This contains light spoilers from Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, currently streaming on Hulu. Hirako Shinji is the Visored that Bleach fans are the best acquainted with; however, viewers who have only joined the gang in the Thousand Year Blood War may be in the dark about the significance of these Shinigami-hybrids.
Initially introduced in the Turn Back the Pendulum Arc, the Visored have subsequently slipped into the sidelines for the most part, but that may all change now that Yhwach and his Sternritter are in the picture. Seireitei will have to call upon all its allies if it hopes to survive, and Shinji has witnessed firsthand how brutal their latest adversaries truly are. Will he be able to rally the troops and convince them to put their lives on the line, for the morally unjust Soul Reapers, no less?
The Visored's Versatility
The Visored are essentially antithetical to the Arrancar, as they are Shinigami-born soldiers with Hollow elements, and can therefore tap into both sets of powers to produce some incredible results. The former high-ranking members of the Gotei 13 (Captains and Lieutenants) still have access to their Zanpakuto and Kido skills while receiving a boost of energy when their Hollow masks get revealed; however, according to Seireitei's standards, the Visored are impure and unwanted. Since combining Shinigami and Hollows is considered taboo, the Visored are ostracized from society and labeled as unlawful traitors (by no fault of their own.)
Each of the eight Visored has a unique design to their Hollow mask that represents their individual characteristics and gives a slight indication of their favored fighting styles. The Visored can only don their skeletal accessories for a limited amount of time, the average span lasting for three minutes, although it varies from person to person. Mashiro Kuna, for example, can maintain her Hollowfication consistently for up to fifteen hours due to the exceptional bond she shares with the dark spirit within. Mashiro, Shinji Hirako, and Hiyori Sarugaki have also put their Cero abilities out on full display, and it is assumed that the rest of the team also have access to this energy-based Menos Grande attack.
Although each of the Visored possesses a unique skill set, they have not ranked themselves into a hierarchy and taken on a more democratic approach to their conduct instead, without one particular leader calling the shots. Only a single set of these Shinigami-Hollow hybrids was ever created and, due to how "unsuccessful" they were, no further attempts were made to produce anymore.
Members of the Visored clan include:
- Sarugaki Hiyori
- Muguruma Kensei
- Yadoumaru Lisa
- Aikawa Love
- Kuna Mashiro
- Outoribashi Roujuurou (aka Rose)
- Hirako Shinji
- Hachigen Ushōda
Aizen's "Failures"
Anytime the term "Hollowfication" pops up, it is easy to determine who is behind it all; the power-hungry problem-maker, Sōsuke Aizen. Back in the days when Urahara and Yoruichi were still members of the Gotei 13, the Captain of the 5th Division conducted secret experiments involving the Hōgyoku, with disastrous results. In desperate need of some guinea pigs, Aizen and his fellow traitors, Kaname Tōsen and Ichimaru Gin, plucked up some unsuspecting Shinigami who seemingly disappeared from Seireitei without a trace. When the Gotei 13 became suspicious, Captain Commander Yamamoto sent out a team to investigate, and those unfortunate Soul Reapers subsequently got thrown into their worst nightmare.
When Shinji, Love, and the other Shinigami arrive at the scene of the crime, they are met by their fellow allies, who are evidently out for blood (and not in a good way!) Kensei and Mashiro have been completely overwhelmed by their Hollowfied forms and are no longer in control of their own actions; however, before things can get completely out of hand, Tōsen steps in with his sensory-depriving Mumyō and incapacitates the test subjects.
Although Aizen succeeds with this round of Hollowfication experiments, he is less than pleased with the final result and scraps the whole project as a colossal disappointment, as the Arrancar are obviously leaps and bounds ahead of the Visored (according to this evil genius.) Apparently, Tite Kubo agrees with the Big Bad's sentiments, as he does not give these guys the attention they deserve, often casting them in a rather poor light and never truly exploiting their power potential.
Ichigo and The Visored
So if the discussion is around being part Shinigami and part Hollow, then Ichigo surely makes the list, right? Well, technically he shares many similarities with his Visored allies; however, his Hollowfication process is inherently natural and not man-made. This Substitute Shinigami acquired a selection of special abilities from his mother, Masaki, including the ability
to team up with Zangetsu (among other things; plot twist!) Despite his best efforts, this transformative process does not come easily to Ichigo, as Zangetsu's presence initially tends to create more inconveniences than anything else.
In an attempt to discover a way to co-exist with his inner Hollow, Ichigo implores the Visored to teach him their ways, seeing as they certainly had enough experience overcoming the same issues after Aizen was done with them. The fact that Ichigo had no access to his Shinigami powers at this point adds some urgency to the situation, and so, at Urahara's command, the young Strawberry's Chain of Fate is tampered with to kick things up a notch. The Substitute Shinigami is showered in a relentless downpour of brutal training as the Visored teach him how to control his Hollowfication, and the natural-born warrior eventually manages to surpass his mentors by exceeding the average three-minute cut-off mark.
The Visored and the Thousand Year Blood War
Following the dramatic events of the Fake Karakura Town Arc, Shinji, Rose, and Love patch things up with the Gotei 13 and reassimilate into their ranks, while the others assumedly all chose to remain in their human lifestyles, ensuring to keep in contact with Urahara. The first few episodes of the Thousand Year Blood War suggest that Shinji may have a significant role to play in the narrative, considering he has received more screen time than several other important Soul Reapers. However, will involving the Visored give the Seireitei enough of an advantage to take down Yhwach's deadly forces?
As the Shinigami start losing their most potent powers one by one, a compelling development to this unbalanced power dynamic could revolve around the fact that, much like with Ichigo, the Sternritter are incapable of stealing the Visored's Bankai. Due to the nature of Yhwach's army, trying to consume anything Hollow-related has a rather toxic effect on the Quincy's body, leaving these Shinigami-hybrids immune to that particular life-changing assault. That being said, fans should not get too invested in the possibility of a Visored redemption event, as Tite Kubo is likely to stick to his formula of using this intriguing bunch of characters as convenient plot devices, despite how much potential they wield as fan-favorite fighting machines!