Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen - Ketsubetsu-tan

To preface, I shall rip the band-aid straight off: BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War - The Separation isn’t a replication of cour 1’s excellence. However, this is because the critically acclaimed cour 1 is nothing less than a 10/10 as a flawless narrative masterclass of beautiful thematics, symbolism and poetry brought by Tite Kubo to the forefront of his story to loom over Bleach’s radical expansion and acceleration of plot-points as well as the many foreshadowed twists that came with it here in the series’ most ambitious and ultimate arc; all whilst encased in state-of-the-art production values and direction. It is a perfect showcasing of ... the battle genre which–true to Ichigo’s motif–shattered fate; and became something greater and more successful than what most anyone was expecting. One that had successfully revitalized the series from a classic into a neoclassic. Competing with what is nigh-universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of Bleach (at least, for now) is obviously a feat in and of itself. But cour 2 still retains the essence of the first with the same cinematic productional aspects; nothing less than a 9 whilst at the same time serving as an intermediate between the initial narrative blitzkrieg of cour 1 and the apocalyptic climax and prophetic unification of Bleach’s story in the next two cours. For you see, TYBW has 206 chapters. Cour 1 adapted Ch 480-542 and this cour adapted around 70 chapters, leaving around just 80 chapters to be adapted within the next two cours. Substantial new extended content is all but confirmed and just where TYBW needed it. Thus, The Separation will (reassuredly enough) be the weakest cour in this series’ greatest arc, where everything comes full circle and we end at the beginning.

It is difficult to truly display The Separation’s brilliance (as well as the previous cour’s) without spoiling it. The Separation begins immediately after the events of the ethereal ‘The Blade Is Me’ - the most important moment in the entire story in which we see the culmination of Ichigo's character interwoven with all of the powerful major themes and recontextualizing foreshadowings of Bleach as well as the nigh-conclusion of his character arc. Cour 2 carries on the incredibly sharp and polished, streamlined 13-episode experience and is still filled with a powerful architect and depiction of emotion. The pacing is a stark contrast to the 2004 anime and mirrors the streamlined experience of binging Kubo’s cinematically paced and presented manga of aestheticism.

Cour 2 is laced with back-to-back dynamic fights, and these all serve a purpose either to the overarching and ambitious plot-heavy narrative structure and/or several character pieces. Dialogue, subtext, symbolism, themes and the wrapping of character arcs are all executed in very powerful ways through these fights. They have meaning and aid in character writing which works in tandem with Bleach’s worldbuilding and lore. This series has always been a character-driven story. It is a collection of character pieces that explore different themes and concepts but which the overarching plot catalyzes and serves to unite as a cohesive whole.

The power system in Bleach (Reiatsu) is a major contributor to this. Cour 1’s romantically written and beautiful climax the ‘Everything But the Rain’ flashback and the subsequent ‘The Blade Is Me’ (EP11-13) not only proved that Bleach is not merely about fights but also its intimate characters, plot revelations and developments; but as well as how the series iterates on its themes and concepts smartly. Reiatsu is inherently adjacent to the major themes of identity and duality in this series, which was fully demonstrated when we learned about the balancing nature of the Hollowfication process; White, and thus Ichigo himself, inherently being tied to these major themes by proxy of this thematically rich mechanic once looking at the nature of his Hollow-Shinigami powers. The Zanpakuto, or the Schrift, or the Resurreccion, is the characters’ fingerprint; an extension of their soul and personality. Aside from having immaculately designed powers to look at, it helps us learn about the characters through brilliant displays of their identity manifested through combat. Every single character is given abilities that complement them and there’s always an underlying theme to their movepool rather than an uncorrelated, random mess. This cour reinforces Reiatsu as an exemplary power system. The Separation truly plays to its strengths as a character-driven battle series not only by using the gorgeously produced and choreographed battle spectacles as the foundation for which character pieces are developed but also by tying these pieces into the wider world of Bleach. Examples of this sophisticated assimilation of storytelling elements are Komamura and his relation to the Beast Realm, Ichibei and his progenitive relation to the Bleach cosmology, and Yhwach alongside his Schutzstaffel and their relation to the Soul King. Reiatsu, unlike most power systems such as Nen, is not a needlessly convoluted and mechanical one for the sake of it. It operates on soft logic because Kubo recognizes that characters and narrative are more important than the power system and environment and that creatively unique abilities paired with interesting match-ups are far more important for writing engaging fights than needlessly complex mechanics that read like pseudo-science and are ultimately a trivial slog for the reader. It’s why despite many of the fights’ similar structure in this series, they are still engaging along with other aforementioned factors such as authentic character drama and exchanging of ideological and philosophical dialogue if not the characters themselves, rather than a fixation on power system mechanics debased from reality.

A good example of all of this is As Nodt’s battle with who I will not spoil. The dialogue and his character dynamic with his opponent are genuine and the abilities displayed here are among Kubo's most creative. The interaction between his Fear Manipulation and his opponent’s Absolute Zero is ingenious and thoroughly engaging. It’s fun seeing busted abilities thoughtfully counterbalancing each other; with one of my personal favourite things about the final arc being how the power system leans towards more hax and abstract/conceptual abilities; thematically befitting as it reflects the escalation of stakes in this arc and the Quincies seeing themselves and being portrayed as a higher class of elite soldiers compared to the Shinigami and Arrancar. The power system is capable of creating esoteric yet easy-to-follow abilities without being convoluted or having to resort to mindless beam spams and fist-waving instead. Another example is Kenpachi’s fight. Not only was this a great beneficiary of the refreshing pacing of the TYBW adaptation as an efficiently condensed single continuous high-octane action sequence due to many of the manga panels being art pieces, but this fight embodies the essence of Bleach. It's a story where the very concept of "To fight" is a centralizing force. Kenpachi has always embodied this the most, and after his intimate battle with Yachiru Unohana the First Kenpachi in EP9-10 ‘The Drop’ and ‘The Battle’ of cour 1, he became the embodiment of a Shinigami–the true embodiment of death. Meanwhile, his opponent who I will not spoil has the power to imagine anything in and out of existence, which is the otherworldly and dynamic nature of the fights in Bleach taken to its utmost extreme. Kenpachi cuts down anything thrown at him, including oneshotting a meteor capable of nuking the Seireitei and slicing through the fabric of space itself because he is just that much of a "monster". It's thematic with him being THE Kenpachi and displaying through BATTLE the weight that such a title holds. Kubo went about creating such an overpowered ability in the opponent perfectly, by essentially turning the whole fight into one big thematic execution; and the conclusion for his opponent is layered in symbolism and poetry. The beauty and the beast dynamic and the brawn vs brain dynamic of these two fights respectively are merely the final thematic touch. However, probably the very greatest example of Bleach’s deceptive amount of depth regarding battles is Ichibei’s this cour, which serves as the finale; embodying the true essence and soul of Bleach thematically, conceptually and aesthetically whilst it insurmountably pushes forward the lore and worldbuilding of the story along with the two conflicting characters in the aptly named episode titled ‘A’.

Kubo’s characters, main and side alike, contribute to the themes and worldbuilding of Bleach, and are intelligently utilized throughout the story so as not to take away from the core narrative and characters. For the most part, characters come into the narrative, contribute their part, and exit stage left. For instance, the supporting characters Yachiru and Isane–who among many had their character arcs in focus last cour–are neatly wrapped up in this one in respect of the battle between the two Kenpachis, or their two Captains respectively. And this will be a reoccurrence for others such as Nanao in the future. Character interactions in this series are always sentimentally written and meaningful. Even tertiary characters like the otherwise one-note comedy relief Keigo in this arc gets nuance and depth to him with his outburst towards Kyoraku after learning of the Soul Society’s possible dark intentions for Ichigo. The TYBW adaptation also includes Kubo’s elegant chapter epilogue poems for each episode, which serve as pseudo-supplemental content that enriches his already powerful characterizations. This all applies to the Sternritter as well, and their approach to character writing is refreshing. The Espada gathered together for their own reasons, they were individualistic in nature. Aizen got them under his control simply because he was stronger than them. But with the Sternritter, they follow Yhwach because he’s their king. They believe in his ideology and they all bear the same grudge against the Shinigami. There is no need for full-fledged backstories for all of them besides the war 1000 years ago which we get this cour as anime-original content, for the strong yet subtle thematics displayed here justify it. It is something that’s always been characteristic of Kubo’s writing: The Arrancar arc shared a similar plot structure to the Soul Society arc but was thematically polar to it and is how this structural iteration is justified: The Hollow-centric arc created an intentional yin-yang, or inverted mirror with the Shinigami arc that ingeniously iterates on the two races’ opposite interactions with Humans (Shinigami release the soul, Hollows consume the soul) and the overarching theme of duality via the series’ very structure itself.

