Bleach TYBW: Shunsui Kyoraku's Bankai Explained

Key recommendations

• Kyoraku's Bankai turns a play into reality by trapping its target and making them an actor.
• The story of a tragic couple unfolds in Bankai, involving shared injuries and a deadly ending.
• Kyoraku's Zanpakutou spirit Katen manifests during Bankai, adding an alluring and mysterious element.

In an incredible new episode Bleach The Thousand Year Blood WarCaptain Shunsui Kyoraku finally reveals his Bankai during his deadly battle with Sternritter X – Lille Barro. On par with the older Bankai seen before, Kyoraku's Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu is an extremely powerful and elaborate technique made to quickly destroy his enemy.

Kyoraku's Bankai performs a play about a tragic couple in a traditional Japanese Kabuki theater that affects a massive area at once but targets a single enemy. Captain Shunsui Kyoraku's Bankai is one of the most powerful seen in the series so far. There's everything you need to know about how it works Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War.

Shunsui Kyoraku's Bankai, theater suicide

Realization of a stage play

Chief Captain Shunsui Kyoraku's Bankai is called Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu (Bones of Heavenly Blooming Madness: Suicide of the Withered Pine Lovers). Placing the tips of his two swords on the ground, he activates his Bankai which covers a massive area at once. The environment changes, the sky takes on a golden hue and wavy tracks appear on the ground and buildings. These markings refer to the scene of a Kabuki play. When Kyoraku activates his Bankai, large black pine-like shadows form in front of him, and then the mysterious shadow of a woman manifests on his back, and then, as he catches his enemy, the game begins. Kyoraku's Shikai turns children's games into reality and forces his opponent to act in them, while Bankai turns a play into reality by forcing his opponent to be one of the actors. The play in question tells the story of a troubled couple with a tragic fate.

• Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu makes a play come true.
• It tells the story of a tragic couple.
• It covers a massive area at once, trapping its target and turning them into one of the actors, the unfortunate man.
• The woman with the Shunsui, Ohana, is Katen, the spirit of the Zanpakutou.

Act 1: Tameraikizu no Wakachiai (Hesitation and Distribution of Wounds)

Any wound dealt to Shunsui is also dealt to his enemy as if dealt. The first act in the story is of an abusive man who hits his partner and guiltily inflicts the same on her but cannot die from them.

Act 2: Zanki no Shitone (Pillow of Shame)

Multiple black dots appear on the enemy, causing them to bleed profusely. This sets up the second act of the man collapsing in shame and becoming incredibly ill after hurting his partner.

Act 3: Dangyo no Fuchi (The Severing Abyss)

Both Shunsui and his enemy are swallowed up in a huge sea, inevitably, until either of them runs out of spiritual pressure and drowns. This narrates the third act in which both couples throw themselves into the sea.

It is a woman's way of pitying her man's shame without leaving him behind.

Final Act: Itokiribasami Chizome no Nodobue (Scissors for cutting the thread on the blood-stained neck)

After sheathing both of his swords, Shunsui entangles a white thread around his opponent's throat before pulling and slicing his throat, the cut then expands and blows the enemy's head off. At the end of the story, the regretful man's partner ignores his pleas for forgiveness and mercilessly slits his throat.

The story of a couple with an abusive man ends in shame and regret before the woman takes the man's life, and the play Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu of Kyoraku makes come true turns him into his nemesis in the regretful man.

Who is Ohana?

An alluring spirit

During Act 3, a mysterious and beautiful woman manifests behind Shunsui, someone he calls Ohana. This is Katen, the manifested spirit of Shunsui's Zanpakutou. She is an incredibly beautiful woman with purple hair, an indigo cape, and a black patch over the same eye as Shunsui. She only manifests when Shunsui uses his Bankai, hence the story of him playing with her from time to time. Katen has a very close relationship with her master, unlike other Zanpakutou like Zangetsu or Zabimaru.

She was also first seen during the Zanpakutou Rebellion filler arc. She was one of the most popular models seen in that arc, and it seems pretty obvious that author Tite Kubo liked the design and incorporated it into the canon manga.

They may tease you, but as master and blade… Didn't we vow to leave love and hate behind and fall together like autumn leaves?

Shunsui Kyoraku has one of the most powerful and deadly Bankai seen in the series so far, and many fans of the manga have been eagerly awaiting his debut in the anime. Although it seems complicated at first, once you understand the theatrical story flow, Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu is easier to understand as one of the most elaborate and artistically impressive Bankai in Bleach.