Welcome to the final five slots of the Top 12 Countdown for the year which is 2023. We’re nearing the end of the year and we’re nearing the end of the countdown as yours truly is set to reveal the top five for the year and this is one of them, it is another hour-long episode, though, technically, it’s two episodes that came out in one day, and oh boy, we got a doozy. So, coming in at number 5 in the Top 12 Countdown is Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War with both “The Master” and “Black”.
These sets of episodes to wrap up the second cour of the Thousand Year Blood War anime was pretty much the biggest “I’m familiar with your game” moment when watching these episodes throughout the summer. And this is in regards to Squad Zero when seeing in action and what they can do. When I read this fight in the manga when the chapters came out back in 2014, going into 2015, I was a bit annoyed. Not because of the Ichibei vs Yhwach fight, which was an intense battle between the two giants, it’s the rest of Squad Zero. Especially when they got taken out off-panel right after the Ichibei and Yhwach fight was decided, but that’s not the annoying part. The annoying part is we thought that Squad Zero would’ve been that the division that was stronger than any of the captains of the Gotei 13 combined and Yhwach, along with Hashchwalth, Uryu, and his elite guards and thought that we were going to have an epic battle...well, aside from Ichibei and Yhwach, and would be looking forward to see the other members of Squad Zero can do. Especially right after Senjumaru took out one of the Stern Ritter that tagged along with Yhwach and the others, Nianzol, Stern Ritter W, is uh...oh right, they got taken out of commission off-freaking-fracking-panel. But that’s not the annoying part. What was the annoying part was the amount of hype that was being built the moment Yhwach, Haschwalth, and Uryu made their way to the Royal Palace thanks in part to Ichigo opening up the hole in the sky to make his grand return to the battlefield. At least with the anime this time, they extended that, and boy, they delivered. Clear note that this won’t be like with the previous posts where you have two episodes crammed into one because of the fights that last in those two episodes, might as well focus on the fights themselves.
I had to start off with this particular episode and I get that this didn’t make the list, but this has a tie-in to what is about to come with the final two episodes of the second cour of the final arc of Bleach. Taking a brief detour to “Too Early to Win, Too Late to Know” and that episode started with an interesting additional scene with a flashback with both Ichibei and Yhwach sitting at the same table with them having a little diplomatic conversation that quickly went down south with a deal between the Soul Reapers and the Quincies being made with Yhwach not being happy with the supposed deal that apparently gives more to the Soul Reapers and the Soul Society altogether with Ichibe proposing to let the Balancers do its job and not have both sides not to be aggressive. Yeah, Yhwach did not take that lightly and decided to go on the offensive in retaliation, only to end up making a fool of himself when going against someone who aligned himself with the Soul King. So yeah, an interesting new scene in the anime to serve as the cold open in preparation for the upcoming battle between the Zero Squad and the Royal Guard.
This leads us to the confrontation in the present day with the Zero Squad and the Royal Guard squaring up, and we’ll get to the two episodes soon, just hang on tight, where Yhwach and company making their way to the Royal Palace and get stopped by the Zero Squad, coming across with Senjumaru with the Quincies bringing out Nianzol into the battlefield and showing off what he can do with his schrift, the letter W, The Wind (not wind as in “win-d” like how you usually pronounce and instead, it’s wyn-d” with a “y” replacing the “i” in the pronunciation) and deflect each of the Soul King’s guards attacks. He’s capable of avoiding any of the attacks being thrown by the guards, but didn’t do jack against Senjumaru, and thus, gets taken out of commission. But that’s more than enough to have four more Stern Ritters to make their appearance, three of the four making their debuts with Pernida Parnkgjas (Stern Ritter C), Gerald Valkyrie (Stern Ritter M), and Lille Barro (Stern Ritter X), along with Askin Nakk Le Vaar (Stern Ritter D) making the cut as part of the Royal Guard.
And yeah, at the start of the battle, things were not looking good for the Zero Squad with Yhwach and the Royal Guard having the battle in their favor with Gerald landing a hit on Senjumaru before Lille finished the job by shooting her in the head with a giant hole blasting her cranium into oblivion. And what was feeling like as if the Zero Squad were down 21-0 in the first half, surprise! It was all a fake and the real battle began to take place with Senjumaru being unscratched and now, you have Kirinji, Kirio, and Nimaya ganging up on the Quincies with Ichibei sitting on the other side of the palace as if he waited for when Yhwach to make his visit to the Royal Palace. Surrounding the field with the Gate of Life by Kirio, or as she puts it, the womb, and now, we can get to the two episodes and focus on the fights. Aside from the scenes with Ichigo and the others making their way to the Soul Palace, and yes, I’m aware of the whole Anairis/Wendee situation regarding the role of Yoruichi, and yes, Anairis did get fucked over for the role courtesy of the studios, as well as the continuing ground assault between the Soul Reapers and the rest of the Stern Ritters who were left behind and Shunsui preparing to send everyone to the Royal Palace, we got ourselves a battle and now we can get to the main course and again, despite being two episodes crammed into one, the fights are the focus for these sets of episodes.
