Kenpachi Zaraki

General Information and Appearance

Birthday: November 19

Hair: Black

Eyes: Green

Height: 6’6″ (202cm)

Weight: 198 lbs

Kenpachi is a giant muscular man, towering over most of the other captains and all of the human spirits that invade the Soul Society. He is one of the tallest Shinigami in Soul Society. Kenpachi has his hair spiked up with bells attached to it. Besides the traditional black uniform that the Soul Reapers wear, Kenpachi wears his captain’s haori without sleeves. Kenpachi also has a special eye patch over his right eye and has a scar across his left eye. The eye patch was created by the Shinigami Research and Development Institute to suppress his massive spiritual energy. He has green eyes and no visible eyebrows. Kenpachi carries around an abnormally long Zanpakuto with a short handle for it’s blade length.

Personality

Kenpachi is known for his love of battle and violent behavior. He loves a good fight and will often hold back during battle to make the fight last longer. Despite his brutal tendencies in battle, he usually stops the fight if his opponent is too injured or weak to fight back. Although he lives to fight, Kenpachi is shown to have strong emotions for some people around him. He cares deeply for his lieutenant, Yachiru, with whom he has a father-daughter relationship. He also cares deeply for officers in his squad, especially 3rd and 5th seat officers, Ikkaku and Yumichika respectively. The officers in his squad are deeply loyal to him. They believe in his strength and look up to him for leadership and guidance.

Kenpachi is known to have a very bad sense of direction. He often gets lost and has to ask for directions from Yachiru, whose sense of direction is just as bad.

Character Evolution

Kenpachi is first seen in Bleach as a side character with Gin Ichimaru taunting Byakuya Kuchiki, hoping to start a fight.

It is seen that Kenpachi is a warrior who craves battle by what is shown of his past in Bleach. He came from the most dangerous and violent district in the Soul Society and perfected his sword fighting skills there. He also meets his future lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi, while he traveled about fighting and killing whomever he thought worthy of battling himself.

Up until this point Kenpachi was nameless, taking the name Kenpachi because he had earned the most kills as a swordsman. Kenpachi went on to go through the training to become a Soul Reaper, and joining the Soul Society’s army. Kenpachi served in the 11th Division before he became the 11th Captain. Kenpachi earned his captain seat by the third method of advancement in the Soul Society, Kenpachi killed the former captain. As a sign of his rank Kenpachi wears the jacket of the captain he killed.

Major Story Arcs

Soul Society Arc

Kenpachi’s Abilities are revealed steadily throughout the Soul Society Arc and can be demonstrated through connections that are shown through the lengthy part of the series.

When Ichigo and the others invade the Soul Society, Kenpachi is the first Captain that Ichigo runs into. Kenpachi challenges Ichigo because he is the most powerful of the human souls that entered the Soul Society.

Kenpachi fights Ichigo in a brutal battle with Zanpakutos. During the battle Zanpachi reveals that he doesn’t release his sword because he constantly fights at a released level. Zanpachi reveals after the battle that he doesn’t know his Zanpakuto’s name. Since Kenpachi doesn’t know his Zanpakuto’s name his sword looks chipped and battered from all his battles.

Despite it’s appearance Kenpachi’s sword is very powerful and can even slice through other Zanpakutos, like he does to Ichigo. Kenpachi reveals that his sword is coated in his energy which gives it power to attack like a release form despite it’s looks. Kenpachi can release energy through his blade in many forms even as a blast of energy that can be generally aimed at an opponent with no great accuracy.

Kenpachi feels sorry for his sword because it doesn’t have a name, like he didn’t before he named himself Kenpachi. Kenpachi has an immense amount of stamina, which he demonstrates in both his battle with Ichigo and Tosen. Kenpachi continues to fight Ichigo, no matter what Ichigo throws at him, until he can’t stand anymore. In his fight with Tosen Kenpachi demonstrates his resilience when he survives Tosen’s released Zanpakuto art, which cuts all senses off from the opponent.

