Entertainment: Bleach Anime

Bleach (ブリーチ, Burīchi^?, romanized as BLEACH in Japan) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo that has appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump since August 2001.

Bleach follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki, a high school student with the ability to see ghosts, and Rukia Kuchiki, a shinigami (Soul Reaper or, literally, "death god"). The early parts of the story focus mainly on the characters. As events unfold, the story begins to delve deeper into the world of these gods of death.

The manga series has been adapted into an animated television series, two OVAs, two animated feature films, a rock musical, numerous video games and a TCG (Trading Card Game). Compilation volumes of the manga have sold over 40 million copies in Japan, and have reached the top of manga sales charts in the United States. The manga received the Shogakukan Manga Award for its shōnen title in 2005, and the anime has been nominated for several American Anime Awards.

INTRODUCTIONS

The story opens with the sudden appearance of the shinigami, Rukia Kuchiki, in Ichigo Kurosaki's bedroom. She is surprised at his ability to see her, but their resulting conversation is interrupted by the appearance of a hollow, an evil spirit. After Rukia is severely wounded while trying to protect Ichigo, she intends to transfer half her powers to Ichigo, hoping to give him the opportunity to face the hollow on equal footing. Ichigo unintentionally absorbs almost all her powers instead, allowing him to defeat the hollow with ease.

The next day, Rukia appears in Ichigo's classroom as a transfer student. Much to his surprise, she appears to be a normal human. She theorizes that it was the unusual strength of Ichigo's spirit that caused him to absorb almost all her powers, thus leaving her stranded in the human world. Rukia has transferred herself into a gigai — an artificial human body — while waiting to recover her abilities. In the meantime, Ichigo must take over her job as a shinigami, battling hollows and guiding lost souls to Soul Society.

Characters

All Bleach characters are "souls". Living humans contain souls within their bodies, while disembodied souls, or spirits, have a form composed of particles of spiritual energy called ectoplasm (霊子, reishi^?), which otherwise mimics human anatomy, aside from slowed aging. This form encompasses all of the spirit's being; there is no distinction between spirit and body. There are a variety of different types of spirits in Bleach, each with a different visual theme and approach to combat.

In addition to being a world of several species with supernatural ability, Bleach also has a great variety of characters, personalities, as well as power. At the beginning, the story focused largely on Ichigo and his beginnings as a soul reaper in his hometown of Karakura. Later on, the story centered around not only on Ichigo and his friends, but also a myriad of shinigami. Unlike the modern description of a "death god," the shinigami in Bleach have very eccentric characters with such variety that are only matched on how each of them look. Most of them play significant roles in Ichigo's quest to protect his loved ones and friends as well as providing motives for Ichigo's increasing power to truly live up to the meaning of his name: "the one who protects."

Character types

• Human: The humans of Bleach are much like the residents of modern Japan, and most cannot see or sense disembodied spirits in any way. Spirits can, however, inhabit artificial human bodies called gigai which are visible to ordinary humans. One in 50,000 humans is a medium with some awareness of nearby spirits, but only a third of these are able to see them clearly, and only the strongest of mediums are able to speak with or touch spirits. Certain unique humans naturally have both the power to sense and the strength to fight with spirits. Ordinary humans can gain the ability to interact with spirits by spending time around a large source of spirit energy.

• Plus: Benign spirits in Bleach are known as pluses (wholes in the official English editions). A plus is the spirit of a person who has died. A chain, known as the Chain of Fate (因果の鎖, inga no kusari^?), protrudes from the chest and binds the plus to a location, object or person that they felt close to in life.The soul can move about freely if the chain is broken, but this also causes the chain to corrode.^[5] Normally, pluses are sent to Soul Society by shinigami in a ritual called soul burial (魂葬, konsō^?) before this corrosion becomes significant. If the Chain of Fate is corroded entirely before a soul burial can be performed, a hole will form in the chest of the soul where the chain was once anchored. Such souls are driven mad and become evil spirits known as hollows. If the Chain of Fate is torn out deliberately, this also leads to spiritual degradation.

• Shinigami: Shinigami, or Soul Reapers as they are called in the official Viz English releases, are the psychopomps of Bleach. They are souls with inner spiritual power, recruited from the ranks of the residents and nobility of Soul Society. Like all spirits, they cannot be detected by normal humans. Shinigami use their zanpakutō, supernatural swords that are the manifestation of their owners' power, to perform soul burials on pluses.Shinigami also use zanpakutō and magic known as kidō to fight their archrivals, the hollows. A group of shinigami known as the vizard have obtained hollow powers, gaining removable masks and access to certain hollow abilities.

