. Uryu mocks that hearing Ichigo whine is the main thing that makes this actually feel like the world ending. Uryu then gives a very brief discussion of the Still Silver Arrow. We don't get an explanation as to why the magic arrow can stop Juhabach (not even the manga's explanation) other than the customary one-second flashback shot to Ryuken's operation (which is such a non-sequitur if you don't know the context that the anime never explains), and Ichigo gives us the nice question of 'why haven't you used that'. And... it really does at least set up this arrow business a bit better than the manga. It's still somewhat bad from a narrative standpoint, but it's an abject improvement from the manga. Uryu asks Ichigo to create an opening in Juhabach's defenses so he can shoot his heart. 

Because this is just an episode where the animators pull from everything, we get the coolest shit ever as Uryu's reishi rises from his back, spreads out into a cape, and he starts puppeteering himself with Ransotengai. The shot is insanely cool and Uryu looks badass as shit. This is followed by yet another cool shot of Ichigo charging into battle, an orange streak slashing everything in his pathway. 

Akon's science team gets invigorated by seeing Ichigo, deciding not to be undaunted by percentages and data, and they decide to do something. Speaking of people getting up, Harribel also shrugs off her injuries, and asks Grimmjow if he's dead. Two dozen laser beams aim at Harribel, who stands there unflinching before Grimmjow jumps in-between and tears the laser blasts apart. Grimmjow, in his typical asshole fashion, tells Harribel that she's next after he deals with Juhabach. The animation team clearly likes the Espada as much as I do, with the sheer amount of increased screentime that these two got!

In Soul Society, we get the return of... the Fullbringers? Both Grimmjow and the Fullbringers had their return teased in the manga quite early on, and when they actually do show up in the manga things were already so rushed that their big contributions amounted to piddling matters. Grimmjow absolutely got a ton extra to do here, but the Fullbringers... well, they're not as popular. They still get a nice narrative conclusion to their little character arc, or at least Ginjo Kugo does. Ginjo, Tsukishima and the ever-voiceless Giriko observe as Rukia unleashes her barrier, revealing that she has protected the crew with her and kept them safe. Rukia, Chad, Ganju, Nanao, as well as Yukio and Riruka. It's a nice check-in with them even though they don't do much, but we see what they're doing while all of this is going down. Orihime and Rukia get some cool lines about protecting the place Kurosaki will return to. 

While the animation shows that Ichigo and Uryu is fighting against Juhabach's tendrils (including a nice shot where Uryu's Ransotengai is helping him fly around before the threads are severed), we get a monologue from... Shiba Ganju?

GANJU???? GANJUU??????

Yes, Ganju. Ganju gets a moment. He uses Yukio's teleportation dimension ability to hop up to the hole in the sky the episodes have been focusing towards. Ganju mutters that Ichigo is always fighting for such huge things, and he resolves himself to help Ichigo carry his burdens. He jumps into the sky towards the hole...

Meanwhile, in the human world, things are moving quite rapidly and in motion as we follow a giant stream of Senbonzakura petals. We get some laser beams, and it was a bit hard for me to miss the first time around, but Byakuya gets hit and falls out of the sky, his eyes whited out and his body burning red from the lasers. This is the last we see of Byakuya for the entire episode, and... he did get that cool Hakuteiken moment and he did get impaled the worst out of the four captains, but it was a bit of a shock. 

The petals (and some petal constructs shaped like paper airplanes) pull away to reveal that Kyoraku, Hitsugaya and Soi Fon are riding on a giant Hyorinmaru ice slab that the petals were protecting. 

BACK TO SHIBA MOTHERFUCKIN' GANJU. He's still jumping towards the hole in the sky, and in dramatic fashion he unleashes Seppa: Turn to Sand! And he blocks the hole!

In Hueco Mundo, little Nel sees it and yells at Pesche and Dondochakka to launch her. Pesche, not questioning anything, picks up his boss, yeets the child, and Dondochakka uses a kanabo to send Nel to plug the hole with her widdle head.

