Nemu sacrifices herself to protect Kurotsuchi, showcasing her growth and loyalty. Kurotsuchi defeats Pernida using cancerous mitosis in Nemu’s brain, leading to a gruesome victory. Emotional character arcs, stunning animation, and a sad death make “BABY, HOLD YOUR HAND 2” exceptional.
The following contains spoilers for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict, Episode 10, “BABY, HOLD YOUR HAND 2”, available on Hulu and Disney+.
In the 10th episode of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, we return to the battle between the Left Arm of the Soul King, Pernida Parnkgjas and 12th Squad Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, who, at the end of the 8th episode, appeared to have triumphed over the sentient appendage through his newly modified Bankai. However, in the beginning of episode 9, we saw the Zanpakutō struggle to keep down the hands it ate, bursting into flesh and sinew that covered the battlefield. Realizing that her creator needs her help, Nemu Kurotsuchi jumps into the fray, showing us not only how much she has grown, but also how much Kurotsuchi treasured her despite his blatant sociopathy.
With a look into Nemu’s creation, and a first-ever view of a despairing Kurotsuchi, “BABY, HOLD YOUR HAND 2” was perhaps the saddest moment in the entire Quincy Blood War so far, and the anime-only insert scene made the loss even more palpable.
These crucially important Bleach characters proved themselves to be invaluable assets when the Quincy attacked.
“‘Muhahahahaha!’ That’s You, That’s What You Sound Like”
Kurotsuchi vs Pernida Parnkgjas, Round 2
Kurotsuchi laughs maniacally after Ashisogi Jizō ate Pernida; however, ironically, the baby could not hold the hand as it began to react to activity in its stomach. Ashisogi Jizō was blown apart by Pernida, who finally brandished the one true symbol of the Quincies: a Heilig Bogen. The hand laughed maniacally in a manner mocking Kurotsuchi’s earlier laughter, noting that he must have forgotten that it identifies as a Quincy. Kurotsuchi scoffed at the premise, calling it an “embarrassment” for the Left Arm of the Soul King to call itself a Quincy. This annoys Pernida, whose speech pattern changes drastically from moment to moment and appears to follow the cadence of some of the other characters.
Kurotsuchi notes that the hand has been developing its vocabulary over the course of their fight, which is in line with its presidence over the concept of evolution. Interestingly, in addition to Pernida’s vocabulary improving, it appears to be moving far better than it was in the first half of the fight, with the movement of the CGI being noticeably better than in BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, episode 8, which may be deliberate.
Pernida materializes a Heilig Bogen on each finger and fires countless arrows at Kurotsuchi, who realizes that each arrow has Pernida’s nerves attached to it, making their trajectory and effect upon impact far more troublesome than the average Heilig Pfeil. One arrow bounced off the nerves Pernida laid out on the ground, aiming right for Kurotsuchi’s back despite his evasive maneuevers. The arrow would have connected were it not for Nemu’s intervention, which caused her to cast away an arm in the process.
Kurotsuchi collects his daughter and takes her to a safe point atop a building, tossing her onto the roof without much care the way he always does, but he appears angered by her choice to help. When he asks why she entered the battle on her own accord, she explains that she realized that he was in danger. Kurotsuchi tells her he has no recollection of teaching her to make her own decisions, which means she learned something outside his influence. He then calls her by a name she hasn’t heard in years.
Nemu. No, Nemuri No. 7. Since Ichigo Kurosaki and the others appeared, we’ve been through countless fights. I taught you too much. Do you know how difficult it would be for me to raise the next you to become the current you? If you don’t know, then don’t act based on your own judgment! You’re not allowed to die of your own accord! You can only die when I order you to. If you understand, then stand up!
The Nerve of This Enemy
Nemu, This is Your Mission
Nemu doesn’t understand how she came to learn something she wasn’t taught, which angers Kurotsuchi as he tells her she has no idea how difficult it would be to raise “another her” to reach the same developmental milestones she has, especially when much of this growth came about after the Soul Society’s exposure to Ichigo Kurosaki’s influence. Nemu recalls the day she first opened her eyes, wondering if Kurotsuchi remembers what he called her when she first awoke.
After the credits, Nemu gives Kurotsuchi his regeneration serum, which he’d forgotten to take. With it, he recovers his lost arm and asks if she realized he’d forgotten it before leaving for battle. She confirms this, claiming that he didn’t touch his drug stand before leaving the way he usually would, prompting her to bring it. Pernida finds them, and they’re forced back into battle, with two arms firing arrows at Kurotsuchi, giving us a delightfully animated scene combining Kurotsuchi’s deft use of Hirenkyaku to dodge the flurry.
Kurotsuchi comes up with an idea to defeat the hand: a “nerve coagulating agent”, which, by his explanation, is a drug that causes nerves to remain stuck in whatever process they were facilitating, so open mouths don’t close, and blood vessels can no longer constrict or dilate. By having Nemu administer the drug to Pernida’s nerves, he can destroy their viability, making it possible to step on them without problems. The way Kurotsuchi communicates with Nemu via an earpiece gives the whole sequence a very “Mission Impossible” feel, like Nemu is a super spy getting her intel from Agency while coolly evading enemy fire.
