Bleach: Did Shinji Kill Bambietta? Here’s What Happened to Her!

As far as Bambietta Basterbine, the Sternritter E (“The Explosion”) is concerned, she was a very interesting character in Bleach whose power was immensely high, and while we have already discussed parts of her story, her recent encounter with Shinji Hirako in the anime is also quite interesting, so we are going to tell you what happened there. Namely, in short, Shinji used his Shikai, Sakanade, on her, and she was utterly confused and seemed to be defeated until Yhwach gave some additional power to several of his Sternritter, and then something happened. So, did Shinji kill Bambietta or not? Keep reading to find out!

Shinji Hirako did not kill Bambietta Basterbine in their fight. And while he certainly surprised her, as she was completely unable to do anything against Shinji’s Sakanade, just as he was about to finish her off, Yhwach gave her, and some other Sternritter additional strength and all of them activated their Quincy: Vollständig, which gave her the upper hand against Shinji. She would incapacitate him with one of her explosions, and although she did not kill him, she, too, was eventually defeated by the humanized Komamura, who left her in a near-death state, after which she was turned into a zombie by Giselle.

The rest of this article will be about Bambietta Basterbine and her brief fight against Shinji Hirako in Bleach during the second invasion of the Seireitei. Their fight was brief, but it was an interesting clash that helped shape later events. In this article, you’re going to find out all the details. Of course, this also means that the article will contain many spoilers, so we have to warn you beforehand to approach it carefully.

Shinji outclassed Bambietta with Sakanade, but her Quincy: Vollständig was a turning point in this clash

The second cour of the new Bleach season finally revealed Shinji Hirako’s Bankai, and while the topic of this article is related to that particular scene, we won’t be focusing on it. We’ll just say to you that the Shinigami were scattered around the Wandenreich that replaced the Seireitei and that the Shinigami fought their own individual battles. As far as Shinji is concerned, he clashed with a bunch of Soldaten and then used his Bankai against them, killing all of them and then heading toward the location of his next battle.

On the other hand, during the Wandeneich’s second invasion, Bambietta and her group of women went off to kill the Shinigami. But the other women secretly separated from their leader, which caused her to seethe with anger. At the same time, she lost the Bankai she had stolen from Komamura, as Kisuke Urahara gave the Captains special pills that repelled the Bankai from the Quincy.

Shortly thereafter, Bambietta met with Komamura, who was now sporting a different armor. The two of them exchanged a couple of replies, but Komamura said he had no time for her and was going to kill Yhwach. Shinji and Komamura soon surrounded her, as Shinji came to their location and told Komamura that he could leave as he was going to take care of the girl.

And while Bambietta underestimated Shinji, he activated his Shikai, Sakanade, and completely confused her. Bambietta did not know that Shinji had one of the most powerful illusion-type Zanpakutō in the series; its name is Sakanade. Sakanade was first shown during the collective battle against Sōsuke Aizen in Fake Karakura Town, as Shinji confronted his former lieutenant and showed us his Zanpakutō and its Shikai.

Sakanade has a special ability known as Sakasama no Sekai (transl. “Upside Down World”), one of Shinji’s Zanpakuto’s well-known special abilities. Shinji’s Zanpakuto can create an illusion in which all directions are reversed.

So right becomes left, top becomes bottom, front becomes back, and vice versa. In this way, the direction from which an attack comes is swapped with the viewing direction. Your own movements also act in the opposite direction. Shinji calls the illusion for the opponent the Upside Down World.

Shinji retorted that it was difficult to mentally reverse all directional adjustments in the heat of battle in response to Aizen’s assertion that Sakanade’s Shikai was simply a matter of habit. Shinji questioned Aizen if he smelled anything delicious and claimed it was too late to hold his breath, but gases inhaled by the nose caused this illusion.

As you can imagine, Bambietta was completely confused. Her senses were destroyed; whenever she thought she saw Shinji, he disappeared and appeared at another location. She fired shots at him, but none hit the target as Shinji played with her. In the end, he said that he hated the fact that he would have to kill a girl, but he still sliced her.

But, before she died, something happened. Namely, Yhwach, from his throne in Silbern, decided to grant his Sternritter additional power, and several of them activated their Quincy: Vollständig, which gave Bambietta a lot of additional energy, and while it seemed that she would die by Shinji’s hand, she now seemingly had the upper position in the battle.

Namely, without the Bankai, the Sternritter could once again use their Quincy: Vollständig; while they had the Bankai, it was impossible since the Bankai hindered the activation of the Quincy: Vollständig. With these new powers, Bambietta came back and defeated Shinji in no time, injuring him but not killing him; Komamura then returned, and after that, it was only a fight between her and Komamura.

However, by transforming into a full human, this Immunun could resist their attacks and defeat them with his recovered Bankai. She survived the attack but was severely injured, and had she been left there, she would have died (Komamura, sadly, never made it to Yhwach because of this and ultimately turned into a wolf).

In such a state, Bambietta was found a few houses down by her friends, the female Sternritter who had abandoned her earlier. Giselle Gewelle, one of them, said they would help her because they would be sad if she wasn’t with them. With horror in her eyes, Bambietta begs Giselle not to do what she intends to do because she knows what Giselle’s power was.

Later, after the Gotei 13’s remaining Shinigami face off against the remaining Star Knights, when Giselle is revealed to be a boy by Yumichika, Giselle summons a Bambietta she previously zombified to the battlefield. Giselle hugs Bambietta from behind and orders Yumichika to kill Ikkau and the other Shinigami.

She eventually survived the war, Bambietta, and was left in her zombified state, living out the post-war life with the other female, Sternritter, who also survived the battle. And that is her story. So, no, she was not killed by Shinji, but she was almost killed by Sajin Komamura, who sacrificed his own mission to save Shinji from Bambietta’s new, powerful form.