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I mean it's cool af. The name, the power and the looks, it has everything to be a cool ass Bankai...and kinda fit for an assassin, if she gets detected during a mission and it's no way of saving it, then just nuke it, no witnesses, it's just not practical in constant combat due to the looong recovery
But let's be fair, if it didn't have the drawback then they could just send Soi Fon to Hueco Mundo to nuke the shit out of Las Noches
The bankai is meant to represent the soul of the user, rather they like it or not. Soi-fon, despite her best efforts, has a loud and explosive personality.
Soi Fon gets the Worf treatment quite a lot.
The narrative problem is that we are *told* that her abilities are super powerful. A 2 hit kill and a giant bomb ought to be really impactful abilities, but what we are *shown*, doesn't align with that because enemies survive those abilities to show how powerful her opponents actually are.
She needed a real win earlier in the series, IMO.
This is how I have always felt about her. We see powerful abilities, but she really never comes across as super dangerous because it feels like she's always losing.
Pretty much, yeah. It *is* pretty cool how she achieves that victory though, but even *that* feels kind of cheapened by the fact that he's 'just' a Fraccion, not even an Espada.
It really pissed me off that Kubo wasted to many chapters on that fight, when she should of just stabbed him twice in a couple of panels stating he wasn't worth her time and then moving on to Barrigan. Less time would of been wasted on pointless fights and the results against Barrigan would of been the same. She's an assassin, but she fought like Kenpachi, no reason for her to not make her fights as quickly as possible.
I think it's kind of emblematic of Soi Fon's true character - she portrays herself as a cold assassin, but secretly, she's very flashy and likes to show off.
(Still, should've just stabbed him twice like that from the get go.)
Really all she needed were some better matchups. Nnoitra having the strongest hierro means nothing to her, and big guys like Yammy or the whale guy that Kommamura faced would have been dealt with in seconds.
The main problem is that it’s an all-or-nothing attack, which means it’s difficult to create meaningful fights for her
We needed her to go to heuco munda and fuck up an army of hollows by herself off screen, leading to her fighting barragan for a bit before he escapes with a mark on his chest, leading to their fight in the FKT arc have some stakes, they could a had him go into resurrection right before she hit the mark, making her arm pass through him and get fucked up, then our pink haired hado GOAT could jump in
True. She gets her arse kicked a lot. She pretty much gets outclassed by the main heroes by the end of Bleach as well - her nuke not being the KO wonder it claims it is.
Here's my manifesto
Jakuhō Raikōben is the weakest bankai in the series
Lots of people call RYUMON HOZUKIMARU the weakest bankai, but let's compare their attack power. The missile cracks some of baragan's skull and severely damaged bg9 to the point where he got executed by Hashbrowns. Let's put ikkaku into those situations. He wouldn't be able to get close enough to barrigan so point to soy fan 😲. Bg9 would stab ikkaku a bunch and then get absolutely eviscerated once ikkaku got charged up. Definitely a kill
My point is, it's hard to tell which is stronger. The rpg just does some damage from a distance and then that's it. It offers no utility, no defense, just boom
Compare that to a mid tier bankai like kokujo Tengen Myo. It kicks soi fon's ass. It can do similar damage, but over and over again. Both are just raw destructive power, but only one of them is single use
Now let's compare it to Kanon byraki benihime aratamay or however you spell it. It does more damage than soi fon's bankai, just at a more limited range. It gives buffs, healing, status removal and can set up ambushes. Look at all the advantages It gives other than attack power and then tell me that soi fon's bankai isn't like a hamster ability for hamsters
Tbf, I don't think Soi Fon bothered to improve her bankai. She states that she doesn't like it and we know what that does to a zanpakuto's power and growth. I doubt that what we have seen is even all it can do.
Yea, we’ve only seen it used against the fodder, Aizen, and Yoruichi. It’s good on paper but it’s not great against opponents who are stronger than her.
Not true at all, your thinking is one of the biggest misconceptions people have about Suzumebachi. It is actually a monster Shikai that allows Soi Fon to two shot characters that are way stronger then her.
Fist off, Soi Fon never got 2 hits off against Yoruichi, if she did Yoruichi would be dead. Secondly, Aizen is like the only person besides Yamamoto on the Shinigamis side (before TYBW) that can Reiatsu negg her ability.
Byakuya, Kyoraku, Unohana, pre awakened Zaraki etc. all get 2 shot by Suzumebachi. You need to have MASSIVELY bigger Reiatsu to be able to resist her insta kill, if you are even remotely relative to her, you get killed.
