The following contains spoilers for the second half of the final episode of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict, available on Hulu and Disney+.
Summary
- Thousands of Shinigami died as Wandenreich attacked, early casualties including Chо̄jirо̄ Sasakibe & Izuru Kira.
- Kira returns as living corpse, saved by genius Mayuri Kurotsuchi, with horrific injuries patched up.
- Kira’s survival remains mysterious, metal rods support his torso, indicating a unique form of living corpse.
The terrifying might of the Wandenreich was made abundantly clear in the early parts of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War as scores of Shinigami lost their lives in the surprise invasion waged by Yhwach’s new army, including various powerful and talented combatants, like 1st Squad Lieutenant, Chо̄jirо̄ Sasakibe, who was the first casualty of the war five days before the Soul Society was attacked. When the full complement of Sternritter arrived in Soul Society, thousands of Shinigami were killed in mere minutes, including 3rd Squad Lieutenant Izuru Kira, who was blown away by Bazz-B’s Burning Finger moments after the Quincies appeared.
In the final episode of the recently concluded BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict Izuru Kira returns effectively as a living corpse, with the hole torn in his chest from his injury still agape. How did he “survive” his certain death?
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Kira’s Horrible Death
Sniped Early On By Bazz-B
If the entire timeline of the Wandenreich invasion of the Soul Society could be condensed into a single day, Sasakibe’s death would be at midnight, and Kira Izuru’s death would be at some point just before 3am; just to illustrate how early on in the Thousand-Year Blood War Kira taken out of commission. When the Wandenreich invaded for the first time, five days after Sasakibe’s death, the Soul Society saw an unprecedented amount of death and destruction, with thousands of Shinigami dying in mere minutes. When Sternritter H – The Heat, Bazzard “Bazz-B” Black first appeared, we saw his power before we even saw his face, emerging from one of the countless pillars of Reishi that were scattered across the Seireitei during the “March of the Starcross”.
Kira did not even have a chance to see his assailant, who fired off a Burning Finger from within one of the Reishi pillars, while the other seated officers of the 3rd Squad were quickly dispatched by Sternritter O – The Overkill, Driscoll Berci. The injuries sustained by Kira were horrendous to say the least, with a significant portion of his chest blown away along with his right arm, which still clutched his Zanpakutо̄ in its severed state. Such an injury would be fatal to most characters in the series, and given the fact that we don’t see Kira again for the entirety of the arc (until his unexpected return, of course), it was clear that he succumbed to those wounds.
What a screechy bunch of birds. So annoying, it makes this new hole ache.
A Dead Man Walks
Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s Awful Genius Saves Another
When Kira returned in the final episode of Part 3, he was very clearly still, as he described it, “a dead man”. His arm had been reattached, with the hole blown in his torso still very much agape, his sinewy frame held together by a series of rods. His skin has now taken on a ghoulish colour and his demeanour a lot more grim than it had been. He is also significantly stronger as he managed to slice through the remnants of Lille Barro’s second Quincy: Vollständig with ease.
The story behind his survival is similar to that of 10th Squad Captain and Lieutenant Toshiro Hitsugaya and Rangiku Matsumoto’s close call after being zombiefied by Sternritter Z – The Zombie, Giselle Gewelle. Like them, Kira was saved by the curiosity, genius and sheer lack of respect for life of 12th Squad Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, who gains a ton of new research material over the course of the so-called “Protection of the Soul King Great War”. Like with Hitsugaya and Matsumoto, Kira’s injuries are treated by Kurotsuchi, and due to how extensive they were, it is likely that the only other individual who could’ve helped in such a situation is Orihime with her Shun Shun Rikka’s rejection ability.
There isn’t much of an explanation as to how Kira “survived”, but the fact that his torso is supported with thick metal rods illustrates that he might be a living corpse of a different variety to the aforementioned top 2 of 10th Squad. Over the course of the arc, several Captains and Lieutenants are brought back from the brink of death through various means, but Kira seems to be the only one who seems to have actually died. In BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 – The Separation, the episodes titled “Marching Out the Zombies” feature Giselle Gewelle’s ability to turn people into zombies pitted against Kurotsuchi’s own “Corpse Unit” derived from Arrancar like Charlotte Chuhlhourne, and as we learn in the Can’t Fear Your Own World novels written by Ryohgo Narita, this project also includes Cirucci Thunderwitch, Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio, Luppi Antenor and even the Quincies Candice Catnipp and Meninas McAllon, who are Sternritter T – The Thunder and P – The Power respectively.
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War
- Release Date
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October 10, 2022
- Creator
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Tite Kubo
- Streaming Service(s)
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Hulu
- MyAnimeList Score
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8.98 (Part 3)