Bleach – Thousand-Year Blood War 1×29 and 1×30 Review: “The Dark Arm” and “The Betrayer”

With Yhwach having forced Ichigo to break the Soul King in half, Bleach Thousand Year Blood War episode 29 ‘The Dark Arm’ and episode 30 ‘The Betrayer’ were about finding a way to preserve the Soul King and addressing Ishida switching sides.

‘The Dark Arm’ was quite flashback-heavy as it focused on Ukitake revealing his destiny. As a young boy with an incurable lung disease, Ukitake’s parents took him to Mimihagi’s shrine and prayed for their son to be saved. Mimihagi, who happened to be the Soul King’s right hand, granted the wish. However, there was a catch. Ukitake was living on borrowed time and now he needed to play a role in saving the Soul King.

I liked how the writers handled the dynamic between Ukitake and his best friend Shunsui. The two had very different personalities but still managed to form a strong bond over the years. Their little conversation with Unohana was also fun. Shunsui knew not to mess with her. There was also a private moment between Ukitake and Unohana where he said they’ll meet each other soon. So, of course, that particular line of dialogue has led the fandom to believe that we will be getting the highly-anticipated Hell Arc down the line.

With Ukitake sacrificing his entire body to Mimihagi to have the Godly right arm emerge and keep the Soul King together, Ichigo and his crew continued to fight Yhwach. Even though Yoruichi’s plan to have Orihime use her powers to reconstruct the Soul King didn’t work, I did notice how Yoruichi picked up on Yhwach’s future sight not being able to see Mimihagi entering the picture. Apparantly, Yhwach’s All Mighty had a weakness when Gods were involved.

Even though I’m a fan of Orihime, I do think her abilities not being able to “heal” the Soul King made sense. There’s a difference between having God-like powers and being an actual God. Orihime’s abilities were OP, but at the end of the day, she was human. Yhwach also experienced something similar. Yes, he was able to predict all possible futures. But when actual Gods were involved, he failed to anticipate Ukitake giving up his life to summon Mimihagi.

Also, don’t worry Orihime fans, she will showcase something awesome before the Thousand Year Blood War arc ends. And with how the narrative has anime-only content, I wouldn’t be surprised if she displays more examples of how powerful she is before that inevitably happens.

Due to Ukitake’s body not capable of serving as a permanent host to prevent the worlds from being destroyed, ‘The Dark Arm’ and ‘The Betrayer’ had the good guys in Soul Society trying to think of a backup plan to stabilize the realms. One such secret plan involved Shunsui paying Aizen a visit. I think fans were expecting Aizen to be placed back on the board during the current arc. He’s too powerful a character to not use against Yhwach.

The creative team did a great job maintaining Aizen’s aura even though he had been sealed inside the Muken. You just can’t keep someone like Aizen down. He’s too powerful and too smart. And with Shunsui unlocking a couple of Aizen’s seals and bringing him to the surface, I’m looking forward to seeing what Aizen decides to do. He can’t allow Yhwach to destroy everything and create a new world order in his image.

‘The Betrayer’ was about Yhwach wanting to get rid of the right arm holding the Soul King temporarily in place while Ichigo and his friends tried to keep him at bay. And while I feel Ichigo and the others could have figured something out (Yoruichi mentioned disintegrating him), they lost the battle the moment Yhwach’s Royal Guard showed up.

Ishida kept Ichigo busy while the rest of the Royal Guard fought Yoruichi, Chad, Orihime, and Ganju. You could tell our heroes weren’t going to win this one. But at least they tried to put up a good fight against such strong opponents. The battle sequence with Chad, Orihime, and Ganju wasn’t in the manga. So, yay to the anime giving them more to do. Ganju’s not the most powerful fighter, but he’s got a bunch of tricks up his sleeve. Also, Orihime blocked Gerard’s attack. I don’t know why she didn’t send the attack flying back at him. But oh well. Chad also managed to block an incoming strike.

As for Ishida vs Ichigo, our stressed-out lead had a whole lot to deal with. Not only was Ichigo the reason the Soul King was in such a dire state, but he also had to knock some sense into Ishida. Ichigo refused to believe that Ishida would side with the Quincy even though Ishida explained that he was unable to forgive the Shinigami for targeting the Quincy. It was time for the Quincy to rise up and get rid of the Shinigami once and for all.

Seeing Ishida’s Vollständig in the anime was cool. The animators gave us some intense choreography as Ishida tried to hurt his opponent while Ichigo found himself unable to properly attack his friend. And though Ishida won their fight in the end, I do think the fact he decided to take a chunk of meat from Ichigo’s side instead of aiming for the head or the heart showcased that Ishida was playing the long game. Again, there’s no way someone like Ishida would side with Yhwach. But he needed to injure Ichigo to cement his place in the Royal Guard.

And yes, I remember that Ichigo was pierced by Ishida’s arrow in the manga. However, the anime raised the stakes by having Ishida gravely injure Ichigo. I mean, Orihime can easily heal him. But still seeing Ichigo like that made sense. Ishida wasn’t playing around (or at least, he was pretending not to). He wanted Ichigo to stay away.

‘The Betrayer’ concluded with Yhwach managing to destroy the right arm and absorbing the Soul King. Such a turn of events was obviously going to give Yhwach a power boost. 

As of right now, our heroes are down. They will need to regroup and come up with a proper plan to face the likes of Yhwach and his Royal Guard. So you know that some epic battles are incoming. 

What did you think of ‘The Dark Arm’ and ‘The Betrayer’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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