User blog comment:RoyalGuard-Elite/Kenpachi Shikai/@comment-5147109-20130913153114

I'm reasonably sure that his Zanpakuto appearance won't change but whatever special abilities it is suppose to have in Shikai he should be able to access now, not to mention that much like Ichigo's first fight with Kenpachi he will now be able to fight alongside his Zanpakuto and it will be able to loan him it's power which will further enhance Kenpachi's already insane amount of power. And yes I agree that I believe that Unohana is dead, that was kind of the whole point of this fight between them was to raise Kenpachi's fighting power to be able to fully claim the title of Kenpachi, and Unohana stated that there can be only one at a time. And finally this story arc seems to be removing all the remaining members of the first generation of Gotei 13 (ie Yamamoto and Unohana) from the equation.