It’s been a long time since we have covered the strongest Bankai in Bleach. Today we are going to look at the opposite end of the spectrum, looking at the 9 weakest Bankai in Bleach, often considered the worst in the franchise. Probably a contentious topic, to be sure, but also a fun one to try and tackle.
Now, the biggest issue, in my opinion, in a list like this is that there are no truly weak Bankai. As far as I am concerned, it would not make sense if there were. After all, a Bankai is supposed to be a Shinigami’s ultimate trump card, their most powerful ability only to be used in the direst circumstances.
So, while I don’t think there is too much merit in looking at them simply as the weakest, it’s also true that not all Bankai are created equal. There are some Bankai that are simply less versatile, less effective, and have bigger and more numerous drawbacks and disadvantages than those that you might find on the strongest Bankai list. So, that’s how we are going to try and approach her.
9 Weakest Bankai in Bleach
We have got nine Bankai to go through here in this list, but before we get to any of those, first, we have got an honorable mention. Now, this Bankai is only here as an honorable mention because we couldn’t work out whether it might go on the best or strongest Bankai list or the worst one thanks to the crippling disadvantage state it leaves its wielder in, and that Bankai is Shūhei Hisagi’s Fushi no Kojo, as revealed in Can’t Fear Your Own World.
I really like the overall look and feel of this Bankai; the sinister ominous energy and the captive imagery of the chains really work for Hisagi as a character. Basically, Fushi no Kojo links both fighters by chains wrapped around their necks to a massive orb suspended above them. This lingering black mass acts as a reservoir of their combined Reiatsu.
As long as the Bankai is active, neither fighter can be killed, and their Reiatsu is constantly being drained to heal their wounds, even though that should be fatal. That is why I feel like this Bankai could be considered one of the best. It allows Hisagi to fight on even ground with an opponent that might have considerably more Reiatsu than him because their respective Reiatsu is distributed evenly amongst them during the battle.
On the flip side, Hisagi could never win a fight with his Bankai alone. He must deactivate it before it completely drains the Reiatsu of both fighters, or he, along with his opponent, will be killed. Not only that, but Hisagi’s Bankai only puts him on an even playing field in terms of Reiatsu. If his opponent is simply more powerful or a more adept fighter, they still be doing more damage overall.
When it comes down to that final moment, once the Bankai’s effects are lifted, Hisagi absolutely needs someone else around to step in and administer the final blow. So this is a tough one for me. It is a cool Bankai, but it only goes so far, and I feel like that hampers its usefulness in a big way. Not enough that it gets a spot on this list, though. Now let’s start the actual list itself.
There will be spoilers for the entirety of the Thousand Year Blood War Arc.
9. Kinshara Butoudan
Kinshasa Butoudan is a pretty cool Bankai from a pretty cool character, Rose. It is one of my favorites and someone whose Bankai I was pleasantly surprised to see in the Thousand Year Blood War Arc. Using the power of sound and music, Rose can trick his opponent into imagining they are being injured and then, for that imagined injury to become a reality.
For example, Rose’s dance troop ignites Mask De Masculine with a powerful flame, except they are not actually doing that but because the melody being played makes Mask believe it’s happening, it actually gets burned. It’s the same as when he is crushed violently by a torrent of water, just by a torrent of water, just one of what seems to be many dances at Rose’s disposal.
Kinshara Butoudan’s Dance Troop of Death is an incredibly stylish and unique Bankai, perfect for the character, but it comes with a massive fatal flaw. If the enemy can’t hear the music for whatever reason, its powers become totally useless. It’s not so much a weakness as it is a literal kill switch that renders the Bankai completely ineffective.
We see Mask De Masculine destroy his own eardrums, removing all of the Bankai’s power, and in a universe in Bleach, where limbs and body parts can be restored and healed with ease, that doesn’t feel like a pretty big sacrifice. In fact, Mask’s only eardrums are returned to him in the very next chapter of the manga. There is also the slight issue that Rose’s Bankai removes his weapon entirely, unfurling his whip in order to create the dancers.
Maybe I am being a little harsh on Rose, it really is a clever, creative, and pretty strong Bankai, and perhaps if he had shut his mouth about its abilities, Mask wouldn’t have figured out what was going on, but the fact that that option was there to totally and utterly render the Bankai null and void, I feel it’s worth a place on this list.
8. Hakka no Togame
This is not what I would expect to see here in the future. Once the Shinigami in question has had a bit of time to get to know it better, to grow it and mature it and overall make it more stable, less unwieldy, and crucially less dangerous but that Bankai is Rukia Kuchiki‘s Hakka no Togame.
