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. 

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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. 

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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. 

Bleach TYBW E48 Review: sosuke Aizen's soul society

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 48: THE END 2 WORLD

So this is a bit of an interesting episode. After the mostly anime-original episode 47, this one follows certain aspects of the manga a lot more closely. And it's one that I know have raised some strong opinions from the fandom who had expected more. Not a lot more, but a bit more -- a couple extra flourishes to a long-awaited battle. And I think that is the big elephant in the room -- the fact that Aizen vs Juhabach is as rushed and as fast as it was in the manga. 

To be fair, this was a problem I had with some other fights that I also wanted to be extended -- the Gerard Valkyrie fight being a major contender in my head -- but considering how great the Thousand-Year Blood War is at extending major fights and even giving us brand-new ones, it is kind of a shame that there are many aspects here that are abrupt. 

One thing is, admittedly, there to note -- Aizen vs. Juhabach was always fanservice, even in the original manga. It wasn't a pivotal character the moment the way the extended Ichigo, Uryu or Orihime fights were in this final cour. Aizen, for all of the excitement of seeing Bleach's original Big Bad face off against the newest one, was ultimately irrelevant to the final story, and involving him in the finale would require a massive restructure... and it's a restructure that is fast running out of runway. As good as the TYBW anime has been at adding a lot of context to the major characters, there are still a lot of things I felt disappointed about -- the lack of relevance of Ryuuken and Isshin; the lack of relevance of Ichibei (though this is likely to be fixed in the next two episodes) and any explanation about the Soul King. 

And ultimately, them adapting Aizen's scenes as-is from the manga is... it wouldn't be bad. It wouldn't be good, but it wouldn't be bad... if the scenes were given some impressive flourish like 'The Perfect Crimson'. I also thought Kenpachi's Bankai and Hitsugaya's adult form were also kind of irrelevant, but they were spectacular in the anime that it does almost wash off the poor taste of the conclusion of the Gerard Valkyrie fight. 

But yeah. While I do think the Aizen sequence was ultimately irrelevant, the fact that they're including it at all and not doing stuff to make it be a bit nicer... that's a bit in poor taste. I wasn't as pissed as some of the fandom (many of whom are clamouring for Aizen's Bankai) but I did think that this was a rather weak episode in comparison. 

Anyway, after the events of the previous episode, we get a neat connective tissue scene as our main cast are being healed. Renji is inexplicably whole, which is something I'm going to bitch about. Nanao is smartly trying to heal Orihime first, who gets up and almost zombie-like goes off to try and use her powers to restore Tensa Zangetsu. Rukia also tells Nanao to focus her healing on Ichigo and Renji...  which is more to make sure that the manga equivalent of the scene of Ichigo and Renji going down to fight Juhabach happens. I am entirely unconvinced that Renji is a better fighter than Rukia, especially with their respective Bankais, but okay. It is a nice bit of detail as Nanao shrinks her little healing cube, and both Chad and Ganju start coughing blood. 

Surprisingly, at this point, a completely unexpected scene happens of Sajin Komamura standing in the afterlife. Komamura kind of disappears from the manga after his fight with Bambietta, last seen being carried in his dog form by Iba. I've always felt like there should be an epilogue to this beyond a tragic handwave. Komamura sees an apparition of Genryusai, before flowers blow at him to show him a vision of Soul Society.  Komamura realizes he's meant to protect it, before waking up in his wolf form alongside Iba. Which... I really love Komamura so some screentime for him is neat, but it is kind of an odd choice to give him this bit now, and over many other somewhat neglected characters. 

Speaking of neglected characters, the scene of Orihime being unable to fix Tensa Zangetsu happens as it does in the manga. Rukia and Pesche talk about Juhabach's powers. Renji picks Ichigo up in a manly elbow-lock, and tells Rukia that they don't really have a plan. Renji notes that it's impossible to come up with a plan against that monster anyway, but they have to fight at least. 

And then Ichigo gets stabbed through the back by Tsukishima! Again, this happens similarly to the manga. I've always found the Fullbringers' involvement in the finale to be shoehorned in, and it kind of is shoehorned in here. But at least it's something. Tsukishima and Ginjo show up, while Riruka, Yukio and Giriko hang out in the background. And essentially, Tsukishima does his big thing for the arc, using his bullshit reality-warping power to counteract Juhabach's bullshit reality-warping power. By rewriting the past, Tsukishima allows Orihime to restore the blade, and even Ichigo's inner world is restored. Ichigo and Renji head off, and the XCution fuck off to irrelevance, I guess. 

Speaking of irrelevance... Uryu wakes up to see Isshin and Ryuuken. We condense this meeting and the exposition to Ryuuken just giving Uryu the Still Silver arrow, the Standspitze. Unlike some of the other stuff -- like the Soul King or Haschwalth/Juhabach's powers and whatnot -- the Still Silver still really comes out of nowhere, and its connection to the Auswahlen blood clots is still inconsistent with how the anime has been showing the Auswahlen vaporizing Sternritters into skeletons. 

Still no explanation of what they have been doing, or what they will do. I really hope they at least get involved and shoot of some attacks during the final battle, because moreso than the Visored or Gerard or XCution or whoever, these two absent dads really should've been doing something. 

Anyway, Juhabach arrives back in the Soul Society. Which has places that look remarkably intact after the two different Vandenreich invasions. The anime's version of events with Uryu's big plan last episode does give Juhabach a more sensible return to come down to the Soul Society. He sends out gigantic blasts of reishi to casually blow up a bunch of streets' worth of generic Shinigami, as if there hasn't been enough dead generic Shinigami. 

Aizen in his chair, however, confronts Juhabach, and delivers the stone-cold line of "welcome to my Soul Society". 

