Ichigo Kurosaki

Ichigo Kurosaki is the main character and initially something of an Anti-Hero. He's snarky and likes to look like a tough guy, but he actually likes to protect people. At the beginning of the series, he's spiritually aware, but unable to use any sort of spiritual abilities. Rukia grants him soul reaper powers, after which his power skyrockets to a level she finds incredible. Because she accidentally lost her own powers in the process of empowering him, he briefly takes on her duties and improves accordingly. When a conflict with Uryu Ishida leads to an attack on the World of the Living by a powerful hollow, Soul Society is able to locate and retrieve Rukia, prompting Ichigo to lead his friends on an assault of Soul Society to rescue Rukia.

While he began the series as a human, he keeps adding new powers and abilities to his default soul reaper powers. His growth rate is amazing, but it applies almost entirely to pure power: His specs are great, but he stays at roughly the same competence level from the end of Soul Society to the current events. His sword is known as Zangetsu, a powerful but direct sword mostly lacking in flashy abilities.

Voiced by: Masakazu Morita (JP), Yuki Matsuoka (as a child) (JP), Johnny Yong Bosch (US), Eduardo Garza (Latin America), Sergi Zamora (Spain)

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• Adaptation Dye Job: In the manga, Ichigo's reiatsu is gold in Shikai and turns pitch black in Bankai (a reference to Ichigo being the "Black Sun" in Chapter 1's opening poem). In the anime his reiatsu is blue-white in Shikai and black with a blue/red-outline in Bankai.
• Angst? What Angst?: Invoked: He seems to take that whole Big Brother Is Watching thing with Ukitake in stride. His passiveness about it was so frank that it even unnerved both Ishida and Ginjo. Ichigo does provide an explanation: He's in the middle of a fight, so it's essentially a scare-tactic. Ichigo knows this, so he very typically tries to ignore it, which would play this trope straight. The information isn't important enough to worry about right this second and he already knew anyway.
• Anti-Hero: Starts off as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who rejects his duties as a Substitute Soul Reaper, but comes to embrace his duty.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Ichigo will fight until he collapses. Then he gets up and does it again, if his Inner Hollow doesn't do it for him. Doesn't always work, though, like when Aizen nearly cut him in half and told him that he could have all the guts and courage in the world and it wouldn't matter because his body just would not work. Same situation when Ulquiorra utterly owned Ichigo (at least before his Hollow form kicked in) and Ichigo could not be convinced to surrender.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: With Ishida when they fought off a mob of Hollows.
• Badass: He's the main character, so he gets a big dose of this.
  • Badass Longcoat: His appearance while using Tensa Zangetsu. Nicknamed the 'pimpcoat'.
  • Badass Longhair: Both of Ichigo's full hollow forms and his Saigo no Getsuga Tensho form have hair down to the hips. After training in the Dangai, his hair is noticeably longer and reminiscent of his Zanpakuto's own hairstyle.
• Badass Boast: The way he introduces himself to Renji.
  "The name is Ichigo. I'm the one who's going to beat your ass. How's it going?"
• Badass and Child Duo: Ichigo looked after Nel throughout the Arrancar arc. This paid off when it turned out she was an amnesiac former espada stuck in Sleep Mode Size.
• Battle Aura: His reiatsu acts as one, but special mention goes to his fight with Kenpachi Zaraki and Zangetsu (in the anime), when it manifested in the form of his Hollow mask.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Ichigo's constant struggle with his inner hollow and later against Tensa Zangetsu's true form in the Deicide chapters.
• Battle in the Rain: In both the aptly-named "Memories in the Rain" mini-arcs.
• Beam-O-War
  • Does this with Getsuga Tenshou against Zangetsu in the Muramasa Filler.
  • Also during the Arrancar arc Ichigo in his second Hollow form has one with Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra's speed isn't quite up to task, however.
• Become Your Weapon: His final zanpakuto technique fuses him with Zangetsu, which is used to provide enough of a beating to Aizen that he can be sealed by Urahara.
• Berserk Button: It's an older sibling's duty to protect their younger siblings. Don't threaten his younger siblings and don't be an older sibling that threatens your own younger siblings.
• BFS: Even when it was in sealed form in the early chapters/episodes, his zanpakuto was still huge, a sign of his uncontrolled, unusually high spiritual power. His Shikai is a six-foot-long hiltless cleaver/khyber knife with cloth hilt wrap for a handle and sheath. After regaining his powers for a second time, his Shikai, while still lacking a tsuba, has a proper handle with a chain attached to the end, and the blade itself is both wider and clipped near the tip like a bowie knife.
• Big Brother Instinct: Older siblings mistreating younger siblings is a Berserk Button. He will even consider killing someone who's threatening his own family. This becomes the basis for the fourth movie. Yuzu gets killed after film's big bad reveal causing Ichigo to utterly flip out into his super hollow form.
• Big "Shut Up!": In 475, Ichigo gives one so big, it shatters Yukio's barrier, to his... surprise. It was directed at Ishida of all people.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: Before suppressing his Hollow side, an indication that he was losing control is that the sclera would begin to turn black. After suppression, it loses this meaning.
• Black Eyes of Evil: His eyes are empty black holes in his second full Hollow form (likely a symbol for his lack of humanity).
• Black Swords Are Better: When his sword enters Bankai, it's completely black from hilt to tip.
• Blood Knight: While he never actually actively seeks out fights unless they're against someone who's threatening his family, he does enjoy fighting a great deal. His Inner Hollow calls him a hypocrite that is only lying to himself when he denies this side of himself.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: Ichigo does this to Tatsuki when she confronts him about Inoue's disappearance and his spiritual activities in the Arrancar arc.
• Brought Down to Badass: The insane fights he gets into as a psychopomp have trained his reflexes and strength in his regular body. However, even at the start of the story he was an excellent martial artist before he quit the dojo; it's simply that his later levels rendered his original status irrelevant. The Fullbring Arc confronts his relatively powerless state and deals with the restoration of his power.
• Brown Eyes: He fits down-to-earth and stable trustworthiness associated with characters of this trope.
• Bully Hunter: Don't vandalize memorials or try to beat up Actual Pacifists when Ichigo is in the area. He demonstrates the trope quite nicely in his first appearance, and again in his and Sado's Back Story.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Getsuga Tenshō!", "Mugetsu." Somewhat justified in that Urahara, when teaching Ichigo how to use the Getsuga Tensho on command, outright states that knowing the name of your attack will drastically increase its power.
• Catch and Return: Does this in his fight against Kirge.
• Character Development: After the Fullbringer debacle, he becomes much calmer and displays greater self-awareness. And while he still won't hesitant to go into a fight, he seems to be more analytical about his situations than he was before.
• Chick Magnet: An anime-only trope that will attempt to play up Ship Tease with almost any female Ichigo interacts with. It's almost guaranteed with anime-only characters (such as Senna and Ririn) but the anime will even alter canon female behaviour to accommodate this, such as randomly making Child!Nel clingy and jealous of Ichigo in response to Rukia talking to Ichigo.
• Combat Pragmatist: Has traces of this; while he's not always partial to to the idea of attacking from behind, he's more than willing to attack someone while they're in the middle of talking, most notably against Renji. On one occasion he even one-shots a Sternritter before his opponent can complete his Explaining Your Power to the Enemy speech.
• Combo Platter Powers: A human with Soul Reaper, Hollow, and at least some Quincy abilities.
• Covert Pervert: When Rangiku begins unbuttoning her blouse, he clamps a hand over his eyes and protests against her impropriety. Meanwhile, his fingers have parted slightly, allowing him to peek at her.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The final Getsuga Tenshou technique, Mugetsu. It uses up all of his Soul Reaper powers in a single (extremely powerful) attack, rendering him powerless afterward. He can't get them back easily, either.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His bankai reiatsu and his zanpakutou attacks are pitch black.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His mother got killed and eaten by a Hollow in front of him, what do you expect?
• Deadpan Snarker: When the situation isn't too serious he tends to snark at his companions' odder traits.
• Determinator: If he has to win, he'll keep fighting until he wins. Almost as if his Catch Phrase is "It's not because I can win or not. It's because I have to win". His zanpakutou is also quite focused on ensuring Ichigo continues being a determinator being very angry with Ichigo when his resolve is so shaken his inner world has flooded with despair.
