Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-27392440-20160221191403/@comment-27392440-20160228173629

But that still doesn't answer my question really, if zanpakuto are defined by the user's soul then how could a sword that's passed down ever be considered a zanpakuto? Also the Ichigo comment I made was more about that if you count Nanao's zanpakuto as a real one then she's in a similar boat to Ichigo in that she used a zanpakuto-like blade but, like him pre-soul palace training, never needed an asauchi to manifest this zanpakuto and it's power