In the Human World, randomly running next to the four captains... is a fifth captain. Dog!Komamura, who we get a wonderful short foreshadowing last episode, runs up the side of them and behind Komamura who else is there but TETSUZAEMON IBA! Vice-Captain of the Seventh Division, the yakuza man, future Captain, who UNLEASHES HIS ZANPAKUTO. 

IBA!!!! Iba, whose Zanpakuto is still unnamed, still listed as 'Iba's Zanpakuto' in the fan Wikis! He sure releases that sword!

See, I don't care for Ganju, but Iba? Iba is my boy. 

And I get it. I was baffled when Ganju jumps up, but when Iba shows up too, I get what they're going for. That Juhabach's plan, the one thing stopping his assimilation from going from 99% to 100%, is three weaklings. Ganju, easily the most irrelevant of Ichigo's little rescue squad. Iba, the forgotten Vice-Captain who didn't even get his Zanpakuto name revealed. Neliel, reduced to her smaller form, tossed by two weakling Hollows. Akon's science division and both Shino and Ryunosuke also count, since they get moments later on too. I get that. It's just abrupt and comes out of nowhere. 

But oh well! Akon's team continue to attract the Hollows that we see rampaging in Soul Society a couple of episodes ago. Some of the Hollows are being wiped out by Juhabach, but Akon and team are doing whatever they can even as their strange, giant multi-fingered base has the fingers wiggling creepily. God bless the Twelfth Division!

We then get an insanely fast-paced sequence as there's a lot of explosion and slashing as Grimmjow gets close to Juhabach again, there's a lot of lasers and slashes and whatnot and Grimmjow gets blasted away with his arm being ripped off. Harribel charges in with Cascada and her giant shark sword, and we get a cool clash and then she gets slashed, right through her midsection with a lot of blood. Again, the animation team loves Grimmjow. We get a close up as he crawls on the ground, growling and snarling and even giving us a version of that famous Orihime shot from episode 45. 

Harribel then tells Grimmjow to 'eat her'. That's how Hollows survive, by eating each other and becoming stronger, and while Harribel was stronger than Grimmjow (#3 vs #6 by Espada rankings) I don't think that really matters any more, at least not for this fight. And Harribel is the one Hollow that would willingly sacrifice themselves. Light novel continuity aside (which I don't think is high in the priority of any of the anime staff's minds), it would actually be a tragic and beautiful end for Harribel, the Espada that represents 'sacrifice'. I think her willingly sacrificing herself to save Hueco Mundo, as one of the few Hollows to love the realm, would be a good end. 

Speaking of good endings, we get to see Orihime and Rukia fighting against the tentacles. They are about to be ambushed by a huge horde... when a blast of green light appears with a flash from off-screen, and Ginjo jumps in. Tsukushima asks Ginjo if he's okay fighting for the Shinigami, to which Ginjo replies all tsundere-like that he's doing it so Ichigo has somewhere to come back to. They clearly didn't devote much time or animation budget to this moment, and we don't even get a Cool Action Scene (tm) for Ginjo. But I feel like it's enough. We have the spirit of this nice character development for a former antagonist happening in the midst of all the chaos. I hated the Fullbringers and still think they're some of the worst villains in Bleach, but I do appreciate this moment, and I find that at least for Ginjo, this does help wrap his little story up in a bow. 

Speaking of the man, Ichigo continues to charge through the little ground-zero line that Uryu has carved onto the ground, slashing tentacles and whatnot. Juhabach extends like six shadow-hands to grab and block the blade, and Ichigo breaks through and forces Juhabach to create a shadow-blade construct out of his goopy shadow body. As he swings to decapitate Ichigo, we get a shot of Uryu taking aim (similar to how he took aim at Renji). 

In the Human World... KOMAMURA! DOGGY KOMAMURA! He's leaping down with an insane, feral look on his face. 

