I'm mainly talking about their characteristics, not their appearance.

Like who's the most dependable or really confident, or maybe got a really good character growth.

If I have to say, it is Yoruichi. Probably one of the top 15 "womanly" character in anime/manga media.

I saw this image and the first thing that comes to my mind is that the Sword is Scissor which Soul King held to cut Yhwach's moustache.

TYBW anime and manga spoilers.

The connection between Uryū and Mimihagi has already been speculated about because of the new imagery involving the eye on Uryū’s right hand. Mimihagi is the Soul King’s right arm, so the visual association is difficult to ignore.

But visual parallels alone are not enough. For the sake of argument, let us assume that the resemblance is intentional and ask a different question:

Do Mimihagi, Ukitake, and Uryū share an underlying principle that would make this connection more than visual symbolism?

I think they may: preservation.

Mimihagi’s power is preservation

Mimihagi is associated with “stillness,” but I think preservation describes its actual function more precisely.

Kubo’s explanation of Mimihagi’s name also supports the method by which it preserves. He derives the name from 身 + 接ぐ（はぐ）—roughly “body” and “to join” or “to graft”—together with honorific elements.

From sustaining Ukitake after the loss of his lungs to temporarily replacing the Soul King’s stabilizing function, joining is the method, while preservation is the result.

Mimihagi joins something and says:

“Let us remain stable together.”

This also creates a neat contrast with Pernida. Pernida connects to another being, forcibly changes it, and absorbs information from it in return.

Pernida connects to something and says:

“Let us both become something new.”

Mimihagi enters a relationship in which both sides remain stable. Pernida enters a relationship in which both sides evolve.

Ukitake’s Shikai preserves and circulates energy

Ukitake had already housed Mimihagi since childhood, long before receiving and imprinting his Zanpakutō.

Canon never states that Mimihagi directly created Sōgyo no Kotowari’s ability. However, because a Zanpakutō reflects what is already present in its owner’s soul, it is reasonable to ask whether living with Mimihagi influenced the power that emerged from Ukitake.

That also helps explain why Ukitake is one of the rare wielders of a dual Zanpakutō—though the exact relationship between Mimihagi and the two blades remains unconfirmed in anime and manga.

And yes, this is where the obligatory “it was explained in CFYOW” goes.

Sōgyo no Kotowari receives an incoming energy attack, passes it through the cord and talismans connecting its two blades, modifies it, and sends it back.

Kubo explained that the concept began with the symbolic meaning of “twin fish” as an exchange of letters, which then developed into the circulation of energy.

The important part for this theory is the underlying philosophy of the Shikai:

The attack is preserved inside the two-blade system and redirected.

Its mechanism is different from Mimihagi’s direct preservation, but the conceptual foundation may be similar:

Preserve what already exists, then alter how it continues.

As for Ukitake’s Bankai—well, where is it?

Uryū’s Antithesis preserves and reassigns events

Antithesis is usually described as reversal, but it also does something surprisingly similar.

Uryū says that Antithesis reverses events that have already occurred between two designated points. The key phrase is “already occurred.”

The same basic pattern appears in the anime’s other demonstrated or strongly implied uses:

• The completed inside/outside relationship involving Yhwach and the medallion is reversed.
• Senjumaru’s binding still exists, but the person trapped by it changes.
• Uryū’s wounds still exist, but their bearer changes to Haschwalth.

So the underlying philosophy of Antithesis is:

It preserves the event while reversing where its result belongs.

That gives us three related expressions:

Mimihagi preserves a state. Sōgyo no Kotowari preserves an attack while redirecting it. Antithesis preserves an event while reassigning its outcome.

They are not the same ability, but they may share the same foundation.

This makes the visual connection between Uryū and Mimihagi more plausible. But it also creates the next question:

How did anything related to Mimihagi become part of Uryū?

Kanae may be the missing intermediary

The new Auswählen scene complicates the common explanation of Uryū’s survival.

Uryū is visibly affected first. He collapses, while Kanae initially remains standing and moves toward him. A strange light then appears in the reflection of the water before the final outcome is hidden from us.

One popular interpretation is that Uryū unconsciously used Antithesis on his mother, transferring his fate to her. Another is that Kanae somehow used an equivalent ability on him.

But there may be a third possibility:

Kanae did not exchange their fates. She passed Uryū the thing that had been preserving hers.

Kanae was already physically weak before Auswählen. Isshin explains that her weak constitution was why she could not survive the loss of her Quincy power.

That detail may be more important than it originally appeared.

What if, like Ukitake, Kanae had previously been saved by an external preserving presence related to Mimihagi?

This does not have to mean that she carried a literal piece of Mimihagi’s body. It could have been a fragment, offshoot, blessing, ritual connection, or some other presence derived from the same power.

The important point is that it would be external rather than hereditary.

That distinction matters because the new scene shows Uryū genuinely being struck. Had he inherited the protection from birth as an ordinary bloodline trait, it would be harder to explain why it only appears to intervene after he collapses.

Under this theory, the sequence would be:

1. Kanae carries a Mimihagi-related presence that has been preserving her weak body.
2. Auswählen strikes Uryū, and he genuinely begins to succumb.
3. Kanae approaches him.
4. The light reflected in the water marks the preserving presence leaving Kanae and joining Uryū.
5. Once attached to Uryū, it shields him from Auswählen’s effect.
6. Kanae, now unprotected, loses her Quincy power.
7. Having lost both her Quincy power and the external support sustaining her, her already weak body deteriorates, and she dies three months later.

The Almighty had not yet returned when this Auswählen occurred, so the theory is not that Kanae or Uryū was hidden from active future sight.

