BLOOD CHAINS ICHIGO – TRUE BANKAI BREAKS THE INTERNET! Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 45 Review!

In the previous Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War episode, Kenpachi unleashes his premature Bankai against Gerard Valkyrie through his lieutenant Yachiru Kusajishi, who is the Bankai form of his Zanpakuto Spirit Nozarashi, but when Gerard revives via the Heart of the Soul King in his Vollstandig form, Toshiro Hitsugaya reveals his Complete Bankai, maturing him to adult form with a different voice. Meanwhile Ichigo.

Credits to: @Crain1Art on Twitter for the amazing art that came immediately after the episode.

Chapters Adapted

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 45 is titled, “(Life To) Defend You”

This is the second Thousand Year Blood War episode with an anime-original title since Episode 37: “Shadows Gone”.

Just like Episode 33: “The Gate of the Sun”, this only adapts one chapter’s worth of content, except it really only adapts.

4 pages.

YES.

This adapts Chapter 677: “Horn of Salvation 2” pages 1-4.

Meaning 97% of the content is ANIME-ORIGINAL and this is not filler at all (or it could be from one perspective).

The reason Tomohisa Taguchi, the series director, is in charge of the storyboard and direction for this episode, is because this is all from the very top, from Tite Kubo himself.

This also adds confirmation from Kubo’s Klub Outside, particularly Question 578, which our preview expands on.

Yhwach, I’ve Come to Bargain

The episode starts with Yhwach recovering easily from the Gran Rey Cero-Getsuga Tensho combo.

Ichigo’s Horn of Salvation does nothing to faze him and Yhwach starts blasting some Black Reiatsu Ichigo’s way.

Meanwhile, Renji and Rukia arrive to the Chad statue fight and we see why that fight got offscreened.

The anime adds the detail of Yhwach’s Black Reiatsu controlling them, giving them infinite regeneration like Gerard but on a much lesser level.

Renji decides to be a good husband and gives his future wife a ride on his Zabimaru so she can handle Yhwach.

Ichigo gets body slammed throughout the first bit of this episode and even gets stabbed by Yhwach’s Reishi greatsword.

But then Orihime pulls the quickest save and rejects Ichigo’s wound.

Yhwach tries again and it’s such a funny scene.

Yhwach slams Orihime and even zips over her shield to stab her but Orihime rejects it.

Again and again and again.

Like the Dr. Strange scene where he came to bargain with Dormammu.

Orihime is repeatedly defying GOD

Rejecting the Reiatsu of God himself repeatedly, breaking and healing herself every single time.

That must have messed up her mind and it shows.

Orihime absolutely did not want to be helpless while Ichigo was fighting the literal Soul King, who constantly mocked Ichigo’s power of friendship and his ideology of fighting.

Yhwach’s whole character is about despair: living by killing his own species, hearing their death cries.

Just like what he is making Orihime experience, by killing her over and over and then making her watch him kill Ichigo.

But before he keeps up the torture, Rukia shows up and freezes Yhwach’s Black Reiatsu like WHATTTT

RUKIA AND ICHIGO REDEMPTION

On top of giving Ichigo more time to show his unique gentleness and love for Orihime, we actually see OG Bleach banter from IchiRuki and for the first time ever, a PROPER TAG TEAM from them.

This is quite fishy but it’s possible Yhwach just let this happen like Gerard Valkyrie did when Toshiro’s Complete Adult Bankai did the same thing.

And we finally get Ichigo and Rukia fighting together AS A TAG TEAM FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

The DEATH AND THE STRAWBERRY AS A MAIN DUO AT LAST

Kubo is really out here to fix his manga and we are so happy for him.

But not even Rukia and Ichigo’s powers can do anything to Yhwach, so he does the baller move of fusing all of his Soul King eyes into one to fire a Cero-like laser beam to erase Ichigo, Rukia and Orihime from existence.

Bro then turns his back, thinking he finally ended Ichigo for good.

Now let’s talk about THAT SCENE because it BLEW OUR MINDS

Everyone was down for the count, then the sky turned red and Yhwach was looking at the moon.

There was a sudden lunar eclipse covering everything in PURE BLACK.

Then Ichigo utters the magic words.

BAN

KAI

And we see his face, with the two horns, activating his COMPLETE HOLLOW FORM for the first time ever.

THIS IS TRUE BANKAI ICHIGO and unlike in the manga, we get direct visual confirmation this BANKAI is SOUL KING LEVEL.

Because it emits PURE BLACK REIATSU

ICHIBE MUST BE STOPPED

ALSO DID YOU GUYS SEE THE INFO CARD IN THE MIDDLE

RIGHT AFTER ICHIGO ACTIVATES TRUE BANKAI

THE INFO CARD IS CENSORED

THIS IS ICHIBE’S HANDIWORK

This guy has been censoring and hiding Ichigo’s power since the beginning, hiding Old Man Zangetsu’s name and it seems he has been doing the same to White too.

