English Dub Review: Bleach – Thousand Year Blood War “Rages at Ringside”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Rose and Kensei arrive to face Mask de Masculine and protect Shuhei. They take him down easily, but Mask’s assistant James roots for him which powers him back up, beating both Kensei and Rose’s Bankai and mortally wounding them. But before he can land a killing blow, Renji and Rukia finally arrive from the Royal Palace. While Rukia goes off to fight on her own next episode, Renji reveals his new, true form of his Bankai, which reduces Mask to ashes. The remaining energy returns to Yhwach, who then returns to sleep in order to build up energy and leaving Uryu with Haschwalth.

OUR TAKE

We continue this string of episodes of taking down specific Sternritter with possibly the first highlight fight of the cour, and for more than a few reasons. For one, we finally get to see both Rose and Kensei show off their full power in a proper fight, however short it may be. We got a brief glimpse at Kensei’s Bankai in Fake Karakura Town arc against Wonderweiss, but never saw more than him turning it on before he was unceremoniously defeated off-screen. We’re not exactly getting that much more here, but it’s still an improvement, as is the case with Rose, who debuts his pretty damn strange Bankai that is most definitely benefited by the advancements in animation since 2012 when the show went on break. So, if you’re like me and have a mental Excel sheet noting which Shikai and Bankai have been revealed, you can check that one off the list. Even if we’re not going to be getting to EVERY one of them, we’re still getting at least a few more reveals in this arc. I recommend you pack a sweater next time, because it is about to get chilly.

But no, the Captains can’t be the ones to save the day this time, because this day is for Renji. The character with the biggest loss record is back to get one last big win with the reveal of his Zanpakuto’s TRUE name: Sōō Zabimaru. Seems that the sword didn’t truly respect Renji until recently, so that big skeleton snake form was actually a fake form. Might explain the amount of losses, at least partially. We’ve seen another instance of a Zanpakuto changing form in response to not respecting its user with Yumichika’s sword, though that was apparently self-inflicted because he didn’t like its real abilities. Here, it’s really just that Renji was a putz and didn’t deserve the real power of his sword until just this moment, conveniently. Interesting that a character who has gotten so little respect in this series fought a guy with a lot of respect but just from one guy. Or maybe it was actually himself? Yhwach calls him “James” when he absorbs him so maybe the little cheerleader was part of Mask’s abilities. But that’s another episode in the books, though next time is going to go to a whole other level.