User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 540 - The Sword Five/@comment-8669536-20130605182414/@comment-8669536-20130606213632

I think only the weapons created using Nimaiya's Asauchi can be truly considered Zanpakutō, and therefore Zangetsu must be something else and since Ichigo is part Quincy and he created Zangetsu from reiatsu it's only logical to think that Zangetsu is some kind of spirit weapon that imitates a Zanpakutō.

And I'm not sure if one can really say if Ichigo's inner hollow is supposed to be his Zanpakutō spirit, but I dont think he is because he is a trace of White's Hollowfication virus. But I think we all can agree that if anyone is Zangetsu's spirit, it's the hollow and not the old man.

But anyway, I'm terribly sorry if you think I misunderstood anything in the chapter or said/wrote anything else you disagree with, and I'm grateful that you present your opinions and please continue expressing your opinions and continue correcting me when I'm wrong.