Ichigo's Strongest Forms in Bleach Ranked

Last updated on January 4th, 2023 at 12:39 am

Bleach has been the pioneer of several anime series and has been an inspiration for man creators.

The anime version of the new arc- “Bleach Final Arc: Thousand Year Blood War,” is scheduled for its release in October 2022.

It is perhaps time to reflect on a series that has given us so many bittersweet memories and, as usual, make a robust comparison of the protagonist’s forms.

Presently, among Ichigo’s all forms, True Bankai with Horn of Salvation form is his strongest. However, in my opinion, Pure Ichigo is his most powerful form.

In this post, we will rank and explain all forms of Ichigo based on the power level and its impact in a battle.

With the manga already having ended in 2016, all of Ichigo’s strongest forms have been revealed, so stay till the end to know which form of Ichigo ranks the highest.

Despite Ichigo’s popularity within the anime community, not everyone seems aware of all ten transformations of Ichigo and their powers.

So what exactly is Ichigo’s strongest form and why? Let’s find out.

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Table of Contents

Ichigo’s Strongest Forms in Bleach Ranked | 2022

10) Ichigo Human Form –

No malice here, but Ichigo’s human form is probably what is suggested in its name that makes him so weak in the first place- the human form.

While in human form, he is susceptible to all the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of humans, and a hollow would love nothing more than to fight him in his human form.

In this form, the best he can achieve is to overpower normal humans breaking a shrine, but that’s that really, nothing much will come of him in this form.

9) Shinigami Ichigo (Basic) –

This is the most basic of Ichigo’s transformation, which takes place with Rukia granting her power, transferring half of her Reaitsu to him that gives him the ability to take down the two hollows that were attacking them.

In this form, he was able to beat the 11th Captain, Zaraki Kenpachi (without his eyepatch limiter), as well as Ikakku and Renji, which means even in his most basic form, Ichigo is still a force to be reckoned with.

There also appears a Shinigami (Rebuild) form, where he is supposed to have improved his Shinigami form.

He yields two Zengitsus, one short and solid and the other long and narrow, enhancing his combat mobility. It also provides him with a more significant and faster means of controlling his Reaitsu.

8) Bankai Ichigo (Basic) –

This form was the result of an intense training regime designed by Youruichi and was only adequately revealed in the fight against Kuchiki Byakyu on Soukyoku Hill.

While in this form, Ichigo’s Shinigami robes are transformed into a black-and-red Shihakusho and considerably increase the power of his Bankai.

This basic form gives way to a more powerful and more devastating form known as the Bankai Ichigo (Rebuild), where Ichigo has the ability to increase the strength of his Bankai by merging them.

It gives him greater mobility, an advanced form that creates two parallel black lines and makes his eyes glow yellow, acting as a foreshadowing of his true nature.

7) Hollowified Ichigo –

Alright, so this one’s a personal favorite, and for a good reason. It shows Ichigo’s potential if he lets loose his maniacal side.

Refusing to let himself exterminate, Ichigo’s hollow form emerges and takes control of his body which creates a hollow mask on his face.

It ultimately allows him to defeat Byakuya by slashing his chest.

This one’s one of the deadliest since it projected for the first time the latent potential within Ichigo.

6) Fullbring Ichigo –

Having lost his powers after his battle with Aizen, Ichigo discovers a new form known as fullbring, which is a special technique achieved through human training.

Not his strongest, but he does the job. In this form, his body is covered in an armor of bone-like structure and is given a short sword.

Thankfully, this form did not last long, with Ginjou stealing his Fullbring, allowing Rukia to inject him with Shinigami powers once again.

5) FGT Ichigo –

Final Getsuga Tenshou is one of Ichigo’s strongest forms, still it is ranked at 5th position.

A perfect union with Zangetsu is shown in this form, with Ichigo taking his power level up a notch with him unleashing the against Aizen his FGT or Final Getsuga Tenshou.

The bottom half of his face and upper torso is covered in bandages, and with this hair growing long.

In this form, Ichigo’s mugetsu obliterates Aizen once and for all.

4) Vasto Lorde Ichigo –

Vasto Lorde Ichigo is one of the most powerful Ichigo’s forms in Bleach.

This form of Ichigo has only manifested once in the entire series, and that was in the battle against Ulquiorra.

Ichigo reaches the second stage of development by incarnating himself in the form of Vasto Lorde Ichigo, which saw him undergoing a complete change in battle prowess as well as an almost complete makeover of his physical self.