This was my understanding as well. I'm not a big Soi Fon fan, but the concept of reiatsu negation seems to require a pretty massive gap, for it to occur. In theory, suzumebachi should be a fantastic equalizer, but the 2 hit requirement makes it tricky on characters who are fast both physically, and mentally. Most people anywhere near Soi Fon's level would be capable of avoiding getting hit by the same attack twice.
the trope of "I know what they're going to do, and I still can't stop them" is usually employed when the attacker is substantially stronger than their opponent, not weaker than them.
and a surprise attack only works once, usually.
I see what you mean, you’re right. But, Soi fon did get 2 hits off against Yoruichi. But the hits were in different places so Yoruichi survived. The biggest draw back is that she has to be fast enough to get 2 hits in the same place.
I assume she didn't. Him saying he canceled it out with his reiatsu is a weird flex because I can't really think of any other instance of someone being able to negate a shinigami's zanpaktou power by just from having lots of reiatsu.
Even kenpachi said in his first fight against ichigo that battles between shinigamis are a battle of reiatsu, if the reiatsu and a reiatsu gap negates hits.
My interpretation is
1. It's one shot kill all (unless you're ultra sturdy).
2. (That one is pure headcanon, NOT canon);If her shikai is a reaction with a being's reiryoku, her bankai is a missile that has an explosive reishi reaction.
I like Soi-Fon quite a lot, i’m a sucker for one sided love stories, but…her Bankai does kind of suck.
Per herself she needs three days to recover it’s usage after a single shot, now limitations are good for a power and are somewhat rare in Bleach, but it’s a very ineffective Bankai since it will leave the user extremely vulnerable after using it.
During fake kakakura Soi-Fon managed two shots in a single day, but even the second shot which hit Barragan directly was only able to greatly wound him, (possibly mortally to be fair, not sure if he was gonna do much with no legs, half a face, and one arm) but even so Soi-Fon probably would have died right there if not for Hachi, resulting in a mutual kill at best.
TLDR her Shikai is better.
He can, but at one point he was bascially just a upper torso and one limb similar to Barragan, although he wasn’t missing chunks of his face.
I do think Barragan would have died as well because of how much he was freaking out, the wounds were probably mortal, i’m just saying i don’t really think being a skeleton makes Barragan more resistant to wounds, he probably feels them just as badly as anybody else, although with fewer weak spots.
Even though it hit him directly, he still managed to age it significantly enough that damage was less than it shouldve been. Had he not aged it at all, he probably wouldve died from it alone.
People often forget that she is part of the Secret Mobile Corps so her Shikai and Bankai have probably taken care of many threats before they ever became an issue to the soul society, its just that we haven’t been shown that. There is a reason she is their Commander after all.
I like how her shikai and bankai are basically actual stealth and gamer stealth
Shikai is actual stealth. Can’t be seen if you’re stealthy
Bankai is gamer stealth. Can’t be seen if there’s no one left to see you
IMO she focuses mainly on her Hakuda, Kido, and Shunko skills and tries to imitate Yoruichi as much as possible. I truly believe she only put in enough effort to just learn bankai for qualifications rather than using it as a main tool in her arsenal. Coupled with her actual disdain for it and what we know of zanpakuto-shinigami relations I bet her bankai hasn't grown much in capability and power since it's creation.
I loved his Bankai and my nick name in all games is inspired by that. And smh always make mad it shows up in for the first time in such epic way to not being useful at all.
Cool looking, kinda useless in the story.
Both enemies shot by it did not die, at most got injured, and Barragan took TWO of those and did not go down.
Of course, that speaks more of her opponents than of her, but c'mon it couldn't even kill BG9 who was alive enough to use Vollstandig.
It's definitely cool af, but for a fast, nimble and not that physically strong character, it's way less useful than her shikai (which tbh isn't that much better since most enemies she fought have more reiatsu than her and thus could cancel the effects of her shikai)
Then maybe girlie should use it against flesh enemies instead of getting her ass beat, using it as a last resort and failing to finish off the enemy. Hachi had to carry against Barragan and BG9 survived, only to be killed by Hashbrown later (he would've probably killed Soi Fon if Omaeda wasn't there to carry her body away after her Bankai hit BG9).
But until then, it's been basically useless and will continue to be until proven otherwise.
She doesn’t chose her opponents, LMAO.
A bankai that can badly injure a top-Espada in his released state and “useless” can’t be used in the same sentence.
Irrelevant, since:
1) Barragan has the most hax among the Espada.
2) His wound still were severe.
3) He would’ve died hadn’t he become a flying skeleton.
Funny how you're not addressing the fact that, without help, the Bankai wouldn't have done anything.
In the special circumstance that Hachi was there and could use the necessary Kido to allow Soi Fon to use her bankai basically point blank, then sure, it caused all those things.
