Did TYBW Make The First Bleach Movie Canon? Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 32 Review

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 32 is titled, “The Holy Newborn”

This episode adapts Chapter 617: “Return of the God”, Chapter 625: “Living Jaguar” to the start of Chapter 629: “Gate of the Sun”.

After a string of solid non-action episodes, the next few episodes will feature the final battles with Yhwach’s forces.

For now, we enjoy another well-directed feast for the eyes as we enter yet another new setting, Wahrwelt.

Espada Reunion

We begin where we left off last episode as Grimmjow steps out of the Garganta to greet Ichigo with every intent to start fighting.

However, before this happens, Nelliel knocks back Grimmjow with her chest and embraces Ichigo.

Although cheerful in her reunion, Nelliel looks at Grimmjow as an authority figure, something she did not express after her actual term as an Espada and Nnoitra’s superior.

Of course, the Nelliel interruption is interrupted by another interruption, with Riruka talking over a microphone inside a box made by Yukio’s Invaders Must Die Fullbring, which manifests video game structures into reality.

Yep, we now have the complete set of Fullbringers minus Jackie Tristan, who probably left to have her own life and her Dirty Boots did not have a specific use for any of Urahara’s plans.

Valley of Screams

Upon entering the black box structure, Yoruichi explains via a diagram about the nature of the Valley of Screams, pocket dimensions made from lost souls.

While the Garganta’s Reiatsu is incredibly unstable, such that those inside need to emit footholds of Reishi constantly, the Valley of Screams are more stable and have denser Reishi to allow people to occupy them.

Kisuke Urahara had enlisted a group of unlikely allies, in the form of a rogue’s gallery of Ichigo’s former enemies, to assist in the Thousand Year Blood War.

For an emergency or backup plan, Urahara thought a thousand steps ahead to make a Valley of Screams shortcut.

Grimmjow was more incidental as he helped kill Quilge Ople, the Sternritter occupying his territory of Hueco Mundo.

Urahara helped Nel regain her more mature form and stabilize her Reiatsu.

For the actual plan, he carried it out in two steps: the Gate, which he had planned the moment he saw the Quincy’s spatial distortions, and the Valley of Screams, which he likely made after Quilge was taken care of.

Fullbring was the key to ensuring this backup plan.

First, he had Riruka Dokugamine contain a Valley of Screams in a box using her “Dollhouse” and then Yukio Hans Vorarlberna used his “Invaders Must Die” to manipulate the space of that Valley of Screams into a room and a set of rails that would lift the room up to the destination of the Garganta.

The whole point of entering via Garganta is to avoid having their Reiatsu detected by Yhwach.

ANIME CHANGE: Memories of Nobody is FULLY Canon Now

In the manga, Ichigo tells Riruka that he has been to a Valley of Screams before, specifically in Chapter 627: “The Creation”

However, it does not specify and only serves as a reference to the first Bleach movie, “Memories of Nobody”, released on December 16, 2006,

In the keyword eyecatch for the episode, it specifically mentions that Ichigo has been to the Valley of Screams early into his career due to an “incident involving a Shinenju”.

The Shinenju refers to Senna, the movie-only protagonist of “Memories of Nobody” and she is the receptacle of the lost memories of all the Blank souls that create the Valley of Screams, at least in the movie canon.

The anime does have filler episodes to market the upcoming movies.

At least two episodes were dedicated to the fourth Bleach movie, Hell Verse, Episodes 298 (a film festival in Seiretei) and Episode 299. Episode 299: ” Theatre Opening Commemoration! Hell Chapter・Prologue” is particularly famous for the scene where 8th Espada Szayelaporro Granz and 9th Espada Aaroniero Arruruerie were sent to hell after dying.

Although the episode is not referenced in any way, the 20th anniversary one-shot “New Breathes into the Jaws of Hell” does reveal that Szayelaporro at least went to Hell and eventually mutated into a new type of Hollow, even gaining the title of “The Jailer of Hell”.

Now we have a canon episode that directly confirms the existence of movie content, a movie released in 2006 and a movie whose concept of the Valley of Screams is canonized nearly a decade later in 2015.

The original Bleach anime did mix in filler-only content into the anime canon, such as the Mod Souls Ririn, Kurōdo, and Noba, who were originally made for the Bount arc but have been involved in the anime-only fight against Yylfordt Granz, coincidentally Szayelaporro’s older brother.

What this means is that the movie’s version of events, of how Blanks create Valley of Screams, are used to fill a hole in the explanation of the manga, which did not reveal the origin of the floating pocket dimensions.

