Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 -28

Right off the bat, let’s be on the same page about a few things. First and foremost, previously, the Thousand-Year Blood War reviews were written by the late Nicholas Dupree. While I didn’t know him personally, I’ve read a great deal of his writing and have a lot of respect for him. But at the risk of derailing this review into an essay about my complicated feelings about doing this, I’ll just say that while I wish Nick was still writing these reviews, I’m going to do my best.

Secondly, I know if you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance that you’ve read ahead in the Bleach manga—in fact, by this point, you very well might’ve finished it completely. I, however, haven’t. And I’ve done a pretty good job of dodging spoilers! I know the main ships that end up being canon, and that’s it. I’m an anime-only, and I know plenty of other people in the comment section will be fellow anime-onlies. So please be considerate—no manga spoilers, please and thanks.

So on that note: how were the first two episodes of Thousand-Year Blood War season 3?

One cool new opening (maybe my favorite of the Thousand-Year Blood War openings thus far) and not-so-brief recap later, we’re right back where we left off: Yhwach still fighting Ichibei, and Senjumaru still fighting Uryu and Jugram. Cool as the fight ended up being, “the nine years of Yhwach gathering his strength just so happened to end now, how convenient!” is such an anti-climactic reason to keep Yhwach fighting. It feels like a lazy cop-out, and I’d be angrier about it if I couldn’t stop thinking about the visual spectacle that is Ichibei’s powers—his Futen Taisatsu Ryo, specifically.

Thousand-Year Blood War has consistently been such a visual treat so far, and this whole scene really flexed that to its fullest. It honestly might be the best looking segment we’ve seen so far, or at least the most stylish—which is not a title easily won. And this is to say nothing of the scene that happened immediately after. With Ichibei and Senjumaru defeated, Yhwach ascends the stairs—one forming after the other—to reach the Soul King, the camera panning away while a dramatic score plays to show us the ever-shrinking distance between Yhwach and the Soul King. A+ direction here. Pierrot Films is knocking this out of the park.

This is the magnificent note that the first episode ends on. In contrast to this, the second episode is a relentless onslaught of eventfulness that doesn’t give the audience a moment to catch their breath—let alone take a beat to feel the full gravity of what’s going on.

In one episode alone—one singular, ~20ish minute episode—Ichigo and co. finally arrive, just in time for Yhwach to have reached the Soul King. Ichigo and Yhwach have what some might call a fully-fledged battle, but since it doesn’t end very conclusively I’d call it more of a scuffle—an explosive scuffle, but a scuffle nonetheless. We see the various worlds all quaking, and various characters becoming aware in some form or fashion that something big is happening, and they might be under an existential threat. And the aforementioned scuffle ends with Ichigo—seemingly unable to resist his Quincy blood’s hatred of the Soul King—cutting the Soul King in half. The forbidden jolly rancher now fully compromised, Yhwach lords over Ichigo and monologues about how Ichigo’s unique existence allowed him to do this. Another explosion follows, and after a few more shots of people worried that the end could be near, the episode ends.

The breakneck pacing of this episode really does the long-anticipated fight between Ichigo and Yhwach no favors. Like I said before, the audience never really has a moment to soak in what’s going on because so much is happening so quickly. It’s a well-choreographed, and certainly well-animated fight. I’m not denying that. But for a fight that the whole series has been building up to, it feels like they really just let it happen without any fanfare. No moment to let the tension build, no moment to let the audience feel the stress. But not unlike the previous episode, I can’t help but look past this episode’s shortcomings because I’m really curious about what’s going to happen now that the Soul King is seemingly out of the picture.

All in all, this feels like a mostly strong start. A lot has happened in not a lot of time. The pacing feels too fast for my taste, but given how the series has been up until now, it makes me think that this season is going to cover a lot of ground. Either way, there’s a lot of loose story threads hanging right now, and I’m really curious to see where Kubo’s wild ride is going next.

Rating:

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Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict is currently streaming on
Hulu and Disney+.