A Thousand Year Friendship Ends! Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 38 Review
The heartbreaking battle between Haschwalth and Bazz-B shows how many lives Yhwach has truly destroyed in Bleach
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 38 is titled, “Friend”.
This is the title of Volume 70 of the Bleach manga and will cover Chapter 630: “Twinned Twilight” to Chapter 634: “Friend 3”, making the episode entirely focused on the Friends.
Haschwalth is Built Different
Jugram Haschwalth has not shown too many feats
Outside of using Freund Schild against Tenjiro Kirinji, a Royal Guard and the scene in both manga and anime where he judges Cang Du in Episode : “The White Haze”, Jugram’s most distinct feats have never involved or invoked his Schrift, “The Balance”.
It seems that it was Jugram’s raw strength that destroyed Ichigo’s first Bankai in Episode 7: “Born in the Dark”.
Ichigo did not experience that much fortune during the battle against Yhwach, since the latter, even when holding back, clearly had the advantage.
Perhaps Ichigo’s shattered resolve, combined with Jugram’s strength, broke Tensa Zangetsu.
Although in this battle Bazz-B lost his Vollstandig, he was still able to use his Schrift, The Heat, a powerful Schrift that damaged Toshiro even in his Bankai form quite easily and had the power to offset Yamamoto’s Shikai flames in Episode 5: “Wrath as a Lightning”.
Yet even with using all five of his Finger techniques, including Burner Full Fingers, he was unable to truly damage Jugram.
Some may not be satisfied with how Tite Kubo wrote a battle where Jugram was basically unaffected without even using his overpowered Schrift, The Balance, but it makes sense.
At this point, Jugram lacked the weaknesses, including the inability to form Reishi constructs, that he had while training with Bazz, which is a starting point to understanding the complex friendship Jugram and Bazz share that is all too real.
NEW: Bazz-B and Gin Ichimaru Parallels
Although the episode did not have major changes, we expanded on how Bazz-B lost his family and home.
Inside the castle, Bazz-B and his mother looked upon the assault of Lichtreich (Empire of Light).
We do not see the modern Sternritters but we do see the ones fake Yhwach (Royd Lloyd) named, such as Hubert, who is finally voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya (Trafalgar Law from One Piece and Levi Ackerman from Attack on Titan).
One of the shots fired from the anachronistically advanced Quincy firearms destroys the castle and kills Bazz’s mother.
Bazz-B hides behind a rock and gazes at the uncaring face of the perpetrator the same way Gin Ichimaru found Rangiku unconscious and a piece of her soul (a Soul King Fragment) taken by Aizen’s men.
Even Soundscape to Ardor plays in this scene just like the one in Episode 308: “Emergency Situation! Aizen, New Evolution!”
Actually, prior to this, Yhwach did not show any reaction to what happened, an expression akin to his poem in Episode 27: “A”, likely leaving the cause of this conquest up to debate but even if Yhwach had malicious intent to conquer a new territory like any conqueror, he would still feel the loss of his own Quincy and that of their victims since his soul is scattered across this battlefield.
It could just be necessity for Yhwach to survive but no matter what, his victims will never accept that while his followers will love him for sharing his life with them, hence the religious fervor of the Wandenreich.
In the anime, we see how Jugram acquired his sword, one of many swords that somehow could withstand a thousand years of battles even if it was not a Quincy weapon.
Perhaps a Klub Outside Q&A can answer that.
Bazz-B retrieves the rest of his belongings and they spend the next few years training to kill Yhwach.
For the training scenes, the anime showed some incredible background art throughout the episode to show the flexibility of Pierrot’s art team.
Past Meets Present: Why Did Haschwalth Betray Bazz-B?
In a way, Jugram Haschwalth is a male version of Ymir Fritz from Attack on Titan, following the primal desire of being “needed”.
This makes Jugram betray the person he considered a friend because that friend did not approve of Jugram’s existence and was using him to make himself feel better.
Meanwhile you have Yhwach, who takes on a fatherly tone in saying “I need you” like his uncle but unlike his creepy, abusive caretaker, Yhwach
However, this is not entirely on Bazz-B as he did genuinely view Jugram as a companion who was there through his tough times.
The betrayal is two-fold: of Bazz’s ego and Bazz’s heart as Jugo’s friend.
