NANAO ISE - Bleach Character ANALYSIS | The Sacred Lineage

right so i know it's only been about a week since the last character analysis video which is kind of unusual um and here's the thing sometimes i have a bit of a vague plan as to what videos are upcoming on the channel um across potentially the next month and then sometimes i'm just like no actually i i just want to talk about this today for some reason um and this time i really wanted to talk about a vice captain as i feel like outside of the kind of major vice captains like renji rookia hisagi etc i haven't really spoken about them too much and they are a major faction in bleach and so i kind of wanted to pick one of the vice captains who is perhaps slightly more underrepresented and so today we're gonna have a character analysis video on the vice captain of the eighth division and then the co-vice captain of the first division nanao ise um she wasn't voted for or anything like that this really is just a spontaneous thing that i wanted to talk about today which is part of the fun of having a channel like this although i will put out a poll for the next characteristics video after this one pretty soon before we get started however if you haven't hit subscribe yet make sure to do that now as you are in the perfect place for bleach content like this every week and also if you enjoyed the video don't forget to give it a thumbs up as well because that really does help the video on youtube it gets it more exposure and it means that more bleach fans like yourselves get a chance to see it and if you want to take the support from me another step further we do have a patreon for the channel as well now you can get access to videos just like this one early and you can support me for as little as a dollar a month if you want to help out what i do here on the channel and everyone on screen at the moment is already doing just that so an enormous thank you to all of you so a minute ago when i mentioned about nanal's representation throughout the series um and i said that she was underrepresented i think that is quite fair i would say there's definitely something of a sliding scale of representation among well kind of all the characters in bleach but if we look solely at the vice captains you know you've got your ultra popular characters who are a major focus of a lot of the series renji rukia while she's a vice captain hisagi you know characters again who aren't vice captains the whole time but hold that kind of prominence and then eventually become vice captains like ikaku and then you've got matsumoto characters like that as well and then you've got a sliding scale you've got characters kind of in the middle like i would say omider for instance um who gets a decent amount of screen time but no not as much as those guys and then at the very bottom you have the likes of sasuke bay poor old chojiro sasakibe and i would also argue characters like tetsuzaimon eba as well which is a bit of a shame because those guys are cool and as far as i'm concerned now probably fits squarely in that center part of the of the scale um that's mostly thanks to her kind of expanded role in the thousand year blood war arc if you kind of go off her role throughout the story's earlier story arcs i could even argue her being in the bottom end of that scale which is why i think it's kind of good to discuss her now so her manga lifespan ranges from chapter 102 in the soul society arc right the way to the very end of the series to the penultimate chapter of 685 although she does also appear in the brand new hell chapter as well which honestly i just kind of wish was called 687 because it would make my life a lot easier in terms of her appearance and personality she's one of the more understated shinigami for sure she certainly has her own unique look almost like every other character does in the series we've mentioned it before but kubo nails it with character designs almost all the time nanao is no exception but she's definitely slightly more subtle and subdued in the way she looks which i guess kind of goes quite well with her character who is quite straightforward quite cold in a way quite calculating and uniform and i think that fits her quite well she's got this whole kind of librarian look going on very big spectacles quite neat hairstyle and she's almost always carrying a massive tone under her arm as well and i i really like that i think it's a cool look obviously in terms of her appearance she shares some superficial elements with lisa yada maru which is a fairly important part of her character but aside from that she is pretty much wholly unique and i really enjoy her outward appearance i think she's like i said she is unique enough while being quite downplayed in general which i think is obviously done on purpose to contrast with her very eccentric very flamboyant captain kyoraku and actually i want to just talk briefly about the way kubo portrays the relationships between captain and vice captain because i think it's often falls into one of two camps either the captain and the vice captain you know complement each other almost perfectly both yamamoto and sassakibe are quite similar characters overall and the same again goes for komomora and eba or the captain and the vice captain are near total opposites and you know examples of that would be characters like biakia and renji you have the upper class symbol of the nobility and then the