• Dissonant Serenity: After his return from his Training from Hell to fight Aizen, and when confronting the carnage caused by the Vandenreich.
• Enemy Within: Ichigo has to battle his Inner Hollow every time he wants his power to be upgraded. The Inner Hollow at one point warns him that he should always be on the alert because if he ever comes close to death, the Hollow will take control. When Ichigo does finally come very close to death, the Hollow does indeed take over, to devastating consequences.
• Establishing Character Moment: His introduction has him beat the crap out of some punks...only to make them apologize to the ghost of a dead girl for knocking over the vase of flowers that was offered to her.
• Evil Mask of Power: Starting with his fight with Byakuya, Ichigo's Hollow mask would start to form if he started to crack under stress during battle, or if someone (i.e. Hiyori) pushed him too far, enabling his Inner Hollow to take over his body. After subjugating his Inner Hollow, he became able use his mask without fear of losing his sanity. At the same time, however, using the mask causes his darker personality traits to surface and was the catalyst for his own self-destructive behavior during the Hueco Mundo arc all the way up to his near-death and Hollowfication in the Lust chapters.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Likes to wear tight-fitting jeans and t-shirts outside of school. His Bankai turns his kosode into a black Zangetsu-esque coat that is body-tight to his waist and flares out dramatically the rest of the length.
• Exotic Eye Designs: His eyes glow blue when he gains Heroic Resolve against Kisuke and Renji and when he blows up the Sōkyoku, and his sclera turns black with yellow irises when he uses his Hollow mask.
• Eye Scream: Takes a sword slice across the eyes as part of his Fullbring training. He learns to fight regardless, and it was later healed.
• Failure Knight: "I loved my mom. (...) She filled up the center our family revolved around. From that center, I stole mom from them, I did...!"
• Genius Bruiser: Downplayed. No one is surprised for long that he fights on a captain level but they were surprised to find out how he scores on school exams. Keigo called him a 'nerd' for it. He's also quite capable of using common sense and working things out on his own. More than one baddie has underestimated him in this regard. He simply lacks patience and emotional restraint rather than being actually stupid.
• Genre Savvy: Ichigo is well aware the villains regard him as a good candidate for the Breaking Speech. He's sick to the back teeth of it and isn't beyond telling them so. The anime tends to combine this with No Fourth Wall for certain filler episodes by putting Ichigo into the role of Only Sane Man for comedy purposes. He can tell what's going to happen based on the genre and sometimes even questions who on earth has been writing the episode.
• Got The Call On Speed Dial: After being reduced to a Badass Normal, when Ichigo's given the opportunity to regain his powers by Ginjou, he jumps at it.
• Half-Human Hybrid: His mother was a human and his father is a retired Soul Reaper captain, meaning that he's basically a human/ghost hybrid. Then he becomes part-Hollow while regaining his powers. It's later revealed his mother was also a Quincy, so he's inherited Quincy powers on top of all that. Unfortunately, that only sets Ichigo up for failure: His Soul Reaper abilities didn't come about the normal way, leaving him unable to make full use of them. When Zangetsu breaks, it can't be fixed or replaced by any methods Squad Zero possesses, and he's kicked out of the Soul Society by Oetsu Nimaiya as a result.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: He does his hard work, but the hard work always seems to make him stronger than it should.
• Healing Factor: One of Ichigo's lesser-known Zanpakuto abilities is that he can temporarily compress fatal wounds. When his Inner Hollow is in play, Ichigo can be healed even from a hole in the chest. He also employs this in a unique fashion on his own Hollow mask by patching minor damage to it.
• Heinz Hybrid: A Human-Soul Reaper-Hollow-Quincy. In the fourth movie, he even becomes the Avatar of Hell, which brought a whole new set of powers. Ichigo identifies himself as a substitute Soul Reaper, and when he fails to bond with an Asauchi - the base form of all Zanpakuto - and Ouetsu Nimaiya calls him a "fake Soul Reaper" he... doesn't take it well.
• The Hero: Courageous, reckless, blunt and eventually grows to be a hero that puts himself on the line for others.
• Heroic BSOD:
  • Ichigo falls into this after he regains his sanity during his fight with Ulquiorra. Seeing that his Hollow form had stabbed Uryu and brutally maimed Ulquiorra to the point of death plunges Ichigo's Inner World into a literal sea of despair. It literally takes three months of hellish training in the Inner World with Tensa Zangetsu to snap him out of it.
  • During the Fullbringer Arc, Ichigo is brought to the brink when Tsukishima turns all his family and friends against him, and Ginjo pushes him over that edge by robbing him of what little power he'd managed to accumulate. It requires the help of Soul Society to break him out of it.
  • During the 1000 Year Blood War arc, Tensa Zangetsu is broken and Ichigo finds out the majority of his enemies know more about his family than he does. The one thing keeping him going is the thought of getting his sword fixed, but the one person capable of doing so calls him a "fake Soul Reaper" and sends him home. When he confronts his father, his expression is pretty broken.
• He's Back: Lampshaded by Gin, who, after having assessed his state of mind during the Karakura Town and realising he couldn't defeat Aizen, takes one look at Ichigo's eyes after his dangai training session and realises Ichigo's resolve is genuine.
• Hidden Depths: Looks up to Shakespeare as a role-model. For all his bluntness and rather one-dimensional approach to strategy, he hides a keen analytical mind as well an urge to understand and empathize even with his enemies.
• Hot Blooded: In earlier parts of the story he tended to be very reckless and emotional, though after the end of Deicide he mostly cooled off.
• Hurting Hero: He blamed himself for his mother's death. He blames himself whenever he fails to completely save the day. He blames himself if his Inner Hollow takes control and causes him to do things that are against his beliefs - even if he's in the middle of battle. He'll take the weight of the world on to spare others' suffering if he has to, and he suffers as a result.
• Identical Stranger: Bears quite a resemblance to Kaien Shiba (both in personality and looks). Several characters have noticed. Turns out to be a case of Strong Family Resemblance.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In order, Ichigo has been stabbed by Rukia, Grand Fisher, Byakuya, Kenpachi twice, Byakuya again, Shiro, Ulquiorra twice, Tensa Zangetsu, Ginjou twice, and Rukia again and then once by Yhwach. He No Sells the last one by using Blut Vene.
• Indy Ploy: Against his first Menos Grande, Ichigo got fed up of Uryuu trying to plan an attack against it that he simply charged it with the vague intention of chopping it from the bottom upwards like a Jenga game. Later on, when facing the villain of the Lost Agent Arc, Ichigo again gets fed up of waiting for Uryuu to come up with a decent plan and decides to wing it.
• Ironic Echo: Ichigo's remarks to Aizen after pulling off a Barehanded Blade Block are pretty much exactly the same as what Aizen said after blocking Ichigo's blade in their first meeting. He even lampshades their reversal of positions.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He was carefully cultivating this image in school. At least prior to Kon first hijacking his body and ruining the rep by acting like a Cassanova towards his female classmates. Later on, he would only go into jerk-mode when trying to protect his friends and family.
• Lamarck Was Right: Soul Reaper powers from a Soul Reaper heritage. And Quincy powers from a Quincy heritage.
• Leeroy Jenkins: He has a bad habit of rushing in without thinking.
  • One of the first examples is when he tries to charge head long at a Menos Grande - a hollow taller than a skyscraper. His plan was to hack away at its body until its head was low enough to hit... It just kicked him away.
  • He ignores Soul Society's plan to prepare for the Winter War in order to charge in and save Orihime. Exactly as he was expected to.
  • Rushes into Hueco Mundo again to fight the Vandenreich due to being unaware of the gravity of the situation.
  • Rushes directly towards the enemy leader, the same guy who just killed the Captain Commander. Obviously, it doesn't go well and if not for using quincy powers he might have been killed right there.
• Lightning Bruiser: His power doesn't simply give him great strength, it gives him great speed as well.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Ichigo has a habit of running into people that know more about his family than he does.
• Mana Meter: His outfit during Bankai also serves as a gauge for how much Spiritual Power he has left. Apparently if he has half of his clothes remaining his energy is on par with a captain-level Soul Reaper.
• Meaningful Name: According to him, his name means "to protect one thing". It's also a homonym of "strawberry" and "1-5", reflecting his age at the start of the manga, fifteen.
