Original Gotei 13 Revealed

 So today we've woken up to some very

unexpected developments with the latest

issue of weekly Shonen jump revealing

to us a full manga color spread drawn by

Kubo as he has finally depicted the

original gote 13. for over 10 years the

only image that we had depicting the

gote 13 was this blurred silhouetted

image from chapter 511. now in general

the history of the gote 13 remains much

of a mystery but we do know that the

organization was founded by head captain

Yamamoto and he has always been the

leader of it maintaining his position as

the captain of the first division since

its Inception now this very first

iteration of the gote 13 there are two

captains that we can recognize there's

of course head captain Yamamoto and

unahanaratsu but there are 11 other

individuals on this page and hopefully

I'm going to go over each of them and

try to make some educated guesses as to

what division they'll be leading shunsui

in chapter 523 had referred to this

iteration of the gote 13 to be the

strongest within its history you are

back in chapter 511 had described this

version of the gote 13 as Defenders only

in name because it was made up of a

group of nothing but merciless Killers

some have even described the individuals

of this original gote 13 to be criminals

we know that unohana was in fact a

criminal who was recruited by Yamamoto

it was because of the unforgiving

merciless nature of this original gote

13 that they were feared by anybody who

had come across them or heard about them

the only individual who could command a

group of Lawless individuals was the

ruthless head captain Yamamoto who was

far more cruel and pragmatic than he is

in his present day iteration this

version of head captain Yamamoto

contrasting the cared very little for

his subordinates even deeming them to be

Expendable this version of the original

gotai 13 had underwent some drastic

changes after the Quincy were defeated a

thousand years ago this had to be done

in order to usher in a new age of Peace

especially after they had realized that

they have things to protect and cherish

and they can no longer go around in this

ruthless merciless manner making enemies

out of everybody this image of the

original 13 was initially leaked and

posted in this very blurry resolution

and it is described as a new bleach

thousand year blue arc ProStar from

weekly Shonen jump and it's of the

original gote 13. now thanks to James

Hansen we've got a higher resolution

version of this image where we can

properly see each of the individuals we

can now actually try to speculate a bit

more about each of these characters and

try to think about what kind of

Divisions they'd be leading so front and

center you've got head captain Yamamoto

and we've seen several versions of the

head captain from this era through

flashbacks within the anime and the

manga particularly the flashback

involving the character of jojiro

sasukebe and some flashbacks of him

during yamamoto's battle against Johor

bark so there is nothing really new with

this character design but it is to be

noted that he has two skulls on his head

if you recall during the flashback

involving sasukebe which are taking

place 2 000 years ago Yamamoto only had

one scar on his forehead that is until

sasakibe had activated his Bankai and

had given him a second scar which

resembles the Japanese character Jew so

this is one thousand years after that

event after Yamamoto was done teaching

the students to become Shinigami and

some of the students would have

graduated from his school and would have

ended up becoming some of the captains

that we see here on this page so next up

we're going to turn our attention over

to this dark-skinned female character

who has white hair golden eyes and some

iconic accessories which lead me to

believe that she belongs to the shihoin

family or she is an ancestor of yorichi

shihowen maybe she's your ichi's mother

but I definitely think that she belongs

to that royal family the golden irises

are a dead giveaway as well as The

Purple Rope that decorates her zambakto

and usually these kind of accessories

Kubo only gives to characters when they

are from that Noble lineage so I'm going

to assume that this shihoin family

ancestor is the leader of the second

division following up from this we've

got this character on the top right hand

side of the page and it doesn't help

that this individual is pretty obscured

so you can't really tell much of him or

her but I'm going to assume that this

individual is the leader of the third

division as they kind of remind me of

Rose next up we've got a character on

the other side of the page on the top

left hand corner and this is somebody

who looks very similar to Momo with her

glasses and her tied up hair and because

of her appearance alone I'm going to

assume that she's leading the fourth

division who are of course known for

their healing techniques now we know

that a lot of the members of the zero

division had been promoted into that

rank after they had performed some sort

of incredible feat within the gote 13.

