Eren Jaeger is ADULT TOSHIRO! What to Expect from Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 44

In the previous Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War episode, the fight against Gerard Valkyrie, the Miracle, begins properly while Ichigo finally awakens his Half-Hollow “Horn of Salvation” form.

Chapters Adapted

Episode 44 is titled, “The Perfect Crimson”

This will cover the entire Gerard Valkyrie fight, from Chapter 668: “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” (pages 5-17) to Chapter 671: “The Perfect Crimson 2”, Chapter 672: “Son of Darkness” (pages 1-6), Chapter 673: “Father” (pages 1-4), Chapter 674: “Father 2” (pages 7-13) and Chapter 676: “Horn of Salvation” (page 1)

For a total of 9 chapters and 82 pages, a surpring amount of manga content while still having enough room for expanded fight scenes.

Post-Credits Scene

There is a post-credits scene showing Orihime’s worries about Ichigo’s Hollowfied form, as she was traumatized by the sight of his Vasto Lorde form when he fought against Ulquiorra to protect her.

The original Number One track will play here as Ichigo smiles and assures Orihime he is fine.

Then we see Ichigo use an explosive attack with his left Hollow horn against Yhwach, setting up their battle in the next episode nicely.

This is the scene from the end of the final trailer that was incredibly well-animated, although this is likely because Episode 44 was given the most preparation compared to other episodes, even the spectacular Episode 42: “Son of Darkness”.

New Voice Actor

Yes, it has been leaked that Yuki Kaji will be voicing adult Toshiro Hitsugaya

This is Kaji’s second role in the Big Three of Shonen Jump, with the first being the shepherd boy Yorueka from One Piece: Film Red in 2022.

This is a good decision as it would make him even more unrecognizable to Rukia and Renji anyway.

Kaji is most famous for playing as Eren Jaeger, the iconic, controversial protagonist of Attack on Titan, and Meliodas, the protagonist of Seven Deadly Sins

Staff List:

SB/ED: Yeong-Hun Jeong (PIERROT FILMS)

CAD: Kumiko Takayanagi (PIERROT FILMS)

Action/Effects AD: Yoshihiro Kanno

AD: Yeong-Hun Jeong, Mika Ookubo, mo, HAN SEUNGAH, Kazumi Inadome, Kazuo Takigawa, Wenxuan Liu

AD Co: Teruko Takeshima, Rina Suzuki

KA: Yoshihiro Kanno, Natsuko Suzuki, Yeong-Hun Jeong, Kouhei Ootsu, Kazuhito Tominaga, Mika Ookubo, Tadashi Fukuda, Kouya Uemichi, Arata Kimata, Kento Akagi, Alexandre Gomes, Yoshiki Nozawa, Tomoyuki Kameda, Teruko Takeshima, Kahoru Hirata, Haruko Ichihara, Masato Yoshida, Noriko Ootake, Ai Mochida, You Natsuki, Yuri Pinzon, Qiuyu Chen, Krephles, MLLK

Pierrot Animation Room
Retsu Ookawara, Riana Watanabe

Nichi Studio
Wenxuan Liu, Yuzhen Lee, Chinghsiang Weng
50+ 2nd KAs

This is a stacked lineup, confirming a lot of work has been put into the Gerard Valkyrie fight.

Kenpachi and Toshiro are pillar characters for Bleach, so their Bankai reveals are important to get right.

Yoshihiro Kanno is the prominent action animation director for Solo Leveling and has done work on Bleach, particularly Episode 7: “Born in the Dark” and even provided key animation for it such as Ichigo’s Spiritual Pressure burst, with its spectacular flash of all colors representing his races and Episode 10: “The Battle” with Kenpachi vs Unohana when she activated her Bankai Minazuki.

He also provided key animation for both opening and ending sequences.

For the opening, he showed multiple action shots for Renji, Ichigo, Rukia in Bankai form, Uryu against Haschwalth, and Byakuya, Toshiro and Kennpachi against Gerard, plus for the ending, he also animated Ichigo’s final slash.

Next Episode Poem: Ichigo Kurosaki and Orihime Inoue

“There’s nothing I can do.

I only want power.

The power to protect,

Nothing more.”

The first two lines come from Ichigo and this is a line he has always said about why he fights.

The last two lines are from Orihime.

This follows the pattern since Cour 3 in Episode 30: “The Betrayer”, of middle episodes having two people delivering poems together.

It also follows the same spirit as Episodes 11 and 12, the “Everything but the Rain” mini-arc where the poem for Volume 60 is split between Masaki and Isshin, Ichigo’s parents.

Cour 4 seems to be reparing the damage done by the previous anime adaptation by highlighting Orihime’s importance to Ichigo.

Episode 45 is titled, “Defend You” and will be released on August 22, 2026.

This is the second anime-original title since Episode 37 : “Shadows Gone”,

While it does set up a lot of anime-original content coming, it is strange for the anime to choose an anime-original title instead of “Horn of Salvation” but since that is a two-chapter title, this could mean that the episode after is “Horn of Salvation”.

This may make the episode mostly-anime original as Ichigo will be showing off more powers outside Gran Rey Cero.

It seems all of Ichigo’s fights against Yhwach are always extended, from his first one in Episode 7, which is coincidentally handled by the same action and effects director, to their second fight in Episode 28: “Kill the King” and now this one.

We could also see some parallel action with Rukia, possibly even the second usage of her Bankai, as it has been heavily hinted throughout the cour so far and given the color scheme of her scene in the trailer, she might be joining the fight against Yhwach while Renji helps Chad and Ganju against the statues.

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