Summary
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Defeating Sōsuke Aizen is one of the most difficult things Ichigo Kurosaki has had to do, and it was by no means something he could do all by himself. However, he needed to drastically improve his skills and strengthen his mindset if he was to have any chance of beating him, and to help him do so, his father, Isshin, taught him a powerful secret technique that is endemic to both of their Zanpakutō: the Final Getsuga Tenshō.
Using it enabled Ichigo to overwhelm an Aizen who had fused withthe desire-manifesting Hōgyoku, but it also had devastating consequences – use of the Final Getsuga Tenshō strips the user of their Shinigami powers forever. So, what is the Final Getsuga Tenshō technique inBLEACH?
Becoming Getsuga
The Blade is He
“In this ‘final Getsuga Tenshō’, I myself become the Getsuga. If I use this technique, then I will lose all my powers as a Shinigami. That’s what I mean by ‘final’.”
– Ichigo Kurosaki
The Final Getsuga Tenshō is a technique of Ichigo’s Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu, in which Ichigo becomes Getsuga (“Moon Fang”) itself. It is aptly named because it is a last-ditch technique that strips its user of their powers once used. For the duration of the technique, Ichigo’s hair turns black, and grows to waist length, while his torso, right arm, neck and face are clad in a bluish-gray carapace made of bandages (similar to the wrapping onthe hilt of Zangetsu’s Shikai state). His left arm is covered in black, flame-like markings that extend to the visible parts of his torso. The transformation is the result of Ichigo becoming one with Getsuga; thus becoming one with the manifestation of his Zanpakutō, Zangetsu (“Slaying Moon”).
During his training with the Visored, Ichigo finds Hollow Ichigo (the manifestation of his Shinigami powers inherited from his dad, mixed with the reishi from his mother’s encounter with White) instead of Old Man Zangetsu (who is actually the manifestation of his Quincy powers). Hollow Ichigo explained that he and “Old Man Zangetsu” are one and the same, sharing the same spiritual body and mirroring each other like night and day. Despite this, for the larger part ofBLEACH, the two act as two separate entities,much like Yhwach and his right-hand man, Jugram Haschwalth. During his Dangai training with Isshin, Ichigo faced a Hollowfied Tensa Zangetsu, who was the result of the coming together of both sides, representing all of Ichigo’s powers.
The Ultimate Attack
Fade to Black
The Final Getsuga Tenshō enables its user to perform Mugetsu (“Moonless Sky”), a devastating attack that generates a blade of black reiatsu that pours forth from his arm. When Ichigo swings this reiatsu sword, it is powerful enough to injure Aizen in his highest stage of evolution and force him to regenerate at a previous point in his evolutionary trajectory. Mugetsu can be thought of as the culmination of all of its user’s spiritual power,forcing it all into a single attack, much like the regular Getsuga Tenshō. Once Mugetsu is performed, the transformation ends and the user experiences intense pain followed by a loss of consciousness. The user will awaken after about a month, and any residual spiritual power stabilizes before it dissipates completely, leaving them without spiritual abilities for the rest of their lives unless they have some kind of special circumstances like Ichigo.
While he did lose his Shinigami powers, the diverse sources of his spiritual powers meant that his spiritual power began to slowly accumulate in a dark corner of his soul in the 17 months following Aizen’s defeat. Sōsuke Aizen fused with the Hōgyoku, which is capable of manifesting the desires of the powerful and thus enabled him to transcend the limitations of Shinigami and Hollows, which are traditionally opposing existences.
In doing so, Aizen believed himself to be evolving into an ideal existence, one which we now better understand to be something akin to the plural existence that was the Soul King, who was the progenitor of all the races and creator of theBLEACHuniverse. Put simply, Aizen had become insanely powerful in a manner that combines the strengths of the apex versions of multiple lifeforms. Even though Ichigo used the Final Getsuga Tenshō to end their battle, it ultimately fails to defeat Aizen, whose undoing comes as a result of the efforts of Urahara and a rejection by the Hōgyoku itself which enabled him to be merely captured and thrown into the Muken. Given its use as a final attack, it can be compared tothe now obsolete Quincy: Letzt Stil.
