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Bleach

ブリーチ
(BLEACH)
Genre Shōnen, Action
Manga
Authored by Tite Kubo
Publisher Shueisha
VIZ Media
Glénat
Serialized in: Weekly Shonen Jump
Original run: January 5, 2002 –(ongoing)
No. of volumes 22 (229 total chapters) (current)
Directed by Noriyuki Abe
Studio: Studio Pierrot
Network: TV Tokyo
Adult Swim (Fall 2006)
GMA-7 (October 2006)
Original run October 5, 2004 – (ongoing)
No. of episodes
83 (current)

Bleach (ブリーチ Burīchi, also romanized as BLEACH in Japan) is a manga and anime series by Tite Kubo (久保 帯人 Kubo Taito?), mangaka of Zombie Powder. Bleach is currently at 22 volumes in length in Japan (as of May 2006), and new chapters are featured weekly in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. The total number of chapters as of this writing is 229. Currently, VIZ Media has released 13 volumes in English in the US.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Bleach follows the life of Ichigo Kurosaki, a 15 year old high school student with the ability to see ghosts; and a female shinigami (死神? lit. god of death), or Soul Reaper in the English manga, named Rukia Kuchiki, who runs into him one day while searching for a hollow (an evil spirit). During the ensuing confrontation with the spirit, she is wounded and forced to transfer all of her powers into Ichigo. Thus the adventures of Ichigo and Rukia begin. Together they search for hollows and perform soul burials on wayward souls, cleansing the spirits and sending them to Soul Society.

The early parts of the story focus mainly on the relationships between the characters, rather than the actual occupation of the shinigami. However, as events unfold, the story begins to delve deeper into the world of these gods of death on the "other side" called Soul Society.

Introduction

Ichigo Kurosaki

Ichigo is a rough-and-tumble teenager who has always had the special ability to see ghosts. The story begins with the sudden appearance of an oddly-dressed stranger in Ichigo's bedroom who seems surprised that he can see her at all. This stranger is Rukia Kuchiki, a shinigami. Their resulting conversation is interrupted by the appearance of a hollow, an evil spirit. When she is severely wounded, Rukia decides to transfer half of her powers to Ichigo, giving him the opportunity to face the hollow on an equal footing. Ichigo defeats it.

The next day, Rukia turns up in Ichigo's classroom as a transfer student. Much to his surprise, she is now apparently a normal human. It turns out that the strength of Ichigo's spirit caused him to fully absorb her powers rather than taking half, leaving her trapped in a gigai — an artificial human body. While she recovers her abilities, Ichigo must take over her job, watching over the region and battling hollows in her stead.

Characters
Main article: Characters in Bleach series
Ichigo Kurosaki
Rukia Kuchiki
Orihime Inoue
Uryū Ishida
Yasutora "Chad" Sado

Races

There are two distinct 'races' revealed in Bleach thus far — humans and spirits. The humans are mostly ordinary like real-life humans, and usually cannot see or sense spirits in any way, however about 1 in 50,000 can and only a third of them can see them clearly. Spirits inhabiting human bodies, however, can be sensed like ordinary humans. Some humans, such as the Quincy, have the power to not only sense but also fight on equal footing with spirits. Humans unable to sense spirits can gain the ability to do so by spending enough time around a large source of spirit energy, as is the case of Chad and Inoue. Spirits have a form composed of reishi (ectoplasm), with an anatomy similar to an ordinary flesh body, including organs and blood. However, this form seems to encompass all of a spirit's being. In other words, there is no distinction between soul and body.

Notable human and spirit races are listed below.

Plus

A plus (called a whole in the official English version of the manga) is the disembodied spirit of a person who has died. A plus has a spiritual body composed of reishi that resembles its former material body at the time of death. From the chest hangs the Chain of Fate (因果の鎖 inga no kusari?). This chain ties the soul to something in the world that keeps them there. In the case of a human soul removed from their body that isn't dead, this chain is tied to their body, and if it breaks in this state, they die. If the chain of a spirit tied to an object is broken, the chain begins to corrode. If the corrosion is completed before a shinigami can perform a soul burial on the soul, the plus descends into a hollow, unless they have shinigami powers and are able to call them forth.