kind of dog of the rukong guy renji and you know obviously kyoraku and nanao fall into that second category kyoraku is the uh outgoing often very drunk party lover um whereas nanao is the administrator of the division she's the one doing all the paperwork she's the one who doesn't put up with any of kyoraku's nonsense um and i like that they have a really nice dynamic and it's a dynamic that kubo clearly enjoys as well as we see it a few times throughout the series it's kind of like the inverse of hitsugaya and matsumoto it's to some degree and so nanao doesn't have the biggest role in the story we don't get to see necessarily loads of her personality and what we do see like i said fits into that kind of stereotype of the stern librarian or teacher or something like that um who you know has to kind of smack around the kids who are messing around um but we do get a little bit more in the thousand-year blood work we get to really see now step up to a role of a commander-like figure in in some respects which we'll get into in the plot overview we also get to see her perspective in battle as well which i found to be really interesting and so in regards to her plot overview then she doesn't do a huge amount in the story perhaps outside of the thousand-year blood war she has a decent role in that but like i said she first appears in the soul society arc when chad is emerging on the eighth division he's beating up characters like tatsu fassa and joji and this again synergizes nicely with the last character analysis video i did on chad who has a big role with the eighth division in this first major story arc nanao helps introduce her captain to chad there's a lovely moment and again kubo is incredibly good and deft at these character interactions that really help you nail down exactly what their dynamic is kind of the moment you see them and i love the fact that kyoraku clearly planned out this very kind of theatrical entrance in front of chad he lands on the ground you can't really see his face flower petals are like dropping elegantly and gracefully around him and he's like talking to chad in this very mysterious way but then the petals keep coming and they keep speeding up and he's like um you know now that's that's probably enough and she's like not really giving she doesn't care about any of this nonsense she just wants them to do their job and she just dumps all the petals on him in one go it's lovely lovely little character moments and character interactions like that that helped the goatee 13 feel so real i think and it's reasons like that that they are so popular as a faction as a whole and this is just such a great example of that and it immediately establishes the dynamic between the two of them and there is a little bit more prior to that as well where you know nanao notices that ryoka is coming and thinks that they should just go out and deal with him and kyoku kind of talks to her about her demeanor and stuff like that and he's kind of very condescending and patronizing way that often ends with him getting smacked so nanao doesn't have really any role to play in the fight with chad she is the one who receives the information about eisen's murder from the right a tie member and so when the fight with chad comes to an end she notices that kyoraku has decided to leave him alive and she's not really having any of it she moves to actually finish chad off we don't really know what she's going to do she sort of holds her hand up in a sinister way and seems to be collecting rayatsu around it whether she was just going to actually strike chad with her hand imbued with rayatsu or if she was going to perform some kind of kido spell which would obviously make a lot of sense for her character unfortunately we never find out as kiraku stops her committing the act saying it's not particularly ladylike to finish off someone who you know can't move and this i think is a really interesting scene that actually sets the tone for their both their relationship and it kind of explores their world view and mindset and how they differ in that regard and now protests immediately saying you know he's part of the ryoka he must be part of the group responsible for eisen's death again very straightforward very black and white very logical way of thinking but kyoku is completely the opposite of that and he is incredibly perceptive and i just always love this thing because i think it's extraordinarily telling um of kyoraku's character as she kind of holds her wrist and stops her from attacking chad and the logical answer is chad's group the ryoka the invaders must have killed the captain and so kiraku is like yeah probably but also possibly not and i really love that i love that moment where you don't you don't think for a second that kiraku actually thinks these guys are capable of killing a captain not because they can't but more because that's not in their nature um you know even after just dealing with chad for a little while kiraku you know i think understands that they are not bad people um and so he's kind of like i think the truth you know we need to uncover the truth as to what's actually going on and that kind of mindset really separates them i think as to why she's a vice captain and he's a captain um and obviously the power difference but i think in terms of a mental kind of examination of how these characters actually tick i really like seeing that just the way that nanao jumps