YMMV / Bleach Soul Society Arc

• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Gin Ichimaru is the enigmatic right-hand of Sosuke Aizen. Having once been a normal street urchin who saw Aizen steal a piece of his friend Rangiku Matsumoto's soul, Gin became a Soul Reaper to kill Aizen, easing his way into Aizen's confidence by fascinating him with his vicious nature. Manipulating those closest to him and Aizen himself when the latter fakes his death, Gin turns them against one another and opens an opportunity for Aizen's conspiracy to massacre the Central 46 who govern Soul Society. At the moment before Aizen's greatest triumph, Gin attacks Aizen himself, only to reveal he never told Aizen the true power of his Bankai, nearly killing Aizen if not for an unforeseen ability of his Hogyoku.
  • Retsu Unohana, formerly Yachiru the First Kenpachi, presents as a kindly maternal figure in the Gotei 13. In truth a very dangerous and ruthless woman known and reviled as Soul Society's greatest criminal, Retsu would scour Soul Society to utilize her official missions in order to find worthy opponents. Abandoning the title of Kenpachi after she encountered a young Zaraki who managed to exceed her in power, Unohana later uncovers even Aizen's ruse and finally opts to give her life to empower Zaraki. Embracing her old identity in a "training" match that is in truth a savage fight to the death, Unohana guides Zaraki to his true heights, killing and reviving him over and over again to provoke him to greater heights and to finally claim the title of Kenpachi from her.