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SHUNSUI KYOURAKU’S BANKAI IS FINALLY ANIMATED! What to Expect from Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 35

Prepare yourselves for the most hype Bankai reveal in Bleach history since Yamamoto’s Zanka no Tachi.
Vincent Reyes 27 Nov 2024
bleach shunsui tybw
BLEACH © 2001-2016 by Tite Kubo/SHUEISHA Inc.

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 35 is titled, “Don’t Chase a Shadow”.

This episode will cover page 10 onwards of Chapter 644: “Baby, Hold Your Hand [Never Ending My Dream]”, Chapter 645, where the episode gets its title from, and we might end on the defeat of Lille Barro’s Vollstandig Form in Chapter 649: “The Theater Suicide Scene 3”

Preview Images

The episode previews show Kyouraku and Nanao facing off against Lille Barro, the Schutzstaffel sniper with the power of X-Axis.

We also see shots of Ichigo reaching Grimmjow, who had fallen to Askin’s Gift Ball trap like a kitty cat.

Askin is showing off more Gift Balls for the new arrivals.

Staff

Script: Masaki Hiramatsu
Storyboard: Ema Saitō
Director: Ema Saitō, Tomohisa Taguchi, Shintarō Matsui, Hikaru Murata
Animation Directors: Kōsei Takahashi, Ichirō Ōno, Kumiko Katō
Chief Animation Director: Kumiko Takayanagi

The presence of multiple episode directors is going to be rather interesting but also somewhat troubling but two of them have held the role of series director and creative control over most of the adaptation while the main director and storyboarder has made Bleach history.

Ema Saitō will be directing their own board this episode, albeit not alone.

Ema Saitō is the director of Episode 6: “The Fire”, considered by many fans to be the best Bleach episode overall.

Although they have barely any experience outside Boruto’s latest episodes, their very first and only work in Bleach has already been highly praised as among the best content of Bleach, in the Fall Season of 2022 and maybe even all of anime, given the level of artistry involved.

Tomohisa Taguchi, the chief direction of Cour 3 and the original series director for the Thousand Year Blood War adaptation, will be involved, likely as a way to maintain cohesion in the production of this episode.

Taguchi and Saitō actually worked together on Episode 6, with Taguchi’s impressive color direction and gripping approach to the story of Yamamoto’s final fight with Yhwach a unique experience that could very well equal the manga.

It is likely that these four directors will be responsible for chunks of the episode rather than mix in their contributions.

A likely scenario is that Taguchi will direct Kyouraku’s Bankai activation or the overall approach to the Bankai but that is just speculation for now.

Incumbent series director Hikaru Murata directed Episode 1 (“The Blood Warfare”) of the entire TYBW adaptation and has storyboarded and directed Episode 4: “Kill the Shadow”, Episode 10: “The Battle”.

Murata also directed and storyboarded the second TYBW Opening:『STARS』, along with Episodes 14 (“The Last9Days”) and 26 (“Black”) of Cour 2, indicating the transition to Murata’s role as series director even while he was the chief episode director for Cours 1 and 2.

For Cour 3, Murata handled Episode 27: “A” but only directing Episode 28: “Kill the King”.

Prior to Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, Murata was with Taguchi in the latter’s original anime, “Akudama Drive”, as well as some episodes of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures from Part 4: “Diamond is Unbreakable” all the way to Part 6: “Stone Ocean”.

This will be Shintarō Matsui’s first time with Bleach and has had experience in the Digimon and “The Prince of Tennis” franchises.

On November 27, 2024, we also received the list of Key Animators for the episode:

atsuya KOYANAGI
Miyuki KŌNO
Yoshifumi MIYAJI
Yumeki OGAWA
Chikai KŌZAI
Atsushi KASANO
Yoshitaka SATO
Shūsuke SHIBATA
Yoshiaki TOMITA
Yoshito NARIMATSU
Amphibi
av.tur
Kenichi IINO
Katsuhiro TAKAGI
Kazuko MATSUMURA
Licree
Wilharu Sitompul
Osamu SAKATA
Shintaro TSUBOTA
Haruo MIYAGAWA

What to Expect

We will begin on page 10 of Chapter 644, where Kyouraku and Urahara sensed Mayuri’s Reiatsu.

It makes sense to switch fights to align with the timing of events being simultaneous.

Chapter 647: “The Theater Suicide” also features the rest of the Gotei 13, a recovered Renji included, encountering Gerard Valkyrie.

There is a chance we will see Renji defeat Gerard here.

Ichigo vs Askin

Image

Based on the preview images, we might see Ichigo fight Askin a bit more than what was shown in the manga in Chapter 648: “The Theater Suicide Scene 2”, which led to an offscreen Ichigo defeat.

We see an anime-original shot of Askin preparing four Gift Balls in one hand, which means we will show the fight before they feel Kyouraku’s Reiatsu from the Bankai activation.

This and the other Gotei scenes will only cover 2-3 minutes of the episode, as it will be dedicated to Shunsui Kyouraku’s fight against Lille Barro.

Kyouraku’s Newest Game

Shunsui game bleach tybw

Shunsui introduces two new games from his Shikai: Katen Kyokotsu and both apply a new concept of the Reiatsu system.

