Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Ep 6: There's a reason he's still Head Captain, after 1000 years!
Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War Episode 6: The Fire.
Animated by Studio Pierrot.
Created by Kubo "God of Character Design" Tite.
Last episode, on the greatest Shonen series, things got a bit rough for the Shingami, as first arc boss and all round Nobleman Kuchiki Byakuya found out just how dangerous it is, to go up against Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, and the all conquering power of As Nodt, AKA Sternritter F: The Fear.
Then, the moment you've all been waiting for arrived, As Zaraki "Who Wants Some!" Kenpachi entered the fight, and proved that relying on Bankai is for punks.
Then, we got the moment I'VE been waiting for, as Zaraki found out that actually Bankai might be kinda useful, as he gets utterly bodybagged by the leader of the Sternritter and King of the Quincy: the mysterious, and awesomely moustached Yhwach.
This week, The Captain Commander comes in to save Zaraki, and shows us all just why he's still the one in charge.
Honestly, that's all that happens. This whole episode is just one long fight scene and it's freakin amazing. They try to bodge a bit of history in there, but it's like 30 seconds of Ishida reading a book, and 20 minutes of Head Commander Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni going to TOWN on Yhwach. It's glorious.
I'd love to offer some really intricate, in-depth analysis of this episode, of the meaning and symbolism behind the various events and how they compare and contrast to events both in the real world, and within the universe of Bleach...
But that's not what this episode was about. This episode was about showing off what an absolute freakin MONSTER Yama-ji is. And it was exactly what we all wanted it to be.
We've waited... a very long time to see this episode. More than just the 10 years we waited for Thousand Year Blood War to drop. This episode gives the fans something we've been waiting for since, maybe the "Winter War" arc.
And I would gladly have waited twice as long; the payoff would still be worth it.
In fact, I'm actually GLAD we waited this long, to see this particular scene, for one very specific reason.
So, since they added the whole series to Disney+ I've been rewatching all of Classic Bleach. It's still great, Chad is still the man, Ichigo is still a strawberry, and I've heard KUROSAKI KKKUUUUNNNN more times in the past week than I have in the last decade. But oh WOW, I had forgotten how bad the animation was, back in day. Maybe it's just because I'm comparing it to modern animation quality, but wow, it really does look cheap as hell.
And then, I sit down to watch "The Fire". And it's night and freakin day. The animation, particularly in this episode, was beyond anything I've seen in a weekly anime. The combination of traditional animation style for Yamamoto himself, the CGI used for various skeletons and other nightmare beast that take part in this battle, and then the almost pencil sketch style animating the flames of Yama-ji's Zanpakuto... all finished off with a single shot, that could almost have been a Manga panel, except for the one splash of vivid red...
They could NOT have done this scene, or at least done it anywhere near as well, back when the original series aired. If that wait is the price we had to pay, to see this final arc, with this quality, I think we can all agree that we paid it happily.
Because I kid you not, this episode looked like a freakin AAA animated movie. This was not the work of a weekly series.
And Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni deserved that.
If you want to feel The Fire, check out Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War on Hulu/Disney+ streaming NOW!
Or, if you want to start the journey from its very beginning, you can now watch the series in its entirety, also on Hulu/Disney+!
Or, if you want to cheat and read ahead, check out Chapter 480 onwards, of the Bleach Manga, on the Shonen Jump App!
Taheg Gloder is a Freelance Copywriter from England. Obsessed with comics and Manga since his teens, he now splits his time between writing comic reviews and retrospectives for POP, and doing reactions on his YouTube Channel, The Dragon & The Hound. He lives alone, because he’s a hermit.