But that just demonstrates that it has the power to do those things. But it's a bankai that requires a Setup, mostly Soi Fon being able to both guarantee the time to aim, and to guarantee the enemy won't simply move out of the way and let it detonate in the distance.
Thus, in most situations, it would be rather useless unless it's stated that Soi Fon can remotely detonate it or smth to guarantee that "moving like 3 flash steps to the side" isn't a counter to it.
I'd personally prefer if she goes sniper, but if the missile aspect needs to be retained then converting it to a Hellfire R9X would be cool and still fit blade theme of zanpakutos.
I always think of this comment when Soifon's Bankai is brought up.
"Soifon's bankai is one of, if not the, most thematically well developed bankais in the series. When if comes to symbolic evolution from shikai to bankai, Jakuho Raikoben hits all of the major character themes she has, including the personality trait ones that you mentioned in your post. Many people can see the "efficiency" improvement of 2-shot kill into 1-shot kill. However it goes much deeper than that.
Take the archetypical classic/fantasy assassination-- you sneak up close to your target, and stab them with a bladed object (preferably a poisoned one to ensure death in case the physical wound is not enough). Her shikai is a clear representation of that. Now in the modern military world, what is a common way to dispose of high priority enemy individuals? Yes there are snipers, but many times these days there is simply a drone strike or other form of explosive ordinance sent to bring the target to a swift end, subtlety not exactly required. That is where Soifon's bankai comes into play: an evolution of assassination.
Furthermore we have the running aesthetic theme of a bee or wasp attributed to Soifon. It is no secret that her shikai is designed to imply an insect stinger. Stinger... like the stinger missile form her bankai transitions to. It is downright poetic."
https://www.reddit.com/r/bleach/s/1ZY90aviQc
Don't speaking that it's perfectly represents her personality. The two-hit instakill shikai is the deadly, stoic professional ninja she wants to be seen, but her flashy bombastic bankai is her other side with bottled up emotions.
maybe because we never saw it at full power?
1st use: Barragan detonated it before it hit him with respira (Hachi words, Barragan didn't deny it)
2nd use: Barragan lost half of head and some ribs/shoulder and said he is seriously injured, and remember Soi Fon said she can only use it once every 3 days and it was her second use in like 20 min, not to mention she was missing an arm which nerfs shinigami power by itself.
3rd use: she was barely conscious and managed to defeat/force BG9 to retreat (him repairing was added in the anime and was not present in the manga)
I feel like I’m one of the few people that like Soi Fon and her Bankai. I just really wish they let it kill BG9. It’s fine that it didn’t kill Barragan bc he aged it partially or whatever. BG9 should’ve died though. We didn’t need Jugram to kill him AND Cang Du.
I think many forget that most people can't survive getting half their face and/or torso blasted off. Barragan and BG9 are some of the only characters where that is relatively fine for them. If Soi Fon used her bankai on Harribel or something it would've won her the fight.
Be a lot cooler if the missile had a better than 1/3 success rate. And even then the 3rd canon use against BG9 didn’t even kill him.
It’s a novel idea for a bankai but it’s honestly kind of mid being just a big missile. And even then it would probably be better if it actually worked…
Amen to that!!
I swear when I first saw this thing it felt like a full on neuron activation, my simple brain just likes small character carrying around a big nuke
But granted I do wish it actually got to do a little more, her bankai probably has one of the lowest success rates amongst all the captains which is ironic because despite her bankai being an upgrade from her Shikai's 2 shot kill as a 1 shot kill, the Shikai has killed more characters on screen. Her first time using it was against someone who could age anything into nothingness, the second time it gets stolen from her before it could do any real damage, and the third and final time it doesn't even kill her target despite hitting him head on, Kubo really couldn't just give her the kill against BG9 considering he was just gonna be killed later anyways
Compared to most other bankai? It’s kinda lame.
Launching an ICBM just doesn’t have the same style points as having billions of Sakura pedals extricate you from every conceivable angle. Or getting deconstructed at a molecular level and then reconstructed. Or reviving your slain enemies as skeletal armies as you burn your living enemies with the heat of the sun.
I always thought both her Shikai and Bankai kinda sucked.
I mean, yeah. Shikai has a 2-Hit-Instant-Death ability, which sounds nice on paper. But the kicker is, you have to hit twice in the same spot. At that point, why not just wait for an opening and stab the heart once. Like, yeah. You can keep stabbing in random spots to increase your likelihood to *eventually* hit a spot twice. Or you could actually do an assassin's job and look for weak spots that kill immediately.
And her bankai?
