Shunsui and Yamamoto's Bankai parallel in Bleach TYBW shows the Captain Commanders are in a class of their own

As Bleach TYBW episode 37 continues the adaptation of the fight between Shunsui Kyoraku and Lille Barro, taking the struggle to an unforeseeable conclusion, fans continue to cheer on the Gotei 13's Shinigami in their challenging battle against Yhwach's Quincy Empire.

The Gotei 13 is the Soul Society’s main military organization, and its supreme leader is the Captain Commander, who has authority over all of the Captains and their respective Divisions, as well as the members of Onmitsukido and Kido Corps. The Captain Commander is selected by the Central 46 from among the Shinigami who excel in both combat power and leadership skills.

Over the past 1000 years, only two Shinigami – Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto and his successor, Shunsui Kyoraku – have held this position. To emphasize their outstanding might as the only two Shinigami to ever hold the title of Captain Commander, Bleach author Tite Kubo has drawn a clear parallel between Yamamoto and Kyoraku’s Bankai.

A four-part Bankai that affects everything around is a hallmark of the Gotei's Captain Commander in Bleach

Top-level Shinigami are distinguished by their Bankai

Shinigami are particularly strong souls tasked with maintaining balance and order in the Bleach universe. Most of them possess a Zanpakuto, a special sword that serves as a physical manifestation of their Spiritual Power.

To unleash their full power, Shinigami perform Bankai, a complete release that gives the user abilities that vary from Zanpakuto to Zanpakuto and from Shinigami to Shinigami, but generally with an overall power five to ten times greater than Shikai, the initial release.

Broadly speaking, the stronger a Shinigami is, the stronger their Bankai will be, and vice versa. Bleach emphasizes this by highlighting the most powerful Shinigami’s Bankai with certain unique features, and this is even more true for the Bankai of the Shinigami who rise to the remarkable status of Captain Commander.

As seen with Renji’s recent development in Bleach TYBW, the more powerful a Shinigami becomes, the more control they gain over their Bankai, resulting in more different Bankai techniques. A testament to this, both Genryusai Yamamoto and Shunsui Kyoraku have a Bankai that is divided into four distinct parts, with the last part being meant to deliver a decisive blow to the opponent, if the previous parts weren’t enough to kill them.

Yamamoto’s Zanka no Tachi

The four parts of Yamamoto's Bankai in Bleach TYBW (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Genryusai Yamamoto wields the fearsome Ryujin Jakka, a Zanpakuto that allows him to incinerate his targets with destructive flames. Ryujin Jakka’s Bankai is called Zanka no Tachi, and it allows Yamamoto to envelop his body and sword in flames whose heat reaches 15 million degrees. This gives Yamamoto access to four different abilities named after the four cardinal directions.

Zanka no Tachi’s “East” concentrates the flames of Ryujin Jakka into the tip of the blade. There’s no burning or explosive bursting of flames, as anything the blade touches is simply blown away without leaving a trace. Zanka no Tachi’s “West” instead clads Yamamoto’s body into a robe of hot flames that prevent anyone fro touching him.

The heat of these flames is such that they don’t even appear in the form of flames, and they can’t even be seen unless Yamamoto himself wants them to be. As for Zanka no Tachi's “South”, it involves Yamamoto impaling the ground with his blade to summon the corpses of those killed by his flaming sword.

Yamamoto activating Bankai in the Bleach manga (Image via Shueisha)

The burnt corpses will relentlessly pursue and attack Yamamoto’s opponent, while potentially inflicting psychological damage by forcing them to see their loved ones reduced to scorched carcasses. Finally, Zanka no Tachi's “North” allows Yamamoto to unleash a fiery slash whose immense heat and power can incinerate anything.

This Bankai epitomizes Yamamoto’s 1000 years of undisputed dominance. Unleashing his formidable power, he can use his sword to erase everything with East and make his body untouchable for others with West. He has killed countless enemies, and after acknowledging this and using his victims as tools with 'South' he steps forward to give another killing blow with 'North'.

Shunsui Kyoraku’s Katen Kyokutsu Karamatsu Shinju

The four parts of Kyoraku's Bankai in Bleach TYBW (Image via Pierrot Films)

Shunsui Kyoraku’s abilities are facetious yet deadly, as his Zanpakuto Katen Kyokutsu allows him to use various techniques based on children’s games to trick and overwhelm his opponents. Katen Kyokutsu’s Bankai takes this to a whole new level by giving Shunsui reality-warping powers based on a tragic theatre play.

When Shunsui releases his Bankai, which is called Katen Kyokutsu Karamatsu Shinju, both he and his enemy are forced to act out as the characters of a story in which two lovers commit double suicide. An unstoppable curse meant to kill Shunsui’s enemies with no escape, this Bankai has four different effects, which are revealed as if they were the four acts of a theatre play.

The fourth and last act is designed to ensure the death of the target by cutting off and destroying their head, but this may not even be necessary if the target dies before reaching that point, which is entirely possible.

Kyoraku activating Bankai in the Bleach manga (Image via Shueisha)

In the First Act, any wounds that Shunsui and his enemy inflict on each other are immediately shared, much like a man who ends up suffering the same wounds as his partner after injuring her. The Second Act causes further harm to Shunsui’s enemy by making them bleed profusely due to weird black spots that appear on their body.

This is based on the shame that the man feels after attacking his partner. Then, in the Third Act, an enormous and completely inescapable body of dark water surrounds Shunsui and his opponent, forcing them to drown in it while their Spiritual Pressure gets drained away.

