Now, THIS is True Despair! How the Bleach Anime IMPROVED True Bankai Ichigo’s DESTRUCTION! Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 46 Review!

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 672: “Son of Darkness” (pages 10-12), Chapter 674: “Father 2” (pages 13-16), Chapter 675: “Blood for My Bone” (pages 1-4), Chapter 677: “Horn of Salvation (pages 7 and 11-17), Chapter 678: “The Future Black”, Chapter 679: “The End” (pages 1-14), Chapter 680: “The End 2” (pages 7-14), and Chapter 681: “The End Two World” (pages 3-10) for a total of 8 chapters reached and 67 pages, a surprisingly hefty amount of content in spite so many changes incoming.

Anime Addition: Morning Mourning

The episode begins at the early morning, where Tatsuki suddenly has a tear flowing out of her eye and she wakes up, seeing that it was raining, which is also a commentary on her own sudden tear as her soul feels the loss of her dear friend Orihime.

It is a nice anime inclusion to remind us of the human characters praying for the safety of Ichigo and his friends.

It could also be a super subtle reminder of the despair that is to come.

A Timeline Confirmation

This confirms that in the anime, the battle between Yhwach and Ichigo and Orihime takes place

So we have a range for the time across events.

The Thousand Year Blood War takes place within a span of 6 days, in spite of Yhwach’s prophecy of the whole thing being 9 days long.

However, if we count June 10th, when the arc actually starts with Ryūnosuke Yuki and Shino Madarame’s arrival, Yhwach’s prophecy does line up somewhat as on the 8th day, he awakens the Almighty after 1,000 years since its sealing by Ichibei via the Left Arm of the Soul King.

On June 12th, Ichigo begins to fight Asguiaro Ebern in the afternoon, then gets Kisuke Urahara’s help to enter Hueco Mundo.

Which was the right time for Yhwach to begin his first invasion.

In the anime, it was the morning of June 13th that it took place

The next day, June 14th, Squad Zero shows up to repair Ichigo’s Bankai and the three-day long battle between Kenpachi and Unohana takes place.

The basis for the timeframe is Isshin’s words in Episode 12: “Everything But the Rain: The June Truth”, as it was the 9th anniversary of Masaki’s death on June 17th.

In the middle of the day, the Wandenreich begins its second invasion.

This lasts a full day since Yhwach sleeps at night to regain his powers.

The morning of June 18th, Ichigo arrived, having spent 9 hours and 15 minutes falling down from the Soul King’s Palace to the Seireitei, followed by the Schutstaffel and Yhwach fighting Squad Zero and making Wahrwelt.

Yhwach sleeps at night in the manga but in the anime, he fights Ichigo.

In this episode, it is finally the morning of June 19th, exactly 9 days since the arc began and 6 days since the first invasion.

Anime Addition: We ALMOST Saw Soul King Ichigo

The droplets of rain transition leads into where the episode ended as Orihime and Yhwach disintegrated into light particles.

As Soundscape to Ardor plays, we see Ichigo move on with the inevitable step.

With Yhwach gone, the Three World’s essence, Black Spiritual Pressure, will need a vessel, as represented by the overflowing water coming from Ichigo’s footstep, similar to the Black Spiritual Pressure from his Blood Chains form but this time in liquid form.

Renji seems angry at Ichibei for causing this to happen.

Considering how Aizen also manipulated everyone in the Soul Society Arc, it is totally understandable.

THE FUTURE BLACK

However, before Ichigo can step into the Soul King’s chambers, Orihime suddenly emerges, floating up.

Then Yhwach appears, saying “The Almighty”, as the multitude of eyes open and his face emerges out of it.

This all plays to the tune of Gerard Valkyrie’s “Regeneration” theme from Episode 44: “The Perfect Crimson”, which is a great coincidence since Yhwach also regenerates through the Soul King’s power, his own Schrift, The Almighty

And just like the same episode, the track that plays after is the Treachery female remix.

The Revised Grains of Sand Speech

Yhwach delivers one of his most iconic speeches but it comes with a revision at the end.

The anime uses the same negative color swap as we see the sands in the speech and eventually to Yhwach placing his hand over them but with the revised line that the Almighty changes the future.

This was set up when he said earlier that the future where Orihime kills him does not exist at all.

The speech also lines up with Haschwalth’s balance speech from Chapter 674: “Father”.

Yhwach also points out that he desires the same suffering-free world as Orihime but in the previous episode, he expressed a callous view of power, the desire and means to crush everything in one’s path.

What is Akon Cooking?

The anime also added another scene where the SRDI try to repel the Collapse of the Three Worlds.

Akon realizes that the Quincy’s efforts, from killing millions of Hollows to Yhwach’s Merger, were done by breaking the Balance.

The whole episode’s theme revolves around Balance.

Haschwalth’s ability, Uryu and Haschwalth’s contrasting choices, Ichigo stepping in and now an attempt by the side cast to solve the Balance.

Akon proposes creating a Garganta to Hueco Mundo, which could hint at the participation of other Arrancar and Hollow characters, or simply Akon creating a large vacuum to suck up the Hollows to return them to Hueco Mundo.

TRUE BANKAI, TRUE DESPAIR

We see Blood Chains Ichigo change form a bit as the Blood Chains, the physical manifestation of his Hollowfied Reiatsu, goes towards the blade, a way to show how connected the Demi-Hollow form is to the Bankai itself, especially as Ichigo held back the smaller, Old Man Zangetsu or Quincy blade or the Sheath.

The anime actually solved one of the biggest hurdles when it comes to animating the destruction of Ichigo’s True Bankai.

