Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen - Soukoku-tan Episode 12 Discussion

Ever since TYBW was announced to be adapted, there was two main events I was excited as hell to be animated, that being BLADE IS ME and today's episode, FRIENDS. In my head when reading this part of TYBW, I wanted some Kakashi v. Obito type direction. I ofc wasn't expecting it to happen, let alone we even get to this part, but here we are. Whether or not we don't get that type of direction, I'm just happy to see this finally adapted.

And I mean, already right off the bat, god do these backgrounds in the flashback look phenomenal. Though, ofc, having to see the backstory does mean we have to see their sad upbrining, in which is all thanks to Yhwach himself. Yes, the person they literally work for. You ask why? Well, it's all in order to infiltrate their ranks and backstab Yhwach for what he did... except he only sees potential in Jugram... LOL. Poor Bazz man.

But there's a reason for that ofc. It's because the only reason Bazz even had that power in the first place was because of the fact Jugram gives HIM those powers. People could say that Jugram is an L friend, but to be fair, they never were friends to begin with. Which ultimately ends in Bazz's defeat.. very shamefully. Really had to shove it in out faces with that friEND.

Easily my favorite episode of the cour, and probably in the top three of all TYBW so far. Well done Pierrot

Bazz and Hash-whatever backstory. The usual friendship cliche but interestingly we got to know that Yhwach was just a dictator to his people. Anyway that's it for Bazz B he won't be buzzing around anymore.

@IzanaSolos that would have been epic and sad at the same time, with the music, man

@Baya128 Not really, it would just be tone deaf and doesn't fit Bleach. The only parallel they share is that Bazz-B/Obito grew jealous of Haschwalth/Kakashi and developed feelings of resentment. But Bazz-B wasn't a melodramatic edgelord like Obito and still saw Haschwalth as an out of reach friend, which Haschwalth deep down reciprocates. Their dynamic is realistically solemn and nuanced unlike the corny cliched melodrama of Naruto. It's like comparing Ichigo and Uryu's rivalry to Naruto and Sasuke's when their similarities don't extend beyond surface-level aesthetics.

>Their dynamic is realistically solemn and nuanced
Their dynamic is extremely simple and was barely there, it's funny that you call Kakashi and Obito's relationship corny while Bazz-B and Haschwalth's "realistically solemn" as if Bleach and Naruto aren't in the same ballpark in writing, and if anything, Naruto is the more nuanced series between the two. I agree that their relationship being compared is weird, because I didn't think about that comparison neither with the manga nor with the anime.

@Ionliosite2 Naruto is definitely not on the same ballpark of writing lol--Kishimoto is a vastly inferior writer and artist to both Kubo and Oda and you can see that in the way he manages his legacy compared to the other two. Shippuden was objectively bad.

The timeline and place of Bazz-B's and Jugram's flashbacks have always confused me. The timeline reason is because of the Quincy King prophecy: "The sealed King of the Quincy. Over 900 years, he shall recover his heartbeat. Over 90 years, he shall recover his intellect. Over nine years, he shall recover his power. And over nine days, he shall recover the world." After all, as we saw from the flashback both Bazz-B and Jugram grew similar fashion to humans, and in this flashback, it was established when Yhwach was building his new unit which was Sternritter, so this flashback's timing should have been quite near the current timeline. So, does that mean Yhwach was leading his troops when he wasn't yet intelligent? They did say in the flashback he wasn't sane, so it kind of makes sense, but even so... Also, based on the environment, people's clothes, and technology in the flashback it seemed to be medieval times. Yet the current time in the Bleach universe isn't that old, even though Soul Society lives in a mixture of 'old time' and new one, but even so... Not to mention the older Quincies who appeared in the flashback. We saw them together with Yhwach when he had his chat with Ichibe which was 1000 years ago. So, either those Quincies aged slower (thanks to Yhwach), or maybe Quincies who don't live in the World of the Living age slower?

The flashback also brought the question just where it took place? Based on the timeline and other points I just pointed out, I think we can rule World of the Living out. After all, if there would have been a logical explanation it took place in World of the Living, but in the very far past and for example, Bazz B and Jugram (and the rest of Sternritters) would have been put in cryonics or sort of, then I would have accepted that explanation of timeline and the place it took, but because such a thing wasn't provided, it all just feels weird. In fact, it feels like this place and timeline took place in its own pocket dimension, but it has been established several times there are only World of the Living, Hueco Mundo, Soul Society, and Hell. Then again, we've seen several miscellaneous dimensions, so maybe this whole flashback took its place in such a dimension? It could also explain the time of it. Making it fit to current events.