Pluses are sent to Soul Society by the shinigami in a ritual called soul burial (魂葬 konsō?).

Once in Soul Society, a spirit is able to live much longer than humans would in the living world, with many spirits aging in the thousands. Spirits generally do not die unless they're murdered, but they are also able to be killed by diseases. One example of this is Byakuya Kuchiki's wife, Hisana. Once a spirit dies in Soul Society, its soul is sent back to the living world and is born as a new human (see reincarnation). This provides the two worlds with balance.

Shinigami
Main article: Shinigami (Bleach)

Shinigami (known as Soul Reapers in the English version) in Bleach are psychopomps. They are made up of spiritual matter and cannot be seen or detected in any way by normal humans. Their archrivals are the hollows.

The shinigami mainly use soul slayers (zanpakutō) and demon arts (kidō), to fight.

Some shinigami acquired hollow powers using illegal methods; they are known as the vizard.

If a Captain or Lieutenant-rank shinigami travels to the human world, their power level is set to a limit of 20% of their usual strength. They must ask Soul Society for permission to "lift the limit" to release their full power while in the human world.
[edit]

Modified Soul

Little is known about this experiment authorized by shinigami, except that they were created to hunt hollows by possessing a soul-less human body and supercharging particular aspects of it (strength, speed, etc.). Due to the inhumanity of having dead bodies fight, the shinigami decided to scrap the project, leading to the destruction all mod souls. Those who were yet to be activated and thus still in pill form were also to be terminated but it appears some have escaped. The only known modified soul in the original manga is Kon.

Quincy
Main article: Quincy (Bleach)

The Quincy were a tribe of spiritually aware humans who fought against the hollows in the past, using weapons composed of spiritual energy to slay them. The Quincy are now nearly extinct due to necessary extermination by the shinigami about 200 years before the main storyline — in addition to Uryū Ishida, there is at least one other remaining.

As opposed to shinigami, who operate using only their inner spiritual energy, Quincy absorb and channel energy from their surroundings. When a shinigami slays a hollow, they are cleansing its spirit and washing away its sins, thus allowing it to enter Soul Society. The Quincy technique to slay hollows however did not cleanse a spirit, it simply destroyed it. If this was allowed to go on, the balance of the universe would be shattered, because the number of souls entering and leaving Soul Society, and the living world would not be equal. This fact prompted their extermination at the hands of the shinigami.

Hollow

The hollows are the main antagonists of Bleach. They are evil spirits who reside in Hueco Mundo. Like shinigami, hollows are made of spiritual matter, cannot be detected by ordinary humans, and use their internal spiritual power to fight.

All hollows wear masks, except for a recent few created under the influence of former Gotei 13, 5th Division Captain Sōsuke Aizen. These hollows are called arrancar and have been able to remove their masks and tap into the powers of the shinigami. Although they carry zanpakutō, the manner in which they release their swords is different from the shinigami, in the sense that rather than modifying the weapon, it modifies the body of the arrancar itself.

Bount (anime only)

The Bount (baunto), sometimes alternately translated "Bounto", "Baunto" or "Bountou", like the Quincy, are a group of human beings with special abilities. But unlike the Quincy who destroy hollows, the Bount consume the souls of human beings. They also differ from the Quincy in that eating souls allows them to live for centuries: theoretically, a Bount could live forever.

Locales

Human world

The human world of Bleach is modern Japan, specifically a Tokyo neighbourhood known as Karakura Town (空座).[1] In this world, Ichigo attends school, fights hollows, and tries to avoid rumours that he is Rukia's boyfriend. Places of note are the high school, the Urahara Shop, the river where Ichigo's mother was killed, the cemetery, and Ichigo and Orihime's homes.