Gotta get these scenes out of the way for “The Master” with the episode having a cold open with the Vizards (Hiyori, Lisa, Love, and Hachigen) arriving at the Scientific Research building where Urahara is waiting for them to make their arrival where you also have the introduction of Yoruichi’s brother Yushiro, who seems upset that he was unable to reunite with Yoruichi after she, along with Ichigo, Chad, Orihime, and Ganju left to go to the Royal Palace.
As well as the after-credits scene with Shunsui and Ukitake in the rain with Ukitake having the Kamikage on standby as if they knew that because Yhwach and the others made their way to the Royal Palace with Yhwach setting his eyes on the Soul King, that bringing out the shadow of a deity, or at least a body part, would serve as something in the event something happens with the Soul King. And if that’s not enough, you have Shunsui making his way out to another location and leaving Ukitake aside. Saying that he’s heading out to get a drink, which would be the typical Shunsui approach, but we know where this is going if y’all had read the manga when this came out. That being him planning on visiting Central 46 to see a certain someone. And now, we can get to the two battles in these two episodes and we begin with the Zero Squad taking on the Royal Guard.
And as I said earlier in this post, this is the biggest “I’m unfamiliar with your game” moment with these sets of episodes with this fight. And both sides mean business with this fight and the anime did deliver some juice to add the additional scenes and have the fight be front and center despite this being happening at the same time as the main fight between Ichibei and Yhwach, which we'll get that fight in a bit, but big applause to the anime in doing this fight justice, mostly for the added scenes that wasn't there in the manga.
This fight pretty much boils down to the Zero Squad standing their ground to prevent the invading forces of the Quincies from reaching the Soul King. Whether it's Kirio keeping the cage together and making sure that it won't create an opening for Yhwach to go to the offensive, spoilers, he got through, to Nimaya going for the sweep on all four of the Royal Guard as if they're not a big enough threat for Yhwach to bring along.
And Nimaya in this portion of the episode when straight demon time on the Quincies and going for a slice and dice tour on all four members of the Royal Guard before planning on doing the same onto Hashchwalth and Uryu, gunning for a sweep before Askin struggles to stay alive after being taken down by Nimaya but not before he did something sinister after getting cut and that's where we got the reveal of his schrift and abilities, that being the “Death Dealing” and his ability is to inject something like poison into the opponent's bloodstream without letting the opponent noticing until they begin to feel the effects. In short, Askin is a walking biohazard weapon. And seeing him licking the blood on his palm, resulting in the dose that was injected into Nimaya’s bloodstream...yeah, out of the four members of the Royal Guard, I bet you that he’s the one that you don’t want to fuck with. Askin is the type of person that you don’t want to fuck around with what he is capable of on the battlefield when taking Nimaya out of the picture. So, you’d think that this would be the end of the guy, right? Nope. Once Kirinji landed a slice on Haschwalth, he decided to supply Nimaya a fresh amount of blood to enter into his system after getting rid of his own that was tainted with Askin’s lethal dose, and thus...
Decides to strike back at the guy and again, goes for the sweep on the Royal Guard. So, with all four members of the Royal Squad down for the count with Uryu and Haschwalth following suit, as well as Yhwach getting destroyed by Ichibei, and we’ll get to that fight in a bit, you’d think that everything is going in Squad Zero’s favor and might’ve done the job before Ichigo and company make their way to the Royal Palace, right?