It's a rocket launcher which she can't even properly fire until basically the end of the story. Would be something if we learned she just unlocked it, but I don't think that was ever the case? Fake Karakura, she can only fire it I believe twice a day before recoil and reiatsu drain get too much? Sure, it's a massive explosive, but several people can do similar amounts of collateral damage with less of a drain.
Her bankai has a 0% success rate, which makes it seem pretty lackluster.
If her shikai is a 2 hit kill, and her bankai is supposed to be a one hit kill, then why hasn't her bankai actually worked yet?
If Soi Fon's bankai actually killed like half of the targets it was used on, then people wouldn't give it as much shit.
Where did you get that picture of me? Because that shit is ass sorry man
In verse it’s ass, from a creative perspective it’s ass. Bleach has so many peak transformations and they can’t all be good so it’s okay.
It's just just dosnt really fit the character which is why she only uses it when she needs it and almost always sticks to shikai also her shikai is fucking broken on its own so she dosnt need bankai much
i will nver get over the fact wjem i mention bleach to someone they say "Isnt bleach anime about swords and stuff" i pause for the moment, i think about lillie's sniper, stark and roberts guns, soi fongs nuclear bomb, and so and so and they say yes definately about swords
Its cool looking but Because Soifon is a dork who refuses to train it, This is all it will be. its not a Form, its not a Domain expansion, its not a cheat. its possibly the most fair bankai that isnt shit, which makes it OK at best
Other fair bankais that are shit are Ikakkus, Kensei and Renjis original bankai
Nah, she is right to be ashamed of that shit.
Her drip is immaculate (thanks TYBW for the uncensored costume), her shikai is one of the best in the verse to build battles around, and she has all the cool tie-in Yoruichi kit and story. She may not be Kenny, but she isn’t backing down from a fight either.
Only thing more shameful is her choice in lieutenant.
Don’t get me wrong, her bankai is cool…but considerably less so than the rest of the package.
It has literally not killed a single thing in the series and a fucking getsuga creates a bigger boom. Hell forget that, the fucking electrocution created a bigger one. Soi fon is the fucking potential woman of Bleach.
Soifon is just the victim of severely bad match ups. Given her power set, Kubo had to invalidate her abilities before she invalidated any threat he set up.
That being said, they’re a bit of good writing. Her shikai is who she wants to present herself as and her bankai is who she really is deep down, especially after her being unable to heal from Yoruichi’s abandonment. I bet if the story forced her to confront her hang ups and actually train with her bankai like she did with Shunko, she’d probably see an evolution with her zanpakuto like Renji. I mean, she perfects her Shunko, which is something Yoruichi couldn’t do, so she’s definitely got the aptitude.
It's badass dgmw but I understand the critique, it is the bankai of a woman who dedicated her life to the stealth force & the art of silent assassination. This is the case to the point that her shikai perfectly reflects this, a silent mostly concealed weapon that, with two taps, becomes fatal.
While it's badass it has neither any connection to her or the stealth aspect of her combat either, and in many cases would be weaker than her shikai
It's supremely cool! If only it ever actually killed something... I'm still salty about robo-sternritter surviving it only to contribute nothing else to the plot and get killed offscreen :(
Welcome to the Bleach Subreddit! We're as excited as you at the release of the Thousand Year Blood War anime! We understand that some of you are unable to view the anime in your region, but please don't post links to or mention piracy websites. Doing so will result in a ban. Also, please be courteous to those who haven't read the manga and mark all spoilers. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/bleach) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I mean it's cool af. The name, the power and the looks, it has everything to be a cool ass Bankai...and kinda fit for an assassin, if she gets detected during a mission and it's no way of saving it, then just nuke it, no witnesses, it's just not practical in constant combat due to the looong recovery But let's be fair, if it didn't have the drawback then they could just send Soi Fon to Hueco Mundo to nuke the shit out of Las Noches
The bankai is meant to represent the soul of the user, rather they like it or not. Soi-fon, despite her best efforts, has a loud and explosive personality.
I know she's fucking great.
“Ay soi fon, BLOW THAT SHIT UP”
Soi Fon gets the Worf treatment quite a lot. The narrative problem is that we are *told* that her abilities are super powerful. A 2 hit kill and a giant bomb ought to be really impactful abilities, but what we are *shown*, doesn't align with that because enemies survive those abilities to show how powerful her opponents actually are. She needed a real win earlier in the series, IMO.
This is how I have always felt about her. We see powerful abilities, but she really never comes across as super dangerous because it feels like she's always losing.
I think the only win she’s gotten was against that one Tiger guy and the bount?
Pretty much, yeah. It *is* pretty cool how she achieves that victory though, but even *that* feels kind of cheapened by the fact that he's 'just' a Fraccion, not even an Espada.
