Bleach
Bleach · the second ladder10 zanpakutō

Blades,Ranked ApartThe Bleach Zanpakutō ranking

A sword is not its swordsman, and this franchise proves it harder than any other. Kenpachi went decades without asking his blade its name. The strongest ice in Soul Society belongs to a captain who says outright that his own powers have not finished growing into it. Aizen's is not a weapon at all. So the armaments get their own ladder, argued from what each one is shown and stated to *do* — never from the record of whoever carries it. Where the two rankings disagree, the disagreement is the reason this page exists. One caution about the second column, because it would be easy to over-read. There are ten blades here and twenty-six people on the other ladder, so the two scales are not the same length and a raw difference in places is indicative rather than arithmetic. Four places between a blade and its wielder means very little. Twenty-one, as between Hyōrinmaru and the captain holding it, means something.

BladeWielder
  1. 0107

    Kyōka SuigetsuAizen's — total hypnosis

    Sosuke Aizen — 6 places lower as a person

    It does no damage. It takes the five senses of anybody who has seen it released and hands them to its owner, so every subsequent fight is fought against a version of events he is writing. Nothing else here has to be beaten before it works, and nothing else here decides as many outcomes. First on a ladder of swords, and it never cuts anyone.

    • Bleach · Soul Society arc · shown

      Complete hypnosis takes hold of everyone who has witnessed its release. — 2004

    • Bleach · Fake Karakura Town arc · stated

      Controls all five senses of those affected. — 2010

  2. 0206

    Ryūjin JakkaYamamoto's — the oldest fire

    Genryusai Yamamoto — 4 places lower as a person

    The largest raw output in the franchise, and the one the material treats as a natural limit rather than a technique. The "strongest fire" label is worth a caveat of the same kind the Espada criterion gets: it is repeated everywhere and this page could not tie it to a panel, so the citations below carry what is depicted and not the superlative. Its released form burns across a battlefield rather than at a target, and its Bankai is described in terms of temperature rather than force. Second only because a fire that must reach you can be evaded, and a hypnosis you have already seen cannot be.

    • Bleach · Soul Society arc · shown

      Its release reduces the surroundings to ash across a wide area. — 2005

    • Bleach · Thousand-Year Blood War arc · shown

      Zanka no Tachi destroys multiple Sternritter and scorches Seireitei. — 2013

  3. 0324

    HyōrinmaruHitsugaya's — the strongest ice

    Toshiro Hitsugaya — 21 places lower as a person

    The strongest ice-type blade in Soul Society, held for most of the story by somebody who says he cannot yet use it properly. That is the entire case for ranking swords separately, stated on the page by the person best placed to know: the Bankai is incomplete, he says so, and it stays incomplete until the final war. Third here. Its wielder is twenty-fourth on the other ladder, and the gap is not a scoring error.

    • Bleach · Arrancar arc · stated

      Its wielder states the Bankai is incomplete. — 2010

    • Bleach · Thousand-Year Blood War arc · shown

      The completed Bankai freezes an opponent's surroundings and body. — 2015

  4. 0413

    NozarashiKenpachi's — the unnamed one

    Kenpachi Zaraki — 9 places lower as a person

    Decades of use by a man who had never asked what it was called, which is a fact about a sword that no other sword here can offer. Once named, its released form does not travel to a target so much as remove the distance in between — an effect that beats positioning rather than armour, and there is very little else on this list that attacks the space instead of the body standing in it.

    • Bleach · Thousand-Year Blood War arc · shown

      Its Shikai cuts through space to reach Gremmy Thoumeaux. — 2014

  5. 0512

    MinazukiUnohana's — the one that heals

    Retsu Unohana — 7 places lower as a person

    Filed for most of the run as the medical division's tool: a blade whose released form swallows the wounded and returns them healed. The same weapon belongs to the first person Soul Society ever called Kenpachi, and in her duel with the current one it is used to kill him repeatedly and bring him back so that the lesson can go on. A healing sword in the hands of the deadliest swordsman in the setting's history.

    • Bleach · Soul Society arc · shown

      Its Shikai carries and heals the wounded. — 2004

    • Bleach · Thousand-Year Blood War arc · shown

      Used to kill and revive Kenpachi Zaraki repeatedly during their duel. — 2014

  6. 0619

    Senbonzakura KageyoshiByakuya's — the counted blades

    Byakuya Kuchiki — 13 places lower as a person

    A sword that stops being one. Released, it becomes a quantity rather than an object, and behaves like weather — which means the usual defences, all of which assume an edge arriving from a direction, have nothing to work against. Anybody who needs to close distance to do damage is fighting the air itself.

    • Bleach · Fake Karakura Town arc · shown

      Defeats the Espada Zommari Rureaux in its Bankai form. — 2010

  7. 0702

    ZangetsuIchigo's — broken, then remade

    Ichigo Kurosaki

    The only blade here that had to be destroyed and rebuilt before it worked, and the one that lands the cut the entire final arc is arranged around. It is seventh rather than first because so much of what it does is inseparable from who is holding it — which is the problem this ladder was built to avoid, admitted in the one place it cannot be.

    • Bleach · Thousand-Year Blood War arc · shown

      The reforged Bankai bisects Yhwach. — 2016

  8. 0814

    BenihimeUrahara's — the scientist's

    Kisuke Urahara — 6 places lower as a person

    Kept out of sight for twenty years of story by an owner who would rather not be measured, and then released for the first time in front of anybody during the final war. Its Bankai restructures what it touches instead of cutting it — splitting a thing and stitching it back differently — which is a category of effect almost nothing else here can claim, and one that makes the usual question of how sharp a blade is beside the point.

    • Bleach · Thousand-Year Blood War arc · shown

      Its Bankai is revealed against Askin Nakk Le Vaar, its first use before anyone. — 2016

  9. 09—

    WabisukeKira's — the arithmetic one

    Izuru Kira — not ranked on the character ladder

    It doubles the weight of whatever it strikes, and doubles it again on the next strike, and again. Nothing about that is impressive on a first reading and the mathematics are terrifying on a second — four cuts and an opponent is carrying sixteen times themselves. Its owner is a lieutenant nobody ranks. The ability belongs at this end of a list of swords, and he does not belong on the other one at all.

    • Bleach · Soul Society arc · shown

      Doubles the weight of any object it successfully cuts, cumulatively. — 2004

  10. 1026

    Sode no ShirayukiRukia's — the white one

    Rukia Kuchiki — 16 places lower as a person

    Called the most beautiful blade in Soul Society, which is an aesthetic judgement the setting makes out loud and this page has no way to weigh. What can be weighed is the Bankai: it drops the temperature far enough that an opponent's body simply stops running, which is a kill condition rather than a damage figure.

    • Bleach · Thousand-Year Blood War arc · shown

      Its Bankai freezes a Sternritter's body until it ceases functioning. — 2014