to the most logical conclusion and was ready to finish off chad as a result and kyoroku stops her i really do like that and this carries on as well when kyoraku is conflicted by rukia's execution and doesn't know if he thinks he should allow it to go on or not and now despite you know believing in justice and authority is very much willing to stand by her captain you know she's willing to stand by his side even if she's anticipating him making a slightly maybe stupid move she's always going to be there for him and again i like that i like their understanding of each other even if they are very different people and so towards the end of the soul society arc once kyoraku and ukitake have helped prevent rukia's execution they flee the area to kind of try and take the raging yamamoto to a more desolate place for a fight they know there's going to be a showdown and the now sort of chases after them kyoraku teases her on the fact that she came in last and that they she's not as fast as they are but then of course she notices that yamamoto is already there and was waiting for them in anticipation and there's kind of a weird moment here where nanel kind of what basically looks at the scene unfolding in front of her and she thinks to herself like i don't know if my if these two captains can actually defeat yamamoto and this was back during a time where the story's overall power was kind of significantly simplified it was more it was more a case of if they're a captain they're immensely powerful and you know you were to believe that two captains together would be nigh unbeatable and that's kind of the opinion that nan gives as well she sort of is like you know even even two captains they might not be able to defeat yamamoto being the captain commander and then she says there's only one thing i can do to help and she sort of reaches into her uniform as if she's about to do something that that she actively thinks can help hinder yamamoto of all characters but he immediately quashes her with his immeasurable rayatsu like he just he just completely crushes her with this immense pressure in the manga it's actually quite graphic you know she like falls to the ground her eyes are rolling up into the back of her head tears streaming down her face it really looks like yamamoto's basically just going to kill her simply by exerting his power and he says you know i don't have time to teach babies like you how to breathe you know obviously by proxy of her being kyoku's vice captain he's enraged with her as well and i i think this is really cool you know it's no slight against nan i think any of the vice captains at this point in the story would crumble like this if yamamoto actually targeted them with his pressure and so i think it's really strange that nanao seems to think she can do something to hinder yamamoto to the point where she was actively reaching into her uniform to presumably draw something out to use against him now we never seen the now zanpakto in the canon manga until much later on in the thousand-year blood rock where it's basically confirmed she doesn't actually own one of her own it's my assumption that she is probably planning to use her zampak toe here especially since there is a splash promo page of the vice captains at one point revealed where she is drawing a zompuck toe from her from her sleeve clearly at one point he intended for her to have a standard zan puck toe like the other captains um and then eventually scrapped that idea in a thousand-year blood warlock so i'm i'm guessing that's what she was going to use and if that is the case i'm really intrigued as to what kubo's plan for her zampacto might have been if he even had one or if it was just supposed to be a slight tease a slight cliffhanger as to what she could actually do as a vice captain but regardless it's still a pretty weird scene particularly when you look at it in retrospect but kyoraku manages to rescue her from this he jumps in between the two of them and he apologizes to nanao for bringing her along um and you know thinking it was quite irresponsible of him and while this is the right thing for him to do here this is one of many examples i think of kyoraku actively sheltering nanao from battle and in many ways i think perhaps costing her own growth in that regard which is something we will get to towards the end of the thousand-year blood war but kyoku does seem to have a habit of shielding nanao away from very dangerous or even potentially dangerous situations but he takes her away from the battle and she kind of while she's recovering slowly you know panting heavily comes to the realization that she was a fool to think that they might have set a chance they do not stand a chance in hell against yamamoto so i want to touch briefly before we move on on that point i made just then about kyoraku sheltering nanao from potentially dangerous situations and i have to wonder if this idea of him really trying to protect her stems from what happened to lisa in the turn back the pendulum arc and actually this is a grief that i really wish had been explored because kyoraku must blame himself entirely for what happened to her you have to assume because originally tessai sukabishi was going to go to that battlefield 100 years ago and he would have been horrified but kyoraku actually basically says you know don't send tess i send my vice captain lisa she's ready for it instead now lisa is consenting in