BLEACH: The Thousand-Year Blood War episode 31

BLEACH: The Millennium Blood War, Part 3: Conflict Episode 31 delivers a sequel to one of this season's best adaptations and marks the return of a perennial favorite series. The previous episode featured the anime original fight between Ichigo and Uryu, which began with an exchange of two words and ended with them exchanging amazing and powerful blows. That episode showcased attention to detail, animation quality, and through artistic details like lighting, all of which were especially helpful in showing off Uryu's newfound abilities. The episode ends with Ichigo falling after being seriously injured during their confrontation after he made the mistake of resisting Uryu. Overall, this is a good opportunity to see how powerful both characters have become and is probably one of the most welcome additions when it comes to changes in the anime compared to the original BLEACH manga. .

This episode is an immediate sequel to the final scenes of the previous episode, after Yhwach absorbed the Soul King's power and seemingly sealed the fate of the Soul Society and all those still within it. While this episode doesn't necessarily introduce as much new content as Episode 30, this episode, following in the footsteps of many previous episodes, shuffles around the original order of a lot of the scenes, ending with a compilation that includes includes more details than the usual 3-4 chapters that the rest of the BLEACH anime tends to adapt episode by episode. The episode feels more like a bridge to the next part of the plot than a series of climactic scenes, but overall it's a strong start to the season, especially for the people it brings back .

Spoilers for BLEACH: The Thousand-Year Blood War, Part 3: The Conflict Episode 5 “AGAINST THE JUDGMENT”

Welcome back Sosuke Aizen

The episode opens with Yhwach unleashing a stream of the King's Soul of Power on Seireitei. The little creatures it manifests as are absolutely terrifying in the best way, and the anime makes a point of giving them teeth to lend credence to the fact that, if left undisturbed, they will devour Souls. Reaper until death. Curiously, a line from the manga is omitted here, which emphasizes that creatures formed from the Soul King's power will only attack the Soul Reaper because it is the Soul King's enemy and not the Quincy. Without that line, it would seem that this is not a manifestation of the Soul King's will but a new power that Yhwach can use. A subtle detail but one that definitely changes the meaning of the first scenes.

Aizen's first appearance on screen is a great one and also includes the use of an effect I had missed: the visual depiction of mental pressure on screen along with the usual shaking effect that it causes. This isn't exactly how the effect was presented in the original BLEACH anime, but I appreciated the display of Aizen's strength when he was barely even trying. However, as for how he is portrayed, the anime made a choice that I don't completely understand, which is changing his smug expression to a more straightforward and conciliatory one. Overall in this episode, I felt like Aizen was presented as a little less of an asshole and a little more like someone under Kyoraku's control. On one hand, I appreciate how competent this makes Kyoraku seem, but I would have liked Aizen to have used a little more of the usual personality reflected in his early scenes.

Where he shined, without a doubt, was his use of Kido and his attempt to shoot down the Imperial Palace with his mental pressure. Both of these moments are beautifully animated, and the updated art style really brings out his purple energy in a way that I really like on screen.

Prepare to counterattack

Middle Part Admittedly, part of the episode was a bit slow for my liking, even if it was a bit interesting to see so many Shinigami assembled and ready for action. For me, the highlights of this arc include: (1) a bit of humor between Shinji and Hiyori (BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War cut out so many brief moments of humor like this that I didn't I'm not sure if this part will or won't work) and (2) Aizen's speech about the many humans pursuing Ichigo into the Royal Palace. The BLEACH anime has consistently contrasted Ichigo and Yhwach not only in terms of their ideological differences but also by positioning Ichigo as a syncretic, mixing multiple spiritual beings together, while also positioning those who side with Yhwach are only seeking to benefit Quincy. Adding Quincy, who chose to pursue Yhwach, adds another layer to that and that's great to see.

Now moving on In Ichigo's group, we saw some heartwarming connections between Ichigo and Orihime as well as some good interactions between the group as a whole. The second half of the episode features a reintroduction to another favorite, Grimmjow. The arranger has been given an updated art style and looks cooler than ever.

Looking ahead to the next episode, which is devoted to preparing and organizing everyone's move towards the royal palace, I'm looking forward to some more movement and additional screen time for the characters. our return.