Soul Society

Soul Society, corresponds to the afterlife, or heaven, in human belief systems. It consists of a giant walled city in the center, known as the Seireitei (Court of Pure Souls), and 80 districts outside of it. The districts outside of the Seireitei are known as the Rukongai (Town of Wandering Spirits) and are the place where non-shinigami and non-nobles live. The district number of the Rukongai also gives a measure of how bad it is. District 1 is peaceful and lawful, while District 80 is filled with criminals and has poor conditions. A king resides in Soul Society, yet no details about him have surfaced.

Hueco Mundo

Hueco Mundo is the area between the human world and Soul Society. Literally meaning "hollow world" (in Spanish), it is where hollows reside when not in the human world or Soul Society, and where they are nigh undetectable. The entrance of Hueco Mundo is a rip in the fabric of the human world.

Crossing between worlds

It is known that shinigami and hollows alike can come and go between the two worlds as they please. Shinigami can cross from the Soul Society to the human world by way of a passage seemingly unlocked by their zanpakutō. However, to safely cross over, they must be accompanied by a hell butterfly (a black moth created from soul burial that can perform a multitude of tasks). Hollows can cross over to both Soul Society and the human world by opening a rift in space, although they don't usually dare enter Soul Society.

Hell

Little is known about hell as of yet. It is known that hell is the destination for those who committed acts too evil during their lives as mortals to be allowed into Soul Society. If the incident with Shrieker is any indication, when a hollow whose mortal soul is too wicked to enter Soul Society has had its mask split by a zanpakutō, the gates of hell will appear (giant doors with a skeleton holding on to each, with chains sealing them shut) and begin to open, and a giant spiritual being with a blade will spear the wicked spirit and drag it down into hell while laughing when they are confronted by a shinigami as a spirit.
Spoilers end here.

Media information

This manga is being translated into English by VIZ Media, although several scanlation groups continue to release unofficial English translations.

In 2005, Bleach was awarded the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category.[2]

The Bleach animated TV series is broadcast at 7:27 p.m. on Tuesdays on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations in Japan. The first episode aired on October 5, 2004, replacing F-Zero: Falcon Densetsu (F-Zero GP Legend), in the 6:30 p.m. timeslot. It remained in that timeslot for the first 54 episodes. Studio Pierrot is doing the animation work. Several fansub groups are subbing and distributing this series as well. As of May 27, 2006 there are a total of 83 episodes, two OVAs and one omake (TV special) episode so far that are broken into three arcs, with arc three being a filler arc to allow the manga storyline to progress so the anime doesn't catch up with the manga. The series has no plan to stop as of yet.

In Volume 4, Issue 3 of the American Shonen Jump, there was an interview with the creator of Bleach. In the interview, it was said that Tite Kubo entered into a manga contest, but lost. An editor noticed him, and they worked with each other.

On March 15, 2006, the television, home video and merchandising rights of the Bleach anime were licensed by the TV Tokyo Corporation and Shueisha Inc to VIZ Media for the Americas, Europe, and Oceania, which prompted some fansub groups to end their work on the series.

According to an Adult Swim news post, the Bleach anime will begin airing in September of 2006.

Bleach the Movie is scheduled to arrive in Japanese theaters December 2006. Little is known about it other than that which was revealed in a short promo that aired during an episode of Gin Tama. The promo is a short montage of Bleach terminology and clips from the Soul Society arc.[3]

In June 2006, Bleach was confirmed as a game for Nintendo's upcoming game console, the Wii. The game is developed by Sega and as yet has no release date. Japanese teaser site

References
^ Bleach databook; page 31.
^ Mentioned in Bleach manga, English version; volumes 9 and up.
^ Short promo for Bleach: The Movie.video confirmation

External links
Shonen Jump Bleach website
(Japanese) Official Bleach website
(Japanese) TV Tokyo Bleach website
(Japanese) Studio Pierrot Bleach website

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