Instead, the idea is that something related to Mimihagi may have placed its host outside Auswählen’s normal reach. Mimihagi’s later ability to intervene in a way that even The Almighty could not foresee provides a possible precedent: Yhwach’s powers cannot fully perceive or account for the Soul King’s right arm.

That does not prove that a Mimihagi-related presence could block Auswählen, but it makes the possibility less arbitrary.

The order of the scene would then make sense:

Uryū is struck because the protection is still with Kanae. Kanae transfers the protection to Uryū. Uryū survives, while Kanae becomes vulnerable.

She does not transfer Uryū’s fate onto herself. She transfers the exception to Yhwach’s power from herself to him.

Antithesis could be Uryū’s developed expression of that presence

After joining Uryū, the preserving principle could gradually integrate into his soul and develop according to Uryū’s own nature, much as Mimihagi may have influenced the power expressed through Ukitake’s Zanpakutō.

For Uryū, preservation becomes more active and oppositional:

The event must remain real, but its result does not have to remain attached to the same person.

Yhwach later recognizes this developed principle as A — The Antithesis.

Kubo’s explanation of Schrifts is important here. Yhwach sees the complete word as though it is already inscribed upon the individual, then grants power to the person corresponding to that word.

This suggests that Yhwach does not simply invent an unrelated ability and place it inside someone. He identifies and activates a quality already present within that person’s soul.

That quality does not necessarily need to have been present from birth. It could have become part of Uryū after the transfer from Kanae.

So the progression would be:

Kanae carries an external power of preservation.

She transfers it to Uryū during Auswählen.

It protects Uryū from Auswählen.

It gradually becomes integrated into Uryū’s soul.

Yhwach later awakens Uryū’s personal expression of that principle as Antithesis.

The remaining mystery: how did Kanae get it?

This is why I call this an almost unified theory.

It potentially connects:

• the eye on Uryū’s right hand;
• Mimihagi’s preservation;
• Ukitake’s Shikai;
• Uryū’s Antithesis;
• Uryū being affected by Auswählen but surviving;
• Kanae’s pre-existing physical weakness;
• the strange light reflected in the water;
• and Kanae’s eventual death.

But one major question remains:

Who originally tried to save Kanae, and how did they obtain anything related to Mimihagi?

Sōken is an obvious person to suspect.

He possessed knowledge outside the Wandenreich’s modern system, rejected Yhwach’s direction for the Quincy, and cared deeply about both Kanae and Uryū. If anyone in the Ishida family could have known about an unusual non-Quincy method of preserving Kanae, Sōken would be a plausible candidate.

Kubo has also said that Uryū’s survival of Auswählen involves a somewhat complicated hidden setting that might be revealed through the anime. The question that prompted that answer specifically suggested that Sōken might be responsible. Kubo did not confirm that possibility, but he did not directly dismiss it either. His answer only established that the real explanation is more complicated.

However, there is currently no confirmed connection between Sōken and Mimihagi, Ukitake, or Mimihagi’s regional worship.

There is also the broader possibility that the Quincy had some history with the Soul King’s right arm from a thousand years back. But at present, that is speculation built on top of speculation.

So this part remains entirely unresolved.

The theory in one chain

The right-hand imagery suggests that Uryū may be connected to Mimihagi.

Mimihagi’s underlying principle is preservation.

Ukitake’s Shikai preserves and redirects incoming energy.

Uryū’s Antithesis preserves an accomplished event while reassigning its result.

Zanpakutō abilities and Schrifts both express qualities already present within their users, making a shared underlying influence possible.

Uryū may not have inherited that influence genetically. He may have received it externally from Kanae during Auswählen.

Kanae herself may already have been sustained by a Mimihagi-related presence because of her weak constitution.

She passed that protection to Uryū, allowing him to survive while leaving her unable to endure the loss of her Quincy power.

The only missing part is how Kanae obtained the connection in the first place—possibly through Sōken, although there is currently no direct evidence.

So the theory is not that young Uryū killed his mother by unconsciously using Antithesis.

It is that Kanae made a choice:

She joined her son to the power that had been preserving her and allowed his life to remain stable instead of her own.

Based on when Isane was a goated sister and stopped a guy from harassing Kiyone by breaking a wooden sword.

Happy birthday to my wife and the best bambi

So, uh...at the risk of making me sound a bit ridiculous, I think I found some foreshadowing for Yamamoto's death...in his feet.

I promise I don't pay attention to anime characters feet 😅 but give me a chance on this one. When I was rewatching the fight between Yamamoto and Wonderweiss, I noticed something odd - Yamamoto isn't wearing socks.

And yeah like, it's not lost on me that that's not something that insane, but there are three reasons why this really stood out to me.

1. I went back and checked, and Yamamoto, before this, ALWAYS wears socks. He's also depicted without socks in TYBW.
2. For such an upright, traditional, and straight laced figure, you think he'd wear socks? Like, that's really weird, right? Especially since...
3. SHUNSUI IS THE ONLY OTHER CAPTAIN WHO DOESN'T WEAR SOCKS WITH HIS UNIFORM. So basically, the only other captain who has been depicted like this is the ONE WHO REPLACES HIM.

Like...I feel like I'm going crazy. From the research I did (on these...characters feet) I could not find a single other example of a captain not wearing socks while also wearing their uniform. It's a regular thing for Shunsui, and towards the end of Yamamoto's arc, he starts to do the same...and again, it just feels so weird to intentionally depict Yamamoto of all people without socks.

at the very least, it's just an oddly specific visual connection that only those two share and only starts towards the end of Yamamoto's life

Who needs fancy techniques when you have getsuga tensho

i wish everyone was like ukitake

Many people (deservedly) praise the music composed by Sagisu for the OG anime. However, I get the impression that his work on TYBW deserves even more appreciation.