Bleach – Thousand-Year Blood War 1×36 Review: “Baby, Hold Your Hand 2 (Never Ending My Dream)”

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War anime episode 36, titled ‘Baby, Hold Your Hand 2 (Never Ending Dream)’, was one of the more emotionally charged installments during the current arc as it focused on Mayuri and Nemu’s relationship.

With Mayuri deciding to fight Pernida in episode 34 ‘Baby, Hold Your Hand’, episode 36 continued said battle-to-the-death as Pernida managed to destroy Mayuri’s Ashisogi Jizo from the inside. I liked how their confrontation featured a whole lot of science talk as Mayrui thought of different ways to defeat Pernida’s abilities focused on extending his nerves to take control of opponents and inorganic matter. It was similar to how Ywach was able to take control of Ichigo’s arm to slash the Soul King in episode 28. Also, kudos to the animation department for delivering on the body horror elements featured during the current fight.

Due to Mayuri being pushed into a corner and coming close to dying, it made sense for Nemu to step in to save her creator. Even though Mayuri hadn’t ordered Nemu to behave in such a manner, Nemu had evolved uniquely over the years. Her evolution included the ability to think and make her own decisions.

I liked how Mayuri reacted to Nemu displaying her free will. On one hand, he was annoyed due to Nemu not following his orders, but on the other hand, you could tell he was also a proud parent during that particular moment. Nemu’s backstory in this week’s episode showed that Mayrui’s dream as a genius scientist was to create life and it involved being able to create a being capable of free will. After a string of failed experiments, Nemu was experiment No 7 and, as of now, the only one of Mayuri’s creations to have evolved in such a manner.

Even though Mayuri’s been shown to not care about others in his pursuit of scientific innovation, I do feel he cared about Nemu in his own weird way. Yes, he didn’t want her dying because creating another Nemu would take a lot of work (especially replicating the experiences she’s had), but he had also overseen her growth from a test tube to (kind of) adult woman. She was Mayuri’s dream. As long as she lived, Mayuri continued to experience seeing his dream be reality. Her death would mean the death of his dream-like state.

I like how well Mayuri and Nemu worked together as a dream. And I wish we had gotten to see more of that in the Bleach IP. But yeah, the narrative made it quite clear that it was time for Nemu to sacrifice herself to save Mayuri. And she did just that. From what I could understand, she gave up her body’s ability to function to unleash a devastating energy attack on Pernida. However, her effort was in vain as Pernida was a foe that needed to be exterminated at a cellular level. The Soul King’s Left Arm/Quincy was capable of regrowing into another huge hand from a broken piece of himself. Not only that but he could also reform into its original body when blasted into pieces. Again, kudos to the animation team for the body horror.

You could tell something was up when Mayuri encouraged Pernida to continue eating Nemu’s body. Mayuri made sure to keep Nemu’s brain away from Pernida and with good reason. It’s revealed that Nemu’s body underwent rapid cell growth. Only her brain could keep the growth under check. So, with Pernida having consumed Nemu’s body, but not her brain, his body experienced rapid cellular growth until he exploded.

So, yeah, that’s one more powerful Quincy down but not without the good guys taking a blow during the process. Mayuri and Kenpachi had sustained grave injuries. But at least, we got a now un-zombified Toshiro Hitsugaya and Rangiku Matsumoto joining the battlefield.

As for Nemu’s brain, I mean, with Mayuri keeping it safe from Pernida, you know he will manage to create another body for her soon enough.

I also liked the scene where Mayuri saw a hallucination of Szayelaporro Granz. According to Granz, Mayuri shouldn’t despair over Nemu’s death. Scientists should never settle for perfect. Perfection was supposed to be boring and it meant that there wasn’t room for advancement. Nemu’s death meant that Mayuri could make a better version of her. It was a cold conversation, considering Nemu’s a living being (I mean, as “living” as one could be as a Shinigami). But I could see where Granz was coming from.

The episode concluded with Giselle and Liltotto arriving at Yhwach’s keep. Giselle summoned Meninas, Candice, and Bambietta to fight the foot soldiers. Bazz-B sneaked up on Haschwalth.

Sigh! I feel bad for the rebels. There’s no chance they can win against Yhwach and Haschwalth.

What did you think of Bleach TYBW anime episode 36 ‘Baby, Hold Your Hand 2 (Never Ending My Dream)’?

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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