User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 573 (Let Unohana return plz)/@comment-1659214-20140320180554/@comment-28861328-20140321063152

NEVER count fodder characters (the hundreds of low ranking Shinigami you mentioned). Chojiro was hardly impactful. Kubo tried to make him impactful, but you can't take a character out of the background, kill him, and make people feel bad for him. I honestly didn't even blink. Yamamoto, while significant as a death, had a completely BS reason for dying. Sorry but the whole "You were fighting my clone, now I'll step in and kill you in one blow" trope is hardly legit.

Unohana is dead, but she was killed for an even more BS reason than Yamamoto. Oh yes, let's have two of Soul Society's strongest captains fight to the death... for no apparent reason.

And then there is Izuru. I'm sure all two of his fans are just crushed.