SOUL KING ICHIGO??? The END of Bleach! What to Expect from Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 46!

In the previous Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War episode, Ichigo reveals his Hollowfied True Bankai form: Blood Chains Ichigo and Orihime unleashes her full power to kill Yhwach alongside herself.

Chapters adapted

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 46 is titled, “The End”

This episode adapts Chapter 677: “Horn of Salvation” (pages 8-17), Chapter 678: “The Future Black”, Chapter 679: “The End”, Chapter 680: “The End 2” and Chapter 681: “The End Two World” (pages 1-9) for a total of 5 chapters reached and 70 pages, a surprisingly hefty amount of content in spite so many changes incoming.

Episode Synopsis

As early as Monday, August 24th, we got a synopsis for this episode

“And a “new world” spreads out before Ichigo’s eyes. Even as his heart aches from the merciless reality before him, Ichigo has a mission he must fulfill in order to save the Three Worlds.

Yhwach has become an existence that surpasses even “The Almighty.” The fierce battle over the survival of the Three Worlds approaches its conclusion. After advancing through the calamity of chaos, what awaits them at the end—despair or hope?”

First Half Changes

The episode begins with Tatsuki in Karakura Town getting up and going out to the window that night.

She sees it rain and then a tear falls down her face, remarking that it is raining, meaning she has observed the rain.

But she also notices that her eyes are too.

Subconsciously sensing that something happened to her dear friend Orihime.

Then we cut back to where we left off last episode with petals falling as Orihime dies.

The statue fight also seems to be over as Chad and Renji come to the throne room together with Ganju Shiba.

They were surprised about what happened to Orihime.

Then Rukia tells them what happened and cancels her Bankai form.

Ichigo says that Orihime had used everything to keep them alive.

Then Ganju asked Ichigo if they had saved the world… then he answered with “not yet.”

SOUL KING ICHIGO FUTURE???

As Ichigo cancels his Blood Chains form, we see a footprint bubbling like water on the ground, similar to the Final Trailer for Cour 4.

This also included the eclipse prior to the Blood Chains Bankai activation.

The water then expands, covering behind Ichigo with every step he took.

The ground breaks and water forms around Ichigo, water akin to the Primordial World.

Everyone was surprised, calling his name, then we saw Ichibei’s face as a flash image.

Rukia calls Ichigo a fool.

The Future Black

That is until Orihime appears in the air lying down and Yhwach resurfaces, saying “Almighty”.

We get the iconic “grains of sand” speech from Yhwach in Chapter 677: “Horn of Salvation 2”, followed by Orihime being tossed to Ichigo while she apologizes and finally falls unconscious.

Before Ichigo goes Bankai, a flashback to some of the 20th Anniversary video plays.

Here, we see his True Bankai like in the manga and it follows exactly how it was done in Chapter 678: “The Future Black”

The intended impact remains.

We only saw a “partial Bankai” from his Hollow side, Blood Chains Ichigo.

But we barely got to see what his complete True Bankai is capable of, so the suspense remains.

After Yhwach humiliates Ichigo, Renji gets up and activates Bankai but it was too late.

Yhwach appeared behind him and all of his limbs and body parts are scattered just like in the final battle between Ichigo and Aizen.

Later, Yhwach breaks Rukia’s arms and puts a hole on Ganju and Chad.

With classic Spiritual Pressure special effects back, Yhwach walks to Ichigo, overwhelming him with his mere existence that the camera shakes.

And then we get the iconic despair moment as Yhwach absorbs Ichigo’s powers, ending Part B of the episode.

After the end credits, there is a 2-minute post-credit scene that continues all the way through Chapter 681.

Jugram Haschwalth vs Uryu Ishida Finale

Surprisingly, we are getting the last half of the fight between Jugram Haschwalth and Uryu Ishida shown in the manga, even being 1:1, being spliced throughout the episode and ending on the C part.

It seems the explosion of the Sanrei glove is the cause of Uryu’s injuries in the anime.

The Balance and Antithesis will be fully exposited, although we have seen their abilities used as early as the end of Cour 2.

This ends with Haschwalth dying, stating that he has no regrets, none at all, and reveals the B in his sword handle, the same pin Bazz B wore as a child, meaning Haschwalth maintained their 1,000 year old friendship in spite of his choices.

No Tsukishima appearance in this episode and Yhwach does not leave for Soul Society yet.

Staff List:

Script: Tomohisa Taguchi

Storyboard/Episode Director: Itoko Nagai (Pierrot Films)

Action/Effects Animation Director: Takashi Hashimoto

Chief Animation Director: Saeko Ozawa (Pierrot Films)

Key Animators: KA：Chieh Huang、Ken Yakura、Osamu Sakata、Kento Akagi、Aya Umezawa、Yoshifumi Miyaji、Haruka Kobayashi、doro、Yuuki Miyagi、Megumi Yamana、Nobuhiro Nagata、Azusa Yamashita、Azusa Teramoto、Mkonyuki KMio、Koro Nagata、Azusa Yamashita Yamasaki、Ryc南野拓人、中川宏人、如沙花岳耶( Bebert

24 2nd Key Animators

Nagai was the storyboarder behind Episode 26: “The Master” and Episode 27: “A” , which are frankly the same episode, as well as Episode 30: “The Betrayer” and Episode 39: “The Visible Answer”.

Every one of these episodes was important to Uryu Ishida, so in a way, Nagai is completing Uryu’s story and these episodes have a lot of powerful storyboards, particularly the scenes revolving around Senjumaru’s Bankai and the fight choreography surrounding Uryu’s Vollstandig.

Next Episode Poem: Uryu Ishida

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 47 is titled, “The End 2”.

This will adapt Chapter 681 to Chapter 683, serving as setup for the final battle against Yhwach.

We will see Ichigo’s Bankai being repaired and Aizen’s fight against Yhwach, as well as Uryu receiving the Still Silver arrow, this time with the previous cours building it up properly, especially with Episode 28: “Kill the King” revealing the Still Silver fragments.

This episode will be released on September 5, 2026.

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