We then cut off to Ichigo and Renji running down the spirit path down to the Soul Society, and in a nice bit of character moment taken straight from the manga, we get a nice scene of Ichigo asking Renji if he really needs to come. Renji goes and punches the also-wounded Ichigo a couple of times, before going on a 'manly man' rant. Renji notes that this is the only time he will ever admit to this, only because the two of them are alone, and that's a cute little scene. But basically he really appreciates Ichigo for being the person that allowed him and Rukia to get back together again, and because of that debt he's going to always keep going on to help Ichigo even if it means his death. And of course, ol' softie Renji goes "I'll never repeat what I said". A pretty cool scene!

In Soul Society, Juhabach unleashes a gigantic blast of black goopy energy that shatters Aizen's chair, and there's a cute little bit where Aizen mocks Juhabach for having trouble with Ichigo, while Juhabach counter-mocks him by saying that Aizen's just projecting his own failures to other people. Aizen thanks Juhabach for destroying the awful chair (Chair-sama was a meme back in the day),  and fully freed, blasts off the dust around him. Aizen tells Juhabach that he's going to fight him not because it benefits him, but out of principle against anyone that tries to control him. 

Now, everything that happens here is technically under Kyoka Suigetsu, and it's interesting to see how the next episodes are going to handle this. Ichigo and Renji come in and attack, but this whole fight is an illusion and I don't even know if Renji was ever involved (or was knocked out off-screen, or off-illusion). As Ichigo and Renji jump Juhabach, he does his whole "I see everything" spiel, and cracks Tensa Zangetsu. Interestingly, it doesn't break? That is just the illusion, I guess? 

Juhabach launches gigantic blasts that vaporizes part of the execution hill at the center of Soul Society, while continuing to gloat. Renji uses Zabimaru to attack, then goes Bankai to So'o Zabimaru, but gets his arms sliced off by Juhabach, before just getting swatted aside by giant Soul King powers. Before Juhabach can wipe out Renji, Aizen charges in and attacks with his sword. He then jumps to a rock and unleashes Hado #99: Goryo Tenmetsu. This was a hado that was very weirdly depicted in the manga, and only really fleshed out in the Can't Fear Your Own World manga. Aizen summons a couple of giant lightning dragons and Naruto-runs into battle with them. And that's really the only major addition to this fight. 

And then Juhabach apparently shatters Kyoka Suigetsu, and unleashes a blast that draws blood from Aizen and dispells Goryo Tenmetsu. Whoops!

An arm-less Ichigo charges in and swings down with his sword, and Juhabach notes that he had identified Kyoka Suigetsu working -- apparently, Juhabach was under the impression that Ichigo and Renji swapped places, with 'Ichigo' being the armless Renji. Juhabach then attacks Ichigo, blasting a massive hole in his chest. Juhabach unleashes gigantic gouts of energy, telling Ichigo that hsi resistance is over and he can perish alongside Soul Society. 

And, of course, this is just Aizen's illusion, and the body impaled by Juhabach is actually Aizen. Ichigo charges in, stabs Juhabach from the back, and unleashes a Getsuga Tenshou, which seemingly causes Juhabach to melt into the ground. Aizen does some explanation about how Ichigo's immunity to Kyoka Suigetsu ended up strangely becoming useful, and he's about to say another thing to Ichigo... when a gigantic blast of blood happens, Juhabach is of course still not dead, and Aizen gets eaten and consumed by Juhabach's goopy eyeball shadows. 

Juhabach, reduced to nothing but eyeball-goop and a mouth, mocks Aizen for undoing his Kyoka Suigetsu, seemingly because he's reached his limit. Ichigo charges in towards the massive goopy goop form of Juhabach, but he blasts off Tensa Zangetsu, and seemingly also overwhelms Ichigo and his blade while he does a monologue about being stronger than even death. 

Credits roll, as we cover the literal last parts of the manga that could be adapted faithfully. And so far, I do think that adapting these fights a bit too faithfully has been the wrong move, especially considering how cool the rewritten parts of the Uryu/Haschwalth and Ichigo/Juhabach (or Ichigo-Orihime-Rukia/Juhabach, more like) battles have been.

Anyway, after the credits, we get scenes from the real world which did run a bit too long -- and could've been given to other parts of the episode (like Aizen, or XCution, or Ryuuken and Isshin) where Tatsuki runs around to see the real world covered with rogue Hollows. Shino and Ryunosuke attack a Hollow and there's a bit where Tatsuki argues with them for being careless. But then Juhabach appears in the sky, causing all the Hollows to fly up towards him. Juhabach vaporizes all the Hollows with one shot, conveniently not hitting any of the living people or Shinigami. 

We cut away to Hueco Mundo, following Yammy's cute Hollow puppy. Somehow, despite last seen being around Orihime and the others, Harribel, Neliel, Pesche and Dondochakka have all been teleported back to Hueco Mundo. It really feels random, and having a Garganta or some kind of portal open behind them would've really been useful here. But they also see Juhabach in the sky. 

Juhabach, in the Soul Society, monologues that he has fused with the world itself, allowing himself to access all worlds. And there's a cool sequence where the background flashes around between Soul Society, the real world, and Hueco Mundo as Juhabach monologues about his absolute power. Juhabach then unleashes even more goopy Soul King power to create a brand new world. Ichigo struggles in the goop, and as a giant goop-dome is formed, eyeballs open up all over the inside of it. 

Shino and Ryunosuke take a stand against Juhabach in the real world... which I guess is a neat bit to bring their character into full circle, especially after getting some screentime in the beginning of the arc? But then four captains appear in the sky. Kyoraku, Byakuya, (kid form) Hitsugaya and... Soi Fon! Soi Fon? Soi Fon!!! They remembered she exists! Huh! Kyoraku gives a badass line about how he's ordering everyone to fight and return back alive, and dying is punishable by death. 