so this girl with the glasses may have

been the first leader of the fourth

division prior to tanjiro karinji who

was known for his incredible healing

techniques and who had later gone on to

join the zero division where we end up

seeing his hot springs heal the bodies

of byakiya Rukia and renji during the

Thousand Year blood War Arc following

the first invasion of the Quincy so yeah

this individual from appearance alone

just going to assume she leads the

fourth division so when I look at all of

these characters there's only really one

individual who I think would lead the

fifth Division and it's somebody who

usually excels at everything now the

former leaders of the fifth division

have been individuals like Shinji hirako

and Sasuke Eisen so I'm going to assume

that this stereotypical slicked head

back glasses were individual here with

the green hair he is the leader of the

fifth Division and then we have the

sixth division this is a group who has

notably been ran by the kuchki family so

I believe that this individual is a

ancestor of the kuchiki family the

captain of the sixth division is usually

somebody who sets the standard for all

of the rules that are heavily enforced

within the goatee 13. they are the model

example for all divisions to follow and

it makes sense why somebody from the

noble kuchki family would lead this

division they are usually depicted as

individuals who are very well composed

and elegant like biakyakuchiki so yeah

this individual wearing this straw hat

and I think this glove on their hand

where they're holding their zombuck

though I think this is an ancestor of

the kuchiki family okay so this is where

I'm probably going to get some of these

wrong next up we've got this individual

who's wearing the glasses and I'm just

going to make an educated guess that

this individual may be leading the

seventh Division and this division was

formerly led by individuals like love

komomura and most recently tetsu Simon

Eber now this division typically runs on

this ethos of having very strong morals

and having compassion for others what I

love about this drawing that Kubo has

drawn is that each of the characters

have activated their shikai and we can

see the unique forms of their zambakto

and this bald glass is wearing

individual has a very unique sheikhai as

it's all black with these circular bumps

running up it when I'd seen this

individual I just had a bit of a feeling

that they might fit well into the

seventh division as they look like

somebody who's very strong in their

morals but I will say that they do have

some strange facial hair with the

mustache and the beard combination going

on there so hopefully we get to see more

of this individual in the seventh

episode of the Thousand Year blood work

anime next up we have this really old

dude and I'm going to admit I'd assigned

him the position as the eighth Captain

due to process of elimination and I

don't really know where he would

actually go so the eighth division has

famously been led by individuals like

shunsui and is most recently being led

by his then Lieutenant Lisa so this

really old guy looks like he's about to

kick the bucket I wonder what his

connection with head captain Yamamoto is

because clearly he's the oldest of the

bunch here but the Yamamoto is actually

leading the team so it would be

interesting to learned about how

Yamamoto had recruited this individual

into the original gotai 13. next up

we've got another character who's very

front and center and Kubo has thankfully

revealed to us a lot of details about

his character design we can see that

he's very skinny with his frail arms and

as we follow up the length of his arm

you can see that he has some injuries on

his wrist and his hands that are covered

up with gloves now when I was thinking

about this individual there's only one

real division that they could have fit

into and that's the ninth division which

has famously been led by individuals

like kensei this division is known as

the Protectors of the serote and they

involve themselves in combat and in most

recent times they are in charge of these

cerate news magazine but I highly doubt

that this character is going to be

taking care of any magazines with this

furry scarf his decrepit appearance you

can see even his rib cage and if unohana

wasn't on the page I would have assumed

that this individual was in fact one of

the kimpachis so yeah furry scarf guy is

the leader of the ninth division I'm

predicting and then we've got a pretty

unique character design and I refer to

him as on God guy because of these blue

and golden arm gods that he is wearing

and initially this had reminded me a lot

of biakya's angas that he wears and then

they gave me this idea that this

individual may be linked to a noble

family now upon initial inspection he

does look like he belongs to the omaida

family who we know is a noble family but

they're not very high ranking now

following this train of thought I kind

of believe that this individual here is

a descendant of the Sheba family and

this is because of the position that I

believe that they fell within the

original gote 13. as I believe this

character to be the leader of the 10th

division this is a division that was

famously led by individuals like ishin

and hitsugaya so yeah hopefully this is

an ancestor of the shiba Clan and he's

related to kukakoshiba ganju and

kainshiba in some way will be pretty

interesting to find out so of course

you've got una Hana towering over all of

the other captains here we know that she

was referred to as the first kimpachi so

it makes sense that she'd be leading

none other than the 11th Division and

again this is clearly a younger version

of unohana and I think that Google

almost done an excellent job of

depicting this within a character design

because I feel like some of the younger

iterations of unohana that he had drawn

in flashbacks within the Thousand-Year

blood War Arc had felt like she still

retained the same appearance but this

character design here is definitely a

lot younger so then we move on to this

individual in this back with the red

markings on his face with the two long

ponytails coming out I believe this

character to be the leader of the

research and development Institute the

12th division now this is a division

that has in the past been led by

individuals like kiryo hikifune urahara

and Miri now I wonder if kiryo hikifune

was actually in the 12th division at

this time whether if she was this

character's lieutenant or a lower seated

officer now the character design for

this individual is ripped straight out

of chapter 511 as we see them here in

the back with Yamamoto there front and

center unohana to the left of him and

right behind him this individual who I

believe is the leader of the 12th

Division and I think on the right of

Yamamoto here I think you've got the

furry scarf guy and you can't really

make out any of the other individuals

through this image that we have in

chapter 511 but yeah coming back to the

image it's just an educated guess and

through process of elimination but I

think yeah this character will be

leading the 12th Division and last but

not least this girl with this petite

form who resembles individuals like

hiori or even ruruka she's got these two

long ponytails on the side of her head

and her iconic purple hair and what is

to be noted is that she's got a bandage

around her head along with this eye

patch over her left eye I love how Kubo

has drawn the different hilts of the

zambakto each of them look incredibly

unique but when it comes to this purple

head girl I think just my process of

elimination I think she'd be leading the

13th Division I could be wrong with all

of these guesses but it's just through

looking at them trying to guess what the

divisions of the gote 13 look like at

the moment and assuming which of these

got a 13 members would be leading them

now all of these are incredible

character designs I really do hope that

we get to see more of these individuals

in the seventh episode I'm just so

jaw-drapped that Kubo has dropped a full

color manga spread has Kubo actually

drawn the original gotei 13 for the

Thousand Year border anime has he done

this for brave souls or has he done this

for the upcoming hell Arc now we know

through the special one shot chapter new

breeds from hell that the prior captains

of the gote 13 have been sent to hell so

is Kubo introducing us to these

individuals by the anime and then he's

going to drop them in into the new manga

Arc I think this is the most likely

reason as to why he's finally dropped

these character designs and it's just

something that I wasn't expecting to

wake up to today even years after the

conclusion of the Bleach Manga Kubo is

still an excellent character designer

who's come up with this incredible cast

of characters who I want to learn so

much more about you've already got some

memes dropping on the internet with

people asking what on Earth is Kubo

cooking and all of us can now begin

speculating this so definitely continue

the discussion in the comments let me

know all of your thoughts about this

incredible full color manga spread of

the original gote 13. do you think that

it's linked to the bleach thousand year

blood War Arc anime as we're going to

have a flashback in the next episode or

do you think that Kubo has larger

intentions with this image and he's

going to include these characters within

the hell Arc…