What's the Deal With Ichigo's True Bankai? | Bleach TYBW Discussion

so what exactly is the deal with ichigo's true bankai i think it's fair to say that the final version of tensor zangetsu has left a lot of us scratching our heads ever since it was first revealed and it's safe to say there are no real concrete answers as to what's actually going on with the final version of ichigo's famous bankai and it's safe to say that this version of tensor zangetsu looks absolutely nothing like any previous iteration now taking on the form of a massive white and black blade that seems to be a fusion of the two swords he had in shikai but ichigo's final baankai has a habit of breaking infamously snapping in two like a twig the moment it was summoned against juha bark and then in the very final moment of the last battle of bleach when ichigo takes that fateful swing what we once thought was just a part of the bankai breaks away like a casing revealing apparently his original shikai and it's safe to say that we've never really had any answers anything definitive about what's actually going on here the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that i didn't put the word explained in the title and there's a simple reason for that as far as ichigo's true bankai goes i don't actually know and to say i do wouldn't be telling the truth at all this is my best guess as to what's actually going on with tensor zangetsu and what i think is happening in that final moment where the sword shatters revealing apparently ichigo's old chicai so this is my best guess based on the evidence we're presented with in the manga and what i think's going on as someone who i think has a decent grasp on kubo his themes and bleach as a whole but of course if you have any theories please let me know them in the comments below um i know that ichigo's true bankai has stumped people for years since it was released and before you get started if you haven't subscribed yet guys make sure to hit that button now i'd really appreciate the support and if you love bleach you are in the perfect place for content like this every single week also don't forget to give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it that does really help with the exposure on youtube and we do also now have a patreon as well if you want to support the channel that little bit further that would go a long way to helping me do what i love which is talking about bleach so i want to say a big thanks to everyone who has helped out the channel so far so i think to get a real understanding of what's actually going on with ichigo's true bankai there are a couple of things we need to understand there's a running theme throughout the thousand-year blood war arc of understanding one's true self or finding one's true form we see it with numerous characters whether that's renji finding out his true bankai name soho zabimaru rukya using the true version of sodeno shirayuki against as not mairie revealing the true version of konji ki ashi soki jizo komo mora removing the armor of kokujo tengen myo to reveal what's actually underneath there's a lot of this sort of thing in the thousand-year blood war rock and it also heavily applies to ichigo this is a character who is a essentially perfect hybrid of all the races in bleach something that has been mocked by fans over time but i do think it works really well and it explains why ichigo is so powerful but it also explains why it's so difficult for him to pinpoint exactly where his power comes from and who he really is and of course going back to that theme of finding out the truth about yourself understanding your true nature everything but the rain is all about that it's all about ichigo learning where his power comes from and what makes him who he really is and there's also this notion in the thousand year blood war arc that ichigo is becoming or has become a true shinigami a member of the shinigami no longer just a substitute soul reaper but someone who can rub shoulders with the goatee 13's greatest as a member as a true member of soul society this is mentioned by a number of people including the zero division themselves when ichibe notes that ichigo has become a true shinigami after completing his training in the royal palace but where does this idea of finding out the truth about yourself coming to ichigo's true bankai well again this is supposedly his true zanpak toe we find out the true version of zangetsu itself after everything but the rain when ichigo learns to understand where all of his powers come from he finally realizes that he and zangetsu are not just partners they are in fact one and the same they are one being uh and they will they are they're intrinsically linked you know that's why ichigo is able to finally get his true dual-bladed zanpak toe another thing that's important to note before we go into that final battle itself is ichigo's power sources while it can seem convoluted on the surface it is actually fairly simple when you break it down ichigo's father is a shinigami his mother is a quincy and she was bitten by a hollow which meant that she gained some holo rayatsu to save masaki's life because those two are completely unstable and would have killed her ishin the shinigami bound himself to her physically thereby entwining all of those rayatsu into one ichigo is the result of that a perfect hybrid and ichigo goes into the final battle against yu habakk with all of those rayatsu in tow a number of people have wondered why ichigo never uses a holo mask again after the iran karate well that's because the iran car arc is all about ichigo's descent into that nature of being a hollow him using the holo mask is not natural it's supposed to be an abomination a bastardization of what ichigo actually is yes it's really cool and yes it grants him loads of extra power but at the end of the day the iranka arc is about him overcoming the hollow within and understanding that it's actually a part of him a part of his power set that's what tense susan gets you're fusing with white at the very end of deir side is supposed to represent and that's why he doesn't use a holo mask in the future um after that moment once he defeats eisen once he's used mugetsu you never see a holo mask on him again and that's because he's supposed to have taken a grand leap forward in merging all of his powers together the holo mask appearing physically on ichigo's face designates a separation between that and his shinigami self whereas now they are more attune they are more one but of course in the thousand year blood war that does kind of get thrown out the window when you discover that zangetsu is actually yuhabak or a remnant of ichigo's quincy powers however ichigo now being considerably more mature than he's ever been in the past accepts that as one readily accepts that even though zangetsu may have lied to him about who he is he's still intrinsically a part of him and so all of those powers are inside ichigo when he goes to face uh in the royal palace at the very end of the series we see this in full force of course when he activates his quincy powers and one of his blades turns white again showing a real perfect fusion between everything he has he gains a hollow horn on his head similar to the horn he had when he defeated ulchiora he gains a dark hollow style eye and i believe there's also hollow tattoos running down him going towards his chest where a hollow hole of sorts seems to have formed and yet of course crucially he retains his mind through all of this so this is a perfect fusion of all of ichigo's