With Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime, Tite Kubo is working with the production team to improve one of the weakest arcs of the series. The primary problems with the final arc were the rushed pacing and unfair treatment of many characters with minimal screen time. The new anime explores the characters better and enriches the fight sequences with spectacular visuals. One character who benefitted the most from the increased screen time was Chōjirō Sasakibe.
There’s a stark disparity between the information we have about him and his feats in the story. Moreover, there are some inconsistencies with his character arc. Sasakibe failed to live up to the authoritative position he held in the Bleach world. For the same reason, many fans believe that he was a disappointing character overall.
Chōjirō Sasakibe’s Legend and How He Failed as a Character
Sasakibe was one of the oldest Soul Reapers and had served Yamamoto as the lieutenant of the first division. He was able to inflict a life-long scar on Yamamoto with his Bankai. For how much time he had spent beside the Head Captain and the experiences he had lived through, fans believed him to be a strong character. Contrary to popular belief, he was extremely weak, or at least that’s how he came across.
With every appearance in the series, he ended up disappointing fans as he lost every time without putting up a fight. The first time it happened was during the Soul Society Arc. The soul reapers were on high alert and Rukia was going to be executed. The Head Captain didn’t have any intentions to back down. He had stationed the Soul Reapers to make sure that nobody could interrupt the execution. As soon as Ichigo arrived, everyone was on their guard.
At that point, Ichigo had just begun his journey as a soul reaper. So, when he was able to defeat Sasakibe with a single punch, it surprised fans. For an experienced soul reaper like Sasakibe, it shouldn’t have been that hard to dodge or restrain Ichigo, but he miserably failed to do that. To this day, fans hate that being defeated by a rookie was Sasakibe’s introduction as the lieutenant.
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Given how he was killed off in his next proper appearance during the final arc makes his character arc seem pointless. There wasn’t much of a tussle between him and the Quincies. He did inform Yamamoto about the potential threat they posed, but that was about it. He had the presence and the lore of a significant character, but no achievements to justify the legends. However, the anime made a sincere attempt to improve his character arc a little.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Anime’s Service to Sasakibe
During Yamamoto’s final fight in the Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime, Sasakibe’s character was explored through flashbacks. We were shown how much Yamamoto cared about Sasakibe and a glimpse of his strength. Those few moments were some of the best moments of the character throughout the story. For a character to get his best moments after his death highlights Tite Kubo’s shortcomings as a writer.
The characterization of Sasakibe was extremely poor. Showing how strong or intimidating he was during Soul Society or giving him a few better scenes before his exit from the story would’ve improved his character arc quite easily. But, what we got was a character who failed to justify his presence in the story.
Bleach is available to read on the MangaPlus app and website, and the anime is available to stream on Netflix.
