Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’s Newest Episode Makes Welcome Change to the Manga

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 has already made some changes to how the final arc of the original Bleach manga played out with its newest episode, and it was certainly a welcome change considering what happened in the original! Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has officially kicked off the full fight between the Soul Reapers and the Sternritter forces with the new episodes premiering this Summer, and the cliffhanger from the previous episode saw the strongest members making their move on Soul Society. With the second episode of the cour, fans are starting to see more of their brutal tactics in action. 

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Episode 15 started off by revealing a few members of the Sternritter who were not in a fight in the first cour of the series. This includes the seemingly robotic foe BG9, who once defeated Soi Fon in the first cour of the new anime. He’s trying to track down the Captain and approaches the Vice Captain, Marechiyo Omaeda, and threatens Marechiyo’s younger sister Mareyo to try and get him to talk. But this confrontation happened a lot differently in Tite Kubo’s original Bleach manga with a much worse result for Mareyo: 

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What Changes Does Bleach’s Anime Make for Episode 15?

As pointed out in a side by side comparison from @imadoubled on Twitter, Chapter 549 of the Bleach manga sees BG9 threaten Omaeda’s entire family before skewering his younger sister Mareyo. These threats get far more intense before Soi Fon shows up, but Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Episode 15 instead makes Marechiyo far more heroic in its take on the material. Rather than being surprised when his sister is struck, Marechiyo is able to jump in front of her and take the attack that was headed for her. 

It’s not a very subtle change as it removes some of the brutality and coldness from BG9’s initial assault on Marechiyo, but it better serves the Vice Captain for what’s coming next. He and Soi Fon will be fighting against the Sternritter in full as the anime continues, and he’ll look much better in retrospect than the version that saw his sister taking a fatal blow in the manga. 

But what do you think of this change to Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War in the newest episode? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!