Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 - The Conflict

Episode 31

AIZEN IS BACK, LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Ah, sorry. I might've gotten a bit over excited. But if you've been reading my Bleach reviews thus far, then by now you surely understand that I'm quite a fan of Aizen. Over-calculated villainy in fictional media is like catnip for me—not even I know how many times I've watched Death Note, I do it so often—and Aizen's particular brand of it has consistently been one of my absolute favorite aspects of Bleach in general—if not, possibly, my favorite, full stop. He's by far the best villain Bleach has ever had, and in my opinion, one of the greatest villains in shonen anime overall. But I digress. With all that being said, let me say this again, but in a way that's more fitting for a review:

It was so loud, that you might've heard me cackling when everyone started asking, “WHY ARE YOU HERE AIZEN?” and Shunsui replied along the lines of, “BECAUSE WE ARE, IN FACT, THAT DESPERATE.” Same goes for when everyone was marveling at how strong Aizen's gotten, despite being detained, since his fight with Ichigo a bajillion episodes ago, and then Aizen just casually suggested shooting down the Royal Palace. And before anyone had time to ask him if that was even logistically possible he—seated, and still mostly detained—started doing it. And he would've succeeded, too, if not for the massive restraints still on him—which, according to Shunsui, were the pinnacle of Soul Society tech. Upon learning this, Aizen suggests setting the restraints to max power—seemingly wondering if he could over power this tech if he tried hard enough. But before this can happen, the whole thing is interrupted by the Stern Ritters. All the same, Aizen is so back—and because of that, we're so back.

But I suppose there were other things that happened in this episode that weren't about Aizen—although, admittedly, starting the episode out with all this worked out great. In any case, following their appearance (and the quick death of one of their members) the Stern Ritters—who also want to go to the Royal Palace—offer Shunsui and co. a ceasefire if they'll allow them to tag along. And why do the Stern Ritters want to go to the Royal Palace? To kill Yhwach (DUN DUN DUNNNN).

With his trusted flip phone, Shunsui summons all the members of the guard together. As a bit of a side note: I just want to offer Thousand-Year Blood War some praise in this regard. I've seen so many other anime that came out well before the era of the smartphone, who then got another series well after, superfluously attempt to age-up their series by giving their characters smartphones, which they rarely use for no apparent reason. The presence of smartphones would completely upend a lot of these stories, so it's something that's always sort of bugged me. What's wrong with the mighty and noble flip phone? Bleach isn't a coward and knows the answer is nothing—nothing is wrong with the mighty and noble flip phone.

This episode really does have everything: Aizen. Betrayal. Aizen. Flip phones. Aizen. Grimmjow. Aizen. And did I mention Aizen? In any case, this is without a doubt my favorite episode of this season yet. This one was for the villain-lovers. I have little doubt that Kubo would bother to bring back Aizen at this stage if he didn't have big plans for him, and I really hope those plans involve Aizen regaining his spot as the series' central-most villain. While it's not to say that Yhwach isn't intimidating (because he is! Very much so.), Aizen is just more exciting as both a character, and as an antagonist. That said, I'm also curious to see how Grimmjow's being here now is going to shake things up. But my god, it's so hard for that not to get overshadowed by how cool it is now that Aizen's back and what that's going to mean for the series moving forward.

Rating:

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 - The Conflict is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+.