One Piece Art Turns Yamato Into a Bleach Shinigami

By Evan Valentine

One of the biggest characters introduced during One Piece's Wano Arc was the offspring of Kaido, Yamato. With many fans believing that the warrior running under the name of Kozuki Oden was the next to join the Straw Hat Pirates, the brawler of the isolated nation became wildly popular amongst Shonen fans. Now, new art has arrived that imagines Yamato with a very different look, being given a makeover that portrays him as a Shinigami from the popular Shonen series, Bleach.

The War For Wano came to an end with Luffy and his fellow Straw Hats joining forces with Yamato and the resistance fights known as the Nine Red Scabbards, managing to overtake Kaido and his Beast Pirates following a brutal battle that spanned numerous chapters of the manga. As Luffy and his crew pull up anchors and sail off to the final arc of the series, creator Eiichiro Oda surprised readers by revealing that Yamato wasn't in fact set to be the next member of Monkey's crew, but was instead, venturing forth into Wano Country in order to follow the same path as his idol, Oden. Luckily for both Yamato and the many warriors of Wano, Luffy has invited them all to be Straw Hats so if they ever feel the need, they can join the Thousand Sunny.

Twitter Artist MCLO shared this wild new take on Yamato, imagining the offspring of Kaido and resident of Wano Country as a member of Bleach's Soul Society, sporting a look that is quite similar to that of Ichigo Kurosaki when he was struggling with his Hollow side but gaining a serious power boost as a result:

There has never been an official crossover between the Straw Hats and the member of the Soul Society, though they have crossed swords before in a number of video games that ran under the Shonen banner. Jump Force for example saw a number of characters from each Shonen series match strength against one another, and while we don't expect to see an anime series in the near future that has Ichigo and Luffy collide, the two clashing in a video game once again seems like a foregone conclusion based on the past of both franchises.

What do you think of this wild anime fusion? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the worlds of the Grand Line and Soul Society. 

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