Another day, another Bleach Finale, with Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 2 Episode 12 and Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 2 Episode 13 serving as the finale to this spectacular season of anime. Let’s see how things went in this review!
Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 2 Episode 13 Overview
What is there to be said about Bleach that hasn’t been said before? It is one of the most popular anime in the West of Japan of all time and is considered a part of the Big Three, a trio of anime widely recognised as having been a part of popularising the medium of anime. The show is back after a hiatus of nine years, as its first run ended in 2013. The newest season of the show is being developed by Studio Pierrot, the studio behind the original series, as well as other giants such as Naruto and Tokyo Ghoul.
The second part of the final arc of Bleach is directed by Tomohisa Taguchi, who has been involved in the productions of Persona 4 The Animation and Twin Star Exorcists, and the series is based on a manga written by Tite Kubo. This episode is also referred to in original Japanese as Bleach Sennen Kessen-hen Ketsubetsu-tan Episode 12 (Bleach Sennen Kessen hen Ketsubetsu tan Episode 12) and Bleach TYBW Part 2 Episode 12. Click here to read the review of the previous episode of the season!
– Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Season 2 Episode 13 Review does not contain spoilers –
Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 2 Episode 12 Review- The Master
Surprisingly, I’m going to start this review by giving this part of Bleach the biggest criticism I’ve given this season so far- the show was smart to have aired two episodes together in this instance. If any one of these episodes had aired separately and if we had a week to discuss the events of one of them, we would have very easily had the worst episode of this new Thousand Year Blood War series of episodes. Both of these episodes had their own set of problems, which I will discuss next.Â
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First, Episode 12. This was a plenty exciting episode, featuring the aftermath of Squad Zero turning up to stop Yhwach and his Sternritters. However, it featured some of the more egregious examples of pendulum storytelling that is starting to plague the show more and more with each passing episode. One side will be winning, and then the other side will come up with an inexplicable powerup, and this will repeat until we have a winner in the battle. Battles aren’t decided upon who’s stronger or faster, but rather, who has more tricks up their sleeves.
Next comes Episode 13. This was a much more hype outing than even Episode 12, for reasons that I can’t disclose in good faith because of the No-Spoiler Rule. It was a fantastic time until it ended about 17 minutes in, right when you thought a really big twist was about to hit our screens. There wasn’t even an epilogue of a side story that would make an impact in the next part of the story. There was just Kon and his antics in an extremely low-effort retelling of some previous scenes from the season.
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I’m sure that there were at least 10 different scenes that they cut from the Manga before this episode that could have used the time instead of this, and this speaks on poor storyboarding on the showrunner’s part. This wouldn’t have looked as egregious if the show followed the usual format of super-episodes, meaning 40 minutes of content having a single intro and outro sequence. Instead, the show aired them separately, with Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 2 Episode 13 being really short due to that.Â
Other than that, however, the content of these episodes was fantastic. Some absolutely phenomenal storytelling and character-writing built upon meaningful battles and newly revealed abilities from characters that demonstrated just how much thought was put into their existence. The power of Squad Zero is nothing like we have ever seen in the show before, and any single one of them easily holds the power to demolish the very world the show was built on, and I think that is awesome. I’m Team Oh-Etsu Nimaiya all the way, no questions asked.
Verdict
Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 2 Episode 12 and Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 2 Episode 13 worked well as complimentary episodes to each other and a fine ending to this season but failed to stand out as episodes on their own.