Bleach: Valley of Screams Explained

Just like its existence in the Bleach universe, the Valley of Screams is an isolated fragment of a much more complex world.

However, with the light novels and recent anime adaptation, this movie-only content has gained further validation as a part of the established canon of Bleach, such that in spite of some seeming missing pieces, you cannot explain this dimension without first watching the 2006 Bleach film “Memories of Nobody”.

To explain what the Valley of Screams is, we need to examine them individually based on their sources, beginning with the movie.

Movie Canon

Having come out in 2006, the first Bleach movie actually has the most complete explanation among all the sources and could arguably be their origin.

To understand the Valley of Screams, we must understand two core components: the Blanks and the Shinenju

Blanks

The primary source and inhabitants of the Valley of Screams are the Blanks.

Having lost memories during the reincarnation cycle and lost their means of cycling from the Human World to Soul Society, the Blanks turn into white ghosts with pink pin-shaped heads that float aimlessly and do nothing except gather together and create the Valley of Screams.

Being lost souls, the Blanks have also lost their Chains of Fate without any Encroachment due to being wandering souls not from the Human World and therefore are unaffected the Konso or Soul Burial ritual.

As the name suggests, Blanks are empty slates, holding no unique memories or sense of being. As such, they can be employed by the “Dark Ones”, the exiled Ryodoji Noble Family, as weapons of varied forms or as a means of regenerating their bodies.

Blanks can also self-destruct by grabbing onto an enemy and hold them still while they explode.

Once they enter a Valley of Screams, the Blanks separate into memory and energy, with the memory forming the Shinenju.

Senna the Shinenju

The core of the Valley of Screams in the first Bleach movie is an object called the Shinenju (“Memory Rosary”), which actually incarnated in the form of Senna.

Senna has gained the memories and powers of a Shinigami, even to the point of having her own Zanpakuto and a Shikai, Mirokumaru, which takes the form of a khakkhara and has the power to create and control tornadoes through its ringed end.

Senna’s true power lies not in her ability to gain an Asauchi and become a Shinigami through being the core of Blank memories but in her ability to control the Blanks completely

By bringing Senna to the center of the Valley of Screams, the Dark Ones could attract all the Blanks within the dimension to perform the task of collapsing two of the three worlds (Soul Society and the Human World) as part of the Dark Ones or the Ryudodji Noble Family’s revenge for their exile from Soul Society.

To reverse this dangerous outcome, Senna sacrifices her energy, that is to say, all the Blanks’ memories, resulting in her death and disappearance from everyone’s memories.

Manga Canon

The Valley of Screams (“Kyōgoku” in Japanese) is not one dimension but a type of dimension, a pocket of space in varied sizes that is actually composed of the souls who have lost their memories during the cycle of reincarnation.

These souls float in the space of Garganta, where Reishi is usually quite unstable and requires constant emission of Reishi footpads from spiritual beings.

Existing between the Human World and the Soul Society, this type of dimension swarms around the Dangai Precipice World, which is the passageway connecting the Three Worlds of the Human World, Hueco Mundo, and Soul Society.

Due to the unique nature of the souls that make up the Valley of Screams, the Reishi within these pockets flows differently from everywhere else and thus maintains stability within the Garganta space.

Garganta (“Throat” in Spanish) usually refers to the travel method of Hueco Mundo but in reality, this is the empty space of the Bleach universe where the Three Worlds are contained in.

What the manga does is a way to locate the Valley of Screams among the dimensions. Although the Valley of Screams is connected to the Dangai, the explanation reveals a deeper truth: that all the three worlds are connected to the space of Garganta, with the pockets of Valley of Screams scattered throughout.

Light Novel Continuation

In “Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World”, Tokinada Tsunayashiro used one of the Valley of Screams to build a new Soul King Palace and claims that usage of this space is a right of the Noble Families.

In the novel, the Valley of Screams is described as a desert covered in rocks with a massive flower wreath at the center.

In Volume 2, we follow the manga explanation but notably, the light novels actually bring up the Ryudoji Family, aligning with the timeline of the first Bleach movie, except that the clan either remains inactive or the incident was fully wiped out from people’s memories if it ever was canon.

In fact, the novels reveal that the Valley of Screams were used precisely to exile this specific Noble Family for a major crime they committed, which solidly confirms the canonicity of the first Bleach movie.

The light novel includes the movie’s concept of Blanks but as a theory on how those Blanks are the source of the pocket spaces in the first place.

There are other possibilities, such as how it is the resting place of both humans who escaped a Shinigami’s Konso ritual to bring them to the Soul Society and the Hollows or that it was from excess reishi after the Primordial Sea became the Three Worlds.

Modifications

Travel through the Garganta requires exerting Reiatsu, which can be detected, especially in re-entering a realm like the Soul King Palace.

To resolve this involves modifying one Valley of Screams pocket for stealthy travel. Riruka’s Dollhouse can contain a Valley of Screams in a box and then Yukio’s Invaders Must Die can create a virtual space in reality to form a room and the rails needed to exit the Garganta, which provides a quick method of transport from one location or another without having their Reiatsu detected.

Anime Merging

Now on November 9, 2024, we receive a full circle moment in Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 32: “The Holy Newborn” as we not only follow the manga canon explanation but confirm that everything that happened in the “Memories of Nobody” film, including the logic of the Valley of Screams in that film, are part of the anime and therefore the final canon set by Kubo.

It is all in one dialogue from Ichigo when he tells Riruka that he has “been to the Valley of Screams” before and brings up the bad memories it has.

Without mentioning Senna, Blank Souls, or the Dark Ones, Ichigo’s words instead act as a homage to the first Bleach movie

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ANIME EXPLAINED WHATSAPP GROUP CHAT NOW!