We start off right where we left off last week, with the Captain Commander facing off against Yhwach. Not only that, Kyoraku is still fighting too. Äs Nödt, Bazz B and and NaNaNa, who each defeated the people they were dealing with handily jump to attack Yamamoto. Kyoraku isn’t worried though, as he’s known the Captain Commander for a very long time and knows that he isn’t going to get taken down that easily. Yhwach isn’t sympathetic as they interrupted his fight. So far it looks like Studio Clown is flexing every muscle in their animating body for these fights. This stuff reminds me of why we loved Bleach in the first place. Such cool fights. And we’re treated to Zanka no Tachi, Yamamoto’s bankai. It heats up the entire soul society, and apparently this isn’t the first time Yhwach has seen it. It looks metal as fuck.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that Yamamoto is still genocidal if it means getting to defeat his enemies. It’s terrifying that a man with his morals became so powerful and in charge of an entire realm. Ishida is joining the viewer in a history lesson. There’s a lot about this arc that I highly wonder if Kubo planned it at all, or if he just ran out of ideas after Aizen was defeated. Either way, although the Fullbringers kind of petered out, this arc is burning with a fury, just like Yamamoto is. Speaking of fury, it’s the rise of the CGI skeletons. I suppose I’ve seen worse CGI, it’s just so noticeable when it switches from one to the other and that’s arguably the biggest issue I have with it. These skeletons are fighting Yhwach as part of Yamamoto’s bankai. We’ve seen east, west and south now, I wonder what north is like.
Yamamoto reveals that the Quincy can’t steal a bankai they don’t understand. That’s probably why they were unable to steal Ichigo’s bankai. There’s a lot to that kid that’s hard to understand. Yhwach is persistent though and walks out of the sea of corpses that look like his fallen friends. Remember folks, Yamamoto is the good guy here, I think. And with his fourth strike, Yamamoto destroys everything around Yhwach, almost cutting the man completely in half. Just like that, the invasion is over and the ringleader is dead.
Well, of course it wasn’t as simple as that. It turns out that this Yhwach was a fake all along. Yhwach went over to kill the rest of Yamamoto’s friends. The one that Yamamoto was fighting was really Stern Ritter Y: Royd Loyd. It turns out Yhwach’s real goal here was to have a chat with Aizen Sosuke. Remember Aizen, glasses, hypnosis power, bit of a dickhead. Yhwach thinks they have the same goals, but Aizen disagrees. And here’s the kicker. Now they show off that Yhwach himself is strong enough to steal Yamamoto’s bankai. This is looking pretty bad for the Soul Reapers right about now. And with one well aimed strike, Yamamoto Genryuusai, Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, is down.
Opal Kaharis 