Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Episode 11 review: Ichigo’s parents

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Episode 11 focuses on Ichigo’s past, showcasing his parents in a flashback scene that shines light on a series of events which shaped the entirety of the series.

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Episode 11 is mostly a flashback, sharing the narrative of Ichigo’s parents and how they met. The pacing here cuts some necessary corners, but still manages to tell a full story through intentional dialogue and story direction.

What results is a fast-paced flashback, which provides, to nobody’s surprise, amazing action animation alongside sound production.

A quick spoiler warning below for Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Episode 11!

Ichigo is kicked from the Royal Palace

In the very beginning scene, Ichigo is absent from the Royal Palace. Ōetsu Nimaiya tells Renji only one person has ever called their Zanpakuto without an Asauchi that he created. Spoilers: he’s of course referring to Ichigo.

Ichigo is then shown back in the mortal’s realm, roaming around before he’s confronted by his dad. His dad decides it’s time to tell him everything about his past, which starts the flashback.

This pacing here skips a lot the in-between context. The episode doesn’t show Ichigo getting kicked out of the Royal Palace, and it doesn’t explicitly reveal Ichigo had a different way of unlocking his Zanpakuto.

But these are heavily inferred through the dialogue, which allows Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Episode 11 to focus on more interesting plot points rather than dawdling around, which most other Shounen anime would have done. This intentional fast-forwarding essentially ensures there’s never a dull moment or unnecessary fluff.

Captain Shiba meets Masaki Kurosaki

The flashback, for the first time, introduces Masaki Kurosaki — Ichigo’s mother. She is officially revealed to be a Quincy, a fact that was alluded to multiple times in the previous episodes. This piece of “trivia” is blatantly stated, which is honestly far better handled than in the manga. In the manga, the author continuously stalled the reveal, creating glaring issues with narrative pacing.

Masaki lives with Uryuu Ishida’s father, Ryūken Ishida, who appears to have some form of care and affection towards her. This is rather uncharacteristic of the the Ryūken Ishida the viewers have come to know, which thereby piques curiosity to his circumstances as well.

Captain Shiba, Ichigo’s father, goes to investigate a mysterious threat responsible for murdering multiple Shinigami. The threat is revealed to be a hollow rather reminiscent of Ichigo’s hollow form, with Aizen responsible for its creation. This ties the narrative together rather well, with Aizen still standing center plot.

The fight scene that ensures displays masterful use of music, especially when Masaki joins combat. Although the episode answers tons of questions that fans pondered over the years, unless of course they read the manga, it also brings up more questions as well.

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 12 release date is on December 27.

Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11