BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War ‘The Calamity’ Best Moments So Far
One of my favorite memories of my teenage years is biking down to the local library to pick up the manga volumes of BLEACH that I had ordered. BLEACH was one of if not the first manga I ever read, and as it has for many, its gorgeous and often over-the-top artwork has stuck with me to this day.
Naturally, watching BLEACH’s final season in theaters this past Friday on its opening day felt monumental. While not a full-blown theatrical movie in terms of length — with just the first three episodes being included it was just a little over an hour in length — it was unlike any BLEACH viewing experience I had ever had in my life.
Here are the best moments from BLEACH’s final season so far
Warning: the following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of BLEACH The Calamity
#1 ‘The God of Thunder’ shines
In the theatrical premiere, we finally get to see several things that most hardcore BLEACH fans have been waiting a long time to see: Yoruichi’s Thunder God Form, and Kisuke’s Bankai.
In BLEACH, one of the coolest aspects of the anime is just waiting to see your favorite character’s ultimate form. It’s something that was exciting back in the days of the Soul Society arc, and remains just as palpable even in this final arc of the epic.
While we’ve seen the powerful Yoruichi at work before, we’ve never seen anything like her God of Thunder form — it’s deadly and beautiful, with just the right amount of humor and stylization to make it work.
Indeed, as an avid fan of Kisuke Urahara — he has been one of my favorites since the early days — it’s quite fun to watch his lively relationship with Yoruichi play out on screen. It’s particularly enjoyable to see her God of Thunder form activate as the usually tough as nails character transforms into a playful kitten mentally while in that form, which is essentially the reason she is so hesitant to use it in the first place.
And as epic and fan servicey as that whole section is, it’s really nothing compared to the grandeur of Urahara’s final battle against the poison Quincy, Askin.
In this battle, at long last, we get to witness Kisuke’s ultimate form. One that — when combined with his superior intelligence and strategy — clearly shows why Kisuke is labeled one of the five top threats by the Quincy King.
Indeed, this whole movement is the strongest and most complete arc in the entire theatrical run — it really does come to a satisfying close making it reason enough to show up to the movies for.
#2 An Unlikely Team of Captains
While the God of Thunder arc is the most complete storyline in the Theatrical release, another highly rewarding — albeit shorter — section in the showing is when squad captains Hitsugaya, Byakuya, and Kenpachi team up to take on the ridiculously strong miracle Quincy, Gerard Valkyrie.
While the action here is great — including a maniacal Kenpachi who activates his Nozarashi and a seemingly pissed off Hitsugaya who is back with a vengeance — the really rewarding moments are the concise quips shared between Toshiro Hitsugaya and Byakuya.
As Gerard continues to grow thanks to his power and Toshiro and Byakuya strategize how to overcome his apparent height advantage, Toshiro can’t help but wonder if Byakuya is holding back comments on Toshiro’s own natural height disadvantage.
It’s particularly funny to see this sort of banter between the Captains as the almost always stoic Byakuya is clearly a bit uncomfortable by Toshiro’s hyper sensitivity about his size, being the youngest of the Thirteen Court Guard Squad captains.
While episode three abruptly ends before we see the battle’s conclusion, it’s clearly going to be a fun one with a bit of brevity against the much more serious backdrop of Ichigo’s final confrontation with Yhwach.
#3 Orihime/Ichigo relationship is put front and center
Last but not least we have Ichigo’s confrontation with the Quincy King himself. Only this time Ichigo brings along a familiar friend to help defend him in his battle: Orihime. As a result, we get to witness several touching moments between the two characters, both in how they work together to stall against Yhwach and in flashbacks to earlier parts of the story.
Romance has never been a huge focus in BLEACH, yet the growing love between Ichigo and Orihime has always been there in the back burner. It’s nice to see it getting out front and center as we head into the final battle.
#4 Uryu vs Jugram is visually gripping
Finally, there’s the battle between Uryu and Jugram. This one’s pretty interesting as it’s propped up as a sort of foil to Ichigo. We get to witness Uryu’s return to the fold and the battle between the two is fundamentally different because of Uryu’s Quincy powers and Jugram “Almighty” powers.
It also serves as further exposition for what’s going on at the core of the story, with Jugram shedding light on what Yhwach’s true ambition is.
While it’s not the most engaging face off in the three episodes, visually it’s still striking, showing just how far anime has come since those days decades ago when Ichigo first donned his Substitute Soul Reaper badge on a much smaller screen.
The Verdict
Fans of BLEACH will highly enjoy this theatrical run of the first three episodes. While relatively short and certainly not complete, the three-part showing perfectly sets up the rest of what will surely be an epic conclusion to one of anime’s biggest influences.
