Kanzen Saimin

"Kanzen Saimin disrupts the senses so that the victim misidentifies the enemy. Appearance, shape, size, texture, and even smell are affected. In other words, a fly can appear to be a dragon, and a swamp a flower garden." — Sousuke Aizen in "end of hypnosis"

Overview

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Kanzen Saimin
Kanji	完全催眠
English	Complete Hypnosis
Information
Technique Type	Zanpakutō
User	Sousuke Aizen

Kanzen Saimin (完全催眠, Complete Hypnosis; Viz "Perfect Hypnosis") is the primary technique of Sousuke Aizen's Shikai, Kyōka Suigetsu.

Description

Kanzen Saimin allows Aizen to control his enemies' five senses and thus make them misperceive everything about someone or something: appearance, shape, mass, texture, smell, etc. The hypnotic ritual (催眠の儀式, saimin no gishiki), which is the sole condition to place targets under Kanzen Saimin, consists of Aizen showing said targets his Shikai release. If they see it once, they will be under the hypnotic spell ever after, succumbing to it with every new release no matter how long ago they were hypnotized; e.g., the Visored remain affected even after 110 years. Aizen also seems capable of releasing without a word, allowing the ritual to go unnoticed, and sometimes utters the release call "Shatter" to dispel a given illusion, though this does not seem to be necessary.

Askin holding up his fake corpse; even with himself next to it, the illusion could not be seen through until Aizen manually dispelled it.

The hypnosis itself is flawless — even if a victim is aware of it, they cannot resist its influence. In combat, Aizen's illusions tend to leave most enemies at his mercy, as they cannot rely on anything they see, hear, touch, or smell being real. Hence, it was believed that no one in Soul Society or anywhere else had as much a chance to defeat Aizen as Ichigo, who was the only one never hypnotized. Aizen frequently conjures illusory copies of himself to act as decoys (or substitutes himself with another person) while hiding his own movements, allowing him to attack with impunity while his foes remain helplessly distracted. Though usually simple, Aizen's illusions can be made very intricate: he was able to forge a corpse version of himself to fake his death (which was not discerned as illusory even after close inspection) and could place a spell on the entire Central Underground Assembly Hall to make it look like the dead Central 46 was alive and in session, while Aizen and his two accomplices hid inside for extended periods.

After Aizen's final Hōgyoku evolution, Kyōka Suigetsu began disintegrating. Despite this, the sword later returned to Aizen fully intact, allowing him to retain access to Kanzen Saimin. More than that, Aizen was somehow able to hypnotize Yhwach while fully sealed in Muken, and even use it to confuse Yhwach's perception of the passing time. After being freed later on, Aizen used Kanzen Saimin on Yhwach to undermine The Almighty itself, by substituting himself with Ichigo in the future foreseen by the Quincy King. However, in contrast to his previous uses of Kanzen Saimin, Aizen implied that he was not fully aware of what Yhwach was falsely perceiving, and also that he would have had no control over Kyōka Suigetsu's influence on Ichigo had the latter been exposed to its release; at the same time, Yhwach's hypnosis only lasted until he revived himself.

Weaknesses

Because Kyōka Suigetsu's Shikai release must be seen for victims to succumb to the hypnosis, it does not work on the blind or those whom Aizen has not shown the release to. Additionally, while the illusions themselves are quite potent, those perceptive enough may, upon thorough examination, notice slight differences in a given illusion compared to the real thing, even if they cannot discern exactly what is wrong. 4th Division Captain Retsu Unohana detected that something was amiss with Aizen's fake corpse, even though she did not realize what it was until seeing Aizen alive. The Reiatsu of Kyōka Suigetsu may also give away its presence to those caught in the Kanzen Saimin if they are in direct contact with the weapon (especially if the blade enters their body).

The one surefire way to escape the Kanzen Saimin is to touch Kyōka Suigetsu's blade before the hypnosis takes hold, a fact that only Gin Ichimaru ever discovered.

Trivia

• The databook 13 BLADEs. notes that Kanzen Saimin affects both a victim's five basic senses as well as their spiritual sense (here written 霊感, Reikan).
• In Ryōgo Narita's novel Bleach: Spirits Are Forever With You, it is stated that Aizen's Bankai can only affect those who are already affected by Kanzen Saimin.
• In Ryōgo Narita's novel Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, Tokinada Tsunayashiro manages to use Kanzen Saimin via his clan's ancestral Zanpakutō, Enrakyōten. Due to the sword's power scaling from Aizen's to Tokinada's inferior Reiatsu, Tokinada's usage of Kanzen Saimin is less powerful and requires him to reactivate it constantly.
  • While in the manga and anime, only Gin got Aizen to reveal Kanzen Saimin's weakness to him, in the novel, Aura Michibane was somehow able to discover it for herself, maintaining her hold onto the blade of Enrakyōten to prevent Tokinada from triggering the hypnosis.

Klub Outside Trivia

• According to Q&A #605 by Tite Kubo on his fansite "Klub Outside", even if a victim of the Kanzen Saimin were to use a camera to photograph something that appears to be something else per the hypnosis, they will not be able to see the real thing.

Navigation

Sousuke Aizen Techniques
Shikai	Kanzen Saimin
Hōgyoku	Fragor • Teleportation • Ultrafragor