by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Intro:
… as Bleach as Bleach gets.
It has been a long, long road getting to this point: the final leg of the final story arc of former ‘Big 3’ Shonen anime Bleach.
Between the copious amounts of filler in both the original manga and the 2000s anime series (the latter of which was primarily an attempt to accommodate mangaka Tite Kubo’s devotion to the former), and the eleven-year gap between that series and the debut of Thousand-Year Blood War, there have been many points where it seemed like the story of Ichigo Kurosaki would either never end, or be stuck in a training arc until the heat death of the universe.
But the finale has now officially begun, with the first three episodes of Thousand-Year Blood War’s fourth season making their way to cinemas, and for both good and bad, they are as Bleach as Bleach gets.
There’s not much narrative momentum between these episodes. Even with Ichigo and his allies properly bringing the fight to final boss Yhwach’s doorstep (or repurposed castle-step), it’s as if there’s still a thick wall of build-up that needs to be chipped through to get to the real meat, at least on the writing front.
Yhwach is still being Aizen-lite with his loud declarations that anything and everything is part of his plan (which was already worn-out by Aizen proper back in the day, but at least he had the ‘Soul Society’ arc as a foundation), and while the cliffhangers between episodes still grab attention, they also maintain the “dammit, it was just getting good!” reaction in how abrupt they are, especially when packaged like this. Based purely on this three-round introduction, a further 11-12 episodes in the full season already has us fidgety.
But then again, despite how much it has actively hindered the production both logistically and narratively, the writing has never and likely will never be the real point of this franchise. The murky morality of the world-building and the recurring motif of characters overcoming their worst selves are just garnish on the main course: the fight scenes. And in that regard, what is presented here is quite entertaining. Admittedly, most of the wow factor comes from Kisuke’s fight scenes, and it says something about how fun it is to see the laidback sage really cut loose in combat that even Yoruichi’s jarring bout of catgirl fanservice isn’t enough to dampen it. But studio Pierrot’s efforts are clear and evident throughout, giving a real sense of oppressive scale to both the central locale and the combatants within it. Sure, it’s a bit annoying that all of the duels are left unresolved by the end of episode 3, further adding to the sensation of not getting anywhere in a hurry, but in-the-moment, it’s still fun to see sword go slash and arrows go brrr.
This cinematic release also comes packaged with a post-credits interview with Tite Kubo, director Hikaru Murata, and series director Tomohisa Taguchi. It may be easy to scratch one’s head at them talking about the subtleties of facial expressions in anime and manga (given the incredibly unsubtle Yoruichi), but it’s clear that the three share a genuine appreciation for the series, and it’s interesting to learn directly about just how involved Kubo was in the production of Thousand-Year Blood War. His descriptions of writing vs. drawing even help make sense why this franchise turned out as it did, with self-awareness helping smooth over some of the aforementioned gripes.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity makes for a good introduction to the show’s final season as far as presentation and flash, but not so much with story and characters. Getting this close to the end and still seeing the franchise struggling with satisfying story economy is both concerning for the story left to be told, and weirdly nostalgic in how adamant this series has been with sticking to its guns for good or for ill; it brings back nice memories of the days when this, fellow filler queen Naruto, and One Piece were the biggest names in the space. As pure action spectacle with an amuse-bouche of cheesecake, it’s fun for what it is and should give fans who have been on this turbulent ride for the long haul more of that angsty blood-spraying eye candy they know and love.
