Bleach: Who Are the Right and Left Arms of the Soul King? Meet Mimihagi and Pernida!

Tite Kubo’s Bleach has provided us with a variety of colorful and intriguing characters. And while those who have not read the manga know only a portion of these, those who have will know that Bleach has one of the more diverse sets of characters in the story. One of them is the enigmatic Soul King, whom we have already written about here on Fiction Horizon. But, there is one aspect of the Soul King’s story that we haven’t written about, and that is his two sentient arms, Mimihagi (the right arm) and Pernida Parnkgjas (the left arm).

The left and right arms of the Soul King were sliced off by the five powerful entities to make the Soul King Weaker. The Right Arm of Stillness later became Mimihagi, a lesser deity worshipped in Soul Society and an important part of the Shinigami lore. The Left Arm of Progress became Pernida Parnkgjas, the Sternritter “C” – “The Compulsory.”

In this article, we have decided to fully introduce the right and left arms of the Soul King, Mimihagi, and Pernida Parnkgjas, respectively, ahead of their anime debut. These two entities are quite intriguing characters, and there was an absolute need for both of them to be introduced before they actually made their respective debuts in the Bleach anime, as they have already appeared in the manga. We are going to tell you who they are and how they are connected to the main storyline of Bleach.

Who is the right arm of the Soul King? Introducing Mimihagi!

Mimihagi is a fallen god who served as the right arm of the Soul King and operated in Rukongai’s far eastern regions. Pernida Parnkgjas served as his polar opposite. Mimihagi manifests as a humanoid creature with a body that resembles an arm and a right fist, as well as a sizable eye on the rear of the fist. He’s dressed simply in a dark robe, with a sash across his upper body.

When Jūshirō Ukitake was three years of age, he got a deadly lung condition that led local physicians to give up on him when they could not treat it. This occurred thousands of years ago. His parents hoped that Mimihagi could assist him through prayer, and Mimihagi did. Ukitake was able to survive as a result and turn into a Shinigami.

Ukitake activates the Kamikake ritual, ready to replace the Soul King’s right arm and save his life by sacrificing his own when the Wandenreich begins its second invasion of Soul Society.

When the King passes away, Ukitake begins the procedure of replacing him by offering Mimihagi his whole body, not just the lungs that Mimihagi had saved, in exchange for the right to become the new Soul King. While performing the ritual, a shade resembling Mimihagi emerges from his back and then spreads into the sky, bringing the imbalance that had developed since the Soul King’s passing under control.

Because Mimihagi represents stability, Ukitake correctly thought that it could prevent the death of the Soul King, as Mimihagi can halt absolutely any process whatsoever. And it did. As Mimihagi’s shadow emerged from the Soul Society, the death of the Soul King was halted as Mimihagi grabbed the two sliced parts and held them together. Yhwach commented that Mimihagi was the only entity whose action he could neither see nor foresee, which is why he wasn’t ready for it.

Still, at one point, Yhwach managed to surpass Mimihagi’s powers, and he ultimately managed to kill the Soul King and absorb his powers, thereby becoming one of the most powerful entities in the whole series.

Who is the left arm of the Soul King? Introducing Pernida Parnkgjas!

Pernida Parnkgjas was the left arm of the Soul King and a member of the Wandenreich, forming part of the Sternritter’s elite group and one of those in charge of facing the Royal Guard. Yhwach gave him the letter “C” – The Compulsory. Parnkgjas, along with Gerard, was the only Quincy who did not get their powers from Yhwach personally because both of them had their powers without Yhwach’s intervention.

Because the two of them were the only Sternritter who had already had their powers before joining Yhwach, many rumors spread that they were the left arm of the Soul King in Pernida’s case or the Heart of the Soul King in Gerard’s case. Eventually, as time passed, Yhwach decided to grant Parnkgjas a Schrift in recognition of his status.

When Senjumaru Shutara kills Nianzol Weizol, Yhwach summons Pernida and three additional Sternritter to battle the Royal Guard. Pernida utilizes its powers to compress the huge guard Senjumaru summons to fight against the Sternritter. Pernida curls into a ball when Lille appears to shoot Senjumaru through the skull in order to avoid Yhwach.

Pernida observes as Lille Barro and Gerard Valkyrie challenge Ōetsu Nimaiya after he confronts them, only for Gerard to be fatally wounded. After Lille also receives a cut, Pernida tries to utilize his talent on Nimaiya, who promptly uses his Zanpakut to stab him in the head. Later, Pernida is revived by the strength of Yhwach’s Auswählen.

He then uses his power to break the Cage, thus allowing Yhwach to escape. Later, Pernida and his team managed to beat Division Zero. When Ichigo’s team arrives to intercept Yhwach in his attempt to assassinate the Soul King, Ichigo attacks Yhwach causing Pernida to fall into the void to be rescued by Gerard, then attacks Yoruichi and manages to destroy his arm thanks to his ability, and Yhwach throws her out of the palace along with Ganju, Ichigo, Orihime, and Sado.

