Bleach: Did Mask De Masculine Kill James? James’ Death Explained!

The story of James and Mask De Masculine is one of the most intriguing ones in the whole series, as far as the Sternritter are concerned. We have already introduced James to you and solved the mystery of the Sternritter “S,” but one point still remains – how did James die in the end? The anime suggested that Mask killed him, and in this article, we are going to provide you with all the details and answers you need to and want to know.

Mask De Masculine, who was just a creation of James’, did, indeed, kill James, and with that, he sealed his own fate. Using his Star Flash: Super Nova, Mask tried to kill Renji, but James was caught in the attack and all the copies of the Sternritter “S” burned and died, watching Mask in disbelief, as it was incredible that Mask actually killed him. But he did, stupidly believing that he would defeat Renji; namely, as long as Mask remained alive, James would come back to life, but since Mask stupidly underestimated Renji, he lost and was ultimately killed, alongside James, which means that Sternritter “S” completely disappeared at that moment.

The remainder of this article will give you a detailed overview of James’ and Mask De Masculine’s fate in the Bleach series, especially in light of the new fact that the anime series confirmed in comparison to the original manga, which raised a lot of questions that were never answered You already know what happened and how it happened, so we will just bring you the details so you know the whole context. Be careful, though, as the article will contain many spoilers, so if you don’t know all the details, be careful how you approach the text.

James died after being stupidly killed by Mask himself, as the latter believed he could take on Renji alone

Mask De Masculine’s story begins at the time of the first invasion. Naturally, Mask De Masculine attacked Soul Society with the other Sternritter, killing several Shinigami in the process, although the details were never shown.

He first appeared when he came to aid Äs Nödt in his fight against Renji and Byakuya, but since he was quite stupid, he was quickly lured into a trap by Byakuya and could no longer participate in the fight, as Byakuya used Senbonzakura to send Mask down a hole and off the battlefield. After Byakuya lost the battle against Äs Nödt, Renji wanted to activate his Bankai and help his Captain, but Mask De Masculine then returned and stupidly used a luchador move to knock Renji senseless.

Äs Nödt criticized his comrade’s behavior as he missed the chance to steal Renji’s Bankai, whereby it turned out that Mask was not properly informed and did not even know that Renji had a Bankai. At this moment, James was not seen, and it was not known that James was an essential part of Mask and his powers. But, we did find out Mask was quite dimwitted, which will be important later.

A few days later, as the Sternritter gathered on Yhwach’s call, their newest member, Uryū Ishida, was introduced to all of them, and most of them were quite suspicious of the newcomer. To everyone’s shock, not only was Ishida introduced, but he was also declared, in front of all of them, to be Yhwach’s successor. After the meeting, Bazz-B had problems accepting this fact and wanted to talk to their King personally after the meeting. Mask De Masculine tried to talk him out of it, but Bazz-B couldn’t be stopped and went off, although Jugram and Askin ultimately stopped him.

So, what happened later? Not long after that, the Sternritter launched a second invasion of the Seireitei, but to be able to fight the Shinigami as long as they wanted, they replaced the Seireitei with the Wandenreich completely. Mask De Masculine is seen roaming the streets of the Wandenreich, looking for new opponents as he comes across Ikkaku Madarame, Shuhei Hisagi, and Yumichika Ayasegawa. He engaged them in battle and had the upper hand, but they managed to trick him and seemingly kill him, as Ikkaku struck him with his Shikai. Then, James appeared and cried over Mask’s dead body, calling him Superstar, after which he woke up and easily defeated his opponents.

Just as he is about to kill Hisagi, his Captain Kensei Muguruma comes along and says that it is pathetic to lose without having shown the result of his training (referring to Hisagi’s newly-achieved Bankai) and then activates his Bankai. Being faced with Kensei’s incredible power, Mask is defeated in no time and is seemingly killed once again. James reappears again and starts crying, to which Muguruma ironically says that they now look like bad guys, but a wounded Hisagi then warns him that James is the true source of Mask’s powers, as Mask wakes up after cheers from James.

Mask quickly returns to the battlefield and defeats Kensei with ease, leaving the Captain dead. Convinced of his victory, he doesn’t see Captain Otoribashi returning to the battlefield and killing James. He is furious and asks how he could kill such an innocent fan, but Rose then replies that without him, he can’t use his full power and that he can’t let the chance Kensei created go to waste. He then activates his Bankai to defeat him.

Mask is in trouble, but Rose unintentionally reveals his Bankai’s weaknesses to him, whereupon he pierces his own eardrums with his fingers and defeats Rose with his Star Flash. He then shouts that no villain in the world can defeat a superhero, and as he is about to finish off Rose, Renji shows up and stops him. He asks him who he is, whereupon the Lieutenant claims he is a “villain.”

A fight ensues between the two, with Renji repelling all of Mask De Masculine’s attacks with his newly found strength. Seeing how he cannot overpower Renji, Mask activates his Quincy: Vollständig, as a series of James’ clones is cheering him on, seemingly giving him unlimited power.

He then decides to use his powerful and destructive Star Flash: Super Nova, which creates a large Reichi star that Mask sends down on Renji, hoping that it would burn him to crisps and kill him. The issue here is that he activated it right above James’ clones, so the numerous fans watched in disbelief as Mask was about to kill them, which he did, as they all burned away into oblivion, not believing that their own superhero had just killed them.

Now, Mask is, as we’ve said, quite stupid, and while he was confident he could take on Renji alone, killing his only lifeline was more than stupid, as there was now no one to revive Mask if needed.

So, what happened next? Mask told the dying James not to worry because as long as he was alive, James could return. But then Renji also came back, activating his true Bankai this time, and he killed Mask with absolute ease. Since there was no James to revive him, as Mask killed him, Mask died, and with him, James died as well, as there was no Mask to revive James either. So yes, Mask ultimately killed James simply because he was pompous and stupid.