Kenpachi show he has a knack for on the spot strategy by realizing that he could still use his sense of touch and gain full use of his senses while in contact with Tosen. Kenpachi’s strength and strategic genius prove too much for Tosen and forces him to step out of the battle. While fighting Ichigo Kenpachi lets his full power lose, revealing that he does hold back a lot when he normally fight.

Like all Soul Reapers Kenpachi’s strength is much greater than most human’s have. Unlike most Soul Reapers Kenpachi has strength and speed greater than most of the other Soul Reapers have, too. Kenpachi can increase his power when he is fully ready to release his inhibitions and just go for the kill, like he does shortly before losing to Ichigo.

Hueco Mundo arc

After a long absence from the series Kenpachi and three of the other captains return to the storyline in the middle of the Arrancar duels. After Nel and Ichigo fall victim to Noitora’s incredible power and stamina Kenpachi steps in to do battle. Excited to meet a powerful enemy Kenpachi attacks without hesitation. It seems like he has fought his way to victory quickly as he shoves his zanpakuto through Noitora head, but the battle doesn’t end so easily as the eye patched Arrancar shoves his hand into Kenpachi’s gut. Unfazed by the attack Kenpachi begin attacking with happiness as he has found a foe that has proven to be more powerful than him. At one point Noitora knocks Kenpachi down and starts to think he has won and heads towards Yuchiru, who points out that Noitora should turn around and finish his duel with Kenpachi. Kenpachi continues to attack recklessly, cutting up his foe while taking his own wounds. Eventually Kenpachi realizes that the Arrancar is going to win if he doesn’t get serious.

Placing both hands on his Zanpaku- to’s hilt Kenpachi uses a kendo two handed sword slash to down his enemy. The blast of his sword hitting Nnorita creates a massive geyser of sand and wind. The attack also nearly cleaves Noitora in half, but the Arrancar manages to hang on to life by a thread, and admonishes Kenpachi for not killing him. Tired of hearing his talking Kenpachi agrees to one final attack against Noitora and finishes him off.

Once the fight has ended Kenpachi tells Ichigo to get his zanpakuto and Orihime to heal him, but everything he had fought for turns south as Stark kidnaps Orihime again. As Aizen unveils his plan to destroy the human’s hometown Kenpachi stops Ichigo and explains that the city is not without protection as the other Gotei 13 captains and their lieutenants are waiting in wait for Aizen to show up.

Fake Karakura Town Arc

Later Kenpachi, alongside Byakuya arrives to the battle between Yammy and Ichigo. After Byakuya attacks Yammy with a huge Kido spell, Kenpachi cuts off one of Yammy’s legs, making him fall over. He then berates Byakuya for “stealing” the first blow and tells him to get away from the battle area. Byakuya calmly calls his statement nonsense, since he was the first to arrive and that Kenpachi should learn his place. Kenpachi however ignores Byakuya and tells him not to complain then if he get sliced into pieces alongside Yammy.

Kenpachi then tells Ichigo he is a disgrace as he seems to get “beat to hell” everywhere they go; he then tells him to move out of the way. When Ichigo stares at him confused Kenpachi goes to strike at him, but Ichigo dodges and screams at him that he could have killed him. He then goes and charges at Ichigo but is slapped away by Yammy and sent flying into a nearby structure. As Yammy rants and raves, Kenpachi kicks a large piece of rock at him but the Espada crushes it to rubble before it can make contact. Kenpachi then states that he is surprised that Yammy can throw a decent punch when he wants to as he barely felt it when he hit him. He then tells Yammy that even though he must think he is a big fly, if he is going to punch him he better put some effort into it. Yammy then enraged goes on to attack Kenpachi.

Relationships

Kenpachi has several leaders under himself that greatly respect him and admire him and one that befuddles him. Kenpachi’s lieutenant is as mentioned Yachiru Kusajishi, a young girl that isn’t even half his own size.

Ikkaku Madarame, a bald Soul Reaper who is close to some of the other lieutenants and a strategic fighter. Then there is Yumichika Ayasegawa, a flamboyant subordinate who has a very strange release power.

Yuichika is the only high seat officer in the 11th division that Kenpachi has a hard time understanding because of Yumichika’s obsession with his own beauty. After battling with Ichigo Kenpachi becomes allies with the human warriors. Kenpachi is also known amongst the other captains in the Soul Society even if they don’t get along with him because of his desire to fight and destroy.