He gets impaled immediately by Juhabach's shadow attacks, and it looked painful and looks fatal if you ask me, but everybody in this episode is shrugging off mortal blows. But can I just say that it is so cool that Komamura gets a moment. From the afterlife (extra-afterlife) flashback last episode, to this? We actually get a payoff for Komamura turning into a dog and walking off to battle with Iba? This is an actual payoff? It's one of those scenes from the manga that I felt they could've left as-is and I don't think many people will complain, but I love this. I love that Komamura gets a moment. He doesn't deliver the deathblow or nothing, but his great sacrifice for Genryusai's sake, as misguided as his powers punished him for, at least allowed him to be there for the final battle. He's a dog, one that isn't even able to wield a sword no more, but he's still going to bite god for his master. 

While this is going on, we get some nice, glorious action movie nonsense from the captains. Soi Fon activates her Bankai, Jakuho Raikoben. After her Bankai being mostly useless any time it shows up in the anime-original scenes, Soi Fon launches the thing (which is animated beautifully, with the exhaust a nice contrast against the red/black backgrounds) and Kyoraku hangs on to one of the missile fins.

I am sorry, what? 

This is so glorious. This is more ridiculous than the stunts in a Fast & Furious movie. The missile detonates, while Soi Fon and Hitsugaya give one-liners about how responsibility drives them. Hitsugaya then uses his Bankai to and uses an extra block of ice to push Kyoraku onwards, apparently Kyoraku having been able to tank the whole explosion from Jakuho Raikoben. I'm not questioning it. It's gloriously over-the-top. We even get a nice moment where Soi Fon notse that she appreciates her Bankai now, since it was a point back in the Arrancar arc that she hates her Bankai. 

Juhabach's lasers bombard Hitsugaya and Soi Fon and finally take the two of them out, and Kyoraku gets trapped in a giant shadow pillar even as he tries to reach for Juhabach. Oh noes! 

In Hueco Mundo, we also get a nice moment of character development. Grimmjow actually leaves Harribel behind, refusing to eat her. He makes a big deal about this being that he simply refuses to take orders from people, but Grimmjow's backstory from the Arrancar arc was that he had refused to consume his own Fraccion for power, a nice hint of nobility under all of his destructive bluster. So that's a nice moment in the middle of all this chaos. Grimmjow charges in and we get a really cool sequence of him jumping around and breaking the ground and shit, and... I just gave up trying to describe this scene. It's cool, and runs on for quite a bit before we get a cool shot of Grimmjow's face... and then he gets impaled through the chest by Juhabach.

In Soul Society, Juhabach also sees Uryu's aiming at him, and unleashes a ton of laser blasts. Uryu releases his arrow, which is just a regular arrow that flies... right into Juhabach's hand, who grabs and shatters it. Ichigo gets captured by a ton of shadow hands...

And we cut away to the awesome science gang. The science gang is luring Hollows to their lab, and then the weird creepy fingers just slam down and start masticating the Hollows. I... I don't question this. They consume the Hollows, and Akon orders his crew to fire, and a giant eyeball-cannon (of course it's an eyeball) appears, charges and unleashes a bright green-red laser. It gets blocked by a bunch of shadows... and a bunch of Juhabach's tentacles coil down to attack. 

And at this point YASUTORA "CHAD" SADO APPEARS! Right out of Yukio's Invaders Must Die portal, and uses his Brazo Dereche del Gigante to block the laser beams. Chad!!! Surely this is more dignified than fighting statues!

Yukio gets to do the really cool thing, and it's also a nice little character development for him, having had his TYBW contribution be constant reminders to everyone that he's just here to move people around and that he is not going to fight. The little twerp actually has matured, and actually jumps down and plugs his ability into Akon's computer. Telling Akon that some stuff just isn't about logic, he plugs in his Invaders May Die... which has been upgraded from a PSP to a DualShock Controller complete with a mini screen. It took a rewatch for me to realize what's going on, but Yukio takes control of the beam and makes it bend as it dodges the Juhabach tendrils. That's cool! 

The beam from the science division slams onto Juhabach's head and actually blows apart some of the shadowy armour, while Chad declares that this is about pride. That's a Fullbringer reference! I get that. And you know what? I like that Chad gets a nice little moment. 