On the topic of duality, the main villain Yhwach serves as a great parallel to Aizen. Aizen is a slow-burner who is methodical, conniving and planning in the shadows. You can see his machinations from the very beginning of the canon manga timeline back in the ‘Turn Back the Pendulum’ arc. Yhwach is the opposite: He is introduced in the final arc, and thus, we immediately get to know him and he is even immediately more impressive in many respects as he is immediately boots-on-the-ground, even killing Yamamoto - the pillar of the Soul Society, before targeting the Soul Palace. Actually, he and his soldiers accomplish more against the Soul Society than Aizen and his army in just the first invasion. All of this makes total sense as well; Yhwach is a warlord, whilst Aizen is a scientist. They both ultimately play the overarching villain in the story and want the same thing, but for different reasons with different end-games; with the latter having a personal connection with the Soul King and Ichigo having personal stakes against them both for different reasons. Kubo even tells this duality visually, with Aizen dressed in all white and slick, whilst Yhwach dressed in all black and dominates the page composition. Both are excellently written characters for thematically inverse reasons and regarding the Sternritter in particular, their actions can believably be justified and sympathized with. Kubo hits the perfect balance between pure evil and sympathetic for his villains. They aren’t cartoonishly evil and shallow like in Oda’s writing, nor are they cornily humanized and declawed like in Kishimoto’s writing. Kubo writes ruthless villains and leaves their moral interpretation up to the viewer. This moral greyness especially works because Bleach operates under a morally grey, nihilistic world that allows for more nuanced lore, worldbuilding and cosmology; and which begins being placed centre-stage in this cour. Such a world inevitably seeps into the cast and shares onto them its nuance and creates these complex characters such as Aizen, Yhwach, the Shinigami’s entire purpose not as heroes but merely arbiters of the universal order, and by extension their complicated dynamic with the Quincies. Depending on how you look at the final battle which the fate of existence rests upon, it is between either two morally evil characters, between two morally ambiguous characters, or one good and one bad.

The Sternritter are consistent in their great characterization and depiction as a terrorizing force for the Shinigami, with none of them being push-overs and which required inherent identity introspection from the Shinigami in order to be overcome. Some xamples of this were the beautiful (and in the latter’s case, tragic also) closure of character pieces for Rukia and Komamura that tied back to Byakuya and Tosen respectively all the way to their beginnings in the series. Even Byakuya is revitalized here through simple yet ingenious strokes by Kubo that make him one of the most pivotal players; Kubo characteristically doing much with little. My one singular gripe with cour 1 was Byakuya not dying after his brutal loss against As Nodt despite a flawless closure to his masterful character development that would’ve elevated Rukia, Renji and As Nodt’s characters as well. Alas, this was unfortunately out of Kubo’s control as he wanted to prioritize his own life from the death threats he was receiving for the daring decision to kill off such a massive fan favourite, thus did a 180 on Byakuya’s fate only a few chapters later. However, in spite of that, Kubo intelligently justified Byakuya’s existence here despite being ultimately done with his character writing with how he was implemented as a supporting character, and this was even reflected in his subtle power-up in contrast to the Bankai, Shikai and Shunko awakenings of many others reflective of their character progressions after they were all forced to lick their wounds and mourn their losses from the brutal Quincy blitzkrieg last cour. The Sternritter being the menace to the Soul Society also rewrite the architecture of the Seireitei with their own gothic European palaces, castles and building of the Wandenreich as the Schatten Bereich engulfs the Seireitei from beneath and envelopes it in a sky that’s soaked in blood red. It’s reminiscent of the humiliation they made the Shinigami suffer in their first invasion and these visual overhauls against the Shinigami are hauntingly imposing representations of their dominance up to this point. There is also something novel about the Thousand Year Blood War taking place beneath a blood-soaked sky.

And, Kubo takes inspiration from other forms of media such as music, as well as high art, philosophy, mythology, history and religion when writing his world and characters (such as Aizen representing Nietzsche’s “ubermensch”, or the Bleach cosmology being based on Buddhist Samsara). In relation to the Sternritter as a collective in their motif, there is clear inspiration in aspects from Nazi Germany and the Roman Empire. Their revolutionary technology from the last cour and here with their occultist undertones mirroring occultism in Nazism with Uryu performing the ritual of drinking Yhwach’s blood in order to be bestowed his Schrift; all whilst being thematic to the race war Yhwach is initiating. All of this is to say that it shows the deceptive amount of thought and care put into these multi-dimensionally designed characters and world by Kubo.

However, I can’t deny that the emotion here in cour 2 is generally weaker relative to the emotional rollercoaster that was the first. Amongst the biggest reasons why everything adapted in cour 1 is almost universally regarded as the pinnacle of Bleach is because of the incredibly powerful impression left by the Sternritter. The Sternritter’s blitzkrieg of the Seireitei was very real in its depiction of warfare whilst providing us with the very peak of what the battle shounen genre is capable of with its prowess in spectacles. The Wandenreich declare an ostentatious and symbolic declaration of war by killing the Captain Commander’s Lieutenant just to spite the Shinigami, they lie about invading in 5 days for a tactical advantage, they overwhelm the Shinigami with advanced technology in the form of the Bankai-stealing medallion (literally robbing them of a part of their soul and identity), there is a morale boost and subsequent shattering among the Shinigami, EP6 ‘The Fire’ and EP7 ‘Born in the Dark’ are chaotic and with pacing that almost marches in a rapid tone, and of course, Yamamoto’s seething hatred for Yhwach in their very personal feud that’s filled with powerful subtext, followed by his gutturally ignoble death (he still died standing like the warrior he was, though); the Quincy with complete disrespect for and mockery of the Shinigami using cheap tactics as a reversal to the similar ones the Gotei 13 had used on them 1000 years ago. It was all very dark and gritty, and perfectly encapsulated resentment and despair.

Aside from the breakneck pacing itself being fresh and keeping TYBW dynamic, the fruits of its labour can already be seen from this arc onwards. In its most minor extent, this cour still sees a surge in anime-original content every episode through polished storyboards that make existing scenes more impactful or provide fresh perspectives of concurrent events in the timeline; and through small meaningful character dialogues that enrich characterizations and character dynamics. An example of this is all the subtle changes to the Sternriter’s meeting with their emperor Yhwach. Many new faces are introduced here much earlier in order to better their intrigue rather than an abrupt introduction later where they play their centrepieces, and Bazz-B is portrayed as having his own group much like Bambietta with the ‘Bambis’/Femritters. There are subtle additions that provide foreshadowing and earlier establishing of plot-points for pay-offs down the line, such as Haschwalth’s dialogue with his maid regarding to Uryu and Yhwach’s shadowy plan for him, or Ichigo’s passage through the Soul Palace relative to the sinistry of Ichibei. Even minute things like ordering all the Sternritter by Schrift alphabet at the communal shows the attention to detail for this anime.

Anime-original content at its most major, however, is creating entirely new sequences for new plot-points and the development of existing ones. For instance, the ominous tears in the fabric of reality that loom and disappear are revisited here. Or, in what is the greatest example of anime-original content this cour, and that which was left a mystery in the previous one: The historical context of the entire run of this arc and the crux of its namesake - the Thousand Year Blood War. In what was arguably the greatest episode of cour 1–EP7 ‘Born in the Dark’–we got an incredible flashback of the original Gotei 13 and the battle in the Seireitei itself 1000 years ago; and this revelation is fully realized here in EP13 ‘Too Early To Win, Too Late To Know’ with the lengthy flashback of Yhwach’s original Licht Reich and his dynamic with Ichibei. Elements of the biggest mystery in Bleach–the existence of the Soul King–are now being unravelled to their eerie core and thus, the expansion of the Bleach cosmology. Many of these character and lore/world bits are much-needed incorporations from the Can’t Fear Your Own World sequel to the Bleach manga - an incredibly written sequel light novel to the manga by fellow Bleach enjoyer the author of Baccano–known for his masterfully concocted ensemble casts–and supervised and drawn by Kubo. It is a work that completes the Bleach canon and elevates its lore and worldbuilding to some of the best and most fascinating in the medium. And it’s reassuring to see this external canon being assimilated into the main source. All of this is indicative of the passion project and love letter to Bleach fans that this anime is by the Pierrot staff. This isn’t a soulless 1:1 adaptation capitalizing on nostalgia, it’s an immaculately produced endeavour by Bleach fans and overseen by industry-setting direction by Taguchi with Kubo as a guiding figure and conceptualist. Creative liberties extend to certain chapters being slotted elsewhere where more appropriate and sometimes carved up to the point of being completely unrecognizable from the source material.

