Bleach Thousand Year Blood Arc: 8 Strongest Characters, Ranked
With Bleach: 1000 Year Blood War streaming on Hulu, it’s time once again to take out our Zanpakuto and brush up on our swordsmanship skills to determine who the top 10 strongest Anime Characters of all time are!
Spoilers ahead for anime only watchers.
8. Rukia Kuchiki
The Kuchiki clan are well represented on this list, with first Rukia showing up after her recent upgrade up in the Soul King’s Palace. Rukia hasn’t been much of a threat throughout the source of the show. But as is quite clear during her battle against As Nodt, she’s picked up a new trick. And that trick might just be the deadliest Bankai in the entire soul society.
The only downside is it’s a dangerous Bankai. And if she doesn’t control it properly, it could pretty easily kill her.
7. Byakuya Kuchiki
Byakuya Kuchiki is a main antagonist for the first arc of the series, and the fight between Ichigo and him is played up quite a bit. And for good reason. Byakuya is fierce, and his Bankai is the old triple threat – beautiful, potent, and deadly. As the series goes on, we realize Byakuya isn’t the arrogant, entitled jerk he comes off as at first. He’s a less arrogant, entitled softy at heart. And we love him for it.
Still, because he was the first big tough guy Ichigo faced (sorry, Kenpachi) it’s easy to write him off, as power does tend to creep. Luckily, Byakuya gets an upgrade in Thousand Year Blood Arc, and we can’t wait to see his full power once again.
6. Kisuke Urahara
Kisuke is basically that really smart kid who always goofed off in class grown up. Only with a deadly Bankai and an arsenal of skills that can kill you and an intellect to do it creatively. Kisuke might be silly, but don’t underestimate him. He’s easily one of the strongest characters in all of Bleach.
He’s so deadly that Aizen himself admits his intellect is no match for Urahara’s, and when we see Urahara’s Bankai revealed in the manga it’s quickly obvious that it is one of the most broke Bankai of all. But Urahara’s abilities aren’t limited to his Bankai or even his intellect. As we see in his fight with Aizen, he’s a master of Kido spells, using them and his technology to confound foes well before needing to draw on his bankai.
5. Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto
If you’ve been following Thousand Year Blood war (and you absolutely should be), you’ll know that Yamamoto is totally badass. But he’s not got the killer instincts as he did when he was younger. Back then, he must have been a truly fearsome sight to behold. As it is now, he was able to get tricked into blasting his god-level bankai on a mere grunt disguised as the big bad guy. So yeah – seems fair to say he’s grown a bit out of touch over the (1000) years.
Happens to the best of us.
Still, his fight against (who he thinks is Yhwach) is one of the best fights in Bleach. Ever.
4. Kenpachi Zeraki
Kenpachi is so strong that he can be a captain level soul reaper, beat almost any opponent, and do all of that without a Bankai. When he unlocks his Bankai, he becomes incredibly, overwhelmingly powerful. Turns out, he’s been holding himself back all this time just to feel the thrill of battle. No wonder the soul society fears him reaching his full potential. It’s scary to let one guy be that strong.
In his latest fight against Quincey Gremmy, we see just how crazy strong Kenpachi can be, refusing to let any odds – even ones that don’t make sense – stop him from cutting through anything.
3. Aizen
Aizen is the main antagonist for the majority of Bleach, and arguably the best bad guy in the series. He’s got a lot of powers up his sleeve, including enhanced speed and strength coupled with already super high levels of intelligence. Not to mention he can cast an unparalleled hypnotic spell on anyone via his Shikai. Aizen gets more and more formidable as the series progresses, and his fight with Ichigo for many marks a major turning point in the anime’s trajectory overall.
2. Ichigo Kurosaki
Ichigo is the substitute soul reaper with such immense spiritual pressure that he’s become the single strongest soul reaper alive. Throughout the course of Bleach’s run, we got to watch Ichigo grow from weird outcast kid into weird outcast soul reaper who has the power to save the world. As we’re about to see in the Thousand Year Blood Arc, that power has only grown thanks to his recent trainings up in the Soul King Palace.
1. Yhwach
King of the quincies. Dead for nearly 1000 years. Come back to take his revenge. There almost ain’t no stopping Yhwach once that guy sets his mind to something, and his epic Quincy powers make him all the more deadly. He’s strong enough to man handle one of the strongest Soul Reapers of all time (Yamamoto), and immense combat capabilities. Although he probably lacks the sheer intelligence of Aizen (a point almost proven in their encounter where Aizen tricks him), he makes up for that with sheer raw power, placing him safely at #1 in this list.
What really makes Yhwach next level, however, is his ability to rewrite the future. And that, my friends, seems to be a power even Ichigo can’t mess with.
