YAMAMOTO SHIGEKUNI GENRYUUSAI - Bleach Character ANALYSIS | The Oldest Flame

on the cusp of the release of the Thousand-Year blood War Arc anime I put it to you guys to decide who should be the topic of the next Bleach character analysis video between the two leaders of the opposing sides of the war and you voted for the winner to be sugar Cooney Gary acai Yamamoto one of the most ancient figures in Bleach Yamamoto the founder of the gote 13 are easily one of if not the single strongest Shinigami in all of bleach is an absolutely fascinating character and as a stalwart defender of the authority of Soul Society itself it might not seem like he has that much going on in terms of depth from the outside but as the series progresses more and more is unraveled about this character until he becomes truly interesting by the end personally what I like most about Yamamoto as a character however isn't even that depth that he acquires later on it is the fact that he is this absolute perceived symbol of true Authority and strength within the soul Society you only need to look at him to see the soul Society within Yamamoto himself he truly embodies everything it means really to be a Shinigami and to uphold the laws and the values of the gote that he founded and that's just so awesome to see a character who is so truly symbolic of this massive organization part of what makes him such a mysterious character part of what makes him seem so separate from everything else is the fact that Yamamoto is used by Kubo fairly sparingly throughout the story but that just helps to emphasize those moments where he does actually step foot onto the battlefield before we get started on the video guys if you haven't hit subscribe yet make sure to do that now for more bleach content like this every single week and if you enjoyed the video make sure to give it a thumbs up as well to help support me and the channel and if you want to take that support from me another step further I do have a patreon for the channel as well and to everyone who is supporting me over there on patreon as always I I just want to say a massive thank you to each and every one of you I really do appreciate it and as is always the case with my character analysis videos there will be spoilers for the entire story of bleach ahead so where do you begin with a character like Yamamoto who so truly encapsulates the history of Soul Society itself that really does make him such an intriguing character compared to the rest of the cast who feel like infants in comparison to this guy who has seen it all who has been through it all and who really does just know and understand this world perhaps better than nearly anybody else well the best place to begin is with a character overview and as always we begin that by looking at his manga lifespan Yamamoto was introduced in chapter 81 along with virtually every other captain of the goatee 13 outside of those that we saw fleetingly before that moment characters like biakia Kenpachi geen Yamamoto is introduced with the rest of the them heading up this Captain's meeting to kind of decide what to do about geen after he failed to defeat and capture the ryoka at the gate and yamamoto's final appearance is right the way through to 533 though that is a ways away from the actual end of the series only further highlighting kind of how little Yamamoto actually has to do in the grand scheme of things and that's why even though I do really enjoy this character I actually have grown to like Yamamoto more and more over the years rather than just seeing him as this badass old grandpa with a fantastic design and an even more awesome zanpakuto I've actually grown to have a deeper enjoyment of this character rather than just a Superfluous surface level love what it is that I actually like most about this character is the fact that he carries the weight of the history of the traditions of the foundations of the gote 13 with him wherever he goes as Eisen himself even says if I kill you it'll be like I am undoing the history of Soul Society you carry the history of Soul Society with you and for me that's what I like most about this character outside of everything else that makes him who he is that's what I've always found to be the most interesting part of Yamamoto and Yamamoto is of course a beacon of tradition you know you see that within himself you see that within his first division which is there to uphold the ideals of Soul society and paint this exemplary picture of a Shinigami for the rest of the gote 13 to follow another thing I've always really liked about this character is that he obviously holds a lot of responsibility being the leader of the gote 13 of the Shinigami and I think that he comes across as a really flawed character in many ways you know he's not Divine he's not perfect yes he has nearly god-like strength in the form of his own buckto ryujin Jacka which perhaps has the greatest destructive capability of any zanpakuto ever and Yamamoto is a master of every other Shinigami combat art but he is very very flawed on a deeply personal and human level you know he has come from the most bloodthirsty of times he has pulled himself out of that darkness and the goto 13 was built on a foundation of blood of thuggishness of brutality of criminality and some of that still seeps through today like I said Yamamoto is a deeply traditional man you know he never really issues the party line essentially Soul society and its laws are him he lives and breathes them probably having written some of them himself you have to imagine he's so entwined with the history of this world and that leads him to be quite short-sighted quite rigid difficult to change now change does happen with Yamamoto and that's a big part of his character development this idea of him mellowing out over time allowing things to be slightly more fluid slightly less rigid and stuck in place but it is this stubbornness this narrow-minded focus on an adherence to the laws that makes xiaomoto a compelling and flawed character and I really do like that I like seeing I like knowing that this guy isn't perfect that he makes some bad decisions that on a personal