Juhabach appears to be unaffected, though, and we get a whole mass more of eyeballs and vines and shit. The three people holding back the skies from closing finally get overwhelmed. First Ganju gets swallowed up, then poor Nel gets her head glorped by the shadows, and finally Iba gets overwhelmed. Then other people get consumed by shadow, too. Yukio, then the science team of Kuna, Hiyosu, Akon and Rin. Then Chad. Then the fallen Tatsuki and Shino. Harribel. Ginjo. Nanao. Tsukishima. Giriko. Rukia. Orihime. All the eyeballs start to glow with blue light as Juhabach continues his monologue. 

Everything turns blue... AND THEN THE STILL SILVER ARROW STABS JUHABACH! Blood on the arrow!

...no, it's still not explained why Juhabach's Almighty doesn't see this. But the blood is there!

The anime doesn't say it outright, but a bunch of other things also happen. Grimmjow struggles, all bloody and shit, and chomps down to Juhabach's shoulder, sending a wave of blue energy (which is unexplained, it might be something to do with Hollow reiatsu? Is that laser what made Juhabach lose concentration in Soul Society?) and strips off Juhabach's shadow cloak as well. 

It's not just Grimmjow being badass, though. Grimmjow flashes back to Urahara (who's still fainted somewhere) and curses Urahara, noting that Urahara has done 'something' to him. Do we get an explanation for this? No, but at least there is some explanation to how Grimmjow is able to attack and be so effective. It's nowhere as epic or as sensible / foreshadowed as the Still Silver or Mimihagi, though. 

In the human world, Kyoraku finally manages to struggle, touch Juhabach and dispels the shadowy cloak as well to reveal Mimihagi inside Juhabach. 

Basically, this happens more or less simultaneously, and it makes each world's Juhabach avatar vulnerable. Again, I really did wish we spent just a little bit more time explaining what the hell happened and why shadow cloaks are dripping off. But it's time to deliver the killing blow. We get a very cool shot of Ichigo dragging his sword across the ground while sparks fly. 

In the other worlds, Grimmjow gets knocked back and reverts back to his non-Resureccion form. But help comes from more weaklings, Pesche and Dondochakka, who arrive on their giant worm. They DOUBLE RIDER KICK Grimmjow to push him down the blade he's impaled on, so he could pierce Juhabach. An unexpected bit of black comedy in the final strike!

And in probably one of the more controversial bits, Kyoraku activates Kageoni and reveals that he hid Ryunosuke in the shadows. Ryonuske slams his sword into Mimihagi, and this is apparently enough to deal the killing blow to that Juhabach. It's... I dunno. I get that they wanted to give one of Ryunosuke or Shino a big moment, but this could've happened in a different moment. I get the spirit, but I felt like any other character would've been more impactful for the Shinigami side instead of this guy. 

But of course, Ichigo gets to do his final bisection of Juhabach from the three pages we got in the manga. He swings his giant blade. Uryu watches as the shadows consume him -- in a change from the manga, he's smiling instead of wearing a tense expression. Ichigo swings his blade, Juhabach grabs it, seemingly to shatter it... and it explodes, revealing original Shikai Zangetsu within. This... I've given up trying to understand the explanations for Zangetsu's post-reforged forms, and just accept this as just a cool thing it can do. Juhabach flashes to that one dream he had earlier in the season, realizes that it's a proper vision and not just a dream... and gets cut in half by Ichigo. 

There's also a nice, cool extra scene of the visuals of the masses worshipping Juhabach as the red strings are all severed. Juhabach thinks of Haschwalth showing him the dream/vision, and that's his last thoughts before finally, just like the manga, Juhabach is sliced in twain, ending the Thousand-Year Blood War. 

And again... it's a very fun action episode. It was tense, it was fun, there's a lot of really cool moments and surprising character arcs for a lot of our characters. I will rant. And I have a long rant below. But I will also want to say that this is so, so much more epic than the original version of the fight, which amounted to 'shoot arrow, slice him in half' without all of this raid boss stuff going on. There's still a lot that could be improved, but from where it started? It was a really fun one. 

_________________________________

My Little Dissatisfaction Rant:

• And before anyone says 'there's no time', I can really say that giving any of these things I bitched about as much screentime as motherfucking Okikiba got in this episode, like five seconds, would have stopped my complaints. Like, I was quite happy with the Ginjo resolution and he had maybe one, two lines here and didn't properly get an action scene. 
  
