You don’t get to the end of a Bleach arc and say “that was too short”. There’s no way we could fit TYBW into a single episode, so here’s the first of two discussions on Bleach’s final arc (or is it?).
Podcast links:
My Taste is Better Than Yours Episode 64 – Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Part I
abc
August 10, 2026 at 2:15 pmThe first Bleach series had all the limitations of a long running series, filler arcs, ups and downs, unexciting animation. The Thousand-Year Blood War series is such a step up, it’s the best Bleach has looked as an anime. And sounded, Sagisu Shiro leveled up the soundtrack and remixed some of the classic Bleach tracks with full orchestra and choir.
What’s interesting is that I totally get your point about Bleach being a very clean black and white style, but I also think the TYBW anime captures Bleach’s “rule of cool” with all the lighting, the way fights are choreographed. When Taguchi Tomohisa was announced as the director, he was the perfect fit I didn’t know we needed.
As for the anime expanding on things, Kubo is credited as both original creator and chief supervisor, which suggests more involvement than just an “original creator” would have.
That’s an excellent point about the Bleach arcs being status quo (Soul Society) vs change (their opponents), especially since in the Soul Society arc, it’s Ichigo who’s fighting against the status quo. At the end of their fight, Byakuya even realizes that Ichigo was fighting against the laws of Soul Society and not Byakuya himself. And it’s tiny steps, but it’s mentioned at the end of the Soul Society and Lost Agent (Fullbring) arcs that as a result of coming in contact with Ichigo, Soul Society has started to change.
I was actually curious about more of your thoughts on the Everything But The Rain flashback arc — Masaki being a Quincy and arranged to marry Ryuken, Isshin being a Shiba and his squad being revealed as Squad 10 (and all the foreshadowing early on that Ichigo resembled Kaien, the lieutenant Rukia “killed”), and the history between Isshin and Ryuken. So many loose ends and foreshadowing tied up in a single flashback arc.
I completely agree with your take on Ichibe being “amoral” and operating on a different plane of morality, and the similarities with Netero (funny/goofy but also scary and powerful, Ichibe being a sort of Buddhist monk and Netero’s Nen ability being the 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva).
Oh, and I think the lack of vowels in Yhwach’s name is a reference to the Tetragrammaton, i.e. the spelling of Yahweh as YHWH (or YHVH), which makes the yuha baha pronunciation sort of make sense.
Looking forward to your final thoughts in the finale!
Guardian Enzo
August 10, 2026 at 2:25 pmWell, you won’t have to wait too long….
Thanks for the comment. The truth is, Bleach isn’t a great fit for my narrative preferences. I appreciate it more than love it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it.