• Mirror Boss: Hollow Ichigo loves using Ichigo's powers against him to show how much more skilled he is with them, despite being even more reckless than Ichigo himself.
• Mistaken for Masturbating: Happens to Ichigo several times, although it's usually his father or Karin claiming he's doing this when he's alone in his room, when he's actually dealing with shinigami visitors or out hunting hollows.
• Mr. Fanservice: Is the most frequent 'victim' of Clothing Damage. Also has an impressive build for his age, particularly as Getsuga.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: He immediately asks if killing Tsukishima will dispel his mind manipulation. The answer is yes, but if Tsukishima died at all Byakuya did it.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ichigo has a tendency to be used by an Arc Villain in a manner where his powers end up helping the Arc Villain in some way. Cue Heroic BSOD followed by Heroic Resolve moments as he takes the blame and then finds the resolve to fix his mistake. The anime has a fondness for using this in filler arcs.
• Non Nazi Swastika: Ichigo's bankai incorporates swastika shapes, usually as the guard of his sword. "Bankai" is written with a manji (swastika character meaning "infinite" or "final")—卍解—making Zangetsu's bankai form a visual pun as well.
• Only Sane Man: The omakes usually have him playing this to everyone else's antics.
• Perpetual Frowner: Apparently, he does this on purpose. He gets irritated when Kon ruins his image by being all cheerful and smiling.
• Platonic Life Partners: His relationship with Rukia, according to Word Of God.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: His default reaction whenever Yoruichi shows too much skin.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: The Final Getsuga Tenshou turns his hair black.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: His two Hollow forms and his Final Getsuga Tensho form all have mullets.
• Precision F-Strike: In the Karakura Town battle, Ichigo's language becomes very coarse at very stressful moments. Examples include when Aizen tells him he's arranged all his battles to date, when he witnesses the captains stab Hinamori and when he witnesses one of Aizen's new forms.
• Punny Name: His name is supposed to mean "to protect one thing". However, his name is a homonym for "strawberry". In addition, his name can be broken down into the numbers one (ichi) and five (go). The sign that says "15" on the door to his room is a pun on his name as well as his age at the start of the story. Yuzu also sometimes calls Ichigo "Ichi-nii-san". Using the homophonic numerical kanji, this can literally be translated as "1, 2, 3".
• Razor Wind: In the Deicide arc after attaining the Final Getsuga Tensho, Ichigo's level of power allows him to fell a mountain from the air pressure that's generated from a casual swing of his sword. After regaining his powers for a second time, a casual sword swing generates a shockwave potent enough to be mistaken for his Getsuga Tensho.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Uryu's and Chad's blue.
• Repower: Subverted during the Fullbring arc. He started to learn to use Fullbring abilities which quite similar to both his former Hollow and Shinigami powers but in the end Ginjo steals them and the Shinigami return his normal abilities to him, with a power increase due to the remnants of his Fullbring merging with them.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Ichigo usually sports Tranquil Fury at his angriest. That said, Tsukishima pushed him so far back and pressed so many buttons that Ichigo was reduced to nothing but murderous intent in a human shell for a short while.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly Man to either Ishida or Chad. The latter has traits common to both types.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Mentioned once or twice in regards to Rukia in the early days of the manga, but not revisited since. The anime plays with it much more, however.
• Slasher Smile: Has one heck of a freaky smile whenever he (willingly or unwillingly) Hollowfies. His Hollow mask also sports a similar grin.
• Sticks to the Back: When not in use, the cloth wrapping on Zangetsu's tang wraps around the blade and tangles around Ichigo's chain, creating both a makeshift sheath and allowing him to carry it on his back. Even after gaining a proper hilt the bandage-wrappings still materialize around the blade when Ichigo slings it across his back. Justified since Zangetsu isn't an ordinary sword but Ichigo's Shinigami powers manifested in the form of a weapon.
• Story Breaker Power: If Ichigo could use Mugetsu all the time without losing his powers, he would basically be invincible. Even without Mugetsu there was a reason he had to lose his powers. Ichigo before using Mugetsu accidentally vaporized a mountain from the aftershock of his blade. This feat is to date the most impressive show of brute force in the series.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Is nearly identical to his cousin, Kaien.
• Super Mode: Ichigo has two of these; his Hollow form and his final Getsuga Tensho.
• Super-Powered Evil Side: Whenever Ichigo's Inner Hollow takes over his body it grants him great power but fights far more brutally than Ichigo is willing to and obviously doesn't care about Ichigo's goals. Later, he gets it under control and it just becomes a Super Mode with Ichigo still in control.
• Superpower Russian Roulette: To get back his power after Byakuya brings him down to normal, Ichigo is forced to go through a dangerous process that will turn him into a Hollow if he fails. Because of this, he gains a Superpowered Evil Side.
• Super Reflexes: Quite possibly Ichigo's greatest strength, one which he retains in human form. It's what lets him duel enemies who are technically far more skilled than him, and saves his life half the time. It makes up for his lack of power by allowing him to get close enough to where he can rely on his weapon to do damage.
• Super Speed: Part of his Bankai ability.
• Super Toughness: Without any teaching at all apart from seeing it in action Ichigo picks up the Quincy Blut Vene technique. Juhabach explains that Ichigo incorporated Opie's reiatsu from the jail into himself, hence how he was able to use it. Juhabach speculates that the reason Ichigo learned it so quickly was because his mother was a Quincy.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Ichigo eventually gains the ability to read the emotions of his opponents when he matches blades with them. Eventually he pities Aizen for his loneliness and Ginjo for his despair.
• Sword Beam: His Zanpakuto's ability, Getsuga Tensho.
• Tempting Fate: In the Soul Society arc, he expresses confidence that Chad is undefeatable... right before Chad's first case of being hit with The Worf Effect.
• Theme Music Powerup: "Number One" plays anytime when he's about to kick ass. Except when Aizen stopped him AND the song. It's a play on his name as well which, if spelled "Ichi-gou" (doubling the "o" sound at the end), means "Number One".
• Took a Level in Badass
  • In the Soul Society arc, Ichigo gets his first when he learns to fight side-by-side with Zangetsu and his second when he learns bankai.
  • Later, he masters hollowfication in order to stop his Hollow powers from corroding his sanity. His mask later changes after the Ulquiorra fight, but he actually uses it less effectively due to fearing this power.
  • He goes through a training period before fighting the Big Bad and ends up ridiculously strong.
  • In the fourth movie when 1: Ichigo sees a Hell chain coming from Yuzu's chest (meaning she is dead) and goes berserk, Hollowfies, and blows up all five levels of Hell and the Hell Gates trying to kill Kokuto. 2: When one of the Kushanāda (a Guardian of Hell) gives Ichigo its powers and he gets golden armor on half of his body, can control the Hell chains and the rest of the Kushanāda bow down to him in this state.
• Tranquil Fury
  • His Deicide fight with Aizen.
  • His reaction after entering into Soul Society towards the end of the Vandenreich's massacre just after Yamamoto's death.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: It is repeatedly said he bears a great deal of resemblance both in looks and personality to his cousin Kaien Shiba.
• Unskilled, but Strong: According to Unohana, he has the power of an average captain with half his uniform - which is a Mana Meter and therefore meant he was at half power - missing. Most of his shinigami abilities have been gained by circumventing traditional shinigami training and technique development. Several characters in-universe have speculated that his ability comes from instinct instead of training.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Rukia, Ishida and Renji.
• Volcanic Veins: His veins start glowing when he uses the Blut Vene technique to survive a short skirmish with Yhwach.
• The Worf Barrage: A common way to show how powerful the opponent is occurs when they can fend off Getsuga Tenshou. Until the Deicide Arc and the point of returning his Soul Reaper powers again.
• The Worf Effect: Ichigo went through this early in the manga to establish the newly-appeared Byakuya's power level.
• Would Hit a Girl: Ichigo doesn't care what gender his opponents are. It doesn't even have to be for anything important. During his second meeting with Rukia (first in the manga), he got her attention by giving her a swift kick in the backside.
• You Killed My Mother: He swears he will kill the Hollow Grand Fisher after learning he killed his mother. However, his father beats him to the punch.