wanting to go she was eavesdropping on the captain's meeting basically in the hope that she would go anyway um but you know you have to assume because obviously kiraku and lisa had a very close relationship you have to assume he felt you know just destroyed when she didn't come back that night um and in fact is exiled and disappears from the soul society completely without a trace their eventual reunion in the fake karakura town arc is perhaps more than anything played up for laughs so i think it would have been really powerful to see how he felt in the immediate aftermath of that and i do wonder if that's now why he keeps the now away from situations like that and speaking of keeping nanao away from these kind of situations she basically doesn't appear at all in the iran car arc which is really really strange and i actively have a memory of thinking to myself like while the iran karak was ongoing you know fake karakura town was unspooling week by week i remember thinking at one point i was like i completely forgot and now even existed like i totally forgot this character was even a thing um because she basically just isn't around you know she doesn't take part in any of the fake karakura town stuff and that's when basically half of the goatee 13 shows up because the other half show up for a bit in waco mundo but the majority of the shinigami's facetime in the arc is during that battle and clearly kyoraku has kept her away again i would assume trying to shelter her from the idea that she might be killed during the fake karakura town fight that's the only thing i can think of why she wouldn't be there she does make an appearance in term at the pendulum at least though so it kind of shows that kubo didn't forget about her since that takes place right before the war actually begins um you get this nice moment where you see her she's like a really young girl tiny little kid 100 years ago and she kind of approaches kyoku in the middle of the night basically being like you know where's lisa we were supposed to read together tonight which is nice because it kind of shows that these two characters did have some kind of relationship in the past there's more to it than them just looking very similar um but kyoku you know he's like oh she's out in a very important mission but she'll be back tomorrow obviously she never was and so we can assume from that point on that nanel eventually worked her way up to becoming his vice captain and i have to assume that kiraku basically decided he would never let anything like this happen again which is why nano is nowhere to be seen in fact her next appearance isn't really until the thousand-year blood war arc where she does play actually a pretty substantial role all things considered and actually when you take a look at the thousand year blood rock as a whole one of the best things about it in my opinion and i've always had this opinion is kubo's commendable effort to try and include as many characters as you can sometimes that's a recipe for disaster but where characters like nanao are concerned it really gives them a chance to actually do something um and actually have some kind of a role and were it not for the thousand-year blood well i would have her down at the end of that scale with the likes of chojiro eba and you know even characters like isa although isa is another one who does actually do a little bit more particularly in this arc and it makes a lot of sense for nanao to have an expanded role in this arc because she starts taking on the role of something of a proxy commander and that makes a lot of sense because obviously she along with her captain after the first quincy invasion is moved to squad one um they they basically take up the mantle of the kind of leaders of the goatee 13 she obviously takes on the role of the vice captain along with gen shiro okakiba from chojiro sasakibe and so much like kyoraku when he gets the news of the fact that he's been promoted to the captain commander after yamamoto's death nanao is also shouldering a lot more responsibility all of a sudden and much like her captain she is the face of a new age got a 13. we don't really see the effects of this responsibility on the now quite like we do with kyoraku but she does take a prominent role at the forefront of the goatee 13 a couple of times in this arc which is really nice to see but when the vanden reich invades for a second time their big proper invasion where they replace the seireite with their own territory nanao is there in the squad one barracks when they are confronted by yugram hashwath you know the liaison to juha bach himself and the grand grandmaster of the stern ritter in a sense this is about as dangerous a situation as she could probably end up in you know this guy is clearly very bad news although hash wealth himself not that kyoraki would know this but he is quite a subdued individual and is probably not the most dangerous stern writer to come up against purely from a personality perspective but nanao still holds her owner here and actually gets a decent opportunity to really show what she's capable of now this is when the now skill with kido really starts becoming the focus of her character she's there clutching her tome and you get this kind of idea of her being like a witch or like a spell caster which i think is honestly really cool and actually because she's supposedly so proficient with keto i'd have liked to have seen her