Warning: Contains spoilers for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War part 3, episode #8.Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’s latest episode sees Mayuri’s Bankai undergo a disturbing evolution. In part 3, episode #8, Mayuri’s group faced off against Pernida Parnkgjas, a Sternritter with the power to manipulate people and objects with his nerves. Mayuri’s quick thinking and scientific mind left him as the only one who could deal with Pernida’s powers, and as such, the bulk of the fighting fell to him.
As Mayuri and Pernida’s fight raged on, Mayuri activated his Bankai, which the other characters assumed would be his regular Bankai of a giant, baby-like creature spewing poisonous gas everywhere. However, Mayuri revealed that he has modified the power of his Bankai, and sure enough,Mayuri’s new Bankai inBleach: Thousand-Year Blood Waris one of the most disturbing things to ever be associated with the character, if notBleach, in general. All of that is perfectly in line with Mayuri’s character, of course, and overall, it’s great to see something like that so late intoBleach’s story.
Mayuri’s Disturbing New Bankai In Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Explained
Mayuri’s new Bankai is called Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō Matai Fukuin Shōtai, which takes the form of a giant purple baby and, immediately upon being summoned, splits its stomach open to spawn a regular Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo, the imagery drawing gross comparisons to a woman giving birth via C-section. The Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo has different powers depending on the information Mayuri fed into his Bankai; in this case, its nerves are all on the outside of its body and peel off whenever Pernida attacks it, all of which comes with the side effect of it being in pain whenever it moves.
Every facet of Mayuri’s new Bankai is disgusting and disturbing, and the visuals made that even better.Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warpart 3, episode #8 was another episode with great art and animation, and most of that appeared to have been reserved for Mayuri, asBleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’s animewent to great lengths to make Mayuri’s Bankai look as great as possible to emphasize how disgusting every aspect of it is supposed to be. Something like Mayuri’s Bankai needed to look as horrible as possible, and the anime more than succeeded at that.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Reminds Fans Of Mayuri’s True Character
Mayuri Was Never Supposed To Be One Of Bleach’s Heroes
Even beyond Mayuri’s new Bankai,Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warhas done an excellent job reminding people of Mayuri’s true character. For years, Mayuri has been depicted largely as comedic relief, his writing making him a goofy mad scientist whose cruelty is played for laughs while he’s an unabashed good guy, but that wasn’t the case in his debut.Bleachoriginally wrote Mayuri as a straightforward, sadistic villain who would gleefully torture people in the pursuit of science, whether that meant brutally dissecting Uryu’s grandfather and other Quincies, implanting bombs in his subordinates, or even physically abusing his daughter, Nemu.
Bleachquickly scaled back Mayuri’s depravity, but it was never outright written out. The disturbing nature of Mayuri’s Bankai is one thing, but he also fights with fleshy weapons resembling people screaming in agony, which they very likely are, and he spends the fight taking joy in the idea of capturing Pernida and experimenting on him.Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’s latest episode is a perfect reminder that Mayuri is a maniacal sadist through the cruelty of his powers and personality, and with the fight with Pernida still going,Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warsurely has more moments like that in store.
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War
Cast
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is a sequel series to the popular anime from creator Tite Kubo. This anime follows Ichigo and his friends as they investigate why people are disappearing while trouble arises in the Soul Society. The first season was released in 2022 and has been critically acclaimed since its beginning.