Hakka no Togame is a beautiful spectacle befitting of Rukia and Sode no Shirayuki’s grace. It’s also incredibly risky to use. Yes, Rukia was able to kill as not in a single stroke of her translucent icy blade, but what if she came up against anyone stronger than him, more durable than him?
If Rukia’s enemy survives her Bankai in its current state, which we have seen in the canon story itself, then their faced with Rukia, who is completely and utterly helpless. The one time we saw Rukia use her Bankai in the source material, she almost shattered her own body by attempting to move and release it too fast.
As Byakuya himself says that this is a dangerous Bankai to wield, it seems to be, from the very small snippet we got, a powerful one. But right now, Rukia is just too inexperienced with it, or at least she was before that final time skip. It leaves her too vulnerable and too exposed. Seemingly rooted to the ground as she attempts to thaw herself out slowly, lest she kills herself on the spot.
The mobile game Bleach Brave Souls gave us a tantalizing look at Rukia, who has more time to evolve her powers. Hakka no Togame really comes into its own there as she skates around effortlessly, but for now, in terms of what we saw in the pages of Bleach itself, I am happy having it on the list.
7. Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō
Mayuri Kurotsuchi is always such a tricky character to rank, no matter the subject or criteria when it comes to his Bankai Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō, he is able to modify it, reform it, smash it, and break it and do just about anything he likes to it. But in terms of the Bankai we see in the story before the Thousand Year Blood War Arc, I think it deserves a spot on the list.
Perhaps the most glaring issue with this Bankai is the fact that it is a gigantic, organic target. Mayuri’s Bankai summons an abomination behind him, and in the near fight, we see it in its either destroyed or controlled in some way.
Interestingly, Mayuri activating his Bankai is never what actually wins him a fight. The Bankai just seemingly create a nice spectacle but are generally defeated in some way. It’s Mayuri’s own tricks that end up winning the day, which I think is fitting.
The Bankai is also surprisingly limited in its versatility. It sprouts a bouquet of blades from its chest, making it appear to be mostly melee-focused in combat; its more potent ability is the noxious gas cloud that spreads from its mouth.
Aside from that, Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō doesn’t really have much going for it. Now the modified version we get in the Thousand Year Blood War Arc is a totally different story and would probably find its way into the strongest Bankai list.
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6. Tensa (Original)
Tensa, the Bankai of our main character. It’s only natural that Tensa Zangetsu grows and improves over the course of the story. Therefore the original version of Tensa is the only one that is making it onto this list. As far as I am concerned, once Ichigo gets his power back in the Tale of the Last Agent arc, that’s a whole different game.
This version of Ichigo’s Bankai has always felt a bit muted to me, which I think makes sense, considering how little of his true power he is actually using. But he is unable to defeat Byakuya with it alone without Zangetsu‘s help, and after that, he remains in Bankai for an unusually long time, and it really losses all impact. Once we get to the Arrancar arc and the emphasis is instead placed on his Hollow Mask, his Bankai well and truly takes a back seat.
The impressive speed boost he gets is nice, specifically earlier on, but even that begins to slowly fade into the background over time. And of course, once Ichigo gets the hand of using the Black Getsuga, the Bankai’s overall strength increases with it, and really that’s the key to Ichigo, he is all about growth, and we get to see his Bankai grow alongside him. So while the first version of Tensa Zangetsu is absolutely iconic, I think it deserves this spot.
5. Jakuhō Raikōben
Sui Feng’s Bankai Jakuhō Raikōben has been roundly criticized a lot in the past within Bleach and mostly fairly, too, I would say. Again, this a very unique and cool Bankai, but it comes with an awful lot of drawbacks and is honestly pretty worthless in most circumstances, adding very little value to Sui Feng’s already impressive skill set.
Even when she manages to pull the Bankai off, we have yet to see it be used truly successfully. Equipping Sui Feng with a giant missile launcher, Jakuhō Raikōben is cumbersome, slow, and extremely draining to use.
Jakuhō Raikōben uses so much Reiatsu that Sui Feng herself claimed that she could only fire it once every three days and was visibly exhausted after being forced to use it twice in quick succession. At the same time, Sui Feng herself chastises her Bankai as being ill-suited for an assassin due to being overly flashy.
This is only one of a few issues it has, that being said. I do believe that it fits her overall. It represents the more volatile, explosive side of her personality that she doesn’t like, but the Bankai just seems to be fatally poorly designed for combat in general. In one instance of her using it, we see Sui Feng needs to be prepared in order to do so, requiring her to find the time and space necessary to set up her steel sash first.
