Summary
- Yoruichi battles Nakk Le Vaar to protect Ichigo, setting up a flashy, intense showdown with lightning-based attacks.
- Uryu flips the script on his betrayal, revealing he never truly aligned with Wandenreich, shocking Haschwalth and Yhwach.
- Gerard Valkyrie gigantifies against a team of powerful Shinigami, showcasing overwhelming godlike powers in the showdown.
In the first half of the hour-long special finale of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict, Yoruichi gets into battle with Nakk Le Vaar, saving Ichigo and the others from a bad matchup, while Uryu reveals that he was never truly aligned to the Wandenreich but Haschwalth, now empowered by Yhwach’s The Almighty as the Quincy King sleeps, knew that already.
The first half of the finale is an epic set of showdowns being put together, but just for the sake of buildup – we’ll only know the conclusion of the fights we see begin in the finale during the final cours, which has already been announced.
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Uryū Ishida, The Traitor
Jugram Haschwalth Confirms The Truth He Always Knew
Jugram Haschwalth walks in to the room with Gate of the Sun arrogantly, saying Uryū looks troubled. Uryū returns the sentiment, but Haschwalth, fresh from killing his childhood best friend, reminds him that he has Yhwach’s powers while the Quincy King is asleep. Meaning that he can see the future. At this point, Uryū incriminates himself, asking if Haschwalth saw that he is a traitor. With three irises in each eye, Haschwalth is beautiful but extremely unsettling, and, for some reason, the colour flashes from deep red to a cool blue as if oscillating between himself as himself and himself as Yhwach. Smug, Haschwalth asks Uryū why he’d say something like that when he hasn’t said anything beyond stating that he has access to Yhwach’s precognition. We’ve known since early on in Part 2 – The Separation that Uryū is a traitor, but the entire time, that was in the context of his betrayal of his relationships with Ichigo and the various entities related to Soul Society in favour of the Wandenreich.
The mark of the traitor doesn’t disappear, but changes context as we learn in “The Visible Answer” that Uryū does not actually align himself with Yhwach, something which Haschwalth knows due to his access to The Almighty, and therefore, by extension, Yhwach has known as well. It turns out that the wounds Uryū inflicted on Renji were far too clean to cause any long-term issues once he receives medical care – despite the fact that he hit the two most important parts that are vital to one being able to maintain spiritual powers, the Saketsu and the Hakusui; Chain of Fate (or where it would be) and the Soul Sleep, the wellspring from which spiritual power originates. While we can attribute Ichigo’s regeneration to Orihime’s incredible powers, the sharpshooting Uryū avoided hitting the aforementioned area entirely in his epic battle against Ichigo earlier in Part 3.
Ist das der Zerstörer?!
Gerard Valkyrie Gigantifies, Refuses to Stop Elaborating
Against the kind of opponents Gerard was going to take on all at once by himself, any other character in the BLEACHverse would be in dire straits. Going against Kisuke Urahara, a reinvigorated 6th Squad Captain Byakuya Kuchiki; his Lieutenant Renji Abarai, freshly healed by Hachigen, Spec Ops Division Captain Soi-Fon, 5th Squad Captain Shinji Hirako; his Lieutenant Momo Hinamori and 13th Squad Lieutenant Rukia Kuchiki; who is now capable of an immensely powerful Bankai, most characters would certainly have to fold, but it seemed to embolden Gerard Valyrie, whom Askin Nakk Le Vaar narrates is rumoured to be not just any Quincy, but the Heart of the Soul King himself.
‘You don’t stand a chance beating us by yourself.’
Then that means if I could beat you guys, it would be a miracle! Do you know when miracles occur? If a miracle occurs in an ordinary moment, people wouldn’t recognize it as a miracle. ‘Oh, I lucked out!; ‘Strange things do happen!’ They would simply think of it as that.
A miracle is only a miracle if it occurs in a moment of crisis.
At first it seems like he’s terribly outmatched as Byakuya eviscerates him with Senbonzakura, to the point of Momo asking if it was necessary to take killing him that far. Shinji justifies it by saying he clearly sounded like he had some kind of ace-in-the-hole that would have devastated them had he gotten the chance to use it, and their caution is warranted, as the Quincy suddenly becomes gigantic, and that this power was enough to briefly shake the three realms similar to how Senjumaru Shutara’s Bankai did. Both Ukitake and Yhwach reacted to Gerard Valkyrie’s “death”. His power enables him to convert his wounds into a “godly size”, with the wounds he sustained from the Shinigami’s team effort enough to turn him into a giant taller than most buildings. This part becomes somewhat reminiscent of Attack on Titan as Gerard breaks off pieces of buildings to throw at his enemies like the Beast Titan. Despite their combined efforts, his huge size is an overwhelming disadvantage for them, and he swats them away easily.
Finally A Fight For Yoruichi
Yoruichi vs Nakk Le Vaar Will Be First Up Next Cours
Askin Nakk Le Vaar served as a kind of narrator in the finale episodes of Part 3, telling a downed Ichigo a brief rundown on the history of the Sternritters, and about Pernida Parnkgjas and Gerard Valkyrie, who are rumoured to be sentient body parts of the Soul King. Nakk Le Vaar is easily one of the more terrifying Sternritters because of his ability to alter the lethal dose of substances he ingests, using it to incapacitate Ichigo, Orihime and Chad. Yoruichi appears behind Nakk Le Vaar and wonders why he doesn’t just strangle his enemies, but he says such brutal forms of violence fit the character of herself and people like Bambietta Basterbine. The fight begins with a swift reverse roundhouse kick that Yoruichi easily evades, jumping to the other side of the battlefield in style. The animation is brilliant as Yoruichi wastes no time getting serious, activating her Shunko ability, which manifests large arcs of lightning around her body and emerging from her back like wings, with some impact frames used to augment the intensity of her combat-ready appearance, an effect also seen in Nakk Le Vaar’s retaliation, firing three arrows at once one of which Yoruichi catches and hurls back at him.
The fight is incredibly flashy, with Yoruichi’s lightning-based attacks causing major wounds and giving us the visual treat of an impact frame-filled spectacle. Unfortunately, the Quincy is much tougher than he looks, and regenerates completely after each attack. There’s also a cool but short-lived chance to see Yoruichi’s little brother Yushiro in combat, with his mastery over Shunko at an early age and initial beatdown of Nakk Le Vaar, showing immense promise, but it wasn’t enough for the opponent, who soon turned the tables on them both because he developed an immunity to their Reiatsu. The first half of the hour special ends with Ichigo walking in on the brewing conflict between Haschwalth and Uryū, the main plotline of the next episode, titled “My Last Words”.Yoruichi is driven into a corner as she tries to protect her brother and dish out heavy blows, but we’ll have to see how that fight goes when the final cours is released.
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War
- Release Date
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October 10, 2022
- Creator
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Tite Kubo
- MyAnimeList Score
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8.98 (Part 3)