The TYBW adaptation continues to have state-of-the-art theatrical levels of art, directing, compositing, storyboarding, animation, backgrounds, music, sound design and voice acting. The Separation follows the same smart resource management as cour 1 - it accomplishes all of these production feats, and when allowed to truly move with its key animation, it produces amongst the best fights in the medium due to state-of-the-art animation carrying all these other nigh-flawless productional strengths along with it. Visual artistry and directional finesse persist, like how this cour symbolically began with Yhwach in abstract imagery and ended with him just like in cour 1. True to Kubo’s manga, the TYBW adaptation has a clear appreciation for aesthetics. And regarding music, Sagisu does an exceptional job balancing out the nostalgia and new tracks while, as he himself stated, respecting the European-inspired orchestrations for the Quincies. Furthermore, he gives deeper meaning to the tracks as they symbolize character arcs. The transition cards are great too, which aside from being aesthetic, is a clever directing decision that doesn't interrupt the flow of the action whilst maintaining viewers aware of the lore bits with conveniently put-together information within the episode itself, thus being part of the general experience without the need for outside material.

We get a lot of cinematic wide-angle shots this cour too to show us the grand, otherworldly expanse of the Seireitei, the Soul Society, the Soul Palace and its individual Zero Squad palaces (with Ichibei’s palace even getting a name, thematically enough), and the Silbern hidden within the Schatten Bereich as the narrative begins unravelling the enigmatic lore and worldbuilding that this series has to offer. The few moments of CGI that exist in this anime are sharply implemented as well, with industry-setting compositing complementing it. Tone, atmosphere, colouration and lighting are aspects of this anime that are utterly flawless and so effectively create immersion to an even greater extent than the manga. The lighting, effects and animation all combine to create impact. Soft lighting is used to give everything a more subtle glow and let colours truly pop, whilst the utilization of dynamic lighting creates more emotionally charged, powerful scenes. And whilst Kubo’s thematically relevant black and white backgrounds work excellently in the manga for placing emphasis on his characters and their emotions in the panels, the anime meanwhile has some of the most gorgeously detailed and scenic backgrounds in the industry to bring those characters to life on the screen.

‘Kubology’ prevails this cour and The Separation continues with the sophistication of cour 1. Not to the same extent, perhaps, but that is to be expected and it is there nonetheless. This cour adapted the weakest parts of TYBW and thus, this will be the weakest cour of the adaptation. Yet, in this part still exists amongst the highest points in the series, such as As Nodt's battle, Kenpachi’s battle and Ichibei’s battle. It continues to exude the status of a passion project and is an adaptational work of art that undeniably elevates an already great source material with its own strengths. TYBW is Kubo’s most ambitious arc; the unprecedented culmination and cultivation of Bleach’s narrative and the rapid-fire progression of his characters, wider world and thematics. They all return this cour and will escalate in the next. Bleach is a sophisticated shonen rife with literary devices such as symbolism, visual/textual metaphors and allegories. Kubo’s nature in artistic and poetic storytelling has led to a masterstroke in thematic execution and structuring that involves beautifully meaningful and eternal themes such as death and the afterlife, identity and self-discovery, duality and balance, sacrifice and redemption, honour and duty, friendship and loyalty, and power and ambition. These themes intertwine and evolve throughout the narrative of Bleach, but especially so here in the finale, where a complex and multifaceted story engaging with both personal struggles and grand-scale conflicts is truly realized. The series’ lore and worldbuilding begin to properly unravel in this arc and here in this cour in particular with their ascension into an expansive yet interwoven ethereal cosmology of great immersion. There is both a deep elegance to Bleach and a dark undercurrent to TYBW with its subtle visual storytelling and the powerful way in which it utilizes the abundance of subtext that’s in its world; all layered by a mature, articulate and aesthetic cast comprised of profound characterization and compelling dynamics with one another.

"All human beings have things that cause them comfort, and things that cause them fear. When they enter a place that causes them comfort, if questioned as to why they feel comfortable there, they cannot form a clear answer, merely saying things such as 'because I do'. But when they enter a place that causes them fear, even the dullest of fools can identify the causes of that fear. Darkness, cold, height, confinement, pain, contamination. People can list any number of reasons to be afraid. This is because at the most fundamental level, 'comfort' leads to 'life', whilst 'fear' leads to 'death'. While people cannot give a clear answer why they want to live, they can give any number of answers why they do not wish to die." -As Nodt

this review will be short.

Story:
There are a lot of anime content only that have big impact at story some of it from LN (:
like part 1 there some changing happen here but not affect the story at all, after all the director of the anime is the author himself.
they still delete all comedy Scene.
10/10

Art:
Remarkable, the animation is wonderful like before and more, the movement in the fighting is Great.
... it is still one best animation i see.
10/10

Character:
at this point we all know all the characters and how great they are, you will see some improvement in this part.
10/10

Sound:
The ost in bleach series is Fire like part 1 and old bleach, and this part no doubt is fantastic I LOVE IT.
10/10

Enjoy:
One of best series and will continue with this part.


Overall:
10/10

*Spoilers for Bleach, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and the first three episodes of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Separation*

Tite Kubo's 7.2 Billion dollar Bleach Empire. Bleach is and has always been an extremely popular anime/manga series. Even before Bleach had an anime adaptation, it was still pulling some large numbers and stood on the podium of the highest-grossing manga series of its time. And from the very beginning, since 2001 when the first chapter was released till 2016; a little more than 15 years, Bleach has been compiled into 74 volumes and has approximately 130 million copies in circulation, making it one of ... the best-selling manga titles ever, while also solidifying its position in The Big Three of anime/manga series of the early 2000s.

And thus, 193 days—just over half a year—after the last episode of The Blood Warfare, the Bleach anime is back with Part 2: The Separation. And although I am still really happy about its return, this season could be a disaster in the making as around 70 or more chapters would be adapted from the manga would be adapted into 13 episodes, which worries me about the story's pacing. However, the pacing appears to be okay as of the first three episodes, but only time will tell if that will continue to be the case.

STORY - 10

Some of its strongest points are its narrative and world-building. However, it could be just me, but the first episode requires you to remember points from earlier in the 2004 adaptation and some of the episodes from the first Cour, which aired a little over 6 months ago. Nevertheless, this is a minor issue and has little bearing on how much your viewing experience will be impacted as a whole. As I stated before, the plot is also one of the most engaging aspects of the show. The story keeps you intrigued since the plot never becomes stale and rarely slows down, alongside the major foreshadowing from parts prior.
This stays true even in the newest Cour when the Wandenreich invades the Soul Society. Within moments, there is absolute chaos.

Another major element that I like about Bleach is worldbuilding. There are numerous distinct races in the Bleach universe, and each of these races has a characteristic that sets it apart from the others. The characters don't always have the same appearance, they don't always have the same ability, they don't always follow the same rules, and they don't always have the same aims and beliefs, and this uniqueness can be found in almost every arc of the story, allowing for variation between the arcs. Finally, there are the dimensions, each of which has unique properties. The settings can be anything from a planet with a constant night and an unending white desert to an afterlife that resembles the world of the living without many of the hardships and struggles, plus many more.

The plot of this story has so many twists and turns that it never gets predictable, which is one feature I particularly liked about it. Every episode leaves you wondering what's going to happen next. I could go on and on describing the plot, but much of it would just be me recounting earlier things that happened in The Blood Warfare Part 1. So in short, the first three episodes of Part 2 certainly have one of the best forms of storytelling I've seen in recent times and I cannot wait to see where it goes from here.

ART - 9.5

Tite Kubo's art style is one of my favourites, and I love the way he creates his characters. But if you asked me why I would say that, I wouldn't know how to respond; I just like it. But, aside from that, the way the characters are drawn in the anime is also reasonably good, albeit not as aesthetically appealing as the art in the Bleach manga, but it is still good.

The quality of the backgrounds is magnificent, they're detailed, beautiful and full of detail, everything looks so believable and the overall presentation of the backgrounds was beautiful to look at, even if I wasn't paying attention to them at first. The same may be said for the animation. It was smooth (for the most part), with good facial expressions and body language. However, there were certain times when things felt out of sync, but the animation did an outstanding job depicting the characters' feelings. Did I mention how good the visuals for the opening and ending are? The opening is a masterwork in itself, featuring great camera angles, characters and some stunning backgrounds and colour schemes, and paired with a great song adds to the overall experience.

In terms of detail, I'd say they put more effort into quality than smoothness, as each individual frame was visually spectacular, but the fluidity or smoothness suffered as a result. To summarize, the art is beautiful, and the animation is appropriate for the events taking place. There isn't much to complain about in terms of visual and animation choices.

SOUND - 9

As far as I'm concerned, the sound design was flawless, albeit this was to be expected. The music fit the scenes well, and the voice acting, which also happened to fit every scenario, added to my enjoyment. Because of the fantastic work of their VAs, the characters feel like they've been brought to life, and the opening theme song for this Cour is really outstanding!

Did I mention how good the SFXs are? Well, although I wouldn't compare it to the sound effects that are done by David Production in Fire Force and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the sound effects are still very impressive and do a good job when needed. Great voice acting, incredible sound design, a fantastic soundtrack, not much to complain about.