Rukia Kuchiki

Rukia is the trigger for the series starting from when she meets Ichigo in his room and discovers he is capable of seeing her. She quickly loses a fight against the hollow she encounters and awakens Ichigo's abilities shortly after so that he can save his family. The initially episodic story begins building a real story arc after she is hauled back to Soul Society for failure to report in and empowering Ichigo in the first place. Turns out that that was illegal.

Rukia tends to be quite sarcastic and aggressive. She's convinced she's an amazing artist, so whenever anyone insults her drawings she promptly hits them. She wields the Sode no Shirayuki and shows great proficiency with kido and at the start of the story is in a position far below her actual ability level, which is actually that of a seated officer.

Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (JP), Michelle Ruff (US), Liliana Barba (Latin America), Belén Roca (Spain)

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• Action Girl: She's an effective hand-to-hand fighter and kido user, as well as highly self-reliant, even without her Soul Reaper powers.
• An Ice Person: Her zanpakuto, Sode no Shirayuki, can generate towers and waves of ice.
• Art Shift: Whenever Rukia tries to explain things using poorly-drawn bunnies and other animals.
• Badass Adorable: She's small and cute, but her competence level is that of a high-ranked officer and eventually takes over as lieutenant of her squad.
• Baleful Polymorph: At the end of chapter 469 Riruka uses her Love Gun to turn Rukia into an adorable dog-like plushie.
• Barefoot Poverty: While living in the poverty-stricken 78th district Rukia, like other residents of the district, has no access to luxuries such as footwear.
• Berserk Button: Don't insult her drawings, however crude they may be. And God help you if you actually manage to besmirch Kaien Shiba's honor on her watch; that's one lesson that Aaroniero learned the hard way. Also, never make fun of her love for Chappie the Rabbit... you will regret it.
• Big Brother Worship: Byakuya may be aloof, but Rukia has a great deal of respect for him.
• Break the Cutie: Started off a homeless child, became a soul reaper and got adopted into nobility and away from what friends she had. Her brother rarely speaks to her and never looks at her. Her idol Miyako and her husband (and Rukia's mentor and crush) Kaien are both killed, the latter by Rukia herself. She then gets stuck in the human world and then dragged back while her new friends are nearly killed trying to protect her, one of whom looks like her old crush. She is sentenced to be executed, her brother apparently abandons her and Gin Ichimaru personally goes out of his way to break her resolve for no real reason. After this, however, everything turns out okay.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Some no mai, Tsukishiro!", "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!", "San no mai, Shirafune!", "Juhaku!", various Kido spells.
• Childhood Friends: With Renji.
• Closet Sublet: In the beginning, while trapped in the human world, Rukia takes up residence in Ichigo's closet, much to his dismay when he finds out. This only lasts until she returns to Soul Society. Averted at the beginning of the Arrancar Arc when Hitsugaya's Advance Guard briefly resides in the human world: Rukia - despite wanting to stay in his closet - shares the bedroom of Ichigo's sisters instead.
• Cuteness Proximity: Loves stuffed animals... except for Kon. She has a thing for rabbits - specifically Chappy - as well. Used as a Weaksauce Weakness in a fight against Riruka.
• Damsel in Distress: During the Soul Society arc as a result of losing her powers and being in the middle of a Heroic BSOD. After that, she does kick ass most of the time, but gets saved each time by someone else, usually Ichigo or Byakuya, even when she wins a battle. For example, she killed Aaroniero but was so badly injured she needed rescuing from Zommari who arrived to finish what Aaroniero started.
• Dangerously Short Skirt: Often wears a schoolgirl uniform, and even kicks Shriekers' jaw with it back when she was in a gigai, but she rarely fights in it. Kon once saw what was underneath it and said "Nice angle".
• Dark and Troubled Past: See Failure Knight entry below.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has a lot of snarky banter with Ichigo.
• Does Not Like Shoes: Dark Rukia avoids wearing shoes in the third film.
• Failure Knight: Her reasons for being willing to be executed stem from not being able to save her Big Brother Mentor and first mentor, Kaien Shiba.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: After the time-skip, she wears her sleeves at different lengths.
• Fingerless Gloves: Now wears white, elbow-length tekkou.
• Horny Devil: Dressed as a succubus in a Halloween volume spread, and in its corresponding filler episode.
• Immortal Immaturity: She boasts about being ten times Ichigo's age, but she's rather immature and mentally far closer to her apparent age than actual age.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Very, very frequently, by Hollows (Fishbone D, prior to giving Ichigo her powers), by Soul Reapers (Aizen extracting the Hogyoku), by Espada (Grimmjow's hand and Aaroniero's trident), and by Ichigo (in the third movie). It's become a rather morbid recurring joke among fans.
• Kill The Ones You Love: She was forced to kill her Big Brother Mentor, Kaien Shiba, when he became possessed by a Hollow.
• Lady of War: Her rough, hot-tempered exterior hides an inner grace that becomes visible when she fights. Her powers and fighting techniques are inspired by Chinese water and ribbon dancing and her activation commands are dance-based.
• Magic Skirt: Quite a lot of the time.
• Monster Roommate: For a short while, Rukia takes up residence without permission in Ichigo's wardrobe while she waits for her powers to return after losing them to Ichigo.
• Not So Different: With Orihime:
  Rukia: "I know the loneliness of being a prisoner. I know the joy you feel when your friends come to rescue you and the fear of them being injured and defeated. Do not fear, Inoue... I'm coming for you now..."
  • With Ichigo as well, as both of them blame themselves for the death of a loved one who was killed by a Hollow.
• Platonic Life Partners: Her relationship with Ichigo, according to Word Of God.
• Rags to Riches: From a Street Urchin who barely made it to being a teen to the adoptive sister of one of the highest-ranked and wealthiest aristocrats.
• Quit Your Whining: Does this to Ichigo when she reunites with him in the Arrancar Arc, telling him not to be depressed over his failure or afraid of his Inner Hollow, but to focus on getting stronger and protecting his friends like he always has. In the Fullbring Arc, she says that as terrifying as Tsukishima's effects on Ichigo's friends are, he can rebuild it, and that amount of despair should not be enough to crush Ichigo.
• Running Gag: Horrible drawings and obsession with rabbits.
• She's Got Legs: We get a lot of these shots during the third movie, particularly when she becomes Dark Rukia.
• Shorttank: Straightforward and brash, but also has a weakness for cute rabbits and shoujo manga.
• Sleep Mode Size: She shrinks to a size where she could bathe in Ichigo's coffee mug in the pilot.
• Stepford Smiler: Her outgoing, cheerful, boisterous personality for a long time hid a deep grief and guilt over the death of her mentor and superior, Kaien Shiba, who she was forced to kill.
• Street Urchin: She ran with Renji and three other friends in one of the worst Rukongai districts. When the three friends died, she and Renji entered the Soul Reaper academy to escape from that life.
• Suicide by Cop: She knew she'd be executed if she returned to the Soul Society, and at the time while she didn't quite wish to die, she also didn't feel like resisting due to guilt over killing Kaien Shiba.
• Super Empowering: Transfers her Soul Reaper powers into Ichigo at the beginning of the series, awakening his own.
• Terrible Artist: One of her defining traits. Just don't tell her that.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Played with. It looks like she's a straight tomboy to Orihime's straight girly-girl. However, more subtly, Rukia's actually the girly-girl who's into dresses, cute things and bunnies, whereas Orihime practices martial arts for a hobby and is into robots and sci-fi.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Rukia is uncannily similar to her deceased older sister, Hisana.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Ichigo by Word Of God are "closer than friends, but not lovers", and the way they express this, naturally, is constantly insulting each other and sarcastic comments.
• The Worf Effect: When Hitsugaya's advance guard first engaged the Arrancar, Rukia easily defeated the weakest fraccion. Then she was one-shotted to prove Shawlong's point about the difference in power between an Espada (Grimmjow) and a fraccion (D-Roy).
• You Can See Me?: Word for word her third sentence in the series.

[

Orihime Inoue

Orihime Inoue is a classmate of Ichigo's who is introduced as having a crush on him because she finds his tough guy image comedic. Shortly after he gains his soul reaper powers, he saves her from her hollowified brother. Although Rukia tries to wipe her memories, she secretly remembers everything. In contrast to Rukia and Ichigo, she is bubbly, cheerful and acts rather scatterbrained. Despite this, she actually has top grades and has talent as a martial artist.