Nope. The Royal Guard along with Uryu and Haschwalth got the max revive because of Yhwach activating the Auswählen as his trump card in what was supposed to be an unwinnable battle for Yhwach and his camp. However, with that power up for the Royal Guard achieved and all four members activating their vollständig comes with a price for everyone else. Especially when we switched scenes from the Royal Palace to down in the ground in the Soul Society with Liltotto finding Giselle from the rubble and boy, that didn’t take long for them along with Bazz-B and every other surviving member of the Stern Ritter, including the foot soldiers, feeling the affects of the Auswählen from Yhwach by having their abilities being taken away as a result of aiding the Royal Guard to help fend against the Zero Squad. Some survived but they couldn’t access their vollständig to some people getting killed off because of their powers being stripped away to the point where their bodies are being reduced to rubble. And man, the way this played out once Yhwach activated it, you can see how terrifying it looks for the Quincies that were left behind on the ground and not in the Soul Palace. And the looks at both Liltotto and Bazz-B when having their abilities stripped away and feeling that they got betrayed by the person who they served their entire life...masterclass on how this scene was shown in the anime with the visuals and the musical score to show the horrors of what the Auswählen is capable to wrap up the first of the two episodes in the Zero Squad/Royal Guard fight. However, the one issue I have with this scene and this might as well be a part of the whole “scenes from the manga that may have been omitted from the anime” conversation...
Robert Accutrone. When reading the chapter at the part where Liltotto found Giselle from the rubble, you had Robert pointing his gun at Liltotto’s head and that was the moment where we got his name and his Schrift letter, which is the letter “N”, but no name on what the “N” stands for or his abilities, though the way we saw during his confrontation against Shunshui and Ichigo and the way he moved against Byakuya before getting curb stomped at lightning fast speed, I guess “The Nitro” would’ve been the way to go or something like that. But back to that omitted scene regarding the Auswählen because in the manga, you had Robert being scared, like shitting his pants when realizing that Yhwach left his post and took all four of the Stern Ritters, mostly the final slot of the Royal Guard and noticed that Askin was chosen to fill in the final spot...yeah, everyone who was left behind is nothing more than chopped liver. And, oh yeah, this panel...this panel...
Driscoll having his flesh being melted by Yamamoto during the first invasion, got a pass. Made it to the anime. Robert having his flesh melted during the Auswählen...somehow got omitted. Dude, if this panel would’ve gotten animated in the anime during the holy selection once Yhwach and the rest of the Royal Guard getting their asses handed by the Zero Squad, it would add more to how horrifying and awesome at the same time with every Quincy getting their abilities taken away. Tell me if I’m not wrong on this?! That would’ve made this scene more terrifying and awesome at the same time. Seriously, Driscoll got a pass but this didn’t? What the fuck?
So, once the Royal Guard along with Uryu and Haschwalth got a power-up as a result of everyone who was left behind getting betrayed by Yhwach...this is where the Zero Squad decided to be cocky once we enter the last episode of the second cour of the anime. Saying to the opposing side that their power-up doesn’t scare them and going to trounce them regardless...and boy, their cockiness is what is going to weigh them down to start the episode. Especially with Nimaya having his left shoulder blown off with Nimaya thought that him getting his shoulder blown off was the result of his power-up from the Auswählen, but in reality, coming from Lille, that doesn’t seem to be the case. He just had perfect accuracy. Hell, when he did it again, you had Kirinji and Kirio using their Zanpaktous to block the blast...that didn’t work and that resulted in a hole in their weapons and on Nimaya’s chest, which would’ve killed him but stayed alive once more thanks to the squad in retreat mode with Senjumaru patching Nimaya’s wounds.
This leads us to a four-on-four, rather, a four-on-four separated by four to make it a one-on-one match with Senjumaru taking on Gerald, Kirio taking on Pernidas, Kirinji taking on Askin, and Nimaya taking on Lille. A close match deep inside the womb but both sides did make things close with their match with Kirio having the most difficulty when facing against Pernidas because of his compulsory abilities to break free, enough for Kirio to make herself feel drained each time she tried to contain Pernidas. In fact, every member of the Zero Squad had trouble taking on the Royal Guard, and uh...yeah, it’s not looking good for the Zero Squad. It’s not looking good at all for them to the point they’re at a standstill, all bloodied and bruised, with no idea on how to take the Royal Guard with their newfound power-ups and uh...yeah, they got cocky, and their cockiness after seeing the Auswählen in full force resulted in them getting their asses handed. To the point where the rest of the squad has no other choice but to have one final trick up their sleeve and man...this is where things get really interesting on what is about to come next. And all of this starts with Nimaya asking Senjumaru to do what they thought would be their finishing move on the Royal Guard and this results in Nimaya, Kirio, and Kirinji sacrificing themselves by slashing their own throats to transfer their blood flowing towards Senjumaru and thus, releasing her bankai.
