Spoilers for Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War Episode 4Spirit weapons in Bleach can take many forms, and some, like a Soul Reaper's Zanpakuto have multiple forms which they can take on to suit the occasion. Most, of course, use a sword as their base form, but one Quincy has a spirit weapon that's weirdly out-of-place in the fantastical manga: a modern-day gun.
Surprisingly, this isn't the first gun that has appeared as a spirit weapon. One of Bleach's controversial Fullbringers known as Riruka Dokugamine also used a "love gun," but again, that wasn't a realistic weapon as it fired expanding objects, and didn't raise quite as many eyebrows. Now, there's a Quincy with a gun, too.
Appearing as part of the attack on the Soul Society, a Quincy with the hilariously mundane name Robert Accutrone came face-to-face with Shunsui Kyoraku, one of Bleach's highest-ranked Soul Reaper Captains. Kyoraku maintains a samurai aesthetic and obviously does best in sword fights. Instead, he finds himself matched up with Robert, who doesn't say a word and instead attacks immediately. Robert shockingly pulls out a very realistic modern-looking gun and proceeds to shoot Captain Kyoraku in the eye. This weapon is, apparently, the manifestation of his personal ultimate form, and it is indeed a spirit weapon, firing bullets that work exactly like Uryu's arrows or other Quincy energy attacks.
Why Does this Quincy Have a Gun?
While Uryu, and by extension the other heroes, were under the impression that all Quincy used bows, that's clearly not the case. Quilge Opie, a Quincy seen at the beginning of the episode, has a sword for his spirit weapon, so they can actually take on many shapes. The real mystery is how Robert came to be familiar with modern-day guns since Bleach (and other shonen series) like to stand around and talk to each other during battle.
Between his oddly mundane American name, his big gun, and his "shoot first, ask later" style of fighting, it's likely Robert is meant to be something of a pastiche of American action stars, in the same way that Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's Jotaro is based on Clint Eastwood. While silly, Bleach has already proven that Robert is a threat to be taken seriously, so Captain Kyoraku will have to up his game if he's to make it out of this fight alive.
The latest episode of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is streaming now on Hulu!