powers he has zaan puck toe but one of them is white denoting the quincy powers and he also has various hollow attributes to his body as well and he does exhibit strength befitting of this he then activates his bankai tensa zangetsu while still in possession of all these powers i might add and he does so by combining his swords together so this version of tensors and getsu is supposed to represent i guess a perfect version of all of his powers combined however yuha pretty swiftly puts a stop to that and breaks the blade in two after this ichigo tries to continue to put up a fight but you see over time his powers slowly revert back to how he was when he first started the battle yuha breaks off his hollow horn the darkness in his eye begins to recede and eventually he returns to just looking like a regular old ichigo and here we get the most crucial moment of the story of ichigo's true bankai after being defeated by you hobart in chapter 680 uh then steals ichigo's powers and this is the moment where we really get to the core of what it means to be ichigo's true self and actually kubo spells it out for us essentially uh steals all of ichigo's quincy power from him and at the same time unknowingly takes his hollow powers as well and ichigo literally says my quincy power and the hollow power that was attached to it it's all fading away it's all turning into white and obviously kubo's symbolism is incredibly strong it always has been but this is very literally saying i think that ichigo has lost his quincy and hollow powers completely and kubo is choosing to end the series by making ichigo a pure shinigami nothing else and i think that makes sense as i said that feeds back into this idea of everybody finding the true nature of themselves finding their true selves um you know ichibe commenting that ichigo is becoming a true shinigami this is that in its most literal form so ichigo as an amalgamation of all the races has lost to you hardbacks almighty power and you see that both physically and literally uh steals all of his powers ripping away his quincy powers that his mother gave him and the hollow reaction that came with it leaving it to go with just his shinigami powers and you see a visual representation of that as as ichigo collapses to the ground what was left of his hollow horn crumbles to nothing so what then is up with the true bankai why does it look the way it does and why does it shatter during that very final moment and i think it comes down to a simple case of symbolism like i said when ichigo uses the bankai the first time he is still an amalgamation of all races and the bankai is supposed to represent that the white outer casing is supposed to represent the mixture of his quincy and hollow powers while the inner blackness is supposed to represent the true nature of ichigo that of a shinigami and that's why it breaks during that final moment because now ichigo has no quincy or hollow power left in him he is attacking juha with simply the raw power of a shinigami that's why when yuha goes to clash it the white casing disintegrates because ichigo no longer has those powers he is just a pure shinigami and he cuts uh in two with a blade that heavily resembles his old chicai and the reasoning behind that in my opinion again is pure symbolism ichigo's original shikai the huge bread knife that he wields throughout the soul society arc and some of the iran karak is the closest thing we have in bleach to ichigo's kind of ichigo being nothing but a pure shinigami because from the very beginning ichigo has had the traces of the hollow inside him and stuff like that but for the majority of say the seoul society arc ichigo is just using his shinigami powers yes of course zangetsu the quincy shows up at one point ichigo's hollow comes out during the fight with biakia but for the most part during his seminal battles against renji against kenpachi against biakia he is really using shinigami powers for the most part and that original shikai of ichigo's is the closest thing we have to a visual representation of ichigo just being a shinigami it's definitely difficult to wrap your head around and like i said none of this is fact this is all my opinion based on what i have read and my understanding of the situation however we know of course that hashwath sees a vision of the future which he then projects to uh to try and warn him that ichigo will kill him with a visual representation of ichigo's old shikai now hashwolf not being anywhere near as skilled with the almighty as yuha sends him something that doesn't look quite right ichigo is wearing his old chic idea uh looks considerably younger but the general gist of the future is there ichigo will kill yuha with a representation of his old shikai that denotes him at his purest state as a shinigami before now who so it does take a bit of a roundabout explanation to finally get there but just to really break it down and make it simplistic as possible going into the final battle ichigo has made up his of his father oshinigami his mother a quincy and the hollow that is attached to that quincy rayatsu defeating him yuha robs him of his quincy powers and the hollow that goes with it as well leaving ichigo just a shinigami so when it comes down to finishing the fight the white casing on the bankai breaks away revealing ichigo's old shikai essentially which is now his true bankai killing yuha just as hash wealth prophesied even though hashef's prophecy was slightly inaccurate due to his inability to use the almighty correctly like i said it is a little bit confusing and i i could be completely wrong but i think that's what it comes down to it comes down to this idea of finding and understanding your true self which is a big running theme of the thousand-year blood war arc it comes down to the truth of ichigo's heritage and what he is left with inside when most of that is robbed away from him and the true nature of him as a shinigami which again is alluded to throughout the final arc so i really hope that was helpful let me know in the comments below if you agree with me on what you think is going on in that final moment with ichigo's true bankai against yuhaba do you think that that is supposed to be a visual representation of the moment ichigo was mostly a shinigami yes he uses this sheikai during the iran quran but like i said the iranka arc is really an in-depth exploration of the corruptive powers of a holo and ichigo spends a lot of time in that arc in bankai as opposed to shikai so that's why kubo uses the imagery of seoul society shikai ichigo to evoke this feeling of him being a true shinigami all right guys but i really hope you enjoyed the video let me know in the comments below uh if i'm completely off on what i think is going on here or if you happen to agree with me i'd love to hear what you have to say below go and check out one of my other videos i've just done a huge 40 minute in-depth review and discussion of cart for your own world volume 2 so i'd really appreciate if you check that out the link is in the description below don't forget to subscribe maybe check out the patreon if you like what i do here and until then i'll catch you next time see you later guys

Channel: MrTommo2304

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Keywords: bleach, bleach manga, ichigo, ichigo kurosaki, ichigo bankai, bleach final arc, bleach tybw, ichigo vs yhwach, bleach anime, bleach 20th, bleach 2021, bleach new anime, MrTommo2304, MrTommo2304 bleach

Id: CQxGj-IurMg

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021