Bleach – Thousand-Year Blood War 1×41 Review: “God of Thunder”

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War anime returned with Cour 4 ‘The Calamity’, starting with episode 41, titled ‘God of Thunder’. I’m so excited about all the developments that are about to take place!

‘God of Thunder’ picked up from right where Cour 3 concluded with episode 40 ‘My Last Words’ in December 2024, featuring Uryu vs Haschwalth and Askin vs Yoruichi. Of course, Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime had to keep moving forward to confront a “sleeping” Yhwach. I liked the sigh of relief from Orihime as the trio ran up the numerous stairs to Yhwach’s throne room. Orihime knew that Uryu hadn’t changed sides. She never doubted his loyalty. But it was still good to see him stand against Yhwach’s forces in-person.

With Ichigo and his friends nearing the throne room, a bunch of giant statues attacked the crew. Due to Chad deciding to hold off the statues and asking Ichigo to keep going, the manga had that particular battle occur off-panel, with Chad being assisted by Ganju. I still remember how disappointed I was by the creative team not giving Chad a shining moment during the TYBW arc in the manga. So, I have my fingers crossed that we will get to see Chad and Ganju defeat a couple of statues in the anime, even if for just a few seconds of screentime.

Will Ichigo and Orihime be able to face Yhwach by themselves? Well, Cour 4 consists of 10 episodes. And that means that Yhwach isn’t going to be defeated anytime soon. Having said that, I’m very excited about Ichigo and Orihime vs Yhwach because of what Orihime managed to do during the fight in the manga. Let’s see how the anime decides to adapt that amazing moment.

Coming back to Uryu and Haschwalth, the All-Mighty Ability understandably proved OP for Uryu to counter. But I liked how Uryu still tried to find a weakness. His strategy of attacking Haschwalth from all sides to limit any chances of Haschwalth dodging his arrows made sense.

Their conversation led to Haschwalth sharing more details about Yhwach’s plan. From what I could understand, Yhwach wanted to destroy the world of the living, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo to obtain a clean slate for creating a new world in his own image. Now, trying to recreate the world isn’t the most original motivation for a villain, but then again, I have always found Yhwach to be a bland bad guy. So, his uninspired motivations tracked for me. I just can’t take Yhwach seriously, as far as characterization is concerned.

I might be wrong, but I don’t remember such a conversation taking place in the manga. So, yay to the Bleach TYBW creative team continuing to treat fans to additional content.

Jumping to the second major battle, we had Yourichi and Askin. Even though Yoruichi was fast and powerful, Askin’s ability to poison his opponents was no laughing matter. It’s one of those annoying abilities that could bring even the strongest to their knees. That’s why, narratively, Kisuke had to appear to lend Yoruichi a hand. I liked how Kisuke only gave Yoruichi temporary immunity against Askin’s potent poison ability instead of a substance that would make it seem that Yoruichi’s lightning-producing power-up was because of him and not her own power.

Yoruichi fans had been wondering about how the anime would adapt the fanservice-y battle between Askin and Yoruichi’s Thunder God form. A bunch of those manga panels were quite… hmmm.

Well, it turns out that such fans had nothing to worry about because the anime decided to go all in on the fanservice while depicting Yoruichi using her Raijin Senkei Shunryu Kokubyo Senki against Askin. And you know what? I can’t complain because she looked good!

I have always said that I’m (more or less) okay with Bleach creator Tite Kubo bringing fanservice to the table because he balanced having his female characters be scantily clad with giving them impressive feats of power. Frankly, I would rather other creators also went down a similar route instead of always falling back on using their female characters for fanservice while also having them play damsels in distress.

The anime did an amazing job of depicting Yoruichi’s major amp and visualizing all of the lightning effects around her.

Just look at this clip!

The Thunder God form allowed Yoruichi to injure Askin because her spiritual pressure changed 48 times in a single second. Meaning that Askin didn’t have enough time to come up with a way to neutralize her erratic spiritual pressure.

However, the Thunder God form came with a drawback. The boost made Yoruichi give in to her feline tendencies. Yoruichi acted so much like a cat that there was a moment where she lost interest in attacking Askin because she got distracted. Yoruichi also focused on landing attacks and playing with her foe instead of being strategic about her moves.

Even though Yoruichi did well against Askin, you could tell her upper hand against Askin wouldn’t last long. Not only was Kisuke’s antidote against Yoruichi’s initial paralysis temporary (apparantly, it would only last for 5 minutes), but we had yet to witness Askin unleash his Vollstandig. You could tell Askin was going to play his trump card after being tossed around by Yoruichi. And he finally did.

Askin’s Vollstandig was called Hass Hein. From what I could gather, Askin didn’t like the way it made him look, but it did allow him to turn the tables on Yoruichi and Kisuke, especially with the antidote running out and halting Yoruichi in her tracks.

‘God of Thunder’ concluded with Askin trapping Kisuke and a paralyzed/poisoned Yoruichi in his Gift Ball Deluxe sphere. Kisuke was part of Yhwach’s list of Five Special War Threats because of Kisuke’s unpredictability during a confrontation. So, you know Kisuke’s not going down easy.

The battles have only begun to heat up, with a bunch of characters being forced to give it their all for a chance at survival or ensuring the survival of their teammates. And again, I can’t wait to see Orihime fight Yhwach!

Did you watch Bleach Thousand Year Blood War anime episode 41? What did you think of it?

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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