level on a personable level it's difficult for people to kind of relate to him because you're not supposed to he is supposed to be the boss the leader and I really do like that I think it's really cool that Kubo just committed to that for this character because you know at the end of the day it's not going to make him the most popular character in the series but I think that Yamamoto to is so perfectly suited to that leadership role for the majority of bleach that he just completely encapsulates everything that makes the captain commander of the goatee 13 a respectable role that really works in fact you can almost imagine Yamamoto as a literal statue that Kubo chisels at and chips away at over time and more and more of the layers underneath are revealed kind of the further into the story you actually go and if we move on now to talk about yamamoto's visual design I mean it is fantastic Kubo has always been a master at crafting character designs and you only have to take one look at Yamamoto to to know that he has seen it or the amount of battles that he has been through that he has lived through are etched into his very skin the history of combat is written on yamamoto's back you know with all of those scars that run across him that light that glow orange when he activates his zanpaktaris his reyatsu is flowing through him it's so cool he he looks he lives and breathes power itself wisdom itself and he just feels so ancient and I think it's fantastic I I think it just he is a great looking character just this idea that you only have to look at him to look at the way Kubo draws him the way he draws ryujin Jack of this absolute Tempest of torrential flame to see to feel that power radiate off the page itself that power that has lived through thousands and thousands of years of battles that and and that's so it's so well handled as well because everything Yamamoto does up until the last basically the Thousand-Year blood War Arc feels like a breeze to him like he is unpertooth by basically everything he is not he basically isn't bothered by almost everything that kind of befalls him and I think there are so many tiny details that Kubo just completely gets right with this character you know the fact that you just have to look at yamamoto's face to understand how situation is going which I think is so very clever that Yamamoto spends most of the time with his eyes essentially shut and then if something slightly Peaks his interest he might open one eye and if he's really shocked about something both eyes will be wide open it's just really really clever it's small things like that tiny details that go into making and building and crafting a character that really bring them to life that is a part of yamamoto's Personality that he is so weather worn you know so tired of everything that virtually any kind of challenge that comes to the soul society that might worry other captains other officers is just he is totally non-plussed by it for the most part and you can see that etched into his face then of course you've got the massive flowing beard the extremely long eyebrows the fact that he wears his hayory simply draped over his shoulders rather than actually wearing it physically as if depicting the history of Soul Society sitting on his back is so very awesome and then of course you've got his zanpak toe most of the time concealed within his Cane which again is just this really great little detail and it actually interestingly seems to connect him to the zero Squad most of them have Zam pukto that actually take the form of something different of course the major difference there is that Yamamoto has a traditional Katana it's simply hiding it's concealed within his Cane where is the zero Squad all seem to have zampokto that actually are these other objects but it's still a cool little detail nonetheless that really sets him apart from the rest of the gote and of course his personality will it is pretty much exactly what you'd expect and it is for the most part unchanging over the course of bleach but it would be Yamamoto has been around for so very long that these events aren't going to change his outward character that much and I actually think it was I actually really appreciate the way Kubo went about this character's development because it's not an easy task someone like Yamamoto who has been around for so very long who literally started the goatee 13 and has seen enemies and Wars come and go is not going to outwardly change that much you know when the Lost agent Arc came around and we saw many of the younger Shinigami had changed their outfits whereas the older Shinigami hadn't that was a really clever and subtle way of showing us that even though they are captains they still haven't cemented their place in the world yet they aren't quite set in the ways they are going to walk for the rest of their life whereas characters like Yamamoto change nothing about them because they've been through all of that centuries ago so again that sort of thing is really really subtle and so yamamoto's personality as a result also isn't going to change too much he still remains that same Gruff no-nonsense badass guy who is just who really only cares about upholding the law of Soul society and doing their job as Shinigami as protectors ensuring that they are defending the world and doing the best they can when it comes to defeating their enemies when it comes to upholding the peace and sanctity of the Soul Society itself now of course yamamoto's personality does change Kubo does Chip Away slightly at that statue we see fractures and splinters emerging in it over time Yamamoto does become more chilled out essentially it's really fascinating seeing that change happens slowly seeing Yamamoto allowing people back into the soul Society the vizards key skater and yoruichi hoing these characters while they don't rejoin the soul Society they are so clearly not exiled anymore and it's changes like that that you know Yamamoto of old the central 46 of old Yamato and the central 46 to me have always seemed to very closely align even though the central 46 technically supersedes Yamamoto in many ways he almost feels