Highlights
- In "The Separation," Komamura reveals a secret werewolf technique that grants him temporary immortality and immense power in his battle against Bambietta.
- Komamura's Bankai, Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō, transforms into Dangai Jōe, shedding its armor for a body made of pure reiatsu, which grants him incredible attacking power.
- Komamura's thirst for revenge leads him to sacrifice his heart, resulting in his transformation into a wolf and his realization of his failure to follow his own advice.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2, Episode 4, "Heart of Wolf", available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.
The fourth episode of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 – The Separation delved into the path taken by 7th Squad Captain Sajin Komamura, who decided to face his heritage in an attempt to find new power. With the Quincies having assumed their Vollständig forms and once again put the hurt on the Shinigami, Shinji Hirako is rather shamefully dispatched by Sternritter E – The Explode, Bambietta Basterbine.
Komamura steps in and reveals what is perhaps one of the wildest trump cards revealed in the climactic Thousand-Year Blood War arc. Elsewhere, While war rages on in the Seireitei, Ichigo appears to have finally managed to reach some kind of destination as his journey to become the vessel of incredible power has just begun.
Komamura vs Bambietta
Soon after Shinji is badly injured by an explosion he took to the face, Komamura arrives to support him while 5th Squad Lieutenant Momo Hinamori tries to get a few hits in on Bambi. However, the Quincy is extremely confident after her power boost, and while in Vollständig, Bambi's signature technique is especially vicious. Komamura helps Momo avoid what would have been a fatal hit as he explains that the bombs aren't the kind that can be deflected, even with a Zanpakuto of similar qualities like Momo's Tobiume. Bambi's assault continues, and she reveals the crucial element to her explosions – they aren't caused by bombs, rather, anything she packs her reiatsu into becomes one.
Komamura deflects one such attack with his arm. With the gauntlet torn away, a human-hand is revealed but not addressed by any of the present parties. Bambi corners Komamura, Momo and the unconscious Shinji, throwing a barrage of reiatsu bombs their way. After the smoke clears, Bambi's opponent is revealed to be a tall man with long white hair and wolf-ears. At this point, the truth behind Komamura's exploits after the first Quincy attack on the Seireitei is revealed. After speaking to the Great Elder of the Wolf Clan, Komamura learned the greatest secret of his family: a technique that enables a werewolf to temporarily achieve human forms and immense power. Not long after his new form is revealed, Komamura unleashes his Bankai: Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō, but an application he has never used until this moment.
Dangai Jōe
Komamura's ultimate trump card is actually two cards played simultaneously. Not only does applying the secret Jinka Technique of the Wolf Clan enable its user to achieve incredible strength, but it also makes them temporarily immortal. No amount of combat damage can take down Komamura in this form because in order to gain this power, he had to give up his literal heart to the Great Elder as collateral. The form's reliance on this huge gamble is also what grants temporarily immortality – that which is dead cannot once again die, and because he is dead, Komamura is better able to apply the second aspect to his game, the ultimate form of his Bankai: Dangai Jōe. As we already know, Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō is a Bankai in which a gigantic living set of armour moves in unison with Komamura's movements; however, Dangai Jōe paradoxically casts away the armour of the living set of armour, revealing a body made of pure reiatsu. The armour itself is the very life of the Bankai, and in casting away its armour, Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō casts away its life.
While any attacks experienced by the golem controlled by Komamura are also inflicted upon him, in this state where both Shinigami and Zanpakutō are in a state of "living death", Komamura is able to harness the pure attacking power of a warrior that has foregone all defense, while any attacks experienced have no effect as the aforementioned warrior is already dead. Attacks on the Bankai all regenerate within seconds. Despite Bambi's attempts to defeat Komamura a second time, the giant golem takes a huge swing that smashes her own bombs into her before they even have time to detonate on their original target, and in a brilliant explosion, Bambietta is taken down. Critically injured, Bambi laments her loss, but she has bigger problems as the friends who abandoned her earlier return with words of encouragement and care that are overtly tinged with malice reflected by the sheer fear displayed by the injured Bambi as she pleads, apparently for her life.
An Eye For An Eye
Not long after defeating Bambi, the effects of Komamura's gamble take effect, and he is faced with the consequences of his actions. The heart that he gave up sits on the plate set out for him by the Great Elder, who now boasts about his great-grandson's sacrifice, more specifically, about Komamura's acknowledgment and acceptance of their people's defining trait: the thirst for revenge. Having thrown his life away for the sake of revenge, Komamura had returned to his most animalistic frame of mind, and as the transformation began to break, Komamura lamented his own decisions leading up to this point, with fan-favourite soundtrack "Soundscape to Ardor" playing in its original form. Komamura remembers what he told Tōsen about the futility of the desire for revenge, and realizes his failure to follow the advice he'd given his best friend; however, unlike Tōsen, Komamura had someone to carry him once his battle was over. Iba Tetsuzaemon arrives to find Komamura fully reverted to the form of a simple wolf.
As has been the case for each episode this season, the title card overall scene as Tetsuzaemon lifts his foot to reveal "BLEACH 17:" followed by "Heart of Wolf" overhead as Silbern looms in the distance. Thematically, the exploration of Komamura's history in "Heart of Wolf" adds more detail to the nature of life in Soul Society, and as two individuals whose people had to live in the shadows (one very literally), Komamura and Bambietta's battle had interesting undertones. Bambi's shock at seeing the hole in Komamura's chest also feels like a nod at the previous episode, in which the fundamental virulence of Hollow reiatsu towards Quincies is explored. On some level, Komamura's lost heart in the quest for vengeance is parallel with the nature of Hollowfication in the BLEACH universe, in which one's obsession or despair becomes the catalyst of their descent.
Time's Up
Not long after Komamura beats Bambi is it time for the Quincies to pack up and leave. Jugram Haschwalth, who arrived in the 1st Squad barracks, was held to a stalemate thanks to the barrier put up by Lieutenant Nanao Ise. After patiently breaking it down with Quincy reishi manipulation, Haschwalth launched an attack which was very quickly met with another, stronger barrier. As Haschwalth winds up for another hit, he states that time is up, and he heads back to Silbern, while Uryū rounds up Cang Du and BG9. Elsewhere, 9th Squad Lieutenant Shuhei Hisagi, 11th Squad 3rd and 4th Seats Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa have their hands full with Mask De Masculine; however, the arrival of the former Visored, 9th Squad Captain Kensei Muguruma and 3rd Squad Captain Rose, they stand a better chance against the wrestler.
Ichigo's slow and seemingly arduous journey to the end of the tunnel comes to an end as various incoherent images and visions flood his mind, and his body wells up with a multicoloured reiatsu. As seen in previous post-credit scenes, Ichigo's eyes appeared to gain more irises as the power entered his body. Crossing the precipice, Ichigo arrives in a room decorated heavily with various pieces of cloth, with Royal Guard member Senjumaru Shutara sitting there waiting for him. Still out of breath from his ordeal on the way there, Ichigo asks her what else he needs to do.