It’s taken 22 years of waiting until this point, but the newest episode of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity has officially brought the anime’s final fight to an end with a truly epic finish. Bleach fans have been waiting for over a decade to see the final arc of Tite Kubo’s original manga series to get its own anime adaptation, and the past few years have seen the anime steadily reach this point with the four seasons bringing the final battles to life. Now after an additional month of waiting, the final fight has ended.
When going back to the start of Bleach’s original TV anime run back in 2004, it’s been 22 years of Bleach‘s anime culminating in the release of the franchise’s final two episodes. The first of these two episodes has now hit, and with it brings the fight against Yhwach to its end at last. With lots of events that expand far beyond the scope of the original manga featuring more characters in the middle of the fray, the anime now has the definitive ending to the series overall.
FINAL ALL OUT ATTACK ON YHWACH#BLEACH #BLEACH_anime pic.twitter.com/dStS6672aK
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity Episode 49 picked up right after its cliffhanger before the hiatus last month, and saw Yhwach invading the human world, Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. This was already something that wasn’t seen in Kubo’s original manga version of the finale, but now it’s been expanded a great deal. Not only are even more characters involved as they face off against Yhwach across all three realms, but they help Ichigo to deal the final blow.
The original version of this fight saw Uryu using a special arrowhead given to him by his father to weaken Yhwach enough for Ichigo to deal a decisive blow, and that happens her in the anime as well. But while that’s happening, in Soul Society Captain Kyoraku manages to make it close to Yhwach to touch him and unleash the Right Arm of the Soul King. Meanwhile in Hueco Mundo, Grimmjow and the others piece a blade through Yhwach’s chest. All three Yhwach’s are attacked at the same time, and it leads to his final defeat as originally seen in the manga.
With how many times Bleach has brought Yhwach back to life after seemingly decisive blows like this, it can be hard to imagine this is truly the end. But with only one episode left, and one final chapter from Kubo’s manga to adapt, this truly is the end of the long fight. The original version of this fight was only about ten pages, and made up of only really 25-30% of the final three chapters of the series. Most of the actual finale is instead spent on exploring the epilogue years after this final bout.
The anime has now made this defeat more decisive than ever before thanks to the way Kubo has been working together with the anime’s production staff to expand on the manga in ways that have elevated the material to new heights. This really is the most conclusive version of the fight, so now all Bleach fans have to do is wait and see how it’s all supposed to end with its final episode next.
How do you feel about the way the Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War ended this fight with Yhwach? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!