like a voice of them a voice of the law and the court of Soul Society itself um but I feel like over time they separate more and more you know the court and the and the gote separate more and more the Gosei definitely becomes more forgiving less stubborn less quick to judge less Prejudice I guess and that's and that is thanks to Yamamoto changing coming into contact with characters like Ichigo Kurosaki who helped to figuratively open yamamoto's eyes to the fact that things can change and sometimes change is needed change is good you know bringing the visard captains back into the fold despite the fact that not too long ago in Shinigami terms especially you consider them to be criminals the central 46 wanted them dead uh treated like normal Hollows and now you've just let them back in and there's no downside to that you know they are fully willing to be allies they're powerful and the gote 13's captaincy ranks are once again filled so while you might be forgiven for thinking that Yamamoto really doesn't change that much over the course of the story although I think his character development takes a dramatic turn in the Thousand-Year blood War he does change and that's kind of the beauty of how this character is handled and how Kubo knows how to handle these characters so very well but yamamoto's character development really just goes crazy at a Thousand-Year blood War Arc in my opinion when he suddenly loses his closest Confidant in many in many cases is one of his actual friends sasakibe who has merged at the hands of the vandenreich which is their declaration of war and suddenly Yamamoto who has basically maintained a constant for over the last thousand years or so has that world upended has it shattered in the blink of an eye and it goes to show that even the absolute strongest of Shinigami the strongest pillars of the Soul Society can be splintered can have a can have a crack appear when the enemy hits them in the in the right place in the pressure point and it's fascinating to me seeing those pressure points being applied to Yamamoto the further into this Arc we get the more his stability and his leadership begins to crumble he starts being questioned outright challenged by mayori um and Yamamoto starts making bad decisions and I think it's really really fascinating leading to scene of course It ultimately leads to his to his death you know it's the final point for Yamamoto he wasn't going to make it out alive especially when his mind had been completely taken over by the Rage of old the rage that the young Yamamoto used to thrive on used to actually feed on that rage and be this terrifying Warrior this new Yamamoto who had settled into a much calmer World a much nicer world that rage ends up being the downfall of him and since we're effectively talking about it anyway we may as well move on to yamamoto's role within the story of bleach now as the captain commander of the gote 13 Yamamoto of course has a role to play in every single major story arc outside of literally the agent of the Shinigami Arc at the start where the goatee hadn't effectively been introduced yet and like I said as the symbolic figurehead he mostly leaves it to everybody else in the goatee 13 unless the situation grows truly dire or otherwise personal one thing that I think is is really intriguing about Yamamoto and the way he was portrayed by Kubo is that there is an element of time involved that no matter how much time Kubo dedicated to Yamamoto there would always be more to learn that's how intricate this character actually is you know even though yammo even though we do get some flashbacks for Yamamoto we see him in turn back the pendulum we see him in everything but the rain and he even gets a flashback where we see a quote unquote younger version of Yama that Yamamoto in that flashback is still older than virtually all the younger generation captains we have in the present day so no matter how much time Kubo dedicated to this character it would never have really been enough there is so much history flowing through yamamoto's veins it would have been really intriguing I think to have seen a truly truly young version of this man to see what that would actually look like because because even in the briefest of glimpses we get of the earliest days of the gote when he founds it as this gang of criminals he still looks pretty old at the end of the day so there is so much untapped story here with Yamamoto which adds to the Mystique but at the same time you know you just want to peek under underneath you know you just want to see more of who this guy actually is but I actually think when it comes to the ancient leader the ancient founder of the goate more mystery is actually beneficial it really keeps up that Allure and it makes Yamamoto in many ways more than just a man he's a legend you know he is a myth almost um there's so much to him that you what what you're seeing in the story of bleach you you recognize is only the surface you're only scratching the very surface of what is essentially a massive um just a hidden character underneath now Yamamoto doesn't have the biggest role to play in the soul Society Arc in fact he doesn't really come into con attack with the ryoka at all obviously Ichigo is taking on his major Rivals like biakia and Zaraki in that Arc and Yamamoto is mostly left to the Wayside the first time we see him he's called a meeting of the captains which is of course the first time we get to see all of the captains together as well to discuss Guinea ichimaru's punishment after geen basically failed to kill the ryoko when they turned up at the gate and it actually seems like if anything he let them go yamamoto's design here is also kind of fascinating to me he retains mostly the same look but there's something older about him there's something smaller and almost meaker about this character his zanpakto as well is absolutely massive hanging off the back of his chair and it's cool to see how even in the sole Society Arc alone he would evolve to become more like the Yamamoto we would eventually come to know I have to say Yamamoto from an artistic standpoint as well going back to his design is