After the two “characters” plunge into water, Shunsui – the “woman” of the play – punishes his opponent – the “man” of the play – by mercilessly killing them. The Fourth Act sees Shunsui conjuring a thread of Spiritual Pressure around his enemy’s throat. In an instant, the thread cuts the throat of the target and causes their head to explode.

Bleach's former and current Captain Commanders

Yamamoto and Kyoraku as master and disciple in the Bleach manga (Image via Shueisha)

Yamamoto is aggressive and ferocious, with old age having only partially lessened his innate ruthlessness. Instead, Shunsui Kyoraku is a laid-back, peace-loving man who dislikes combat and will only fight when the situation demands it. Unlike Yamamoto, Shunsui sees the battlefield as a stage for unjust suffering, regardless of the motives behind the fighting.

While Yamamoto likes to incinerate his enemies with overwhelming brute force, Shunsui’s methods are more subtle and tricky, though still based on a similarly imposing Spiritual Pressure. Shunsui and Yamamoto’s approaches are different, but there are also obvious parallels between them. In addition to their four-part, environment-influencing Bankai, related to their fighting skills, they are united by more metaphorical things.

Although for different reasons, which epitomize their diverse personalities, both Yamamoto and Shunsui suffered physical disfigurement that has remained visible ever since. Yamamoto lost an arm because of his arrogance in wanting to do everything alone, while Shunsui lost an eye as he couldn’t properly focus on his opponent due to being worried.

Yamamoto and Shunsui decided to keep their mutilations despite having the easy option of asking Orihime Inoue to heal them. Yamamoto didn’t want to take advantage of humans, while Shunsui wanted to keep his eye injury as a reminder to stop playing around and to never let his guard down anymore, as well as a tribute to his late predecessor Yamamoto, who had already chosen to live with his mutilation.

However, while Yamamoto is obsessed with pride and honor, Shunsui is more pragmatic. Probably as a result of his open disdain for fighting, he believes that anything foes in combat as the contenders are in the wrong anyway. This is reflected in their fighting styles, with Yamamoto being more direct and forceful while Shunsui is unpredictable and deadly. Granted, Yamamoto is overall stronger than Shunsui, but the latter is still pretty up there.

Yamamoto and Shunsui are two of the strongest Bleach characters

Yamamoto's overwhelming power in Bleach TYBW (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Shunsui’s combat power may not feel as extraordinary as Yamamoto’s simply because the latter was an exceptional one-off. Yamamoto founded the Gotei and ruled it for about 1000 years, standing out as an unwavering and intimidating source of strength that towered over the other Shinigami.

It was stated that no Shinigami had managed to equal Yamamoto in the last 1000 years. Even Sosuke Aizen – before using the Hogyoku to transform himself – admitted that Yamamoto would overpower him if they fought under fair conditions. With his Zanpakuto having the highest offensive power, Yamamoto feels like an unparalleled force of nature even with Shikai, let alone Bankai.

That said, while he is not as strong as Yamamoto, Shunsui is not far behind, and it can be argued that he is just as dangerous, if not even more so when using Bankai. Both Yamamoto and Shunsui’s Bankai are powerful enough to affect the environment, with the heat from Yamamoto’s Zanka no Tachi depleting the moisture in the surrounding area to the point where the air gets dry, water evaporates, and ice melts.

Kyoraku's Reiatsu affecting the Royal Realm in Bleach TYBW (Image via Pierrot Films)

It’s even said that the flames of Zanka no Tachi could potentially incinerate the entire Soul Society. As for Shunsui’s Katen Kyokutsu Karamatsu Shinju, it enveloped the entire Royal Realm in a spine-chilling aura that altered the appearance of the area.

Shunsui’s Spiritual Pressure was powerful enough to leave the likes of Askin Nakk Le Vaar – an elite Quincy member of Yhwach's Schutzstaffel – and Ichigo Kurosaki – the main character who was trained by the Royal Guard – in utter bewilderment. Needless to say, this speaks volumes about Shunsui’s strength.

As a native of Japan, Bleach author Tite Kubo has a deep respect for the historical traditions of his homeland, which explains why he made Shunsui’s Katen Kyokutsu Karamatsu Shinju. In fact, like Senjumaru’s Bankai and Ichibei’s Bankai, Shunsui’s Bankai is one of the few Bleach powers based directly on traditional Japanese folklore.

Using his Bankai, Shunsui was able to “kill” Lille Barro, the leader of the Schutzstaffel. Even though Lille had entered his Vollstandig transformation, he was completely helpless against Shunsui’s Bankai and only survived its effects due to being a godlike, immortal creature who didn’t die even after being decapitated.

Askin and Ichigo reacting to Kyoraku's Bankai in Bleach TYBW (Image via Pierrot Films)

Shunsui alone technically defeated Lille, forcing him to undergo two different Vollstandig transformations in succession. This is even more impressive when Kenpachi Zaraki, Byakuya Kuchiki, and Toshiro Hitsugaya, all of them in their respective strongest incarnations, had to join forces to achieve the same result against Gerard Valkyrie.

Lille was a full-fledged god, and yet, despite his insane raw power, only his immortality saved him from Shunsui’s Katen Kyokutsu Karamatsu Shinju. With this in mind, it’s safe to say that Shunsui’s Bankai is an inexorable death sentence for any Bleach character who isn’t either vastly superior to Lille or outright immortal. Of course, this is a very short list.

After all, Shunsui Kyoraku is Yamamoto’s best disciple, along with Jushiro Ukitake, and Yamamoto himself considered Kyoraku and Ukitake to be Shinigami unmatched by both their predecessors and successors. Yamamoto was an absolute monster, but there’s no doubt that Shunsui is the Captain Commander for good reason.