Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen - Ketsubetsu-tan has single-handedly tanked my opinion of Tite Kubo's writing abilities. I don't say that to be inflammatory; it is with great disappointment that I feel the need to write a negative review at all. Bleach has always been one of my favorite anime series of all time. It wasn't perfect, but there was so much charm and such a high quality to every fight. Characters were full of life and the art of the series has always been extremely aesthetically appealing. I became attached to numerous characters over the years watching this series and I simply didn't believe the bad reviews saying the final arc ruined the show. I have unfortunately come to share the opinion that the thousand year blood war arc is the worst in the series. I would sooner re-watch the Bount arc.
I have two areas where I will praise this arc, the first is the voice acting. The voice actors were fun and many put their hearts into their roles. My second area of praise is the animation. Everything is visually stunning. Characters, attacks, environments, special effects, they all are drawn and animated superbly.
My complaints are almost too plentiful to list so I will highlight where this arc has most spectacularly failed. I can't pinpoint which grievance is the worst, so I will just start with the pacing issues. The first part of the thousand year blood war arc left me with so many questions and a sense of foreboding that would come to fruition with this season. The Quincies were too obviously overpowered. There was no feasible way for the Soul Reapers to fight back even if they all grouped up and organized their forces. The Quincies ability to steal Bankai, coupled with a baseline power strong enough to kill lieutenants in a single hit means the war was over before it began. I cautiously entered this season wondering what kind of training needed to be done and what kind of training _COULD _be done to prepare the surviving soul reapers for the imminent invasion. As it turns out, the answer is: minimal, or even no training training at all was required! Byakuya is healed and brought back from the brink of death, but when he reenters battle, his shikai is suddenly as strong as his bankai- remember he could not have been awake longer than a few days MAX. We don't have an exact time frame between Quincy attacks, but we are meant to infer that the second attack happens within days of the first. Renji and Ruki go through the grueling training arc of... staring at one another with their swords drawn. Renji is told the true name of his sword and gets a new bankai; he doesn't earn it. Ichigo walks down a straight dirt path while feeling the emotional burden of fighting for the sake of the soul society. Boom training done. It takes days, or even hours to power up to twice their original power- perhaps even stronger than that. During the 3 days or so they have in-between attacks, Kurotsuchi creates a new squad barracks in a liminal space between dimensions and creates a suit for himself that hides shadows and prevents the quincies from using their full powers. When the Quincies attack, Kurotsuchi is the only captain to actually put up a fight besides Komamura who also didn't earn his power up- instead he essentially just kills himself for nothing.
If pacing were the only problem, I wouldn't feel strong enough to write a review, as terrible as the pacing is. But what really rubbed salt in the wound were the fights. Be were basically robbed of any real fights in this season. I think Kubo forgot quincies were supposed to use bows and soul reapers were supposed to use swords. Now, we get giant flashy attacks using esoteric banais that make very little sense or are easily countered with such amazingly thought out quincy powers such as: "everything I imagine becomes reality" and "I can erase myself from your cognition so you don't even know I exist" and "I can calculate the lethal amount of any substance then create that lethal amount within your body" and "I am a luchador and my unspecified power is that I can't die if people cheer for me". The "fights" in this season are turn based flashy attacks followed by the opposing side's flashy attack. Many fights are ended with a single move. Gone are the days of a bloody struggle like when Ichigo fought Ulquiorra or Grimjow or Byakuya or Kempachi. Or even Chad vs gantenbainne or Uuryu vs Kurotsuchi. Bleach was always a step above other anime of the time because the fighst were hard-fought and well thought out. Characters had a set power and rules around those powers. Now, squad zero can create a bankai that literally makes ZERO sense and Kubo doesn't even bother _trying _ to explain the rules surrounding it.
Speaking of rules, the rules around Quincies make no sense. During the Quincies second attack, Urahara figures out that Quincies and Hollows are mortal enemies because the existence of hollows weakens Quincy powers. This is so potent, that absorbing hollow energy acts as a poison to Quincies. Literally MINUTES after being told this, Kurotsuchi creates a drug and teleports it to all captains. The pill has a small amount of hollow power in them and it makes the bankai that the quincies absorbed poisonous. Suddenly the tide is turned and the quincies are poisoned and the captains get their bankai back. But then the quincies simply power themselves up?? The bankai they stole was holding them back and they just beat the captains- even when the captains use their bankai. The power scaling is nonexistent, both parties randomly power up and down as the plot dictates. But the Quincies weakness being hollows brings up another issue- ALL of Hueco Mundo was conquered by ONE Qunicy. If hollows are their weakness, how was this achieved? Not only that, after I realized that Hollow energy was poison, I thouoght "oh, now it's the visored's time to shine." They didn't all get a great showing during the Aizen fight so now they can hollowfy and turn the tide of the war.... Not only did the Visoreds not change the tide of the war- THEY NEVER UNDERWENT HOLLOWIFICATION. Not a single one used their hollow powers! Ichigo never uses them either! This entire power set is forgotten by Kubo. Instead, we are shown Kensei's bankai and he is killed in 4 minutes after its use. Ōtoribashi's introduces his bankai and he is killed almost instantly after he barely finishes explaining its powers (two minutes). ONE quincy beats 3 lieutenants and two captains in a row with no breaks. That is the level of power scaling and disrespect we are dealing with this season. My favorite Visored, Shinji is beaten by a STRAY hit from an AOE attack. Shunsui doesn't care about anything, he sits in the squad 1 barracks and doesn't offer any support to any of his dying friends.
I love Kurotsuchi and his unhinged fighting style. They focused two whole episodes on his "fight" that was essentially him somehow synthesizing an "anti-zombie" drug that turned enemy zombies into friendly zombies. How he had this counter to a quincy power in his pocket is anybody's guess.
I've ranted long enough. In conclusion, there are no rules governing power levels or Qunicy abilities. Invincible abilities like "anything I imagine is real" is simply countered by Kempachi going "no" and that's that. zero explanation, zero reasoning. As a huge bleach fan I feel insulted and angry that one of my favorite series has fallen to such a level. I hesitate to say there was a single true fight in this season that felt like a "bleach" fight. Forgive the pun, but Kubo's work has become hollow and I am genuinely left upset after finishing this train wreck of a final arc.