Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has reached the climactic finale of the first major fight between the Soul Reapers and the Quincies in a much longer war to come, and the newest episode of the series saw Byakuya Kuchiki reach out to Ichigo Kurosaki with an emotional plea. The newest anime is making its way through the highly anticipated final arc of Tite Kubo’s original manga, and with it has pit the Soul Reapers against some of their toughest opponents in the series to date. This was especially crushing for Byakuya, who was defeated in both body and spirit in his fight.
The newest episode of the series saw Ichigo finally breaking his way out of Quilge Opie’s jail after being trapped for the last few episodes, and he had been building up quite a rage as he was forced to hear the cries of all of his comrades while trying to make his way into Soul Society. When he finally gets there, he ends up checking up on Byakuya first, and Byakuya ends up swallowing his last bit of pride in order to tearfully ask Ichigo to save the Soul Society.
“Please protect the soul society, Kurosaki Ichigo!”
The moment we’ve all waited for. The climax of the first invasion. Are you not entertained??#BLEACH #BLEACHTYBW pic.twitter.com/v9VsMI680B
Episode 7 of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War sees Ichigo making his way to Soul Society and he sees all of the bodies littering the ground. Checking on Byakuya, it’s here that Byakuya mourns over the shame of his loss. Noting that despite being a Captain of the 13 Court Guard Squads, he was unable to defeat the invaders and led many of his subordinates to their deaths. Crying, he admits that although Ichigo is a human and should not be there at all, all he can do is ask Ichigo for one final favor.
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Byakuya then asks Ichigo to protect the Soul Society, and although Ichigo doesn’t answer, Byakuya’s vision fades out as he realizes that there was no need for him too. He knew Ichigo would fight for the Soul Society’s sake anyway, and he seemingly loses his life as he watches Ichigo fly away to fight the opponents. It’s a tearful plea between the former foes, and says quite a lot about how big of a loss for Byakuya this really was.
How did you feel about seeing this scene between Ichigo and Byakuya in the newest episode? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!