The following contains spoilers for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 – The Separation, Episode 1, "The Last 9 Days, now streaming on Disney+.
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War returned on July 8 with the first episode of the second of four cours expected for the dramatic conclusion to the BLEACH story. The first episode of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 – The Separation was another brilliant installment in the epic comeback of the anime adaptation of Tite Kubo's original manga.
Various important plot developments were kicked off in episode 1, and the dazzling cinematic quality of the visuals and direction seen in the previous iteration of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War was seen yet again. Based on the positive qualities of the first episode, this season of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War stands to be even better than the last.
Y. H. W. H
The first scene is one of the episode's best thematically. It depicts the moment of a certain someone's conception through their development into a foetus, which is then grasped for by countless, unidentified hands all marked with a blue light in their palm. The entire scene is dark and wispy, adding an eerie element to the events. The hands raise the baby up high, and the scene changes as a literal mountain of hands is seen holding this baby at its apex before glowing with a brilliant bluish light. Within the blink of an eye, this light is replaced by a sinister red glow as red cords connect the hands to a central point: the baby.
The syllables "Yu~Ha~Ba~Ha" are chanted in that order over and over as the various hands seemingly have the life drained out of them via the red cords (of fate?), feeding the baby as it grows stronger and stronger, developing into a young boy as the camera comes closer and closer to the being at the centre of the faceless mass. The chanting continues as the boy's eyes open before transitioning into those of the Quincy King, Yhwach. In Japanese, the name "Yhwach" has four syllables, pronounced "Yu-Ha-Ba-Ha" in order to invoke the same concept as the tetragrammaton – the name of God in the Hebrew Bible, otherwise transcribed as Y. H. W. H – the four Hebrew letters Yod, He, Waw and He again.
The Great Deluge
This scene carries an incredible amount of information regarding the birth of Yhwach and the incident that led to the simultaneous deaths of countless Quincies – the Auswählen, otherwise known as The Consecration, a cataclysmic event in which Yhwach takes the lives of every single Quincy he deems impure and uses them to feed into his own power. As legend has it, the return of the Quincy King was a 999 year-long journey in which his faculties came to him in stages. Initially a seemingly feeble baby without the senses of sight and hearing nor the ability to speak, Yhwach's importance to the Quincy race lies in a major irregularity in his physiology as compared to other Quincies.
Quincies derive their combat power from extracting reishi from their surroundings, and do not draw reishi from their own souls in the ways that Shinigami do; however, unlike his brethren, Yhwach was unable to convert reishi from the environment, instead, reishi flowed from him into the environment; into people who literally put their hands on him. Those who did so would gain what they lacked, so to speak; so those who couldn't see gained sight. When the people Yhwach had given power to met their end, the initial power and the development that went into it from the lender would return to Yhwach and in turn make him far stronger than he was. This entire concept is communicated in less than 90 seconds and its position as the first thing one sees in this season of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War is a set-up for the most significant development thus far: the defection of Uryū Ishida.
The Ceremony
After the opening credits, Ichigo is guided to the Royal Palace of the Soul King by Ichibē Hyōsube, the Captain of Squad Zero and mind behind all nomenclature in Soul Society, otherwise dubbed "Monk Who Calls the Real Name". After Hyōsube criticizes the weakness of this current generation of Soul Reapers, he explains to Ichigo that the Quincies will surely return, and it is the duty of the Zero Squad to train him. As it stands, Hyōsube has no faith that Ichigo can defeat Yhwach. Immediately after that, we are taken to Silbern, the Quincy King's palace where he addresses his troops regarding the upcoming battle to "reclaim the honour of the Quincy". He also has a major announcement: Uryū is going to be Yhwach's successor as King of the Quincies, much to the dismay of everyone in attendance.
Bambietta Basterbine, Sternritter E – The Explosion, was so enraged by the news that she murdered a fellow Quincy. This episode gives a closer look at the various Quincies who will be engaging the Shinigami in battle, and the scene with Bambietta, while minor in comparison to what follows, was incredibly well composed and the transition from her acquisition of her victim to his slaughter was as seamless a motion as that of her blade as it split him clean in two. The violence in the Thousand-Year Blood War adaptation feels far more graphic and visceral than the original series, and the movement of the characters in this stepping-stone of a first episode was beautiful to see as a brief glimpse into the action that is to come. The next scene is perhaps the most important, as Uryū prepares to partake of Yhwach's blood to solidify his connection to him and gain his own unique "schrift".
The Last Quincy
Before commencing the ritual, Uryū asks Yhwach why he's the successor. Yhwach tells him it should be obvious, asking him why he's currently alive – more specifically, why and how did he survive the Auswählen. Uryū is the only Quincy in history to have survived this event, and as a result, Uryū had asked himself the reason for his own existence having realized that his survival couldn't have been coincidental. The answers lie in the diary Uryū had been reading in the previous season – the contents of this diary steeled Uryū's resolve and cemented his belief that Shinigami and Quincy can never coexist. Having had his question answered, Uryū drinks Yhwach's blood. Yhwach grants Uryū a schrift – the letter A, just like himself. What it stands for remains a mystery in the series for now.
Preparations For War
Hyōsube stops Ichigo from leaving his training prematurely, presenting him with a whole new obstacle to overcome before he's ready. The visuals as Ichigo steps into this strange realm are truly impeccable. Elsewhere, Hiyori Sarugaki is contacted by 5th Squad Captain, Shinji Hirako regarding various temporal disturbances taking root in the world of the living as a result of the events that have taken place in Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. During Rukia and Renji's moment in the spotlight, we get a glimpse at their training regiment before she's given the good news: Byakuya Kuchiki has recovered from his near-fatal wounds.
Chad and Orihime remain with Urahara in Hueco Mundo as he tries to crack the secret behind the Bankai-plundering medallions, and even Ichigo's civilian friends Tatsuki, Keigo and Mizuiro are visited by the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13 who explains to them that Ichigo's current training may render him unsuitable for return to the world of the living. They are granted special Soul Tickets to visit Ichigo prior to the impending battle against the Vandenreich. Aptly named for the time remaining before the Quincies' return to Soul Society, BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 episode 1, "The Last 9 Days", was an incredible return for the series and marks an exciting start for the series this season. .