While the theme of her Bankai is clear, where her Shikai requires two steps to kill, the Bankai should theoretically only need one. Both times she has landed a successful hit, her enemies have survived. Jakuhō Raikōben seems to be pretty good at blowing off faces but not actually finishing anyone off.
Although I do wonder what Baraggan would have actually looked like had he returned to his base form after losing half of his skull, where that even possible at that point!!
4. Kokujō Tengen Myō’ō
We are talking about the overall weakest or worst Bankai in Bleach, Sajin Komamura‘s Kokujō Tengen Myō’ō is always going t make an appearance, but as with some of his contemporaries before him, we will only be taking into consideration Kokujō Tengen Myō’ō, as it appears before the Thousand Year Blood War, where it goes a rather interesting change that in my opinion.
Komamura’s Bankai is an amazing sight to behold, and the giant warrior wields near-unparalleled physical strength. Able to kill an equally colossal Arrancar in a single sword strike and rupture and mangle Tosen’s arm with ease after they clash.
Kokujō Tengen Myō’ō was also indirectly improved with the revelation that broken Babkai can never be fixed. Komamura’s close bond with his Banaki makes him the sole exception. Meaning that when it takes a hit, it will at least recover given enough time, and it better be prepared to take a hit because Komamura’s Bankai simply creates one enormous target with a pretty big sword, and that’s about it.
Komamura himself is more of a brawler-style character, so it makes sense, but the Bankai’s biggest drawback is just that it can’t really do anything outside of copying Komamura’s own movements. To make matters even worst, any damage dealt to the giant is also reflected upon Komamura himself, meaning that not only do you now have a huge target but also a more fragile and riskier one than you might have originally anticipated.
3. Tekken Tachikaze
Kensei’s Bankai Tekken Tachikaze just feels unimpressive to me, and there is not really much to say about it. Taking Tachikaze’s core ability, the power to detonate explosive bursts along the knife slashes and instead apply to Kensei’s fists sounds pretty cool on paper, and Kensei is well known for his proficiency in hand-to-hand combat, making the Bankai perfectly suited.
But it seems to be very limited in both scope and versatility. Not only does his Bankai completely negate his range, reducing the overall effectiveness of his original core ability, but we see his Bankai against Mask De Masculine, and it has little to no effect at all, even when seemingly being used at full throttle.
Kensei slams his fist into Mask’s gut, and we see the full force of his explosive punches being rammed into the stern ritter one after the other, while the idea of it endlessly punching is pretty cool and might be more effective, perhaps in a less durable opponent. Mask returns almost completely unharmed, and Kensei’s Bankai can seemingly do in response is change the protrusion on his hand.
2. Hihiō Zabimaru
Renji’s initial Bankai Hihiō Zabimaru is enormous, imposing, ferocious, and severely lacking in many ways. This feels like a similar situation to Ichigo’s Tensa Zangetsu and, to a lesser extent Rukia Kuchiki’s Hakka no Togame. These are all Bankai that has really only just been learned, and therefore, it’s expected that they will come with drawbacks.
To compound it even further, Hihiō Zabimaru turns out to not even be the true name of Renji’s Bankai at all. What this leaves him with? The majority of the story is about a Bankai that looks amazing but offers very little to the enormous size of the skeletal snake, making controlling it elegantly difficult, and while elegance might not be Renji’s thing, the dual against Byakuya exposes how the messiness of this weapon’s design.
Then there is its frugality; this is another Bankai that makes for a very big target, and while it can be used more offensively and defensively, using the individual segment to both block attacks and withstand damage risks them being forever broken.
Renji can freely control the individual segments using his Reiatsu, but at the end of the day, this is another massive, fragile, and slow Bankai that is both difficult to wield effectively and doesn’t pack enough killing power to be truly useful in the heat of battle. The true version of his Bankai, Soo Zabimaru, seems to be vastly superior in almost every way.
1. Ryūmon Hōzukimaru
Taking the dubious honor of the top spot on our list of the Weakest Bankai in Bleach, well, Ikkaku might have the single coolest Bankai callout in the history of Bleach, but unfortunately, that doesn’t make up for everything Ryūmon Hōzukimaru lacks.
Admittedly we only get a fleeting glimpse of this Bankai in the series, so it’s possible we are missing key elements. Maybe Ikkaku was still in the process of mastering and completing his Bankai.
Unlike others on this list, however, not only is that not confirmed, but nothing comes of it either. Instead, Ikkaku wields a clumsy, brute force Bankai that is smashed to pieces in its first onscreen battle. Ryūmon Hōzukimaru has very little going for it outside of a sleek and menacing visual design.
In the state we saw in, the Bankai is certainly capable of outputting the damage, but it feels like a glass canon, and the cannonball it packs isn’t even particularly dangerous.
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