bleach manga

Bleach (ブリーチ, Burīchi?, romanized as BLEACH in Japan) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. Bleach follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki after he accidentally obtains the power of a shinigami—a Japanese death personification similar to the Grim Reaper—from Rukia Kuchiki. Gaining these abilities forces him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife.

Bleach has been continuously serialized in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 2001 and has been collected in 40 tankōbon volumes as of June 2009. Since its publication, Bleach has spawned a substantial media franchise. The manga has been adapted into an animated television series produced by Studio Pierrot which is still ongoing in Japan as it adapts the story from the manga. The series has also spawned two original video animations (OVAs), three animated feature films, seven rock musicals, and numerous video games, as well as prompted the release of many types of Bleach-related merchandise.

Viz Media licensed the manga for English-language publication in the United States and Canada and has released 26 volumes as of April 2009. In addition, it has been publishing the chapters in Shonen Jump since November 2007. On March 15, 2006, Viz obtained foreign television and home video distribution rights to the Bleach anime. Cartoon Network began airing Bleach as part of its Adult Swim block on September 9, 2006 in the United States. The first film, Bleach: Memories of Nobody was released in North America on Region 1 DVD by Viz on October 14, 2008.

Compilation volumes of the manga have sold over 50 million copies in Japan and reached the top of manga sales charts in the United States. The anime adaptation has been similarly received, rating as the 7th most popular anime television series in Japan in 2006, and in the top ten anime for America from 2006 to 2008. The series received the Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen demographic in 2005, and is among the best-selling manga properties in both Japan and America.

The story opens with the sudden appearance of one of the Soul Reapers (死神, shinigami?, lit. "death god"), a military order who escorts the souls of the dead, named Rukia Kuchiki in teenager Ichigo Kurosaki's bedroom. She is surprised at his ability to see her, but their conversation is interrupted by the appearance of a "hollow", an evil spirit who was originally a human. After Rukia is severely wounded while trying to protect Ichigo, she attempts to transfer half of her reiatsu (霊圧?, lit. "spirit pressure") to Ichigo in order to let him face the hollow on equal footing. Ichigo unintentionally absorbs almost all her energy, allowing him to defeat the hollow with ease. The next day Rukia appears in Ichigo's classroom as a seemingly normal human, and informs Ichigo that his absorption of her powers has left her stranded in the human world until she recovers her strength. In the meantime Ichigo shelters Rukia in his home and takes over her job as a Soul Reaper, battling hollows and guiding lost souls to the afterlife realm known as Soul Society (尸魂界(ソウル·ソサエティ), Sōru Sosaeti?).

After a few months of this arrangement, in the sixth volume of the series, Rukia's Soul Reaper superiors find out about her giving her powers away (which is illegal in Soul Society) and send a detachment to arrest her, and sentence her to death. Ichigo is unable to stop Rukia's capture, but with the help of several of his classmates who also possess spiritual abilities and ex-Soul Reaper Captain Kisuke Urahara, he sets off for the Soul Reaper base, located in Soul Society. Once there, Ichigo and company battle against the elites of the Soul Reaper military, and are ultimately successful in halting Rukia's execution.

It is then revealed that Rukia's execution and Ichigo's rescue attempt were both manipulated by Sōsuke Aizen, a high ranking Soul Reaper previously believed to be murdered, as part of a far-reaching plot to take control of Soul Society. Aizen betrays his fellow Soul Reapers and allies himself with the strongest hollows, arrancar, becoming the main antagonist of the series, and Ichigo teams up with his former enemies in Soul Society after learning that the next step in Aizen's plan involves the destruction of his hometown. However, Ichigo goes with a few friends to the Hollow's world, Hueco Mundo (虚圏(ウェコムンド), Weko Mundo?), in order to rescue their friend Orihime Inoue who was kidnapped by Aizen in order to reduce the number of Soul Reapers defending Soul Society. At this point, Bleach chronicles the war between Aizen and the Soul Society, a plotline which has not yet been resolved. According to Tite Kubo, the ending of the series is not yet planned out or written




production

Bleach was first conceived from a desire on Tite Kubo's part to draw shinigami in kimono, which formed the basis for the design of the Soul Reapers in the series, and the conception of character Rukia Kuchiki.[2][3] The original story concept was submitted to Weekly Shōnen Jump shortly after the cancellation of Tite Kubo's previous manga Zombie Powder, but was rejected. Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, saw the story and wrote a letter of encouragement to Kubo.[3] Bleach was accepted for publication a short time later, in 2001, and was initially intended to be a shorter series, with a maximum serialization length of five years.[3] Early plans for the story did not include the hierarchical structure of Soul Society, but did include some characters and elements which did not come into the plot until the Arrancar arc, such as Ichigo's Soul Reaper heritage.[2] The series was originally meant to be named "Black" due to the color of the Soul Reapers' clothes, but Kubo thought it was very simple. He later tried giving it the name of "White", but came to like more "Bleach" as it was associated with the white color and he did not find it too obvious.[4]