using it even more keto itself very underused in bleach and the keto she does use is just not really that interesting which is a big shame although it is practical which again is very much character practical logical um but basically she creates this barrier to block hashvolf and i like that she adds a bit of flourish to it as well it has the symbol for the first division in there but like surrounded by the symbol of the kido core which i think is really neat and that's a that's a i'm guessing that's something she just decided to add in there when she developed the spell but hash wolf you know tries to sort of tap it with his blade and realizes that there's no way he can get in it seems to be purpose built to actually stop a quincy from being able to break through it easily but over time he does shave away the reaction to the point where he's able to smash through the barrier and kyoraku kind of jumps in front of nanao immediately like he prepares himself and again this is me kind of thinking kyoku is really worried about nanao all the time and is sheltering her he can't really dismiss her because she is actively here wanting to fight alongside him fight for the fate of the soul society but you know there's no denying that the moment it looks like hash off is about to make a move kiraku is like okay that's it that's probably enough now you've done your thing uh i'll take it from here but you know i kind of like that and i think it feeds into the idea we'll get into the end of this arc but before hash wealth can really do anything a second keto barrier pops up in front of him this one now made out of tessellated shapes um and he realized he realizes himself that actually this is weaker in foundation because obviously nanao has had less time to put it together but actually he surmises that perhaps a trap has been included within to kind of compensate for the fact it's a weaker war than it was before but before that any of this can kind of continue hash off is eventually called away and there's a kind of a weird moment as well where he he basically says to her do any of the other shinigami know how to perform these spells because they are quite adept at stopping quincy they are purpose built to prevent quincy from moving forwards and now sort of reluctantly is like well no no other shinigani can use these spells and it's just a bit weird that that would be highlighted it sort of feels like maybe nana was like studying away in secret and didn't really work with anyone else when really they probably should have been coming together a bit more but regardless it is still pretty cool to see her creating an ability that can even hold off the grand master of the stern ritter albeit for a short time as they then prepare for the final assault this time on the royal palace na now moves to the shinigami's new stronghold mayri's light field laboratory and this is one of my favorite nano moments in the series when she really steps up uh and kind of takes her place as the vice captain of the first division you know a position that doesn't come without its fair share of gravitas but basically kenpachi zaraki of all characters is absolutely losing his mind over the fact that yachiru is missing presumably still on the battlefield somewhere whereas the majority of the surviving upper echelon of the gote have all come together it's it's a fair enough point you can kind of understand why kim patchy would be freaking out about the fact that yatchiro's been left out there somewhere he doesn't know what's happened to her and he tries to leave but kisuke can't let him go you know they need saraki to go to the royal palace and he needs to do his job and put his feelings second there's a really nice bit of inner turmoil though when kim patchy turns around and is like furious that kisuke is blocking his exit and he kind of moves to attack him almost when the now steps in in front of him and this is an interaction i don't think i ever anticipated seeing in the series but basically because kyoraku isn't here at the moment he is dealing with his own personal business otherwise known as eisen and the central 46 nano has kind of had to take his place as almost like the proxy captain commander of the entire gothay 13. and i really like this because zaraki's got to be a pretty terrifying guy to stand up to especially when he is incensed like this you know even kiesky was starting to look a bit freaked out but nanal just gets in front of him and she's like you need to stop this you know you need to think about your role as a captain the guys that your squad members are already looking for out out there and they will be able to do it they'll be able to cover more ground than you faster we need you here and zaraki stares her down she stares him down unblinking and eventually he's like yeah you're right you're right yep fine whatever let's just get this over and done with they'll find her faster than i will and it's just a wonderful moment because like you know when the now gets in front of him like that characters like ikaku and hisagi umichika for example they are like terrified he's about to just cut her in half or something um and there's you get the feeling that there's like this palpable sense of relief after kenpachi backs down but the fact that zaraki of all people relents to nanal's command means that her respect has been earned and it's well understood by everyone that you know she is a member