She starts the series as a completely powerless human who develops spiritual awareness after Ichigo saves her from her brother. During the hollow attack that the conflict with Uryu trigged she gains an unusual ability: By manifesting aspects of her soul as individual entities through the use of her hair pins, she can create barriers, undo damages or cut things in half by creating a barrier inside them. However, this last ability, called the Shun Shun Rikka, is notably rooted in killing intent, which is completely nonexistent for Orihime. Because of this, her role is largely confined to that of a support role.

Voiced by: Yuki Matsuoka (JP), Stephanie Sheh (US), Claudia Mota (Latin America), Nuria Trifol (Spain)

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• Abusive Parents: In the manga, it's briefly mentioned that Orihime's monstrous parents were abusive; it was the reason her older brother Sora left them to raise her himself when he turned eighteen. She chats about it quite casually to Riruka during the Fullbringer arc.
• Almost Kiss: Famously, to a sleeping Ichigo.
• Angst? What Angst?: While the audience knows better, Riruka is weirded out about how casually Orihime mentions that her parents were horrible people to the extent that her brother ran away with her to save her life before dying himself a few years before the story began. This leaves her all alone apart from a distant aunt who pays for her education. What's she doing at the time? Drooling over donuts. invoked
• Attack Reflector: Her new Shiten Kōshun (Defiant Shield of the Four Heavens), which blocks an enemy's attack and then unleashes a concentrated explosion along the attack's opposing trajectory.
• Badass Adorable: When she's fighting the hollow that hurt Tatsuki, when she stops and injures Ginjou when he tries to attack Ichigo while he's being healed, and when she stands with Ichigo, Ishida and Sado to fight some hollows.
• Barrier Warrior: One of her abilities is to bring up a triangle-shaped orange-colored shield to defend either herself or her friends, usually absorbing so much of her enemies' attacks that it near-instantly shatters almost immediately after.
• Beware the Nice Ones: When she first unleashes her powers, she turns the tables on what the attacking Hollow thought was the victim (Orihime) and the protector (Tatsuki), killing the Hollow in a single strike for daring to harm Tatsuki. Later on in the XCution arc, Ginjo gets introduced the hard way to this side of her.

  Orihime: Sadistic? I don't mind you calling me that. If you don't want to get hurt... Don't attack me when I say not to."

• Bizarre Taste In Food: Orihime is infamous in-universe for the very strange combinations she makes of what would normally be completely ordinary ingredients. As a result, almost no-one wants to try her food because it sounds so weird everyone assumes it will taste disgusting. Those brave (or crazy) enough to try discover that she's actually an excellent cook and those weird combinations actually taste wonderful.
• Break the Cutie: A massive plot point in the Arrancar Arc that led to a huge, but recoverable, Heroic BSOD. She was emotionally blackmailed into entering an Omnicidal Maniac's lair, received a brutal beating by two jealous Arrancar girls and had to watch Ichigo get beat up eight ways to Sunday by Ulquiorra.
• Broken Messiah: Her reaction when she realizes she's jealous of Rukia's closeness to Ichigo is this, which actually helps unleash the insecurities she had bottle inside for a while. She gets better with some help from Rangiku and Rukia herself.
• Buxom Is Better: One of the reasons she's so popular at school and in the Soul Society.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Santen Kesshun", "Sōten Kisshun", "Koten Zanshun", "Shiten Kōshun".
• Catch Phrase: "I reject."
• Character Development: Goes from a cooky Genki Girl into a very solemn character since the Arrancar arc first began. Then she returns straight back into a Genki Girl, but with a bit more of a backbone. The novel by Makoto Matsubara has a segment where Orihime fully recovers from the Hueco Mundo debacle.
• Cloudcuckoolander: It starts with seeing herself as a giant killer robot in the future and progresses in odd directions like her taste in cooking and nonsensical tangents.
• Combat Medic: She tries to be this, but since she lacks any killing intent her offensive ability is absolutely pitiful. However, she has some of the best healing powers in the story and eventually finds a way around her limitations in combat.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Orihime puts together weird ingredients that prevent people from wanting to try her food. Her food is actually well-cooked and very tasty, but almost no-one knows that because they're too scared to try her recipes. The sole exception is fellow Cloudcuckoolander Rangiku.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: She's actually pretty physically impressive for a human, though she doesn't look it. However, early on she had a kind of absent minded ditziness and tendency to accidentally get herself hurt.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Orihime is an unaggressive Cloudcuckoolander, but when someone she cares about is seriously threatened and no one else can do the job she uses her powers to scarily strong effect. A good example occurs when she and Ishida have first entered Soul Society. They decide to blend in and disguise themselves as shinigami. Ishida is just about to come up with a plan when Orihime simply dives out of hiding, beats up two shinigami with her black belt-level karate skills and promptly reverts right back to passive Cloudcuckoolander mode, leaving Ishida in a state of shock over what he'd just witnessed.
• Damsel in Distress: The Hueco Mundo arc is absolutely NOT shy about showing the tremendous emotional and physical strain it brings on a person forced in a hostage situation. It goes to the extreme of causing her an epic Heroic BSOD. She didn't really recover until well after being rescued.
• Dangerously Short Skirt: She's far from an Action Girl (Initially), but in the Shojo S opening theme, while dancing with Rukia, Orihime swings her skirt to the side, revealing part of her butt cheek.
• Death By Falling Over: How she was killed by her Hollowfied father in the pilot.
• Ditzy Genius: She's easily distracted, a bit prone to accidents and has very weird ideas about food. However, she also makes the 3rd highest grades in her entire year group.
• Hair Decorations: She no longer wears them after the timeskip, keeping them attached to her lapels instead.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: She starts wearing her bangs in the style of the above picture shortly before the Soul Society arc. She introduces a different one one after the Time-Skip.
• Fanservice Pack: Her boobs grow even more ( and they were already quite big to start, so now she nearly the same chest size-wise has Rangiku and Adult Form Nel.) after the TimeSkip, and there's some more focus in her long legs.
• Fighting from the Inside: She questions why it's so painful to see Ichigo in pain if Tsukishima is the one she supposedly owes everything to. Tsukishima's retaliation to her doubts about the past he created is an attempted Mind Rape which is foiled by Urahara and Isshin.
• Flower Motifs: Her hair clips; her clothes also have a lot of floral patterns, possibly to invoke an Innocent Flower Girl image.
• Genki Girl: Back in the old days of Bleach, she was energetic, which when added to her quirks, led fans and characters alike would think of her as weird or even crazy. After the end of her Break the Cutie ordeals, she's back to her old self.
• Gray Eyes: Giving her the healer stereotype that goes with this eye trope, this is anime only as her eyes are brown in the manga.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Orihime tries hard, but since her fundamental nature hates violence she tends to be less than useful in a shonen fighter manga. Her healing abilities do keep her from being useless, however.
• Healing Hands: She appears to reverse causality to make it so that an injury never happened. This ability has the potential to not only bring the dead back to life, but also to return those who have been vaporized back to life, though she herself has not demonstrated the ability to do so and strong power like Ulqiorra's can get in the way of her healing.
• Hello, Nurse!: The Rukongai dwellers who watched her heal Jidanbou reminisce about how hot she is. By the time she's in her final year in school, she's extremely popular. Her beauty completely distracted Shishigawara and allowed her to "subdue" him without trying.
• Heroic BSOD: She completely snaps when Ulquiorra punches a hole through Ichigo's chest. It's something you won't catch in the translations, but when she's calling his name it's just a meaningless string of Hiragana rather than his actual name, indicating a complete absence of any sense or self control.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: "Being lonely... isn't nearly as bad as being in the way. If I'm just going to be a hindrance on Kurosaki-kun and everyone, then it's better to be lonely!"
• Hidden Depths: Started out as a ditzy classmate of Ichigo that seemed a little scared of him. This slowly gets peeled back as she becomes less useful to her friends, especially once she reaches Hueco Mundo.
• I Kiss Your Hand: By Kon when he's in Ichigo's body.
• Important Hair Accessory: Her hairpins, given to her by her brother on the day he died and which she vowed she'd never stop wearing. Cue the time-skip where she's now too old to wear them in her hair but, in keeping with her promise, she continues to wear them as lapel accessories.
• Important Haircut: She let her red hair grow as a signal of her friendship with Tatsuki, after keeping it short due to an incident involving a Traumatic Haircut.
• Informed Ability: She's a karate black belt (yellow, in the anime). The only time we know she uses them is to subdue two Soul Reaper and steal their uniforms. The confrontation occurs off-screen, but Ishida's reaction is shown to the audience, and he's very impressed.
• Last Name Basis: Addresses most people by their last names and vice-versa.
• Longing Look: She has given Ichigo one on a couple of occasions.
• MacGuffin Girl: Aizen grabs her because she should be able to speed the acceleration of the Hogyoku's awakening It was just a decoy to keep as many captain level fighters off the battlefield as possible.
• Madness Mantra: An internal example. "Kurosaki-kun...Kurosaki-kun...Kurosaki-kun...Kurosaki-kun...Kurosaki-kun...Kurosaki-kun..." entirely in Hiragana, meaning it's just a stream of syllables with no meaning attached.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Laughs off getting hit by a car since she doesn't want anyone to worry.
• Ms. Fanservice: Even though she has a surprisingly modest wardrobe, we still get plenty of shots of her boobs, legs, her skirt and an entire episode of her in a bikini.
• The Medic: Her other main mission, aside of being the local Barrier Warrior. She's trying to be a Combat Medic, but tends to lack the aggression required until thinking to make her shields into an Attack Reflector.
• Neutral Female: While she does want to help, she's often shoved aside by her protective friends or gets sheepish in battle.
• Never Got To Say Goodbye: Her brother and guardian Inoue Sora died right after their only serious fight.
• Talking Weapon: Taken to the extreme with six different characters personifying her powers. The two most like her (Shun-o: outgoing and friendly, Ayame: shy and sweet) are her strongest power, the Soten Kisshun. The one least like her (Tsubaki: aggressive and bossy) is not only her attack power but easily her weakest. Only by using Tsubaki in combination with others (Hinagiku, Lily and Baigon) she can draw his attack potential.
• The Nose Knows: She is shown early on (and ONLY once) to possess the ability to detect Ichigo by scent. However, scent is often how sensing reiatsu is described (the Soul Reaper often comment on smelling hollow reiatsu) and therefore was probably nothing more than an early sign that she had developed reiatsu-sensing powers.
• Parental Abandonment: In the anime, Sora doesn't reference their parents' abuse, and says he raised Orihime after they were abandoned.
• Personality Powers: An interesting example, in that her most powerful abilities are those related to defense and healing due to her pacifistic nature. While she is capable of using her power to attack directly, her lack of aggression reduces its effectiveness.
• Reality Warper: Her powers are revealed to have this quality to them, by "Rejecting" things.
• Shes Back: Returns to her good old goofy self after the Time Skip.
• Skilled, but Naive: Orihime has martial arts ability. In fact, she has black-belt level skill. She also has a one-hit kill ability that could potentially be devastating. The snag is that she is too idealistic and soft-hearted to be able to function as a warrior. The end result is someone who struggles to possess the mentality for battle which affects her skills and power. She's been working on this REAL hard.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears: Happens when she cannot bring herself to kiss an unconscious Ichigo.
• Stay in the Kitchen: She does want to be helpful, but she's frequently told that she lacks the aggressive mindset to utilize her powers properly and is advised to stay to support or keep off the battlefield altogether. Chad and Rukia are insulted by the implication that she shouldn't be able to help, however.
• Stepford Smiler: She used to hide her issues from the others, though not very well.
• Talking to the Dead: Has one last conversation with her brother after he tries to eat her as a Hollow.
• Tender Tears: Cries a lot after the Soul Society arc. Not for a lack of a reason, though.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Just look at that face when Riruka brings over donuts.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She and Rukia have a complicated subversion going on. Rukia looks more tomboyish and tends to be rather gruff, but she's the one with the girly tastes while the soft and supportive Orihime practices karate for fun and wants to be a giant robot.
• Took a Level in Badass: After the timeskip she started tackling her issues with not being able to actually fight by making her defensive abilities deal damage instead.
• Touched by Vorlons: Ichigo's leaking spiritual pressure awakened her own natural abilities. Well, Ichigo and the Hogyoku.
• Winds of Destiny, Change: The core of her powers. The command phrase for her powers is "I reject," as in fate.
• Wingding Eyes
  Ichigo: How are you doing that? Your eyes look like 3s.
  Tatsuki's thoughts: Orihime's really gotten better with her face gags.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Starts wearing it after the Time Skip.

