Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Parts 1 and 2

I suppose I'm late to the Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War party. I remember when I first started watching part one. I was laid up in bed after getting COVID in Las Vegas at a work conference. It took me a while to get back to it, and with part 3 recently finishing up, I decided I'd write down my thoughts on one and two.

If you stopped after Ichigo lost his powers defeating Aizen (or the slow loss as the anime went), he managed to get them back (and more) thanks to the Lost Shinigami Arc. This arc starts like almost every one does: Ichigo is minding his own business and is attacked by a new, unknown enemy. It's pretty standard as Bleach (or most Shonen anime) goes. The Wandenreich, a nation of quincies, has attacked Hueco Mundo and Ichigo, and the company jumps into action to come to the Arrancar's defense. After battling the Wandenreich's remaining quincies, Ichigo has informed the Soul Society is under attack. The worst part? These enemies can steal bankai.

That is the setup for the battle between the Soul Reapers and the Quency I'll avoid getting into any more specifics (for the most part) and now go into my general thoughts on Bleach: TYBW Parts 1 and 2. I will start out by saying I love author Tite Kubo's work. Bleach has always been one of my favorite animes. Unfortunately, I just don't feel this arc is his best work.

First, as far as I've seen, none of this gets circled back to Aizen as part of his mechanizations. While he is involved, the Quincy invasion has nothing to do with him. It seems primarily coincidental that the invasion happened after his capture. Aizen has always been Bleach's mastermind, and it felt like a missed opportunity not to make this part of his backup plan. I haven't read the manga, but I've been told (which I can't attest to the accuracy of) that this is the case, which is sort of depressing.

My next bit of disappointment is the villains. Every time the soul reapers get an edge, Kubo always seems to pull a 'this isn't even my final form' style twist. The worst of which is the aforementioned bankai stealing. <spoiler> It is revealed later that the stolen bankais actually makes the Stern Ritters weaker and prevents them from using their most powerful abilities. </spoiler> This is frankly ridiculous. It's portrayed as the only reason they used this tactic was to bring despair to the soul reapers. I found myself rolling my eyes numerous times. I find other items like this equally silly, but I won't bring them up here.

There are a few other twists I'm not super fond of, but I won't bring them up here because they are massive spoilers.

With all that negative stuff out of the way, this is still Bleach, and I still love it. The battles are fantastic, and according to Kubo, they are only properly displayed in the anime. You watch some of our favorite characters (besides Ichigo) grow and get stronger, particularly Kenpachi (who has the best story of the arc), Rukia, and Renji. The story about Squad Zero is also interesting but equally frustrating and a little contrived. There are some heartbreaking losses, but those characters generally go out with a bang and get good endings or the sort of ending that makes you want to watch Ichigo and company kick bad guy ass. Uryu is being an idiot again, and I can't say I'm really surprised. He never seems to make the right choices, so what I see here is par for the course, although it's sad he's reverting back to his old loner tricks. Except for the beginning in the physical world and in Hueco Mundo, Chad, and Orihime are mostly just there, with them playing more of a role in Part 3. Ichigo's other friends are there, too, and actually play more of a role than Chad and Orihime, which is nice to see.

I love every moment of this arc, even with its rough spots. It's nice to have Beach back. I look forward to part 3 (which is out now on Hulu) and will add a new post for specific reactions to part 3 and part 4 once it's fully released.

How do you feel about Bleach: TYBW? Let us know in the #anime-manga-chat in the Blade's Edge Media Discord.