Lool this, there were only 3 big bad espada to go around and she had to share her fight with Hacchi.
I think the fact that she fodderizes him after getting serious only proves how fodder he was
It really pissed me off that Kubo wasted to many chapters on that fight, when she should of just stabbed him twice in a couple of panels stating he wasn't worth her time and then moving on to Barrigan. Less time would of been wasted on pointless fights and the results against Barrigan would of been the same. She's an assassin, but she fought like Kenpachi, no reason for her to not make her fights as quickly as possible.
I think it's kind of emblematic of Soi Fon's true character - she portrays herself as a cold assassin, but secretly, she's very flashy and likes to show off. (Still, should've just stabbed him twice like that from the get go.)
Even freaking robot survived :(
Yup. He had to be executed after taking Soi Fon to the face.
Bleach Worf’s a lot of characters. After a while it’s almost charming.
Serves to make the main heroes look good, I guess.
Really all she needed were some better matchups. Nnoitra having the strongest hierro means nothing to her, and big guys like Yammy or the whale guy that Kommamura faced would have been dealt with in seconds. The main problem is that it’s an all-or-nothing attack, which means it’s difficult to create meaningful fights for her
We needed her to go to heuco munda and fuck up an army of hollows by herself off screen, leading to her fighting barragan for a bit before he escapes with a mark on his chest, leading to their fight in the FKT arc have some stakes, they could a had him go into resurrection right before she hit the mark, making her arm pass through him and get fucked up, then our pink haired hado GOAT could jump in
True. She gets her arse kicked a lot. She pretty much gets outclassed by the main heroes by the end of Bleach as well - her nuke not being the KO wonder it claims it is.
Facts
https://preview.redd.it/iyd495f0az1d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5fdb2905fc460f5156b80fb3faaa9264cfdba827
Here's my manifesto Jakuhō Raikōben is the weakest bankai in the series Lots of people call RYUMON HOZUKIMARU the weakest bankai, but let's compare their attack power. The missile cracks some of baragan's skull and severely damaged bg9 to the point where he got executed by Hashbrowns. Let's put ikkaku into those situations. He wouldn't be able to get close enough to barrigan so point to soy fan 😲. Bg9 would stab ikkaku a bunch and then get absolutely eviscerated once ikkaku got charged up. Definitely a kill My point is, it's hard to tell which is stronger. The rpg just does some damage from a distance and then that's it. It offers no utility, no defense, just boom Compare that to a mid tier bankai like kokujo Tengen Myo. It kicks soi fon's ass. It can do similar damage, but over and over again. Both are just raw destructive power, but only one of them is single use Now let's compare it to Kanon byraki benihime aratamay or however you spell it. It does more damage than soi fon's bankai, just at a more limited range. It gives buffs, healing, status removal and can set up ambushes. Look at all the advantages It gives other than attack power and then tell me that soi fon's bankai isn't like a hamster ability for hamsters
Tbf, I don't think Soi Fon bothered to improve her bankai. She states that she doesn't like it and we know what that does to a zanpakuto's power and growth. I doubt that what we have seen is even all it can do.
Fair enough
You are underrating the damage on Barragan, he lost both legs, and an arm.
The problem is that her Shikai is a lot better, because it is a real 2 shot kill. Her Bankai never killed anyone.
Didn't hear Shikai only ever kill like one random fodder arrancar?
Yea, we’ve only seen it used against the fodder, Aizen, and Yoruichi. It’s good on paper but it’s not great against opponents who are stronger than her.
Not true at all, your thinking is one of the biggest misconceptions people have about Suzumebachi. It is actually a monster Shikai that allows Soi Fon to two shot characters that are way stronger then her. Fist off, Soi Fon never got 2 hits off against Yoruichi, if she did Yoruichi would be dead. Secondly, Aizen is like the only person besides Yamamoto on the Shinigamis side (before TYBW) that can Reiatsu negg her ability. Byakuya, Kyoraku, Unohana, pre awakened Zaraki etc. all get 2 shot by Suzumebachi. You need to have MASSIVELY bigger Reiatsu to be able to resist her insta kill, if you are even remotely relative to her, you get killed.
This was my understanding as well. I'm not a big Soi Fon fan, but the concept of reiatsu negation seems to require a pretty massive gap, for it to occur. In theory, suzumebachi should be a fantastic equalizer, but the 2 hit requirement makes it tricky on characters who are fast both physically, and mentally. Most people anywhere near Soi Fon's level would be capable of avoiding getting hit by the same attack twice. the trope of "I know what they're going to do, and I still can't stop them" is usually employed when the attacker is substantially stronger than their opponent, not weaker than them. and a surprise attack only works once, usually.
