Warning: Spoilers for Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood WarBleach: Thousand-Year Blood War's second part wasted no time getting down to the plot, with its opening scenes promoting Uryu to a position of prominence in the Quincy organization, as well as granting him a new power. It's the nature of this new power, however, that just might make Uryu too overpowered for the plot.
In Thousand-Year Blood War, Quincy leader Yhwach gives his subordinates a special power, known as a "schrift," which corresponds to a letter of the alphabet. These powers can be quite strong, as seen with Bleach's Stern Ritter Y, who disguised himself as Yhwach and was able to fight at an incredible level while in that state. These Schrift powers are all enough to make their wielders a serious threat, and that goes for Uryu, too. There is one noteworthy aspect to Uryu receiving his schrift, though, and that's the fact that Yhwach says it is the same as his own.
Uryu's "A" Schrift Is One Of Bleach's Strongest Powers
Uryu was given the "A" Schrift, which in the manga is said to stand for "Antithesis." The Antithesis ability allows its wielder to take what has happened and reverse the outcome. If Uryu were losing and taking a lot of damage, for example, he could use the Antithesis ability to transfer all the damage he had taken to his opponent, while whatever had been dealt to his opponent would be transferred to him. Uryu isn't just limited to using this on himself, or even just on injuries; any two objects that have interacted are eligible for this reversal.
It's not hard to see how this ability could become story-breaking very soon. In some ways, it's similar to Orihime's ability to "reject" the occurrence of events, but the ability to not only undo, but reflect it back at one's opponent makes it far more powerful. While Uryu has only briefly used this ability on screen in the Thousand-Year Blood War anime, during the Quincy elite guard's battle with Squad Zero, which he used to help Yhwach escape the prison that Squad Zero created.
How Uryu's Schrift Power Stacks Up Against Ichigo
Of course, fans are very much looking forward to the inevitable moment when Uryu clashes with Ichigo. Antithesis is very powerful, and it's especially useful in the hands of someone as intelligent as Uryu. Ichigo, however, has gotten some major power-ups of his own since they last spoke, reforging his Zanpakuto and undergoing some brutal training in the Soul King's Palace. Ichigo's upgraded Bankai has yet to be used on-screen, so it's impossible to say just how powerful he has become, and whether it will be enough to defeat Uryu. One can't forget, however, that Uryu has access to Vollstandig and other Quincy powers in addition to his schrift, and that combination of powers makes him extremely formidable.
Uryu's Quincy Powers Are Only Growing Stronger In Thousand-Year Blood War
In part 3 of Thousand-Year Blood War, Uryu utilizes the Antithesis in his anime-original battle against Senjumaru Shutara, a member of Squad Zero. While Senjumaru has Uryu trapped and seemingly at her mercy, Uryu is able to use the Antithesis (empowered further by Yhwach's Almighty) to swap places with her, putting her at his mercy--which she receives none of. It's clear that despite being fairly new to this power, Uryu has already found a very effective way in which to utilize it, and that power may only grow stronger in the coming episodes.
But Uryu's schrift power isn't his only new ability. Another added fight scene in the anime, this time between Uryu and Ichigo, sees Uryu deploy his Vollstandig (translated as Voll Stern Dich in the anime), an ability which he never got to use in the manga. Uryu's Vollstandig grants him many powerful new techniques, such as manifesting feather-like projectiles which he can use to attack opponents en masse, preventing them from being able to block his attacks. Uryu's Vollstandig's ultimate technique is the Sternenstaub, which brings these feathers together into a single massive arrow that rivals Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho in power.
Uryu is already far, far more powerful in the anime than he was in the manga as a result of these changes, making him a truly formidable foe for Ichigo. The changes have been received with overwhelming support from fans, who have long felt that Uryu was not an active enough participant in Thousand-Year Blood War, despite the arc ostensibly focusing on him and his dilemma.
Uryu Gets One Of The Many Broken Powers That Appear In Thousand-Year Blood War
As manga readers know, many of the abilities shown by the Sternitters in the Thousand-Year Blood War arc are absolutely broken, or sometimes not explained enough - as is the case with Yhwach's power, the Almighty, which enables him to see all possible futures. Uryu has often struggled to keep up with power creep in Bleach, but with this ability at his disposal, that certainly won't be a problem any further. As Yhwach's successor and wielding the Antithesis ability, Uryu has gone from a run-of-the-mill Quincy to one of the Soul Society's greatest threats in all of Bleach.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is a sequel series to the popular anime from creator Tite Kubo. This anime follows Ichigo and his friends as they investigate why people are disappearing while trouble arises in the Soul Society. The first season was released in 2022 and has been critically acclaimed since its beginning.
Cast Masakazu Morita , Johnny Yong Bosch , Takayuki Sugô , Richard Epcar , Ryûsei Nakao , Aleks Le , Karen Strassman , Neil Kaplan
Release Date October 10, 2022
Network TV Tokyo
Writers Tite Kubo
Directors Tomohisa Taguchi , Mitsutoshi Satô , Hikaru Murata , Hodaka Kuramoto
Showrunner Tite Kubo
English (US) ·