03/02/2025

MONDAY | FEB 3, 2025

26

LYFE

Bleach War saga escalates o Third season sets stage for epic finale Kurosaki and his group of friends take a backseat in the latest season. – PICS BY TV TOKYO Ű BY MARK MAHEN VICTOR

SINGAPOREAN sensation Shye (Trinity Shye-Anne Brown) has released a new single titled Cecilia , exploring the concept of identity and the longing to find one’s place in the world. Through its tender lyrics and intricate guitar riffs, the song invites listeners to reflect on their journeys and find beauty in the mundane. “With Cecilia , I wanted to create an atmosphere that feels like falling into water in slow motion, a dreamlike descent where time stretches and emotions take over. “The song carries a sense of surrender as if you are watching the light fade away while simultaneously feeling a deep sense of safety in the darkness,” noted Shye. Before the song’s release, Shye had wanted to explore a new sound, something different from her usual indie-pop and electronic-influenced tracks. Cecilia , therefore, explores her early musical influences as a teenager, which includes a mix of soft grunge, post-hardcore and shoegaze bands. “With this single, it was important to me to build a wall of sound, one that eventually gently engulfs the listener,” Shye shared. Shye is an independent singer-songwriter and music producer who began her journey at 16 upon winning a music competition, which then led to the debut of her EP Augus7ine . She followed it up with her debut album Days to Morning Glory in 2020 and her live album 9LVES in 2023. Shye has also performed for international acts such as Daniel Caesar, Clairo, Superorganism, Tiger Den SXSW and Urbanscapes. Singaporean singer Shye drops new single Cecilia Shye is a self-taught musician.

F OLLOWING the explosive, black ink blotted finale to Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War’s (TYBW) second cour (season) in 2023, the anime’s latest instalment continues the escalation of events. Principally, the main villain of the series, Yhwach reversing Ichibe Hyosube’s killing blow and the former’s Schutzstaffel cohorts overwhelm the remaining Squad Zero members. The final stage for this season and the undated final season is now set, with Yhwach breaching the Soul Palace and turning it into Wahrwelt, a new stronghold from which he would recreate all three worlds with him as a god. A lot takes place in this season, subtitled The Conflict, but this penultimate series of events is much more contained than the previous two seasons. Instead of the constant back-and-forth between the human, the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo worlds, everything is mostly set in Wahrwelt, with a few exceptions such as the flashbacks. It is also much easier to follow, as the protagonists and other main characters are split into small groups with their own “paths” to take as they attempt to reach Yhwach. As the anime is adapted verbatim from creator Tite Kubo’s manga, everything is streamlined. Each episode has no lull nor are there pacing issues as plotting follows a rather rigid formula of groups finding their way around Wahrwelt, them coming across one of the Schutzstaffel members, a lengthy fight ensues, the group initially wins but then the latter pulls a reverse Uno card to become a bigger threat. It is certainly formulaic but the animation by Pierrot Films is at such a high quality that it is impossible to notice an otherwise minor problem. The art direction, action sequences and even the sound production is impeccable, like the two episode-long fight between Shunsui Kyoraku and Lille Barro. If a complaint is to be made, it is likely how the main protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki does very little or has limited screen time this season, especially compared with how much the previous seasons and the series as a whole has always been about him. Even this criticism is negligible as The

Yhwach’s fate will be sealed in the final season.

The Visored and other supporting

characters will be joining the fray for the finale.

With two of the powerful Schutzstaffel members defeated, the next season will see the final showdown between the surviving main characters and Gerard Valkyrie, Askin Nakk Le Vaar, Jugram Haschwalth and Ychwach himself. The final season, which will wrap a combined 20-year long anime, is speculated to premiere either at the end of the year or early next year. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War is streaming on Netflix.

Conflict is something of an impressive balancing act in between progressing the main conflict and side conflicts while expanding certain parts of the story, particularly the lore and character backstories. At the same time, Tite Kubo’s heavy involvement in the anime’s production means this creative choice is intentional, with Kubo even expanding aspects that were either not present or had little development in his original source material.