The first game is Daruma-san ga Koronda (“The Dharma Doll Fell Down”), where one of the two combatants is tagged as “it” and they chase each other, following a trail of Reiatsu from the previous attack to catch them by surprise. The game will continue until the one tagged as “it” is able to see the opponent while the latter is moving, which results in the opponent losing and dying.

Shunsui manages to avoid death through the concept of Reikaku or Spiritual Sense.

Most people use both their actual vision and Reikaku at the same time to see but to properly sense Reiatsu would involve abandoning the use of one’s eyes in favor of Reikaku.

This means that the actual person is no longer focused on by perception but their Reiatsu, which Shunsui uses to his advantage by solidifying his Reiatsu in a specific location to catch an opponent off-guard and it was done through the second game is Kageokuri, which allows either Shunsui or their opponent to produce a shadow copy that becomes more realistic with higher Reikaku.

Lille Barro’s Vollstandig

Jilliel Bleach

Due to forcing Lille to open his closed eye three times throughout the fight, Kyouraku witnesses the activation of Lille’s Vollstandig, Jilliel (“Judgment of God”), which makes Lille resemble a Biblically-accurate angel, with a white priestly robe for most of his body and eight wings with holes for the X-Axis.

There are a total of 24 holes, 4 for each wing, from which X-Axis shoots out. Lille can also be intangible and teleport.

Portions of Lille’s wings are hinted to be CGI but otherwise, majority of the episode will be in the usual 2D

KYOURAKU’S BANKAI IS FINALLY ANIMATED

Arguably the most hype Bankai reveal since Yamamoto’s Zanka no Tachi, Shunsui Kyouraku’s Bankai, “Katen Kyōkotsu: Karamatsu Shinjū”

We will also witness the OG Reiatsu effect upon the activation of Katen Kyōkotsu: Karamatsu Shinjū, which is the purpose of the Askin vs Ichigo scene.

Katen Kyokotsu: Karamatsu Shinju is a Bankai in the form of a four-act theater play that plunges both the user and the target to a life and death struggle until one of them runs out of Reiatsu

It is confirmed that we will get the ENTIRE Bankai shown in this episode, all four acts and the destruction of Lille Barro’s Vollstandig form.

The leakers have confirmed that there will be a lot of OST, including new tracks.

Of particular mention are “Buddhist sound effects” that will be featured throughout the play similar to Ichibei Hyousube’s “Futen Taisatsuryō” in Episode 27: “A”, including the Kabuki “Yoooo” sound effect.

Katen Kyokotsu, the Zanpakuto Spirit

katen bleach tybw

Katen Kyokotsu’s design should be familiar to anime watchers as this was first drawn for the filler arc, Zanpakuto Rebellion (Episodes 230 to 255), which was one of the two arcs sandwiched between the Arrancar Saga content.

They are a pair of women, one being a mature woman (Katen), the other a girl wearing a cloth mask to cover her mouth (Kyokotsu).

It is confirmed that Ayumi Fujimura will NOT reprise her role as Katen, who will be the spirit shown upon the Bankai’s release.

Instead it will be Ami Koshimizu, the voice of Kallen from Code Geass.

The episode ends on page 15 of Chapter 649, where Kyouraku rests on the lap of his Zanpakuto Spirit.

Just like last episode, this concludes round 1 of a fight completely and we begin round 2 of Mayuri vs Pernida in the next episode.

Next Episode Poem: Nemu Kurotsuchi

bleach volume 71 nemu

The next episode poem will be from Squad 12 lieutenant and “daughter” of Mayuri, Nemu Kurotsuchi:

“My child’s hand, so lost

Wandering, in search of mine

Close but far, I take your hand

Together we will walk, to the end” 

This poem is taken from Volume 71: Baby, Hold Your Hand and recited by Nemu Kurotsuchi.

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 36 will be titled, “Baby, Hold Your Hand 2′”, which will cover Chapter 640 until 644.

With Chapters 631 to 634 yet to be adapted, that means 40 chapters have yet to be adapted by the anime.

This episode will conclude the first battle with the Schutzstaffel.

Nemu is featured in the Volume image and the episode preview but the one speaking would probably be Mayuri himself, who already spoke in the Episode 34 poem.

Notably, the one speaking will be her child self.

This poem simply expresses the sentimental love a parent has for their child, which is actually the dominant theme of Volume 71, with both Nemu and Nanao’s roles in the story.

In the Mayuri fight, we see how in spite of Mayuri viewing his creation as an object, at the same time and especially at this point, Mayuri finds his pride in Nemu, the most successful fulfillment of his scientific pursuit of creation from nothing.

However, it could also be that over-time, Mayuri has truly developed fatherly feelings for Nemu even while much of his public speech is fixated on being a scientist and Kisuke Urahara’s eternal rival.

In the Shunsui fight, we see Nanao step in to bear her mother’s curse by using her clan’s Zanpakuto.

Here, Shunsui gives his confidence that his niece and potential daughter-figure to take on the immense power and burden in her own terms.

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 36: “Baby, Hold Your Hand 2′” will be released on December 7, 2024.

Source: Twitter

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