But you see the paper burn away, revealing two words:

Chains, Ichigo.

That’s right.

Now we see the full text:

Ichigo of the Blood Chains

This is the ultimate form that Ichigo Kurosaki, having awakened the Hollow blood slumbering within him, transforms into when he performs Bankai in a “half-Hollowfied” state, along with his Zanpakuto.

He wears two horns reminiscent of complete Hollowfication, and spiritual pressure in the form of blood chains emanates from his neck, hands, and feet.

In his battle against Yhwach, who had absorbed the Soul King, he manifested a new dimension of power in terms of spiritual pressure, physical function, and reaction speed.

BANKAI: TENSA ZANGETSU – BLOOD CHAINS ICHIGO

This new form is called Blood Chains Ichigo and there’s a lot of insane detail here.

Ichigo has two horns, meaning his Hollow form from the fight with Ulquiorra is complete but he has no mask.

Remember, the Arrancar Mask is the Zanpakuto and the Blade is Me, so Ichigo’s human face is visible here.

He wears the fur tufts on his neck and wrists from his Vasto Lorde form but now they turn into CHAINS.

BLOOD CHAINS

Most of all.

AND HIS SKIN TURNS RED

JUST LIKE KENPACHI IN BANKAI FORM.

This is almost too much of a coincidence.

Because Kenpachi’s form is a clear homage to the oni in Japanese myth.

The oni are demons come from the HELL REALM of Buddhism.

WHICH COMPLETES THE ENTIRE HELL ARC BLUEPRINT RIGHT HERE.

Those chains were originally from the 4th Movie, Hell Verse, which bind the sinners of Hell to eternal damnation.

The chains of fate that are removed to create the Hollow Hole, the Soul Chains that give Soul Reapers their powers…that gets turned into chains that trap sinners of all species in Hell.

So yeah we know Kubo HATED this movie since a lot of his concepts were ignored by the OG anime team.

But now Kubo is hands-on with the Thousand Year Blood War team, so he could finally go all out and it shows.

Confirming that the Hell chains are canon after all.

Meaning Hollowfication gets a massive upgrade with the power of Hell just like in the movie, which was able to reach multiversal levels of power and people thought that was fanfic rubbish but we see that’s not the case at all.

Kubo’s real concept for the Hell Verse is Hollow Ichigo with Hell Chains as his final form, not whatever that Kushanada nonsense was at the end of the movie.

Ichigo even used it exactly like how the Hell Verse villain Kokuto did, turning them into a shield to block Yhwach’s Cero beams that nearly killed everyone

But that’s just the beginning of the madness because we see True Bankai Ichigo use Sonido TO MAKE SHADOW CLONES???

Each time Yhwach cuts down Ichigo, more Ichigos appear all around and Yhwach with his Soul King eyes could barely react.

Yep, apparently, 7th Espada Zommari is relevant now as Ichigo created Gemelos Sonido, the speed clone technique of the Arrancar but that was only limited to five bodies while Ichigo could spam INFINITE CLONES.

Basically, Getsuga Shadow Clones 

Yhwach even gives Sasuke’s loneliness speech when he sees this move, almost like bro broke the fourth wall for a moment there.

But those Shadow Clones weren’t just there to show.

They are part of Ichigo’s Black Soul King Reiatsu, which he constantly emits from just EXISTING.

 So when he gathers all of that Reiatsu in one spot, we get

THE BIGGEST GETSUGA TENSHO IN ALL OF BLEACH.

Big enough to create a WHOLE CRESCENT MOON TO LIGHT UP THE ENTIRE SOUL KING PALACE.

PEOPLE have been downplaying True Bankai Ichigo for years, saying Mugetsu was better. 

But this is WHAT MUGETSU WAS MEANT TO BE.

Mugetsu turns Ichigo into Getsuga itself.

But Ichigo could turn his Black Reiatsu into Getsuga Clones.

ALL OF THEM ARE GETSUGA SHOTS.

The one-shot Black Getsuga that ended Aizen’s career could actually turn into a BLACK CRESCENT MOON, just like Zangetsu’ name.

And he does it twice SO CASUALLY, so imagine if Ichigo poured in every bit of Reiatsu to go beyond this point.

That’s when he would land the final blow in the real finale but I am getting ahead of myself.

But all this does is scatter Yhwach’s slimy body around and he really wants to taste that power so he can use it too.

Rukia pulls out her Bankai Hakka no Togame and freezes Yhwach in place, giving Ichigo the opportunity to finish him off, creating a second Getsuga Tensho BLACK MOON

Now surely this ends Yhwach for good.

Except nope.