of the first division not just as she a member she's one of the co-vice captains and that isn't a position that doesn't come without its fair share of respect and as they try and build the reishi door to the palace there's a nice kind of almost fan service-y moment for nanao when she meets lisa again and now is kind of freaking out about the fact that they don't have enough spiritual pressure to build this door but lisa comes in and touches the orb as well and she's like we're in this together we're not going to give up and nanal recognizes her and stuff and that's a really nice moment um it's it's one of those things that kubo didn't have to do but it's enriched it enriches the story just by being there so i'm really happy to see it and now kyoraku has returned the shinigami are in varvel they are making their final attack against the quincy and after the pernader fight has taken place the main goatee 13 force is making its way to the central tower but they are being picked off one by one by sternmeter x the x-axis leel barrow the quincy sniper and kiraku decides you know i'm going to have to take these this guy down because he's taking out so many of our people and this is another big moment for the captain commander because he needs to take on the responsibility to ensure that the rest of his his men essentially can carry on forwards and so he and then now basically go and fight this guy who has been picking off the rest of the shinigami and you get a nice moment where once again the now kind of acts as the voice of the captain commander's office um basically they're not sure if they need to kind of like wait around for kyoraku or not but nanel goes back to the rest of them and she's like you know kyoku's fighting here we're gonna stay here but you guys need to carry on she's talking to shinji etc and so they do just that and i really like that and i think it's just a really awesome development for nanao it kind of makes a lot of sense for her to be the voice of the captain commander in many ways because she is very administrative she's very kind of on the ball and i really like that i think i love that she's given this kind of level of respect but what comes next is probably nanal's biggest moment in the series i'd say unquestionably her biggest moment um where she helps kioraku take on leo barrow himself and it's pretty crazy because lil barrow is probably one of the strongest characters in the entire series at this point having turned into this angelic seraphim of heaven itself already having beat having outlived kyoraku's bankai one of the most anticipated abilities in the series but you get this nice moment where basically kiraku is literally about to die he is passing away kating kyokotsu is like sleep now will drift away together and then he's suddenly shaken out of this stupor by now who has returned to the battlefield after speaking with the rest of the shinigami and she's like you know you have to wake up wake up right now um or you're going to die and leo barrow appears behind her looking incredibly sinister and he's like oh okay the vice captain has returned it's very sinful of you to throw away the chance your captain gave you by sending you away but of course realizing that nanao is in danger spurs kyoraku on and he basically uses the kage oni ability to warp them both into a shadow and they manage to avoid lil barrow's attack once inside the shadow world of kyolakuzanpukto reveals the truth that she's known all along but kiraku made a promise to her late mother that he would never pass along her true zan park toe the ceremonial sword of the ise family of priests um and basically he would never pass this on this is something that he would take to the grave with him because the sword supposedly curses all of the women of the isa family to have you know basically terrible things befall them and so in this shadow world kiraku relents reveals that yes this is true this is something that actually happened kyokotsu removes that ceremonial sword from its face and this is another really lovely moment we get a ton of backstory here most of it for kyoraku but some of it for the isai family as well you get a nice small panel of a child nanao or like a really young now over here overhearing her mother talking to kyoraku about giving him the ise sword for safekeeping keeping it away from her daughter so the curse doesn't befall her as well her mother is executed by central 46 for essentially losing a ceremonial artifact and kyoraku really feels the weight and the burden of the fact that everyone he's close to gives him something of importance and then passes away and so he's kind of left with all these loose ends essentially these horrible feelings weighing on his heart from people who have all passed on and he doesn't want the same thing to happen to nanao someone he cares for deeply but also has a familial relationship with as well as it's revealed he's actually her uncle um because her mother was married to his brother so actually the two of them have an even closer relationship than was previously thought however despite kyoraku's reluctance to involve her and again this comes back to the idea of him really sheltering her not only from dangerous situations but also from the truth because he fears something terrible will happen to her in light of this however nanao actively makes the choice to wield the blade herself against leo barrow she says that i will