Thousand Year Bloody War – Against Judgment

The following contains spoilers for BLEACH: A Thousand Years of Bloody War Part 3, Episode 5, “Against Judgment,” available on Hulu and Disney+.

Key points

• Aizen returns with immense power, displaying his strength with familiar techniques such as Kurohitsugi.
• A shift in alliances as the surviving Quincy join forces with the Shinigami against a common enemy.
• Despite the missed opportunities, the episode sets the stage for upcoming events in cinematic quality.

The fifth episode of the third course of BLEACH: Thousand Year Bloody War served mostly as a setup for the season's main event, but featured cameos from various characters we hadn't seen in a long time, as well as the first demonstration of Aizen's devastating fighting power for the first time since his dramatic battle against Ichigo many years ago. While not as exciting as previous episodes, Episode 5 still carried the series' signature cinematic quality and gave the return of fan favorite Grimmjow Jaegerjacquez the style it deserved.

With the worst-case scenario now a reality, the Shinigami find themselves having to team up with former officers of the Gotei 13, Hollow and even Quincy to stop a common enemy.

A disturbing flood

Torrents of disturbing eyeball monsters ravage the Seireitei

With Yhwach having assimilated the Soul King, torrents of his power rain down from the Soul King's Palace through the hole in the Shakonmaku. The dark, sticky monstrosities take the form of creepy eyeball monsters that latch onto anything that moves with teeth resembling lampreys. We see various Shinigami fight against the creatures as they swarm every corner of the Seireitei. Sitting officers such as Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa of the 11th Squad and Lieutenant Shūhei Hisagi of the 9th Squad manage to repel them, but with the sheer number of monsters, it is only a matter of time before they are overwhelmed. Luckily, Sixth Squad Captain Byakuya Kuchiki uses his Senbonzakura to deal with the bands of eyeball monsters, giving the three a chance to catch their breath and regroup with himself, Rukia, Renji, and Soi-Fon. More dark, sticky mess comes flooding in, but a powerful spiritual presence arrives: Sōsuke Aizen, still bound to the chair in which he was serving his 20,000-year sentence in the Muken.

Got it again

He may have gotten stronger in prison

Aizen jokes that creatures like these are not the kind of thing you raise your sword to, but something that must be crushed by the power of your own spiritual pressure. Rukia and the others are shocked to see Aizen released from his prison and prepare to engage, but Kyōraku is there to explain that he was the one who broke him out. Of course, everyone has a lot to say about having to ally themselves with the individual who caused immense damage to Soul Society and irrevocably altered the lives of many Shinigami unfortunate enough to have crossed paths with him, but Kyōraku tells them he doesn't. I don't think it's wrong to fight evil with evil. As more and more creatures enter the Seireitei, Aizen fires his favorite Kidō, #1. 90, Kurohitsugi (“Black Coffin”), which underwent a surprising makeover for the Thousand-year blood war bow.

Arcs of purple-black electricity appear, signaling Kyōraku to tell everyone to take cover before the giant black box appears, repairing the hole in the Shakonmaku before unleashing a ferocious destructive impact that essentially obliterates the eyeball area. This moment is conveyed by the impact shot in the animation, which does a stellar job of communicating Aizen's incomprehensible power despite being imprisoned for nearly two years. Despite the stunning display of power, the restraints used to subdue Aizen are actually proving to be a hindrance for him, and you can see the first real change in his facial expression since he began appearing in the comic book world. Thousand-year blood war bow. Kurotsuchi arrives with Nemu and boasts about how something made by him cannot be broken by Aizen's power, which clearly annoyed the former fifth team captain as he offered a challenge. “We'll see who will prevail: your technology or my spiritual pressure.”

Enemies?

The surviving Quincy help the Shinigami

The verbal exchange between Aizen and Kurotsuchi is interrupted when the former is hit by a wave of energy coming from Sternritter U – The Underbelly, NaNaNa Najahkoop, who believes he has understood Aizen's spiritual pressure. He fires a death ray that crashes into Aizen's head and appears to have killed him (everyone except Najahkoop was aware that this hadn't happened). Najahkoop is joined by Bazz-B, G – The Glutton Liltotto Lamperd and Z – The Zombie Giselle Gewelle, who initially appear to help Najahkoop but Bazz-B punches a hole in his chest. Unlike Najahkoop, who remained loyal to Yhwach even after being abandoned, Bazz-B and the others did not take kindly to being cast aside and decided to help the Shinigami as they now have a common goal.

With that, Kyoraku sends an order through the Seireitei to all officers who can still move to head to the 12th Squad Barracks, where their spiritual pressure is needed to help power a gate that will lead directly to the Soul King's Palace. The preparations for this portal see cameos from a number of characters we haven't seen in a while, including the Visored Hiyori Sarugaki, Love Aikawa, Lisa Yadomaru, Hachigen and many more, but there's also a brief look at a silhouette approaching a Garganta – a preview of the return of Grimmjow Jaegerjacquez and this is how the episode ends.

The missed opportunity

The dramatic ending of the last episode ultimately meant nothing

While there were some epic moments here and there, there was a missed opportunity BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War, Part 3 episode 5, which resumed from the dramatic conclusion of Ichigo's battle against Uryū, a match that ended with serious injuries for the former. We don't see either of them for the entire episode until the end, and after the emotional rollercoaster of the previous episode, simply cutting out the part where Ichigo is fine again means offscreening the aftermath of the battle, but given the fact that We Know the beauty of Orihime's powers, it can also be considered pointless to see these consequences if the consequences of the battle itself were negated by Orihime's ability to repel the phenomena. As a bridge to what's to come, this episode did what it was supposed to do and continues the incredible run of the series even if it wasn't as intense as previous episodes.

BLEACH: A Thousand Years of Bloody War Part 3 is available on Hulu and Disney+.