Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Teases Ichigo's Next Big Zanpakuto Upgrade

By Nick Valdez

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has kicked off a major period of training and recovery with the newest episode of the series, and the seeds have been planted for Ichigo Kurosaki's next major Zanpakuto! The new anime taking on the long awaited final arc from Tite Kubo's manga series kicked off with a bloody battle between the Soul Reapers and the Quincies that ended with the villains taking a major victory and leaving lots of loss in their wake. It was Ichigo's hardest hitting loss too because as much as he tried, he could not save the Soul Society.

The first conflict against Yhwach and the other Sternritter ended with Ichigo's Zanpakuto being completely broken, and unfortunately it's revealed in the newest episode that his Zanpakuto won't be able to be fixed how it used to be. In fact it ended up so broken as a result of the fight that he needs to reforge it into something resembling his original Zanpakuto, and he's heading to a new region of the Soul Society to do it.

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(Photo: Viz Media)

What Will Happen to Ichigo's Zanpakuto? 

Episode 8 of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War explains that because not only did Ichigo's Shikai break, but his Bankai did, it would be impossible for it to be fixed. This leaves Ichigo out of options as to how to proceed until the Squad Zero arrives. This is a special squad of powerful Soul Reapers who protect the Soul King directly, and they offer to bring Ichigo up to their level in order to bring him back to full strength and fix his blade ahead of the next battle to come. 

READ MORE: Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Introduces an All-New Squad | Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Cliffhanger Hits Ichigo With His Biggest Loss Yet

It's an interesting proposition that will leave the rest of the Soul Society completely helpless while he's trying to make himself stronger, but Ichigo knows better than anyone that without his sword or a real way to help fight, he won't be ready for the next half of the conflict. It's just a matter of now seeing what form Ichigo's new Zanpakuto will take after all of this. 

How do you feel about Ichigo getting a new Zanpakuto soon? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!

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