Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27458826-20180127131846/@comment-27565137-20180201145142

Tite Kubo all but said that Ichigo had no Shikai or Bankai.

Remember when Nimaya is talking to Renji after Ichigo failed the Asauchi test? He said to Renji that no Shinigami in the entire history of Soul Society was able to unlock their special abilities as Shinigamis without having an Asauchi first. Which we learn from the revelation of Zangetsu true identity, that Ichigo never had one.

We know that Old Man from day one was suppressing Zangetsu. So who other than Zangetsu to teach Ichigo about Shikais and Bankais. But Zangetsu never taught Ichigo any of that because Old Man was pretending to be Zangetsu.

So the supposed Shikai was never a Shikai and the supposed Bankai was never a Bankai. From what we saw what people called Shikai was actually Old Man being Ichigo main source of power while suppressing most of Zangetsu power, and "Bankai" was Old Man and Zangetsu working together.

Nimaya and the revelation of Zangetsu true identity all but broke the illusion that Ichigo ever had a Shikai or Bankai. But because Kubo was not given the time to properly tell the full story of the last arc, and because he simply hinted on it instead of downright saying it, most Bleach fans either missed it or simply ignored it.

Your points are good. But don't forget that when Ichigo went "bankai" in his fight with Yhwach his clothes didn't changed at all. His "Bankai" didn't looked anything like one. We had already seen plenty of Bankais, true bankais, to know that Bankais are more than just a change in shape. Shikais and Bankais are accompanied by a special ability. A unique special ability. And Ichigo never showed such a thing. Getsuga Tenshou was not Ichigo special ability! Seeing special abilities are unique to its user and like we saw even Isshin could use Getsuga Tenshou. Look at Toushirou and Rukia! Both had ice based special abilities, but they were unique to each of them.

We also learned that Isshin had a special ability and it wasn't Getsuga Tenshou. It was Fire. Like when he releases Engetsu and says "Burn Engetsu!". Then there was Askin. When Askin explains the Special War Powers list and why each were in it. Ichigo was in it because of his "Unknown Ability". For example, Zaraki was in it because of his fighting skills. Urahara was in it because of his intelligence. Aizen was in it because of his Reiatsu. Ichibei was in it because of his knowledge and abilities. But that unknown ability of Ichigo was never revealed.

Another point worth mentioning and that a lot of people seemed to forget was that Zangetsu was both Shinigami and Hollow. It was both powers in one form. So by that alone fans should've connected the dots and determined that even if Ichigo had a Shikai and a Bankai they would not work like those of the Shinigamis but more like a combination of Shikai+Resurrección and Bankai+Resurrección Segunda Etapa. Or something else entirely.

So it was easy to determine that Ichigo's initial Zanpakutou was actually more like a proto-zanpakutou, something Old Man created out of Ichigo's Zangetsu power that he could not suppress. We know that Quincies could make weapons out of Reishi, so for Old Man add the power of Zangetsu he could not suppress, and it's to understand how Old Man was able to make Ichigo's Zanpakutou seem real and why Ichigo "bankai" was so different from other bankais. It was just that his Shikai and Bankai were never those things.

So as you can see there was a lot about Bleach that was left unexplained. Or better yet not actually said to be so by the creator. And of course given Kubo never said it was this way then those in denial will never admit to such a possibility.