CHARACTER - 10

One of the main reasons I enjoyed this series so much was because the characters were so well-developed. The characters were mentally and physically different.

Another thing I love about the characters is their design and how their personalities are distinctive from one another, as well as their physical attributes, making them all memorable. They each have unique personality traits and designs that make them distinct from one another but also in a sense personifies their abilities, making them look like they are the embodiment of their abilities themselves. Such an amazing job was done with the designs of these characters to really allow them to be distinguished among themselves as well as giving each character the identity that they deserve and need to express their ability.

ENJOYMENT - 10

Let me begin by saying that this was a wonderful journey thus far; it built on the prior material we had learned about during the first cour and provided us with a great introduction back into the world of Bleach, as well as the narrative and events that are taking place. The animation, voice acting and sound design, dialogue between characters, the colours used to convey the mood and even the characters themselves were well executed and fit together very well, with no issues that heavily stood out or took away enjoyment from the experience. While I cannot say how well the anime will go on, after this episode, I hope the future ahead is bright. One thing that did strike out for me was how short it felt, despite each episode being only 24 minutes long. Nothing felt rushed. It's entertaining, fascinating and will undoubtedly leave you with enough to think about until next week when the next episode airs.


OVERALL - 10

With an outstanding start to the series that was filled with amazing artwork, wonderful animation, a superb soundtrack, engaging voice acting and writing, all delivered smoothly and seamlessly that really makes you feel immersed into the setting and characters of Bleach, all of which blend together nicely and gives the viewer a pleasant experience. While the length could have been longer, everything was well-paced so there was never a moment where it felt like it was tedious or where any scene seemed to drag on longer than it needed to. For such a long-running series, I don't think there has ever been an anime that has captured my interest quite like this before, and while this is only the beginning, this is a very promising start and I can't wait to see what else is in store for us. I'll leave it at that, but if you have not watched or read Bleach yet, do yourself a favour and pick it up, because this is definitely something worth watching! That's all I have to say for today and have a wonderful rest of your day!

For the longest time Bleach was considered to be the forgotten younger brother among the Big Three. Although often claimed that it might be the best clothed/costumed Anime of all time, as well as having great music, Bleach never quite made it as big as Naruto or One Piece. However, Bleach was one of the Big Three for a reason, and now more than ever it is apparent why it was so.

Plot: At this point the plot is irrelevant if you are a new watcher, because it'd make zero sense to you, however you try to mould it. And for the good people who have ... followed it thus far, there's no point in trying to explain anything. You know what is happening and why. Just try to remember how the Quincy lyric goes, and you're well and good.

Characters: A set of new characters are introduced among the Quincies, and they are more or less the main players this time around. Their distinct white dresses in contrast to the dark Shinigami dress shall make it abundantly clear about them.

Also, if you happen to be someone in possession of a good memory, you'll remember a particular character has accepted his Licht side, which ironically is supposed to be dark in the context of the plot.

Animation: Hands down this is the best Animated show of the season, if not the whole year. When the first part of the Thousand Year Blood Arc came, no one even in their wildest dreams thought Pierrot were capable of such consistently outstanding animation. Not even the most ardent admirer would have thought it possible. Yet, here we are, already on the second part of this arc and the Animation is only getting better. Considering the things that are to come, if this can be maintained, it'd take a miracle for anything to better this.

Also, a special, special mention to the highly stylized Opening sequence. It felt so good to see something you'd not get in the Anime. The parallelisms and matchups it more or less foreshadowed will all become apparent very soon. The ending theme, true to the last season again focused on thematic elements.

Music: Music, as mentioned earlier was always a strong point for Bleach, and this arc has been no exception to that. The music of Shiro Sagisu is always a treat to indulge in.

Special mention to the opening of this season. Not only is it musically appealing, the amount of charisma it ooses eith the animation is off the charts. In a sort of trademark stylized fashion Bleach is breaking new ground with this current season.

Enjoyment: If you're watching this, then definitely you've enjoyed it, otherwise you'll not be going through more than three hundred episodes. To that end Bleach is safely one of the most enjoyable shows this season.

BLEACH-Complete Review

Thousand-Year Blood War Arc - Review part 1 and 2 (contains spoilers from part 1)

Prologue

I can't be the only one who have shed tears though out all of these early episodes.. It only took about ten minutes when I first heard Orihime and Chad, then saw them to ACTUALLY FIGHT.. Of course ICHIGO came in with a Bankai. I can't even imagine what fans of the series must have felt after they’ve waited 10 years to finally see and hear them again. It's crazy emotional, even for me who only knows them for like a year now. I have to ... tell you, I fell in love. Im in LOVE with the cast and the vibe of this series. As a Naruto fan myself, I'm thankful that there is a Shounen out there like Bleach. However ..

Bleach is an epic shounen with ultimately legendary goated cast of characters. Namely one of my favorite Rukia, but she is "just" one out of the countless amazing characters created by Tite Kubo.

Bleach has a unique storyline as well, in which we follows the adventures of a teenager, Ichigo Kurosaki who at one night became a Shinigami. The Shinigami's, also know as (Soul Reaper's) are the guardians of souls and they're fighting to protect the (Soul Society) and by doing that they're also maintain the circle of transmigration in order to prevent the collapse of the worlds.

Now, as we are in the Thousand Year Blood War Arc, which includes the Quincy's, the polar opposite of Shinigami. Whose motives are to kill all souls (Hollow's). They are also incredibly powerful individuals, thus our task in TYBW are much more bloodier then ever before.

Story 5/10

In reality, what happens is that one side stirs up the other side by name calling them < the other side answers with a Bankai = fight. In short. This is a Battle Shounen. They fight, because... they have to fight. (That's basically sums up all characters reason to fight and the story core motives as well.) The weak character uses his bankai 24/7 while the strong character refuse to use anything and instead of fighting start a chat with their enemy, but they can't get along in the end.

The problem here is it is as repetitive as it gets. There is no high points in any action or unexpected turn of events in the majority of times. Therefore the overall enjoyment comes of flat and the excitement is really nothing, but illusion. Illusion, because the feels is there. What I mean by this is we have the most epic characters ever, we have a scene, but most of the times it fails to pull of guard the viewer.

Ichigo vs Renji = what we gained and what the characters gained? where the story moved as a result of that fight? No where.

Ichigo vs Ulquiorra = Same thing. Also, the reveal of Ulquiorra number should have done in a much more epic way.

So the fights in Bleach the main thing of what this show does, is a lackluster. (Atleast for me)

“One’s reality, might be another’s Illusion”
- Itachi Uchiha

Although, as I said there are some memorable moments that with your great skills of "illusion" or imagination skills makes it even more perfect. Like the first Bankai, or Ulquiorra.. or Aizen.., but in reality the execution of these moments are not slightly above filler qualities.

Writing 2/10

My main concern with the series was the writing and the execution of the events. Especially the fights.

Each fight outcome was predictable and there were no layers of them at all. They just hitting each other brainlessly.

The level of convenience in the script is also pathetic. Especially in this new season. Not to mention, or lets put this way, it’s needles to mention the level of plot armour this show possesses towards their main cast. Ichigo died like four times, Rukia and Byakuya at least one times.. It’s comical, but just as all of the training Ichigo had to do to gain powers and to be able to defeat his enemies.

In the first season his training wasn’t that laughable, but still stupid because he just fought non-stop with swords and childrens, however since this arc his training sessions is dumbed down even more so than this:

- You need 10 years to learn, but we only have 3 days so you can actually do it in 3 days.

- Ichigo dies - You have to train, we are in the middle of the fight, but that’s alright, you only need 2 years, what is actually hours in our lifetime.

- How convenient.

- Ichigo dies - you have to.. stop

In general his training sessions looks like this now in TYBW:

First, He takes a bath.

Second, He eats food.

Third, he watches blacksmith making swords.

Fourth, walks and stare “strong” people.

Fifth, jumps down of stairs.

Now, lets talk about how the fights in Bleach looks like:

Good character looks weak against the “bad” character. - The bad character kills the good character. - After a few seconds the good character levels up and defeats the bad character that is now weak as hell.

Repeat over and over again.

Every single time, they introduce themselves to each other. For example, it was the cherry on top in this arc when Shunsui Kyōraku introduced himself to Jugram Haschwalth. As they introduced their names, titles, their favourite food and drinks, there was no time left to their fight to even begin…postponed to a tea party after.

But when they do begin to fight, it goes like the bad side is super strong, but stupid or arrogant so they don’t kill their opponents. When the good side is super strong they also fail to kill their opponents..

Or good side is stronger than the bad side then the bad side levels up. They playing with the now weakened good side like they are the strongest for five literally seconds, then a super strong good side character defeats the bad side with one move..