He is later seen resting with the other Sternritter as Yhwach proceeds to absorb the Soul King. As Kenpachi Zaraki is talking with Mayuri Kurotsuchi, whom his Lieutenant Nemu Kurotsuchi accompanies, Pernida appears before them, so Kenpachi decides to attack him.

However, Mayuri warns him to be careful, but it’s too late. Kenpachi is injured in the right arm, but Pernida also receives a strong impact. Instead, this doesn’t seem to affect him in the slightest, which is why both Kenpachi and Mayuri are excited to face him.

Pernida gets upset, causing Kenpachi’s already injured arm to spin around, so Kenpachi decides to cut it off to avoid further pain. Seeing this, Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa are shocked, while Mayuri calls Nemu Kurotsuchi to put a tourniquet on him to stop the bleeding.

However, the latter does not obey and launches into the attack, making Mayuri annoyed. He responds and stops Kenpachi’s attack on Pernida by impaling him with his sword, thus stopping Kenpachi’s limbs from knocking him out. After the paralysis affected Kenpachi, Mayuri realizes that it also affected Pernida, so he deduces that the essence of his ability is not linked to his body and therefore sends the nerves to infiltrate the enemy’s body, with which you can manipulate your body.

Pernida attacks and Mayuri manages to block said attacks, so Mayuri continues to provoke Pernida by saying that he doesn’t mind having the excruciating pain of his exposed nerves and that he feels very excited to have a rival with said ability, and that he has many drugs to use against them. Following these words, Pernida begins to get angry.

While Mayuri talks about Kenpachi’s noble sacrifice and that, thanks to him, they discovered the secrets of Pernida’s ability, Quincy notices that something is suffering inside him, and he begins to make strange sounds. Finally, Pernida breaks the hood of Pernida’s transformation. It covered his true form, leaving everyone present astonished since his true form turned out to be a huge hand with chains between the nails and a huge eye in the palm of the hand with two pupils.

Seeing this, Mayuri deduces that Pernida is the Soul King’s left arm, and finally, Pernida begins to increase his size of him. It is no longer just a hand; the forearm also appears, which scares Yumichika Ayasegawa and Ikkaku Madarame. Already in his full form, Pernida begins his attack but is blocked by Captain Kurotsuchi.

Pernida, seeing Mayuri’s emotion when facing him, gets upset, and his attack multiplies. When the Captain of the 12th Division says that Pernida is the King’s left arm, he contradicts him, says that he is not called that, and begins to mumble his name.

Mayuri tells him to stop babbling and say it correctly; then Quincy repeats that it is called Pernida and not left arm, then Mayuri, understanding it, sarcastically says: “Since I was the one who made that discovery, the right of your name belongs to me,” leaving the Shinigami Madarame and Yumichika in amazement.

However, Pernida does not understand and thinks that they are a huge arm rising from the ground, mocking or offending Quincy, for which he gets angry and decides to attack, causing his nerves to expand throughout the terrain and a huge hand of the earth is formed leaving Kurotsuchi surprised since Pernida can also control inorganic things, but Mayuri manages to avoid it.

However, the nerves spread through the building again, forming a huge hand, and thus Mayuri falls and is crushed by both hands. Kurotsuchi manages to survive with some damage and manages to use the technique called Hirenkyaku to avoid touching the ground, to Pernida’s surprise. Meanwhile, Mayuri throws a being that wraps around Pernida’s little finger and explodes, dropping her finger.

Then Mayuri uses a substance to preserve his experiments, but a huge eye forms from the finger, and nerves come out, reaching Mayuri’s little finger. This prevents the nerves from spreading throughout his body and dominating him. Mayuri laments the situation since the last time that happened was in the battle against Uryū Ishida. However, Pernida decides to attack, and one of the fingers, now a hand, attacks him. Pernida decides to break another finger to attack Mayuri, so he is forced to use his Bankai.

However, Pernida’s nerves are expanded by Mayuri’s Bankai, but this doesn’t work, and Ashisogi Jizō devours him, causing Mayuri great joy. Instead, something happens, and sure enough, Pernida comes out of Mayuri’s Bankai, completely destroying it. Mayuri dodges at that moment a huge arrow that comes out of the interior of his Bankai. Pernida then very happily asks him how it was that his Ashisogi devoured him, and then he kills enemies with bows and arrows. As Pernida regenerates, Mayuri notices that Pernida’s way of speaking has drastically changed.

Pernida proceeds to attack Mayuri with several arrows, but he manages to dodge it. However, one of the arrows’ nerves hits Mayuri’s arm, causing an explosion and causing Mayuri to lose his arm. An arrow is directed at him again, but Nemu manages to stop it and automatically cuts off his arm to prevent Pernida from controlling it.

After the brief conversation between Mayuri and Nemu, in which Mayuri manages to recover his arm, they both head to the battlefield to defeat Pernida. Mayuri uses Hirenkyaku again to avoid Pernida’s attacks and while Nemu goes to one of his arms to inject a powerful drug and kill Pernida. Quincy realizes what happened to the other arm, and when he sees that one of his fingers begins to change color, he cuts it off, leaving Kurotsuchi surprised.

