Editorial…‍ ‍

July 2026… 

My brother called me up the other day and said, “Hey, I am going to the movies to see Bleach Thousand Year Blood War the final movie, you want to go?” 

You probably know where this is going…   

“Yeah, I’ll go!” 

What we saw was Bleach:  Thousand Year Blood War – The Calamity.  What it was, was the first three episodes of the series to be aired on July 25.  What it is, is the beginning of the “final” arch to the Thousand Year Blood War story line.  What it wasn’t was any kind of ending, movie, or special “theatrical” release of these episodes that would separate them from otherwise just seeing them on some kind of giant television screen.  What we got was basically just the “special features” section of a DVD at the end of the 3 episodes, that reminded me of yet one more shutter from a time bygone era. 

WOW!  In this day of streaming and content, Now! I almost completely forgot about loading up a DVD, (or Blu-ray), and seeing the “Special Features” section and sometimes finding some random or hidden gem of insight, feature, alternate telling, cut scene, or even a playable game or interactive offering in this subtle section on that “stage select” screen before pressing “play”. 

Hold on, It was nice to see the featurette at the end of the 3 episodes… but… really!?! 

Don’t get me wrong, almost any time I get a chance to see anime on the “big screen” I take it, but episodes?  I don’t know if this is really the way to solve production re-coop costs.  I know studios have to do SOMETHING, but maybe this is not really the way to go about it… at least not quite this way. 

Giving “more bang for your buck” is a start, although I was a little disappointed at the way this was marketed – as my brother clearly thought and sold to me a completely different idea than what it actually turned out to be, and even more so after the third episode, JUST as I was really getting into it, but IF there was a little more, like a special “short”, special “spinoff” episode, (i.e. Goku and Piccolo learn to drive), or even pulling out something special from the “archives” that was really meant for the fans, like a special music video(s) with the entirety of the Bleach story encompassed, that would be more “meaningful” than what we got at the end…  not to mention that half the people in the theater took off RIGHT AFTER the third episode, completely ignoring what was coming up… 

I guess, I just expected a little more.  Once again, this is not a dis track, Bleach is dope!  But, this whole experience sucked me into a reflection on DVDs, hunting them down, having crazy party showings, watching an entire DVD from start to finish, from full length feature, into special edition, Letter Box, whole commentary during the film, just having that physical “trophy” hanging out on the shelf like an old nostalgic picture to remind you of some good memory lost to time…,

Adversely, in the end we consumed a couple of episodes on a really big screen… 

By the way, when I ordered popcorn, the people at the counter looked at me like I had three heads… WTF!?! 

Take it easy! 

-        OldManYdoc