What a comeback for Bleach anime after its decade-long slumber. This will be an impression of part one and part two which just finished airing. The original Bleach anime run ended in March 27th, 2012. It was a bittersweet moment, in one aspect it was an epic anime from the beginning to the end with really high highs. It was one the the big three and i thought it would keep going like One Piece and Naruto. So When i heard the news that Bleach would be ending i was really sad, Especially because i knew that the manga was going to continue. All Bleach fans hoped to see the anime return in the future.
As the manga went on i kept hearing about how epic the next arc of Bleach was. With the epic battles and Quincy returning. From the very beginning of Bleach, we were wondering who the Quincy were, that is a group shrouded in mystery. Uryu Ishida has always been part of the main cast and for a long time thought to be one of the last remaining Quincy along with his father. We have heard there was a bloody battle between the Shinigami (Soul Reapers) and the Quincy a thousand years ago. For the majority of the original run of the anime which was 365 episodes we only got to hear and see bits and pieces of Quincy lore.
Then how epic it was that the next big arc of Bleach is the return of the Quincy army on this grand scale. Before all the hype for the new Thousand Year Blood War arc, in my opinion, i did not think the Quincy stood a chance against the Shinigami. This was backed up by the fact that they were almost wiped out, we did a small flashback with Mauri i think in the Souls Society arc showing a couple of Shinigami killing a bunch of Quincy. Also during the run of Bleach Ishida being our only comparison to the strength of Quincy showed in general he was weaker than a leiutanant class Shinigami. The reason he was able to defeat Mayri was because he sacrificed all his power to achieve that goal. So with everything we have seen just before the Thousand Year Blood War arc (TYBW), i was wondering how the Quincy are going to make a comeback, and when they do how they will stack up against the captains and Lieutenants.
Yhwach
Yhwach is one of the most intimidating villains i have ever seen on screen. At first, i did want to compare Aizen and Yhwach but i think they are different types of villains. I Would be more intimidated by Aizen, his Zanpakuto ability is really strong when used in the way he has and his intelligence is on par with Urahara Kisuke which is to say high. Yhwach is a different type of intimidating, more of pure strength and power, and course he is intelligent as well. Yhwach and Aizne’s interaction showed that neither will work with the other which if they ever battle is going to be a sight to see.
Yhwach strength and power are really interesting, he has all the abilities of a Quincy of course and he is the origin of all those abilities. I do need more information on him, Does he give some of his powers to his followers or are they all descendants of him? Maybe even a combination of both? In the fight with the Zero squad, he seemed to have sacrificed some of his allies to get some of his strength back and he even powered up the Quincies that came up with him. He seems like a ruthless leader who will use any means to defeat his enemies. And we see that with how he speaks and acts. All his followers address him as Your Majesty, which may infer that he comes from a royal bloodline of some Kingdom or he is addressed that way because of his power and being the founder and father of Quincy.
The Second Invasion
So the first invasion did not go well for the Quincy as they were presumed to be wiped out a thousand years ago. I would like to see the first Great War between the Shinigami and Quincy. The Second Invasion is what we witnessed in part one of the Thousand Year Blood War arc. We go to Hueco Mundo to help Nell. I did not think the Quincy would even bother with Hollows, but On Ichigo’s appearance there we see the Quincy have already captured Hueco Mundo. Our first real Quincy battle starts with Quilge Opie and we see his ultimate Quincy power called Vollstandig. This same power was. Used by Ishida, with his fight with Mayuri I think. This fight with Quilge shows us that with Quincies Vollstandig they can go up against a Shinigami with a Bankai.
One of the major strategies implemented by the Quincies was to steal all the squad captains’ Bankai’s with a device. They were successful in stealing a couple but were unsuccessful in stealing each Ichigo’s bankai. The technology shown in the TYBW arc is interesting and advanced almost like it is from the year 2077. There is a high contrast between the feudal-looking buildings and attire to the monitors and phones the Shinigami use. We have always seen the technology used by the Shinigami since the start of Bleach but with each arc, I feel like they come up with crazy advanced tech. Even the Hogyoku is some sort of advanced tech combined with a spiritual aspect that gives God-like abilities. So in retrospect, a device that can steal a Bankai is not far from the realm of Bleach. Ultimately though, it is used as a way to power up the captains for the upcoming battles. Well, that and the fact that they did get annihilated.
Throughout parts one and two of the TYBW arc, we see the near one-sided annihilation of the Shinigami. Captain Yamamoto’s death was a major turning point of the war showing us that the Shinigami are on the precipice of defeat. We do get a bit of a respite when the Quincy falls back. We then get greeted by the Zero squad members. Ichigo’s fight with Yhwach resulted in his Zanpakuto being broken in its bankai state. Mayuri states that it can’t be fixed. It’s a curious situation because it was Haschwalth who cut Ichigo’s Zanpakuto in half not Yhwach. He seems to be the second in command so i guess that just shows how insanely powerful he is if he’s able to just cut Ichigo’s bankai in half. During the battle with Yhwach, we also get a hint where Ichigo uses Quincy’s ability to defend himself, in the second part of the TYBW arc we get the whole backstory about his mother being a full-blooded Quincy.
When the battle subsided we had some major injuries and maybe even fatal ones amongst captains and lieutenants. Especially Beyakuya who got blasted by his bankai. With the appearance of the Zero Squad, we now have a new power scale to put Ichigo against. They said that Squad Zero itself is more powerful than the entire thirteen squads combined. Also, the fact that we see that they have a seal on their powers otherwise using their full powers might destroy the realms. So now we have a power scale that might be comparable to when Ichigo used Final Getsuga Tensho. The fact that when Ichigo unlocked his true Zanpakuto we got a whole dialogue from Zangetsu about how Ichigo has only been using a fraction of his Zanpakuto’s power and compared that to when he unlocked Final Getsuga, which one is more power. And would he still be able to access Final Getsuga? I am not sure. Well, either way with his true zanpakuto unlocked we get a quick training arc for Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, and Beyakuya who was healed by a magic hot spring. Everyone else is training too. When Yhwach invades a second time we see what he wants to achieve which is to invade the Souls King’s palace. This was able to happen because Ichgio came down from his training to Soul Society which allowed Yhwach to go up with a few selected Quincies with him. The fights between Quincy and the Squad Captains this time around were kind of even though some did get series injuries but we got to see the new and improved Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, and Beyakuya.
With all that has happened in these two seasons, I am excited to see Bleach TYBW arc continue, Especially with that big cliffhanger ending they left us behind. Bleach is back and better than ever. Epic battles with the long-standing mysterious group that was the Quincy. New power-ups and stakes that are higher than before. We have some good hype moments to look forward to in the next part. You know, like when do we get to see Kenpachi release his Bankai, we already saw how epic the Shikai release was. See you guys in the next part of Bleach Thousand Year Blood War arc!!