And we are even “rewarded” with something greater:

Ichigo’s despair is more real than just losing his powers.

It worked in the Lost Agent Arc because Ichigo saw his friends mind-wiped by Tsukishima’s Book of the End.

Meanwhile in the Thousand Year Blood War manga, all that happened was that the new power Ichigo gained was lost.

He may have experienced both the loss of friends and the loss of the power to stand up and fight before but in this arc, where many have already died in the first invasion and many sacrifices are being made to save the Three Worlds, Ichigo’s despair feels muted and less connected.

However, with Ukitake holding the line much longer than the manga, the Shinigami all working together as the “context front” and the “personal front” of Rukia, Renji, Chad, Ganju and Orihime participating and being wiped out by Yhwach’s unstoppable power, on top of Ichigo losing his True Bankai, we see how overwhelming Yhwach’s control over the future is.

Whatever Ichigo will do, Yhwach is now present in all circumstances, all his possible happiness and hope will be destroyed.

In fact, he wants Ichigo to hope and his friends fuel that strength.

Six hearts. Beat as one. Just like the title of Chapter 317, referring to the Hueco Mundo rescue team (Rukia, Renji, Uryu, Chad, as well as Ichigo and Orihime).

We still retain the sudden impact of the loss of Ichigo’s True Bankai but it comes with one major issue.

The speed.

Granted, the True Bankai being ripped away was supposed to be quick but everything else is seemingly rushed, like you can feel the rush of breath coming out of their mouths as the words are spoken and the actions are taken.

While the True Bankai destruction needs to be swift, the anime additions that were necessary to savor the moment have been swept up too quickly.

At the same time, the pacing for Uryu and Haschwalth’s fight was perfect and clean, exactly how it worked in the manga.

So some fans are wondering why the “Despair” segment was rushed, even with its incredible additions.

However, it does end neatly with Ichigo’s perfect cut-out scream

And we got an iconic meme line:

“Bankai, huh? I LIKE that word.”

As Yhwach turns Renji into the Soul King days before his birthday while crushing his future wife Rukia’s whole head with his bare hands as he stands on Renji’s remains.

However, this is still a Renji upscale as he does withstand the full force of Yhwach’s Reiatsu and even activate his true Bankai, So’o Zabimaru and it got Yhwach’s attention, although more likely done to hurt Ichigo more than because Renji poses any threat to the Almighty.

Uryu vs Haschwalth PERFECTION

We are finally back to manga canon, with changes to the start as we learn that since their battlefield is in a spot in Wahrwelt where light does not reach, Uryu would not have been able to sense Yhwach regaining the Almighty, also removing the “beast comparison” from Chapter 672: “Son of Darkness”, as well as the Reishi wave attack, to further solidify Haschwalth not being able to mold Reishi like normal Quincies.

Instead, he uses his words from Chapter 675 as he is about to bring up the “true horror of the Almighty” and challenges Uryu to put all of himself on the Balance scale

While most of the fight in this episode was 1:1 with the manga, alongside embellishments through the anime’s constant visuals of the Balance that Uryu is actually able to see, a lot of it is improved because of what came before.

The anime’s additions paid off immensely here.

Uryu’s Antithesis no longer feels like an asspull but something built up in the very foundations of the Thousand Year Blood War adaptation, almost like the anime project existed for this, among many other purposes.

Furthermore, Uryu listing down all of his friends as idiots is even better because all of them are actually facing Yhwach as we speak.

The episode ends on a post-credits showing Haschwalth’s last moments, where we see his face be more “human” and emotional, while it ends with his first meeting with silhouetted Bazz B

The B on his sword handle remains.

Haschwalth’s B for Balance. B for Bazz.

Bazz’s H for Heat. H for Haschwalth.

Jugram’s “Solo Auswahlen” Will Change Everything

Yhwach casts the very first “solo Auswahlen” so far, as he only targets Jugram Haschwalth, intending to use the Balance to destroy Ichigo’s Bankai the same way Haschwalth did with the previous Bankai in Episode 7: “Born in the Dark”.

This was clearly attributed to the Balance balancing out Ichigo’s good fortune and using that as raw power to break the Bankai, which again is condensed Reiatsu in the form of his shihakusho and blade, so the stolen force is greater than Ichigo’s current power in that moment.

Or perhaps on a deeper level, the fate Ichigo could potentially cut is being reflected back on him now.

This may seem to break the rules of how Schrifts are exclusive to specific people but it could be clarified in the anime and moreso, it is an upscale for Ichigo since it shows that Yhwach required Haschwalth specifically, not the Miracle or the previously acquired Schrifts for example, to destroy Ichigo’s Bankai

This seems to hint that Gerard Valkyrie will be defeated differently.

The opening also showed Lille Barro’s weakened clones, which may also have an expanded role.

With only 5 episodes left and 6 chapters to adapt after this point, a lot is about to be expanded on.

Next Episode Poem: Uryu Ishida

“We are drawn to each other,
like droplets, like planets.

We repel each other,
like magnets, like the color of our skin.”

This is the only poem so far that is from the volumes before the Thousand Year Blood War and it might be the most thematically appropriate for this particular episode.

This being Uryu’s last poem in the anime is quite ironic and fitting since this happens to be his first poem, from Volume 4: “Quincy Archer Hates You” where Uryu is introduced.

However, the illustration differs from the volume, as in this one, we

This does hint that the Sanrei Glove chips are still going to play a crucial role in Uryu’s overall endgame.

Rather than Uryu’s sneakers like in Volume 4,

This details the conflict between his and Ichigo’s alignments but also why they are drawn to each other: how conflict draws closeness.

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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