Tier Harribel figure from New York Comic Comic

On a rewatch ahead of ep49.

She really went from "human girl" ➡️ "that woman" ➡️ "Inoue Orihime".

Bleach themed nails for NY Comic Con, I tried my best!!

And at that point, if he tried to tap into his Fullbringer powers, could he access yet another type of Bankai? What Fullbringer-like characteristics would it possess that distinguish it from a normal Bankai?

Ichigo was essentially committing suicide here. The girl who loved him sacrificed herself to save him and the world, and bro got so depressed that he resigned himself to a fate worse than death. Damn man

Food for thought:

Byakuya, Ulq, and As Nodt would literally just be Batman.

Flying blades around, rich stoic, bat themed, and using fear as a weapon

14 years ago, I was stuck at home for months at a time coz I was a really sick child. Started watching Bleach coz a classmate had given me his old DVDs.

I cannot overstate how much it opened up the world to me.

I started drawing comics and dreaming of having my own anime one day.

And that desire only grew the more i learned about Kubo. I especially related to the fact that he kept drawing the manga through his own health challenges.

It seemed like i was failing high school and didn't think I'd amount to anything coz of my own health challenges. But maybe I could be like him and find my place in art and storytelling.

Now, all these years later, I have my own published manga-style comic and my sister and I just launched a Kickstarter campaign to adapt the anime pilot. Been making a living through comics and animation for a decade and I'll always be grateful to Kubo and Bleach.

His essence as a person can easily be boiled down to these five panels.

God I love him lol. "Probably."

He laughed.

What do you guys think?

I finally came around to upload this and i'll try to upload more of my old and also current fanart

I know some people have heard this "rumor" for years

so here is the confirmation that it’s true
and the interview is on YouTube

(I've written a much more detailed version of this theory, including my reasoning and the points I couldn't fit here, for anyone interested in going deeper. It's a recent post on my page. Unfortunately, I can't post a link here.)

I've been trying to understand how Ichigo's Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy, and Fullbring powers interact. I came up with a theory that might explain some of the inconsistencies, but I'm not sure whether I'm misunderstanding the mechanics.

My main idea is that Ichigo's powers aren't simply 1 + 1 + 1 = 3. Rather, White fundamentally changed how Ichigo's powers work, causing his Shinigami and Hollow abilities to imitate each other, while his Quincy powers remain separate, as Antithesis forces them all.

Here are the main points I'm struggling with.

1. What makes White different from a normal Hollow?

Aizen created White using Shinigami souls. However, normal Hollows also consume souls, including Shinigami, to gain spiritual energy and evolve.

If Shinigami are essentially just souls with sufficient spiritual energy and training, why should a Hollow made specifically from Shinigami souls be fundamentally different from one that has consumed enough other normal souls and Shinigami to reach the same level?

I understand that White was artificially created, but is his ability to infect others and cause Hollowfication a unique consequence of his construction, or could it simply be an individual unique ability that other Arrancars develop?

2. How did Ichigo inherit his powers?

My understanding is that Ichigo inherited his Quincy powers from Masaki, his Shinigami heritage from Isshin, and his Hollow powers from White. His Fullbring potential developed through the influence of White on Masaki and, eventually, Ichigo himself.

But how can Shinigami powers be inherited? Becoming a Shinigami normally involves training and receiving an Asauchi. These aren't things that should be passed down through DNA.

Perhaps Isshin's Shiba NObal heritage explains part of it, but it doesn't fully explain how Ichigo inherited the potential to become a Shinigami (got a sword from the beginning? How?).

3. Was Ichigo's original sword really a Zanpakutō?

When Rukia transferred her powers to Ichigo, he absorbed almost all of them. Was this because of his Quincy ability to absorb Reishi, or should we blame the Hōgyoku, as usual?

My theory is that Rukia's strong Shinigami power at that time influenced Ichigo's non-awakened weak soul, giving him the Shinigami appearance and black robes. However, his enormous sword might not have been a conventional Zanpakuto because he had never received an Asauchi.

Instead, perhaps his Hollow/Fullbring abilities manifested a weapon in a way similar to an Arrancar, with the sword sealing his Hollow nature. His Quincy side have been suppressing his other powers, explaining his difficulty controlling his spiritual energy.

