From the very beginning of the episode, BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, Part 3: The Conflict Episode 33 broke from the manga and began altering the story in some fantastic ways. The episode brought us a brand new fight featuring characters I didn’t expect to see face off and made some massive alterations to the timeline of overall events in this arc of the series.
The end result was an episode with a lot of motion. When I say motion I don’t simply mean action in the literal sense, but also movement of the plot instead of a building up of existing foundations. The prior two episodes were more of that role, and the work they put in is steadily beginning to pay off now.
Last episode focused primarily on some reintroductions and preparations for a battle across the Quincy’s newly erected city and castle. It brought the return of two arrancar, Nel and Grimmjow, and two of the Fullbringers, Riruka and Yukio, adding more manpower to Ichigo’s group and bringing the species count of the anti-Yhwach squad even higher.
The episode retained some of the comedic moments from the manga that I’d expected to see some cuts to and overall was a nice re-introduction for some characters. I did, however, feel it start to drag in the second half, leaving me really hungry for some action and motion rather than exposition and characters expressing their shock at how powerful Yhwach had become.
This episode brought it. I was thoroughly impressed with what I saw and left it a lot more satisfied than I was with episode 32.
Spoilers ahead for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, Part 3: The Conflict Episode 7 “GATE OF THE SUN”
Storming Wahr Welt
I have some gripes with this section and some things that have bothered me for a bit. While I understand that much of the travel around Welt necessarily will include running, two aspects of it stuck out to me. For one, I’m finding the running animations and backgrounds slightly clunky and slow-moving. At this point in the series, I’m expecting nearly all of the regulars to move fairly quickly, with the fast pace of the movement adding energy to scenes like Grimmjow chasing Askin and hyping up what is otherwise literally two people running down a street.
I feel like even some of the earliest fights in BLEACH made use of flash step animations and sounds to communicate chases quite well, so I was surprised such things didn’t get more use here. In the manga, backgrounds during these chase scenes consisted primarily of speed lines, so this feels like a bit of a miss in terms of adaptation. Secondly, while I appreciate characters like Chad, Ganju, and Orihime, I’m finding it a bit difficult to suspend my disbelief when it comes to them being remotely relevant in battle.
Orihime at the very least has a superb ability to reverse injuries, which makes sense when employed outside of battles. But during combat, and during scenes when characters are supposedly rushing and running their fastest, it just doesn’t make sense for them to be lockstep with someone like Ichigo or the Arrancar. A relatively specific gripe, but one that was extra irritating this episode.
Outside of that, the first half of the episode was fine, especially given how funny Askin is. I’ve also got some curiosity around exactly what Haschwalth was looking at in the scene with a giant orb. The second half and its fight certainly carried things though. I did appreciate how Lille Barro’s sniping scene was animated, especially with the addition of things that the manga didn’t have like a slow breath before firing off a shot. It served as an excellent transition from Lille targeting the Soul Reapers to Renji being confronted with a burst of arrows from Uryu.
A Brand New Fight
And this is where the episode really began. From the very beginning, some of my concerns from the first half were handled as Renji immediately starts moving quickly to dodge arrows and close the distance while he’s still using just his Shikai. As combatants, Renji and Uryu are actually a more interesting matchup than they might seem at first glance. Like Ichigo, Renji immediately moved to try and turn the fight into a close range one when fighting a Quincy.
Uryu seems to have gained some dexterity and skill with using his bow at close range and has his new ability to fire arrows from his hands and feet even without a bow, something which let him tangle with Ichigo pretty well. Renji, however, is one of the few Soul Reapers whose release gives him access to mid range attacks in addition to close range ones via the extension of his sword. Even more, he has ample experience with Senbonzakura’s abilities, which most watchers surely noticed are quite similar to Uryu’s new ones. All in all, it’s a good fight between two people who are comfortable at both close and mid range as well as a better chance to show off a lot more of Renji’s new and improved Bankai.
So-Oh Zabimaru looked absolutely amazing this episode. It’s various powers, all of the different ways it has to hinder Uryu’s range advantage, and Renji’s adept chaining of skills together like a video game player were complemented by solid choreography and an intense battle theme in the background. I especially appreciated some of the shifts in perspective. While I ordinarily prefer anime not to cut away too much before an impact or a hit, I felt like this episode of BLEACH made good use of it to show dynamism and motion rather than using it as a crutch of sorts. Lighting was a strong suit in a fight like this where Uryu’s reishi constructs and Zabimaru have lots of luminescence to them.
Ultimately though, Uryu’s new powers proved to be more than enough to handle even Renij after his training and improved Bankai. The final blows both fighters exchanged and the bevy of new techniques getting shown was amazing overall and definitely demonstrated that both of them have reached some of the highest tiers of strength in the series.
While I don’t believe Renji was holding back nearly to the extent that Ichigo was, it’s clear that he wasn’t taking advantage of what should have been killing blows. Though, rather curiously, it’s clear that whatever Uryu did with his final shot, the arrow didn’t quiet pierce Renji, at least not in a normal way since there’s no hole to be seen on his front.
Closing Thoughts
Big fan of this episode. I’ve no issue with episodes devoted to exposition, setup, and things like them, but I was really wanting action from this one and got that plus the surprise of a brand new fight original to the anime. The fight was animated quite well and really gave Renji a deserved chance to shine and show off his new abilities, even if ultimately it ended up in a loss for him. It was good to see another showing from Uryu as well, who is building up a bit of a winning streak at this point in the anime after having next to no fights at this point in the manga. The next episode will focus on Mayuri, who is always a treat to watch fight, so there’s even more action to come.
© TITE KUBO / SHUEISHA, TV TOKYO, dentsu, Pierrot
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