Summary
- Mayuri Kurotsuchi brought back four moderately powerful Arrancars to fight Giselle for him.
- Mayuri is fighting fire with fire since the Sternritter often steal other people's powers and bodies, too.
- Mayuri's utilization of the dead, though unethical, is justified in a desperate war like this one.
The Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime is full of surprises as the Soul Reapers and the villainous Quincy Empire fight one last battle for the fate of the Soul Society. Both sides are using powerful secret weapons never before seen, such as the Quincy Medallions and even Rukia's very own bankai. Now, the Soul Reapers and Sternritter are fighting to see who has the best zombies.
Already, Sternritter Z, Giselle Gewelle, has started using her ability, The Zombie, to take control of Soul Reapers and even her ally Bambietta Basterbine. This power that may soon spiral out of control. To counter this, Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi has his own squad of Arrancar zombies, all of whom were tough opponents for Ichigo's friends in the Hueco Mundo and Fake Karakura Town story arcs. Nostalgic fans might have forgotten who these Arrancars are, though, so Bleach fans are ready for a reminder of what makes Mayuri's Arrancar zombies so formidable and what they can do.
Who Are Captain Kurotsuchi's Arrancar Minions?
In recent Bleach episodes, Mayuri Kurotsuchi used his advanced scientific prowess to fight the Sternritter on their own terms. While Kisuke Urahara focused on taking back everyone's stolen bankai with cutting-edge innovations, Mayuri actually looked to the past and used resurrection to animate four deceased Arrancars. This is a first for Captain Kurotsuchi, who has never before worked with the dead, and he has Szayelaporro Grantz, his Espada counterpart, to thank for it. Mayuri easily obtained these Arrancar bodies due to Szayelaporro's previous efforts to gather slain Arrancars for experimentation. Mayuri personally raided Szayelaporro's specimen storage shed after their battle in Las Noches. That is where Mayuri obtained the Arrancars named Luppi Antenor, Cirucci Sanderwicci, and Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio. The exception is Charlotte Chuhlhourne, whom Mayuri evidently salvaged from the Fake Karakura Town battle.
Mayuri chose moderately powerful Arrancars to be his minions in the Thousand-Year Blood War story arc. Weaker Arrancars such as Tesla Lindocruz and D-Roy Rinker wouldn't have been enough to face the Sternritter, but evidently, stronger Arrancar such as the main Espadas might have been too powerful to control, such as Nnoitora Gilga, Yammy Llargo, and Coyote Starrk. They all had salvageable bodies, but there's no sign Mayuri ever got his hands on them. Instead, Mayuri has two Privaron Espadas, the temporary 6th Espada, and a fraccione in his squad, strong enough to fight Giselle but not so strong the battle was a forgone conclusion. Notably, Luppi got his entire torso vaporized when Grimmjow hit him with a point-blank cero blast, but Luppi was somehow rebuilt anyway. Also, Cirucci Sanderwicci lost her energy core when Uryu Ishida destroyed it in their Las Noches battle, but Cirucci is now combat-ready with Mayuri's help.
Mayuri's four Arrancar minions have not yet been seen releasing their zanpakuto to use their original Hollow powers, which may be a side effect of being resurrected as zombies. It's a shame, too, since their true forms are incredibly powerful for non-Espadas. Luppi could grow eight long tentacles to grab or crush his enemies, Dordoni could use whirlwind kicks, Charlotte could envelop his enemies in giant thorny roses, and Cirucci could morph into a moth with razor-sharp feathers that could serve as missiles. In the current Bleach arc, these Arrancars seem content to use simple melee attacks, hardly even drawing their sealed zanpakuto to fight. Fortunately, that's sufficient against Giselle's zombified Soul Reaper puppets, though Charlotte wasn't nearly strong enough to take on the zombified Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya.
Mayuri's Arrancar Minions Make Him A Formidable Antihero
From the very start, Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi has been a sinister and often unethical Soul Reaper, both as an antagonist and as an antihero. Mayuri was always willing to exploit or abuse people to accomplish his goals, such as blowing up his own troops to attack Orihime and Uryu in the Soul Society arc or when he made Szayelaporro feel a century's worth of pain after feeding him a concentrated mind-acceleration drug. Now, Mayuri is exploiting the dead to fight back against the Sternritter, which deepens his antihero status even more, but for once, it's justified. Mayuri is giving them a second lease on life, even if he treats Luppi, Charlotte, Dordoni, and Cirucci roughly, and it's for the sake of fighting his worst enemies of all time. For everyone's sake, the Sternritter must be defeated, so Mayuri can be forgiven for abusing the dead to get the job done, if only barely.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi is fighting fire with fire when dealing with the Sternritter, and that makes him one of the Soul Society's best fighters, even if he's not one of the Five Special War Powers. Mayuri isn't a one-trick pony like Captain Kenpachi Zaraki or even Ichigo Kurosaki himself. Mayuri, like his rival Kisuke Urahara, can think up any solution with the power of science and adjust to any challenge, and no Bleach villain has ever beaten him at that game, not even Szayelaporro. In a desperate fight like this, almost any tactic can be justified, including throwing zombie Arrancars at the problem so no more Soul Reaper lives have to be lost. That's why Dordoni, Cirucci, Luppi, and Charlotte feel like such heroes, using their Hollow strength for a good cause for the first time.
The Quincy are all about capturing and exploiting other people and their powers, making them resourceful in the most villainous ways possible. Stealing bankai with the Medallions was the first example, and then Sternritter like Quilge Opie and Bambietta's team used the Sklave Rai technique to steal spirit energy from the terrain and even other people, such as Ayon. Using other people's strength as their own, combined with the element of surprise, made the Sternritter nearly unbeatable in the first battle. But now, even with Giselle Gewelle continuing this exploitative theme with The Zombie, there is finally hope. Anything Giselle can do, Mayuri Kurotsuchi can do better with his four zombie Arrancars and his ability to steal back Giselle's strongest zombies. Even if the four resurrected Arrancars are just making a cameo here in the TYBW arc, they are a welcome sight, and they're proof that the "steal your power for myself" theme isn't always something disgusting and horrifying in this final arc.