Bleach anime made a huge comeback in October 2022 with its new arc, Thousand Years of Blood War. It almost took ten years for its comeback, but it was worth watching in the end. Thousand Years of Blood War is said to be the best arc of Bleach, and it’s kind of true.
The animation rose up to the next level since Pierrot is doing a great job of animating it. The action sequences in Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War feel so magnificent with every bit of detail added to it.
Part 2 of Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War ended on 30 September with episodes 12 & 13, so some fans are still confused about whether the anime ends after Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War Part 2.
But now you don’t have to worry because, in this article, we are going to answer in detail whether the Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War has ended or not. But first, let’s catch up with a short recap to see what has happened in the last two episodes so far.
Plot
This final episode starts with the introduction of Yua Shen, the new clan leader of the Shen Clan, along with the remaining visor who have come to land a hand to Shinigami. We then switch to the more important battle location, the Royal Palace.
Now, Nimaiya faces off against Lille Barro and Haschwalth, determined to kill. The successor to Yhwach, whichever of the two it manages to be. Haschwalth unsheaths his sword and then uses the good fortune that allows the zero squad to escape fighting Yhwach.
He turns it into a bad fortune that starts to collapse the cage of Life. Hijifune tries to leave to mitigate the effects that Haschwalth is having on the cage of life. Kirinji follows up by attacking with a water ability that separates Haschwalth and Ishida from leaving.
Ishida faces off against Senjumaru, while Haschwalth battles Kirinji. Here, we get a small battle between Uryu and Senjumaru, who fights using the arms on her back. Uryu overlays his Reishi over his hands and uses it to parry her attacks before attacking with a flurry of arrows of his own.
Squad Zero Vs Quincy!
Senjumarup carries it rather easily. Meanwhile, Kirinji engages in a beautifully animated sequence against Haschwalth, who pulls out his sword and shield to protect himself, but he’s overpowered by Kirinji, who takes his shield and cuts him down defeating him.
Being that the two remaining Quincy are fighting Zero Squad members, Kirinji heads off to just chill out somewhere, when he’s impacted by Askin’s death-dealing ability. The death-dealing shrift is a power that allows Askin to lower the lethal dose of any substance.
In other words, he made Naya’s own blood lethal to his body and caused Naya to be poisoned by his own body. He wisely calls for Kirinji, who is now available being that he just beat Haschwalth.
Yhwach V/S Ichibe!
Kirinji uses his red hot spring water to replace his old blood with a new one, giving him the opening he needs to cut down Askin. Around the same time, Uryu is battling Senjumaru and fires a licked rigan attack, which she blocks with her umbrella before firing back at him knocking him out of the fight.
And so, right off the bat, Squad Zero reestablishes itself as an amazing force to be reckoned with. And now, with the non-yua Quincy taken care of, they look to Ichibe to complete his battle against Yhwach to end the entire War. Now, to shift over to Ichibe and Yhwach’s battle for just a little bit Ichibe’s brush does not cut flesh it cuts names.
After Yhwach blocks his brush with his arms, he loses half the power of his arms, and his movements become very labored. This allows Ichibe to knock Yhwach back onto the platform as Ichibe looms hellishly over him.
Giselle sucks the blood out of Bambietta: Gory Scene
We then come back to the Seireitei. And in a very dark scene, where Giselle sucks the blood out of Bambietta and crushes her head. When Bambietta asks her to stop, it is an extremely gory scene, and the choice to have Giselle’s eyes light up as they did was great.
She’s approached by little Toto, who is trying to regroup after defeating Esei and Pepe. They’re having small talk, but it’s obvious they’re nervous as to what fate awaits them now that they have been left behind by Yhwach.
In perfect timing, and in what is probably, I don’t know, the top three moments of bleach of all time, Yhwach activates his Auswahlen and takes the powers of all the Quincy below before bestowing that to the Quincy in the Royal Palace.
Yhwach Uses Auswahlen!
Now, this scene this scene was just amazing. The color pallet of the scene completely changes to a dark blue as Yhwach holds something that looks like a black hole in the palm of his hands, and he starts to chant the effect then starts to absorb Reishi, and then it shoots out enveloping, in the entire sky.
All the Quincy below begins to get struck by blinding flashes of light, and the devastation it causes rages across the entire battlefield, as It feels like the end of the world. The storyboarding of these scenes increased the sense of danger we all felt.
And it created such an emotionally thrilling sequence of events. Yhwach then amasses that energy in the sky to create some kind of Spirit Bomb structure, and then it explodes, raining down pure, unadulterated Quincy energy over the remaining sternard, who awaken and get back to their feet with increased power and stand ready to fight again.
Lille Barro V/S Nimaiya!
In the post-credit scene of this episode, we see Jushiro and Shunsui meet up, and the foreshadowing of what is to come is already beginning. Jushiro has a date with fate, and Shunsui has a date with the devil,
In the very next episode, Yhwach faces off against Ichibe with his new power and remarks that everything in the world exists for his taking, with the sole King not being an exception. Ichibe’s face In this moment is hilarious because he looks so unconcerned and unamused.
Lille Barro immediately pierces Kirinji with his gun, and Nimaiya can’t even react in time. When Nimaiya makes the prediction that the Auswahlen increased the power of the Quincy.
Lille Barro corrects him by saying, this isn’t a new power, “This is the original power that I did not get to use before, and two, I did not pierce you with a bullet anything in between my gun, and my target is pierced without regard for blocking.”
Anime Exclusive Scene
You cannot block Lille’s attack, you have to dodge. Lille’s shot goes through the weapons of both Kirinji and Hikifune and pierces Nimaiya in his chest.
But where the manga might have ended things, the anime took it upon itself to include completely new and unique content to further build on this battle of Heaven. Kirinji takes out his Kimpica sword, which shines very brightly and creates an opening for the Zero Squad, who disperse. Then, Senjumaru grabs Naya and jumps into the air.
Is Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War Finished?
Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War hasn’t finished yet in the anime. We haven’t seen the half of what is about to happen. Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War Part 2 left off on chapter 609 of the manga, and the manga consists of over 686 chapters, which means it can cover at least 40-50 episodes depending on the adaptation.
The anime franchise of Bleach did announce that there will be a part three of Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War, which is expected to air in fall 2024.
So yeah, if you want to know the story ahead of Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War part 2, you can start reading from chapter 609 of the manga. However, if you haven’t read a manga before, it will be a bit challenging for you, so I suggest you wait for the anime that will be released in 2024.