• Hollow: The hollows are the major antagonists of Bleach. They are evil spirits who reside in Hueco Mundo but travel to the living world to feed on the souls of the living and dead alike. Like shinigami, hollows are made of spiritual matter and cannot be detected by ordinary humans. While the majority of hollows can be overcome by the average shinigami, there are some which surpass even the most elite shinigami in strength. All normal hollows wear white masks, but a small group of hollows have broken them, becoming arrancar. By shattering their masks, these hollows regain the ability to reason, sometimes obtain a humanoid form, and gain access to shinigami powers.

• Quincy: The Quincy are a clan of spiritually aware humans who once fought against the hollows, using bows composed of spiritual energy to slay them. As opposed to shinigami, Quincy absorb and channel energy from their surroundings to fight. Unlike the shinigami This method has the propensity to shatter the balance of the universe, because when souls are destroyed, the number of souls entering and leaving Soul Society cannot remain equal. This issue prompted the shinigami At least two Quincy still remain. method of killing hollows which allows the hollow to enter Soul Society, the Quincy technique simply destroys the hollow's soul entirely. to conduct a campaign to exterminate the Quincy about 200 years before the main storyline.

• Artificial soul: Artificial souls (Also known as Modified Souls, or Mod Souls) are a type of soul mass-produced by the shinigami. Issued in pill form, they are used to force shinigamigigai during protracted stays in the living world, and also to evict pluses that refuse to leave their bodies after death. They come with a pre-programmed personality that animates the host body until the owner returns. In addition to the mundane versions, a series of experimental souls authorized and created by shinigami researchers exists. The shinigami decided to scrap the project due to the inhumanity of forcing dead bodies to fight, and ordered the destruction of all modified souls. Only one modified soul exists in the manga (Kon), but there are three more such characters in the anime. out of their Known as modified souls, these were meant to hunt hollows by possessing soulless human bodies and supercharging a particular aspect of them (for example, strength or speed).
• Bount: Exclusive to the anime, the Bounts are a clan of human beings with high spiritual energy and special powers. They were accidentally created by shinigami scientists looking for a way to create eternal life. Bounts consume the souls of human beings to survive; theoretically, a Bount could live forever by doing so. Although the Bounts have a strict rule to consume only the souls of the dead, the final group of Bounts chose to drain souls from living humans in order to become more powerful. Each Bount uses a "doll" in combat, a type of familiar possessing its own special abilities. Every doll is unique and is a manifestation of the user's power. If the doll is destroyed, its owner is destroyed as well.

Profile
Age	15
Gender	Male
Species	Human, Shinigami, Vizard
Date of birth	July 15
Occupation	High school student, substitute shinigami
Known relatives	Isshin Kurosaki (father) Masaki Kurosaki (mother, deceased) Yuzu Kurosaki (sister) Karin Kurosaki (sister)
Zanpakutō	Zangetsu

Ichigo is a 15-year-old who attempts to cultivate a detached image, for which he keeps his eyebrows constantly furrowed. Ichigo has natural orange hair, a fact that annoys many upperclassmen in his school, who constantly pick fights with him. Ichigo claims that he does not care what others think (both about his hair and other subjects) and seems to enjoy fighting the bullies. Ichigo possesses the unusual ability to see spirits as a consequence of his innate spiritual power. After the full extent of Ichigo's immense spiritual power is unlocked as a consequence of his meeting with Rukia Kuchiki, as well as his subsequent inability to control it, many of his friends begin to develop spiritual powers due to their proximity with him. Frequent exposure to Ichigo's energy causes several of his classmates to become spiritually aware, and some even develop their own unique powers as a result.

Profile
Species	Shinigami
Date of birth	January 14
Occupation	Shinigami in the 13th Division
Known relatives	Hisana Kuchiki (sister, deceased), Byakuya Kuchiki (brother-in-law, adoptive brother)
Zanpakutō	Sode no Shirayuki

Rukia Kuchiki is a cool-tempered shinigami who was sent on a hollow extermination patrol in Ichigo's hometown. Though her physical appearance is that of a teenage girl, in reality she is around 150 years old. Rukia is forced to transfer her power to Ichigo and assume a temporary lifestyle as a regular human. She registers at the local high school and takes up residence in Ichigo's closet, while teaching him how to be a substitute shinigami in her place. Rukia died as an infant and was sent to Soul Society with her older sister, Hisana. Though Hisana initially tried to protect and provide for Rukia, she could not insure her own survival while caring for a baby, and thus abandoned Rukia. As Rukia grew up she befriended Renji Abarai, and over the coming years the two stayed together and looked out for one another. Once they entered the shinigami Hisana, having years earlier married into the family and subsequently died of an illness, gave her husband, Byakuya Kuchiki, the task of finding Rukia. Disgusted with herself for abandoning Rukia, Hisana wanted her sister to be part of the Kuchiki family while never knowing of their relation to each other. After succeeding in this task, Byakuya kept his word, treating Rukia as a sister and keeping his wife's secret until the end of the Soul Society arc, where he finally tells Rukia about Hisana's past. academy, Rukia was adopted into the Kuchiki family.