• So let's get the big one out of the way. Isshin and Ryuken. The two dads are notorious for showing up and doing jack shit in the entire TYBW arc. They... do the exact same thing here. And I don't even mind the thematic handwave of 'fathers standing aside while their sons become men and save the world'. I don't even really want Isshin and Ryuken jumping in with Bankais and shit, but the fact that they do the same 'Still Silver Arrow' delivery service and don't give us any more information? We don't get the discussion that the Still Silver was made from blot clots of Quincy killed by Auswahlen and stuff, or that it's taken from Uryu's mother other than the oblique flashbacks. The fact that they show up a couple episodes ago, and do nothing, say nothing? A quick rewrite even if we didn't give any of them screentime:
• Establishing that they are salvaging the silver clots from the dead Sternritter, which would also account for their behaviour throughout the various cours because the anime introduced them early. Why would the anime even introduce them early? 
• Fighting Juha shadows in the human world (thematically appropriate) or the Soul Society (where they are). 
• Rescuing the wounded and ferrying them away from the battlefield. 
• Talking or holding Ichibei off. 
• I would even take a scene of the two of them perched on a building nodding at Ichigo and Uryu. I would take even that. But we don't even get that. It really is just a gigantic disservice to the two characters. I honestly don't even think I care for the two of them as characters, but the fact that the manga and anime have established that they show up in this final arc, that they are present in the battlefields and we don't account for them is bizarre. 
• Antithesis. While the anime cocked and fired the additional foreshadowing of Kyoraku, Ukitake and Mimihagi doing stuff, we had the whole discussion about how the Antithesis is able to counter Juhabach's Almighty, and we get to see this when Uryu does some future-swapping bullshittery during his 1v1 against Juhabach. I would thought that it would be a very simple reason of how Uryu 'got' Juhabach with the Still Silver, but we don't get that.
  
• There have been a lot of fans analyzing the arrows that Uryu fires and some people think there's a missing Antithesis effect that may be fixed in the BluRay release or something, but either way the fact that this isn't made clear in dialogue or animation is a big miss. 
• Ichibei? We get a couple of extra sinister scenes showing Tite Kubo's intent (which was clarified in his online Q&A as well as the Can't Fear Your Own World novels) that Ichibei wanted to put Ichigo into the Soul King throne, and we get a bunch of dialogue and even visuals showing that this might be explored and concluded in this episode. There's even the extra scene of Ichibei drinking a dragon from ink or some shit. But nothing of the sort is brought up either here or the next episode. 
  
• A bit of a smaller nitpick, but nothing about Adyneus's backstory is really told to us, so those blurry, one-second flashbacks are all we get. It's enough to piece together (heh) the story if you take into account other ancillary material, but the ambiguously-canon CFYOW novel should not be required reading, not when you had a lot of extra time this episode to devote to Akon's group.
  
• I really thought we were going to get a proper 'Soul King flashback', even if it was just a couple of minutes, which would explain Adyneus, Ichibei, Mimihagi/Pernida and Juhabach's backstory. I had thought that it was why they truncated 'God Like Me', but we don't get any of that. 
• Likewise, not as crucial as the other stuff, but we also never learn what made Uryu so special that he survived Auswahlen. Unlike the others, this wasn't foreshadowed all that much, but I really thought it would at least get addressed in what was the reasonable assumption that Ryuken gets more to say and do in this anime adaptation. 
• Perhaps another big glaring confusion is where Abarai Renji disappeared off to. Did the anime staff think that he was actually defeated by Juhabach last episode, when that was the whole 'Kyoka Suigetsu' thing? That whole illusion establishes that the Renji that was 'wounded' was actually Ichigo, which was actually Aizen, right? Was he just defeated offscreen during the Kyoka Suigetsu moment? None of Ichigo's other major allies really get to do anything but defend themselves against shadows, and that's okay since they've done some cool stuff in previous episodes, but they were still accounted for. 
• Less egregious than Renji, but the following characters were all shown to still be standing around and not taken out by Lille or Gerard, and I felt any of them could've been among the initial Shinigami characters that got taken out in the first 3 minutes (instead of showing Kyoraku, Soi Fon, Byakuya and Hitsugaya get beaten and get up a minute later), or maybe taken Ryunoshuke's place at the end: Ikkaku, Yumichika, Rangiku, Izuru and Hanataro. Shit, Hanataro would genuinely be cool as the weak guy that does something. 