Also, the reasons behind things like how they so conveniently recovered their bankais by just eating some beens.. every time.. big brain rocks.

I would preferred to see more of Ururu, Ririn and Nel over these predictable and over convenient fights.

What I absolutely hated in this show was how poorly some of these goated characters were written. Tōshirō Hitsugaya character for an example. Poor guy was beaten up by literally everyone.. still alive and act like he is the coolest.

The waste of Unohana is baffeling me to the ground. In reality she is still the Kenpachi, but she literally threw away her life and title just to make Zaraki stronger.. (?) but even with that he still got triumph over by ywatch one episode later.

The other thing is the abilities and power system. Some Bankais are actually cool and meaningful, but since everyone using it 24/7 it losed its weight of exclusivity. They are also way too unbalanced and most of them can’t lived up to the hype at all.

Or what about Bambietta characteristics? She takes a guy to her room and slices him up just because she is bored? what the hell is going on? Some parts of this series is funny and cute, but there are things that not just disturbing, but disturbingly idiotic and dumb. Just as the entirety of Aizen character and his super intelligence slash manipulation is a complete joke made up by the fans. He didn’t planned shit. He let out that hollow to do “things”, but he never imagined the outcome of the events, he just went with the flow and fans calls it as “his plan”.
Also, I don’t understand how his sword work because he clearly not used ~ Kyokai Suigetsu ~ on Ichigo at the final of season one. Or Aizen should have won, but clearly it was “his plan” to lose. Otherwise the show would have been ended.

How convenient.

Madness, madness going on in the story.. completely uninspired, bland, random stuff happening without any real induction.

Ichigo family for example or Zaraki’s zanpakuto’s was interesting and quite well written for the most part. As of the few things that comes to my mind at the moment as applause-worthy in the whole story.

Although there are some “memorable” moments and a few really good “vibe” moments that you can feel what Bleach is supposed to be, is not justify how badly they were written and how bland and boring the rest of the story were executed.

Characters 8/10

The concept of Bleach is surely amazing, the Shinigamis and Quincy’s were an interesting concept. Top notch character design and overall aesthetic of the narrative. Also it holds one of the most unique and goated characters in all of anime. For me Rukia character is easily one of the best character ever created in anime. But we can also mention Yoruichi and Urahara as well.

Ost 9/10

Bleach ost's are beautiful. They are truly amazing scores and they made me love every single episodes, because of the vibe they've created. The voice actors… I just can't find the right words to fully describe how incredibly goated all voice actors are, but I have to say thank you for Rukia's VA, Orikasa Fumiko. Thank you so much!

Art 8/10

Compered to the previous seasons I gave the same rating for this entry as well as by how the adaptation goes. Pierrot is a great studio, they made an amazing work on Bleach. The characters, the fighting effects and some landscapes were made close to perfection. This season were a little shy at using colors, but overall I can't say any bad word to the animation.

Enjoyment 3/10

I honestly like Bleach and its atmospheric hype it creates, but I can count on my one hand how many memorable, well-thought-out moments were there that I’ve been able to actually enjoy.

It is all about fighting and it’s nothing groundbreaking even in that category, there are better and more interesting battle anime out there.

Conclusion,

Overall, although of its flawed writing and luck of suspense, it makes up for it in atmosphere where it creates the feels in music, themes and in its characters aesthetic. Which in some cases are enough for someone to cherish, experience and to behold.

I am genuinely happy for the Bleach fans, but if you are looking for an anime that has more to offer than bunch of epic characters non-stop fighting each other for the sake of fighting, Bleach is not your anime.

⭐️ 4/10

Thank you for taking the time to read my review!

Another masterpiece I couldn't imagine I would experience with Bleach even in my dreams. this final arc is really doing the story justice as the story is now more obvious and clear. and the amount of improvement and consistency in this arc is impressive. My only complaints are the sound design is weird for me and there were too many fights some of them were great but the others were so rushed and at last, there was some unnecessary fanservice which wasted Orihime's character after I finally started liking her.
But other than that this part was as great as the last one and it ... even has so much better fights than the last one.
Zero Squad actually surprised me the most they were top-class and for me, the last 3 episodes of this part are the best I have ever seen in Bleach. Senjumaru and Nimaiya really carried those episodes and I liked those characters so quickly despite their little screen time

If this isn't hype I don't know what is 😍.

I really like this final part, but I'm sure there are many people who agree with me that it feels kind of rushed, it was like they will speed running the whole thing. I mean this part contains some movements that could really go down in anime history if only they took their time. With the people of this generation having a very mediocre attention span you don't want to drag your arc too long that it becomes boring and you don't want to go too fast that it feels kind of rushed. But that aside ... I'm really loving these final arc, the story is good, we are getting introduced to many new characters which is always a plus and the colours 😍, but the colours are something else 💖 bleach really went all out on the lighting.

So in conclusion, even if you're not a bleach fan I'm sure everybody can appreciate art and a good story when they see one👍

The bankai show returned with all the usual bullshit you came to expect from it. Nobody watches it for the plot since there is no plot to play attention to. We got someone becoming the successor of the main villain without any build up, without any explanation, and without any dramatic impact. The protagonist didn’t even know of the betrayal until the final battle was half-way over. Naruto versus Sasuke this is not.

Instead of that we just get more of what Bleach was always about. Stuff happening for the heck of it, such as a slut seducing and then killing her own allies because ... she got a bit annoyed. This was the extent of her personality and her contribution to the plot. She goes to fight some captain and their stories end there, with zero impact. Expect the same for 99% of the rest of the characters. Just hollow (not the monsters) battles between nobodies.

Kubo continues to introduce and kill his characters within seconds, which is the worst possible way to write characters. Did you catch the name of that guy who was sliced in half by the slightly annoyed yandere? Did you get what his powers were? Of course not. He didn’t matter. None of those hundreds of Nazi-wannabe people matter.

Half of every episode is still wasted on people bickering at each other or shit-talking while standing still. “Oh, it’s what’s giving them personality” you might think, but when everybody is yelling and screaming and shit-talking in the exact same way, nobody feels unique since they all feel same-y. In fact, they end up being a design because that is the only thing Kubo had in mind when he created them. He had no idea who these people are or what he was supposed to do with them. They don’t matter in the plot either, they are just there to waste time in unimportant fights.

And yes, people are watching it for the action and not the plot, but there comes a time when you realize all the fights play out in the exact same predictable way as they do since the Soul Society arc and without the whole mysterybait of who is the traitor to keep you guessing. There is nothing to guess here, so you don’t care.

Somebody get Kubo out the damn kitchen. As if cour 1 wasn't a banger, this cour really exceeded my expectations. Just the new anime exclusive scenes and extended fights that weren't in the manga was so amazing. I think I said this in my cour 1 review but it's one of the understatements of the decade to say the anime did the manga justice. I think I also said this whole new season is way better than og bleach even though I love og bleach.

Story:

The wandenreich launches another invasion on the soul society during the gotei 13's recovery from the previous invasion. Meanwhile ichigo trains ... with the leader of squad zero ichibe hyosube after learning about the origins of his mother and who "zangetsu" truly is. Uryu joins the sternwritters and aims to learn more about his heritage.

Art:

I don't think there's a whole lot to say about the art. It's just beautiful in every shape and form just like cour 1. Obviously the art in this entire new season so far is the best bleach has looked. The red sky is pretty controversial especially for manga readers, but I thought it fit the tone of this arc. In the manga, it's a dark gray sky with a couple clouds. Just by looking at the art, it makes me want a remake of the original anime despite the the original being great as it is.

Fights and Animation:

Great animation and fights overall. Even the minor fights like toshiro vs bazz b had solid animation but nothing groundbreaking. I've seen this minor trend of people call bleach's animation a "slideshow" which I find delusional. I will admit there are parts of the animation that looks like a "slideshow" but the character's power up effects and the colors overall make up for it just like cour 1. Don't know what exactly what anime they're watching. Anyway my personal fav fight in this cour is rukia vs as nodt. The squad zero fight in the last 3 episodes were phenomenal but personally my favorite is definitely rukia's iconic fight with nodt.

Characters:

Also not a whole not to say about the characters. Both the good and bad side are still the same characters from the last cour fighting for the fate of the world.

Conclusion:

Just overall a fantastic anime adaption of this cour from the Pierrot staff team. So far this might be the best work the studio has ever done. Cour 3 finna be a banger next year. Such a pleasure to have Tite Goatbo part of the production crew so he can fix his issues that he had in the thousand year blood war manga. Not only is this my favorite anime season of 2023, but my favorite season of any anime I've watched. COOK KUBO COOK!!

