Summary

Kyoraku’s Bankai turns a theater play reality, trapping its target and making them an actor.
The story of a tragic couple unfolds in the Bankai, involving shared wounds and a deadly finale.
Kyoraku’s Zanpakutou spirit, Katen, manifests during the Bankai, adding an alluring and mysterious element.

In a new incredible episode of Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War, Captain Shunsui Kyoraku finally unveils his Bankai during his deadly battle with Sternritter X – Lille Barro. On par with the older Bankai seen before, Kyoraku’s Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu is an extremely powerful and elaborate technique made to quickly destroy its enemy.

Kyoraku’s Bankai enacts a theater play about a tragic couple in a traditional Japanese Kabuki theater, affecting a massive area at once but targeting a single enemy. Head captain Shunsui Kyoraku’s Bankai is one of the strongest seen in the series so far. There is everything you need to know about how it works in Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War.

The 12th Squad Captain has had a crucial role in the eventual victory of the Shinigami against the Quincies. Here’s why he’s the MVP.

Shunsui Kyoraku’s Bankai, The Theater Suicide

Making a Stage Play Reality

Head Captain Shunsui Kyoraku’s Bankai is called Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu (Bones of Heavenly Blooming Madness: Withering Pine Lovers’ Suicide). By setting the tips of his two swords on the ground, he activates his Bankai which covers a massive area at once. The environment changes, the sky turns a golden hue and wavy marks appear on the ground and buildings. These markings reference the stage of a Kabuki Theater play. When Kyoraku activates his Bankai, large black shadows resembling pine trees form in front of him, and then the mysterious shadow of a woman manifests on his back, and then, as he catches his enemy, the play begins. Kyoraku’s Shikai turns children’s games into reality and forces his opponent to play in them, while his Bankai turns a theater play into reality, forcing his opponent to be one of the actors. The theater play in question tells the story of a troubled couple with a tragic fate.

Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu makes a theater play reality.

It tells the story of a tragic couple.
It encompasses a massive area at once, trapping its target and making them into one of the actors, the regretful man.
The woman with Shunsui, Ohana, is Katen, his Zanpakutou spirit.

Act 1: Tameraikizu no Wakachiai (Hesitance and Apportionment of Wounds)

Any wound that has been inflicted upon Shunsui is also inflicted on his enemy, as if shared. The first act in the story is of an abusive man who hits his partner and from the guilt he shares the same ones he inflicted upon her, but he cannot die from them.

Act 2: Zanki no Shitone (The Pillow of Shame)

Several black spots appear on the enemy, causing them to bleed profusely. This enacts the second act of the man collapsing in shame and becoming incredibly ill after hurting his partner.

Act 3: Dangyo no Fuchi (The Severing Abyss)

Both Shunsui and his enemy are engulfed in a massive inescapable sea until either one of them runs out of spiritual pressure and drowns. This narrates the third act where both of the couple throw themselves into the sea.

It is the way of a woman to take mercy upon her man’s shamefulness by not leaving him behind.

Final Act: Itokiribasami Chizome no Nodobue (Thread-Cutting Scissors upon a Blood-Streaked Throat)

After sheathing both his swords, Shunsui entangles a white thread in the opponent’s throat before pulling it and cutting their neck, after which the cut expands and blows up the enemy’s head. At the end of the story, the regretful man’s partner ignores his pleas for forgiveness and mercilessly cuts his throat.

Kyoraku is forced to unleash his Bankai against Lille Barro, and it is every bit the affair fans hoped it would be.

The story of a couple with an abusive man ends with shame and regret before the woman takes the man’s life and, the theater play that Kyoraku’s Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu turns into reality makes his enemy into the regretful man.

Who is Ohana?

An Alluring Spirit

During Act 3, a mysterious and beautiful woman manifests behind Shunsui, someone he calls Ohana. This is Katen, the manifested spirit of Shunsui’s Zanpakutou. She’s an incredibly beautiful woman with violet hair, an indigo cape and a black eyepatch on the same eye as Shunsui. She manifests only when Shunsui uses his Bankai, hence her line about him only playing with her once in a while. Katen has a very close relationship with her master, in contrast to other Zanpakutou like Zangetsu or Zabimaru.

The designs for the Zanpakutou spirits may come from a filler arc, but they hold major significance

She was also first seen during the Zanpakutou Rebellion filler arc. She was one of the most popular designs seen in that arc, and it seems quite obvious that author Tite Kubo loved the design and incorporated it into the canon manga.

Tease you I may, but as master and blade… Have we not sworn to put love and hate behind us and fall together like the autumn leaves?

Shunsui Kyoraku has one of the most powerful and deadly Bankai seen in the series so far and many fans of the manga eagerly anticipated its debut in the anime. While it seems complicated at first, once you understand the flow of the theater story, Katen Kyokotsu Karamatsu Shinjuu is easier to understand as one of the most elaborate and artistically impressive Bankai in Bleach.