minchan listed down 3.
See the underlined ones. I think you must've missed the 'or' there.
Ah, right, I see, the dreaded "or".
Actually... There's been a debate lately whether Aizen has bankai or not. His shikai alone is powerful enough, he could've made the other Captains believe he has bankai, and what with the Hogyoku in his hands.. But we didn't think of it likely for Aizen to deny any more 'upgrades' to his power... lol.
- Captain proficiency test (隊首, taishu): A test which requires the ability to perform Bankai. Presumably, most Shinigami become captains using this method. At least three existing captains, including the Captain-Commander, have to witness the test.
- Personal Recommendation: To have personal recommendations from at least six captains and approval from at least three of the remaining seven.
- Trial by Combat: To defeat a captain one-on-one with at least 200 witnesses from the captain's division. Kenpachi Zaraki is the only known current captain to have achieved his rank using this method. This method is seen as being the exceedingly rarer of the three as well as the least refined. The method is commonly looked down upon by some captains as barbaric compared to the other refined methods. This method also allows one to bypass having the mastery of Bankai or other possible abilities that a captain would otherwise be required to have knowledge of, as it allows no judgement from captains who would require those skills as a prerequisite to join their ranks.
Ah, I see. I thought the test and the Personal Recomendations were the same thing. My mistake.
I think she meant a MUSICAL instrument. XD XD XD
Oh, right, well I guess I can just play the recorder now.
...I wonder how a new captain would be decided if somehow all but one or two captains died... That would totally suck but I wonder if at that point there would be no more than two captains left at any given time? Since according to the rules, you must either kill the previous captain (which would keep the amount of captains the same) or have some sort of acknowledgement from at least three captains. (In reference to the two non-lethal ways of appointing a new captain - in both, at least three current captains must give their acknowledgement in some form.) It's been bugging me for a while about how things would go if something like that were to happen... Despite the highly unlikeliness of the event. ^^;;
Here's what I think of the matter:
Assuming, say, a large army came and wiped out most of the Gotei 13 before being completely destroyed themselves. I think that the strongest people left in each squad would initially be made Captains for the sake of having enough Captains for the work. Alternatively, those that come from a Royal Family would be made into Captains (because, chances are, they'll be strong enough to be at least Lieutenant ranked). After everything has been settled down, then, by the process of being beaten (not necessarily being killed) by other people, or by saying "this person is stronger than I am" new, stronger Captains will be placed.
...I wonder how a new captain would be Oh, and just today, I realized that they actually hinted at Ichigo's lineage quite early on in the series. It's after he lost against Byakuya and Renji when they came to arrest Rukia. In episode 19, during his training with Kisuke, Zangetsu mentiones that the powers Ichigo obtained from Rukia have disappeared, but that he has his own Soul Reaper powers... It's a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of subtle hint, but if you're going through the series again from the beginning after at least getting through the arrancar arc (or at least chapter 186, which is in volume 21), when Isshin's identity is revealed, you'd probably notice it if you pay close enough attention. The next part of my explanation will be in spoiler tags because it contains spoilers. (Why else?)
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Hmm... It could be a connection. I'm not entirely sure if Kubo would have made that connection as early as the beginning (since I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Aizen wasn't initially the villain, it could be that Isshin might not have been a Shinigami at first). Though, of course, only Kubo can say whether or not it's true.