Retsu Unohana is the Captain of the Gotei 13’s 4th Division, a division mostly concerned with healing and medicine. We see Unohana a lot in the early segments of Bleach, but she doesn’t do much in the earlier parts of the manga and anime to really warrant a lot of attention. She didn’t reveal her Bankai, though we did see her Shikai revealed much earlier in the series.
However, during the Thousand-Year Blood War arc Unohana finally reveals her Bankai and some details about her character we didn’t know previously. These revalations have shed a whole new light on this character and how we understand her, turning what we knew about Unohana on its head. If you want to know about the highest level of her Zanpactos power, then here is the answer to what Unohana’s Bankai is in Bleach.
Unohana’s Bankai and Her Origins in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War
Unohana’s Shikai is, as seen before in the series, a Manta Ray she can ride on. The Shikai has some healing properties as well as being a way for the Captain to transport herself and various patients. Normally, a Bankai builds upon a Shikai, but Unohana’s Bankai is radically different in appearance. Her blade becomes a sword made of blood, and that blood also leaks into her surroundings. She can then manipulate that blood to attack her opponents or defend herself, but more critically, it also has an acidic effect on anyone, including herself, touched by it. Her Bankai increases her already incredible healing abilities, healing herself very quickly or, sometimes more importantly, her opponents. In fact, she has to heal both herself and her opponents when exposed to her acidic Bankai.
Her Bankai is one of the most nightmarish in the series, and considering it has to compete with Kenpachi‘s and Mayuri’s that’s saying a lot. Her Bankai doesn’t seem fitting given the supposedly healing nature of her other abilities and her position as Captain of division 4. However it makes perfect sense when you consider the fact that Unohana is the first Kenpachi. The Kenpachi title is a lineage of names passed from one supreme warrior in the Soul Society to another, denoting the fiercest and perhaps most bloodthirsty warriors of the Shinigami. Unohana learned healing specifically to prolong her fights and her enjoyment of them. Unohana’s Bankai is then representative of her outwardly nurturing and healing nature while actually being a hardened killer.
That’s it for answering the question of what Unohana’s Bankai is in Bleach TYBW. If you want to read more Bleach-related articles, then Twinfinite has plenty of guides on subjects like was Ichigo’s Mom a Quincy, and much more.
