Bleach 540: The Sword Five

Zach Goodier

Link here: http://www.mangapanda.com/bleach/540/

This week dropped a bombshell of sorts on us, so don't read on if you haven't read the chapter yet, this is all discussion of what transpired in the chapter (or **SPOILERS** if you want me to say it for you).  This week, Ichigo has begun to have his new zanpakuto forged for him.  While that may seem like what we were expecting, the reason why Ichigo even needs his zanpakuto reforged is why this chapter was so surprising for me: he never had a true zanpakuto in the first place.  All of Ichigo's powers in fact originate from his fullbring/hollow abilities, and the reason for the appearance of Zangetsu in the first place was that his powers were derived from the hollow that attacked Ichigo's mother, which was itself a construct made by Aizen using the souls of soul reapers in the first place.  So while Ichigo had a zanpakuto of sorts, it was never a true zanpakuto compared to others, and the form it took was actually derived from Ichigo's Quincy powers, hense the resemblance to the Quincy king.  While all this was discussed in the chapter, the reason I want to say it out loud is that this means that in a way, Ichigo has never unlocked his full power up to this point.  While he has had power, we have yet to see what Ichigo's true power, at least as a soul reaper, even looks like.  Hopefully we get to see more next week, so stay tuned for the next chapter.