I get the distinct impression that not everyone communicates face to face with their Zanpaktou. Some of them don't recognize the forms of their Zanpaktou because they've never seen them before.

Quote Originally Posted by Archangel
I'd assume these are their "evil" forms, so that the anime staff may represent all the swords they want without having to be troubled with the true forms Kubo may want to give them later on
Someone mentioned in the thread for the previous episode that Kubo himself did the character designs for this arc.