Summary

  • The anime adaptation of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War in episode #23 showcases the abilities of the Sternritter, revealing that they are more powerful than initially thought.
  • Byakuya Kuchiki's fight against multiple Sternritter is expanded in the anime, giving fans a better understanding of their abilities and power levels.
  • The addition of dialog and actions during the fight scene changes fans' perceptions of the characters' abilities, making them appear stronger than previously believed.

Warning: Spoilers for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode #23Debates about a character's power are common in the Bleach fandom, but the anime adaptation of Thousand-Year Blood War has thrown a wrench into that discussion with some added dialog and other changes suggesting certain characters are more powerful than they appear.

In episode #23 of Thousand-Year Blood War, Byakuya Kuchiki is shown fighting multiple Sternritter at the same time. Most of this fight took place off-screen in the manga, and thus fans didn't actually get to see how Byakuya handled the enemy in any real detail. The anime expanded the fight scene greatly, showcasing the abilities of some Sternritter better than at any other point so far. However, lines of dialog and certain actions during the fight give a very different impression of characters' abilities and power than fans had been thinking previously.

The Sternritter Are More Powerful Than They Look

Bleach: Robert uses his Vollstandig on Byakuya.

The Sternritter in question include NaNaNa Najahkoop, Robert Accutrone, and Candice Catnipp, along with Meninas and Liltotto. During the fight, Candice complains that her power levels are too low to handle Byakuya, and her Vollstandig ability seems to be operating at less than full efficiency, seemingly confirming her claim. Candice was already weakened from battling Ichigo, so her dialog suggests that if she hadn't already thrown down with Ichigo, she would be able to handle Byakuya with relative ease. Similar can be said for Robert, who puts up an irable fight, and is only defeated when Byakuya calls upon his Bankai, suggesting his power level is much greater than it appeared, too.

The change was certainly welcomed by many fans, as characters like Robert appeared to be very powerful in their first appearances during the Quincy's initial attack on the Soul Society, but never had the chance to live up to that power in the manga. Byakuya himself even gets to look better, as his new Oken cloak, which he received from Squad Zero, completely blocks the effects of certain Sternritter abilities, like NaNaNa's and later, PePe's. The defensive properties of this cloak may well have saved Byakuya's life, depending on the exact effects of NaNaNa's ability.

These kinds of expansions to the existing material are exactly what fans were hoping to see when it was first announced that the Thousand-Year Blood War arc would be, even if it does shake up well-established ideas of how powerful some of these characters are. Unfortunately, there are still some things which fans were hoping for, such as the reveal of Robert's Schrift, which didn't come to , and these do have the potential to radically impact power ratings further. It's a good sign for the future, though, as Bleach's remaining material will likely need a lot more expansion like this.