In Hueco Mundo, Harribel and little Neliel get ready to fight, and Grimmjow also walks up, pulls his sword and does a bunch of acrobatic flips through the air as he Leeroy Jenkins-es against Juhabach. 

Uryu comes in, uses a Quincy arrow to free Ichigo and grab Tensa Zangetsu, and after a brief bro moment, they get ready to fight Juhabach. 

So yeah, final battle time. It seems like it might be a nice little 'raid boss', as I've seen other fans online call it, allowing the captains and other characters to all fight against Juhabach while Ichigo and Uryu hold down the fort in the 'main' battle before it ends with Still Silver. There are still a bunch of stuff that is going around that Juhabach might not be able to predict (Antithesis and whatever Kyoraku/Ukitake is planning with Mimihagi). It's nice to see some of the Captains and Arrancar fight, and I'm really hoping for Aizen to be involved somehow still, even if it's in a minor role. As much as this episode and a bit of the previous one has been a bit rocky, it is a nice buildup to finally close the chapter to the final fight of Bleach. 

Random Notes:

• 
  A non-exhaustive list of things that Ryuuken and Isshin could have been doing off-screen between cours: 
• Gather the Still Silver from dead Sternritter, which would explain what they are doing off-screen. 
  
• Fight the Lille Barro birds. 
• Fight Gerard Valkyrie. 
• Rescue Team Ichigo from the throne room instead of Pesche and Dondochakka.
• Help Uryu last episode in his bombardment plan, which is an invention of the anime. 
• Join the rookie Shinigami in fighting the Hollows in the real world, which is an invention of the anime.
• Fight the Hollows pouring into the Rukongai last episode. 
• Help heal or gather the wounded, which would put them at Nanao and Momo relevance, but at least they would be doing something.
• I know I rag on the whole explanation about broken Bankai, and I'm not even bitching about Tsukishima and Orihime restoring Tensa Zangetsu. But with Renji's So'o Zabimaru being absolutely shredded by Juhabach last episode... the fact that Renji was completely whole in this episode, and uses his Bankai without any problems, does raise some questions. I suppose his Bankai could be an organic, restorative type just like Komamura? Or perhaps the Renji we saw in the illusion was just an illusion. 
• I probably shouldn't be too harsh on Rukia wanting Nanao to heal Renji to send him down to fight -- love does make you do illogical things, I suppose. 
• Orihime has such a "I'm done with you" death-glare at the XCution. Sure, it could be just exhaustion from the death battle she just did, but I like the idea that she's just not in a forgiving mood against Tsukushima. And honestly, I really did feel like XCution was handwaved and forgiven way too fast and what they did here in this arc was really not deserving of forgiveness. But I also really don't care about the two main guys of XCution to really be bothered by it. 
• Yeah, in the manga, Juhabach just decides to very randomly fuck off from the Soul King's Palace down to Soul Society after breaking Ichigo's Bankai, seemingly for no good reason. 
• I am never the biggest fan of the Fullbringer arc, but the shot of the Shinigami bursting out of an spiritual portal to help Ichigo at his lowest moment -- and that scene being part of Renji's "pledge" on always being there to help Ichigo -- is a very appropriate and cool one. 
• There's a random scar on Juhabach's mouth that is particularly prominent in the anime due to the colours. I'm not sure what this scar is meant to represent? The wound caused by Ichigo's Getsuga in this scene, I guess? 
• Neliel is reduced to her child form, because she uses her form-changing bracelets that Urahara gave her as something for Uryu to use Antithesis on. Really should have scrounged around for a brick or a Quincy button or something... 
• Other than those already established to be present, here's some other people who might make it to the finale:
• Presumably Renji isn't too wounded to join in the fight, even if he can't possible out-bro Uryu. 
• Kira still looks quite fresh in Soul Society, and can probably join the fight. 
• Iba is still also very fresh, and that flashback with Komamura should lead somewhere.
• Aizen might pop back out of being goopified. 
• XCution are very fresh and haven't really battled. At least Ginjo would be cinematic as an action fighter. 
• While we can maybe rule out Kenpachi (who's the most injured out of the Gerard squad), Mayuri and the Visored as we've seen them injured; we've also seen Rangiku, Momo, Ikkaku and Yumichika standing around. 
• Nanao presumably is still healing people?
• The Visored, maybe? Let them shoot some beams? Shinji, at least, wasn't super injured after his embarrassing defeat at the hands of Gerard.
• Other Arrancar that would be around are the Tres Bestias, plus Loly and Menoly, who aren't super strong but we've seen them earlier in the arc.
• Ichibei is a shoo-in for doing something, regardless of his allegiances. 
• Ryuuken and Isshin, the bums.

Bleach TYBW E47 Review: tri-world cooperAtion

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 47: The End 2

Been a bit behind in Bleach: TYBW reviews, but considering that there's a bit of delays in the final two episodes, I guess it all works out in the end. After the previous episode was a relatively faithful adaptation/remastering of some segments in the manga, 'The End 2' gives us mostly new content. 

And we start off with a rather fun scene, and one that quite interesting for the anime staff and the writers to focus on, since we start off in a strange purgatory with waters. The near-death Kyoraku gets dragged underneath by an a hand, and is confronted by the spirit of Ukitake. Ukitake gives a bit of a recap about Juhabach's plan to merge the Three Worlds, and how he's managed to delay it with his whole Mimihagi gambit. Ukitake notes that he's very likely to die soon (and Kyoraku agrees), and before he does so, he wants to make a gambit on Kyoraku by giving his last powers to him. There's a nice couple of jokes between the two old friends, before Ukitake notes that despite this not being Kyoraku's style, he's still going to do it since there's no one else that can. 

