Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has been making good on the promise of bringing the final arc of Tite Kubo’s original Bleach manga to life after all these years, and the newest episode finally animated Captain Shunsui Kyoraku’s Bankai in full for the first real time. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has really been catching fire with fans ever since it kicked off its run for Part 3 earlier this Fall, and the anime has been showcasing the start of the real final fights between the Soul Reapers and Quincies. And this means new forms, battles, and more that fans never got to see in the original anime run.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict has already gone above and beyond in this regard with not only adapting what was already in the manga, but even fleshing it out with original forms and battles. But the newest Bankai debuted in the latest episode is a mix of both of those things. Kyoraku’s full unleashing of his Bankai, Katen Kyokotsu: Karamatsu Shinju, is a the Bankai debut fans have been wanting to see animated for a while. But at the same time, it’s also incorporating some part of the anime’s previously noncanonical material for the full debut.
Kyoraku Finally Unleashes His Bankai in Bleach: TYBW
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Episode 35 continues the final fights between the Soul Reapers and Quincies. With Kurotsuchi already facing off against one of the Sternritters in the previous episode (which led to the debut of his own new Bankai), the newest episode gets Kyoraku’s attention. When Kurotsuchi’s spiritual pressure in flux, Kyoraku takes much more attention to what happens next as he turns toward the Quincy that has been shooting them down from afar. In fact, he starts out the fight by taking a shot directly to the chest and it leaves a bloody hole.
It’s then revealed that this was just an ability from his Shikai that left a shadow clone of his body as part of the children’s game ability from his Zanpakuto. Then to match the strength of his new Quincy foe, Lillie Barro (who has the ability to just shoot straight through anything he might see and phase through any attack that might hit him in turn), Kyoraku then decides to unleash the full power of his Bankai as it catches the attention of all of the others in the immediate area.
RELATED: Bleach Voice Actor Hints at New Anime Wedding Scene in Revealing Interview
Kyoraku’s Bankai Makes the Jump to Canon
Katen Kyokotsu: Karamatsu Shinju is a bit of a special case within Bleach‘s anime history. While Kyoraku’s Bankai has never been unleashed in full until Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, fans have gotten to see its form in the series before as during the anime exclusive Alternate Tale arc, the Zanpakuto spirits were given a full form as they were fighting back against the Soul Reapers. It was well received by fans as one of the more successful exclusive anime arcs, and this was actually the first time we had seen Kyoraku’s Bankai at all.
Just as seen in the episode itself as his Zanpakuto comforts him within the special ability meant to fully defeat Lillie (as he and Lillie are set to drown as the third act of the Bankai’s stage play), this was the same form that fans saw in the 2000s run of the anime. But now that Kyoraku is fully using the ability, this is the first real time that we’re actually getting to see what it can really do. Now it’s just a matter of seeing if it’s enough to beat the Qunicies.
Related Posts
-
Viz Media / Pierrot Films
