Thousand Year Blood War – Against the Judgment

The following contains spoilers for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, Episode 5, “Against the Judgment,” available on Hulu and Disney+.

Key insights

• Aizen returns with immense power and demonstrates his strength with well-known techniques such as Kurohitsugi.
• A shift in alliances occurs as the surviving Quincies join forces with the Shinigami against a common enemy.
• Despite missed opportunities, the episode sets the stage for events to come in cinematic quality.

The fifth episode of the third course BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War served mostly as a set-up for the season's main event, but it featured appearances from various characters we hadn't seen in a long time, as well as the first demonstration of Aizen's devastating fighting prowess for the first time since his drama battle against Ichigo many years ago. While Episode 5 wasn't nearly as exciting as the episodes that came before it, it still had the series' signature cinematic quality and gave the return of fan-favorite Grimmjow Jaegerjacquez the flair it deserved.

With the worst-case scenario now a reality, the Shinigami must team up with former Gotei 13 officers, Hollows and even Quincies to stop a common enemy.

A scary flood

Streams of scary eyeball monsters are devastating the Seireitei

After Yhwach assimilates the Soul King, streams of his power pour out from the Soul King's palace through the hole in the Shakonmaku. The shadowy, sticky monstrosities take the form of creepy eyeball monsters that cling to anything that moves with teeth reminiscent of lampreys. We see various Shinigami fight the creatures as they populate every corner of the Seireitei. Sitting officers such as Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa of the 11th Squad and Lieutenant Shūhei Hisagi of the 9th Squad manage to fight them off, but given the sheer number of monsters, it is only a matter of time before they are overwhelmed. Luckily, the 6th Squad's captain, Byakuya Kuchiki, uses his Senbonzakura to deal with the swarms of Eyeball Monsters, giving the three a chance to catch their breath and regroup with him, Rukia, Renji, and Soi-Fon form. More of the shadowy, sticky mess pours in, but a powerful spiritual presence emerges: Sōsuke Aizen, still tied to the chair in which he served his 20,000-year sentence at Muken.

Still got it

He may have become stronger in prison

Aizen quips that creatures like these are not the kind of things you raise your sword against, but rather something that must be crushed by the power of your own spiritual pressure. Rukia and the others are shocked to see Aizen out of his prison and prepare to fight, but Kyōraku is there to explain that he is the one who let him out. Of course, they all say a lot about having to team up with the individual who has caused immense damage to Soul Society and irrevocably changed the lives of many Shinigami who were unlucky enough to cross paths with him, but Kyōraku tells them that he it doesn't. I don't think it's wrong to fight evil with evil. As more and more creatures enter the Seireitei, Aizen fires his favorite Kidō No. 90. Kurohitsugi (“Black Coffin”), who has undergone a stunning makeover Thousand Year Blood War bow.

Arcs of purple-black electricity appear, signaling Kyōraku to tell everyone to take cover, before the giant black box appears and plugs the hole in the Shakonmaku before unleashing a vicious, destructive effect that essentially destroys the Cleans the eyeball area. This moment is carried through the impact frame in the animation, which does an excellent job of conveying Aizen's unfathomable power despite being in prison for almost two years. Despite the impressive display of power, the shackles used to subdue Aizen actually prove to be a hindrance to him, and one can see the first real change in his facial expression since he appeared in the series Thousand Year Blood War bow. Kurotsuchi arrives with Nemu and gloats that something he made couldn't possibly be destroyed by Aizen's power, which obviously bothered the former 5th Squad captain because he posed a challenge. “We’ll see who comes out on top: your technology or my spiritual pressure.”

Enemies?

Surviving Quincies help the Shinigami

The verbal exchange between Aizen and Kurotsuchi is interrupted when the former is struck by a wave of energy emanating from Sternritter U – The Underbelly, NaNaNa Najahkoop, who believes he has fully understood Aizen's spiritual pressure. He fires a deadly beam that hits Aizen's head, seemingly killing him (everyone except Najahkoop knew this was not the case). Najahkoop is joined by Bazz-B, G – the glutton Liltotto Lamperd and Z – the zombie Giselle Gewelle, who initially look like they are going to help Najahkoop, but Bazz-B shoots a hole in his chest. Unlike Najahkoop, who remained loyal to Yhwach even after he was abandoned, Bazz-B and the others were not happy about being cast aside and decided to help the Shinigami since they now have a common goal.

With that, Kyoraku sends an order through the Seireitei to all officers who can still move to go to the 12th Squad barracks, where their spiritual pressure will be needed to help power a gate that leads directly to the Soul King's palace leads. As we prepare for this goal, we see the cameos of a number of characters we haven't seen in a long time, including Visored's Hiyori Sarugaki, Love Aikawa, Lisa Yadomaru, Hachigen and many others, but there is also a brief glimpse of a silhouette , she walks towards a Garganta – a reference to the return of Grimmjow Jaegerjacquez, with which the episode ends.

The missed opportunity

The dramatic ending of the last episode ultimately meant nothing

Although there were some epic moments here and there, an opportunity was missed BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War Part 3 Episode 5, which follows the dramatic conclusion of Ichigo's fight against Uryū, an encounter that ended with serious injuries for the former. We don't see either throughout the entire episode until the end, and after the emotional rollercoaster of the previous episode, simply cutting to the part where Ichigo is okay again means ignoring the aftermath of the fight, but given the fact that we know the awesomeness of Orihime's powers, but seeing these aftereffects can also be seen as pointless when the consequences of the battle itself were negated by Orihime's ability to reject phenomena. As a bridge to what's to come, this episode did what it needed to do and continues the series' incredible run, even if it wasn't quite as intense as previous episodes.

BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War Part 3 is available on Hulu and Disney+.