Kyoraku walks off into the distance and wakes up in the real world, while Ukitake fades away (and says his last line in his adult voice). It is quite surprising that we're getting a bit more for Kyoraku to do, but I am absolutely not complaining. 

Our main star in this episode is Uryu, however, as we go through a massive sequence that's original to the anime. Fresh off his victory over Haschwalth, zips down into the giant orb of deathly distortion, summons his fancy new four-pronged bow, and starts shooting arrows into it. The arrows whirl around the giant death-orb, and Uryu notes that this is exactly as his master (his grandfather) wrote. Utterly unexpectedly, the two best characters in Bleach, Pesche and Dondochaka show up. They were apparently caught up in the 'black eyeballs' and got teleported there. Which I guess are the portals that were opened a couple episodes by the science team? 

But much more exciting is the arrival of Neliel and... Harribel! There's a bit of a comedic bit from Pesche where he accuses Uryu at ogling Nel's adult form. Harribel is completely no-nonsense, pointing her giant shark-bone-sword at Uryu's face. Which, fair enough, he is a Quincy and even though Harribel has been out of the loop, her being suspicious would be entirely proper. Kyoraku and Nanao then show up, leading to a three-way meeting between the Shinigami, Hollows, and (a) Quincy. 

And can I just say how cool it is for Tier Harribel to have a large-ish role here? They didn't have to do this. They could've just had Harribel be freed in the epilogue and called it a day. But I've always had a huge soft spot for the Espada, and seeing Harribel get extended screentime where she had nothing in the manga is great. 

We get a brief cutaway to a whole ton of Hollow rampaging and destroying the Rukongai, with Akon and the rest of the science team remarking about how this appears to be stabilizing the distortion as best as they could, and while the destruction of the poor Rukongai to be a necessary evil. There's some discussion about how Shinigami need to ensure balance, although I don't think 'maybe Rukongai existed just for this moment' makes much sense beyond the Shinigami telling themselves that to feel better. 

We then get Kyoraku and Harribel both commenting on the big orb of doom, and Uryu identifies it as a 'final arrow' by Juhabach to trigger the collapse of the Three Worlds. And Uryu makes it clear that his duty and objectives as the Last Quincy is to destroy that Seed of Distortion. We get a flashback to Ishida Soken, Uryu's grandfather, apparently being the one to have discovered this distortion with his experimentation... and inadvertently caused this to be known to Juhabach. Soken notes that there might be a way to destroy the Seed of Distortion by driving it into the distortion itself. A bunch of handwave-y explanations that I have watched a couple of times and shrugged, but essentially it gives Uryu a game plan. 

The whole Seed of Distortion stuff is admittedly still a bit of a random plot device from out of nowhere, but we at least get some modicum of explanation and exposition this time around. I'm not the biggest fan of it, but I can see how it works around the explanation for Uryu's big moment in this episode, and at least one aspect of Juhabach's plans to merge the three worlds -- even if he seems perfectly capable of doing it on his own with just his Auswahlen powers. 

There's a bit of a 'tough guy' act from some of the parties involved, but ultimately the various factions decide to work together to enact Uryu's plan -- drop the castle down into the distortion. Uryu plans to drop the central tower of the five-pointed Soul Palace (apparently the other four mini-palaces keep the central structure floating in the skies? ....sure?). In an adaptation of the silly unexplained bombs from the manga, Uryu gives out 'Leiden Scherben', Quincy explosives that break down and scatter reishi. Uryu's allies will go around to tear down the bridges of Wahrwelt to drop the central castle. 

We cut back to Juhabach and Ichigo, where after the previous episode, Ichigo is basically in complete shock while Juhabach does an evil villain monologue. We get a short but powerful monologue from Ichigo, who notes that everyone there has had their powers rendered ineffective... and Juhabach attempts to take back the power he has given to Ichigo. I'm not sure if it actually worked or not, but Juhabach draws in power from Ichigo and Blut Vene appears all over Ichigo's body. As per Ichigo's flashbacking to the origin of his Quincy powers, Juhabach is drawing the Quincy-Hollow powers into himself, and Ichigo's hollow horn shatters. 

Shadowy goop comes out and creates a gigantic halo, and this slams down all over the battlefield. Everything is bathed in vague purple light... and sadly, this does mean that the Gerard Valkyrie fight ends the same way, without even the slightest bit of extra scene for Byakuya/Hitsugaya/Kenpachi to do something against Gerard and his heart. Boo! Boo boo!

(At least this time it does seem to be Juhabach unwittingly hitting the other Schutzstaffel in the crossfire while draining Ichigo, instead of him grabbing the villain ball). 

As the church-bells sound and Gerard gets atomized into a skeleton, the Auswahlen also slams onto the Lille Barro birds, wiping them out of existence while a confused Izuru Kira looks. It's...  it's a bit of a little bugbear for me, too, that we didn't even get a token scene of Kira fighting the Lille birds. We don't have to get a proper fight, just to see Kira clash maybe once or twice with the Lille birds. There were enough random scenes with the science team that I'm sure it could've been snuck in. 

More importantly, Mimihagi around Ukitake explodes and Ukitake presumably dies properly in this episode... but Kyoraku raises his hand, which contains a fragment of Mimihagi... and that shadow morphs into a mass of energy, and then an eyeball, and gets sucked in by Juhabach as well. What this means, and why Ukitake needed to entrust that power to Kyoraku, I'm not sure... but I really do appreciate the added Kyoraku/Ukitake stuff and hope that all of this builds to a less ass-pull-y finale for how they defeat the Almighty. 

Juhabach, fully empowered as thus, flies up above the Wahrwelt and notes about how his plan is entering fruition as the Seed blooms, and as he's about to make an offering to the 'chaotic tranquility'. 