Profile
Age	15
Gender	Female
Species	Human
Date of birth	September 3
Occupation	High school student
Known relatives	Sora Inoue (brother, deceased)
Weapon	Shun Shun Rikka

Orihime Inoue is a long-time classmate of Ichigo, closely linked to him by mutual friend Tatsuki Arisawa. She is effectively an orphan, as she and her elder brother Sora ran away from their abusive home at a young age, and her brother later died. Though initially devoid of spiritual powers, she begins to develop spiritual awareness and later obtains one of the most powerful healing abilities in the Bleach universe, able to completely restore a body to its previous state regardless of how severely it is wounded. Orihime Inoue has long orange-brown hair which she wears with the bangs behind her ears and hairpins. She does not remove her hairpins, except to sleep (she is seen without them in episode 64 when she wakes up), as they are worn in memory of her brother, while her hair is worn long in honor of the promise Tatsuki Arisawa once made to protect her.

Profile
Age	15
Gender	Male
Species	Human (Quincy)
Date of birth	November 6[1]
Occupation	High School Student, Quincy
Title	Heir to the title "The last Quincy"
Known relatives	Ryūken Ishida (father), Sōken Ishida (grandfather, deceased)

Though on the surface nothing more than the solitary class genius, Uryū Ishida is actually a Quincy, descendant of a line of priest-like hollow-hunting archers. He bears a deep grudge against all shinigami, including Ichigo, but comes to view Ichigo differently over time, eventually becoming an ally and friendly rival. Uryū is generally shy and quiet, but tries harder to act cool when other people are around. For example, during the Soul Society arc he wears a mantle that serves no purpose other than to make him look cooler, despite the fact that it hinders his movement. He even keeps a spare to that effect. In addition, he also has a tendency to say things with characteristic drama.

Profile
Nicknames	Chad
Gender	Male
Species	Human
Date of birth	April 7
Occupation	High school student
Weapon	Brazo Derecha de Gigante Brazo Izquierda del Diablo

Yasutora Sado, better known as Chad, is one of Ichigo's few friends at school. He is a biracial (Japanese/Mexican) student who towers over his classmates. Despite his imposing appearance he is quite meek, and refuses to fight unless it is for the sake of another. He does not have awareness of ghosts at first, but this changes when he witnesses a group of children being attacked by a hollow. He discovers a unique ability that strengthens and armors one of his arms, enabling him to fight hollows. He later develops the ability to shoot energy from his armored arm. Chad is a quiet person and is sometimes the subject of jokes or bullies because he never fights back, against ordinary humans, or often hollows and shinigami until necessary. Nonetheless, he is treated equally within his group of friends in Karakura (Ichigo, Keigo and Mizuiro). Chad also has a weakness for cute things, like small animals and Kon, and is one of the few characters that actually treats Kon with any dignity but for the most part ignores him. To match his extraordinary size, Chad possesses extraordinary superhuman durability, even before activating his spiritual powers, being able to survive the impact of a falling steel girder on his back and a head-on motorcycle collision, and is strong enough to break telephone poles and wield them as giant clubs.

Profile
Gender	Male
Species	Shinigami
Date of birth	August 31
Occupation	Shinigami lieutenant of the 6th Division
Zanpakutō	Zabimaru

Renji Abarai is an elite shinigami bearing the rank of 6th Division lieutenant, making him second in command of a sub-branch of the shinigami armed forces. Although first introduced as a deadly enemy, he has conflicting loyalties between his duties and Rukia, with whom he grew up. A rash and driven man, he holds both a deep respect and animosity towards his immediate superior, 6th Division captain Byakuya Kuchiki. Renji is one of the most unusual looking characters in Bleach; he has long crimson hair, usually kept in a high ponytail, and his entire upper body is covered in tribal tattoo work. How he got these tattoos is unknown, but it appears that with every achievement Renji attains, his tattoos increase as well, starting from his early days as a shinigami candidate until when he was Byakuya Kuchiki's lieutenant(his tattoos now cover his entire back). He dresses in the standard shinigami outfit, though he usually includes some sort of elaborate headgear (usually expensive-looking glasses or a white headband).