take the curse of the isa family and this actually makes a lot of sense this next bit she basically turns to kyoraku and she says you know i'll take this blade because i know in my heart that the man i admire and adore so much would think a curse like this is just silly superstition it's just nonsense and nothing will happen to me and this i think is perfect it makes a lot of sense what she's basically saying is there's no such thing as the isa family curse it's rubbish and as long as i believe this i know you can think the same thing as well and we can kind of we can use this sword without recompense and it makes a lot of sense now again very logical very practical very pragmatic would never believe in a superstition like this you know she's probably all about the facts she believes what she can see what she can read in a book and you know actively showcase for herself and she would think a curse like this is just silly superstition we need to use this sword so i'm going to use it no matter what you want no matter what you think and you can't keep it from me because it's my birthright as a member of the isa family of priests and i really like that i think it's a bit of a shame the sword came out of nowhere it is a deus ex machina at the end of the day something we have talked about on the channel before this is definitely one of the biggest examples of this because leo barrow is basically undefeatable until it turns out that now has this super hidden secret ceremonial sword and some people have said oh you know the the surname issei implies that she would have something to do with a religious blade of some great significance but in my opinion that is not something that the vast vast majority of readers would ever pick up on it's a nice thing to find out later on but it is just not something that anyone is ever really going to know particularly outside of japan however it does work here in the context i think the most important thing about this story twist is the added layer of depth that gives the characters involved i like that nanal takes control of her own destiny she basically takes this sword despite knowing it could do something bad to her and kiraku kind of has to swallow his protective almost paternal feelings for now and be like very well you know i'll pass this sword on to you because with this sword you can almost certainly win and it's a it's a pretty powerful moment i remember reading it on the weekly i was a little bit like i'm not really sure how much i like any of this because it did feel quite cheap in some ways it felt a little unearned but i actually going back re-reading it a few more times it's something something that grows on you i think and this fight as a whole has grown on me quite a lot and i always feel a bit a little bit disheartened when i hear people don't really like this fight particularly because of the ending but actually i don't think it's that bad i actually quite enjoy how it all comes together for the characters involved for this main pairing of the two of them captain and vice captain the captain kind of giving over both his life and hers into her hands i think that's really cool and so in essentially the finale of her story now emerges from the shadow on lil barrow's face in a pretty awesome pose as well i have to admit that's a cool panel um and they kind of clash and she reveals her blade shinken hakyoken which is basically a blade covered in mirrors which he's going to use to reflect god's light back at him in a very literal sense and that's pretty much it basically nanao says that you are emanating a divine light and this blade will reflect it back and with it i can actually defeat you and she kind of lunges at leel he deflects the the strike only to find it severed his arm completely the light disperses and his she just kind of cuts through him like butter basically um and he realizes that oh actually okay a sword like that is actually quite powerful but you should have finished me off with that one hit because now i'm going to absolutely decimate you and you get another moment that was a little bit controversial right now but i actually quite like it where nanao is like terrified she's absolutely fear-stricken of not only lil himself but actually the act of battle the act of being in the midst of a fight she's been sliced basically when she sliced leel the the light shot off his uh off his body and struck her probably like a piece of glass or something is how it would feel and so she's got a lot of blood coming down her leg and she's not used to this she's never been in this kind of situation she's like ah you know it's it's so painful i never thought wielding a sword would be so scary i never thought facing an enemy would be this terrifying and i think this actually again really works nanao is the kind of character who lives in her books you know she's very much a book worm that's where something in the pages of a book is something she can actually control and that's why she's so adept at kedo it's something she can really manufacture and control to control something to her advantage but being in a sword fight it's far more primitive it's far more brutal and your life is on the line basically all the time the moment you go into clash blades with someone you could be killed whereas using keto feels a lot more safe it feels a lot more disconnected from an actual fight scenario so i really like this idea that nanal's