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.
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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.
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
Quincey
Arrancar
Espada
Vizards
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
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
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 devistating results.