Bleach TYBW Season 2 Review - A Clear Case Where Adaptation Expansion Was Done Right

--Introduction--

Battle Shounen manga are tricky to write at times. For one reason why, their critical reception (be it positive or negative) by the public usually undergoes a rather binary surface analysis in regards to what works and doesn't according to their usage of a collection of plot devices that define what it is for such an audience, and what ultimately gets subverted enough to become its own thing within the analysis, which is why innovation is rather sought after within the genre (and perhaps, a bit too prioritized and overglorified for ... its own good, as it's not necessarily a must, nor an automatic positive/negative element).

Bleach is a work that was most definitely in the more innovative side for its time (the late 90s and early 00s), and such a claim can be double checked even very late in its run, despite still relying in many minor exposition elements that at that point were showing their age.

One Piece, Naruto and Bleach were considered the Big 3 not only because they were massively popular juggernauts that seemed to air endlessly with their gigantic anime adaptations, but because they brought with them an ever-evolving wave of world-building-focused battle shounen stories that came to become the staple, the base to be followed from that point onwards, if you wanted to create a long-running series in the genre.

One could also point out other contributors for other sorts of tropes which most definitely also influenced even the big three, such as HunterxHunter's mind games and radical change of settings every other arc to keep things fresh, or Gintama's parodizing approach to everything that represented Shounen Jump content by the time it started publishing (be it gag manga, battle manga, sport manga, bildungsroman manga, Slice of Life manga, and the list goes on). This sort of approach would come to influence on how other Battle Shounens in the future would come to be playful with old tropes and even justify them in interesting ways that would make for both a convenient use for exposition, and also as a way to pay homage to the old school elements in a way that evolved the formula towards something more grounded over time (even Bleach, as late as in the final arc. started using such parodic elements to some extent to call out its own tropes in regards to one in particular that I'll mention right now).

My favorite example of the latter, a battle shounen I'm also enjoying quite a bit airing in this very same Summer 2023 anime season would be Jujutsu Kaisen, for example. It takes inspiration and pays homage to several of these elements in the now considered old school (thus no longer innovative for this day and age), and use them in ways that makes them smoother. Such as the good old "I'll now proceed to explain my every move and why you are getting absolutely trashed", which usually resulted in the counterpart responding with "And I'll explain why I can counter that move and why you are going to lose", because we are not using mind battles with lengthy monologues in those (only in some fights, as truth be told, even with a proper execution, they can get very tiring very quickly to read, and even more weirdly paced when animated). While Jujutsu ends up falling victim of both disadvantages at once at times, what it decided to do to shake up the formula was to just state "the more I explain and the opponent understands, the more effective the technique will be". And when it doesn't, we get lengthy, glacially paced mind battles, with HxH-like textbook size narration that really hopes you are sharp with your knowledge on the power system.

So, with all that being said, what is to say about Bleach the manga, compared to what we are getting now in this anime adaptation, that would make this entire section even worth the reading? As one may have guessed at this point, this adaptation decided to both maintain its old school elements (whether they aged a bit compared to something like a spiritual sucessor series like Jujutsu Kaisen) and also create different scenarios by expanding upon fights with anime-original action, and making them more compelling instead of necessarily following that formula with a straight adaptation (more in the lines of the successful JoJo's Bizarre Adventures anime adaptation by David Productions).

--Story/Fights--
The story covers roughly volumes 61 through 67 of the original manga (heavily expanding upon it later on with some very interesting side information from both databooks and sequel novels that really complements the overview and worldbuilding in a major way). That's around 66 and a half chapters, more or less only 3 more than the previous season covered. Which is actually surprising, considering how battle-heavy this entire section of the story is (some episodes covered 8 full chapters in one go, like Gremmy's fight). We came to understand why when suddenly, other episodes in the cour started expanding upon the material with entirely new content, particularly the final 3 episodes, which is likely why there weren't to many more chapters adapted compared to the first cour's wordier content.

The Second Invasion is a portion of the final arc in which we get an all-out war with non-stop cool fights all over the place (very reminiscing of aforementioned JoJo series, which starting from part 3 gives us an enemy stand per story section of a given part, usually divided in multiple chapters, and, likewise, adapted either in one go or two episodes in the faster paced anime adaptation, compared to the slow weekly pace of the manga anyway).

It's far better appreciated in a marathon for me, personally. That's true for this entire arc in the manga, really, it just wasn't fun to follow it weekly due to how much focus we had in action, which made all these fights take months to be completed. This problem is nearly absent in the anime adaptation right now, but that was the possible ultimate reason why the anime just couldn't continue adapting the way it was doing beforehand (5 min recap, 7 minutes fight, 5 minutes flashback to what just happened in the fight so far including the previous episode, and 3 minutes for OP/ED, with the rest of the time being used for the comedy skits at the end of the episode). That was a sick joke not even the numerous fillers were remeding by the time we reached Hueco Mundo.

The formula for said battles is like stated above, and I cannot stop thinking how influenced by JoJo's own it is. You have Rule of Cool, insane power abilities being used in twisted ways and zigzagging the tides for the entire duration of a fight, which 90% of the time ends with the good guys winning against the threat (the other 10% being either a setup for the arc where defeat is inevitable or genuine deaths of major protagonist/antagonist characters, which in JoJo usually only happen as the Parts are coming to an end (while in Bleach, they are mostly reserved to the charismatic antagonist major cast, which unfortunately for fans, are some of the favorites, particularly Ulquiorra).

Formulaic as it may be, that isn't really what the battles are about, and honestly, negatively addressing as something formulaic or predictable just because the good guys will almost always win is as much of a falsely equivalent statement as saying that series that kill their characters unpredictably are in any way necessarily better. When it comes to Battle Shounen, execution and fun trumps most other elements. If the hero doesn't have the so-called "plot-armor", one will be wasting precious character development and established iconic figures, usually for the sake of stakes, development of others in the cast, or shock value.

It's a waste of time to even argue with anyone that will say something is predictable because a central character won't die, and given that Bleach is an assembled gigantic cast of slowly introduced main characters that share the spotlight for just as long as the protagonist himself in several regards. It's not necessarily neither a good or a bad thing, it all depends on how you are executing a final act of a battle-focused story in which several characters will live to the end or will die in big numbers.

In the case of Bleach, luckily, they kill major characters or permanently debilitate others to great effect in this Final Arc, whether they are or not numerous. What results of it are several battles with fan-favorite characters participating in battles against enemies that are just as fun as they are insane with their destructive potential, as Quincies' powers gifted by Yhwach are ludicrously gargantuan.

It comes to apply, of course, the discourse from before about having fun with these old school elements, such as not just once a character on the good guys side will brag too much about a power that could clearly win the battle... if only they stayed quiet! Resulting in hilariously brutal beatdowns from enemies until the big shots come to the rescue and win the battle. That also happens with enemies, and some are more self-aware than others as to how dumb and funny it is for both their allies and their enemies to get bodied by their own ego while they explain in detail why they are awesome and why the enemy will get destroyed for the sake of exposition (there's even more to come from this next cour, and in there, some of the best comedic bits are precisely about this sort of thing lol).

Overall, it's a whole lot of fun with some old school elements that also get their own little anime exclusive expansions here and there for a more engaging battle from start to finish. You just have to keep in mind that it's playful with these elements in general since the very beginning of the story, a bit more substantially so now that we reached the endgame phase.

TL;DR the story mostly used these fight elements for rule of cool and smooth exposition on the spot with all the action, meaning thus SO SHOULD YOU!

--Characters--
Quirky as usual, Kubo never needs much screentime to make most of the villain cast chaotically fun to watch. In the short time they have to establish their own thing to make the battle entertaining they do so. As for the more important ones, naturally they get much more depth than those, but they are selected few.

I don't personally think that's necessarily a problem, and I don't think all villains have to have any sort of substantial depth to them before they go down in the hands of the good guys in this genre of story. In fact, as of late, I think this is getting more and more detrimental due to -again- poor execution when paired to themes being delved upon by the conflict in hands (I'm looking at you, Kimetsu no Yaiba, giving every single villain a sad backstory that doesn't really add much to the overarching other than "see, they had feeelings too").

In the case of Bleach it's very simple and you really don't need these characters to be surprisingly deep characters you HAVE to know all about by the end of their lives within the conflict with a sappy, 10 minutes long flashback just before they die. The little glimpse at the miserable life of some is usually more than enough to make you think "damn, this guy's life sucked, and I feel bad for him even though the only thing I know is that he was trapped in a closed space and that never knew true freedom even in his own imagination, which was kept in check so that he didn't grow too strong". How many minutes did it take in the anime to give you that impression without interrupting a single second of glorious high-octane cool action? But 3 seconds of eyecatcher text explaining this bit, and 2 minutes for the character explaining his feelings to his adversary, and it was all very effective.