actually terrified of battle i think it adds another dimension to her character because she's not terrified of battle in the same way as someone like hisagi is she actually doesn't know that she's terrified until the moment comes and then she's like i'm i i can't even move i'm so scared and i think it really works because for someone who's basically never been involved in a fight like this it feels like a very human very real reaction to have and again if kyoku has actually been sheltering her from battle situations it would completely explain why now that she's finally allowed to actually engage an enemy she would be fearing for her life all the time and i think that makes a lot of sense and of course at the same time kyoraku is kind of like wallowing in his own sort of self-doubt and self-despair in the shadow world of kageyoni but he realizes he comes to the realization that he must accept responsibility both for himself and for now and for the actions and the choices they are making and so he rises up behind her takes the sword as well and basically says you know i'm right here i'm behind you he stops her from trembling and he says you know together we can do this and so basically nanel realizes that her captain has always had her back she will always have her back and with that she deflects lil barrow's trompette ability and basically finishes him off in a single hit nanal then watches kyolaku collapse from the strain of what is easily the hardest fight they've pretty much ever had and then we skip ahead to 10 years later where she's seen as again still the vice captain of the first division and now helping to inaugurate rukia kuchki in as captain of the 13th division and then like i said nanao does very briefly appear in the brand new hell chapter which for all intents and purposes may as well be six eight seven um and she doesn't do an awful lot she basically just says to okie kiba still acting as a co-vice captain that she's going out to partake in this ritual where the vice captain's supposed to go to the human world and find some hollows to kill and that's basically it for now ese i think that again this is another example of a character who doesn't get that much screen time but is pretty interesting in her own right the idea of a pure almost a pure keto user is something that truly fascinates me and much like keto in and of itself much like tesla much like hatchi i really wish we'd seen more of it and unfortunately generally speaking the keto that now showcases is not really that interesting but it is kind of cool that she has effectively manufactured those quincy barriers herself which is something that again really showcases her prowess but the most important thing for nanal's character in my opinion is just watching her grow watching her move out of kiraku's shadow in a sense to take on the responsibility of being the vice captain of the first division showing commanding that respect to even characters like ken patchy i think that's really awesome as well and then getting that really human reaction from her in the fight with lil barrow where you kind of see the consequences of the way kiraku has been too overprotective of this character you know if nanao had appeared in the fake karakura town arc and actually maybe had a skirmish with somebody she wouldn't have been so terrified when the moment came to face lille but maybe she still would have been but i really think that's supposed to be kubo's way of showing us that this character has been basically denied any battle action almost her entire life by kyolaku because again in her backstory you know you find out that he's had quite a con a controlling grip on most of her life even if it's kind of from the shadows in a way you find out in the back story that she actually applied for assignment as a member of the kedo court but was mysteriously instead took he took in by the eighth division obviously kyoraku sauna now isaiah was like you know she needs to come under my tutelage because i need to look after her for her mother's sake and it's it's kind of cool it's kind of interesting seeing how not only she's not only she's been molded by that kind of the way of living but also the way she blossoms out of that at the end of the thousand-year blood work and very much becomes her own person i think is a really cool character turn but that's essentially it for the character of nanao ise and this very random character analysis that i just pretty much decided i wanted to do on a whim um but i really hope you enjoyed it let me know in the comments below what you think of nanao um if you enjoyed her character if you enjoyed seeing her like i said grow into her own character as opposed to kind of living a life almost controlled by kyoraku and what you thought as well of the twist of her having not her own zanpak toe but the ceremonial isai blade shinkan hakin i'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below but until next time guys don't forget to hit subscribe hit the like button if you enjoyed the video and i'll catch you later see ya

Channel: MrTommo2304

Views: 75,617

Keywords: bleach, bleach manga, bleach anime, bleach discussion, bleach review, new bleach chapter, bleach hell arc, ichigo, aizen, shunsui bankai, bleach tybw, MrTommo2304, MrTommo2304 Bleach, nanao, bleach character analysis

Id: 1nq5nnE8Dkg

Length: 42min 41sec (2561 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 01 2021