a character who has a very detailed face obviously you know you have all of the all of the increases all of the wrinkles all the lines etched into him all of the Shadows that come with that and as a result this is a character who in my opinion vastly benefited from the advancements in kubo's art over the years to the point where there are some times in the Thousand-Year blood War where he just looks amazingly well drawn like he looks so detailed this is one of those characters who I think kubo's skill can really shine through as the conflict against ichigo's friends escalates Yamamoto gathers the captains once again and states that they are now in a wartime scenario and everyone is authorized to use their zanpakuto if necessary and he wants to crush the ryoka now with no more issues we don't get to see Yamamoto again right until the third Act of this arc when they're about to execute Rukia Yamamoto is the one spearheading the execution of course he's the one explaining how everything is going to go down and you get an interesting moment of humanity for Yamamoto here who so far has really only appeared as this mysterious leader of the gote 13 where he asks Rukia about you know do you have any last words any last requests and she asks if her friends can be spared you know the ryoka can be spared can they be allowed to leave and Yamamoto says yes once once this execution is over we'll allow the ryoka to leave unharmed and there's a cool moment where isane is like that was cruel you know why would he lie to root here about that they're obviously not going to let it go and the others go they'll kill them as soon as she's dead and unohana you know gets Yamamoto I mean I feel like it's pretty obvious what Yamamoto is doing but it's nice that unohana is the one who relays this you know she understands how this man works and she says he's not being cruel isana you know he's being compassionate although yes you're right he doesn't intend to let them live He's allowing Rukia to die with no regrets you know no no heaviness in her heart Kubo leaves a little author's note in each of the volumes and I remember one of them I think it must be 19 although that's just me guessing but it's whenever the sokyoku is revealed Kubo mentions how he once overheard some kids I think saying that they that the sokyoku the firebird was yamamoto's ban Kai and how he thought he had to try harder because they got it wrong I really like that and I remember thinking back in the day reading that I was like what is yamamoto's Bankai will we ever actually learn it and of course eventually we would of course Yamamoto watches as Ichigo stops the execution and then to his true shock and horror he watches as his two surrogate sons kiraku and ukitake arrive and actually destroy the sokyoku and obviously their relationship is a really fascinating one kiraku andukitake are old in their own right as well nowhere near as old as Yamamoto of course and he has always kind of seen them as his sons you know he trained them up through the Shino Academy they were the first captains from that Academy the first graduates of the academy to become captains and so in many ways Yamamoto was always so proud of them but it's quite clear that despite walking the same path for the most part they all have very different ideals very different views of the world around them and that kind of comes to a head in their inevitable battle because once those two have effectively broken the law Yamamoto shuts them down stops them from escaping and he's like you know I can't allow you to to get off with a mere thrashing this time you know what you've done is incredibly serious and I I expect you know that the kind of cold ruthlessness of Yamamoto is actually is really well showcased in this scene and and this is perhaps the area I think he changes the most here it's difficult to know just how much Yamamoto does actually value the lives of his men of course I guess if they towed the line then they're all right by him but the moment they break any kind of a law it seems like they're for The Chopping Block as far as Yamamoto is concerned now it's perhaps he was absolutely raging at the fact that kiraku and nokitake had seemingly betrayed him but when renji is escaping Yamamoto says something like it's all right he's just a Vice Captain he's Expendable and that kind of cold callus disregard for someone's life even if they have broken the law it's definitely something that would change slightly for Yamamoto as as the story went on but I think this confrontation with kyuraku anokitake really exposes Yamamoto for the stubborn old fool that he can be and while he does project this image of pure power pure overbearing overwhelming monstrous power Inc calculable basically imperceptible for most people a height that no one else can reach and again you see that really well in this fight as well when he's just waiting for them already he's appeared in front of them he got there before they did he crushes now with his spiritual pressure while he does project that image this fight also exposes him for the stubborn the stubborn man that he can be where he just doesn't want to listen to reason at all even though he himself says that kiraku was well known for having a skill for being able to see the truth of situations and the ukitake was a good and Noble person who was always popular always the center of attention despite knowing all of these virtues of the people he considered his sons he will fight them regardless without even listening to what they have to say he won't even let kirako nokitaki explain themselves as far as he's concerned they have gone against the soul society and for that they must pay he won't even entertain their thoughts at all and I feel like that's another element of Yamamoto that changes that calms down a little bit that simmers down the further in The Story Goes now I'm not saying people can openly challenge Yamamoto later on in the story although they certainly do and again once you get to the Thousand-Year blood warlock mayor he is like outright cooling Yamamoto out and standing up for himself which I always thought was such a great scene