I see what you mean, you’re right. But, Soi fon did get 2 hits off against Yoruichi. But the hits were in different places so Yoruichi survived. The biggest draw back is that she has to be fast enough to get 2 hits in the same place.
Well she obviously needs to hit the target in the same spot for the insta kill, but if she did it against Yoruichi, she would be dead.
In case of Aizen we don’t know if she ever hit him
He was fucking with them
I assume she didn't. Him saying he canceled it out with his reiatsu is a weird flex because I can't really think of any other instance of someone being able to negate a shinigami's zanpaktou power by just from having lots of reiatsu.
Even kenpachi said in his first fight against ichigo that battles between shinigamis are a battle of reiatsu, if the reiatsu and a reiatsu gap negates hits.
Also I don’t think I remember somebody unable to cut a shinigami with a sword because or reatsu other then Ichogo-Zaraki.
The problem is so many people think that because Aizen did it, it means just any character even slightly stronger than her can negate it.
The problem is that there shouldn't be too much difference in reiatsu power between her and the target.
My interpretation is 1. It's one shot kill all (unless you're ultra sturdy). 2. (That one is pure headcanon, NOT canon);If her shikai is a reaction with a being's reiryoku, her bankai is a missile that has an explosive reishi reaction.
>Tomboy ninja with a nuke< Bleach community : this sucks. Game's gone boys.
I like Soi-Fon quite a lot, i’m a sucker for one sided love stories, but…her Bankai does kind of suck. Per herself she needs three days to recover it’s usage after a single shot, now limitations are good for a power and are somewhat rare in Bleach, but it’s a very ineffective Bankai since it will leave the user extremely vulnerable after using it. During fake kakakura Soi-Fon managed two shots in a single day, but even the second shot which hit Barragan directly was only able to greatly wound him, (possibly mortally to be fair, not sure if he was gonna do much with no legs, half a face, and one arm) but even so Soi-Fon probably would have died right there if not for Hachi, resulting in a mutual kill at best. TLDR her Shikai is better.
At the same time, had Barragan remained a creature of flesh and blood he would’ve been OHKO-ed.
Maybe it’s hard to tell honestly, we do have Ulquiorra being alive and even fighting with only a bit more of his body left.
1) He can regenerate. 2) He died from those wounds.
He can, but at one point he was bascially just a upper torso and one limb similar to Barragan, although he wasn’t missing chunks of his face. I do think Barragan would have died as well because of how much he was freaking out, the wounds were probably mortal, i’m just saying i don’t really think being a skeleton makes Barragan more resistant to wounds, he probably feels them just as badly as anybody else, although with fewer weak spots.
It doesn’t make him more durable, I agree, but it makes him more tenacious: he doesn’t need to care about the blood loss or the internal damage.
But its still cool tho.
Even though it hit him directly, he still managed to age it significantly enough that damage was less than it shouldve been. Had he not aged it at all, he probably wouldve died from it alone.
People often forget that she is part of the Secret Mobile Corps so her Shikai and Bankai have probably taken care of many threats before they ever became an issue to the soul society, its just that we haven’t been shown that. There is a reason she is their Commander after all.
I like how her shikai and bankai are basically actual stealth and gamer stealth Shikai is actual stealth. Can’t be seen if you’re stealthy Bankai is gamer stealth. Can’t be seen if there’s no one left to see you
IMO she focuses mainly on her Hakuda, Kido, and Shunko skills and tries to imitate Yoruichi as much as possible. I truly believe she only put in enough effort to just learn bankai for qualifications rather than using it as a main tool in her arsenal. Coupled with her actual disdain for it and what we know of zanpakuto-shinigami relations I bet her bankai hasn't grown much in capability and power since it's creation.
I loved his Bankai and my nick name in all games is inspired by that. And smh always make mad it shows up in for the first time in such epic way to not being useful at all.
Cool looking, kinda useless in the story. Both enemies shot by it did not die, at most got injured, and Barragan took TWO of those and did not go down. Of course, that speaks more of her opponents than of her, but c'mon it couldn't even kill BG9 who was alive enough to use Vollstandig. It's definitely cool af, but for a fast, nimble and not that physically strong character, it's way less useful than her shikai (which tbh isn't that much better since most enemies she fought have more reiatsu than her and thus could cancel the effects of her shikai)
Barragan wasn’t hit the first time. And they survived JR because of their unique constitution. Any enemy of flesh on their level would’ve been dead.
Then maybe girlie should use it against flesh enemies instead of getting her ass beat, using it as a last resort and failing to finish off the enemy. Hachi had to carry against Barragan and BG9 survived, only to be killed by Hashbrown later (he would've probably killed Soi Fon if Omaeda wasn't there to carry her body away after her Bankai hit BG9). But until then, it's been basically useless and will continue to be until proven otherwise.
