Did Uryu Mean to Kill Ichigo? Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 30 Review!

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 30 is titled, “The Betrayer”.

This episode covers Chapter 619 to Chapter 621 and contains 12 minutes of anime-original content, making half the episode anime-original.

The Struggle with the Right Arm

Yhwach sees Mimihagi and struggles to peel the shadowy Right Arm of the Soul King off, noticing that it defends the Soul Society and thus the Soul King’s will does not actually reside there.

This hints towards the Soul King’s allegiances and could potentially canonize the “Can’t Fear Your Own World” novel’s explanation for how exactly Adnyeus was mutilated, through the Five Noble Families who wanted to contain and use the Soul King’s power in their own terms.

The anime also gives a name to Yoruichi’s barrier kido that was used to seal Mimihagi in a crystal, the Sankotsuno-jufu

Yoruichi places three specially-made tags with the words: Chizeimon, Tesshimon, and Kozanmon and the barrier forms on the Soul King while creating a metal-like shell inside the barrier.

In a way, the spell replicates the conditions for the Soul King’s sealing.

With the context that the Five Noble Families were responsible for sealing Adnyeus in his Coffin, you could say the spell was likely a modernization or that the Coffin was the very first barrier Kido or even the first Bakudo spell in existence.

As Ichigo attempts to fight back, we see Yhwach form a Heilig Pfeil without forming the Bow, something we will witness again.

The anime seems to reinforce Yoruichi as a real threat, second only to Ichigo, as Uryu fires an arrow at her first and Yhwach pushes her far, far away from the Soul King Palace with swift concussive force.

From the smoke of the attack, Ichigo and Uryu split off to conduct their fight.

Uryu vs Ichigo

In the manga, the two have a brief fight within the chapter the episode is titled after.

In the anime, the fight is spread throughout the episode and is even more brutal than even the intent Uryu showed in the manga.

We also see Uryu release Heilig Pfeil arrows without summoning a Spirit Weapon as he all does this with his arm swipes, showing a high level of mastery similar to Yhwach.

His Licht Regen even produces much larger arrows, which gives Ichigo a hard time as he dodges them.

ANIME CHANGE: Orihime, Ganju and Chad vs Yhwach’s Elite Guard

A small yet notable addition is the fight between Yhwach’s Schutzstaffel and…Orihime, Ganju and Chad.

Not inspiring much confidence here but Ganju surprises us with a creative move as he pulverizes the ground the four Schutzstaffel stood on into fine sand, resulting in their fall.

Of course, it was too premature to celebrate since they forgot that these four Quincy have wings.

A for effort, I guess.

NEW CONTENT: Uryu’s COMPLETE VOLLSTANDIG

As the leaks suggest, Uryu’s complete Vollstandig resembles Byakuya’s Bankai: Senbonzakura Kageyoshi and you see that through the flying feathers made of Reishi that follow Uryu’s hand motions.

We also see its full form, with the wings shrinking and made more solid than their first appearance in Episode 27: “A”.

Uryu seems to activate his Vollstandig differently from others, even among the unique Sternritter Vollstandig’s like As Nodt and Gerard Valkyrie.

Rather than a Quincy Cross, Uryu’s whole body is covered in Blut, signifying that he has become one with his powers, somewhat like Ichigo with his Mugetsu form but not temporary.

Quilge – Glove
Mask – Belt
As nodt – Eye.
Everyone used a cross thing for activating vollstandig.
While Uryu used his whole body with blut instead

Becoming ONE with his powers pic.twitter.com/dM1ysBUNz6

— Tandrin (@Wind_ofDeath) October 27, 2024

It is quite fitting since it is through Uryu that we were first introduced to the Quincy final form or Quincy: Letzt Stil and the application of this Vollstandig therefore plays into why Uryu joins Yhwach.

The Reishi feathers function as a more adaptable version of Senbonzakura’s petal blades, as rather than just hitting the target, they also fire small beams and could come together to form two constructs: a orb-like cage and Sternenstaub, probably the largest Heilig Pfeil in the entire series.

Sternenstaub combines the feathers to form a massive arrow in the shape of a Quincy Zeichen, the five-pointed Quincy Cross, which clashes with Ichigo’s Getsuga Jujisho, which forms a four-pointed cross.

The size of the arrow and its shape reveal Uryu’s devotion to the whole being of a Quincy

FULL CIRCLE: Uryu’s Motivations

As the world turns monochrome, just like the opening song and title of the cour’s ending song, Uryu shoots an arrow through Ichigo, boring a hole through his body so he would fall.

Gerard Valkyrie comes up and praises Uryu’s effort, welcoming him into the Schutzstaffel guards as Haschwalth looks on.

Throughout Uryu’s fight with Ichigo, Haschwalth was observing everything, almost as if Uryu wanted him to see so that Uryu could gain more favor with the Quincy.

This is quite different from the manga as it was a simple, brief encounter, not really a fight, and Uryu simply destroyed the ground Ichigo stood on so he could simply plummet to a possible death.

Later on, Lille Barro would try to intervene and fire his X-Axis on Ichigo for a clean kill but Uryu speaks for Lille and says that finishing Ichigo and his friends off while falling is unnecessary.

The anime makes the situation more personal and gives enough clarity to Uryu’s expressed and hidden motivations in a way that Uryu does not sound like he is lying to anyone.

In fact, the anime has made Uryu’s turn more natural and in turn improved his character.

With accompanying flashbacks in the episode, we see that the reason Uryu joined Yhwach was to correct the injustice imposed upon his species.

It is so precise because the Quincy problem was primarily worsened by the Soul Society and its Quincy genocide yet at the same time, you could also apply the same logic to Yhwach.