Yasutora "Chad" Sado

Chad is Ichigo's large, quiet friend. When he was younger, he would often pick fights until his grandfather taught him to raise his fist only to protect instead of cause pain. After promising his grandfather he would do so, Chad vowed never to fight for personal reasons again, making him one of the most calm and peaceful characters in the main cast. His friendship with Ichigo began when Ichigo stepped in to protect him and the pair made an agreement that they would fight for each other since Chad would not fight for himself.

During the hollow attack that arose from the conflict with Uryu, he gains a strange ability to cover his right arm in armor, which increases his strength and has the ability to fire energy blasts. This ability is known as the Brazo Derecha de Gigante and has been compared to the abilities used by hollows.

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto (JP), Jamieson Price (US), Diego Armando Nieves (Latin America), Oriol Rafel (Spain)

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• Badass Baritone: Seeing as he's a lot more physically buff than most Bleach males he also gets a correspondingly deep voice.
• Badass Normal: Before his powers manifested, he beat up a hollow by tearing a telephone pole out of the ground and beating it senseless. Bonus points because he couldn't actually see it, Rukia was telling him where to aim.
• Brown Eyes: Stable, trustworthy and down-to-earth, Chad is a leading example of this trope.
• Calling Your Attacks: "El Directo", "La Muerte".
• Can't Catch Up: Poor Chad has been hit by this stick hard.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Almost all of his fights put him on the giving or receiving end of one of these. He's twice been able to defeat a semi-powerful yet lower mook of an arc, only to get taken down quickly by a much higher level opponent.
• Fighting from the Inside: He questions why the Soul Reapers are apparently helping Ichigo fight Ginjou. Tsukishima's retaliation to his doubts about the past he created is an attempted Mind Rape which is foiled by Urahara and Isshin.
• Friendship Moment
  • How Chad became friends with Ichigo is very heartwarming, and the lengths Chad will go to to protect his friends is incredibly touching.
  • Also, Orihime doesn't forget to tell Ichigo that during the time he was depowered, both she and Chad did their best to get physically stronger and wait until he gets his powers back. Awww.
• From Bad to Worse: It's starting to become a tradition in the series; the moment Chad loses a fight the story takes a darker turn.
• Gentle Giant: Very soft-spoken and loves cute things.
• Genius Bruiser: He has rather good grades and can make rather sharp observations about what happens around him.
• Made of Iron: Shrugged off getting hit by a falling steel beam before he got his powers. After them, despite being a normal human he can take a lot of punishment.
• Martial Pacifist: For all his great strength and fighting ability, Sado was taught by his grandfather to only ever use his fists to protect, and not to bully. As a result, Sado only ever fights to protect others and won't raise a finger to protect himself or fight for the wrong cause.
• Mighty Glacier: He can take a lot of punishment and even back in Soul Society he could dish it out, but speed has never been his strong point even after he learns a flash step variant during Hueco Mundo.
• Multiple-Choice Past:
  • Chad originally tells Ichigo he's from Okinawa. Later on, he tells Ichigo he's from Mexico. When Ichigo calls him out on the inconsistency, Chad pretends he can't remember ever ever telling Ichigo he came from Okinawa. Eventually, he admits he was telling the truth both times: he was born in Okinawa until his parents were killed when he was eight, whereupon he was sent to Mexico to live with his grandfather.
  • The Anime creates one of these by changing Chad's background with his grandfather. In the manga, Chad's grandfather lectured him on fighting only to protect instead of to cause pain and Chad took those words to heart, making a promise to do exactly that. The anime changes this to Chad's grandfather getting beaten up by the parents of the people Chad had beaten up and Chad, in horror, mends his ways and makes a vow to never raise his fists for himself again.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: A Mexican coin that his "Abuelo" Oscar gave him, and he outfitted as a necklace.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The Soul Reapers typically take center stage, so much of Chad's Badass Decay can be contributed to this.
• Peek-A-Bangs <-> Blinding Bangs: He has long brown hair that tends to cover a lot of his face and frequently at least one eye.
• Perma Stubble: Has acquired a nice goatee.
• Power Fist: A good part of his powers manifest through this.
• The Quiet One: Even his Sweat Drop is subdued.
• Raised by Grandparents: His parents died when he was a little boy, so he spent a good part of his life under the watch of a Mexican Cool Old Guy named Oscar Joaquin de la Rosa, whom he referred to as "abuelo," which is Spanish for grandfather.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Aside from his literal pink, Hawaiian shirt, he's almost as obsessed with cute things as Rukia.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Has traits of both types; he's Manly Man to Ishida and Sensitive Guy to Ichigo.
• Tall, Dark and Handsome: Maybe not in the stereotypical pretty boy way.
• Touched by Vorlons: He had power since he was born, but it was locked away and inaccessible until outside influences unlocked it. Ichigo and the Hougyoku The potential for his powers stem from one of his parents being attacked by a hollow and the residue of that attack being passed on to him via his mother before he was born also known as a Fullbring. The accuracy of this assessment is questionable, however.
• The Worf Effect: The go-to guy for this trope. Tite Kubo has used him to establish the threat-level of captains (defeated by Kyouraku), fracciones (Ichigo just barely managed to prevent him from being one-shotted by D-Roy), and Nnoitra.

