RETURN OF GOD AIZEN! AND HELL ARC TEASER? Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 29 Review!!

“There are two types of battles: one to defend life and one to defend honor” (Jushiro Ukitake)

In the previous Bleach episode, we finally gained the full story of the Soul King that was missing in the original manga, as the god that divided the primordial sea into three worlds

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 29 is titled, “The Dark Arm”.

The episode adapts Chapters 615 to 618 of the manga, and like last episode, half of the content is anime-original, so let’s dive in.

ANIME ADDITIONS

Besides the new lore and Ukitake, there are not too many additions, most of which are in the battle against Yhwach in the Soul King Palace.

We also saw Ganju use Seppa, his Earth Magic technique, and Chad use his Brazo Izquierdo del Diablo against Yhwach.

We also see Yoruichi use a Hakuda technique, Raiokhen, which she used to crack much of Chrysalis Aizen’s shell but this was imbued with a partial Shunko as evidenced by the lightning.

These efforts were to give Orihime time to attempt to revive the Soul King Adnyeus with her Sōten Kisshun.

In the Arrancar Arc, Aizen remarked that Orihime had the power to reject reality, not heal.

This meant that Orihime was attempting to reject Yhwach’s imposed future upon the Soul King.

Unlike in the manga, there was a split second restoration of the Coffin of Adnyeus but like in the manga, it failed since “no human could bring the Soul King back to life”.

The Almighty could not see the actions of the Soul King but the Soul King could see his own death at the hands of Yhwach, his son, who also bears the Almighty.

Yhwach breaks off Chad and Yoruichi and unleashes the blue flames Yhwach used last episode to destroy Yoruichi’s Tenshi Heisō: Hissaki Kumoi and the same flames at the start of the first Sternritter Invasion in Cour 1.

NEW LORE: Mimihagi

When Aizen escaped Soul Society after his betrayal in Chapter 178: end of hypnosis10 (No One Stand On the Sky), he spoke to Ukitake about how:

“From the very start, no one has stood upon the heavens. Not you, not I, nor even gods. However, that intolerable vacuum has come to an end. Henceforth…I shall stand upon the heavens.”

Chapter 178 was released in 2007 and Chapter 616, where we learn of Ukitake bearing the Right Arm of the Soul King, was published in 2015, a gap of eight years.

This felt like a great foreshadowing to the role Ukitake would play.

Ironically, instead of Aizen standing at the top, it would be the man who looked from the ground.

At the very start of the episode, Ukitake immediately revealed to everyone that he will replace the dying Soul King using the deity known as Mimihagi

There is a lot more exploration regarding Mimihagi,

We see Mimihagi crying, just like Yhwach cried when he saw his father, the Soul King mutilated, and in seeing the future suffering of the Quincies.

Here, he sees the unreasonable pain of a child with the Soul Society equivalent of cancer but Mimihagi cannot move on his own outside of prayers.

The inner world resembles the Primordial Sea from the last episode and this is where the bond takes place.

What is interesting is that rather than a “full possession”, Mimihagi turns Ukitake into a shadow version of itself.

When Ukitake brings Shunsui to the shrine, Mimihagi is still there.

The statuesque Mimihagi is petrified and without power after being detached from the body of the Soul King but gains new life in Jushiro Ukitake’s weak body.

In exchange for the matter and power of Ukitake’s failing organs, Mimihagi can escape its Soul King-esque petrification, its own coffin body, to live, in a way, as the lungs of Ukitake.

Mimihagi’s shadows, already something presented in the manga, should also remind fans of the nature of Quincy Reiatsu having something to do with distorting shadows.

Here, it is the opposite, a shadow of Stillness.

We even get a tease of what the Left Arm can do, which is importance since Episode 24: “Too Early to Win, Too Late to Know” showed us the Left Arm that Yhwach took from Ichibe a thousand years ago in exchange for the Arm sealing away the Almighty.

Shunsui remarks that the Left Arm represents Progress while the Right Arm represents Stillness.

Stillness is the original state of the world via the Primordial Sea, a calm stretch of water where nothing and everything resides all at once.

The mutilation of the Soul King was the original sin and it is this original sin that “brought suffering into the world”, if we phrase it in a Christian sense.

The Left Arm of Progress was claimed by Yhwach  who fought Ichibei Hyosube to regress the world back to Stillness.

The anime adds more to the foreshadowing of the Left Arm’s reappearance and to build upon Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s knowledge of its existence as more than his own research.

On a side note, it is nice to see Taguchi’s choice of color for the fused Soul Society and Silbern with the blood-red dome as the crack in the hole formed by Mimihagi makes the dome resemble a blood drop more.

NEW:  Jushiro Ukitake’s Bond with the Gotei 13

The episode was dedicated to expanding on Ukitake’s love for the Gotei 13 and what a beautiful backstory we have,

In the manga, we only saw Ukitake as a three year old boy dying from tuberculosis or some other disease that has been draining his life.

However in the anime, we see his whole life, from a kind kid who helps old women and encourages bullies to join the Gotei 13 into a dependable Shinigami who also happens to have a big family.

Noticeably, Yamamoto’s lieutenant and disciple, Chojiro Sasakibe, appears as his younger self from 1,000 years ago.