but of course the standout moment here is Yamamoto unleashing his ancient shikai Ryu ginjaka with the command reduce all creation to Ash which of course is just insanely badass and the art in this sequence is truly phenomenal yamamoto's zanpakuto showcasing more outward power here than we have ever seen in the series and in many ways would ever see moving forwards it looks so phenomenal you need only look upon Yamamoto draped in Shadow as he wields this flaming blade a massive lick of Fire coming swooping off the end of it trailing behind it as he moves his sword in an elegant motion as though the flame itself were like a stream of water you only have to look upon it to think you know how many battles has this sampak toe seen how many enemies has it turned to Ash with its power and it's just so I think one of the best things about Yamamoto and the way Kua portrays him is you do get this sense of awe when you look upon this character which I think is of course extremely effective that's how you should feel when looking upon the founder of the gote 13 Kubo encapsulates that masterfully I think and of course they then all Clash Yamamoto kuraku anokitake but the battle has ended prematurely when it's revealed that Eisen is in fact a traitor but of course you see Yamamoto and he hasn't taken a single hit really he's up against two of the greatest Swordsmen in all of Seoul Society acknowledged by Yamamoto himself and they don't seem to even be able to put a scratch on him as we move into the Iran car Arc Yamamoto is of course preparing everyone for the inevitable battle against Eisen and his Iran car over video he talks of the hitsugaya advanced team about eisen's true motive and the fact that they've discovered it and he allows Momo a chance to talk with hitsugaya again showing a gamma mozo who is now more personable Yamamoto who is slightly more although he himself isn't emotional in this scene he is granting the requests of other officers of these of these officers who are much lower in rank and Prestige than he is he is allowing them a chance for emotion for reprieve and I think that's already showing you a Yamamoto who is slightly different to the one that was depicted in Soul societies being nothing more than a stone cold commander of the law there are even the tiniest flashes of Yamamoto potentially being understanding with his subordinates when hitsugaya is visibly upset by the condition Momo finds herself in you see Yamamoto quietly being like Captain hitsugaya as if he wants to keep talking to him but hitsugaya ends the call and again that sort of thing is really cool and it just brings Yamamoto down to everybody else's level ever so slightly not quite but ever so slightly however once Orihime is kidnapped by the Iran cars that old style Yamamoto raise its head once again he will not allow anybody to go and rescue her Yamamoto is entertaining the idea that orohime has gone to Waco Munda of her own free will no matter how ridiculous it might sound and he basically shuts down not only Ichigo but people like renji and Rukia as well honestly that whole sequence I think he's actually kind of underrated it's really really awesome these people who are in their own way challenging Yamamoto and his authority renji basically says you know I understand sir I will go and get the traitor orahime back from Waco Mundo flashing Ichigo this kind of Sly smirk as he does Yamamoto turns around he's like no you're not going no one's going to rescue her to which rookia turns around and says I cannot obey that order and yamamoto's like you know I thought you would say that which is why he has sent biakia and Kenpachi to go and get them in case of descent basically they're expecting the hitsugayo Advance Team to disagree with them to turn against them and I've always thought that's a really interest testing scene that nobody wants to adhere to what Yamamoto is saying at this point so he's having to use enforcers eventually he's having to get some muscle to go and bring everyone back so there's no trouble Yamamoto is perfectly happy to leave Orihime to her fate in Waco Mundo if it's advantageous for them to do so or perhaps more rightly disadvantageous for them to go and save her however it is later reveal that Yamamoto kind of had a plan working in the background all along he was working with urahara kisuke having enlisted him to ensure that they had a way for captains to go to and from Waco Mundo and so with that option now up and running keyscape obviously knowing how to use garganta the captains invade Waco Mundo to help rescue Ichigo and his friends on yamamoto's orders so again that's kind of interesting it's basically effectively revealed that Yamamoto was always planning on invading Waco Mundo at some point orahime being taken didn't really factor into it at all he was just waiting for a concrete means of being able to get there and get back out again Yamamoto and the rest of the gote 13 all arrive in the fake karakura town to confront Eisen of course 110 years prior to the main story we still see that Yamamoto still in charge of course he's been in charge since the Inception of the gote essentially despite some weirdness surrounding that Yamamoto actually just to go back briefly when he's talking about the Oaken I believe he mentions that the secret of the Oaken has been passed down from Captain Commander to Captain Commander over the ages but since he founded the gote 13 and according to him no Shinigami stronger than him has been born in the last thousand years we can assume that he is the only Captain Commander to have ever been in that position until later on so maybe when he says that he's just talking about that's the plan for the Oaken I don't really know but regardless he's of course still in charge back here sassa kibe is still his Vice Captain and Yamamoto appoints kisuke urahara the new captain of the 12th division later when Shinigami begin disappearing mysteriously Yamamoto convenes an emergency meeting and sends an advanced team out to the location of the disappearances to try and figure out exactly what's going on back in the fake karakura Town Yamamoto traps eisengine and