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, it's irrelevant whether she could imprint on an asauchi or not. I also don't think you can define a zanpakuto based on whether an asauchi was used or not, after all, the arrancar all undeniably have zanpakuto that were never asauchi and it was clear that Ichigo was using an incomplete zanpakuto not a faux one as it had all the things that define a shinigami zanpakuto like shikai and bankai and was fueled by his shinigami powers, just limited to what Old Man Zangetsu couldn't hold back.