And dude...the animation and visuals for Senjumaru’s bankai...it looks beautiful once she activated it to serve as what is supposed to be the Zero Squad’s finishing move to end the battle. The blood gushing in the background, the candles that emanate from each member of the squad being blown out except for the one in the top left that resembles Senjumaru’s. Not to mention, how the bankai was activated by turning it into a giant sewing machine and the use of CGI in this from the machinery to the red carpet being rolled out, it looks amazing to see. And how each of the members of the Royal Guard being sealed by Senjumaru’s abilities with her bankai being activated, as well as how everyone from outside the realm of Senjumaru’s bankai from the rocket that Ichigo and the others are in on their way to the Royal Palace to the Soul Society to even the World of the Living with Isshin and Ryuken feeling the shaking caused by the Bankai being activated by Senjumaru to take out the Royal Guard along with Haschwalth and Uryu...holy shit, what a scene. And Pierrot went all out on this scene. Like...hats off to them for creating this amazing scene as Senjumaru put in the finishing touches on the Royal Guard by sealing them to each piece of fabric and it’s nice to have this fight getting extended in the anime that was missing from the manga. So that was one fight in these sets of episodes, and here is the other with Ichibei and Yhwach.
And to draw a comparison to this fight, some remember the Monday night game this past week between the Ravens and 49ers and what we thought it would be promoted as a Super Bowl preview and thought it would be close but didn’t? Yeah, this was this fight. I mean, this doesn’t look like a fight. This was a beatdown from Ichibei to Yhwach throughout the two episodes. You could also say that Yhwach is being humiliated after getting his ass handed by Ichibei one too many times. From being slapped hard that sent him flying from the platform to being slapped down to have him fall from the sky, this was the literal definition of a beatdown with letting giving Yhwach the chance to fight back.
He tried to land a hit when crossing swords with Ichibei, rather, crossing Yhwach’s sword and Ichibei’s Zanpaktou which happened to be a paintbrush and you’d think that the paintbrush is nothing more than a weak weapon because that’s not even considered a weapon to begin with, think again. And you know what they said, words are more powerful than any weapon in the world. And Ichibei erasing the “RMS” from the word “arms” that caused Yhwach to lose his ability to move his arms was that moment. Who knew that a simple paintbrush would be the weapon of choice that could possibly take down a giant threat like Yhwach, though knowing we are early in the arc, and in a shonen series no less where the protagonist had to take on the main antagonist, the standard has to be the standard. But let’s take this moment that we had this brutal beatdown of a fight between the two giants. Especially once Yhwach activated the Auswählen to help the Royal Guard and himself go back to 100% health and a power-up from the abilities that the other Quincies had their abilities stripped away by the blinding light.
And Yhwach did try to make this fight close once he’s back to full health and the powers collected courtesy of the Auswählen with him trying to land a few blows on Ichibei, using his blut vene to protect him from any attack by Ichibei...hell, to the point where he tried to steal Ichibei’s bankai, which at this point, stealing Bankais becomes nothing more than obsolete the moment Urahara decided to create the pill that would not only bring the Bankais back to the captains that had theirs stolen during the first invasion but to have it hollowfied, it almost feels like Kubo straight up forgot about that as the arc progressed. Like...we’re not going to pretend that Yhwach didn’t have Yamamoto’s Bankai ability in his possession after taking out the guy, right? Taking all the black color from his brush to the point where his beard and eyebrows become white like he’s Santa Claus two, three days removed from Christmas.
But that’s not enough for Yhwach to have the upper hand because once we get to the end of the episode, Ichibei refuses to go down with the color black coming back to him by taking the color from the Soul Society to his possession and back to his paintbrush and once again, Yhwach getting beaten to a pulp to the point where his body gets covered in black paint as well as Ichibei using white paint to give him a new name, Black Ant, before sending him packing down to the ground to end the episode and the second cour of the anime. And you’d think that this would be the end of the fight because the post-credit scene had Kon reintroducing the Illustrated Guide to the Soul Reapers segment, but would be the end of the fight, right? Well...because of the release of the trailer for the third cour set to air in 2024 and knowing where this was going based on the manga...yeah, it’s not going to paint a pretty picture and no, that’s not supposed to be a pun.
This wraps up the number 5 spot on the Top 12 Countdown of the year 2023. What do you think about these sets of episodes? Should it be higher, lower, or stay put on your list? Put it in the comments below as we prepare to go into the Number 4 spot of the Top 12 Countdown. Which episode and series will be taking the fourth spot? Find and see sometime tomorrow. Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, and BlueSky for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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