(I will still be critical and note that the anime still doesn't explain why Juhabach needs to do a second Auswahlen to get rid of Gerard and Lille, which still feels as random as it was in the original manga. I can infer stuff, but it still feels rather random._

It's at this point that the five bridges blow up as Uryu's allies detonate the bridges, and Uryu flies in from the skies. And as if he's a goddamn proper main character this time around, Uryu challenges Juhabach. And as Uryu and Juhabach prepare to fight, we get a cute scene of Dondochakka's giant pet Hollow worm, Bawabawa, evacuating the rest of the main cast. 

Uryu and Juhabach fight, with Juhabach outspeeding Uryu handily... but then a gigantic blast of water slams onto Juhabach as Tier Harribel joins the battle! That's so awesome. Underused characters actually participating in big fights? I guess the Espada rightfully is more popular even among the writers and animation staff compared to the XCution or Visored. 

And Harribel just keeps slamming large amounts of water onto Juhabach. Nelliel charges in with Super Acceleration, although she gets pierced on the side. It is quite cool, since Nel did absolutely nothing but stand around and evacuate people in the manga version of the arc. Juhabach mocks the 'King of the Arrancar', noting the sheer gulf between their powers. Harribel cares not for power level gaps, or of the title of 'King'. 

Harribel and Neliel are completely outmatched, mind you. Juhabach is right. But it's still cool to see old school Bleach attacks as Harribel drops a Cascada on Juhabach, dodges some black shadow tendrils before being pierced. Uryu uses Feder Zwinger to break down the reishi of Wahrwelt to create a gigantic arrow, and does a massive combo attack with Nelliel's Lanzador Verde... the scene moves between multiple projectiles and it's a bit odd, but as Juhabach queries whether this is the 'future that Uryu has chosen', Uryu goes "I haven't chosen yet!" So... uncertainty works to work around the Allmighty? Lanzador Verde slams onto Juhabach and seems to stun him for a bit. 

Juhabach notes about how futile this is, and uses his powers to 'break the arrow of hope'... but then, Uryu finally, finally shows off why Antithesis is actually important to fight against Juhabach. 

In the face of Juhabach's future-swapping abilities, Uryu notes that he could already see that the future's going to be swapped... and he uses Antithesis to reverse the futures, restoring the arrow that Juhabach broke. It breaks apart and swarms around the Seed of Destruction, finally sending the Royal Palace descending down into the giant void in space. 

Again, this is cool. In the manga, Uryu barely gets to use his Antithesis powers, but everyone keeps calling him as some kind of special Quincy. Uryu actually having the power to defy Almighty with Antithesis, and his still-unexplained immunity/survival of the Auswahlen (which I really hope the anime explains) really does make it understandable why he's super crucial to defeating Juhabach, instead of it feeling arbitrary. The added Uryu fight scenes against Squad Zero, Renji and Ichigo, of course, most certainly helped out too. I know I did complain a bit across my reviews about some things that could've been extended, like the Visored, or Gerard, or whatever.... but Uryu definitely is someone who went out of this new rewrites with a massive victory. 

As the Seed of Distortion falls into the distortion itself, and Juhabach mocks Uryu that this is going to blow up the Seireitei... Uryu uses Antithesis to swap some stuff. With the trinkets that Uryu and Neliel has thrown around, Uryu swaps Juhabach and traps him within the explosion, while teleports the Arrancar into safety. And then with a gigantic amount of Feder Zwingers that take the form of like, mummy bandages, Uryu wraps everything around the gigantic explosion to contain it. The interlocking Quincy arrows is some over-the-top CGI stuff, but it looks impressive enough. Uryu gets a pretty cool Dragon Ball Z style yelling, before the explosion happens. 

And Uryu falls out of the sky, and just like Orihime a couple of episodes ago, this feels like a victory. But then Juhabach appears in the sky, laughs, and notes that this alters nothing of the future he had planned. Can't... can't Uryu just Antithesis this again? But sure. I get where they are going for with this, and we could handwave it as Uryu just losing power. 

Juhabach boasts as eyeballs appear all over his body that 'all Schrifts have sublimated' within him, and that the final end and beginning is about to happen. With the distortion plan gone, Juhabach walks into a portal and heads down to the Soul Society. This happens in the manga, too, but felt random and arbitrary. 

While I'm still a bit salty about some choices, I really do appreciate that the anime is really showing off some characters that really deserved better. Harribel, Nel and Kyoraku all having stuff to do is absolutely welcome, but Uryu getting a proper huge gambit to fight against Juhabach is great. I also really like that between the Antithesis powers of Uryu and the whole Mimihagi gambit by Ukitake and Kyoraku, that we're slowly building up various other ways to properly get around The Almighty beyond just a vague handwave of 'plot device magic arrow'.

This episode does feel a bit clunky, and if we're being honest a couple of the changes are quick handwaves just to give us some popular characters returning as a bit of a fanservice... but I can't lie; I did really enjoy all the returning characters and the huge Uryu moment. It feels like they could've did some work to make the pacing work better, but otherwise it's still a nice episode. 

Random Notes:

• Kyoraku and Ukitake getting extra scenes is most welcome. One could already make an argument that Kyoraku had his big moment, and Ukitake's big moment comes off a lot better now that the anime equivalent of that scene has a flashback attached to it. But having a proper conclusion to that is most certainly welcome. 
  