Powers & Abilities

Kenpachi chooses to focus on his sheer power and great swordsmanship, and does not rely on many other forms of Shinigami combat (such as kido or shunpo) that is commonly used by other Shinigami. Despite this, Kenpachi possesses a number of powers and abilities at his disposal.

• Master Swordsmanship: Kenpachi is one of the most skilled and powerful swordman in the series, although usually fighting one-handled and relying on sheer power, Kenpachi has a surprisingly mastery and skill over his sword at fighting, and even proficient swordmans like Ichigo or Urohara have problems to keep up with him in a straigth match up in swordfighting. Kenpachi also has basic knowledge of kendo and can use it increasing the level of his attacks impressively, this way he easily defeated NNoitra with a single attack after a long fight.
• Vast Spiritual Pressure: His Reiatsu is so great, it has been shown to work as some sort of armor. much like an Arrancar’s Hierro. He has been shown using his reitsu as a shockwave to blow off other people’s reitsus, to break seals and to empower his physical strength.
• Immense Physical Strength: Kenpachi’s physical strength is anormally high even without a bankai, being able to destroy buildings and fight on par with other captains even with their bankai. Kenpachi is able to cut everything with his Zanpakut? even when fighting one-handled, and his physical prowess just levels up when he removes his eyepatch and starts using what little kendo he learned during his training as a shinigami and captain.
• Incredible durability and damage resistance: Kenpachi is shown to get cut a lot when in battle but he pays little attention to it. During his battle with two generals during the Soul Society arc, he got blasted into a wall and had swords thrown at him. He is shown not to have felt anything. He later gets stabbed through the stomach with a sword but once again, it seems to have not done much damage. When he begins his battle with Ichigo in the Soul Society, Ichigo is unable to cut him at first.
• Immense Speed : While Kenpachi does not use Shunpo or Flash Steps, he is still shown to be very fast for his size and build. He has been shown to react to Byakuya’s shunpo with little to no difficulty.
• Highly Perceptive Combatant: Kenpachi is usually shown to disregard strategy during battles, but he is shown to have more understanding than one would expect. He is very adept at finding and exploiting weaknesses in his opponents’ techniques. He figured out how to cut through NNoitra Jiruga’s hierro after hitting it for some time. He calls it getting used to it, but he actually sharpened his reitsu to match that of the Hierro, allowing him to cut through.
• Hakuda Expert.
• Kendo: Kendo is the only sword technique he has ever learned. This is by far his strongest technique (despite kendo being a basic beginner sword technique). Yamamoto Genryusai stopped teaching Kenpachi after just a day for fear of how strong Kenpachi would become.

Zanpakut?

Kenpachi is the only Captain of the Gotei 13 who has not learned his zanpakut? true name let alone his Bankai. However his powers are such that should the day we witness his zanpakut?’s release, Kenpachi would most likely become the most terrifying Shinagami in existence.

Despite not knowing its name his Zanpakut? is constantly released in some form of released state due to his immense Spiritual Pressure (just like Ichigo). His Zanpakut? is constantly in a Shikai state without having the additional abilities a Shikai may grant its user. The sword’s appearance is a reflection of Kenpachi’s own practice of weakening himself to fight others on a even level: it is a chipped and worn-down blade with a guard that extends inward from its center similar to a shinai. The hilt is white although most of it is wrapped in bandages, as is his sword’s sheath. The blade is much longer than that of a standard Zanpakut?, roughly the size of a nodachi. Despite its appearance, it is easily capable of cutting through most objects. This is demonstrated when he stabs straight through Ichigo’s Zanpakut? and later slices a building in half with careless effort after releasing the full force of his spiritual power.

Shikai

The name of Kenpachi’s Shikai is Nozarashi. Kenpachi learned it’s name after his battle with Restu Unohana. The release command is Drink. Once Nozarashi is released, it takes the form of a giant war axe. His Shikai is strong enough to competely split Gremmy Thoumeaux’s massive meteor into pieces.