Bleach – Thousand-Year Blood War 1×27 Review: “A”

The Bleach – Thousand Year Blood War anime arc is back with part 3 titled ‘The Conflict’, and of course, things continued to grow worse for our heroes as they ran out of time.

The premiere of ‘The Conflict’, titled ‘A’, picked up from the finale of part 2 ‘The Separation’, with Yhwach facing Ichibe Hyosube to get to the Soul King and Uryu and the rest of Yhwach’s Quincy guards facing Senjumaru Shutara (who was able to release her full power due to the other Zero Squad members sacrificing themselves).

Even though things seemed to have turned in the favor of the good guys, we all knew that it wasn’t going to last. The latest episode of Bleach showed just how powerful Yhwach had managed to become. The Zero Squad stood no chance against such a being.

The best part of the episode for me was seeing Senjumaru use her various abilities against the Schutzstaffel. As original non-manga content, the entire sequence was fun to behold. Senjumaru apparently had a counter for each member of the Schutzstaffel. She used the Hitokase Tokaba: Banra no Me (Unravel One Hank: Eyes of Many Branches) against Lille Barro. The ability reflected an opponent’s attacks against them. With Lille’s ability basically allowing him to shoot targets while also manipulating space, it made sense to restrict his eyes. 

The Futakase Tokaba: Hagane no Yoroi (Unravel Two Hanks: Armor of Blade Metal) was used on Askin Nakk Le Vaar. The ability trapped him in, basically, an iron maiden made of metal cloth. From what I can remember, we haven’t seen Askin showcase his ability in the anime. So, simply restricting his movements made sense.

The same was true for the other members as well. Mitsukase Tokaba: Kokusa no Harawata (Unravel Three Hanks: Bowels of Black Sand) was for Pernida Parnkgjas. It trapped the curious-looking opponent in black sand.

The Yotsukase Tokaba: Itetsuku Shitone (Unravel Four Hanks: Freezing Bed Linens) was used against Gerard Valkyrie, freezing the muscled-up Quincy immobile.

The Itsukase Tokaba: Yakenohara (Unravel Five Hanks: Burning Field) was for Jugram Haschwalth. The ability surrounded opponents in fire until they turned to ash.

And our boy Uryu (Who is clearly a double agent. Like, come on now!) got to face The Mutsukase Tokaba: Yamiyo no Hoshiyo (Unravel Six Hanks: Star of the Dark Night). This particular ability manifested a piece of cloth with the Wandenreich emblem. It seemed capable of siphoning a Quincy’s energy, making them grow weaker by the second. The ability resembled the Quincy ability Auswählen, and seeing a Shinigami use such a tactic against a Quincy came across as quite ironic during that particular moment.

Again, with the entire sequence being non-manga content, I appreciate the creative team taking the time to explore certain characters and their capabilities in such a manner. Even though they were hyped as extremely powerful beings worthy of protecting the Soul King, the members of the Zero Squad kind of didn’t do much in the manga. So, I’m glad the anime decided to change that.

Over at Ichibe vs Yhwach, the battle developed similarly to what was portrayed in the manga. Ichibe pulled all the stops to defeat Yhwach by himself. Ichibe’s ability allowed him to take away an opponent’s name and bestow upon them a new name. It also gave Ichibe control over anything with the color black. During the fight, Ichibe covered Yhwach in black ink and gave him the name ‘Black Ant’. Doing so, as far as Ichibe was concerned, would have turned Yhwach as vulnerable as an ant that Ichibe could crush. And he managed to do all of that. But alas, it was time for Yhwach to regain his Schrift, the letter “A” also known as The Almighty. Talk about bad luck.

The Almighty gave Yhwach an immense power boost, allowing him to negate everything Ichibe had done to him during their fight. And Yhwach, now being able to predict the future, was able to easily evade Ichibe’s incoming attacks.

Yhwach’s new power level also impacted Uryu. Our bespectacled Quincy was able to overpower Senjumaru and reflect her abilities against her.

Even though the fight sequences were fun, I do have a gripe with how they progressed. I would have liked for Uryu to defeat Senjumaru in a different manner than he did. There was no tactical thinking involved during both battles. Yhwach and Uryu just became too powerful for Ichibe and Senjumaru to handle as the confrontations went on.

I would have liked to see at least Uryu figure out a weakness in Senjumaru’s Bankai to use to his advantage. Perhaps a piece of hidden thread that could be pulled to unravel everything? I don’t know. I just feel that having the antagonists win both fights due to gaining access to more power was a bit uninspired.

Anyway, with the entirety of the Zero Squad now defeated, Yhwach and his minions made their way to the Soul King and Yhwach managed to impale his target to usher in a new world order. Uh-oh!

As for Ichigo and the rest, they finally managed to reach the Soul King Palace only to see Ichibe’s severed head on the ground. I liked how Orihime ran without hesitation and used her powers to try and reconstruct Ichibe. Her ability to deny a particular event from ever occurring is surely an OP skill to have. As a manga reader, I can’t wait to see her do something quite amazing down the line. I keep getting excited just thinking about it.

The episode revealed that Ichibe was able to reconstruct his body due to his ability being linked to names. There’s power in knowing someone’s or something’s name. Ichibe had Ichigo say his name out loud which helped the leader of Zero Squad to instantly reconstruct himself by using some of Ichigo’s energy (which, understandably, freaked out our hero). However, Ichibe wasn’t able to help Ichigo and his friends. He needed a lot more time to regain his energy.

The episode concluded with Shunsui Kyoraku approaching Aizen. Shunsui’s cooking up a plan!

‘A’ served as a strong start to Part 3 of Bleach – Thousand Year Blood War. There are some awesome battles on the horizon as the good guys continue to struggle to defeat Yhwach and his minions. Again, things will grow a lot worse before getting better.

What did you think of ‘A’?

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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