Since in the manga, we know Uryu wants to destroy the Wandenreich and Yhwach completely, this progression does not make Uryu’s journey feel hollow or a mere cop-out in terms of writing.

Instead, Tite Kubo, who has confirmed his heavy involvement in this particular episode, intends to give greater meaning to Uryu Ishida’s journey as a character as he now comes face-to-face with the contradiction of his existence.

In a new post, BLEACH creator Tite Kubo confirmed that he was the one responsible for the new content in this week's TYBW anime episode.#BLEACH #BLEACH_anime #ブリーチ #BLEACHTYBW #anime #manga pic.twitter.com/AOtEUMan8l

— Daily BLEACH Scans (@bleachscans) October 26, 2024

He is a Quincy whose existence is hated by the world yet he believes there can be collaboration with a Shinigami like Ichigo, whom he genuinely views as his friend.

However, the Quincy has suffered too long under this cruel system that killed his grandfather and master Soken Ishida.

With the context of the Soul King being sealed by the Shinigami, you could see Uryu joining Wandenreich as the only real choice he has as a Quincy because even if he has Ichigo and friends, he will continue to feel the injustice of his unwanted existence, an existential crisis that his friends will not understand.

It can even make Uryu’s role in the struggle against Yhwach more personal and also more necessary to the plot because Uryu will not only avenge his mother but prove that the Quincy are beyond Yhwach’s imposed worldview of despair.

On another note, the final shot of Ichigo makes for a funny meme.

الوداع ايتشيقو 🍓 pic.twitter.com/EKhtfLiot1

— لؤي #بليتش (@shryosha) October 26, 2024

ANIME CHANGE: The Soul King Absorption Ritual

There are many changes in the scene where Yhwach finally absorbs the Soul King.

When touching Mimihagi, Yhwach apparently destroys the arm’s existence, viewing it as an impediment.

In the manga, it seems like Mimihagi enters Yhwach’s body via consumption from his right hand.

This could still be the case but the anime presents it differently: with the shadowy Right Arm of the Soul King torn away from Adnyeus and torn apart by Yhwach’s bare hands.

In the Cour 3 trailer, we saw the six Sternritters with Yhwach pointing Reishi swords up while Yhwach raised his hands before the fallen Soul King.

We now see the full scene in action as Yhwach seemingly enacts a ritual as the six Quincy behind him gather and raise Spirit Weapons that channel their power to form Yhwach’s own Broadsword that Yhwach uses to break the Soul King out of his crystal.

Another change from the manga is that rather than just touching the Coffin, Yhwach is touching the Soul King’s body directly as its two halves float in front of Yhwach, seemingly given over to be absorbed by the Quincy King, who proclaims that he will reclaim the world and build a new on, restoring the world to its still, primordial state.

Yhwach is covered in a blue tornado as he has consumed the Soul King rather quickly, instead of the long process in the manga, and he emerges as a black form with many eyes suddenly opening up, ending the episode.

Episode Poem: Against the Judgment

The episode poem is recited by Sosuke Aizen:

“To those who know not the absence of power

Look toward the sky with your shattered ego

The one sky that no one could enter

Until the King was roused from his slumber”

Noticeably, the preview is covered in all black instead of immediately showing the image before the color comes.

All this happens before Aizen’s foot eventually emerges, signifying perhaps the rise of the Soul King Reitatsu blobs or of the “Dark Curtain” that Aizen will form in the next episode.

Considering the depth of Sosuke Aizen’s characterization, let us dissect this line by line.

“To those who know not the absence of power”

This is how Aizen observes the world caught in the illusion imposed by the Ordinary Peace of Soul Society, that no one held any power over their own fates and that everything was handed out by a god who left them to their own devices yet what is left by this Deistic world is a society of lies.

Some, such as the nobility, assume that might makes right and as such, those who maintain order are always the most able but power is merely a construct to the current order, rather than something owned by the person.

“Look toward the sky with your shattered ego”

This ties to Yhwach’s sentiments of the Soul King Palace, the goal he aimed for a thousand years since seeing the Soul King through the Left Arm and the Almighty, as instead of viewing the sky as the ceiling where all power emanates and dictates all things, it is nothing more than an empty grave.

Aizen speaks of “shattered ego” because merely looking at the sky could make one despair at not only how hard it is to reach no matter what power you gain but also feel empty at the realization that the sky is just empty and cannot justify your choices.

To trust in the sky and the words of society is self-betrayal, to remove oneself from understanding.

“The one sky that no one could enter”

The domain of the gods, the Soul King, of truth itself, was kept inaccessible, leaving no one certain of the truth of power and they are left to either obey the Ordinary Peace to maintain their comforts or to build their own morality, as Aizen has done.

“Until the King was roused from his slumber”

“The King” in the poem does refer to the Soul King, as people would be surprised why Aizen is referring to the Soul King in such an almost respectful way since the Soul King is the one THING that he hates more than the losers of this world.

However, we see a change in demeanor as now Aizen recognizes the Soul King’s actions through his own awakening and death.

The sky that was impassable, the throne that was left vacant for a million years, could now be reached by mortal hands.

God is Dead, as Aizen desired but not what he had in mind.

The entire poem is tied to Aizen’s words in Chapter 178: “end of hypnosis10 [No One Stand On the Sky]” when he left Soul Society during his betrayal.

These were the words he parted to Ukitake, whom he recognized as Mimihagi, as confirmed by Kubo in Klub Outside Q&A #158.

The next episode will be titled, “Against the Judgement”, which is the title of Chapter 623 and Volume 69, with the arrow forming in the center of the title pointing up, from “Judgment’s” first “E” all the way to “Against’s” “I”.

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 31: “Against the Judgment” will be released on November 2, 2024.

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