tozan within his jokaku and Joe again as soon as this battle begins a massive Display of Power from the captain Commander himself which always just looks so amazing as well but with those three now kind of out of the picture for a little while at least anyway Yamamoto says they can focus on bringing down the Espada once the fights really get underway Yamamoto steps in to rescue his men from eye on again this is another moment for Yamamoto where I think it comes across that he has changed a little bit although he scolds Kier and the others saying you know you should be ashamed of yourself so having to force me onto the front line he still does it regardless he still steps in and saves them and even when Kira turns to him and he says he starts apologizing profusely yamamoto's like no I don't want your apology that's what's wrong it's that mentality that's wrong instead observe the enemy with me and I I always really liked that because Yamamoto comes across here as not a super hard ass who doesn't think he should be getting involved who thinks it's beneath him but somebody who instead wants to build up his men to be able to take on challenges like this so he's not needed that's the difference here it's not a case of him thinking this is beneath me it's that he doesn't want to be needed but he will step in and help regardless and of course that moment where he takes on ayom is awesome because he just completely destroys this massive monstrosity that has so far been wiping out Vice Captain's left right and center now I think most captains would have been able to beat eye on probably with little issue because ion is just a Mindless monster at the end of the day the only reason he's defeating Vice captains so easily is raw power he is overpowering them he is out speeding them he is catching them off guard but any Captain with a modicum of real experience would be able to deal with that and of course Yamamoto is the utmost extreme and it's really cool just seeing ion flailing around mindlessly and without aim without purpose and Yamamoto taking advantage of that using nadagiri to just split ion in two in one move really really cool stuff um and of course one of my favorite moments in the anime specifically is when ion charges at Yamamoto only half of his body left to which point Yamamoto says don't you know the meaning of the word stop you child and as he says you child he unsheets his own pukto releases his Sheik eye in one swift move and just incinerates ion in the blink of an eye really really cool just a great Showcase of his power and then the three fraction of Harry Bel who summoned ion attempt to attack almost in a Blind Fury to which point he kind of commends them for coming after him with only one armor piece and he just incinerates them with a swing an arc of his zanpak toe and he says that he'll only lightly toast them as a result but doing so critically injures them and takes them out of the fight completely when the battle takes a turn for the worse Yamamoto is genuinely surprised by the arrival of Shinji and the vizards and he attempts to broker something of a peace deal between them Shinji goes and seeks out Yamamoto they have a really cool chat where he's like okay so can we consider you our allies for the time being in the moment Shinji is like no there's this tiny panel of Yamamoto beginning to unsheath ryujin Jack are ready to fight if these guys turn out to be new enemies which I think is just really awesome moment once the rest of the captains fall Yamamoto challenges Eisen himself and we've done a video on this battle in the past but it's a really cool moment where Yamamoto just kind of grabs eisen's arm immediately is able to deduce that he has the real I Horizon in his grasp and then prepares to kill him along with himself and every other captain in the vicinity with his colossal ability nitsuji Goku which basically summons pillars of flame from Hell itself bursting out of the ground completely covering virtually the entire scope of karakura town and yamamotos puts his life on the line here basically saying you know everyone is prepared for this they've all been prepared for this I was using their defeats to build this technique to get everything set up and ready and to die to exterminate great evil is of course The Credo of the Soul Society it's what it means to be a member of the goatee 13. and that's Yamamoto perhaps in the purest form embodying his own Mantra embodying the values that he has imposed on the gote 13 that he is infused within the lifeblood of the gote 13 itself what it really means to to wear the shihaku show what it means to carry Azan pukto what it means to be a Shinigami and a warrior is to protect those that cannot protect themselves from Evil even if it means costing you your own life I do fleetingly wonder what the world of bleach would have looked like if Yamamoto had successfully pulled off that attack I mean presumably Eisen would have died I argue this in my video about their battle the hogayoku hasn't started to recognize his soul yet at this point so can we assume that he's not Immortal yet so Eisen would be dead presumably Gene would be dead said he must be there somewhere and then like every other Captain outside of biakia Kenpachi no unohana is there so she'd be dead as well and mayori they'd survive but presumably basically every other shiny gave me there would be killed by anetsujigoku so the soul society would be left incredibly leaderless for a while in that situation I think biakya would become Captain Commander personally um but you know virtually all of izzards would be dead that would be a really interesting what-if scenario I think the vandenreich would probably attack the very next day they wouldn't be able to believe their luck to be honest um and yeah that would be really really weird to see but pretty cool as well but of course yamamoto's attack doesn't go off wonder why survives Eisen reveals that he has engineered Wonder wise to personally be able to deal with ryujin Jacka but regardless Yamamoto crushes him anyway simply using his bare fists but the explosion that Wonder Weiss releases afterwards is enough to take