Uryu Ishida

Uryu is a member of the Quincy, a clan of warrior archers who specialized in the annihilation of hollows and their souls. The annihilation of the souls destroyed the balance between the souls of the living and the dead which threatened existence itself. This created a conflict with the soul reapers who protect the balance of souls, eventually leading to war between them and ultimately the near-extinction of the Quincy. Despite this, Uryu's grandfather taught him not to blame the soul reapers for what happened and to acknowledge the fault in the Quincy beliefs. Uryu's attitude towards the soul reapers changed, however, when his grandfather was killed by hollows and the soul reapers refused to come to his aid until he was already dead. Because of this, Uryu picked a fight with Ichigo and turned it into a hollow killing contest, which spiraled out of control and led to the story's first real plot arc.

Uryu is stoic, analytical and dishonest with his feelings. He's also a nice guy once he loosens up a little, though his fashion sense is quite bizarre. His vitriolic friendship with Ichigo is a source of amusement for the rest of the group, particularly Orihime.

As a Quincy, he is the only fighter in the group that specializes in long ranged combat and does not even carry a sword. His bow is known as Ginrei Kojaku and as a spirit weapon contains a level of versatility not shown by most members of the main group.

Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama (JP), Derek Stephen Prince (US), Victor Ugarte (Latin America), Óscar Muñoz (Spain)