When Jugram sees that Bazz-B did not appreciate Jugram as Jugram expected (since he lived on the idea that people like his uncle loved him because he was needed, in spite of the abuse he experienced)
How Deep Does the Friendship Go?
Tite Kubo had conceptualized the connection between Haschwalth and Bazz-B ever since the characters first interacted with each other.
BLEACH creator Tite Kubo confirmed the fan theory that it was an intentional choice showing their close relationship when he gave Haschwalth & Bazz B each other’s initials as their Sternritter Schrifts.
Haschwalth’s Schrift was B for Balance & Bazz B’s Schrift was H for Heat 🔥 pic.twitter.com/3FVL5TEsrv
— Daily BLEACH Scans (@bleachscans) June 20, 2022
Additionally, in a Klub Outside Q&A No. 347, Kubo confirmed the fan theory that the Schrifts of both men were taken from the first letters of the other person’s name.
— Tandrin (@Wind_ofDeath) December 21, 2024
It also fits since their birthdays are also connected to Uryu and Ichigo’s dynamic, showing that the modern version of this friendship is the response Haschwalth did not get.
Fun fact about these two:
Bazz ‘s Schrift is H – The Heat after Haschwalt
Jugram’s Schrift is B – The Balance after Bazz BThis was confirmed in klub outside
Also their birth dates are exactly 1 day before Ichigo & Uryu’s respective birthdays. Signifying friends of a prior era pic.twitter.com/AH5ex5XvLN
— Tandrin (@Wind_ofDeath) December 21, 2024
Each of their birthdays are even one day apart from Uryu and Ichigo, with Bazz-B’s being July 14 as opposed to Ichigo at July 15 and Jugram’s birthday being November 5th instead of Uryu’s at November 6th.
This one day separation represents the thousand-year distance between both friends, the one step difference that Uryu made to change the future by choosing to stay on the balance scale of hope instead of the despair Jugram is in.
Friendship in general is a core them for Jugram as it is the other choice of the Balance and although he rejected
In a way, the Balance manifests Jugram’s current view of friendship: the shield (himself) is the friend who absorbs misfortune (likely representing his uncle’s abuse or the hurt Jugram felt over Bazz looking down on him deep down) and then redirects at the enemy, who could represent the friend that did not experience what Jugram sacrificed.
The Death of Friendship
The episode ends on Bazz-B dying by the stairs of Wahrwelt while Jugram Haschwalth walks away, the former still remembering the promise they made at the start of the flashback.
The episode title, “Friend”, shows, with the “-END” part, highlighted in red, signifying that Haschwalth chose to kill his friend.
Although the episode ends tragically with that, we do see hints throughout the episode that show that Jugram never forgot this friendship
Fri end pic.twitter.com/A6jJy12jiw
— BBSHero هيرو (@BBSHER0) December 21, 2024
The B button that Bazz-B gave Jugram, the button he also wore, is attached to Jugram’s sword and this detail is emphasized when Jugram dies and lets go of his sword in Chapter 681: “”.
Next Episode Poem: Jugram Haschwalth
Befitting the momentum of the episode, it ends with Jugram Haschwalth’s poem:
“There is no pain
as long as I keep
my eyes on the balance scale.”
This is the Volume 70 poem, with the volume covering Chapters 633: “Friend 4” to Chapter 642: “BABY,HOLD YOUR HAND 5 [Eyes Are Open]”.
Haschwalth is the physical manifestation of Bleach’s core theme of balance and how people make decisions based on that, as experienced by antagonists such as Byakuya Kuchiki and the protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki himself when it came to his personal identity.
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 39 will be titled, “The Visible Answer”.
This is taken from the title of Chapter 660 and will likely cover the events of Chapter 659 until at least Chapter 661: “My Last Words”, likely with major anime revisions to connect all the writing points the anime made for Uryu’s character arc.
This means that we will finally see Uryu Ishida’s true motivations and plan immediately after Haschwalth has finished off his old best friend, which is a perfect thematic contrast because the two men, Haschwalth and Uryu, are built on their difficult choices on the balance scale.
Uryu in this cour has proven his loyalty to Yhwach multiple times, from killing Senjumaru within her own Bankai to his attempts to kill Ichigo and Renji (in both instance, the colors turn black and white, as if signaling the use of Uryu’s Schrift, The Antithesis)
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Cour 3 will conclude with an hour-long special, covering two episodes on December 28, 2024.
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