Gate Storyline

The anime condenses the Gate scenes that were scattered between Chapters 612 to 625 within just two episodes.

In the previous episode, we see Urahara announce the plan and Kyouraku calling for all Gotei 13 members as if that was the original intent or to fill the void of Ukitake’s death.

In this episode, the Gate fails due to how Ukitake’s Reiatsu was irreplacable, which allows Mayuri to bring in the Reiatsu Amplifier.

All of these are rearrangements done so that the Gate storyline is cohesive and easier to follow

It is also a good addition to see Kyouraku remember his beloved friend before entering the golden gates.

New World Orders

Some small changes take place here.

Although all the Quincy are terrified, Askin is surprised that Haschwalth is nonchalant about this.

In Chapter 621: “The Dark Curtian”, Lille Barro was frightened by the release of the Soul King Reiatsu blobs, initially assuming they would hurt the Quincy, which is where Haschwalth reveals that the Soul King’s true enemy were the Shinigami, which was something not directly stated outside of subtle dialogue regarding Mimihagi aligning with the Shinigami or the eyecatch talking about the Soul King Reiatsu blobs last episode.

We also see a different presentation of the creation of Wahrwelt.

In the last episode, the Soul King Reiatsu blobs stuck themselves to the buildings and debris around the Seiretei, floating up to the center of gravity that was Yhwach.

In all likelihood, the blobs were what enabled Yhwach to move the Wandenreich-Seiretei fused cityspace up to the Soul King Dimension.

The anime makes the moment easier to visualize as we see how the five Squad 0 Riden or cities were joined together by Reishi blasts emitted from Yhwach, with the formation turning pinkish.

Wahrwelt Exploration

We see both groups enter the Soul King Palace through their respective methods but they end up on different sides

Yoruichi senses her brother Yushiro and Ichigo asks about why Yoruichi never told them about him.

The anime does cut a scene where they imagine Yushiro as a cat like Yoruichi’s form, which Kubo confirmed later to be a magic ability common to the Shiho’in clan.

The new BLEACH TYBW episode cut out this short comedic scene with Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, and Ganju imagining what they think Yoruichi’s brother would look like. 🐱#BLEACH #BLEACH_anime #ジャンプ #BLEACHTYBW #BLEACH千年血戦篇 #anime #manga pic.twitter.com/aBhbqjWAyN

— Daily BLEACH Scans (@bleachscans) November 9, 2024

Most of the entry scene remains the same as everyone is shocked by the change in the look of the Soul King Palace.

They even witness Yhwach construct the castle.

Speaking of which, we enter the inside of the castle and it is quite pinkish, which happens to be the color for the Inner World and Ichigo’s cour 1 flashbacks.

This could likely indicate a correlation to Old Man Zangetsu or an alteration to the nature of Reishi for the new world Yhwach intends to create.

Episode Poem: Gate of the Sun

Next episode’s poem is by Renji Abarai:

“The fire that drips from fangs does not fade,

The blade burns away the field,

Revealing my hidden friend.”

For the first time since Cour 2’s last episode, we finally get a poem straight from the manga, taken from Volume 73 that features Renji Abarai on the cover.

We see an image of Renji’s Zabimaru in red, the same image as Volume 73, where the poem is taken from and the same colors as the volume cover

It is quite the interesting choice to use this poem as this is for the volume after all the five Haschwalth and Schutzstaffel battles were concluded.

The poem is related to the first Renji poem from Volume 11: “A Star and A Stray Dog” and is a poem recited in Episode 32 of the Bleach anime

“Light a fire to the fang that cannot be reached

So that I do not have to see that star

So that I do not slit this throat”

The connection between fire and fangs is what ties the two poems together because the Volume 11 poem is about the defeated Renji passing on to his opponent Ichigo his will to defeat Byakuya and save Rukia.

The poem is suggestive of a “hidden friend”, which might either tie back to Uryu Ishida’s true allegiances, even though this line is more tied to Renji’s promise to promise to be a “light” to Ichigo no matter what ever since he brought Renji and Rukia back together.

Considering that Episode 33 is the infiltration into Wahrwelt, we might slow down again to introduce new anime content.

Opening 3 makes the implication that Renji will be more relevant in this cour than he was in this section of the manga.

What this could mean is that Uryu will be fighting Renji while the former is pursuing his plan to destroy Wahrwelt.

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Arc Episode 33 is titled, “Gate of the Sun” and will be released on November 16, 2024.

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