Uryuu gets one of the best anime additions to date

The biggest problem for fans Whitening manga they have with The Thousand Year Blood War it's the rushed pace and barebones exposition that many characters and plot lines have. Due to Tite Kubo's rapidly declining health, he was unable to write the arc the way he wanted. He had to rush the story to reach the end he envisioned before his body succumbed to his many ailments. The second half of the arc suffers from this. The fate of many characters remains unanswered, many plot points are barely resolved, and character developments are not fully fleshed out.

With the involvement of Tite Kubo in Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War anime production, he tries to fix this problem with the original manga. Working alongside series director Tomohisa Taguchi, he added tons of new scenes to the story that further expanded on what was established in the manga. And the last Quincy, Uryuu Ishida, is perhaps the biggest beneficiary of this.

Uryuu's extended scenes in the anime

More backgrounds for Quincy's face

Manga readers knew that Uryuu Ishida would eventually betray Ichigo and the Gotei 13, but the build-up to this was always sorely lacking. Readers are given barely any explanation behind his betrayal. However, the anime adaptation of Thousand-Year Blood War built heavily on this. Already in the first part, Uryuu gets several new scenes, further expanding his involvement in the war. He is shown reading his grandfather's diary and learns the truth about the war a thousand years ago. They also suggest that his mother may be involved in his father's motivations for giving up Quincy.

In part two, he gets even more new scenes, giving him more time with Jugram Haschwalth and the other Sternritters. This further helps the audience believe that what they see in him is not what he seems. The audience has the suspicion that Uryuu might be hiding something. In this way, Jugram acts as an audience, always suspicious of Uryuu. There is this ever lingering sense of something being hidden behind Uryuu's apparent betrayal.

Uryuu's new powers in the anime

A true Quincy

During the Quincy Royal Guard's battle with Senjumaru, Uryuu now shows hints of his new ability. Uryuu is now Sternritter A -The Antithesis, an ability that allows him to turn the tide of battle in an instant. And that's exactly how he defeats Senjumaru. Uryuu gets a brand new fight with the representative of Team 0. He likes a power far beyond anything he has shown so far, which allows him to overcome the soul reaper's extraordinary world-destroying powers.

And now, with the latest episode of the series, he has a whole new battle with his best friend, Ichigo Kurosaki. Here he shows more of that incredible Quincy power he gained thanks to his king. He can effortlessly conjure and shoot arrows without even manifesting a Quincy bow. And most importantly, he now shows an ability he never used in the original manga, Vollständig.

Uryuu's Vollständig is one of the biggest anime-only additions Tite Kubo has given fans to properly develop their beloved characters. Part two gave characters like Shinji Hirako and Senjumaru Shutara new Bankai. The former was already enshrined in the Can't Feel Your World novels, but the latter had never received such an honor, not even in supplementary material. Senjumaru's battle with the Royal Guard was anime only, and so is this new battle between Ichigo and Uryuu.

Tite Kubo and Studio Pierrot continue to surprise fans and everyone's expectations with every episode of the Thousand Year Blood War. So far, part three has been a tremendous departure from the source material in the best possible way. Instead of completely changing the story, the anime showed completely new material that amplifies the impact and emotional weight of Bleach's final arc. As well as highlighting every possible plot point and character that needed help to further deliver the great story Whitening is known for.

We're only a few episodes into part three, and as author Tite Kubo previously said, this part will see the most anime-only expansions in this series. Fans are more excited than ever to see what else will be added to the story with this incredible anime. Right now, Quincy Survivor is the talk of the town thanks to its new stages and awesome powers.

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  Based on Tite Kubo's shonen fighting manga, Bleach centers around Ichigo, a high school student who is dragged into the world of the Soul Reapers. The original anime ended in 2012, but was revived in 2022.

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  Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War