The tenth episode of ‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’ sees Zaraki finally realizing his potential while Renji and Ichigo meet Oh-Etsu Nimaiya. The episode is now streaming on Hulu.
Recap
Zaraki continues to space out amidst his battle with Unohana. He stops and questions himself about what’s happening every time he blacks out and returns to the position he was in minutes before.
A glimpse into the past sees Unohana searching for a worthy opponent and coming across a stack of human bodies created by none other than a young Zaraki.
She recalls how he managed to scar her chest, but since fighting her, Zaraki has unconsciously restrained himself from going above and beyond.
He had found Unohana, who was close to his strength. Losing her would have meant that he would lose the joy of having an evenly-matched battle. He, therefore, stopped himself from defeating her.
Step by step, he brought himself down to her level, which in turn resulted in him getting weaker, though he had immense potential.
The one thing Unohana has discovered over the years is that whenever Zaraki is brought close to his death, he somehow breaks free from his shackles and surpasses his strength a bit.
In order to bring out his real strength, Unohana kills Zaraki and brings him back to life time and again. Zaraki, on the other hand, starts noticing the change that is coming inside him whenever he returns from a blackout.
Zaraki feels the urge to fight inside him. He eventually overpowers her. In the process of helping him realize his strength, Unohana sacrifices herself.
Meanwhile, back at the Soul King’s palace, Ichigo and Renji are sent to Oh-Etsu Nimaiya’s Hoohden. Nimaiya shows off his energetic personality and asks them to feel his vibe.
The place is a paradise full of women. Mera intervenes and forces Nimaiya to take them to the real Hoohden, which is a dark place inside a hut on a mountain.
Ichigo and Renji fall inside that hut, where they find themselves surrounded by Zanpakutos called Asauchi.
These are basically nameless Zanpakutos assigned to over 6,000 members of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads during their time in the academy.
Ichigo and Renji will have to eat and sleep with these Zanpakutos. They must imprint their souls onto their Asauchi to create a personalized Zanpakuto.
The duo spends three days inside Hoohden. Renji stands still toward the end, but Ichigo fails to do so. Nimaiya is ready to carve a Zanpakuto for Renji, but when it comes to Ichigo, he is not interested in helping him at all.
Nimaiya doesn’t like losers, and therefore, he decides to send Ichigo back to the human world so that he can learn from his roots.
Review
- It’s good to see how ‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’ is able to balance two plots, both of which have different tones. The one thing that is evident is that both of them end on a serious note.
- Oh-Etsu Nimaiya is unexpectedly funny. The character gets a chance to shine after not being featured prominently during the introduction of Squad 0.
- Initially, it felt like Oh-Etsu Nimaiya is going back to the way every other Squad 0 member is: strong but amusing. Toward the end, the character clarifies that he is quite serious about his business and won’t let his fun personality affect his decision-making.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War part 1 episode 10
Director: Hikaru Murata
Date Created: 2022-12-12 21:00
3
Also Read: Yhwach’s theory around Ichigo’s Blut Vene in Bleach: TYBW explained