Tanaka Toshinari

Appearance
Tanaka is a tall with black hair and green eyes. He is almost always seen with the armband indicating his rank as Lieutenant of the 7th Division and his Zanpakuto can be found on his hip.

Personality
Tanaka can be described in one word. Strange. Very few people understand him well enough to know him, and those who don't tend to avoid him. He dislikes rules and authority preferring to do what he pleases, regardless of orders or rank. The only person he is shown to obey is Izumi Naomoto (although he does listen to others, he rarely feels the need to act upon their advice).

Despite this Tanaka shows no ill will to anyone inside or outside the Gotei 13. As a result he has no 'enemies' (using the term lightly as people do get annoyed with him) but very few friends. He is rarely asked to deal with delicate situations and due to his nature is often kept near Izumi, who believes this is the only way to keep him under control.

Abilities
Kido (Demon Arts): None

Zanjutsu (Swordplay): Advanced

Hakuda (Hand to Hand): Advanced

Shunpo (Flash Steps): Expert

Looking at Tanaka fight, it would not seem he is worthy of the rank Lieutenant. However this is mostly due to the fact he enjoys toying with opponents. When fighting at full strength, he hits his opponents using incredible speed to hit over and over again. Doing this he wears his opponents down until they can no longer fight. Wehn the battle of attrition is no longer a possibility, he will release his zanpakuto in order to finish the battle quickly.

Zanpakuto
Tanaka's Zanpakuto is released using the command Choose and is called Iikagen (Random) which will take one form completely at random. Once called it is set in that form for the duration of the battle. Iikagen has six forms in total as described below.

Kasai Genkotsu (Fire Fist)
Iikagen forms flames around his fists, which makes his punches explode on impact. Blasts of fire can also be shot out from the ignited fists to allow Tanaka to attack foes at a range. Kasai Genkotsu cannot be used defensively and in order to prevent getting hurt the wielder must continously attack his opponent to prevent them attacking in turn.

Mizukei (Water Whip)
Iikagen forms a whip which creates water blasts when used to strike a target. These water attacks adapt to the current situation making them very difficult to block and if he spins the whip round and round he can create a giant whirlpool of water with which to attack his enemies. It's weakenss is also that it is very difficult to wield defensively.

Uindo Tantou (Wind Dagger)
In this form Iikagen appears to be a dagger. Tanaka uses these as throwing weapons, as when used more will simply respawn on his person. It also slightly amplifies his already significant speed. This is considered his most dangerous release as it is the one he is most adept at using.

Daichi Kanadzuchi (Earth Hammer)
This release takes the form of a giant warhammer. It's swings are so powerful it becomes capable of shattering the ground beneath it to shower the opponent with huge rocks. Other than that it can also form and launch shards of splintered rock at it's opponents. It is very slow and unwieldy however.

Myou Ono (Dark Axe)
Takes the form of a double headed battleaxe. Each swing of the axe creates an arc of dark energy, either used to bolster the swing of the attack or launched at opponents at a distance. Every wound inflicted either way in this form will affect Tanaka, making him more and more beserk. However this form is also incredibly draining and will often exhaust Tanaka in a short amount of time.

Tomoshibi Yaiba (Light Blade)
Takes the form of a bastard sword glowing with light energy. This light doesn't affect Tanaka, but is incredibly bright and can temporarily blind an opponent who stares at it too long. It is mostly used to disorientate it's opponents and make it difficult for them to fight as effectively. It can also create a huge pulse of light for a few moments to greatly affect other's vision, although this removes the glowing properties of the blade and prevents use of that technique for a short time.

Zero Division Recruitment and Second Coming of Aizen Arcs
Nothing special has occureed to him during these arcs (yet).

Bio
When people first met Tanaka, they assumed he was insane and locked him away for years for 'his own protection'. This changed when he first met Izumi Naomoto who had heard of him through rumours. Upon inspection, Izumi realised that Tanaka had a perfect memory. Every detail of his life was laid out before him in absolute detail. Because of this, Tanaka had difficulty staying in the present because the past seemed just as real to him at each moment. This was why he said or did strange things, because he believed he was in an earlier part of his life.

Taking Tanaka as a research subject, Izumi attempted to find a cure while learning about how human memory worked from Tanaka. It was through this section of his research that Izumi learned his bankai. Izumi was then able to use it to enter Tanaka's mind and alter it so that Tanaka was able to more easily distinguish past from present. Izumi said afterwards that he hoped to never have to enter Tanaka's mind again.

Now 'cured' Tanaka was able to operate within his degree of normality. As someone who had for so many years been prevented form living a life he wanted to do what he pleased. However the severe treatment he had suffered while 'insane' had in fact made him an incredibly odd person, with constantly shifting moods. The only person he truly respected was Izumi, the only one who treated him as a person back then.

Realising that Tanaka would become a loose cannon outside of his influence, Izumi trained him to be a shinigami. The two became close friends and it was no suprise that, against popular opinion, Tanaka was promoted to be Izumi's lieutenant.