You can do a lot with very short time as long as you have the good old keyword "execution", even cry for a life going by in 5 minutes of film in Pixar's Up. The same goes for a strong first impression that keeps you engaged. Bleach never needed much time to establish a cool character in a way, and make them somewhat memorable and fun to watch and read about, for as short as that time was, and this is what I would call a strength if anything. An achievement in simplicity matters little for one that always expect depth, but it's not like depth is always necessarily a must to give you a compelling product in its own regards of storytelling and, in this genre, most importantly, fun.

TL;DR the characters are fun to watch, and the most important ones get nice depth to them as the narrative requires them to.

--Animation/OST--
To keep it short, it's very well animated, albeit not perfectly consistent (but what wasn't can easily be fixed in the BD release (the actual final product), which is the same as last cour, pretty much, I wouldn't be much bothered by the nitpicks in that regard.

OST is really nice and I listen to it here and there in separate (these are mostly cool remixes from the glorious old soundtrack), but I have one complain that I don't think I've heard much about, which would be:

The volume is a bit messed up, the OST is too low at some particular times, and thus makes a lesser impression because of it. When it's in proper volume, the scenes give you that feeling of "IT'S GOING DOWN BABY!", but when they are not, let's say I cannot completely feel like Number One.

--Enjoyment--
It's rather clear that I enjoyed this anime adaptation a WHOLE LOT.

Final Score is a solid 9/10.
I'm looking forward to all the nice adaptation expansions yet to come with the next 2 cours.

The Biggest Three.

It is a very exciting time to be a Bleach fan. Compared to the other members of the Big Three (excluding One Piece because it hasn't finished yet) Bleach has aged like a fine wine in the ten years since it finished publication thanks to all of the YouTube Bleach scholars and those with high media literacy skills picking away at its world-building and narrative giving audiences (especially westerners) a deeper understanding and appreciation for its characters and themes, opening the door for new readers and changing the minds of some who fell for the debunked anti-Bleach propaganda of the early 2010’s ... and gave the series another chance. That's even with the rushed ending due to health complications which the Thousand Year Blood War anime has proven to address by adding context to certain scenes, inserting certain canon material from the sequel light novels and adding entirely new scenes that Kubo didn’t have time to write and draw in the original manga.

The second Coeur centres around the Quincy's second invasion of the Soul Society and the subsequent battles that follow. Once again cuts have been made to certain scenes to either streamline certain moments or to make room for new material and it results in an extremely fast-paced season which lends itself well to binge-watching.
Like the last Coeur, I am disappointed over some of the cut content even if I do understand why it was. The two major cuts that disappointed me the most were Renji’s big battle against James which saw half the fight just vanish, and although Kenpai’s fight against Gremmy was excellent I wish they kept the reactions from the Sternritters to Gremmy’s summoned meteor and not just the Shinigami’s as it made the conflict feel smaller.
But despite my gripes with some of the cuts, I think it was worth it for the extra scenes added by Kubo. There's an extra fight involving Byakuya taking on three Sternritters, Ichigo gets a never-before-seen training scene which adds massive story implications plus he gets involved in an extended fight with the Bambis. There's a backstory between Yhwach and Ichibe, there are two brand new Bankai reveals that caught me completely off guard and the entire Zero Squad was completely redeemed from their lacklustre showing in the manga against Yhwach’s four elite Quincy. The final three episodes were so good I almost gave this Coeur a 10.

Sadly as much as I want to I can't give Bleach’s Second Coeur a 10. I think Studio Pierrot did a fantastic job, but it was obvious they were having challenges behind the scenes. With a six-month production schedule and the loss of Coeur One's action animation director Bleach Coeur Two has suffered in comparison.
Still, it's not half as bad as it sounds. The team at Pierrot nailed the most important moments of the adaption such as the character designs, fights, the incredible OST and the much-appreciated added story scenes. A lot of characters get a lot of justice done for them by the team and I couldn’t be thankful enough for that.

Bleach is entering a really exciting phase moving into Coeur Three. We are at a point now where there are only around seventy chapters left with two Coeur’s left to adapt them which means we’re going to be getting more original Kubo content. Anime only and manga readers are going to be in the same boat as we now don’t know what Kubo has cooked for all of us Bleach fans, but I’m so excited to see what his original vision for the final stretch of the Thousand Year Blood War is going to look like. In the meantime, I hope the animators get all the time they need for rest and preparation for Coeur 3. It’s going to be tough to wait, but if it means I get the best Bleach anime possible, I’ll wait.

9/10 God of Thunder 3 (if you know, you know).

Story & Characters: By now, you're probably familiar with Bleach enough to know that the war between the Quincies and Soul Reapers rages on in this second part, labeled as The Separation. Why it's called that, I'm actually not sure, but this marks the second part out of four. Is it worth continuing this adventure? Absolutely. This part fleshes out some more details both about why Yhwach is seeking to invade the Soul Society, and just how powerful some of his comrades are. Like Soul Reapers, they all have their own specialized abilities and even if some are a little ... more duller than others, they still make for some fantastic fights. What I will say is that fights are a touch less creative than previously seen in both the Blood War arc, and the main Bleach storyline, just because many of the Soul Reapers are now going all-out. It's pretty easy to guess what this means for most of them, but some fights, such as those seen with Bambietta's crew, are probably the more entertaining ones. They just never reach the level that we saw with Head Captain Yamamoto.

Some audiences will probably be at least a little disappointed with Ichigo and crew's lack of screentime in this part, especially with the former who really doesn't have any fights here at all. Sure, character progression is important, but not seeing Zangetsu in action is a bit of a bummer. Like I alluded to earlier, the series more than makes up for it with other captains entering the fray, so it isn't too much of a deal breaker. We all know that Ichigo will be involved in fights in future installments, so we just need to wait and see. Chad and Orihime still haven't seen much action at all and that disappointingly doesn't change much here. Kisuke's knowledge is put on display once again, and even seeing Mayuri's reactions to some of the outcomes are still present, which leaves for some lighthearted moments. While captains should be the top of the crop in the Soul Society, some get hilariously outmatched in a few fights so the somewhat epic wind up will leave some audiences a little disappointed.

That being said, we get introduced to the Soul Society's Squad Zero, and they are most certainly welcome additions to this war. They have some insane power of their own, especially seen by Senjumaru and Ichibei. Their fights are easily the best, and I'm glad that those were kept for last. It does feel like there's more to be seen, but we obviously have plenty of story left to go seen if more is to come. Yoruichi returns to the story, but she doesn't add much to the story quite yet. Some of the old visards also make brief appearances, but do not participate in combat.

Quite honestly, the story of this season of Bleach doesn't amount to much because we already have a firm hold on what the story is, and this season's job is to only further that. Returnees are mostly welcome and new characters are awesome. If you're looking for deep storytelling, you probably won't find it here, though the brief stories that we get about certain Quincies are welcome. I'll be eager to see where the story goes and how much action we continue to see. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 9/10)

Art: Pierrot still continues a strong level of quality with their animation, something I wasn't sure would continue because of the studio's history with past anime. It remains crisp, with flashy fights and dark backgrounds. (10/10)

Sound: I can't say I was a huge fan of the new OP or ED, as both seem like odd choices for a war setting. Voice cast are still amazing, with Jeannie Tirado (Senjumaru) probably being my favourite this time around. I was also very impressed by A.J. Beckles as Gremmy. Our favourite power couple still did not return - Bill Butts replaces Travis Willingham as Charlotte Chuhlhourne and Hyorinmaru, and Anairis Quiñones replaces Laura Bailey as Hiyori. Early on in production, Quiñones replaced Wendee Lee as Yoruichi, but this was changed after a few episodes, causing some pretty significant backlash on her, unfairly. Lee insisted that it was a scheduling conflict from the producers end of things, but really didn't do herself any favours in some, now deleted, posts on X. I was pretty upset to see this considering how much of a fan I was of her in her work over multiple decades, but any cyberbully to both Lee and Quiñones should be toned down. (9/10)

Overall: Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Separation is still amazing, though the hype is significantly lower this time around. Doing this in four parts which don't air as one huge season does unfortunately bring down the hype a little bit. Still, flashy action between Soul Reapers and Quincies is why I'm here and we get that in spades. Disney+ did a much better job at bringing a new episode each week, though the day in which the dub aired was still pretty random. I can't wait to watch more next year! (9/10)

YOU ALREADY KNOW SON, THEY CANT HANDLE MY BOY ICHIGO WOOOOOOOOO

Story: this season is yet another banger as we all expected, you honestly dont need me to tell you that the action sequences and the story telling is A1. Bleach fans cant be anymore spoiled with how much time, effort, and care has been put in to this arc of Bleach and it fricken deserves it.
Charecters: The gang is back and wiping out those clean ass bankais you already know
Soundtrack: IF YOU WANNA SEE SOME ACTION GOTTA BE THE CENTER OF AT-TRAC-TION
Writing: its okay I guess

10/10

After watching from start to finish, I can say with certainty that this anime adaptation and at the same time a sequel was done well, of course not a masterpiece but within reason. Ok then, let's cut to the chase.

