Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen

Substitute Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki spends his days fighting against Hollows, dangerous evil spirits that threaten Karakura Town. Ichigo carries out his quest with his closest allies: Orihime Inoue, his childhood friend with a talent for healing; Yasutora Sado, his high school classmate with superhuman strength; and Uryuu Ishida, Ichigo's Quincy rival.

Ichigo's vigilante routine is disrupted by the sudden appearance of Asguiaro Ebern, a dangerous Arrancar who heralds the return of Yhwach, an ancient Quincy king. Yhwach seeks to reignite the historic blood feud between Soul Reaper and Quincy, and he sets his sights on erasing both the human world and the Soul Society for good.

Yhwach launches a two-pronged invasion into both the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, the home of Hollows and Arrancar. In retaliation, Ichigo and his friends must fight alongside old allies and enemies alike to end Yhwach's campaign of carnage before the world itself comes to an end.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kurosaki, Ichigo Main

Morita, Masakazu Japanese

Ishida, Uryuu Main

Sugiyama, Noriaki Japanese

Zaraki, Kenpachi Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Urahara, Kisuke Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Aizen, Sousuke Supporting

Hayami, Show Japanese

Hitsugaya, Toushirou Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Kuchiki, Rukia Supporting

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Kuchiki, Byakuya Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Jaegerjaquez, Grimmjow Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Kyouraku, Shunsui Jirou Sakuranosuke Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Negishi, Genki Producer

Hijikata, Makoto Producer

Tominaga, Yoshihiko Producer

Honda, Tasuku Producer

Reviews

Dec 27, 2022

Stark700

Recommended

In 2012, Bleach ended its long anime-run without adapting the final arc from the manga. Dubbed as part of the 'Big 3', it almost felt like an end of an era. Some fans were left confused that the anime omitted its final arc although it's understandable that the manga was still ongoing at the time. Almost 8 years later, Bleach's massive 20th Anniversary Event breathed new life into the franchise as we got the final arc anime announcement: Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War. Mind you, this isn't just an announcement for what fans wanted after all these years. It's a celebration for the entire Bleach fandom.

Tite ... Kubo has amassed a loyal fanbase and I confidentally say that he deserves it for his creative vision and sheer determination. Initially, he didn't expect Bleach to bloosom into the franchise as we know today but mangaka Akira Toriyama provided the encouragement for him to succeed. Tite Kubo's creative vision to make characters dressed up in kimono and supernatural monsters associated with spiritual themes is what made this franchise so special. Of course, he was influenced by other works but Bleach still stands out as a very special show on its own. And with the final story arc, this served as the ultimate sendoff for anime viewers who had hoped to see this one day.

Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War is based on the final story arc of the manga, pitching Ichigo Kurosaki, the Soul Society, and his allies, friends against a new enemy known as the Wandenreich. They make an immediately impact by disposing a lieutenant and challenges against the very best of Soul Society. Led by the Quincy King Yhwach, their true agenda remains a mystery but it's clear that they are a prominent threat against all of Soul Society and the human world. Even the world of Hueco Mundo isn't safe from their wrath as Ichigo and his allies decides to take a stand against this new threat. Watching the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc immediately shows just how dangerous and capable the Wandenreich is with their special abilities, equipment, and ruthless ambitions. While not much is known about their, some of their members display a malevolent aura that borderlines on a God-like complex. If there's anything Bleach has taught me about its antagonists, it's that they often come across as charismatic characters such as Sosuke Aizen and the Espadas. While we don't know much yet about Wandenreich, it's clear that they a force to be feared.

Our oranged hair main protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki is still the same Shinigami we came to know since previous seasons. Joining him in his quest to stop the Wandenreich includes his loyal friends such as Rukia, Renji, Yasutora Sado, Orihime, and of course, the Soul Society. The oddball of this show is Uryu Ishida, because of his status as a Quincy, and this is a source that gets complex this season. Unfortunately, this season doesn't truly dive into Uryu's motivations or what his true purpose is yet. Most interestingly however, we come to know a deeper background story of a few Soul Reaper captains including Genryuusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Kenpachi Zaraki, and Retsu Unohana. Even Ichigo's parents gets a spotlight this season as we come to know how Isshin and Masaki met in their past. It's important because Bleach has a large cast of characters and we can easily get lost. This season took its time to give these characters more meaning with their stories. But fear not, other favorite characters in the franchise also makes a return including Toshiro and Byakuya. They've received storytelling about their backgrounds in the past before so this season mainly reminds us how strong they've become.

Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War is exactly how it sounds, a war with bloodshed and been in the making for a thousand years. Narratively driven, this arc goes to show the importance of how the past can affect the future in the Bleach world. It goes to say that with every story arc, there's usually some sort of main antagonist but also lessons to be learned. Ichigo has learned a lot from his first days as a Shinigami and this season will he will learn again what it means to be one. Watching this series serves as a celebration and ultimately, a way to give fans back what they've wanted all these years.

Despite the near decade long absence on television, studio Pierrot knew it had to step up and deliver this arc to its eager fans. Thankfully, the quality of this season received a well-deserved upgrade. Character designs looks like it got a next generation upgrade with their detailed outlines and expressions. Battles scenes have been enhanced to bring the fights alive from the manga. Most importantly are the way this season adapted its character emotions. There are several episodes where we see how characters are pushed to their limits when emotions take over. This season captures the essence of those emotions at their fullest. Similar, the theme songs and battle soundtrack still remains stellar like the old days. You can say whatever you want about the Bleach but the the music has always been top tier class for this franchise.

Bleach is a franchise that always stood out with its large colorful cast of characters, themes, and pushes its lore to a level we've fondly remember. This season takes another step forward to showcase the final story arc from the manga. Believe me, Bleach fans have always wanted this for years and this was another one of those cases of 'not if, but when'. The 20th anniversary was the perfect storm to announce this show and since then, we've been graced with one of the most memorable arcs so far in just 13 episodes. Fear not for this is just the first season of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. There's so much more left to tell and we're only just getting started.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 1, 2023

Bensonas

Mixed Feelings

Funny

It's been a while since I reviewed anything, a while since I actually watched anything, years in fact. So why not continue with Bleach's new offering.

The first reservation I had for me loving this was simply I was never the biggest fan of Bleach to begin with. However, I put this to one side and chose this to kick start my watching of anime once more and was actually pleasantly surprised at first.

It throws you into the story straight away, no waiting, though you still must endure the token irritating, over scared character a lot of anime is cursed with. Thankfully, this irritation goes ... away and brings you back into the story quickly.

It proceeds rather nicely into progressing what this season will detail and delivers great action sequences with some minor surprises in plot. The major bugbear I had with this is everything just seems rather unexplored. The desire to progress quickly with the plot comes at the expense of character building and I really felt this could have easily been a 25 ep season. Don't get me wrong, the 'moments' are really great. In-between these 'moments' however feels rushed and lacks the building of the dynamic we as anime fans come to expect from major anime titles such as Bleach.

The animation has no flaws. It's no Demon Slayer, but what is really? It's does the job very nicely and though not groundbreaking, does everything it needs to do to be more than satisfactory.

Music is awful. It's as simple as that. Moments of true emotion conveyed with essentially a b-movie version of Lethal Weapon soundtrack. Poorly thought through, lazy and very close to 'moment' killing.

It's good, I can't say anymore, not brilliant, not amazing, but what I can say for sure, it's got me back into watching anime again and that most certainly is a good thing

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 12, 2023

arvetan

Not Recommended

Funny

The color design is so dogshit. The attempts to make the lighting and coloring realistic may work on other shows but in Bleach it doesn't. The old charm and colorful vibrant design of Bleach is lost and so is the style. The style was the strong point of Bleach and if that is lost then people will just see it as a generic shonen which it is currently. The color design in the 2021 reveal trailer was perfect. Too bad they changed it to something so dogshit.

Also, the writing is abhorrent. They promised to add more things but the added content (which is barely anything) ... is worthless if you add 1 thing and remove 50 important things. They should re-hire the old Bleach script writers like Mr. Masahiro Okubo. Why are they working on Boruto? No one watches that. Call them back and get them to work on Bleach. Bring back the omake segments like Quincy Encyclopedia, Shinigami Zukan etc. Stuffing 5 chapters/episode and rushing through so much. I could tolerate the horrendous color designs but the writing makes this show unwatchable when you see scene after scene after scene, 400 lines of dialogue per episode, randomly placed ED, 3 min recaps (ep. 4), long post-credits sequences etc. Whoever is currently writing this is not a good writer.

The only positives of this cour were some backgrounds in episode 1 and 13 and the new orchestral OST from Mr. Shiro Sagisu. I thought this would be the definitive way to experience TYBW arc and I thought it would be like Hunter x Hunter 2011 with 100+ episodes and a well paced series but this is so off the mark.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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