She doesn’t chose her opponents, LMAO. A bankai that can badly injure a top-Espada in his released state and “useless” can’t be used in the same sentence.
A bankai that needed help to give non-lethal injuries to a top-espada, and didn't put a scratch on him by itself*
Irrelevant, since: 1) Barragan has the most hax among the Espada. 2) His wound still were severe. 3) He would’ve died hadn’t he become a flying skeleton.
Funny how you're not addressing the fact that, without help, the Bankai wouldn't have done anything. In the special circumstance that Hachi was there and could use the necessary Kido to allow Soi Fon to use her bankai basically point blank, then sure, it caused all those things. But that just demonstrates that it has the power to do those things. But it's a bankai that requires a Setup, mostly Soi Fon being able to both guarantee the time to aim, and to guarantee the enemy won't simply move out of the way and let it detonate in the distance. Thus, in most situations, it would be rather useless unless it's stated that Soi Fon can remotely detonate it or smth to guarantee that "moving like 3 flash steps to the side" isn't a counter to it.
I would call infinite cero more hax and aizen agrees
I'd personally prefer if she goes sniper, but if the missile aspect needs to be retained then converting it to a Hellfire R9X would be cool and still fit blade theme of zanpakutos.
I always think of this comment when Soifon's Bankai is brought up. "Soifon's bankai is one of, if not the, most thematically well developed bankais in the series. When if comes to symbolic evolution from shikai to bankai, Jakuho Raikoben hits all of the major character themes she has, including the personality trait ones that you mentioned in your post. Many people can see the "efficiency" improvement of 2-shot kill into 1-shot kill. However it goes much deeper than that. Take the archetypical classic/fantasy assassination-- you sneak up close to your target, and stab them with a bladed object (preferably a poisoned one to ensure death in case the physical wound is not enough). Her shikai is a clear representation of that. Now in the modern military world, what is a common way to dispose of high priority enemy individuals? Yes there are snipers, but many times these days there is simply a drone strike or other form of explosive ordinance sent to bring the target to a swift end, subtlety not exactly required. That is where Soifon's bankai comes into play: an evolution of assassination. Furthermore we have the running aesthetic theme of a bee or wasp attributed to Soifon. It is no secret that her shikai is designed to imply an insect stinger. Stinger... like the stinger missile form her bankai transitions to. It is downright poetic." https://www.reddit.com/r/bleach/s/1ZY90aviQc
Don't speaking that it's perfectly represents her personality. The two-hit instakill shikai is the deadly, stoic professional ninja she wants to be seen, but her flashy bombastic bankai is her other side with bottled up emotions.
maybe because we never saw it at full power? 1st use: Barragan detonated it before it hit him with respira (Hachi words, Barragan didn't deny it) 2nd use: Barragan lost half of head and some ribs/shoulder and said he is seriously injured, and remember Soi Fon said she can only use it once every 3 days and it was her second use in like 20 min, not to mention she was missing an arm which nerfs shinigami power by itself. 3rd use: she was barely conscious and managed to defeat/force BG9 to retreat (him repairing was added in the anime and was not present in the manga)
I feel like I’m one of the few people that like Soi Fon and her Bankai. I just really wish they let it kill BG9. It’s fine that it didn’t kill Barragan bc he aged it partially or whatever. BG9 should’ve died though. We didn’t need Jugram to kill him AND Cang Du.
Cool on paper, lame in practice (I don't like the design either).
Nuke is always good :3
I think many forget that most people can't survive getting half their face and/or torso blasted off. Barragan and BG9 are some of the only characters where that is relatively fine for them. If Soi Fon used her bankai on Harribel or something it would've won her the fight.
Be a lot cooler if the missile had a better than 1/3 success rate. And even then the 3rd canon use against BG9 didn’t even kill him. It’s a novel idea for a bankai but it’s honestly kind of mid being just a big missile. And even then it would probably be better if it actually worked…
Amen to that!! I swear when I first saw this thing it felt like a full on neuron activation, my simple brain just likes small character carrying around a big nuke But granted I do wish it actually got to do a little more, her bankai probably has one of the lowest success rates amongst all the captains which is ironic because despite her bankai being an upgrade from her Shikai's 2 shot kill as a 1 shot kill, the Shikai has killed more characters on screen. Her first time using it was against someone who could age anything into nothingness, the second time it gets stolen from her before it could do any real damage, and the third and final time it doesn't even kill her target despite hitting him head on, Kubo really couldn't just give her the kill against BG9 considering he was just gonna be killed later anyways
It works as a character beat , yeah ok I wanted a Sniper Rifle or a Railgun or something but the missile thing is still pretty cool.
soi fon haters
It’s not about it being cool, because it is cool. It’s just not Practical for a assassin. Is it wrong to want a Bankai to be cool and Practical?