Yamamoto out of the fight and so in the end Yamamoto did almost give his life to try and protect karakura Town even if it was inadvertently which I thought was a neat little way of bringing it all full circle but before Eisen can kill Yamamoto Yamamoto grabs his ankle and unleashes a an incantationless Hardo 96. doing so costs Yamamoto his arm but by the time everything Ends by the time the war is over Yamamoto has mostly returned to his normal sprightly self just now missing a limb but he's chewing out captains like Kiora kubiakya and Zaraki for again not really understanding the traditional values of what it means to be a Shinigami or at the very least it is now Yamamoto who is outdated which I think is really interesting Yamamoto is of course just chastising them for having lost their heyori kyoraku says you know he just sees it's a fashion statement byakia says it's something that's cheap and Zaraki says it's something that is a nuisance and gets in his way when he's fighting this is a great scene I've talked about it before it's a wonderful moment that really shows the characterization of these three captains like that really fast really clever and Yamamoto explodes at them for not really understanding what it means to wear such a symbol ironically though yamamoto's hayori was definitely disintegrated but I wonder why's explosion in fact he loses his hayory after wonder why smacks him so I don't really know where he's getting off talking about that Yamamoto doesn't play a huge role in The Lost agent Arc but this is perhaps where the changes to Yamamoto become the most evident not only has he allowed the visas to return to their positions within the gote 13 but he allows kisuke urahara to come back into the soul Society to work with him to reward Ichigo to save Ichigo to repay their debt to him and I think that's really awesome Yamamoto even says himself to allow our debt to Kurosaki Ichigo to lie would be doing a great disservice to him and would leave a stain on the reputation and the history of the goatee 13 forevermore so this shows a really honorable side to Yamamoto but the fact that they are giving a human Shining gummy Powers again is obviously a really great not only callback to the start of the series but a nice way to show how fire Yamamoto has come and again to show that separation of Law and gote 13 that is slowly happening Kubo himself even brings attention to it when Ichigo says I thought giving Shinigami powers to a human was a great crime and renji says well we didn't have a choice it was the captain Commander's order so that sort of thing is really awesome you see you know Yamamoto ordering everyone to pour their rayatsu into this special sword that kisuke has brought them to help give Ichigo his Shinigami powers back Yamamoto says in this hour Ichigo saved us we will now save him and I think this idea that Yamamoto has mellowed out is only further emphasized when Ichigo arrives to reclaim ginjou kugo's body Yamamoto doesn't immediately say absolutely not you know he was a criminal it's actually soifon who comes out aghast saying you know what are you talking about that was a criminal who murdered Shinigami and it's Shinji who is more dealing with the personal side of things saying you know how can you forgive someone like that after you mess with your friends and family and Yamamoto basically kind of looks at Ichigo and seemingly maybe better than almost anyone else understands that Ichigo has grown up to some degree and he says you know I think am I right in saying you've thought very carefully about those words basically saying that you know he will grant ichigo's requests so long as Ichigo understands the ramifications and has really been thinking about everything he has wanted to say and so as we arrive at the Thousand-Year blood War Arc Yamamoto is confronted in his office by mysterious masked men who claim to be a part of a group called The Vanden Reich and they declare war on Yamamoto and the sole society as Sasuke eBay is impaled in yamamoto's office Sasuke Bay's death presents perhaps the biggest change for Yamamoto yet it is a seismic moment for this character that totally changes him moving forward and effectively numbers his days it basically sends Yamamoto into this spiraling descent where he starts to lose control of himself thousands and thousands of years of tradition of leadership begin to crumble begin to go out the window as everything seems to collapse around Yamamoto as he is completely engulfed in grief eventually leading to his demise Yamamoto watches on as Sasuke eBay is cremated you know solemnly saying light the fire one of the saddest panels we've ever seen in the series is just Yamamoto standing alone looking surprisingly small as he looks down at the ground one of his true friends in life having been brutally murdered in front of him and it's a powerful powerful moment and it's really great stuff for yamamoto's character in general because this is a character who like I say we've never really seen anything like this before I don't want to go into too much detail here about yamamoto's journey in the Thousand-Year blood War as I've done an entire video on his downfall on everything that built up to his eventual defeat and demise so make sure to go and check that video out but yamamoto's Journey comes to a sorrowful end here in the Thousand-Year blood warak where this character who was once so proud so powerful so immovable basically is knee capped by sasukebe's death and is never the same afterwards we do get some really cool flashbacks for Yamamoto where again like I said we never really see him as a young man but he's definitely younger here now this flashback must be a couple of thousand years old at least easily one of the earliest time periods we've ever seen in bleach and it is really cool to get that small tiniest of glimpses into yamamoto's backstory like that and again I kind of wish we'd had more but it is great to preserve that mystery around the character as well to show the foundation of perhaps one of his most important relationships and of course the way sassa kibe is handled in a thousand year blood War Arc is