Score: A

I will say that the show surprised me with where it chose to end this second season. It had me mentally prepared for some massive cliffhanger and that did keep me engaged right to the final moments. It’s an interesting choice since that leaves us with quite a bit of time to speculate on how this is all going to play out. Considering how much show is left it’s clear that some twists and turns are coming.

This episode did a good job making me unsure about who was going to come out on top of this conflict. A credit to the Zero Squad both for their determination and their abilities. They took on this threat with quite a bit of seriousness. I can somewhat appreciate the confidence that led to them basically saying “come on in” to Yhwach. I still think it will end up being a bad choice, but at the very least Ichigo and company have some time to make it up to that level.

Does Yh-Black Ant have a move here?

My gut absolutely expected Yhwach to pull off a recovery and make that the cliffhanger this second season would end on. He was even setting up a great comeback with the whole “I never imagined” thing. It felt like the kind of thing where he’d say “I never imagined you were so weak” or something like that. And maybe that will still happen, but it just won’t happen right now! In that sense great play by the show. The expectation would have been for something like that to happen. So instead, they really make it look like Yhwach has lost and even end on something utterly silly like Kon doing the classic end of episode thing he did for much of the original show. That’s a good bit of playful fun. Even though I probably would have liked to see a crazy cliffhanger.

What is Ishida up to?

This final episode had what felt like a good amount of trolling. After all I was going into these fully expecting a fight between Ichigo and Ishida. The OP was pretty on point for basically everything. I guess you could use the scene a few episodes ago for Ichigo trying to stop Ishida from going with Yhwach, but there definitely wasn’t a fight. It could still happen next season, but that will have to be seen sometime in 2024.

One thing I would have loved to get would have been some thoughts from Ishida. The most he talked about these two episodes was being committed to defeating his opponent. But I’m not even sure about that since he wasn’t doing anything too creative when he did end up fighting. I do get why we aren’t hearing Ishida’s thoughts or giving him much dialogue. If he’s planning something against Yhwach then that would be given away. If he’s not planning something, then we’d know that for sure and it would take away the chance to speculate. For now, Ishida Uryu is a mystery.

Understandably pissed

Yhwach is an absolute piece of work. It was obvious from the start that he didn’t much care for the lives of those following him. But I don’t even think most of the Quincy truly understood how far he’d go and how disposable he considered them to be. The answer is that they were considered very disposable. Whether they survived or fell in battle, he’d still make use of them in the end. Even if it meant draining his very army dry to power up himself and his chosen elites. I can only feel for Bazz-B and Liltotto who had to feel the weight of betrayal. Both understood what was happening and were utterly pissed. They had to have believed in their King and were out there fighting against powerful enemies for his sake. And he just casually tosses them aside.

I was wondering how Yhwach was going to get by with his elites getting stomped like that. Sure, it allowed the Zero Squad some moments of being awesome, but it meant there were fewer pieces for him to use. And he needed those pieces since…this is only the halfway point of this final arc! And it doesn’t feel like nonsense since the cost of resurrecting/powering up the elite fighters was killing off an insane number of Quincy that were left on the surface.

Another piece of work here…

Can I stop feeling bad for Bambi? Honestly, I don’t think so XD. I really hope she’s dead for good with this episode. But so long as Giselle is alive then he can keep bringing Bambi back to further abuse her. It’s honestly beyond a messed-up situation. Bambi wasn’t a good person, but this is a rough way to continue existing. Giselle will beat up on her when she’s “zombified” and then act like she’s a cute toy after beating Bambi to death. It’s just…wow. Sadly, Liltotto doesn’t seem to care about whatever Giselle gets up to so long as she doesn’t get caught up in it.

He certainly enjoyed himself here

Yhwach’s scummy tactics did make his apparent defeat to Osho rather satisfying. He did manage to turn the tables by sucking up the lives of his “comrades”. But it didn’t appear to be enough here. Credit to Osho, his abilities are impressive and powerful. Something to be said about his ability to use the power of words and language to his benefit. The harm he can do if he lands a hit is extreme even if just using his base abilities. But as his seriousness raised…so did his danger level. The man is dangerous whether the man is using his power of black to wipe out the names of whatever he hits or whether he uses his power to “grant a name”.

Bleach as much as any shounen series puts a huge about of weight behind names. Zanpaktos are all about names. Their powers and releases are tied to them and that goes for many other abilities in the franchise. Someone that has their abilities tied to that concept can do quite a few things. No idea what will happen going forward, but he’s a powerful wall against Yhwach’s ambitions. There was also a cool touch where Yhwach tried to take and use that “black” power and the black drained from Osho’s beard.

Hiyori knows how to hit where it hurts

One little scene that is easily lost was Urahara getting chewed out by Hiyori. She was his former vice-captain and I think she understands him reasonably well. It would certainly be a crazy and dark move for Urahara to send both Ichigo and Yoruichi just to buy time. He doesn’t seem convinced that the Zero Squad can stop Yhwach. If he thought, it would be fine then waiting for Hiyori and having everyone go up together would be the safer move. Well, I guess if he thought it was fine then he wouldn’t have sent them up at all. He does care about Ichigo though and obviously he cares about Yoruichi. Even if he’s a “bigger picture” type, I can’t believe he’d willingly throw those two away for it. But what is his plan? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

What a Bankai!

Now is time to praise Senjumaru and her Bankai. Well, I also want to praise Zero Squad for setting her up. It’s wild to think that they couldn’t unleash their full strength while they all lived. They had to sacrifice their lives to have a chance at victory. It does make me wonder what the other Bankai could have been if a different member had been given the chance to fight. Regardless though, Senjumaru and her Bankai was absolutely nuts! I loved that they really showed the impact of her using it on all the worlds. No kidding about it being powerful enough to shake worlds. But it was a power that they needed. She was able to overwhelm and stomp all those Quincy. She lived up to the pride of the Zero Squad.

Even with their power-ups (and they were power-ups) none of them could stand up against Senjumaru. It was a beautiful Bankai that just took over the whole area and left no room to fight back against it. Each opponent fell in short order and she looks ready to finish them for good. Mixed feelings on that with Ishida being up there. But at least he got the least violent part of the Bankai? Knew what they were doing having her voiced by Rina Satou. Absolutely classic voice actress and it made her chants/phrases spoken during her Bankai all the weightier.

Not even sure about what this is!

Final Thoughts

It is going to be one long wait for the third season! Things strangely look optimistic for the main cast so far. Ishida isn’t in a good spot, but Ichigo seems to have time to get up there. Osho has looked to be in control of his fight, but I do think the tables have to turn eventually. Multiple characters look ready to make their move from Ukitake to Urahara. There’s a lot of potential twists for this story to take with half the runtime left. The fun thing is that they are already up there in the Royal Palace. So, there’s little travel that is left to be dealt with outside of getting some of the supporting cast up there if they are needed.

There’s no question that I’ll be back for the third part of this story! I’m not throwing in the towel about discussing this series now that things have picked up to this extent. It was a great season overall. We got so many great fights! The show was going back-to-back at times from one great fight to the next one. So, I’m glad this season lived up to any hopes I could have had for it. Ichigo looks ready for the remainder of this show. Even if he will have to face off against Ishida at some point to reach his true opponent. What a ride!