• And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Ukitake getting a proper close-out is probably a nod to his upcoming big role in the Hell Arc, whenever that happens. 
• 
  Among the discussion between Kyoraku and ghost!Ukitake, there's  a cute line where Ukitake notes that the chances of their plan working out is the same chance as Kyoraku successfully asking Unohana out on a date. Okay!
• With Xcution really not doing anything more than their manga counterparts in the next episode, I really thought that they could at least help out in laying down the bombs. At least Kujo, Riruka and the Time Tells No Lies guy would have something to do? They would represent the 'Earth' part of the Three Worlds a lot  better than just Uryu alone, at least. 
• It was a bit confusing how Pesche, Dondochakka and Harribel got sucked to the Royal Palace. Pesche claims that some 'black shadowy eyeballs' teleported them there, which seems to imply Juhabach's powers, but considering they were all last seen in Hueco Mundo, and the only portals that opened to Hueco Mundo seem to be the one activated by the Gotei 13... it's just a bit odd. 
• Nanao was fully ready to throw down and Hado the Arrancar if Kyoraku hadn't stepped in. 
• The Gerard fight really does rankle me. Even a couple of extra scenes showing them figuring out that it's the heart that's the source of regeneration and commenting on it would've been something. 
• As Juhabach does that final Auswahlen  and everything goes purple, there's a very cool chanting background music that I think is Never Meant to Belong (?) but with the Auswahlen church bells effect overlaid on top of it. 
• I do like that among the five orbital palaces, we get to see the massive terrain damage caused by Gerard's kaiju fight, as well as Lille's Trompete attack. 
• So despite Renji being cut up into ribbons last episode, I guess only the Bankai parts are broken? Because he seems quite whole on top of Bawabawa. 
• The bangles that Nelliel drops to allow Uryu to use Antithesis are the bangles that prevent her from reverting to her child form... she does get turned back into a kid next episode, so it's a bit... foolish, I would say, to use those when any item would really do. 
• Really love the scene of Uryu swooping in like a damn fighter jet into the glowing yellow explosions of the Seed of Distortion. 
• Rangiku, Momo and motherfucking HANATARO make brief cameos around Byakuya and Hitsugaya as they witness Uryu stopping the big explosion. 
• ...did none of the Shinigami try to help contain the blast? Even with the handwave that the more powerful Arrancar are wounded, the Shinigami no longer have Gerard to deal with, after all...

Bleach TYBW E46 Review: bAlAncing Act

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 46: The End

After 'Life to Defend You', it is a bit jarring (if not unexpected) to return fully to a more straight-up faithful adaptation of the manga material. And this is, admittedly, material that I have complained heavily about. Out of everything in the final chapters for Bleach, these fights are the ones I associate the most with the spiraling mess that the final couple of volumes ended up being. 

But there are two crucial aspects to these fights -- Juhabach's total domination of Ichigo; and the Uryu/Haschwalth Antithesis-Balance fights -- we actually have build-up to them. One major problem of the Juhabach and Ichigo fight in the manga is that we spend so much time building up to Ichigo rebuilding his true Zanpakuto and him running out to the throne room... only for Juhabach to instantly one-shot Ichigo before he even got to do anything with his manga. Having not just 'Life to Defend You' to really show off Ichigo, Orihime and Rukia doing stuff against Juhabach and having a good show before that big moment of domination? That works so much better. It might be a more traditional shonen way of 'the heroes do well until the villain does a power-up', but it is most certainly better than the abrupt nothing of the manga. Juhabach actually having good monologues and properly expounding on his objectives, motivations and values is also nothing special in the grand scheme of action anime, but it does a great job of making me care for this moment. 

And the Uryu/Haschwalth fight is... it's still bad, and it really is eclipsed compared to the fights we saw fragmented throughout the last four or five episodes. But again, at least we have a proper confrontation between the two -- and so it doesn't feel quite as rushed. I still don't like the Uryu/Haschwalth fight and how it ends, but it's something. 

I'm going to cover all the Juhabach-vs-Ichigo material first, then the Uryu-vs-Haschwalth because it's divided quite cleanly between the two. 

Anyway, the episode picks up where we left off, with Orihime's big dramatic sacrifice. And of course it doesn't hold, although I kind of wished that maybe we cut to some of the Uryu/Haschwalth fight to milk the omment a bit more instead of resolving it within five seconds. We get an unexpected cameo by Tatsuki, who feels her best friend's death or something in the human world and walks up to the window and cries. We cut back to the throne room where finally Renji, Chad and Ganju show up and regroup with Ichigo and Rukia, who both disengage their Bankai and inform them of Orihime's sacrifice. I do like that Ganju goes "that means the world is saved, right?" God damn it, Ganju, read the room!

And interestingly -- and probably one of the most interesting scenes for me in this episode -- is Ichigo walking off and saying 'not yet', with his footsteps creating pools and a small lake behind him. All of this culminates to a gigantic curtained throne, presumably the Soul King's throne, manifesting in front of Ichigo. Waterspouts whirl around Ichigo; and all the imagery of the Soul King Adyneus's death in the primordial world has always used lakes and waters. I do hope we do get a brief flashback later on of Ichigo and Ichibei's discussion. Ichibei wanting to groom Ichigo up into the replacement Soul King was always something hinted in the manga (and confirmed in novels and built up in the anime), but I do want to see it spelled out properly.

But then, of course, things don't quite happen that way. The colours distort briefly, ominous music plays, and everyone turns around to see Orihime floating in the sky, all horror movie style. Eyeballs appear and Juhabach reforms. We get the explanation that Juhabach got the full power of The Almighty back (which the voice actor has a great time hamming it up, saying the name of that power) because of the day/night cycle. Which... is a bit anti-climactic since the audience didn't really see that, but sure. 

Juhabach reforms and begins to give a rant about how 'that version of the future has never existed'. This is Juhabach's bullshit The Almighty powers, very JoJo and very nonsensically reality-warping. It's not just the power to see the future (as what we saw with Haschwalth's version of The Almighty) but also the power to jump to other timelines and select them. In the manga the explanation was done well, but the way they got around the Almighty was just a vague handwave and I'm curious to see how they do it now. 