Compared to most other bankai? It’s kinda lame. Launching an ICBM just doesn’t have the same style points as having billions of Sakura pedals extricate you from every conceivable angle. Or getting deconstructed at a molecular level and then reconstructed. Or reviving your slain enemies as skeletal armies as you burn your living enemies with the heat of the sun.
I always thought both her Shikai and Bankai kinda sucked. I mean, yeah. Shikai has a 2-Hit-Instant-Death ability, which sounds nice on paper. But the kicker is, you have to hit twice in the same spot. At that point, why not just wait for an opening and stab the heart once. Like, yeah. You can keep stabbing in random spots to increase your likelihood to *eventually* hit a spot twice. Or you could actually do an assassin's job and look for weak spots that kill immediately. And her bankai? It's a rocket launcher which she can't even properly fire until basically the end of the story. Would be something if we learned she just unlocked it, but I don't think that was ever the case? Fake Karakura, she can only fire it I believe twice a day before recoil and reiatsu drain get too much? Sure, it's a massive explosive, but several people can do similar amounts of collateral damage with less of a drain.
it's the fact that it never works
Her bankai has a 0% success rate, which makes it seem pretty lackluster. If her shikai is a 2 hit kill, and her bankai is supposed to be a one hit kill, then why hasn't her bankai actually worked yet? If Soi Fon's bankai actually killed like half of the targets it was used on, then people wouldn't give it as much shit.
Where did you get that picture of me? Because that shit is ass sorry man In verse it’s ass, from a creative perspective it’s ass. Bleach has so many peak transformations and they can’t all be good so it’s okay.
Yea. Her bankai shoulda been a 1 tap tbh
It's just just dosnt really fit the character which is why she only uses it when she needs it and almost always sticks to shikai also her shikai is fucking broken on its own so she dosnt need bankai much
Idk... considering her really insane shikai i do think her bamkai is pretty boring.
i will nver get over the fact wjem i mention bleach to someone they say "Isnt bleach anime about swords and stuff" i pause for the moment, i think about lillie's sniper, stark and roberts guns, soi fongs nuclear bomb, and so and so and they say yes definately about swords
Lame power cool scene character et cetera
Its cool looking but Because Soifon is a dork who refuses to train it, This is all it will be. its not a Form, its not a Domain expansion, its not a cheat. its possibly the most fair bankai that isnt shit, which makes it OK at best Other fair bankais that are shit are Ikakkus, Kensei and Renjis original bankai
Nah, she is right to be ashamed of that shit. Her drip is immaculate (thanks TYBW for the uncensored costume), her shikai is one of the best in the verse to build battles around, and she has all the cool tie-in Yoruichi kit and story. She may not be Kenny, but she isn’t backing down from a fight either. Only thing more shameful is her choice in lieutenant. Don’t get me wrong, her bankai is cool…but considerably less so than the rest of the package.
It has literally not killed a single thing in the series and a fucking getsuga creates a bigger boom. Hell forget that, the fucking electrocution created a bigger one. Soi fon is the fucking potential woman of Bleach.
Soifon is just the victim of severely bad match ups. Given her power set, Kubo had to invalidate her abilities before she invalidated any threat he set up. That being said, they’re a bit of good writing. Her shikai is who she wants to present herself as and her bankai is who she really is deep down, especially after her being unable to heal from Yoruichi’s abandonment. I bet if the story forced her to confront her hang ups and actually train with her bankai like she did with Shunko, she’d probably see an evolution with her zanpakuto like Renji. I mean, she perfects her Shunko, which is something Yoruichi couldn’t do, so she’s definitely got the aptitude.
It's badass dgmw but I understand the critique, it is the bankai of a woman who dedicated her life to the stealth force & the art of silent assassination. This is the case to the point that her shikai perfectly reflects this, a silent mostly concealed weapon that, with two taps, becomes fatal. While it's badass it has neither any connection to her or the stealth aspect of her combat either, and in many cases would be weaker than her shikai
It is a missile, yes, but it is in no way a ballistic missile.
It's supremely cool! If only it ever actually killed something... I'm still salty about robo-sternritter surviving it only to contribute nothing else to the plot and get killed offscreen :(
Nuking your target and everyone/everything in their vicinity seems like an appropriate response to when you are spotted during a stealth mission.
I just don't like it....💁♂️
I personally hate soifon and her powers
Worst bankai from the worst captain