Bleach

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Bleach

Bleach (ブリーチ, Buriichi) is a widely popular anime and manga series created by manga-ka Kubo Tite. Originally produced in manga form, the series has been ongoing since August of 2001, now containing 24 published volumes consisting of the first 214 chapters, which 251 chapters having been published in the Japanese additions of the Shounen Jump Weekly magazine.

The series began airing in anime form on October 5, 2004, and has since reached 102 episodes produced by Studio Pierrot, and airing on the television channel Tokyo TV.

Bleach follows the life of high school student Kurosaki Ichigo, who has the ability to see spirits. Ichigo's life is dramatically changed with the introduction of Kuchiki Rukia, a Shinigami (or "Death God"), who enters Kurosaki's bedroom to send a spirit to Soul Society, a world where good souls are send after death. Surprised by Ichigo's ability to see her, she explains to Ichigo that her job as a Shinigami is to send good souls, "pluses", to Soul Society, and to vanquish evil souls, "Hollows".

Soon after, a Hollow appears at Ichigo's home, and begins a rampage. Rukia does not notice the Hollow at first, but it is soon brought to her attention that Ichigo's abnormally larger Reiatsu, spiritual power, and blinded her senses. A confrontation ensues, resulting in a series injury on the part of Rukia. With Ichigo's family in danger, she offers to give Ichigo a small portion of her Shinigami powers by impaling him with her zanpakutou, a spiritual sword. But as a result, her powers become infused within Ichigo, resulting in him taking the vast majority of power. Ichigo then appears in Shinigami garb with a very large zanpakutou, and slays the Hollow.

Contents



Primary Characters

Bleach consists of a large amount of characters. This list contain primary characters who have played an important role throughout the series. Shinigami, Hollows, Arrancar, and Vizard characters will be listed under their respective catagories.

Kurosaki Ichigo in Shinigami clothing.
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Kurosaki Ichigo in Shinigami clothing.

Kurosaki Ichigo

Kurosaki Isshin

Kurosaki Yuzu

Kursaki Karin

Kuchiki Rukia

Inoue Orihime

Arisawa Tatsuki

Kon

Yasutora Sado (Chad)

Uuryu Ishida

Urahara Kisuke

Shihoui Yoruichi

Races

Shinigami

Shinigami are the souls of the dead who have high reiatsu, and have passed on to Soul Society. Shinigami are physically stronger, more agile, and age slower than normal humans. This is partially due to their ability to manipulate their own reiatsu. Typical Shinigami garb consists of a large, black kimono, with a white belt, white under clothing, and straw sandels. Each Shinigami also wears a zanpakutou, the shape and size of which depends solely on the reiatsu of the individual Shinigami. Aside from using the zanpakutou as a weapon, Shinigami also have the use of Kido(demon arts), which are a style of spiritual combat using reiatsu as the primary weapon. A list of Shinigami from the series can be found here:List of Shinigami.

Hollows

The first Hollow defeated by Kurosaki Ichigo.
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The first Hollow defeated by Kurosaki Ichigo.
Hollows are the souls of the dead who were either bad people in life, or who hold resent for people and things in their life. Hollows are large in size, wear a white mask which covers the human face underneath, and have a hole where the heart should be located. Hollows feed off of souls with high reiatsu, and gain strength by doing so. Devouring the souls of a large number of Shinigami is said to bring eternal life to a Hollow, but any truth to this is unknown.

Hollows are hunted by Shinigami in order to protect the living and the "plus" souls of the dead. When a Hollow is defeated, the soul of the Hollow becomes a "plus", and is then sent to Soul Society.

The only way for a Shinigami to defeat a Hollow is to deliver a blow to the head using a zanpakutou or kido that is strong enough to break through the mask.


Quincey

The Quincey are a race of humans who have gained spiritual power in order to combat and kill Hollows. They lived in the Material World, amongst other people. The clan was large in number originally, but dwindles in the storyline of Bleach.

History

200 years before the storyline of Bleach, a war broke out between the Shinigami and the Quincey, spurred by the unbalance caused by the Quincey when they would actually kill the Hollow, soul and all. Shinigami would kill the Hollow, purifying its soul, and then send it to Soul Society. Quincey on the other hand, would destroy the soul, creating an unbalance between the world of the living and the world of the dead. As such, the Shinigami began to hunt down and kill the Quincey in order to regain the stability of the spiritual world. As a result, the Quincey were nearly wiped out.

Weaponry

The primary weapon of the Quincey is a bow of reiatsu, which fires arrows of the reiatsu. The stronger the reiatsu, the stronger the arrows which are fired. It is also possible to fire multiple arrows at once. The over-use of this ability will often lead to bruised and blistered fingers.

The Quincey can also strengthen their attacks using Quincey Gloves, white gloves with a blue cross and metal tab on them. The tap, if broken, releases all of the Quincey's reiatsu at once, generating an enormous strength for a short period of time. The side effect of this however, is the loss of Quincey powers.

Another tool of the Quincey is the Quincey Cross, a pendant which resembles an asterisk. This pendant creates a bow which appears almost to be a spider's web, and releases devastating attacks.

The Quincey also use a coin which, when broken, acts as bait for Hollows, causing massive amounts of Hollows to appear at once at a specific location. If enough Hollows gather, Menos Grande will appear due to the level of reiatsu produced.

Known Quincey

The only known Quincey in the series are Uryuu Ishida, and his father Ryuken Ishida. Ryuken, though having Quincey powers, does not recognize himself as a Quincey, as such, Uryuu is referred to as "the last Quincey".


Arrancar

Espada

Vizards

Zanpakutou

Shinigami with normal zanpakutou.
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Shinigami with normal zanpakutou.

The zanpakutou is the standard weapon seen in use by most characters of Bleach, with the exception of human characters and Hollows.

A zanpakutou, in its initial form, is merely a katana, with its length and tsuba shape dependant on the reiatsu of the user. A zanpakutou in this state has no special abilities to it. Here is the List of zanpakutou.




ShiKai

Kurosaki Ichigo with his ShiKai, Zangetsu.
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Kurosaki Ichigo with his ShiKai, Zangetsu.

ShiKai, or "initial release", is the form a zanpakutou takes once it reveals its name to its wielder. Each zanpakutou has its own name and releasing command, a word or phrase used to release the zanpakutou to ShiKai form.

ShiKai, in addition to a change in appearance, also gain abilities which may be physical or reiatsu-based. A physical ShiKai ability would be Abarai Renji's Zabimaru's ability to extend the blade in the same manner as a bow-staff. A reiatsu-based ability would be Kurosaki Ichigo's Zangetsu's Getsuga Tenshou, a blast of dense reiatsu unleashed by swinging the blade or firing it similar to a gun.




Arrancar ShiKai

The Arrancar ShiKai is far more intricate than the Shinigami ShiKai. Rather than changing into a different form of sword, it becomes bodily armor with offensive features. This is most likely a result of the Hollow which makes up the majority of the Arrancar's reiatsu.

BanKai

Kuchiki Byakuya with his BanKai.
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Kuchiki Byakuya with his BanKai.

BanKai, or "secondary release", is the form after ShiKai, which usually takes upwards of ten years of training to obtain and master. BanKai have incredible power, and are more than often very large in size. This size is in relation to the amount of reiatsu used to release the form. The only exception to this in the series has been that of Kurosaki Ichigo. BanKai is a technique difficult to master, but in return, delivers devastating results.



Kido

Story Arcs

Hollow Arc

Soul Society Arc

Bount Arc (anime only)

Arrancar/Vizard Arc

Hueco Mundo Arc


Links

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