Juhabach unleashes a blast of Conqueror's Haki reishi that forces all the characters other than Ichigo to their knees. Ichigo charges in, and Juhabach knocks Ichigo backwards, showing off his two swords in a hilariously mocking "did you think you are the only one who can wield dual swords?"

Juhabach then goes on his 'grains of sand' monologue, essentially explaining multiverse theory and how Juhabach can jump from one grain of sand to the other to select the futures that he wants, allowing him to reject futures he doesn't want and make a mockery out of the idea of 'hope defying fate'. There is a lot of holes with how this power works, but it's been compared a lot to quicksaving in a video game, and there are a couple of unstated limitations -- clearly there's some wibbly-wobbly memory stuff since Ichigo, Orihime and the rest of the people in that room remember the 'old' grain of sand/timeline; he can't time-travel into the past; and it's clearly not all possibilities if Juhabach can't just select a timeline where he wins.

Juhabach then gives another speech about how the Wahrwelt he's going to create is a world without conflict, similar to what Orihime desires. Ichigo then goes into a speech about how despair has been something he's familiar with, since that's how he continually goes stronger. We get a nice flashback to scenes from the original anime of Ichigo's victories over various opponents, while he's activating the fiery chains of his Bankai. The moon effect happens again, and Ichigo goes into his Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu... 

And it's immediately broken by Juhabach. Juhabach does say that "this is why I needed you, my son"... which the episode doesn't make fully apparent due to the placement of the scenes (there's a huge chunk of dialogue after this on the other side of the battle), but this seems to be talking about Haschwalth instead of Ichigo. Because the Auswahlen happens and kills Haschwalth, and this appears to be how Juhabach manages to break the Bankai. 

So it is the implication that Juhabach needed that little boost (or perhaps The Balance, specifically) to break Ichigo's true Bankai, which is interesting? It does fix a weird plot hole beyond 'Juhabach is being a stupid arrogant idiot' with his random Auswahlen, and does make these scenes more dramatic. Ichigo dramatically explode sin power only for the scene to immediately cut with the blade being snapped in half, and Juhabach dropping the tip of the blade. This is 'respect to Ichigo's power', that it's a powerful Bankai, and he's jumped into a future where he's already broken it. Juhabach then snaps off Ichigo's horn and launches it at him, before beating up Ichigo. 

And now some more anime-original fight scenes, as Renji finally stands up, activates his own Bankai, So'o Zabimaru... and Juhabach teleports behind him. He goes on a deviously assholish speech about how he likes the word 'Bankai' as it's normally associated with hope for the Shinigami, but he's about to one-shot everyone that can do Bankai and make it be despair. We don't see the exact wounds, but as we cut away to Rukia, we see pieces of Renji's bloody limbs fall down onto the ground which is surprisingly brutal. Juhabach then grabs Rukia by the face, and looks like he's about to crush her skull in... although we don't see it happen, we do see Rukia's sword arm visibly snapped like a twig. 

Ganju and Chad also get impaled unceremoniously with shadow-pillars. And Ichigo watches this while Juhabach monologues about how Ichigo could only overcome despair 'simply because I wasn't there'...  the final shot of the episode before credits is a black screen with an amazing pained scream by Ichigo's voice actor Morita Masakazu. 

The other half of the episode is the Uryu/Haschwalth fight. Haschwalth explains that the 'time limit has already passed', and that that he's going to fight with his own powers now. Haschwalth does his manga counterpart's claim that "my original power is more suited for battle than His Majesty's", which... has always felt bullshit whichever version of Juhabach's powers we're talking about, but particularly egregious here. 

The anime doesn't really call it into stark attention here, but Haschwalth also is portrayed and animated as being a lot more stoic and less hammily-mocking as he has been in the past couple of episodes, which I thought was a nice touch to show him when he's being host to Juhabach's powers. 

And Haschwalth's fight against Uryu is... it's animated well. The scenes from the manga are adapted faithfully. I just never found this fight to be particularly engaging, and with this being really the only times we've seen these powers in a full fight (yes, we did see Balance and Antithesis cameo in the Squad Zero fight if you know what you're looking for) it really does take the wind out of the sails. Haschwalth's Balance reflects misfortune back at the opponent, and Uryu's Antithesis can swap events that happen between two objects. It's essentially a game of 'no, you' except Haschwalth has some stuff about how he can absorb damage with his Freund Schild/Friend Shield. There's some nice animation with the giant CGI balance, sure, but while I know why the fight is what it is, it really doesn't leave me much to discuss. 

And Haschwalth does go on one of the 'letter rants', going on and on about the balance and putting everything on the balance. This is something that a lot of the Sternritter does, like As Nodt and Gerard Valkyrie and Mask and Pepe and Askin... but Haschwalth's little rant really does get eclipsed by Juhabach's and it's frankly just not that interesting. There's some nice nods to how humans place right and wrong on a balance and sort out what's right by themselves -- a lot of this really does tie to the Bazz-B relationship, but we don't really get this bit until the very end. And I really feel like Haschwalth has enough of a character buildup from that flashback that we really didn't need to fall back to the writing crutch that's this big theme-motive rant. 

We then get misfortunes and wounds being reversed on each other, and the anime shows off the anime-exclusive scenes from previous cours of Uryu using Antithesis in the Squad Zero fight and earlier in this one. So that's a nice bit -- and I do hope that Antithesis is used a bit more as Uryu is clearly going to be more involved in the finale (and gives more weight about Haschwalth giving the cryptic hint that Uryu might be the only one that has the ability to challenge the Almighty). 