Tite Kubo has cited influences for elements of Bleach ranging from other manga series to music, foreign language, architecture, and film. He attributes his interest in drawing the supernatural and monsters to Shigeru Mizuki's GeGeGe no Kitaro and Bleach's focus on interesting weaponry and battle scenes to Masami Kurumada's Saint Seiya, both manga Kubo enjoyed as a boy.[2] The action style and storytelling found in Bleach is inspired by cinema, though Kubo has not revealed any specific movie as being an influence for fight scenes. When pressed, he told interviewers that he liked Snatch but did not use it as a model.[5] Kubo has also stated that he wishes to make Bleach an experience that can only be found by reading manga, and dismissed ideas of creating any live-action film adaptations of the series.[3]

Bleach's creative process is focused around character design. When writing plotlines or having difficulties generating new material, Kubo begins by thinking of new characters, often en masse, and rereading previous volumes of Bleach.[2][6] Kubo has said that he likes creating characters that have outward appearances that do not match their true nature, an element that can be found in many Bleach characters, as he is "attracted to people with that seeming contradiction" and finds an "urge to draw people like that when I work."[7] The terminology used in Bleach has a variety of inspirations, with each category of character bearing a different linguistic theme. Many of the names for swords and spells used by Soul Reapers were inspired by ancient Japanese literature. Hollows and arrancar use Spanish terms. Kubo became interested in Spanish because, to him, the language sounded "bewitching" and "mellow"







main character

Ichigo Kurosaki


Ichigo Kurosaki (黒崎　一護, Kurosaki Ichigo?) is the primary protagonist of Bleach, orange-haired high school freshman Ichigo is forced to become a substitute Soul Reaper after unintentionally absorbing most of Rukia's powers.[9] His cynical nature at first makes him ill-disposed towards the duty, but with the passage of time he comes to accept and welcome the strength his Soul Reaper powers give him, as it allows him to protect those close to him.[10] When creating the manga series, Kubo commented that Rukia Kuchiki, the first character he created, did not seem like a lead character, so he created Ichigo to be the series protagonist.[6] In the Japanese series, he is voiced by Masakazu Morita while in the English adaptation he is voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch.[11][12]

Rukia Kuchiki


Rukia Kuchiki (朽木 ルキア, Kuchiki Rukia?) is a Soul Reaper who is assigned hollow extermination duties in Ichigo's hometown. Though her physical appearance is that of a teenage girl, in reality she is ten times older than Ichigo. At the opening of the story, Rukia is forced to transfer her powers to Ichigo and assume a temporary lifestyle as a regular human.[9] She registers at the local high school and takes up residence in Ichigo's closet, while teaching him how to be a substitute Soul Reaper in her place.[10] Rukia was one of the first characters of the series created by Kubo, her design being the one he decided to use for all the other Soul Reapers.[5] She is voiced by Fumiko Orikasa in Japanese and by Michelle Ruff in English.[11][12]



Orihime Inoue

Orihime Inoue (井上 織姫, Inoue Orihime?) is a long-time classmate of Ichigo, linked to him by mutual friend Tatsuki Arisawa. She is effectively an orphan, as when she was 3, her older brother Sora left their abusive parents' home with Orihime and raised her on his own. Later on, when Orihime was in middle school, he died in a car accident.[13] Though initially devoid of spiritual powers, she develops spiritual awareness early in the plot and later obtains one of the strongest powers in the Bleach universe, a god-like ability to reject fate.[14] She is voiced by Yuki Matsuoka in the Japanese series and by Stephanie Sheh in the English dub.[15][16]


Yasutora Sado

Yasutora Sado (茶渡 泰虎, Sado Yasutora?), better known as Chad (チャド, Chado?), is one of Ichigo's friends at school. He is a biracial Japanese/Mexican student who towers over his classmates.[17] Despite his imposing appearance he is quite meek, and refuses to fight unless it is for the sake of another. Chad 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 his right arm, enabling him to fight hollows. He later develops the ability to shoot energy from his armored arm and also discovers that his left arm holds powerful offensive abilities. Hiroki Yasumoto voices him in the Japanese series, while Jamieson Price plays him in the English adaptation.[15][16]

Uryū Ishida

Uryū Ishida (石田 雨竜, Ishida Uryū?) is a Quincy, descendant of a line of priest-like hollow-hunting archers who were historical enemies of the Soul Reapers.[n 1] He bears a deep grudge against all Soul Reapers, including Ichigo, and is an early antagonist in the series.[18] He comes to view Ichigo differently over time, however, eventually becoming a valuable ally and friendly rival.[19] He is voiced by Noriaki Sugiyama in Japanese and Derek Stephen Prince in English.