Warning: Spoilers for Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, Part 3, Episode 5
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War It’s no stranger to making changes to the manga, with many new major fights added, as well as other important details that helped enrich the story. However, a small change in episode 5 proved that even the smallest changes can have a big impact.
Episode 5, “Against the Judgment,” was a break from the action of the last few episodes, as the Soul Reapers took the opportunity to regroup and begin a new plan. With Yhwach in the Soul King’s Palace, an area nearly impossible to access by conventional means, the Soul Reapers had to devise a plan to get there and fight him. Kisuke Urahara’s best plan was to use the spiritual pressure of the Soul Reaper captains and lieutenants to open a portal, but they just didn’t seem to be able to generate enough spiritual pressure on their own to succeed. That’s where things diverged from the manga, even if a little.
The thousand-year bloody war should feel like a war
Bleach’s biggest conflict should be as broad as possible
In the manga, the team uses a spiritual pressure magnifying device to increase their power enough to open the portal. However, in Thousand Year Blood WarCaptain Kyoraku also issues a call to all surviving Soul Reapers, asking them to converge on one location and lend their spiritual pressure to help the captains open their portal. The regular Soul Reapers begin to dust themselves off and head towards the location in question, proving the enormous scale of the conflict thus far. There are certainly far fewer Soul Reapers than at the beginning of the war, but many are still standing.
The sequel introduced many lower-ranked Soul Reaper characters who have appeared throughout the series, such as Zennosuke Kurumadani, the afro-sporting Soul Reaper who is normally responsible for protecting Karakura Town.. While many of these characters didn’t have much screen time devoted to their struggles, the segment took the opportunity to prove that they not only fought valiantly, but survived to fight another day. They heeded their Chief Captain’s call and came to his aid, even when many of them were injured, and their power is essential to opening the portal.
It’s a relatively small change overall, but it makes a lot more sense to incorporate the power of the vast army of Soul Reapers than to have a machine do it for you. It shows that even though beaten and injured, the 13 Judicial Guard Squadrons are still a force to be reckoned with and helps prove that the scale of the war is much larger than just what fans saw happen on screen.. This conflict is truly a war, not just a series of one-on-one fights as it can sometimes seem just from casually watching or reading.
Even the smallest changes from the Thousand Year Blood War matter
While new fights are fun, even small changes can have a big impact
It’s easy for fans to get excited about all-new fight scenes, like Uryu’s battle against Senjumaru, which wasn’t in the manga. This goes double for fights like Ichigo versus Uryu, where Uryu displayed new powers and abilities that he didn’t get the chance to use in the manga. However, even small changes that Thousand Year Blood War made, like this, can have a big impact on the story. The coming together of all the Soul Reapers makes this a monumental group effort rather than a feat accomplished by just a powerful few, and that gives the moment more meaning.
These small changes can alter the tone immensely, as in this case, which turns the captains’ mission to the Soul King’s Palace into the embodiment of the Soul Reapers’ resistance to Yhwach.. While it was once a last hope, it is now a mission on which everyone’s hopes and dreams run, and those who pass through the portal are well aware of all those who count on them at home.
With a name like Thousand Year Blood Warthe series must emphasize the scale of the conflict, and this change has been one of the most effective in pointing out just how enormous the battle that took place was. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War managed to find a small but powerful way to show the numbers involved, and this did a lot to show the true scale of this conflict.