Bleach: Yachiru’s Shikai, Sanpo Kenjū, Explained!

For every Bleach fan, the name Yachiru Kusajishi is a must-know. The small pink-haired girl, who is also Kenpachi’s Lieutenant (and a complete mismatch with him in that aspect), has been the source of a lot of fun in the series and has since become one of its most intriguing characters. But, while Yachiru’s true nature is an exceptionally intriguing question, this article will focus on her Shikai, Sanpo Kenjū, which is actually one of the most interesting ones in the series.

Yachiru Kusajishi’s Zanpakuto is called Sanpo Kenjū, which is also the name of her Shikai. In many ways, her Shikai is unique among the Gotei 13, which makes sense seeing how special Yachiru actually was as a character. First of all, she doesn’t seem to have a release command and can simply release her Shikai without it. Also, the Shikai manifests a total of two individual monsters – Lumpy and Boney – which is, according to Isane Kotetsu, unheard of in Soul Society (Unohana’s Shikai manifested only one creature). The two monsters attack alongside Yachiru, one before her, and one after, which makes her attack basically impossible to dodge. Her Shikai also has enormous destructive power.

The rest of this article will tell you about Yachiru Kusajishi and her Shikai, Sanpo Kenjū. We are going to tell you about the Shikai, what its powers and abilities are, especially its individual techniques, and we are going to tell you how it evolved from the original version we saw at the beginning of the series to the true version of the Shikai that we saw in Yachiru’s fight against Gremmy and his visions. The article will contain a fair amount of spoilers, so we have to warn you about that so that you know how to approach it.

Yachiru seemingly has a completely unique Shikai, which makes sense knowing her true nature

Yachiru Kusajishi was introduced as Kenpachi’s Lieutenant in the 11th Division. She was quite close to him and behaved like his daughter, making the two of them a completely hilarious mismatch in every way imaginable. Kenpachi cared for her a lot and would give up his life for her without even blinking, while Yachiru cheered for Kenpachi during each of his fights and also cared for him a lot.

The two of them first met after Kenpachi killed a series of thugs in the Rukongai, after which a baby Yachiru appeared before him, and he took her with him, caring for her ever since. Since she did not have a name, he named her Yachiru after Yachiru Unohana (Captain Unohana’s true name), the only opponent he ever truly admired.

Now, Yachiru’s complex relationship with Kenpachi and his true powers was a question of debate for years until Kubo finally confirmed Yachiru’s true nature, somewhat directly in the manga and absolutely clearly in a fan Q&A, which explained a lot about who Yachiru really is and what her role way.

But, while we won’t be spoiling too much here, as you can read more about it in our other articles, we’ll just state that Yachiru is a unique character in the series, which is why the fact that she actually has a Shikai is even more fascinating. But she does. Yachiru has a Zanpakuto called Sanpo Kenjū, and its Shikai was first seen during the Quincy Blood War, so we are going to tell you everything you need to know about it.

Now, Yachiru actually having a Shikai might seem strange, but the nature of that Shikai is even stranger if you look at absolutely all the circumstances surrounding it. Her Zanpakuto is actually a completely normal katana with pink hilt-wrapping, a tsuba shaped like a five-petal flower, and a purple scabbard; the scabbard also has a set of wheels to transport the Zanpakuto, which was installed by Ikkaku after Yachiru kept pestering him to do it.

The blade’s name is Sanpo Kenjū, which literally means “Three-Step Monster,” and it makes sense knowing how it manifests. But, more on that in a moment.

The first strange thing about Yachiru’s Shikai is that she is seemingly able to release it without a command, which is the only such case known in the series. Whether this was just a mistake on Kubo’s part or a unique trait of her Shikai is unknown, but knowing how special she is, it wouldn’t surprise us if this was yet another special trait of Yachiru’s.

So, what does Yachiru’s Shikai actually look like? Well, interestingly enough, her Zanpakuto doesn’t change, and it remains the same, but she actually summons two monsters out of it who then aid her in battle. So, the two monsters in question are a small, chubby monster covered in yellow fur called Lumpy and a large, Hollow-like monster with a black cloak called Boney. The two of them have weapons of their own, and when Yachiru launches her attack, the two of them attack almost simultaneously with her.

Namely, one of them attacks before Yachiru, and the other after her – which is why it is called the three-step technique – making it almost impossible to dodge her attack because if you dodge one, the other comes immediately after, and it is very difficult to actually dodge three almost simultaneous attacks. On top of that, these attacks are truly powerful and can pack a punch, i.e., they have enormous destructive power, which actually isn’t strange knowing how strong Yachiru was and how powerful her Reiatsu was (which also makes sense considering her true nature).

This is why her attacks were so effective against Guenael Lee, even though the ugly old geezer was a vision of Gremmy’s with a very special ability. Probably due to her true nature, Yachiru could see through that power and actually fight Guenael Lee, which initially seemed impossible. But let’s go back to the Shikai once more.

Namely, Yachiru’s Shikai is also special because it produced two monsters, while the original blade remains unchanged.

This was confirmed by Isane Kotetsu, who said that such a release was unheard of, both because it produced two creatures at once and because the blade remained unchanged (for example, Unohana’s Shikai, Minazuki, produced a creature, but it produced only one and the creature was actually the transformed blade, which disappeared at that moment), which adds yet another layer to Yachiru’s story.