This is the only form of Ichigo where he is entirely unrecognizable, which is probably why the creators never brought this form back.

3) Shinigami Ichigo (Rebuild) –

IChigo new Swords — *Image Source: @Stotork (DeviantArt)*

After his defeat to Yhwach (and having his Bankai sliced cleanly in half by Haschwalth), Ichigo chooses to travel to the royal realm where swordmaster Oetsu Nimaiya teaches him to really communicate with his Zangetsu.

It leads to Ichigo’s realization that both the Quincy and the shinigami powers ironically belong to him due to his lineage.

Nimaya then forgest two Zangetsu for Ichigo, one short and the other long, which Ichigo yields with devastating effect.

He performs the Getsuga Juujishou, a flurry of quick attacks, and reaches the ultimate version of his shinigami form, which increases his battle prowess.

It also allows him to improve his swordsmanship yielding two Zangetsus.

2) Bankai Ichigo (Rebuild) –

Naruto vs Luffy vs Ichigo — *Image Source: @Gray Hackinson (quora)*

Bankai Ichigo (Rebuild) is Ichigo’s strongest form in Bleach as per the manga.

This one’s both intriguing and terrifying at the same time. Having merged his two Zanpakutos, he manages to create an entirely new Bankai: the smaller Zanpakuto filling the hollowed-out space in the larger with a chain connecting them.

This is one of his strongest forms; it was only natural that his physical appearance changed as well.

In this form, Ichigo has a horn sprouting from his right forehead and two lines running down.

His eyes glow partially yellow, which is actually a testimony of his true form, which is more of a foreshadowing of his final transformation and his final nature.

1) Pure Ichigo –

By far, Ichigo’s strongest form this form is only rivaled by the Vasto Lorde Ichigo.

The only reason that the Vasto Lorde form is in the fourth place is because of its appearance, just one which does not really provide a true metric for gauging a transformation’s powers.

Pure Ichigo’s transformation case is along similar lines, he takes this form in his final battle against Yhwach, and we never get another look at this form since that was Ichigo’s last fight.

In this battle, Uryuu plays his trump card, the arrowhead forged of Still Silver that halts Yhwach’s powers for a few seconds.

At that moment, Ichigo rushes at him with his broken Bankai, and Yhwach tries to stop it with his hands, breaking off the white rim.

What is revealed underneath is a sword that is similar to Ichigo’s original Shikai, which cuts Yhwach in half, defeating him, which means Ichigo never has to fight again.

However, it would have been a real treat if the mange brought out the Vasto Lorde Ichigo one final time and pitted him against Yhwach in a battle to the death.

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Bleach: Ichigo all forms Listed–

Having ranked all of Ichigo’s transformation and his powers along with his forms, it is time to list all forms of Ichigo.

This will help us get a clear and better understanding of the transformation process that Ichigo goes through and how he achieves his forms in the first place.

We will trace the journey of Ichigo’s first transformation into a Shinigami to the final form where he takes on Yhwach in his pure form as a portrayal of his progress.

We will also enlist it based on the arcs that the forms first manifested to get a clearer idea. The list, therefore, is as follows-

Agent of the Shinigami arc-

Human Ichigo
Sealed/Rukia powers (Shinigami Transformation)
First Shikai

SS Arc

Shikai pos Bankai training
Bankai

Hueco Mundo arc

First part – Up to Ulquiorra first fight
- Shikai pos Visored training
- Bankai pos Visored training
- Bankai + Mask
Second part – From Grimmjow last fight
- Bankai/Grimmjow fight
- Bankai + Mask/Grimmjow fight
Third part – From Ulquiorra last fight
- Bankai/Ulquiorra fight
- Bankai + Mask/Ulquiorra fight
- Full Hollowfication (Vasto Lorde Transformation)

FKT arc

Bankai
Bankai + Mask 2.0
Dangai

The Lost Agent Arc

First Fullbring
Second Fullbring
Complete Fullbring
Shikai Fullbring
Bankai Fullbring

Last Arc

True Shikai
True Shikai + Horn of Salvation
True Bankai
True Bankai + Horn of Salvation

The Bleach Manga is available to read on the official Shonen Jump Magazine as well as on Viz. Given that there has been an increasing popularity of Bleach with it’s new and final arc to be out on October 2022, go grab yourself a slice of the manga.

Here we conclude our article on “Ichigo’s Strongest Forms in Bleach Ranked.” We will be back with another artcile. Till then stay tned with us and read the articles below.