Anime – Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen [TV]

Anime Dec 29, 2022

Overview:

Well not going to go too in depth with any events due to it being quite the experience to enjoy a ride through. Might be a bit broken due to that but eh, feel like this is the best way to go about it lol.

After a 10 year hiatus Bleach is back. They drop right into showing the face of our main man Yhwach and a smirking face. Followed by some warning lights informing everybody its about to get real real. However, that’s one the more to come, first they have to introduce our all too familiar gang with some flashiness and the number one remastered song version.

Introductions do not last long as we all know what this arc is going to be about… the Quincies. As such, Ichigo runs into the first instance of one as the midroll is about to play cutting to a disappearance of an entire district of people in Rukon district. It is all adding to the suspense and mystery of what is about to hit and hit hard… The first invasion.

Yhwach has had 1000 years of prep it shows they mean business. The quincies invade in and stir up some stuff with old man Yamamoto, killing the first divisions vice captain. With the vice captain warning that they are able to steal bankais.

This is all just a simple warning though, to show that when they come back all will perish by their hands… or so they believe. Quickly after Kurosaki and gang are called into Hueco Mundo to find out just what is going on. In Hueco Mundo the Arrancar are being killed and forced to make a choice of life or death with death being the only real answer. All this to further show how strong the Quincy are and flex their powers a bit before the true invasion against Soul Society.

Ichigo and gang are able to make it in somewhat timely fashion to save some but this is really to section off Ichigo to fight Quilge Opie as Soul Society feels the full force of the invasion. Anyways that is all the prelude type story that happens before the real story begins with pillars of light shine down upon Soul Society unleashing the Quincy forces in full. As they come in it’s a one sided massacre, several known characters engage and many across the court guard squad start to fall. None able to make full use of their powers due to if they unleash bankai, it will be immediately stolen away. Granting a heavy one sided advantage towards the Quincy forced.

An advantage that lasts up until the point they piss off Yamamoto to the point of unleashing his power. Yamamoto believing it is as simple as he is too powerful for them to steal his bankai. Which would make sense… except its mislead in that they never truly understood the full power of his bankai, hence why they could steal it… but we know how that ends when Yhwach is finally done playing games. Before the end of this section some backstory of Yamamoto is given. Followed by an :rtusalute: and Ichigo showing up only to be knocked with his bankai snapped.

The Quincy time limit is up though, saving the Soul Society for the time being. They are all forced to return to where they came from. Leaving everything in shambles with the chain of command all stirred up with everything that is happening and what will shortly happen again if things are not adjusted accordingly.

Introduction to zero squad… the small squad that equals the entire firepower of the Soul Society, yes, including Yamamoto. They are simply beyond strong and are the ones in charge of defending the Soul King. The Soul King being the target of Aizen’s plan that was shot down by Ichigo and Urahara. Ichigo must go to them to restore his blade since resting will not restore a broken bankai as a broken bankai cannot be fixed.

As Ichigo is proceeding through the tasks required by the zero squad Kenpachi is to fight and unlock his real power. Kenpachi has to fight the original Kenpachi unleashing his mental limiter with all the questions related to his power answered, followed by a sad ending to a beloved person for it to happen. Through it he is finally able to wake up and unlock his true power and strength, able to hear his swords spirit and communicate with it. But to not spoil too much of this unveil wont be explaining much and gloss over it heh.

Well back to Ichigo and his training, he is now able to take on his past self too [?] sort of, he has a vastly different thing compared to Kenpachi but is a past that he must face that related to him being a jack of all trades in order to gain his sword back. With the end of the season the forging of his new blade, hot off the forge. Tagged with other captains doing prep work to prepare for the second invasion that is to come sooner than later.

Visuals/Music:

Visuals are simply put, very well done. They are taking how good they were from the end of Bleach original run and building upon it. Every episode is near movie quality animation. However ther eis one thing that stands out very much and hopefully will be polished up come release of bluerays. That being the CG, it is not bad but could be a lot better. It is very apparent when used but tolerable. Wouldn’t take too much to polish it out and meld it in better and hopefully that is done on BD’s. Regular character designs and such like the backdrops, all clean and very well done.

At the end of each episode there is a Haiku that is prompted alongside a art piece to follow. Every art piece at the end relating to that episode in some way, mainly with it being of one of the characters or even several in that episode. Each art piece shown is background quality to keep it short. Well worth saving all 13 of them from this season.

As for the music, it builds upon the original soundtrack. None of the original is used but the entire OST got a remaster. Each piece being on par with original. No complaints and they are used appropriately. Placed when it is needed to better help the viewer get immersed or feel a certain type of emotion. No complaints from the remaster, both original and this one have their strengths and very little downsides.

Final Thoughts:

Very highly recommend to anybody that is interested in bleach. Those who have not seen bleach, well it’s a great time to start and catch up. Preferably skip the filler for the best experience.

Bleach has always been one of my all time favorite anime. Seeing it finally be taken off hiatus and have its final arc animated, and animated in this fashion is simply amazing. It has been done justice so far that’s for sure.

Kubo is said to be working closely with the production and will be adjusting or adding things along the way and that makes it all the better… here’s to hoping the ending will be properly shown as Kubo intended originally before getting shafted with the wrap up schedule.

Characters (main) – 5/5

Characters (sub) – 5/5

Enjoyment – 5/5

Visuals – 4/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 4/5