kind of weird and I honestly want to do a video on that separately at some point in the future but to get those small glimpses into yamamoto's past was itself a blessing as well I actually really want to do a video on Yamamoto and sasukebe's relationship in the future and I actually think I'll probably wait until after the anime has covered that as well just in case there's anything new there to talk about but I think it was really clever of Kubo to give Yamamoto this emotional crutch in the form of sasukebe yes perhaps it was a little bit late it's very very strange I think to posthumously give sasukebe all of his development this is not a character that Kubo cared about in any stretch of the imagination until after he was dead and I think it was at this point where Kubo basically realized that not only could he use sasukebe as an effective marker for the start of the war because realistically people didn't care about this character only people in Universe cared about him but that makes him an ideal scapegoat you show the villains a serious by having your first on-screen hero die while not really having to suffer the Wrath of the fans or having to upend the world you've built at all but at the same time it provides valuable development for Yamamoto which is why it was smart to make sasukebe that crutch for Yamamoto to lean on then to knock it away from him leaving him to stand emotionally on his own two feet which I think was very interesting turn of events for a character who up until this point has never really been that emotional but quickly he begins to fall off the rails obviously they have shared thousands of years together sasakiba has always served under Yamamoto even with numerous openings in the captaincy spots that he could have filled this was a place that sasakime wanted to be at and Yamamoto wanted him by his side as well and the two of them have been a steadfast Duo the likes of which the goatee has never really seen before and wouldn't see again for a long time yet during the Quincy's first Invasion Yamamoto kills Stern Ritter o'driscollburcy the man who murdered sasukebe just obliterating him in a single strike in a very satisfying moment before challenging yuha Bach himself wiping out another three Stern Ritter who attempt to jump him before the main battle begins of course in this fight Yamamoto uses his much anticipated Bankai zanka no Tachi to great effect Kubo gives us a really nice showing of yamamoto's true power spacing it out over the course of a few chapters building and building this Crescendo to yamamoto's abilities as they get crazier and crazier as the fight goes on eventually culminating in Yamamoto summoning an army of the undead charred skeleton the victims of ryujin Jacka from Times Gone by until of course it's revealed that it's all for nothing as this isn't you our barky's fighting at all but roid Lloyd one of the stern mixer who can take the form of somebody else and the real yuhabak arrives steel yamamoto's Bankai and there's a great moment of quiet in the few seconds before Yamamoto is killed where he just looks tired you know he looks done he's been beaten I think he knows he's probably been bested there's a there's a moment of like reflection where I think he knows he's probably about to die and there's nothing he can do he's failed the soul Society thousands and thousands of years of history and tradition and being a protector and a defender of those who couldn't defend themselves are about to come to a swift end and of course Yamamoto is killed here in this battle cut in half and then has his entire body obliterated as even even at the edge of death he dares to try and cling on a nice reference of course to yamamoto's volume poem in volume 45 about you know die standing on your feet and of course that's effectively exactly what happens we're not actually quite done with Yamamoto however as he does appear a few chapters later in chapter 533 in the everything but the rain flashback where 20 years prior to the main storyline ishin Shiva is called to a captain's meeting to present a report on his unauthorized journey into karakura town where he eventually battled the mysterious Hollow white he met the Quincy masaki and ishin gives his report while leaving out all the details regarding masaki herself and Yamamoto reads it and although he pardons ishin he suspects he might not have told him everything when it comes to the hell chapter obviously Yamamoto is dead however if this chapter does materialize an arc further on down the line it seems like Yamamoto could have a role to play as it's revealed that every single Captain level Shinigami oh throughout history has been unknowingly sent to Hell after their death as the Shinigami have been performing a ritual designed to allow their ryatsu to return to the soil but instead they've actually been they've actually been damning their colleagues their comrades their friends to an eternity in Hell instead and in Hell each of these captains has garnered a new title and yamamotos is founder of the court guard all right but that's it for the video on shigekuni genre site Yamamoto the founder of the gote 13 and one of the most ancient and powerful characters in the entire series what do you think of Yamamoto let me know in the comments down below do you like this character do you seem as just being a standoffish unreasonable Grump I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below personally like I said I've always quite enjoyed the character of Yamamoto on a superficial level but more recently I've grown to see him for really what he is and he is this elusive mystery of a character of whom we've only peeled back a surface layer but what's there is already quite fascinating all right guys but make sure to hit subscribe if you haven't done already and until next time I'll catch you later I'll see you then

Channel: MrTommo2304

Views: 114,958

Keywords: bleach yamamoto, yamamoto bankai, yamamoto analysis, bleach character analysis, bleach yamamoto analysis, bleach, bleach tybw, bleach manga

Id: _rRGYfQrexI

Length: 47min 54sec (2874 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 04 2022