Rukia was crucified by Yhwach’s sword and Ichigo was about ready to die here.

Orihime was like Ichigo when Aizen stomped on all the Captains.

Able to see everything, unable to do anything.

Weakened, she begs for the power to be stronger, over and over.

And in the moment Ichigo is about to die for real.

THAT’S WHEN ORIHIME SNAPS

LIFE TO DEFEND YOU

Her Shun Shun Rikka SPLIT UP.

She gives her roll call of her six spirits.

Here, Orihime makes her wish

EVERYTHING. (basically Adult Gon transformation concept)

TO GIVE HER SO MUCH POWER SHE CANNOT CONTAIN IT ALL

ALL TO TAKE ON YHWACH’S ENTIRE BEING

ALL TO SAVE ICHIGO

She is covered in a red Rikka shield that rejects her weakness, rejects Ichigo and Rukia’s deaths, rejects her injuries

AND REJECTS YHWACH FROM EXISTENCE ITSELF!

We told you guys HER POWER IS BEYOND YHWACH’S ALMIGHTY

Orihime is genuinely one of the biggest wildcards in the entire series

People thought she just heals and makes shields but that’s underselling her true strength.

She has the power to warp reality, rejecting LITERALLY ALL PHENOMENA FROM EXISTENCE, whether it is injuries OR A WHOLE PERSON but all of this came from the Hogyoku, which we know from the light novels has fragments of the Soul King, including one from Rangiku.

The light novels also confirm that all Fullbringers gained their power to control the soul of objects because of the Soul King fragments inside them from birth.

Like Ichigo and Chad, Orihime got a double awakening through their exposure to Rukia, the vessel of Urahara’s Hogyoku.

But out of all the Fullbringers, Orihime surpassed them all.

For all of Bleach, she has been slated by Sosuke motherfuckin Aizen himself as the ONLY ONE with the power to VIOLATE DIVINE LAW

And the reason for that is because of what Orihime represents to the world of Bleach.

Her character represents the power of love

Unlike every other anime like Demon Slayer or Tokyo Ghoul, Bleach does not use red spider lilies, flowers that represent death and despair.

For Orihime and Ichigo, Kubo uses fire lilies, to represent passion and rebirth.

This is where Orihime named their son Kazui after.

He is their fire lily, combining their energies and unique power.

The fire lily eerily looks like Yamamoto’s Bankai

Yamamoto said when “that monster”, his Bankai, would reappear in Soul Society, he would die.

Except instead of one fire lily, we see two.

One dies, so the other lives.

That’s why the end of the episode shows two of those flowers representing Ichigo and Orihime’s love.

And one of the flowers dies, its petals falling as a butterfly passes by them.

Butterflies represent change and growth, Orihime’s growth at the cost of her life.

But this setup is where Kubo cooks his magic.

In the No Breathes From Hell one-shot, the Jailer of Hell Szayelaporro leaves the Soul Reapers with one lingering question: why do the hell butterflies have the word “hell” in their name?

And it all ties to the destiny placed on Ichigo and Orihime that might even go beyond Ichibei’s multiversal power.

Because Hell is the second dimension to exist alongside the PRIMORDIAL CHAOS

If life is black, hell must be white.

White is a Black lifeform with a white core.

Ichigo’s Hollow is a Zanpakuto remade by Aizen by sheer cosmic coincidence.

And Orihime is a Fullbring but unlike others, she awakened a power BEYOND SOUL KING LEVEL.

The Soul King’s Black could rewrite Reality and see the future, like the Almighty 

But only Orihime can completely ERASE those concepts from existence.

By unlocking the fullness of that power, Orihime is able to REJECT EVEN HER OWN EXISTENCE and we have seen that happening in both ways.

Kazui inherited Orihime’s Reality Rejection, which is how he was able to erase Yhwach’s Reiatsu from existence forever at the end of the Bleach manga.

JUST LIKE HOW HIS MOM VAPORIZES YHWACH FROM EXISTENCE.

THIS SHIT HAS ME CRYING, MAN.

What do you mean “Bye Bye Ichigo!”

You can’t keep getting away with this Kubo.

Orihime really said she will take ON EVERYTHING, EVERY BURDEN for the man she loves.

BUT NOT SO FAST.

Remember when she said about living five different lives to keep falling in love with the same man?

Because this line…actually foreshadowed THE ANIME’S BIGGEST PLOT TWIST YET

Because everything we saw still the moment Ichigo said Bankai was just a vision.

Y’all saw that color change, right?

That was the visual cue for things not being what they seem.

This is all part of Yhwach’s Almighty, the ability to see the future

But the manga only shows us Yhwach predicting moves and breaking shit.

This WHOLE episode shows us exactly why THIS POWER IS ALMIGHTY.

