Key Takeaways
- Najahkoop was one of few Sternritter to survive Yhwach’s powers removal, eager to stop Shinigami.
- Schrift U enables ability The Underbelly to render enemies immobile & unconscious.
- Despite powerful abilities, Najahkoop was underutilized in the war, wasted potential against enemies.
Despite having among the least impact on the outcomes of the so-called “Protection of the Soul King Great War”, NaNaNa Najahkoop was among the few Sternritter to survive Yhwach’s forcible removal of their powers through the Auswählen, which normally leaves its targets dead. Beyond that, the fact that the Quincy King had abandoned him and the other survivors did not deter him from trying to stop the Shinigami on the ground from figuring out a means to get to the Soul King’s Palace.
His death at the hands of fellow Quincy was one of the most unceremonious ends to a Quincy life we’ve seen over the course of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, but we got to catch a glimpse of his ability before he went. What abilities did NaNaNa Najahkoop have access to via the Schrift U – The Underbelly?
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Schrift U – The Underbelly
A Powerful Ability
Najahkoop’s appearance is reminiscent of an early version of former 9th Squad Captain Kaname Tōsen, with spiky hair and a mask covering his eyes. Najahkoop’s mask is a smooth, orange-coloured surface that is shaped like an upside-down heart, and it is most likely the medium through which he performs his signature ability, The Underbelly. He marks the target with his epithet letter, which forms a grid over their silhouette, enabling him to analyze the structure of an enemy’s reiatsu, as well as locate and exploit its weaknesses through the technique he has dubbed “Morphine Pattern”. It also enables him to increase the size of the located weaknesses until the enemy’s reiatsu is completely depleted, rendering them immobile and eventually, unconscious. It is so effective that in the fifth episode of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, Najahkoop used the ability on Sōsuke Aizen and managed to render him unable to move for five full minutes and even knocked him out.
“What a moron. He really was fast asleep… I came here to see what kind of guy had taken out Mask De Masculine, and I found this guy snoring away without a care in the world. I figured it must be some kind of trap, so I monitored him carefully. But he seriously stayed asleep right until morning. Who could’ve guessed a guy would actually go to sleep right in the middle of enemy territory? Even so, his luck’s run out now. This is the first time I’ve ever “observed” an enemy for this long. You’re finished, Red Monkey.”
U For “The Underutilized”
Najahkoop’s Ability Could Have Greatly Devastated Soul Society
At this point, Aizen’s immeasurable reiatsu is being held close to his body by technology pioneered by 12th Squad Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, but he is actually stronger than he was when he was arrested, so Najahkoop’s ability having such an effect on someone that dangerous even after having his powers stripped from him after the Auswahlen is insane to think about. While Najahkoop is very arrogant and very confident in his ability to see reishi patterns, he is also cautious to the point of ruin, going as far as to observe a sleeping Renji Abarai for an entire night because he was certain the 6th Squad Lieutenant’s vulnerability was part of a trap.
The biggest weakness of The Underbelly is that the effectiveness of its observation ability is determined by how much time Najahkoop had to observe his enemy. Najahkoop’s potential is wasted in the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, because such an ability could be the Kryptonite of virtually any enemy he has had enough time to observe; however, even with his full power, he was defeated by Byakuya Kuchiki, who had been previously beaten within an inch of his life by Sternritter F – The Fear, Äs Nödt.
So, even with strength comparable to that of a Captain-level Shinigami, and the kind of ability that can render an individual as powerful as Sōsuke Aizen immobile (granted, Aizen has several handicaps), Najahkoop has had some of the least screentime and overall impact on the events that took place in the Protection of the Soul King Great War. Even a sacrificial pawn like Sternritter Y – The Yourself, Royd Lloyd, whose entire role was to pretend to be Yhwach and temporarily distract the now-deceased former Captain-Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, ultimately played a more significant part in the Wandenreich’s invasion. What Najahkoop lacks in impact, he definitely makes up for in tenacity, as he survived going against an angered Yamamoto, a revivified Byakuya, the Auswahlen and, yes, even the beam through the chest from fellow Quincy Bazz-B. In the BLEACH: Can’t Fear Your Own World novels by Ryohgo Narita, NaNaNa Najahkoop, Candice Catnipp and Meninas McAllon are test subjects of Mayuri Kurotsuchi held at the Shinigami Research and Development Institute.
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 is available on Hulu and Disney+.