Quote Originally Posted by ForteCross
well... there is another point of view... when kenpachi killed yachiru's parents, and when he fought with ikaku... he didnt have shinigamis cloth... either of the three... not yachiru, ikaku and kenpachi... so i though that at that time there were not shinigamis at all... only spirits with high reiatsu in SS... and then kenpachi have already that katana... so i dont think that it is a shinigami sword... just a sword he used to pick fights....this is only based on the anime... so im not sure if those flashbacks were in the manga
I'm not sure but I don't think Zaraki killed Yachiru's parents. They were killed by some thugs I guess.
It is very difficult to say whether Zaraki, Yachiru and Ikkaku were shinigami or not before they joined the 11th Division.

My view of things so far: If you look at "being a shinigami" is doing the job of one they definitely weren't shinigamis. But if you consider having the powers of a shinigami makes you a shinigami then they were freakin' shinigamis... I dont't think that just anyone with a high reiatsu can become/is a shinigami. Look at the Quincies, Sado, Inoue etc, they are not shinigamis but all of them have notable amount of reiatsu. Also Ichigo had his own latent deathgod powers from the start and Grandfisher said something about Ichigo being a real shinigami not only a substitute for Rukia as his dad is a shinigami, too. So it seems deathgod powers are inheritable which makes it even more unlikely that anyone can become a shinigami (without lending the powers of one). Consequently Zaraki is a shinigami right from the start and thus this makes his sword a real zanpaktou.

The shinigami-clothes-thing is a minor plot hole I think: When Rukai gave her powers to Ichigo he immediately got the clothes of one so it may seem that shinigami powers and clothes go hand in hand with each other. But I guess they just needed to make a difference in the look from Normal- to Shinigami-Ichigo. And its the same with Zaraki and the others - one set of clothes before and one set after they joined the 11th Division - just for the look. I don't think there are "rules" for how a shinigami's clothes have to look. The lower shinigami just do look the same 'cause there clothes are like uniforms and they mustn't wear anything else on duty. No Extrawurst

Sorry if this was too much off-topic