Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-30535075-20170213133956/@comment-27392440-20170214023946

It could mean many things honestly. It could mean that since Ichigo only just recently gained bankai an inability to believe his bankai was mastered, that Yama had seen so many bankai that he could recognize a complete one, or even that there is a different feel to an incomplete bankai's reiatsu...No real way to know. As for if dangai Ichigo was wielding the ultimate bankai of Zangetsu's, I honestly think he probably was based on his strength compared to his later shows of power but there are many reasons for this hypothetically. Using mugetsu clearly did not rob Ichigo of his powers but it's entirely possible that it permanently lessened them. Honestly, I can not really give you a canon answer, not sure there is one, but my opinion is that dangai mode was the strongest and that Yama could probably tell by the simple fact that Ichigo still kept on growing so quickly that it probably was not near the end of its evolution