There is one really nice additional scene where Haschwalth compares Uryu to the stupid humans. And then Uryu goes through all of his friends. Ichigo, Rukia, Orihime, Chad and Renji are all idiots. But if being an idiot makes Uryu the same as them... he can live with it. It's a really nice way to showcase Uryu's true loyalties and go through all that 'nakama' stuff. Not the most revolutionary, again, but quite needed here -- particularly with the Haschwalth/Bazz-B contrast at the end. Especially with Uryu comparing himself to being a cold intellectual like Haschwalth, who puts things on balances. 

Haschwalth questions what merit these bonds have, since Uryu has gained such an immense boost in power and ability by simply being associated with Juhabach, but Uryu is adamant that his bonds and his friendship are more important. Of course, this is right when Juhabach does his Auswahlen and kills Haschwalth, and that there's no need for 'self-interest' because they are friends.

(It is also nice that only Haschwalth is shown being Auswahlen'ed here, instead of alongside Gerard, which adds to the dramatic moment here). 

And of course, Haschwalth lies there dying, and Uryu kneels next to him. Haschwalth goes on a bit of a last-minute rant about how he's totally proud of his status, how his was the power that Juhabach decided to take, and how he could be of service to His Majesty. But on the same breath, he also tells Uryu to use Antithesis to transfer his wounds to the dying Haschwalth, and he flashes back to his own friend who he betrayed for power and out of impulse -- to young Bazz-B -- and the last shot of that post-credits scene is the little logo that they had as a child. 

And honestly? 

This was great. There was a lot of expansion for Juhabach's dialogue, of course. Him mocking the concept of Bankai, and having a slight theme hammering the 'despair and hope' on Ichigo really does work well, particularly building up on the previous one. Juhabach breaking the Bankai after we saw what Ichigo could do with it, and also seemingly massacring the rest of Ichigo's friends works a lot better as a gigantic gut-punch. But I do really feel like while the actual Uryu/Haschwalth fight is still kind of lame, the conclusion and the little discussion between them is well-done. Having Uryu actually have stuff to say about his own friendship and having it be the one that shakes Haschwalth... and particularly having Haschwalth's death tie into the Juha/Ichigo fight is nicely done. 

It's still not perfect and I can still poke a lot of holes in the Juhabach/Haschwalth power sharing dynamic and The Almighty in general, but overall? A nice execution if they really had to keep all of the scenes in the manga intact during the adaptation. 

Random Notes:

• Oh, there's also a brief moment in the middle of the episode of Akon and company in the lab, trying to figure out stuff about the reishi imbalance. They discuss how they need a large amount of energy to solve the reishi imbalance, and Akon falls on the solution of opening a gate to Hueco Mundo. This is an unexpected but very welcome return to how the Arrancar and Hueco Mundo were kind of built up in the beginning of the arc but we never really got any follow-up to that. 
• There are some theories out there between episodes 45 and 46 that Uryu putting the Leiden Hant on Haschwalth to dispel his Almighty powers is what caused Juhabach to regain those powers, and... it does push some blame to poor Uryu, but I do like it as an explanation a lot better than 'oops, it's no longer night in this strange spirit-world where you don't really see the sky'. 
• Previous episodes have shown shots of the human world where Karin and Yuzu are reacting to massive unexplained earthquakes; or Tessai, Ururu and Jinta fighting Hollows. It is a bit weird that Tatsuki was literally just sleeping through the whole damn thing and the skies outside her house is just rainy.
  
• We do get a lot of Ichigo/Orihime shipping moments in the last couple of episodes which does explain the big love-triangle choice, but I do like the brief bit where Renji rushes over to Rukia's side in this one. 
• After all the hullaballoo with Byakuya telling Rukia that her Bankai needs care to disengage, Rukia just does so basically instantly here. Although I suppose it isn't particularly uncommon in Bleach that power-ups that are supposed to have drawbacks get instantly handwaved by the next appearance. 
• I like that out of the characters around, Renji immediately goes to realizing and pointing out that this might be something that the 'damned priest' Ichibei is doing. 
• With how serious Juha has been throughout this whole final fight, I really loved his sass with mocking Ichigo's dual swords. 
• The fight also has Uryu show off his new four-pronged bow, which... kind of feels really lackluster after him showing off far more elaborate forms and abilities throughout the past dozen episodes or so with his Vollstandig. 
• The manga version of the Juhabach/Ichigo fights has Juhabach lay down explosive traps, but while the explosions are still retained in the anime, it's just rolled into the rest of Juhabach's generic-big-bad-anime-powerhouse abilities instead of changing the future to lay traps... which is absolutely a good change. 
• The addition of the previous fight does make it kind of funny when we get the manga dialogue of Uryu asking Haschwalth if he "wants to see [his] Schrift" and Haschwalth saying that he would've used it earlier in the fight if it was enough to beat him. Except Uryu did use the Antithesis to get the Leiden Hant on him. So this dialogue is kind of off. 
• I know how Antithesis worked so I have been looking for moments where Uryu is using it, but I wished that the flashback to the previous episode actually showed the glove materializing around Haschwalth's hand to properly show off the Antithesis. 
• Ganju is 10000% absent from Uryu's list of his comrades, but that honestly makes sense and I genuinely don't think Ganju deserves to be in that room. Not over so many other characters running around the battlefield at the moment. 
• Ichigo's Tensa Zangetsu in this episode is 100% identical to the blade we see in the manga's version of this scene, which is noticeably different from his dual-horned, spade-blade Bankai last episode. The huge red fiery effects from the anime is still here, though, which confused me for a bit into thinking that Ichigo's Bankai is just revised. But apparently it's a Bankai with multiple forms?
• Notably, while Ichigo does say 'Bankai' last episode, he never identifies it as 'Tensa Zangetsu'. 
• Orihime's powers from last episode is given the name Rokutenshinshun in the cutaways.