Unohana Retsu: THE FIRST KENPACHI | BLEACH: Character Analysis 

I always wondered why there was that running gag where everyone was scared of Unohana but her being the FIRST KENPACHI was NOT what I was expecting AT ALL

*Unohana checking Aizen’s body* “I’ve made my fair share of corpses and this corpse is looking a little sus”

She was such a ruthless warrior that she didnt even monologue about her Bankai

Everyone is a Gangster until Captain Unohana Retsu walks in with a smile

Unohana was fricking cool even with her short screen time.

Bleach's characters are by far the best thing about it

She killed kenpachi repeatedly, killing him then reviving him to repeat the process till he activated his bankai. Nuff said

She doesn’t just live on with her legacy to Zaraki. She’s also the namesake of lieutenant Yachiru. So Zaraki’s zanpakto is literally a memorial of Unohana.

Her bankai is an abolute monster. And how she repeatedly broke and healed zaraki to remove his mental blocks was crqzy.

The reveal of Unohana's true identity was one of the biggest twists in bleach. I think there was a part of her that enjoyed saving lives as opposed to taking lives and wanted to stay as "Unohana Retsu" for the rest of her life. But with the threat of the Quincy, she knew that her days of healing were coming to an end and felt great remorse for what she needed to do. However she at least died content, with the knowledge that her legacy will live in through Kenpachi

One of the other subtle things I really like about the fight between Unohana and Kenpachi, is how it shows just how much fighting is a part of how they are. Both of them had become isolated, alone and depressed, because of how strong they were (another recurring theme for several characters within the series who are considered ‘The Strongest of their kind’. Aizen, Starrk and Gremmy being examples of this). So, when the Kenny and Unohana found each other, it allowed both of them to feel true joy. Unohana even states in her dying moments, that Kenny was the only man, who ever made her truly happy. Add that to the accompanying visual of Kenpachi literally piercing her with his sword, and her internal monologue about how she felt shameful about the fact that it was a child was the one to make her experience a true sense of ecstasy... The story of the two Kenpachi’s, is actually the most underrated love story in Bleach. Between it and the Gin and Rangiku story, Kubo is honestly really good at writing tragic romances. And once again, I must praise Kubo on his artwork, for being able to illustrate the dual personas of Unohana as beautifully as he did. A great analysis as always. Unohana is a wonderful characther and you really did her justice! Looking forward to the next one!

One important foreshadowing you missed during the Hueco Mundo arc was when she faced off against a squad of arancar and informed them of her name, the squad leaders immediate reaction was to flee.(Most likely Aizen had warned them of just how dangerous she was).

33:00 Fun fact. Though her shikai and bankai are both “Minazuki”, they are spelled entirely different from each other. Her shikai roughly translates to “Gorge of Flesh Drops” while her bankai means “End of All Things”.

Unohana's reveal was SO well done. There was a lot of foreshadowing, it really showed that Kubo has always planned for this to happen.

The moment she became "yachiru" was chilling this sweet lady who for the most part did not lay a harmful hand on anyone friend or foe turns out to be the first kenpachi the most ruthless shinigami was a shock but after looking back you could see there was a darkness in her and her fight with kenpachi was crazy thanks zimran!

In case anyone's still wondering, Unohana's Bankai creates a blood-like acid that can reduce her opponents to skeletons when it touches them. It's the opposite of her Shikai where Minazuki's stomach acid heals people exposed to it. Great analysis, by the way.

Zaraki really cried when he killed her...damn it was sad The only women Zaraki admired....

Unohana has tons of experience with corpses in her past. She knew that wasn't Aizen real corpse.

Throughout the manga and anime, you would always see how easily she would intimidate the senior members of the gotei 13. She would insist on certain actions being taken and her facial expression would become uncharacteristically serious. She was always one of the more interesting characters due to the amount of mystery that surrounded her. Up until the last Arc, Kubo left a lot to the imagination.