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• Aloof Ally: And he keeps insisting on being this even after having been through hell and back to help his friends... sorry, his not-friends.
• Archer Archetype: Like all the Quincys. Ishida really lives up to this trope's Weapon of Choice facets, being tall and thin, cerebral and aloof, etc. Really, all he needs are pointy ears.
• Anti-Hero: Starts off as an arrogant, aloof person with a deep hatred of Soul Reapers and overwhelming confidence in his superiority as a Quincy. Following his Enemy Mine with Ichigo, he mellows significantly, but is still aloof.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Uryu's the most strategic thinker of the Karakura kids. This talent gets to shine in the Fullbring Arc: despite being laid up in the hospital with only third-hand information for most of the arc, Uryu is able to recognize what is really going on in time to save Ichigo from going crazy as the Only Sane Man. He also deduces, in a matter of minutes, the troubling nature of the substitute Soul Reaper badge, a conclusion it had taken Ichigo a couple weeks to formulate.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: With Ichigo when they fought off a mob of Hollows.
• Badass Boast: Says after defeating Iceringer that the one Aizen should fear is not a Soul Reaper, but a Quincy. This turns out to be far more prophetic than he realized at the time, considering what villains turn up later on in the story.
• Badass Bookworm: Uryuu is the best performing student of a 300-pupil year group and is also a star performer of the handicraft club. Despite his academic prowess, he's talented enough in battle to have one-shotted both a captain and that captain's bankai. He's also noted as being the strategist and thinker of Ichigo's group, relying heavily on being able to clinically analyse his opponent's abilities and strategise accordingly even when in the middle of battle.
• Bad Liar:
  • He's not out in the middle of the night because he wants to help Rukia, he's just on the way home from the 24-hour crafts store. And he totally didn't grab that bag at home so he'd have an excuse. Not at all.
  • After he helped save Ichigo, his hands are shredded up so badly he comes to school with bandages up to the elbows. He tells the teacher he fell down the stairs. The entire class thinks he's a lousy liar and that no-one would believe his excuse.
• Bishounen: Uryuu has a very slender, delicate build and an exceptionally fair complexion for a male character.
• Berserk Button: Ishida tends to react quite poorly to insults against the Quincies and especially his grandfather. And don't get him started on the evils of literal buttons.
• Beware the Nice Ones: His bio quote comes from a short exchange with Ulquiorra, who is shocked at the ferocity of Ishida's attacks as he defends Ichigo and Orihime.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Uryu does have a melee option. He just doesn't use it often and even then he has the option of firing it since it's technically an arrow even if it looks like a sword.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Scores incredibly high in tests. Is a badass example of the Archer Archetype. Is very eccentric but some of his quirks border on Fridge Brilliance. Particularly his dislike for buttons.
• The Chew Toy: Prone to getting some harsh abuse piled on him, both comedic and otherwise.
• Chainsaw Good: Laser Chainsaw even better.
• Combat Pragmatist: Uryuu will take this view from time to time. Examples include shooting Szyael Apparro in the throat instantly at first sight, attempting to shoot Ginjou while he was distracted by Ichigo, and smacking down bullies that invade the school from a different school.
• The Comically Serious: Uryuu takes sewing and fashion very seriously, to the point that when his Quincy cosplay is Played for Laughs, Uryuu is distinctly unamused. In fact, as a young child one of his main goals was to redesign Quincy clothing into something more modern and flattering. Every time Uryuu mends or makes clothing for people, it has a tendency to end up lacy, frilly and entirely girlish. Girls love the end result, boys definitely do not.
• Crazy-Prepared: He carries extra costumes around in case one gets damaged.
• Creepy Cool Crosses: Quincies use a small cross hung around the wrist as a focus to help generate a bow, and the symbol is all over objects associated with them. Uryuu even sews a cross onto the back of Kon's head.
• Cruel Mercy: Danced around. After he "befriended" Ichigo, he refused to kill some of his opponents, satisfied in depriving them of their powers. He even offered to spare Mayuri, if he apologized for his deeds.
• Cut Himself Shaving: His excuses for turning up in class with bandages/sling are flimsy, and often lampshaded. Not that the teacher cares.
• Cynicism Catalyst: His antiheroic cynicism stems from the death of his grandfather and the belief that the Soul Society could have prevented it. Upon Ichigo pointing out that his grandfather would disagree with his actions, he mellows out somewhat, though he still carries a certain amount of resentment.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: His desperation technique in the Soul Society arc, Letz Stil, makes him incredibly powerful, but at the cost of his Quincy powers.
• Deadpan Snarker: The most significant one of the group. He and Ichigo will give each other as good as they get.
• Distressed Dude: In the Bount arc, he's captured by the enemy while temporarily powerless.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Attemps this on Ichigo early in the series. Ichigo's response is more or less to tell him to shut his face.
• Dysfunctional Family: Uryuu has a Missing Mom, his grandfather died in a really ugly way, and his relationship with his father is bad enough that he refers to him by his first name and doesn't seem too surprised when Ryuken seems to be trying to kill him when he was actually restoring his powers.
• Energy Bow: His signature weapon is a pure energy bow of the type where both bow and arrows are made of unmaterialized reishi.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Seele Schneider and more than once. Thankfully, it's not as often as Izuru Kira.
• Evil Costume Switch: Chapter 537 ends with the reveal that Uryuu is at the Vandenreich headquarters sporting a natty new Vandenreich uniform.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: During the Quincy Final Form, the armour gained by the transformation is asymmetrical to protect his right side while still allowing him to draw the bow on his left. It also has a big energy "quiver" sprouting from his right shoulder. After the time-skip, his fringe is arranged asymmetrically to fall long on the right side of his face.
• Foil: Lampshaded in-universe. As a Quincy, he's Ichigo's opposite in nearly every way. His power-draining Quincy Final Form even ended up foreshadowing Ichigo's similar Final Getsuga Tenshou, his powerlessness afterwards and the Training from Hell required to regain that power.
• Foreshadowing: There are three almost random hints that he would join the Vandenreich.
  • He shows apprehension at joining Ichigo in returning to Hueco Mundo to save an Arrancar. He claims that it's because of him being Quincy.
  • Quilge Opie knew of his name and commented on his understanding of Ishida's abilities.
  • The cover page for Chapter 480 (the very first chapter of The Thousand-Year Blood War Arc) features several members of the Vandenreich and Ichigo with an unknown Quincy standing in the middle with his face out of frame but it appears to be Uryu, and guess who he joins?
• Freudian Excuse: He begins to hate Soul Reapers after it appears that they let his grandfather die. Ichigo points out that this is pretty stupid considering his grandfather's teachings and it turns out Mayuri was responsible for the slow response in the first place.
• Gratuitous German: Some of the more advanced Quincy techniques fall into this.
• Hero of Another Story: Namely, the story of the Clan's rise and fall, and Uryu's quest to reclaim his family heritage. Unlike Chad and Orihime, whose dormant powers were awakened by the interaction of the Hougyoku and Ichigo's overflowing reiatsu, Uryu was born with awakened powers that come with their own myth arc. His motivations are separate from, if often parallel to, his friends' aims. This makes him a better foil for Ichigo.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Ulquiorra even lampshaded Ishida's calm, aloof personality by observing he would never have expected Ishida to lose his cool in battle. Ishida simply retorts - quite calmly - that he hasn't lost his cool and that's precisely the reason why he's attacking.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Ishida is very chivalrous and generally well mannered with a weak spot for women. He's very protective of Orihime and Yoshino from the Bount arc, also tried to protect Rukia when she was powerless, got pissed off at Mayuri for abusing Nemu even before he knew who Mayuri was, and he even spared the life of his female opponent Cirucci, though this may be because Arrancar are simply more human than the normal hollows he cuts down mercilessly.
• Large Ham: Whenever he tries to act cool. "Tell Aizen that a Quincy has come! For the one you truly have to fear is not a Soul Reaper, but a Quincy!"
• Last of His Kind: Ichigo and his friends believed Uryu was the last Quincy. When Ryuken reveals he still possesses Quincy powers and Souken officially named him as "The Last", it becomes a case of Uryu apparently being the last practicing Quincy and Ryuken being the last (retired) Quincy master. It turns out they're the last two Quincies following the old ways.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Both Ryuuken and Souken know why Ryuken hates being a Quincy so much. Neither of them tell Uryu but Souken does indicate it'll eventually become very important to Uryu's future as a Quincy. It is implied to be that he wants to keep his son safe.
  • Quilge Opie seems to know something about the Ishida clan, and Uryu Ishida in particular, that he doesn't want Uryu and his friends knowing about.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Having his hand lopped off by Ulquiorra (just badly burnt and broken in the anime, but still looks gruesome), and later being impaled by Hollow Ichigo gets nary a whimper out of him.
• Medium Awareness: During the fight against Szayel-Aporro Grantz, Pessche does something that makes him wonder if it's okay for them to air. After the fight, Kurotsuchi does something off-screen, and Ishida claims it was something they definitely couldn't air.
• Missing Mom: He's noted to not talk about his family life much, so it took a long time to hear anything about his mother. Turns out her name was Kanae Katagiri, she was a half-blood Quincy raised by the Ishidas, and she collapsed and died nine years ago.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Sewing has never been so awesome.
• Our Vampires Are Different: In a filler New Year's comedy special as a milk-drinking, blood-avoiding vampiric Quincy (because, you know, white is associated with Quincies and red with Soul Reapers).
• Parental Abandonment: Uryuu's estranged from his father to the point that he calls him "Ryuuken" instead of "Dad" or "Father". It's implied that Uryuu's distanced himself from his father rather than the more usual parent neglecting the child.
• People Puppets: Somewhat uniquely, he has the ability to do this to himself. When Mayuri's shikai paralyses his limbs, he uses a Quincy technique called Ransoutengai to allow his limbs to keep functioning in a manner that's described in-universe as being akin to how a puppeteer controls a puppet.
• The Proud Elite: He is the last Quincy, the number one student in his class, and very proud of both. That pride plus his unwillingness to appear soft can make him difficult to get along with, and although he often pretends he cares little for the rest of his group, he has always come through for them.
• Psmith Psyndrome: Ishida's name is first seen as the #1 listing on the midterm class rankings. Despite the fact that they have been in the same class for at least a couple months by then, Ichigo draws a complete blank on the name. He reads the kanji for Uryu (雨竜) aloud as "Ametatsu"...a legit first-level reading but one that produces a female name. Ichigo's classmates take the opportunity to lampshade how socially oblivious he is and how bad he is at remembering names.
• Putting on the Reich: When he approaches Yhwach, he's sporting a double-breasted, high-collar trench coat, a variation of the usual Vandenreich uniform.
• Rain of Arrows: Seriously, firing up to 1,200 shots in a second? Now THAT's something.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: When Uryuu was first introduced, at one point he was seen spying on Ichigo as he fought a hollow. All that could be seen of Uryuu was a dark silhouette with shining glasses that completely hid his eyes. As a protagonist, his eyes disappear behind the gleam of his glasses every time he's about to turn the tables on his opponent.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to either Ichigo or Renji, depending on the fight.
• The Southpaw: He uses his left hand for sewing and drawing his bow.
• Specs of Awesome: If he's not excelling academically as the best pupil in his year, he's on the battlefield thrashing his foes. His glasses never come off his nose, not even in the roughest battles.
• Stoic Spectacles: Uryuu plays things close to the chest most of the time giving him an air of being cool, calm and measured. This is lampshaded by Ulquiorra when Uryuu goes on the offensive against him after Ulquiorra blasts a hole through Ichigo's chest. Ulquiorra is surprised by Uryuu's attack because he felt Uryuu was the calmest member of the team and therefore not the kind to attack in anger. Uryuu merely replies that he IS calm and that's why he's capable of counterattacking.
• Student Council President: After the Time Skip.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: The flaw with his attempt to pass off intervening with Byakuya and Renji on Rukia's behalf as a late-night trip to the fabric store.
• Tall, Dark and Snarky: He's very sarcastic and has a tendency to offer wry commentary on the situation.
• Trick Arrow: Ishida's battle against Cirucci Sanderwicci featured an arrow made of a chainsaw lightsaber.
• Tsundere: It's not like he wants to help Soul Reapers, he just wants the chance to defeat Ichigo properly, or he's just passing through, or he wants to restore his honor as a Quincy, or they just happen to have the same goal... and of course they're not friends. Never forget that. Nope, Orihime, don't tell him that he and Ichigo are best friends... or better yet do so, since he looks so comically flustered.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ishida chose to use hollow bait to attract hollows for a contest between himself and Ichigo. Unfortunately, as a result of those actions, an excessive number of powerful hollows turned up, including a Gillian-class menos grande which allowed Soul Society to locate the missing Rukia, kick-starting the Soul Society arc. This causes Ishida consternation as the tiny amount of bait he used should never have caused such consequences. And it didn't: Aizen was responsible. He took advantage of Ishida's contest to set up a strength test for Ichigo and was actually the one who kick-started the Soul Society arc.
• Vibroweapon: Seele Schneider's blade is composed of reishi that vibrates at three million times a second giving it the shredding effect of a chainsaw.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Most of his interactions with Ichigo consist of them snarking at each other, though by now it seems they're just doing it out of habit.
• “Well Done Son” Guy: Uryu's motivation to improve his skill comes in part from a desire to prove the worth of the Quincy legacy to Ryuuken.
• The Worf Barrage
  • His Sprenger has yet to completely defeat an opponent despite seeming very powerful, with the exception of the Captain Amagai filler arc where it basically disintegrates his opponent and his weapon.
  • Also, Licht Regen does virtually nothing to Ulquiorra. Uryu knew what he was getting into, though.
• You Killed My Grandfather: To Mayuri, in a situation that remains unresolved.