Summary
The Sternritter reveal their respective Quincy: Vollständigin the aftermath of the Auswählen, and the battle between Yhwach’s forces and the Soul King’s Royal Guard continues to intensify. With the scales tipped in favour of the Quincies once again, the Royal Guard unleash their final trump card, and a never-before seen Bankai is revealed in the finale ofBLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2, “BLACK”.
In the aftermath of “BLACK”, the series is set up for the continuation of theThousand-Year Blood Wararc coming next year, with Ukitake expected to have a much more important role in the upcomingBLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict.
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The Bell Tolls
With the once-downed Quincies back and ready to fight, the battle continues while Ichigo and the gang continue hurtling towards the Soul King’s Palace. According to Lille Barro, thepower redistributed to them via the Auswählenis not “additional”, it is the power that was once theirs that they didn’t have time to tap into at the time. After being shot multiple times by Lille Barro, Oh-Etsu is revived by Shutara and returns to battle Lille, as Shutara commences battle against Gerard Valkyrie, while Kirio battles Pernida Parnkgjas and Kirinji takes on Askin Nakk Le Vaar – who keeps trying to escape.
All the while, Ichibē Hyōsube and Yhwach’s battle continues. One of the standout aspects of the Royal Guard is their sheer confidence, bordering arrogance when it comes to their abilities. Hyōsube tells Yhwach that his attempt to use Ichimonji to halve the Quincy King’s power was to help him save face in his inevitable defeat – it would look worse for Yhwach to lose while at full power. The other Royal Guard members have mentioned a number of times that their collective might is greater than the entire Gotei 13 combined. Yet, the battle still seems to be hanging in the balance. It would make sense that if it were really that simple, Hyōsube would have killed him already, but for some reason, Hyōsube keeps trying not toend Yhwach here and now.
Paint it Black
Despite having run away for most of their bout, Nakk Le Vaar eventually finds an opening to exploit and fires an arrow through Kirinji, making him the winner of that bout, while a miscalculation from Oh-Etsu leaves him with a hole in his stomach courtesy of Lille Barro. Kirio has her hands full dealing with Pernida’s aggressive attacks, and Gerard Valkyrie swiftly deals with Shutara. With four of the five Royal Guard members incapacitated, it appears that the Quincies have almost fully decimated their enemies; however, Oh-Etsu regains consciousness and rallies his colleagues, who rise up once more but not to fight. Designating Shutara as the one who will defeat them, Kirio, Kirinji and Oh-Etsu slit their own throats, giving their powers to Shutara, enabling her topossess their combined might, save for Hyōsube. The reasoning is similar to the Limiters placed on Shinigami Captains who enter the World of the Living, but this time, the Royal Guard itself is like a single organism with its powers split among its members to avoid negatively affecting the three worlds all at once.
With the strength of three of the five members of the Zero Squad, Shutara activates her never-before seen Bankai, Shatatsu Karagara Shigaraminotsuji, which causes heaven and earth in each of the realms to tremble violently. Her enemies are each subjected to a different kind of destruction, and the stunning visuals of the Bankai’s release and execution are by far the episode’s best aspects. Visually,BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood Warhas been incredibleover the past two cours; however, “BLACK” featured several gorgeous bits of animation, with well-composed shots spread throughout before the sheer beauty that was Shutara’s Bankai. The Weave Guard’s release was so impactful that it overshadowed the activation of Hyōsube’s own final release, which he referred to as a “Shinuchi” (like “Asauchi”) – a name which arises from the fact that Ichimonji existed prior to the creation of what is known as a Bankai.
Crushed Underfoot
Interestingly, unlike Shutara’s dramatic Bankai, the activation of Ichimonji Shirafude did not have any adverse effects on the three realms and its effects were largely contained to Yhwach. After dousing Yhwach in the black ink of his Zanpakutō, hence blacking out his name and abilities, Hyōsube activates his Shinuchi, which hasthe ability to overwritethat which has been blacked out with Ichimonji’s ink, enabling Hyōsube to rewrite the very nature of something. He decides to mark Yhwach as “Black Ant”, explaining that this is the immense gulf between their abilities, and now the once powerful king has been reduced to an ant destined to be trampled underfoot by those stronger than he. Again, the tides of battle have shifted, and it appears that the Shinigami are the ones who’ll win this one, but the nature of this climactic battle has been to pendulum between possible victors. After Yhwach is sent hurtling towards the Seireitei below in defeat, the screen fades to black as we prepare for the upcoming third cours in theThousand-Year Blood Warstory.
Conflict
While the episode was full of exciting developments, and Shutara’s Bankai activation was truly one of the best moments from this past season, the episode felt almost too short, lacked any significant inclusion of Ichigo and his party, and even used the few minutes allotted for post-credits for the nostalgic revival of Kon’s comedy omake show,The Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book. While Kon himself noted that the final arc is incredibly serious in its presentation, the conclusion of such a wildly important episode with a watered down version of what was once a great addition to the original anime felt more like a cop-out; it felt more tone-deaf than it was a good way to inject a little humour.
What would have gone better in this last part would have been the kind of format the Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book had in the original run ofBLEACH(if it is absolutely positively necessary to inject comedy right here, right now); or, even better, an ominous post-credit scene to better link the finale to the preview trailer for the upcomingBLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict. Overall, the final episodes of this second cours were highly enjoyable and end in a way that makes it clear that Soul King’s Palace is where the second half of the series will be set.
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