The way she looked at ichigo when she realized how strong he is lmaooo she thought about killing lol look at her face its the evil 1 waking up smelling blood 🤣

It's interesting she seemingly tried to redeem herself from her life of bloodshed by helping others only to have that end to train Zaraki with its fatal outcome. As crazy as it may sound her death was probably her way of redeeming herself even if she reverted to her bloodthirsty serial killer past in that time. She represents the light and dark duality of Gotei 13.

It’s crazy how all of kubo’s characters are goats

She’s the scariest captain in Soul Society. Imagine healing your opponents so she can fight them again and again. It’s an insult to your opponent.

I ain't gonna lie; I was really surprised when I first read about her being the first Kenpachi. Like, really surprised. Because she's always been so beautiful, kind, and a great healer. Loving her plants. You would've never thought that she used to be a bloodthirsty killer. Anyway, great analysis, man.

I always had the suspicion that Unohana was more than meets the eye. Her nonchalantly walking through the battlefield with her weakass assistant; Her way of talking with Captain Yamamoto like they're old time buddies; Everybody doesn't want to mess with her. She exudes a charm of a veteran warrior even back in the Soul Society arc. But damn, her being the first Kenpachi was a nice twist.

Great stuff man - Way better than my history class

I'll teach Zaraki Kenpachi...the art of killing..

Every time I saw Unohana, I swear to you that the temperature in my room drops and I just feel dread 😭

I'm pretty sure you're mistaking on the pile of bodies. Her squad member asked if he should get rid of the pile of bodies, she replied that she wanst the one who made the pile, then Kenpa appeared. Those were Little Kenpachi kills

Scariest waifu to ever exist.

One of the best foreshadowing in Bleach. The "Running Gag" has the Thirteen Court Guard Squads fearing her, then when you find out what she's like in her earlier life, it all starts to make sense

Kenny didn't just respect unohana, I think he loved her in his own way. Who would subconsciously weaken themselves just to be able to relive that fear of facing her.

She’s the mother of all mothers: living a wild and crazy life, only to give it all up for her children (mainly Kenny) ONLY to revert back to it just to show her kids (still mainly Kenny) how to grow up

After reading about Unohana's past and rewatching bleach it is amazing to see the subtle details in her character. I was shocked to see how far Kubo seemed to have planned ahead. It made each interaction with her more unique and truly showed in each scene. She was more than just feared by other captains she was revered by them. You truly did Unohana justice in this analysis and you did a great service to the Bleach Comunnity thank you.

One of my favorite villains in media once said "A healer has the most bloodiest of hands" and that fits Unohana to a T.

Wow, I really enjoyed this. I always knew that Unohana had a dark side to her due to Kubo's hints. Every time she stepped on the scene, she intimidated everybody. Also, if I remember correctly Zaraki named his lieutenant Yachiru and now I see it was out of admiration. Wonderful video.

YEAH BABYYY, THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.

I wished she didn't have to die and we could have seen her fight in the quincy war.

Ichigo's face when she wanted to run in front of him on the way to go fight Izen was brilliant. He could sense it.

She never showed up much but I always liked Unohana as a character, her caring personality paired with the fact that she had this uncanny ability to intimidate anyone made her a really fun character to watch. I also enjoyed how just a simple change in expression and letting her hair down makes her go from looking like a gentle mom to looking like a bloody psychopath

Great video! Unohana was one of the best surprises in tybw. She was ruthless and a complete savage. Really wish we got to see more of her back in the day when she was a criminal. Im really loving your content. Much love man

The parallel with MGS3 is spot on. Both are masterpieces that show how "succesfully subverting expectations" should be done.

From the beginning I always knew she was overpowered. She had the smile of don't cross me. Great video dood.

"Instead of having two powerhouses, let's just have one kill the other to get slightly stronger." This is why SS deserved to lose.

This man is definitely my favourite RU-vid at the moment

When i read those chapters during TYBW I literally cried. Call me sick or psycho but this relationship between(specially during the fight) Zaraki and Unohana felt like love. Love where you wanna release all of yourself and feel all of the other person. When Unohana died in Zarakis hands It got me the feeling when you found again the person you truly loved only to lose her the next moment. Truly heartbreaking... Specially When you saw her joy, happiness, laughter, excitment and you could be your old self moments ago. Even right now it brings pain....