Yhwach basically lived through a PARALLEL WORLD where Bleach ended with Orihime self-destructing to erase Yhwach.

But this parallel world is just ONE GRAIN OF SAND in the Bleach multiverse.

You see, Yhwach’s Almighty allows him to see every possible future not in a straight line but as countless grains of sand in the wind

Ichigo can change the future by hopping on each grain of sand, each possibility but Yhwach can see and ERASE EVERY ONE OF THEM as he pleases.

So in experiencing that future with his eyes, by letting Ichigo cook, he can burn his ass way harder.

It’s almost like Orihime’s Reality Rejection power but rather than with the power of love, it is driven by the power of true despair.

By being defeated in one possible future, Yhwach can break EVERY OTHER FUTURE AFTER THAT POINT.

Not even Orihime can keep up with that nonsense.

Except of course if she got help from our good uncle Shu.

Tsukishima’s Fullbring, Book of the End is the PERFECT COUNTER to Yhwach’s Almighty.

He can insert his presence into anyone’s PAST to learn his enemy’s next move and control their lives by inserting himself as their most important person

By stabbing Ichigo and entering his past, Tsukishima was able to restore Ichigo by creating an alternate PAST TIMELINE where Ichigo’s Bankai was never destroyed.

But he lacks the GOD LEVEL POWER to make it even more broken.

Orihime had that means but unlike in the manga, Orihime had GOD MODE ACTIVATED

So not only are we gonna see BLOOD CHAINS ICHIGO again but possibly something else EVEN MORE broken than that.

GOD REJECTION PLUS HELL BLOOD CHAINS AND THE FIRE LILY SYMBOLISM results in a being unlike anything else.

A PHOENIX SERVING AS THE BRIDGE BETWEEN GODS AND MORTALS.

This could be why Kazui manifested two cloud-like fish in the sky to ride on.

Those fish could be Jushiro Ukitake’s Zanpakuto, Sogyo no Kotowari, but since he is in Hell, it is possible that the Zanpakuto Spirits are more separated or perhaps Kazui can borrow her power through his GOD BREAKING POWERS.

JUST IMAGINE KAZUI STEALING BANKAI LIKE YHWACH.

Bro, BLEACH KEEPS BREAKING ITSELF WTFFFFFFF

Kazui was always tied to Hell with his introduction but we got all the pieces of the puzzle together thanks to the anime.

So the next episode is titled, “The End”, as in the episode where Yhwach breaks Ichigo’s True Bankai and sucks up his Hollow and Quincy powers.

With the anime, this GETS INSANE.

Because he is ALSO TAKING IN HELL POWER TOO.

Those chains and his red skin being from Hell

And this entire episode was an explanation of it all happening.

But what if this is also a foretaste of how Yhwach’s defeat will be changed.

We saw how Yhwach’s eyes were deceived by the Getusga clones, confirming that he needed to live out that one grain of sand to actually stop it in real time.

One of those grains of sand was the dream Haschwalth showed him at the start of Cour 4 and in the manga, where Ichigo was using base Zangetsu to kill him.

And bro just dismissed it as nothing but a funny nightmare.

Not realizing this is the type of shit he cannot predict fully.

Because now we know Ichigo’s HELL POWERS and BLACK SOUL KING REIATSU make him IMMUNE to the Almighty and require Yhwach to take an L to stop it.

But this time, when Yhwach does break that HELL BANKAI, we get the OG Zangetsu about to completely end Yhwach’s existence with a TRUE MUGETSU, combining Black Reiatsu with HELL CHAINS and we will be seated for that type of absolute cinema.

And maybe, JUST MAYBE we could even get AN EVEN MORE HYPED UP BANKAI 

BECAUSE IF KUBO CAN FIX ICHIGO’S BANKAI, HE CAN MAKE SOSUKE AIZEN’S BANKAI EXIST

Full Title

Two flowers appear.

One falls while the other remains standing, and the full title of Episode 45 is revealed.

The first flower has the title “Defend you” on it

The other flower’s petals completely falls off, and theres a title on it saying “Life to”

and this is where Orihime says:

“Bye-bye, Kurosaki. I’ll bear everything, okay?”

The two flowers represent Ichigo and Orihime but they could also represent Shun Shun Rikka, seemingly killed by Yhwach.

This adds even more to the already shocking destruction of Ichigo’s True Bankai upon its destruction

Next Episode: The End

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

This will adapt the rest of Chapter 677, Chapter 678: “The Future Black”, Chapter 679: “The End” and Chapter 680: “The End 2”, meaning we are back to full manga content but with modifications.

This is the end of Uryu vs Jugram Haschwalth, likely the way the manga moved with the Balance and Antithesis in motion.

It seems there is no episode poem, which would be poetic considering it is “The End”

This episode will be released on August 29, 2026.

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