Aside from that, the whole flashback itself was very interesting. I found it highly interesting. Mainly because of Yhwach's "role", and Bazz-B's and Jugram's "friendship". It seemed like in the flashback Yhwach was recognized more as a 'mad king' than anything else, which kind of begged the question was that because he hadn't yet gotten his intellect fully? Or, was this all just part of his bigger plan that we are seeing unraveling at the moment in the current time? After all, everything seems to imply that Yhwach needed lots of power for his war against Soul Society and taking down Soul King to create a new world. So, to those who just wanted to live their lives in peace, he must have appeared as a madman... While to (most of) his followers he might have appeared at least somewhat sane or savior or whatever word you want to use. At least to Jugram in this case.

Where we get to Jugram's and Bazz-B's. I'm sorry, but Bazz-B wasn't the most wonderful friend to Jugram. While he might have thought he was, he really wasn't. The fact he pushed his superiority to Jugram the moment they met already told volumes. Even though we could ignore that with Bazz-B being a cocky boy, because he was the lord's son (feudal lord's?) the moment he realized Jugram's uncle was abusing him, yet he didn't really do anything to it, made at least me personally feel 'why you think Jugram 'betrayed' you, Bazz-B? Wasn't it kind of obvious?' After all, even if Bazz-B himself couldn't have really done anything, he could have asked his parents to enlist Jugram to his castle as a stable boy or sort of. I'm pretty sure it would have been better, because even if the badmouthing would have ended and the beating lessened when Bazz-B so 'kindly' helped Jugram...the improvement wasn't that big. That and the fact it felt like Bazz-B never truly got Jugram or saw eye-to-eye with him, until his last moment. Which was the only saving grace to their so-called friendship. After all, while it made sense that Bazz-B wanted revenge over his parents' death (erm, why on Earth both he and his mother were standing in front of that giant window when they were attacked? It seemed like they were just asking to be killed), it was kind of sad he thought Jugram would want over his uncle/forest. After all, to Jugram it must have felt like liberation. But because Jugram was quite ignorant, and obviously craved acceptance and friends, it made sense he joined Bazz-B. I'm not sure if the two were obvious their 'friendship' wasn't the best or if their sense of it was just skewed as to me it seemed like Bazz-B thought underling = friend. While to Jugram...he was kind of hard to read. I feel like he genuinely thought 'this is how friendship should be' until he met Yhwach who was probably the first person in his life so far who told him he needed him. Obviously, it struck young Jugram and because of that, it made sense he chose Yhwach in the end compared to Bazz-B. But even so...as we saw from the flashback, he still at least held Bazz-B in some sort of value as he never fought him and in fact tried his very best to make sure Bazz-B wouldn't get in trouble. Unfortunately, everything pin-pointed the two people who were friends would end it in the end. Yeah, the title of this episode was clever and I just loved the 'end' part of friend was red. Felt very fitting considering everything!

Wait. In the middle card was Blazzard Black. Is that Bazz B's real name? (Not to mention Jugram called him that in the heat of the battle.) It kind of makes sense, because Bazz-B gave Jugram the nickname 'Jugo' . While he, himself called himself Bazz, but even so...it felt a bit weird he never gave his full name to Jugram (or it was omitted, because it wasn't that important). Even so, if that is the case, that's kind of cool. (I hope someone will translate that middle card because it could have more background info about Bazz-B! [Same what comes to Jugram himself.] I also realized just now the 'B' must come from Burner Finger, lol.)

Also, Bazz-B confronting Hubert in the flashback and getting called 'monkey' made me think of Byakuya versus Renji. After all, Bazz-B and Renji appeared quite similar and shouldn't they have been enemies, the bros energy between them would have been massive! But even so, unlike in Byakuya vs. Renji, Hubert vs. Bazz-B never got started, thanks to the fact that Yhwach came and put everybody in their places. In that sense, it was a nice parallel that still differed enough to be its own somewhat unique event.

I've to also give credit to the animators as the ending between Bazz-B and Jugram was very cinematic. How Bazz-B dragged his bloody body toward Jugram, just to kick the bucket while calling out 'Jugo' and Jugram walking away... I know I should probably feel melancholic, but to me, this whole thing felt very poetic.

The flashback took place over 1000 years ago in human world which means both Jugram and Bazz-B are over 1000 years old at this point. They age slower then normal humans most likely because after the fall of the Quincy Empire they hid themselves in "shadow realm" of Soul Society where souls age at much slower rate. The series did a bad job at explaining this.