English Dub Review: Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War “Marching Out the Zombies”

Overview:

Ichigo and the Soul Reapers try to stop Yhwach upon learning that his real target lies within the Royal Palace. However, their efforts are thwarted by Uryu, who stands in Ichigo’s way to allow Yhwach safe passage to the Royal Palace.

Our Take:

I understand that Bleach is a series that first came out over twenty years ago so I’ll give it a bit of a pass but this series definitely isn’t going to win any inclusion awards for how it depicts people of the LGBT community. Oftentimes in anime and manga, they aren’t portrayed the best, especially in a Shonen series. The interesting thing to me is that there seem to be way more works in the anime/manga community that are accepting to that demographic nowadays but still it could be better.

Having said that, Ichigo and the gang just got back in the action and it seems like he’s barely been in this second cour. Believe me, I’ve loved what I’ve seen of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc but there just hasn’t been enough Ichigo in my opinion. Getting betrayed by Uryu isn’t something he was expecting but he probably should have given his heritage.

Despite what I said about representation I did really enjoy this episode. Giselle has actually been really fun to watch and believe me when I say that the dialogue in parts of this episode could have been way worse. Just look it up and you’ll see what I mean. We’re going to get a part three sometime next year but I am going to be sure to enjoy these last few episodes.