She is captain of the 4th squad. And in Chinese or East Asian culture, number four means bad luck or even death. I even thought it ironic before (and kinda sus) that she carried that number since she heals people which prevents their deaths. After knowing her back story, it kind of make sense.

I’ve heard she was stronger than Kenpachi. I never believed it. But now, she’s terrifying. It’s always the calm ones.

Unohana Proof of how Soul Society changedfrom era to era; from the time of the First Kenpachi to the gentle Healer Captain YOU DO NOT WANT TO ANGER

I can't think of anyone else that can give an alluring AND sinister "ara ara" at the same time.

Such a beautiful dynamic between two kenpachis. Thank you for this beautiful analysis ❤️

I really appreciate these character analysis. You explain so many details that can often be overlooked by the best of us. Please continue making these as we venture forward to the coming anime revival.

T~T awwww the 1k blood war arc is finally getting youtube videos for it, after finishing the manga years ago I swear there was like no videos for it so I was just satisfied with the manga but now its so cool finally getting videos that explain stuff and do deep dives into the last arc!

Unohana is one of my favorite characters and this analysis of her character really did her justice!

When this gets animated, I’ll probably cry. The writing & pages, everything was beautifully written from the moment with Yachiru & Tenjiro to Shunsui & Yachiru, the back stories of both Yachiru and Zaraki. This made me like Yachiru even more and she is up there with my favourite characters from bleach along with Ichigo & Kenpachi. I cannot wait for this Arc to arrive 💫

So Kenpachi fought Kenpachi, but due to the lack of strength from Kenpachi, Kenpachi decided to limit himself. Kenpachi then stepped down as captain of the 11th, and Kenpachi became the new captain, while Kenpachi wandered around untill one day showing back up and killing Kenpachi to become the captain of the 11th himself.

I wished we could have seen her fighting the arrancar and Quincys. Sure she wouldn't have been able to counter Aizen or Yhwach

This is very well done sir. Misses Unohana is greatly underrated and under appreciated.

You’re underrated as hell these analysis are really good

This was so well done!!! I actually cried on that game it was amazing!! Thank you for the wonderful correlation.

After a decade she is still one of my most favorite female anime character alongside tsunade, and boa hancock. Unohana is a character that others may feel that is weak, fragile, someone that is always a target of bullies but little did they know that she is the one, the strongest of them all, the character who always love fighting. All hail Queen Unohana ❤️

Retsu : heal everyone :) Unohana : kill anyone ;)

Happy you've returned with Bleach content, I love viewing your analyses on this show

Thanks for making this video. It's really interesting and well done. I really am grateful for all your Bleach videos. Honestly, I kind of feel like my love for Bleach is validated on some level by people like you explaining its themes and characters so well.

my favorite anime/manga character of all time i was sooooo sad when she died i felt emptiness for the first time in my life... thank you for this amazing video i really enjoyed it...( i was sooo happy when i saw her in the thumbnail that i clicked without reading the title XD)

finally, been waiting for this analysis!

Thank you for this. I had missed the importance of Unohana and her background really. This was a really fantastic breakdown.

I think you did a wonderful job explaining her character! Thank you and have a blessed day!

The greatest allusion to Unohana's past is the fact the she was by far the greatest known medic in the seireitei. Back in ye olden days executioners/torturers would often become doctors because they knew exactly how to hurt people. Inversely, they would also know how to fix those injuries so the target of their treatment wouldn't die too soon.

Zombie Powder when?

This whole explanation video about Unohana was very learningful and understanding it makes me love bleach even more now this video was very amazing thank you for your time and effort in making it I'm a new fan at what you do now keep on going‼️

Even the videos are long, the explanations give me a renew sense of the quality of the story and dephs of the characters. Thank you for doing all of this.

I always wondered why some characters reacted in utter fear to some things she said. Now I know. This is awesome.

I wonder if it's a plot loophole that Kenpachi, Kuchiki, and Kurotsuchi were not present for the final battle with Aizen because they had still never seen Kyokasuigetsu's release.

