Summary
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflictkicked off on Saturday, October 5, picking up from where the second part ended last year. It presented the climax of the battles between the Zero Squad, with the last remaining members of the Soul King’s Royale guard falling to their Quincy opponents after the activation of Yhwach’s Schrift, “A” – The Almighty.
Prior to his defeat, Zero Squad leader Ichibē Hyōsube unleashed a devastating technique which, in most cases,would have heralded the end of the battlebecause of how dangerous it is on a conceptual level. What is Ichibē Hyōsube’s Futen Taisatsuryō technique, and why is it one of the monk’s most powerful abilities?
“Fall to a pitch-black Hell.”
The Technique Powered By Black
100 Nights Stolen From The Future
“Oh Twilight, and everlasting darkness, come to me, come and have a drink, and once you do, your life will fade. The flowers will bloom along the road to hell. Where are the fish, let me paint them black, cut them into eight, and cook them well atop a flame of black, and then enjoy the meal. All that’s left are bones of white, make them a gravestone, and pay respect. May they never be reborn again, so that you won’t be sacrificed as food.”
The Futen Taisatsuryō technique, known in English as the Slaughterous Mausoleum of Halted Reincarnation, or Magnificent Death Mausoleum in the VIZ translation, isan ability of Hyōsube’s Zanpakuto, Ichimonji. InBLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, episode 1, “A”, Hyōsube swings Ichimonji, bringing forth a mass of darkness that he also collects in a sake bowl that is also formed from this darkness. He recites an incantation that is like a traditional Japanese song and moves his body in rhythm to the koto being strummed and thewadaiko (Japanese drum) playing in the background. He sips from the bowl, and draws two concentric circles around himself before locking his hands together in a prayer stance. The inky blackness swirls around him, and the art style changes to reflect this ink, with bleached out lines adding an ominous layer to the eerie song’s visuals. The environment blackens, and the circles drawn with Ichimonji whiten against the darkened background as countless gravestones begin to burst forth from the abyss. The animation is incredible as the image pans out from Hyōsube’s position, revealing countless human skulls that emerged, covering the dark expanse.
A Malevolent Shrine
The Technique That Destroys Any Chance of Reincarnation
“These gravestones were created by stealing a hundred nights from Soul Society a hundred years in the future. I have summoned them to perform your burial. They will absorb the black that enrobes you, crushing your blood, flesh and bones into the deep black of nothingness. Never again to be reborn… You will be cast down into the blackest of hells.”
A mausoleum or shrine emerges behind Hyōsube as the technique is completed, and he explains its devastating abilities. It draws from all the blackness in the world, but it is also immensely destructive, capable of blackening skin and bone and drawing from them, consuming them until there is nothing left. The targets of the Futen Taisatsuryō are entirely consumed by it, to the point where they are simply lost to the darkness. The destruction is so complete that its victims cannot even reincarnate.
Hyōsube claims that the gravestones were created by stealing a hundred nights from Soul Society a hundred years in the future, which is absolutely insane to think about conceptually, especially considering that the technique draws from something as infinite as the colour black; as infinite as nothingness. Death is one step in the cycle of souls inBLEACH;however, the Futen Taisatsuryō removes even this aspect, creating terrifying, complete death with no hope for reincarnation. However, despite the immense power of this ability,Yhwach’s The Almighty enabled him to see through the techniqueand thoroughly defeat Hyōsube, who embarrassingly had to ask Ichigo Kurosaki to stop Yhwach from killing the Soul King.
Analyzing the Kanji and the Technique
A Haunting Technique Name
“Futen Taisatsuryō” is written 不転太殺陵 in Japanese, with the first part, “Futen”, written with a character generally used to negate, similar to the English prefix “un-”, followed by “ten”, often used to refer to a change in pronunciation in a written text, but is also the operative kanji in “tensei”, as in “reincarnation”. When the kanji is followed by the character that signifies repetition, the resulting word “tenten” describes moving around from place to place. The “tai” in “Taisatsuryo” can be used to mean “fat”, but can also mean “grand” or “magnificent”, while “satsu” is “murder” or “slaughter” and “ryō” sounds like it isthe operative part of “ryōiki”, meaning domain, but the kanji used refers to an imperial tomb or a mausoleum – a freestanding building constructed around the burial chamber of a person of importance or leader. So the translation to “Slaughterous Mausoleum of Halted Reincarnation” serves as a better translation that emphasizes the technique’s most important element: it is meant to kill and bury a certain leader so thoroughly that they may never hope to reincarnate, which is fitting forYhwach, the king of the Quincies.
It also ties in to the following episode being titled “Kill the King”, which follows Yhwach’s killing of the Soul King, who, like Yhwach during Hyōsube’s incantation, is unable to move as his complete and certain death approaches. In Buddhism, the achievement ofnirvanais the escape from the cycle of death and reincarnation, otherwise known assamsara;however, what Hyosube attempts to put Yhwach through is reminiscent of the lowest level of Buddhist Hell, the Naraka known as Avīci – the “uninterrupted” Hell. Transgressors sent to Avīci are cast down in an upside-down state (much likeYhwach when he was renamed “Black Ant”), and are sent to this Hell for crimes like intentional parenticide; the murder of an enlightened being; shedding the blood of a Buddha and creating a division in the community – all things that Yhwach has done, or aims to do.