More Random Notes:

• 
  I don't mind these characters being MIA. Some may be a bit more annoying than others, particularly in the matter that they exited, but I get why they didn't have them around: 
• Kenpachi was explicitly shown to be the most injured after his Bankai fucked him up in the Gerard Valkyrie fight. 
  
• Mayuri, too, was probably the single captain in the worst shape after his fight with Pernida.
• Aizen did also get a canonical defeat in episode 48, which is true to the manga. A bit disappointing, perhaps, but at least it's a reason for his absence. I'm in the minority that thinks Aizen wasn't necessary for the final battle after his cool moment with Juhabach, though, and I understand many people find this supremely disappointing. 
• Urahara and Yoruichi were also quite wounded from the Askin fight, so there's at least an in-universe reason why they're absent, even if I have to point fingers at Grimmjow being able to survive and run around to survive like a dozen more deathblows from Juha. But at least they are accounted for. 
• Shinji and the rest of the Visored is a bit of a dead horse to beat, but at least Gerard sending them flying does give us an in-universe reason why they're absent for the final battle. It is annoying, admittedly, that the anime resurrected Rose and Kensei basically to pose once in the Gerard fight. 
• People complain about Tessai not showing up, but I can buy that he, Ururu and Jinta in the human world are just too far off, or busy rescuing civilians or something. 
  
• In a nice touch, Nanao is actually waving around Shinken Hakkyoken. While I never bought that this was ever going to matter against Juhabach, it's nice that she gets to wave around her unique Shikai for the three or four seconds that it showed up. A bit nitpicking and honestly she's done a lot this cour, Rukia is also shown only swinging her sealed zanpakuto and uses neither Bankai nor Shikai. 
• Out of the Fullbringers that show up, notably Riruka doesn't do anything, but she at least had dialogue in previous episodes. Giriko, meanwhile, just literally stands there, with his contribution in this entire arc being... absolutely nothing. 
  
• The animation team really loves Grimmjow, don't they? The animation in this episode is as fluid as it could be with so many moving parts, but they really gave Grimmjow a lot of additional acrobatics and unnecessary flips as he jumps around. 
• In contrast -- and I do know that this episode is already insane in the amount of stuff that goes on -- there was a point in the first couple of minutes where I think they just didn't animate Byakuya's Senbonzakura petals and he just does a cool pose, tentacles blow up, before we cut to Soi Fon. That's all right, I suppose, since Byakuya should also be able to do some basic swordsmanship. 
• 
  Juhabach's first line in this episode is 'there is nothing left to say to you all', then spends the following 25 minutes just continuing his monologues. Classic Juha!
• There really shouldn't be a reason for Nel to continue being a child throughout this episode. I know that she used the reishi-suppressing bracelet for Uryu to do the Antithesis on a couple episodes back, but if that's the reason why (beyond authors liking the comedy), Neliel is an idiot for not using any random rock to facilitate that swap. 
  
• Ryunosuke and Shino originally were shown protecting a fallen shinigami with a burned face, who I don't think was meant to be anybody. 
• Like, no, seriously, I'm just a bit miffled that we didn't get our original supporting cast shown at least holding off the tentacles or getting one-shotted by Juhabach. Ikkaku, Yumichika, Rangiku and Izuru in particular. Shit, it would at least give us a proper Izuru moment after his cyborg-zombification! 
• Hitsugaya is in his original kid form throughout 48 all the way to the finale. Post-finale Hitsugaya is still in his younger form, but it is surprising that we don't get him busting out his Adult form at least once in this chaotic fanservice final arc. 
• It is interesting that both the Still Silver and Grimmjow's modified bite seems to unleash some Blut Vene looking marks on Juhabach's body. What does this mean? I dunno.