Score: A-

We are truly just in the final battle now. I suppose that’s been the case for a while now since everyone’s been taking their crack at Yhwach and doing the best they can against someone who has truly become next level broken! And of course the final battle would have to be a crazy battle royal where everyone effectively fighting Yhwach at the same time in different locations.

Long wait coming

There’s no way to open up talking about this episode without covering the delay. Might be weird to read this in the future, but oh well. So there will be a break until October 19th when we’ll get the next episode. Is that unfortunate? Absolutely. I’d rather be right back here next week watching that episode! But these next two episodes are basically going to be it. They’ll be how this series is remembered and the ultimate final impression. I’d much rather they polish these things to near movie-level than get them out looking less than stellar and then hoping they could slightly touch them up for the bluray. Doesn’t matter what’s going on next month, I’ll be here to cover those episodes.

“Gotcha”

One focus for this was going to be Aizen vs Yhwach. In a lot of ways this is pretty much what I should have expected. Part of me was wondering if we’d get a scene where he got more of his restraints lifted to get him as close to full power as possible. But that didn’t really happen. So in that sense there’s no surprise that Aizen could only do so much. He was putting up a nice front, but the guy was basically fighting with both arms tied behind his back. That he had to lean on his sword’s hypnosis made that obvious. A full powered Aizen vs Yhwach would be the stuff of legends. But whoever won…everyone else would lose since neither guy handles absolute power that well!

Far as what Aizen did? It was good. He smartly stayed quiet and didn’t try to impersonate Ichigo’s personality. That allowed him to take some brutal hits, but allowing Ichigo to stab Yhwach and drive a Getsuga Tensho through him! Was it some crazy over the top battle? No, it was not. But I didn’t really mind it. This was Aizen doing the best he could in the condition he was in. He was willing to lose an arm and get stabbed in order to give Ichigo a chance. Which is saying a lot since Ichigo is a main reason that he lost!

A good friendship

I did like that moment with Ichigo and Renji. It’s a nice thing for Renji to say. Ichigo is the whole reason that Renji’s bond with Rukia was restored. He would’ve reluctantly let her be executed if Ichigo didn’t take action to save her. Ichigo was helped bring them back together so that the option of staying alongside the woman he loved was possible. But that’s the reason he’ll walk into hell alongside Ichigo. Because Ichigo did all that for him, Renji will pull him forward when he stumbles. The situation is rather hopeless and Renji is just outclassed. But he’ll fight regardless.

Never want to see best girl cry

There were a lot of great little moments. Inoue feeling devastated that she couldn’t fix Ichigo’s Bankai was powerful. But it also was amusing in the sense that this strongly implies she could’ve fixed his previous Bankai since that wasn’t magically broken in multiple timelines. It was the better choice for Ichigo to train though so that’s fine. Everything turned out ok thanks to best buddy Tsukishima. The man who’s been there from the start in every bad situation! I kind of expected that he would’ve scratched or stabbed the Bankai to repair it. But I guess stabbing Ichigo was good enough. The man still has no morals or sense of what’s at stake. But he’ll do what Ginjo tells him to do and thankfully that’s enough in this case. The Fullbringers aren’t going to actually fight, but they’ll chip in like this. Also happy to see Riruka again.

Speaking of Inoue, I love how Yhwach now addresses her by her full name. She’s not “that woman” anymore. Showing her some respect is completely fair since he knows that she’s the one that’s come closest to killing him! If he’d hadn’t gotten his power back exactly when he did…RIP Yhwach. Frankly if Inoue had shown up to this fight he’d definitely be scared as hell!

Kind of nice that Ryuken gave him something

I’m going to straight up presume that Ryuken and Isshin were going around gathering that silver during this whole cour. They haven’t visibly been doing anything, but I like to presume they weren’t standing around waiting to stumble on Uryu. If they needed to basically dissect a bunch of Quincy corpses and smelt the silver into an arrow then that would take a good amount of time. And Isshin would be a valuable asset to both gather bodies and protect Ryuken while he’s working. I don’t want to just write the story for the author, but it’s better than them just being ghosts the entire time!

One last fight

While it’s a long wait, I love where we are set up. Yhwach is basically a raid boss. There are three parties set up to take him on in three different locations. Ichigo and Uryu have the fight in the Soul Society. Shunsui is leading the remaining captains able to fight against Yhwach on Earth. And Harribel, Grimmjow, and probably Nel are going to provide an Espada team-up against Yhwach in Hueco Mundo. There are basically two episodes left and the last one sounds like it will be 30 minutes so that leaves a ton of room for one last huge battle and a big epilogue. Thankfully Ichigo’s Bankai while damaged isn’t actually broken in this fight. So there’s a chance he can actually get a final strike in on this utter scumbag!

Until next time!

That’s all I’ve got for now. I can’t wait until we get to October and I can cover the final episodes. Until that time will just have to think back on everything that’s happened this season and wait as patiently as I can. Thankfully the delay is only a month so I can slip this in with whatever shows I’m covering for the Fall Season!