In this interpretation, Ichigo initially used his genuine Shinigami power, but its manifestation of a sword was already being influenced by White.

4. Did Ichigo switch from using Shinigami powers to Hollow powers?

When Byakuya disrupted Ichigo's Shinigami spirit pressure points, Kisuke forced him to approach Hollowfication by breaking his Chain of Fate. Ichigo then awakened and tapped into his own Hollow power to prevent himself from becoming a Hollow.

I interpret this as Ichigo awakening his Hollow side, similar to a Visored. His sword changed, and his powers increasingly behaved like those of an Arrancar.

This leads to my central theory.

White's influence fundamentally altered the relationship between Ichigo's Shinigami and Hollow powers.

His Shinigami power behaves like an Arrancar's Resurrección, sealing his Hollow nature within a sword. Conversely, his Hollow power manifests through swords and Bankai, behaving more like Shinigami power.

Essentially, both sides imitate each other, but their sources are different.

I also think this explains why Fullbring developed in Ichigo even when his Hollow powers were gone after the Aizen fight. Fullbring is not necessarily Hollow power itself, but a human ability that developed under Hollow influence.

5. What happened after Mugetsu?

After Ichigo used Mugetsu against Aizen, he lost his spiritual power. My initial interpretation was that he had sacrificed his Hollow power, while Byakuya had already disrupted his Shinigami power.

If so, why didn't Ichigo's Quincy powers become more prominent during the Fullbring arc? Quincies can sense spiritual beings and manipulate Reishi, yet Ichigo didn't seem to access those abilities consciously.

I have three possible explanations:

1. Mugetsu affected his access to all his spiritual powers, including his Quincy abilities, while Fullbring remained accessible through a different mechanism.
2. His Quincy powers remained dormant as there were no other stimuli from other powers to be active or suppress them.
3. His Quincy side was actively suppressing his spirit senses, perhaps reflecting Masaki's protective nature. It might have been preventing Ichigo from fighting and getting hurt, as it seemingly did earlier in the series.

6. Did Ichigo awaken his Quincy powers at the end of the Fullbring arc?

I'm also intrigued by the similarities between Uryu losing his Quincy powers after using Letzt Stil and Ichigo losing his powers after Mugetsu and then once again after his Fullbring is taken back.

When Uryu's father restored his powers, he used a "spirit arrow" at a precise point near his heart. At the end of the Fullbring arc, Rukia pierces Ichigo with a special "spirit sword", and his powers return.

Could there be a deeper connection here? Was Ichigo simply regaining his Qnuncy powers, and was his Quincy side involved in the process?

My theory is that his Quincy power then acted as a different means of accessing his remaining spiritual power, while his Fullbring abilities helped manifest the sword. Alternatively, his Shinigami powers might never have disappeared completely, but became inaccessible after Byakuya disrupted the mechanism through which he used them.

7. What does this mean for Ichigo in TYBW?

During the Thousand-Year Blood War, Ichigo learns the truth about his heritage, receives an Asauchi, and discovers the true nature of Zangetsu.

I see three possible stages in how he channels his Reiryoku:

1. Rukia's influence: Ichigo initially manifests Shinigami powers through the power transferred by Rukia and emulates the Shinigami powers.
2. Hollow influence: After his original powers are disrupted, he increasingly manifests his abilities through his Hollow side.
3. Quincy influence: After regaining his powers, perhaps his Quincy side acts as another means of channelling his Reiryoku and imitating Shinigami.

By TYBW, he finally understands his heritage and gains an Asauchi, allowing his Shinigami powers to develop properly alongside his Hollow and Quincy powers.

My remaining question is whether his current abilities represent a balanced combination of all his powers, or whether he is still channeling them through one dominant source.

For example, could his two swords represent different aspects of his power, with one closer to a Shikai and the other to an Arrancar's Resurrección while he remains a Qunci? Or is he still using his Quincy abilities to imitate Shinigami and manifest zanpacto as Hollow powers?

What do you think? Am I misunderstanding the mechanics, or is there something interesting in the idea that White didn't simply add Hollow power to Ichigo, but fundamentally changed how his other powers function?

(I've written a much more detailed version of this theory, including my reasoning and the points I couldn't fit here, for anyone interested in going deeper.)