Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Calamity ‒ Episode 10
It's wild to think that after all this time, Bleach—as an anime—is finally over. As I said last week, it doesn't quite hit as hard as learning the Bleach manga had ended, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hit all the same. In fact, it hits in a way that feels weirdly more definitive. Like, “That's it. That's the whole story, now in anime form." If the anime—rather than the manga—is the one you're nostalgic for, that's the one that's done this time. It's a bittersweet feeling. It feels like the end of an era. I know someone will inevitably come out of the woodwork to say, “But One Piece is still ongoing!” but even so, that doesn't make this feel any less strange. One Piece is the only one left now.
With Yhwach now defeated, we get a glimpse ten years into the future. The three worlds appear to be at peace. Following the mass casualties brought about by Yhwach, the leadership around the Soul Society has certainly changed considerably, although there's not really any surprises, I'd say, in who's been promoted, who's still around at the Soul Society, and so on. The bigger surprises come in who's not around—the noticeably absent. The fate of both Yoruichi and Urahara is unclear. As I understand it, their status is clarified in later material. But at least for the time being, we don't know whether or not they survived. Given the injuries they sustained—and certainly the body count of the war—it's certainly plausible that they could've died. Yet at the same time, surely they found a way, right?
And oh, I can't not talk about the pairings. I know not everyone will agree with me on this, but if it simply had to be hetero pairings in Bleach, I think putting Ichigo with Orihime and Renji with Rukia makes the most sense—doubly so considering TYBW went very out of its way to emphasize Orihime more as a character, including her dedication to Ichigo. I know this is pretty arbitrary, and again, I know not everyone else will agree—I'm sure IchiRuki's strongest soldier is already sending me my IP address—but I've always thought Ichigo and Orihime felt more natural as a couple than Ichigo and Rukia, especially as the series went on. Likewise for Rukia and Renji.
Anyway, as a send off to Bleach, it's the best we could've hoped for: A strong adaptation of an incredibly exciting arc. Re-animating the scene where Ichigo becomes a soul reaper was, obviously, a cute touch—as was invoking imagery from the deeply iconic first intro. A cute little something for the fans who grew up loving this show—many of whom, to be clear, still do. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I don't think it's even remotely unfair to call Bleach a generation-defining anime. There was a time where it stood with the likes of Naruto and One Piece (mostly just Naruto, here in the States) as The Big Three. It was a cultural giant, which kept plenty of anime fans staying up later than they probably should've been just to watch it. Have we not all given a thought to what we think our own Bankai would be, or which Captain we'd most want to work under? If Kubo doesn't want to make more Bleach, this feels satisfying and complete as an ending to Bleach. It doesn't need to go on forever—this feels fine. We don't need a Boruto or Yashahime-style spinoff.
Overall, TYBW had its highs and lows, but I still wouldn't flinch in ranking it among the all time best offerings in the realm of battle shonen—especially if we were speaking strictly in terms of visuals and direction, where it absolutely dominates. If you just want the battle shonen special—hype moments, aura, and so on—you'll get no shortage of that here. This is going to sound silly, but because it sets the bar so high so often, really the only thing I can give it points off on is in its weird consistency. More specifically: Most of the fights are incredible, but because of that, when one underwhelms—and especially when it barely feels like it ended at all—you can't help but feel a sense of, “Oh. Uh, that's it? I uh, guess that's it.” Unfortunately, we saw more of that during this season of TYBW than we did in the others—Gerard Valkyrie vs miscellaneous captains, Askin Nakk Le Vaar vs Yoruichi and Urahara, etc. But to emphasize: That's a problem every anime wants to have. This was a great note for Bleach to end on, and I'm glad Pierrot Films made it the best it could possibly hope to be.
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Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Calamity is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
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