Bleach TYBW failed to highlight the Visored with the most obvious plotline

During Bleach’s Thousand-Year Blood War, the Quincy cornered the Shinigami by depriving them of their strongest asset, the Bankai. Specifically, the Sternritter from the Quincy’s Wandenreich army used special medallions to steal the Bankai of several Gotei 13 captains in order to use these formidable powers as their own.

The problem was solved thanks to Kisuke Urahara’s wits. The former 12th Division captain and former president of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute devised the Shin’eiyaku pills. This drug causes Bankai to undergo temporary Hollowfication, rendering the Sternritter unable to use them as Hollow-type Reiatsu is poisonous for the Quincy.

While this ingenius invention fixed the issue, allowing the Gotei to go to the counterattack, it felt like a missed opportunity to give some spotlight to the Visored. Given their Hollow powers, Shinji and the others should have been involved in the stolen Bankai storyline, both to give them some spotlight and to definitively mend the rift between these Shinigami and the Soul Society.

Bleach TYBW's stolen Bankai subplot could have been the perfect opportunity for the Visored to finally shine

The Quincy's move and the Shinigami's countermove

The Shin'eiyaku pills (Image via Studio Pierrot)

With their medallion, the Sternritter could not only steal Bankai but also use them at will, as long as the stealing Quincy was strong enough to properly control the power of the Bankai. However, the stolen Bankai can’t be used at full power—i.e., at the same level as the original user—unless the Quincy who stole it spent some time training with it.

The Shinigami would have been in big trouble against this shenanigan if Kisuke Urahara hadn’t come up with a clever countermove. Urahara understood that the Quincy’s innate weakness to Hollow-type Reiatsu could be used to contrast the effect of the Bankai-stealing medallion when he realized that the Quincy couldn’t steal the Arrancar’s Resurreciòn, even though that power was the equivalent of the Shinigami’s Bankai.

He created special pills infused with a small amount of Hollow Reiatsu. Once a Shinigami took the pill, their Bankai would Hollowfy, becoming harmful to the Quincy in possession of it and poisoning their body before returning to the original owner.

To be fair, the Quincy’s natural weakness to Hollow-type Reiatsu—especially in the context of the stolen Bankai subplot—could have been handled in a much more fascinating way to give the perennially mistreated Visored some importance.

The Visored don't enjoy success in Bleach

The Visored during the battle in Fake Karakura Town (Image via Studio Pierrot)

A group of Gotei 13 captains and lieutenants who had unintentionally acquired Hollow powers as a result of Sosuke Aizen’s schemes and Hollowfication experiments, the Visored, were forced to flee the Soul Society after being sentenced to death. Despite their innocence, they were considered traitors, as breaking the boundaries between Shinigami and Hollows is a major sin for a Shinigami.

Urahara saved the Visored from certain death, transporting them to the Human World, where they went into hiding. After meeting Ichigo Kurosaki and helping him control his untamed Hollow powers, the Visored decided to participate in the battle at Fake Karakura Town in order to take their revenge on Aizen.

The battle ultimately concluded with Aizen’s defeat at the hands of Ichigo and Urahara. With the threat averted and the common enemy defeated, some of the Visored resumed their previous roles in the Gotei 13.

Shinji as seen in Bleach TYBW (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Over time, all of the Visored have managed to gain full control over their Hollow powers, which materialize in the form of masks that cover their heads. When using their mask, the Visored gain a massive power boost as their speed, physical strength, stamina, and Reiatsu are greatly enhanced. In Bleach, the Visored have only demonstrated the ability to combine their Hollow masks with their Shikai.

However, Bleach author Tite Kubo himself revealed that the Visored can potentially use their Hollow masks in conjunction with their Bankai. Given this, as well as the fact that Hollow based-powers are poison to the Quincy, the Visored should have been the Gotei’s secret weapon against the Sternritter’s Bankai theft.

In addition to making perfect sense from a logical standpoint, this would also have allowed Shinji, Kensei, Rose, and the other Visored to play a major role in a pivotal moment of the conflict between Quincy and Shinigami. Except for Shinji’s show of superiority over Grimmjow and Hachi’s decisive contribution against Barragan, the Visored have rarely performed well in Bleach, and the specific context of the stolen Bankai subplot would have been the perfect occasion to reverse the trend.

Hitsugaya's Hollowfied Bankai (Image via Studio Pierrot)

The Quincy couldn't steal the Visored's Bankai due to their Hollow-like Reiatsu. Thus, the Visored were free to go all out with their powers, combining their Hollow masks with Shikai and even Bankai to get the upper hand against, at least, the low-tier Sternritter.

Instead, the storyline was used to highlight Urahara and Hitsugaya, emphasizing the former’s cleverness and giving the latter a rematch against Cang Du. Admittedly, this felt rather redundant, as Bleach is filled with Urahara’s deus ex machina moments. Also, Hitsugaya already had a lot of screen time in the series.

In comparison, the Visored were much more in need of some hype. But they didn’t get it, neither in the manga nor in the anime’s new adaptation of the story. Despite the many changes that he brought in Bleach TYBW, Kubo didn’t modify this subplot. To be fair, it was disappointing not to see the Visored—Shinigami with Hollow powers—being the trump card in a fight against characters who have a Pokèmon-like weakness for Hollow-type Reiatsu.

One of Bleach TYBW’s worst storylines

Cang Du's attempt to use Hitsugaya's Bankai (Image via Studio Pierrot)

The stolen Bankai storyline also felt like a waste of time when the Sternritter didn’t even make much use of the powers they took from the Shinigami. In the end, this subplot added little to the evolution of the conflict and ended up being a personal matter between Hitsugaya and Cang Du.

The Bankai is a Shinigami’s peak power, so without it, a Shinigami is inherently disadvantaged. However, it might have been interesting if the temporary loss of Bankai could have led to more variegated battles, forcing the Shinigami to rely on other skills such as Shikai, Kido, and Hakuda.

To a small extent, this did happen, as Hitsugaya and Rangiku Matsumoto combined their Shikai to maximize their effectiveness, while Soifon trained her Shunko to make up for the lack of Bankai. That said, compared to the rest of Bleach TYBW’s content, this subplot is one of the most underwhelming.

Bleach TYBW failed to highlight the Visored with the most obvious plotline

Bleach TYBW's stolen Bankai subplot could have been the perfect opportunity for the Visored to finally shine

The Quincy's move and the Shinigami's countermove

The Visored don't enjoy success in Bleach

One of Bleach TYBW’s worst storylines

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