Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War , the long-awaited anime adaptation of Tite Kubo’s blockbuster shonen manga, ends with the same heightened hallmarks that made Bleach a phenomenon in 2004. The Calamity , Pierrot Films’ fourth and final cour, delivers gorgeous animation, larger-than-life battles, and storytelling that can be as invigorating as it is convoluted. Bringing those qualities together, Thousand-Year Blood War ‘s series finale feels suitably Bleach : frequently exhilarating, periodically exhausting, and a fitting conclusion to a landmark shonen series many fans never expected to live to see completed.

Bleach follows Ichigo Kurosaki (EN: Johnny Yong Bosch, JP: Masakazu Morita) , a high schooler who moonlights as a substitute Soul Reaper, a samurai who defends humanity from demonic creatures called Hollows. In typical battle shonen fashion, this logline is only the tip of the series’ iceberg.…