Then, Pernida uses a power called Matai Fukuin Shoutai Power, and Mayuri warns Nemu to back off. Nemu manages to avoid Pernida’s attack and heads toward him to face him, managing to destroy one of Pernida’s copies and save Mayuri. After leaving Captain Kurotsuchi on top of a building, Nemu decides to attack Pernida, with Konpaku hitting him directly in the eye, which is the center of his palm, disintegrating Pernida.

This one, however, manages to destroy Nemu in many parts and returns to what he was before, but is surrounded by many eyes around him and proceeds to absorb Nemu. After reconsidering, Mayuri enters a trance and manages to prevent Pernida from taking over Nemu’s brain. At that moment, Pernida’s body begins to suffer the effect of absorbing Nemu, a product of the pituitary gland and therefore accelerates the degradation of the cells, which causes her self-destruction. Thereupon, Pernida explodes and dies on the battlefield.

The Soul King lost all of his limbs because he was too powerful to control

Now, while we’ve explained who the Soul King’s limbs are, and we can also somewhat understand that they are sentient beings because they stem from an exceptionally powerful entity, we haven’t really explained why the Soul King lost his limbs in the first place and who severed these limbs from his human(-oid) body. We are going to use this section to explain that to you.

Before we start, though, we have to tell you that the original manga was quite scarce in providing information about the Soul King and his origins. While Kubo did reveal some facts and hint at others (especially during Askin’s explanation of Pernida and Gerard), many questions remained unanswered, so we had to consult other sources to get them.

A large source of information on this topic is the Can’t Fear Your Own World light novel, written by Narita and Kubo, which serves as a direct sequel to the original manga, and which explains a lot of information about the Soul King, as well as reveals what happened directly after Yhwach’s downfall. The light novel’s canon status was a matter of debate for a while, but with Kubo including a lot of the elements from the light novel in the new anime episodes, we can confirm that the facts we are going to tell you are actually canon.

The same goes for the new anime series, which added a lot of new scenes that referred to the history of the Soul King and explained a lot, even though neither Pernida nor Mimihagi have appeared in the series yet (they will, so we can expect more information in future episodes). So, based on these three main sources, we are going to tell you how and why the Soul King lost his limbs.

The reason for the Soul King’s current state has to be traced back millions of years before the present timeline. Namely, as the light novel explained, the world back then was a primordial world filled with chaos. Two groups inhabited that world: the world’s inhabitants and the vile Hollows who prayed on them.

About the same time as the first Hollow evolved into a Menos, the Soul King, i.e., the person who would become the Soul King, appeared. Now, the information Ichibei provided was quite scarce, but it did reveal that the Soul King used his powers to completely eradicate the Hollows and to maintain the balance of the world despite that, allowing for peace in the world.

Because his actions resembled those of the Quincy, it actually makes sense that the Soul King has a very strong connection to the Quincy (Yhwach is his son, and two of his organs, possibly even three, were Sternritter; Mimihagi wasn’t, and everyone was actually confused as to how Mimihagi was not a Quincy as well).

So, what happened then? Although the world had some peace at the time, five powerful beings from the time were not satisfied with such a world. Who are they? Well, this was never revealed (the anime might reveal more about them), but they were undoubtedly very powerful, as they were able to take on the Soul King himself. So, what did they do?

Deciding to create what they thought was a better world, they attacked the Soul King and sealed him in the large crystal he was in; interestingly enough, the Soul King did not resist and seemingly cooperated with his attackers, although this was never explained in detail.

Be that as it may, after sealing him, the five powerful beings decided to split the world into three main realms – Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the World of the Living – which also resulted in the creation of the cycle of life and death, something that Yhwach tried to eliminate in his new world; it seems that Yhwach’s plan was to re-create the original world from millions of years ago, without life and death, without the Hollows, and with him as the ruthless ruler.

But, while the Soul King was sealed away and seemingly cooperated with his attackers, they did not believe him, as they were not certain that the cooperation would last very long. So, to secure themselves, they decided to literally mutilate the Soul King to render him powerless, i.e., so he could exist solely as an entity that maintains the balance between the realms.

So, what happened? The first thing they did was to cut off his Right Arm of Stillness and the Left Arm of Progress. As we have said, the Right Arm would become Mimihagi, an important deity in Soul Society associated with the Shinigami, which was quite strange, seeing how the Soul King did not have an intrinsic connection to the Shinigami.

The Left Arm, as we’ve said, became Pernida Parnkgjas, one of the most powerful and most loyal Sternritter; when Mayuri asked Pernida why it joined the Quincy, Pernida was confused, stating that it had always been a Quincy as if were something natural.

But, the five entities were not content with that. They then mauled the legs of the Soul King as well, and to render him completely useless, they removed his organs. His Heart would go on to become the powerful Gerard Valkyrie, while his brain was supposedly the Sternritter Gremmy Thoumeaux, although the latter was not officially confirmed, only implied.

The other organs were also removed but did not become separate entities. Only then were the five powerful entities satisfied, leaving the Soul King in a miserable state between life and death for millions of years, until he was finally killed by Yhwach.