The narrative immediately picked up from where cour 1 left. Though before that, there was a mini scene from the start of the 1st episode that shows the viewer what they might expect of the upcoming battles and what the main villain is capable of. Moving onward, the episodes feature one main battle. These main battles may span 2 episodes as you reach the 2nd half ... of this season. With this kind of structure, the pacing was steady. The usage of flashbacks at the start of the episode before the opening theme kicks in was a good choice, and such flashbacks answered some questions that came about from the source material and/or the first cour. The battles' outcomes were a bit predictable because this is a shounen anime, save for the last episode were it was different when compared to the source material. Actually not complaining with this change because it turned out for the better in terms of the plot's climax and also to appeal to fans. With this kind of change, the story for cour 2 ended in a high note despite some sacrifices done by the protagonists.

As for the art, designs are still standard-fare for Bleach TYBW. Designs for the Quincy Voll Stern Dich of the Stern Ritter and the Bankai of some Soul Reapers were on point to convey their respective weilder's powers/abilities. Animation didn't feel jittery and was fluid enough. The use of 3DCG animation was done well for the showcasing of the powers for some of the characters and was smooth all thoughout. Speaking of 3d animation, you might notice that the majority of the background characters got the 3dcg treatment. If I have to make an educated guess, it might be to save costs/resources on the production team. But fret not, it's not that easily noticeable and may only last a few seconds to label it as insignificant so the focus won't deviate that much from the main events. For the visuals of the opening theme, it was a nice change of pace when compared to cour 1; with the characters wearing casual clothing. The events that unfolded throughout the opening theme heavily mirror the fights/events that took place in this season without spoiling too much. Not much to say for the visuals of the ending theme, but it conveyed some fact about the Quincy "being there with the Soul Reapers since long ago".

For the sound, the OSTs were still the same as cour 1; specifically the majority of them were remixes of the past OSTs that were present in the previous Bleach tv series. Actually some were really notable though. The background sound whenever a Stern Ritter enters their Quincy Voll Stern Dich form or when Yhwach used one of his big abilities; yes you guess it right, a bell sound (church bell I think), made it on point that they exude some "holiness" to some degree. The music used for the opening theme was such a good fit for its corresponding visuals (again, not much to say for the ending theme but not bad I guess).

The characters might be of dynamic personalities, but there is still that recurring trope in Bleach that they share and that is they get smug when showcasing their powers/abilities. It's still my only main gripe for this series because when these characters do so and they got defeated or something, it's like they're making a fool of themselves. Some were redeemable enough and tried to adapt to the situation they're in and stand their ground.

To sum it all up, overall enjoyment was worth it. The many anime-original content was such a treat, from fight extenders to flashbacks that answered questions and eventually to the last two episodes were the order of battles were changed compared to the manga source material in order to build up hype for the resolution of this season. Also, if you made it at the end of the last episode, you'll see a very familiar segment that was present from the previous Bleach tv series. It might make you disappointed because it may be unnecessary or it may hit you with a wave of nostalgia in a funny way. By the way, if you were disappointed about cour 1 having a recap of sorts at the 3rd episode, no need to worry about that because cour 2 didn't have any and wasted no time to progress the narrative.

I really really REALLY wanted to give it a 10, but after finishing this part , I just get the feeling that things were left out. I read the manga like a decade ago, and while I don't remember the details, I KNOW that we should've seen some particular fights and new reveals back in Seireitei before they went to the King's Palace...... am I remembering wrong, what's going on? Did they cut the content? Some reveals are really huge so I can't believe they done this. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, or maybe they will rearrange the events timeline tho that makes no sense because ... some people that are now in the king's palace should be down in seireitei, will they just force them down again for no good reason? It's just a complicated mess....

Anyway, besides cutting content, everything else is a 10/10.

In short: There is no actual story, the characters are flat and uninteresting. Shock and awe is used to keep viewer's attention because the writing lacks any coherence and realism.

At length: The characters are pulling new powers one after another without a sufficient buildup. The new saga does not make the effort to properly, in-depth describe the character's understanding of their new powers or the struggle they had to overcome to gain them. They just train, sweat a lot and boom - superpower.

The new villains are very colourful and varied, but lack a depth the previous villains did. All but the main villain. In old ... bleach even the level one enemy felt relevant. They felt like people with a real place in the world and the story of the protagonist, no matter how silly their powers were. Here the enemies are showing signs of a background, but the show pays so little attention to it, that you have not the time to develop any sympathy to the characters. So they are basically foot-soldiers, who get killed of in two episodes, you learn nothing about them and they cry about their unhappy childhood the last few minutes of their lives - this feel arbitrary and unnatural to me.

The story moves forward as in the previous seasons of the show. With large plot-less fights in-between the actual story points. But that has always been Bleach and I don't mind that. What I mind is that the actual story points evoke no emotion. The Major plot twists are revealed and accepted in a matter of seconds. The emotions and strength you feel when Ichigo goes on a rescue missions in the Soul Society arc or Arancar arcs are not here. The motivation of the main characters is poorly presented or almost not there for the most part of the show. And when they finally get the chance to show some of that Ichigo's strong friendship based personality, it is really just one sentence, where he and all his friends say that they believe everything will be good, so let's just move one.

Everything that happens, happens out of convenience. The characters appear on scene just in the nick of time so often it is unreal. They always have the new power ready just when the enemy is about to win. The explanation for why they are where they are and how they've got all these new powers and knowledge is given, yes, but it is all handled to the viewer in such nihilistic manner that I could not bring myself to believe it most of the time. It is like reading a wikipedia page on a battle, instead of feeling the tension and the heat of the moment.

Animation is good.

This second part is very good, although it is not excellent, that is why I gave it an 8. I gave the first part a 9 and I gave the original bleach a 10, to put it in context. After the news of the return of bleach, the anime has returned to its old ways, with dozens of battles with an excess of secondary characters that do not interest me at all, both quincies and shinigami. For me the strong points of this second part are the scenes related to the quincies' past, as well as when they explain the reason for everything and everything ... that happens in the spirit king's palace.

The battles follow a very marked pattern where it seems that I defeat you but no, then you defeat me but no, then I defeat you again and so on infinitely until they decide that enough is enough. This acts as a filler for the whole life as in the original series. When this happens with secondary characters and there are too many of them, it becomes tiresome. On the other hand, when it happens with the main battles and with the strongest characters, it's fine, because that's what's really interesting. Ichigo's participation in this second part is rather low, so his presence is also missing. He doesn't even appear for the final chapter and it ends a bit abruptly.

I hope that for the third part they stop filling and bring us the resolution of the quincy arc, which at times seemed to advance very quickly and at times dragged on forever. There is a bit of strange pacing.

Judging exclusively the anime, it's awesome. Animation, visuals, sound, coloring, etc. Everything is awesome. The big shame is that all of this is spent in probably the worst arc I've ever seen in a major shonen. Villains appear out of nowhere with only a brief appearance on screen with their name, absolute zero buildup, stupid powers, most of them get dealt with in literally two minutes, and almost all of them are extremely unlikeable.
The big bads and the badass Zero squad are also dumb as hell. Things happen just because, with no sense to it whatsoever. The structure of how events happen is awful. And ... I say this as someone who enjoyed Bleach all the way through the Battle for Karakura arc. This story was a disappointment when I read it in the manga and it's an even bigger one now that it's getting a great chance that, imo, it didn't deserve.

The next adaptation of the Bleach thousand year blood war was ofcourse one of the most anticipated animes. But the question is that do we really want to watch this anime? I would say ofcourse you need to try it. But this second part was not really convincing. The anime just goes on and on and on with battles between the Quincy and the shinigami but there is no story in it. Its packed with full of battles. The first part was was really good with the battles and the story going side by side but this part was a let down. So no high ... opinion its just average.

Certified Hood classic. They came back and did this series Write and Right. They cooked. I love everything about this series even the dub. The Fights the animation the Story the Voice acting the characters the Powerscaling. There's like 1 things I didn't like about this series and that is the wait for Cour 3. Binge this series. Bleach has always been a Cult classic but the way they executed both Cour 1 & 2 already lets us as a fan base know how Cour 3 will go.

Let's start with the story.

What makes bleach? What gives bleach it's filling? It's depth right? It ... feels human, some would argue that this Hurts the characters because they feel TO human and I understand the notion but the Characters and story feel real because Kubo has a talent for making these characters feel real.
The characters are also Layered like Onions Ichigo is Terrified of being a disappointment. This literally affects all aspects of his life. He can't let go of the single most traumatic thing in his life and in I believe Cour 2 he learns why this happens and it DESTROYS him. His reaction feels real. The characters don't feel like they are puppets on a string in a play they feel like real human beings (death gods in this case) reacting in real time to Situations. Love it.