Considering that Kyouraku saw the image of Yamamoto’s Zanka No Tachi: West as a young man and that Yamamoto has not used his Bankai since fighting Yhwach, it is possible that both Ukitake and Kyouraku were around 800 or so years old.

That being said, it is strange that Sasakibe barely aged in a thousand years inbetween his first time as Yamamoto’s student and eventually becoming his lieutenant, showing some discrepancies in Soul Reaper aging but I digress.

In the flashback, we see these repeated shots of Ukitake and Kyouraku walking together, bonding over monaka sweet crackers that apparently had a little alcohol laced in them, much to Ukitake’s concern as he was planning to give the crackers to his siblings.

Another layer to his bond with Gotei 13 is the scene where Central 46 insists that Ukitake get a Lieutenant after the death of Kaien Shiba, with Ukitake insisting his stand that he has no intention to replace Kaien.

Ukitake and Kyouraku really are best friends, being able to sway the stubborn and conservative Central 46 in different ways.

NEW: Hell Arc Tease?

After leaving Shunsui alone to mourn the late Yamamoto, Ukitake and Unohana look at each other and say farewell formally, indicating their choice to sacrifice their lives for their respective roles.

Unohana would die to awaken Kenpachi’s full power and Ukitake would use his life to replace the Soul King if it came to that.

HELL ARC TEASER #BLEACH #BLEACH_anime pic.twitter.com/YyDuRJ3vFM

— Aryan (@WatashiWaAizen) October 19, 2024

Some fans have hinted that this is a tease to the Hell Arc because in the 20th anniversary one-shot chapter: “New Breathes from the Jaws of Hell”, we see Ukitake for the first time since his death but as a Sinner.

That is because the one-shot revealed that all Captains go straight to hell because after death, their incredibly dense Reishi has nowhere to go and would only cause imbalance in the main universe.

So the Reishi goes to the other side of the universe in Hell, where their souls transform into sinners that bear different names.

Ukitake, with a much more massive Sogyo no Kotowari, is called “Kamikake” (God Sworn), the name of the technique he uses to invoke.

We also learn of the other captains who died in the Thousand Year Blood War: Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto the Founder of the Gotei, and Retsu Unohana, the Death Sword.

Also notice that Hell is not listed among the worlds that will be affected by the Soul King’s death and that is because in the novel “Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World”, Hell existed before the three worlds separated and that the Human World acted as a “lid” to Hell.

今の陛下が仰った「全て崩れ去る」世界の中に『地獄』が入っていないのを再確認し、獄頤鳴鳴篇へのワクワク感が再起動ですよ。#BLEACH #BLEACH_anime

— 成田良悟＠色々執筆中 (@ryohgo_narita) October 19, 2024

Speaking of Narita, there is also this tweet from Ryogo Narita, author of “Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World”, which seems to hint either at Pierrot’s Plan to adapt the Hell Arc or the popularity of the Hell Arc concept.

NEW: A Better Ending than the Manga?

Ukitake’s farewell to Rukia (and indirectly his best friend Kyouraku) was more heartfelt than his ending in the manga, where his personhood as Jushiro Ukitake was immediately erased once Mimihagi completely took over his body.

As Ukitake is slowly turned black by the shadows of Mimihagi, Rukia recalls how important Ukitake was to her as her Captain.

Once again, the anime’s content makes the plot of the final arc more cohesive.

Ukitake’s last words being his famous quote synergizes perfectly not only with his bond with Rukia and Kyouraku but also the themes of the story of Bleach.

Ukitake and Kyouraku move together towards the battle to protect life, even at the cost of honor.

Because to free Sosuke Aizen, the greatest criminal in Bleach’s modern history, throws all honor away.

The Return of Sosuke Aizen

Aizen’s return to the story has been teased since his first full post-timeskip appearance in Episode 6: “The Fire” where the anime showed us the conversation between him and Yhwach.

There have been a lot of hints but finally, Aizen is truly back.

Although slightly shortened in the anime, Aizen does exchange some quick-witted banter with Kyouraku, which fits since the two have been the slyest dogs in Soul Society.

The conversation between Aizen and Shunsui is similar to the one he had with Yhwach, who offered to have Aizen join his side but Aizen already knew Yhwach did so because Aizen presented a threat to his plans.

Here, Shunsui mentions they share the same interests and it is neither in the protection or destruction of Soul Society.

Instead, it is in the elimination of an oppressor who would put down Aizen’s freedom.

To side with Shunsui and the Gotei 13 that he betrayed was a matter of convenience since he was more free than he was 17 months ago and he could directly stop Yhwach.

There are no significant changes here, besides Aizen getting a new soul as one of the Kido Corps loses his hands due to the violent pressure of Aizen’s growing Reiatsu.

Some of the audience note that this is similar to the Infinity ability used by Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen. Perhaps there is some inspiration here that Gege Akutami took.

Episode Poem: The Betrayer

“With fingers on the star and a drawn bow,
A single moon remains,
Though I had turned away from it.”

This is a shared poem between Uryu and Ichigo, the first time two characters share a poem within a single episode.

Interestingly, Cour 3’s trailer featured a merging of two voices as well, that of Yhwach and Haschwalth, A and B, two beings sharing the same mask of the Emperor of the Quincy.

The next episode is titled “The Betrayer” and will be released on October 26, 2024

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