Senbonzakura, what his real face?

[blackmarquise]

The Zanpakutoh filer arc has finally begun and it cataclysmic (in a good way)
Imean it destroyed somuch, but it also enlightened me about many think.
It also very surprising, for instance, I was convinced that Senbonzakura was a beautiful and tall brunette, leaving in a gardenand drinking tea (like  my dear Byakuya) BUt those episode shocked me,

Comments

[kwansan]

I thought Senbonzakura would be female, too! I was surprised to hear that Byakuya's zanpakutou materialized as a male.

The mask could be representative of Byakuya's constantly conflicting morals. He puts on a "mask" as the Kuchiki heir to show his nobility and duty to his parents and the Kuchiki family. However, underneath lies the more vulnerable Byakuya who committed himself to Hisana, an outsider from Rukongai. He hates to show this part of him, so he masks it with another persona - the one that gives him a more powerful presence.

[zoelyn]

I think the same. I wonder whether we get to see his actual face or not.

[tomoyohime8]

I was also really surprised. I thought "You couldn't get any more girlier than sakura petals"

but i think that the masked warrior kind of makes sense. i find byakuya to have a fighting spirit, but as he grew older there was incredible pressure on him to hide that spirit behind a calm and composed aura.

on a sidenote, i was completely unsurprised by kyouraku and ukitake's, XD

[rinji]

Sakura, though it is pink and inherently girly you might say, was very important to the samurai. It represented a ephemeral (short-lasting) nature of life. It bloomed, was beautiful, and then died quickly. Many samurai strove for this ideal -- to die before they withered away, dying at their peak of beauty. Senbonzakura looks like he's wearing some samurai armor (including the mask), too, so I was not at all surprised to see that he was male. In fact, I was glad.

[winn_12]

Yes, exactly this. I explained it a bit in my lj, it did not surprised me at all. The swordsmanship of the samurai is considered an art and for the greater warriors it was not dissociated from comtemplation of life, and aesthetics. That clearly is the role of Byakuya in the series, he is the epitome of the samurai warrior, like Musashi. That's why it didn't surprise me.

The mask is a regular part of the samurai armor, so I don't think you should read too much into it. It is usually of a scary expression, to create fear. Not much different from Byakuya's typical cold expression.

mask

[rinji]

I think that the mask should be read into, as a matter of fact the whole concept, because the zanpakuto is the other side of the shinigami. And i guess he would be the epitome of the sammurai warrior.

Re: mask

[winn_12]

Yeah, I think the mask is a metaphor, the mask of the samurai is usually scary, to inspire fear in the enemies. The same happens with Byakuya's bahavior and coldness. The mask probably simbolizes that since we know he has a good, caring side that he doesn't like to show, preferring to let people fear him instead and pass that image of being cold and unnafected that is not true. I am curious to see how is senbonzakura under the mask. XD

[good_chaser]

The samurai is fitting, if we see Byakuya's bankai. I like the teasing about his girly bankai, but at the end I'm glad that Senbonzakura has male form, and samurai is pretty cool.
About the mask.. ehe, probably the animators confused about how pretty/cutie/handsome he is, so they made him wear a mask LOL XDD
The armor and scary mask are like Byakuya, he's cold outside but actually warmhearted inside (or something we don't know/suspect, like you said) :D

[anonymous]

senbonzakura has a rely shot temper just like byakuya when he was a kid and he kind of looks like him but you in later episodes you get to see small parts of his face so if you can put thos together in your head you can come up with a estamint of what he looks like but his whol face hasent been shown yet