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

Episode 37

I'm honestly a little surprised that the fight between Shunsui and Lille Barro is still happening—I thought we saw Shunsui end it pretty definitively a couple weeks ago. But no! In JRPG fashion, that wasn't even Lille Barro's final form and now he's just a god, I guess. Featuring an owl head. He kind of looks like he could be a Pokémon in the same vein as the origin forms of Palkia and Dialga. Which, to be clear: I don't necessarily associate with looking intimidating, but maybe that's just me. This new design just looks, I don't know, weirdly kind of goofy? Like a toddler slapped a bunch of animal parts together, thinking, “Wouldn't it look cool if this bad guy had the body of a sci-fi horse, butterfly wings, and owl head, etc etc.” For someone who's supposed to be one of the toughest stern ritters out there, he sure doesn't look the part any more.

In any case, similarly to how last week Nemu finally got some time to shine, this week it's Nanao's turn—sort of, at least. While Nemu got a full episode, Nanao only feels like she got about half, since so much time was spent explaining how Shunsui knew Nanao's mother. Even so, admittedly, it's hard to hold a candle to how great Nemu's episode ended up being. This one pales in comparison, and maybe it's just because I love Mayuri way more as a character than I do Shunsui, but I just can't find it in myself to care as much about his and Nanao's backstory. Which isn't to say that I don't care at all—it's a sad story, of course, both for her and Shunsui. Still, I just can't shake how much more impactful Nemu's similar episode was last week. Well, similar insofar as that a lieutenant who hasn't had as much time in the spotlight finally got to be center stage, at least. I don't think anyone's debating that Nemu—who's presumed dead at this point (though I still think she's going to be brought back or otherwise revived or rebuilt at some point; Mayuri still has her brain, after all)—had a much more dramatic moment in her death than Nanao did throughout her episode this week.

Probably my favorite moment of this episode, though, is where Shunsui mentioned that he hates that people keep giving him items that they treasure, and then dying. While this is far from being either the best or saddest flashback we've seen in this season alone, there was something really human in that moment—the likes of which we rarely get from the aloof Shunsui, who'd clearly rather not talk about any of this if he can help it. It really put into perspective that this keeps happening to him, and it must be incredibly depressing to say the least. It was nice to see some genuine vulnerability from him for once—we don't usually get that from him, and it made me think about him in a different light.

So now that the fights between Pernida and Lille Barro have wrapped up, it's been a minute since we've seen what Ichigo and co. have been up to, so I'm guessing that next week we're going to see what's been going on with them. In particular, Renji just got a pretty bad beating by Uryu a few episodes ago, and I'm wondering if some kind of resolution to that is what's next on this anime's to-do list. I wouldn't mind that, certainly. Poor Renji can't seem to catch a break, but still—he gave us what I'd still call one of the coolest fights in a season that has had me saying, “No, THIS is actually the best and coolest looking fight yet!” time and time again.

We're quickly approaching this season's end. And I'll offer more concluding thoughts on this season when we actually get there, but for now, I will say that this has been a pretty jam-packed season of Thousand-Year Blood War, and it's well on its way to being my favorite of the three thus far. As for things I'm hoping to see by the time the season ends? Please pretend to be shocked when I tell you that it's more Aizen. We've had a taste of his return, and now it's all I can think about week after week; “Is this the week we finally get more Aizen?” Please, Thousand-Year Blood War. Just a crumb of more Aizen-shenanigans before part 3 ends, I beg of you.

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