If you are following the latest chapter of Bleach, you sure came across the plot where death is knocking on the door of the 6th Division Captain of the Gotei 13, but will he answer it?
For a series about the afterlife, not many people really die in Bleach; if you are following the franchise for a long time and are a fan of Bleach, that is a criticism. You might be familiar with No One Dies in Bleach. For the longest time, it was probably the most prevailing fan criticism level in the series, and it’s not hard to see why. The Shinigami suffers major, probably fatal injuries, all the time and come out of it absolutely fine.
Probably some of the most egregious examples of this are characters like Hiyori Sarugaki, getting cut in half, or characters like Ururu being stabbed pretty seriously through the chest by Arrancar and surviving. A lot of the time in Bleach, good guys generally take massive damage and come out the other side, they tend to be absolutely fine, and for a long time, this infuriated the fanbase. However, when the final arc came around, it looked like things might actually start to change.
Not five chapters into the arc, Chojiro Sasakibe, the vice-captain of the first division, was killed pretty unceremoniously in what was the first onscreen death of a good guy in the entire series, not counting counts like Kiyon, who died in flashbacks; he is not actually alive in the main story.
Did Byakuya Die in Bleach?
Now let’s take Byakuya, the absolute fan-favorite character, which is just completely iconic and synonymous with the Bleach franchise, but not only that, he is the best-written and best-developed character in the series. From the antagonist to actually respecting Ichigo and helping him out to actually killing, he believed to be his mentor in order to protect Ichigo. That is some crazy development for Byakuya, and he has relationships not just with Ichigo but with Rukia and Renji, and other characters as well.
This is a character who, if you were to kill them, would be earth-shattering from the series; he is that important to the franchise. He is also the series stalwart, and he is very in control every time he fights. Apart from his potential final battle with Ichigo, Byakuya is never seen to be in real trouble, like against Yammy, that fight is played off as more of a joke than anything else, and Tsukishima gives him a little bit of a hard time, but really at the end of the day, it was nothing for Byakuya, and he comes out bearling even breaking a sweat.
During the first invasion of the Wandenreich Empire and the Seireitei, Quincy has not fought Byakuya and absolutely destroys him. He puts Byakuya into a coma, uses his own Bankai against him, and just viciously shreds the character, and by the end of it, we can see Byakuya’s ribcage; he has been damaged so badly.
Kubo then plays out this moment might if Byakuya is actually going to die; you know you have a cut not one but two pretty emotional farewells scenes for this guy; he drops his own Bukkoto, it smashes into million pieces, and he places the burden of his own pride on Ichigo’s shoulders.
It’s a fantastic and excellent moment that really brings back Byakuya’s full circle, and it’s probably the perfect send-off for him, except not three chapters later, Byakuya has actually revealed to still be alive, just in a bit of a coma and they don’t think he will ever regain his consciousness.
In about thirty chapters after that, he is back in, potentially stronger than ever. This kind of “fake out” or fake death really really annoyed fans, but also, Byakuya is dying really annoyed fans. To the point, Kuba was receiving serious death threats about Byakuya’s potential death.
Villains in Bleach do not have a good track record for pretty much the entirety of the Arrancar Arc, The Espada, just get completely dunked on, and they lose basically every single fight, and it’s kind of embarrassing. People were really, really hoping that the final arc would change that.
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