As always, another great analysis from you! Really loved Unohana, thoroughly! I loved reading and seeing what happens throughout that entire fight. Her bankai is super interesting, too. Thank you for the content.

The best analysis video of Unohana I seen so far.

This is so good. Can't wait for the Yhwach analysis.

I’ve been waiting on this great video now we waiting for that ichigo video

Bro i literally called it, i was muttering to myself the entire time how i always felt this dynamic was like snake and boss from mgs3 and then you make the comparison and i freaked out with joy lmao. Good video.

My workday just got better, thank you again for your deep research as always.

Two words: Mommy milkers

Damn we've waited so long for this video...

Incredibly brilliant breakdown. Much thanks

These videos are fascinating, I'm loving the deep dives you give each character.

Every single time they showed the switch in character.. goosebumps!

I have been waiting forever for this analysis!!!!! She was and still is my favorite female character in bleach. Ever since she walked by Kyoraku and Ukitake in the invasion of soul society ark and she let some of her menace out i was entrapped by her and she will always be the waifu of bleach for me

Wow, brother your work and analysis is just amazing. Had to stop video in-between to comment first.

Ooof.. the MGS3 comparison was dead on and combined the two for some massive feels!! Great work!

The fight between Kenpachi is my favorite moment in Bleach... the foreshadowing... just epic.

i feel like the reason Unohana is so indifferent when healing people no matter their background just proves how she likely doesnt see them as a threat at all. she knows that she is still yachiru and can kill them as quick if not quicker than she can heal them.

absolutely beautiful video man

Loved the video

In a way the story of Unohana and Zaraki is basically a love story but just a really clever and twisted version. Normally two characters express mutual emotions in a romantic way and they "complete each other" thru a traditional interaction. Zaraki and Unohana basically do the exaxt same thing except they substitute battle for romance. Even the way Zaraki holds her when he kills her and pleads with her to not die while she tells him its ok and she can pass away happy and content because of him is straight out of a typical love story... just... with swords. Its really cool.

all that healing of friend and foe was for Kenpachi more people for him to fight such an amazing and scary waifu xD

Great video! Thanks!

Great explanation, I appreciate it after being caught up in bleach before the blood arc anime is released.

It was the reveal of Unohana's true identity that made her my favourite character of all time. Up until that point, every women in anime and shonen manga that I had watched and read were either: weak, useless, or had a really bad personality. I didn't like female characters at all, and as a woman myself, this really upset me. I wanted there to be a strong woman and just couldn't find one. I was getting tired of the women being written poorly and extremely sexualised. I read the Bleach manga, and along with it came Unohana. I didn't pay any attention to her at first because she was the healer, and I said "Of course, the women are the healers. Ugh." I was so wrong. Come TYBW, it turns out she's one of the most powerful shinigami and she was just hiding her true self. I was so happy. The moment she revealed herself to be the first Kenpachi, she became my favourite character of all time. The following chapters showing her backstory and her fight with Kenpachi Zaraki made me fall in love with her more. My life changed after reading the Bleach manga. Kubo created and wrote a woman in a shonen manga that wasn't like the others. Unohana wasn't overly sexualised like the women are in One Piece, and Unohana wasn't useless and written poorly like the women in Naruto. These were the most common issues I found with how the women were written in shonen. Bleach is my favourite series of all time, and Retsu Unohana is my favourite character of all time. I will be forever grateful to Kubo for writing Unohana the way he did. He gave me hope that maybe, shonen manga authors will stop writing women with the common useless, weak, and overly sexualised tropes. We've already seen some of it in Jujutsu Kaisen, with Nobara and Maki. I hope the way women are written in shonen will continue to change and abandon these bad tropes. ...this somehow turned into a short essay... Sorry about that 😅😅

Unohana has always been my favorite character in Bleach. Like, she's too virtuous a character she's hiding something. Her being looking too young, being a medic yet being feared by others don't help either. Something in her is just too mysterious and the Thousand Year Blood War arc revealed everything, and why she is my favorite character

Man, this is amazing. I love this line of videos you've made. Plus, she's secretly my 2nd favorite character haha.

Amazing video as always🔥🔥