Bleach TYBW came back onto the weekly scene with a bang in Fall 2022, and you might've thought "It can't get TOO much better from here right?". And I thought the same thing, we would have been in the same boat. But this cour took my expectations and threw them out the window (In a good way if you couldn't tell)
Starting off with the thing that is arguably the most important part of the series considering it's a battle shounen, the fights. The fights this cour were EASILY better than the fights last cour in my opinion. Cour 1 I think was more of a set up season, it mainly focused on Ichigo coming to terms with himself and his background, finding his true strength, and setting up the stakes and danger that the Quincies posed. If we focus on the more psychological aspects of the show then Cour 1 does take the win there, however I think it also lacked in fights, the only notable ones being Yamamoto vs "Yhwach", Ichigo and Yhwach's short spar, and Zaraki vs Unohana. This season however, we were treated to spectacular fights all around. From Toshiro and Rangiku vs Bazz-B, to Komamura vs Bambi, I don't think I have a major complaint about any of the fights. Even Soi Fon and Marechiyo had a moment where I rooted for them, and they're both some of my least favourite characters in the whole show. Episodes 4-7 were, I think, perfect battle episodes with great choreography, interesting powers and deserving power ups which showed the result of training or sacrifice wonderfully. Also this is the first cannon season where RENJI ACTUALLY WON A FIGHT AGAINST AN OPPONENT OF SIGNIFICANT STRENGTH. I nearly shed tears of joy when he came out on top against Mask, he has come so far. For this one feat alone, cour 2 has to get serious serious props from me
Oh my days. When I say this has been one of the most visually appealing seasons of anime I have ever seen, I am not joking. Every moment has been carefully sculpted, drawn with love and care for us fans to enjoy. Studio Pierrot was really in their bag with this one, and because of that this story that Kubo created and had a vision for has been enhanced to the max. Best example of this has to be Rukia's bankai. Pierrot could have just given her white hair, a white garment and blue eyes and called it a day but nah, they said it's all or nothing
LIKE YOU CAN'T TELL ME THIS DOESN'T LOOK BEAUTIFUL
Obviously it is a lot better than the original season, but I also think it is a slight improvement from cour 1 too, at least during the peaks anyway. Expressions in this cour were also top tier, I'm mainly talking about Ichibei during episode 13 tbh his facial expressions and emotions were so fluid.
This cour brought us a lot of new abilities and a lot of development from old abilitites, and pretty much all of them were extremely cool. Renji, Rukia, Shinji, Rose all showing off their Bankais, Ichigo's true shikai and Getsuga Jujishou (Crazy how he was fighting a 5v1 with only his shikai and still had to hold back to avoid killing them), the Sternritter Schrifts and Squad Zero's general fighting proficiency, since they don't really use the full extent of their zanpakutos. Had to give a special mention to Squad Zero, specifically Oh-Etsu, Senjumaru and Ichibei. All three of them were wonderful and their abilites genuinely had me on the edge of my seat seeing how they would act next. Senjumaru's Bankai might be the most powerful one we have seen so far aside from Yamamoto's, I can't to see it fully explained next season. I really can't believe that the last two episodes of this season shifted entire power scaling tier lists because Squad Zero and the Royal Guards are just those guys.
Consistently great, has been since the original series and will be forever. Special mention to "Everything I Lost" (Shinji's Bankai theme), might be my new favourite track in the whole OST and if not it is up there for sure. One thing I think they disappointed on was the music for Ichigo's return, ngl the new remix of Number One they used was ass, they should have kept the Bankai remix instead.
With every amazing show, there must be some flaws too. My main one is that in the fights, the loser will lose purely because the plot demands it or becuase they were stupid asf during their fight. I don't think you understand how annoyed I was by Rose, like the Vizards are disrespected as is by Kubo as is but during his fight the anti-plot armor was BADD. Rose really did not need to explain his Bankai to Mask, and if he wanted to he should have waited until he had confirm killed him. But instead Rose gave a step by step breakdown on how his shit works, and he got hard countered and one shot for his tomfoolery. Kensei at least put up a decent fight even after his explanation but again the Vizards are done so dirty, throughout the whole show tbh. Shinji as well, he got a whole anime exclusive scene to show off his banned bankai, only to get countered after he tries chatting to Bambi and one shot very swiftly.
Is it bad of me to say the last two episodes kinda let the show down a bit... Squad Zero being stronger than the whole of the Gotei Thirteen was absolutely fire, but the prerequisite being that three of them have to die before the last remaining one can access that power is a bit cheap imo. It feels a bit like wasted potential, but at least it was Senjumaru that tapped into her full power. Ngl Kirio and Tenjiro are filler members in my eyes, they exist purely for support. This season's cliffhanger was quite pointless, especially since the final couple of minutes which they could have used for the fight or more lore was taken up by KON. Like I do not care for him, he had his time in the original series but now is not the place. Giselle is also mad creepy I'm tired of seeing ~~her~~ I mean him. Finally, I feel this season set us up to get a lot more from it that we just didn't get, like I thought Adult Toshiro and Ichigo vs Uryu would be this cour coz they appeared in the trailers, but thats a personal thing tbh.
Overall, I love Bleach. I have had so much fun watching this season weekly and speculating about characters and lore every week as we get more immersed into the story and this whole war. I really cannot wait for Cour 3 and everything it will bring to continue the story. I already know its gonna be HEAT
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