While it seems like the drug could work, Kurotsuchi comes to a chilling realization when he hears Pernida speak like Zaraki: the nerves spread across the battlefield are what enable its evolution. By absorbing all the information from the environment, Pernida can evolve rapidly – which explains how it was able to employ the layering of skin and nerves that Kurotsuchi designed his new Bankai to have. Nemu’s blood runs cold as she realizes that Kurotsuchi is in danger, and then we are sent back in time; back to before Nemuri No. 7’s birth.
The Saddest Part of the Quincy Blood War
Goodbye, Nemu
Pernida’s appropriation of the new Ashisogi Jizō’s abilities puts Kurotsuchi in immense danger, which spurs Nemu into action, revealing a level of strength she has never shown before as she pushes her body to 99.2% full power to protect him from an incoming attack, blasting through one of Pernida’s hands. He protests, saying that he never gave her an order to move, but she is convinced that her duty is protecting him, while he believes her only duty is evolving.
However, Nemu is ready to lay down her life, and she performs an incredible ultimate technique in which she shaves off pieces of her own soul to use as a beam, blasting through Pernida once more in a beautifully animated moment. However, the technique takes a lot out of her, and doesn’t kill the Quincy, who rapidly regenerates and turns her into a pin cushion of nerves as it regenerates into a disgusting mass of eyeballs and flesh.
The Nemuri Project
Iteration Outcome
No. 1 Failure
No. 2 Failure
No. 3 Failure
No. 4 Failure, but a brain grew
No. 5 Failure, but managed to get to embryonic stage
No. 6 Failure, but grew to two years old before dying
Nemu Resounding Success, tragically died fighting Pernida Parnkgjas
Nemuri No. 8 Success
Nemu’s body explodes before Kurotsuchi’s eyes, and for the first time ever, we see him despair. The scene is brilliant as a vision of Szayelaporro Grantz mocking Kurotsuchi is seen, giving us even greater insight into the scientist’s mental state at that moment, and the TYBW version of the “here to stay” soundtrack really makes the sense of loss set in. It’s a masterclass of an episode for the character arcs of both Nemu and Kurotsuchi, and even questions the scientist’s famous quote about how he spits on perfection, as throughout this fight, his fear of losing Nemu; his magnum opus, is why he was so adamant on having her follow his orders.
Szayelaporro’s inclusion is important because of their contrasting positions as mad scientists, as well as his recurring presence in the overall storyline through the novels and the Hell Arc One-Shot, in which he is one of the first individuals to escape Hell. Kurotsuchi agrees with the vision, crushing Szayelaporro before watching Pernida eat Nemu’s remains save for her brain, which he plans to keep.
In the Palm of Defeat
When In Doubt, Just Give Them Cancer
While it seems heartless for Kurotsuchi to watch Pernida eat what is left of Nemu, doing so is actually how he came to defeat the hand. Within Nemu’s pituitary gland is an organ that stimulates mitosis, and is central to enabling an artificial soul to keep growing beyond its natural limitations. When something like that meets a brainless organism like the Left Arm of the Soul King, it causes uncontrollable growth that we as humans all know as a vicious condition that few are able to overcome: cancer. The metastasis destroys Pernida from the inside, and Kurotsuchi walks away from the gruesome scene with Nemu’s brain in his hand. A clear indication of his emotional state follows as he steps on a nerve which twists his leg backwards, and he simply falls to the ground without so much as a yelp.
Yumichika and Ikkaku arrive to carry him away from the battlefield, and he directs them to a region where he placed containers containing the revivified bodies of 10th Squad Captain and Lieutenant Tōshirō Hitsugaya and Rangiku Matsumoto. They awaken and thank the scientist, who is then placed in an empty container alongside Zaraki, where they will recover from their battle like Goku did on Namek. Stunning animation, a highly emotional build up to an incredibly sad death, a powerful anime-only scene and a victory fitting of Kurotsuchi’s character, BABY, HOLD YOUR HAND 2 was an exceptional episode of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War.
The Bambies and Bazz-B Cause a Commotion
Teasing the Next Episode in Style
After the ending credits, we see Giselle Gewelle and Liltotto Lamperd as they’ve infiltrated Welt, with several Soldat there to intercept them. Giselle summons the zombified Candice Catnipp, Menias McAllon and Bambietta Basterbine, together making quick work of the Soldat, who aren’t actual Quincy soldiers anymore but creations of Yhwach’s The Almighty. Elsewhere in the castle, Haschwalth is sending Soldat to watch Uryū Ishida, but before they can leave, they are taken out by Bazz-B, who is ready to engage with Yhwach’s right-hand man, with whom we’ll soon learn bonds run deep. The post-credits scene added came with a brief yet deeply striking fight which did a little bit to wash out the sour taste of Nemu’s death out of our mouths, and sets up the following episode in an exciting way.
