Short Summary
The beginning of Bleach which introduces Ichigo Kurosaki, a teen with spiritual powers. While resting in his home one night, he meets Rukia, a shinigami or "Soul Reaper" doing her rounds. A hollow attacks Ichigo's household and Rukia is wounded while fighting it. Having no choice, she give Ichigo her power (she meant to give only half but he wound up taking all of it) turning him into an unofficial soul reaper. With no way able to get back to Soul Society, Rukia is forced to stay with Ichigo and coach him on using his newfound powers to defeat the hollow threats. The arc mostly cover the separate adventures of Ichigo's escapees.Main Summary
Ichigo Kurosaki has always been able to see ghosts. This isn't completely unique to him -one of his sisters can see vague outlines of ghosts, while the other can fully see them but studiously ignores them- but it does give a nasty shock to a female ghost in a black yukata, who teleports into Ichigo's room and gets promptly clobbered for the home invasion. Her name is Rukia Kuchiki, and she's a shinigami, whose job is to help spirits pass on to the afterlife.
Ichigo manages to annoy her enough that she uses Kido (shinigami magic) to paralyze him, and gives a rough explanation of how souls work via bunny pictures. It's her job to send normal spirits, or 'pluses', to Soul Society, because if they don't get there in time, they become dangerous soul-eating monsters called Hollows, which Shinigami have to hunt down and kill in order to purify them. In fact, there's a hollow outside the Kurosaki clinic. Ichigo tries to fight it (overwhelming the kido binding via his own spiritual power), but gets himself and Rukia badly injured. Rukia can't fight the hollow on her own, so she gives Ichigo her powers to do it himself.
Ichigo manages to defeat the Hollow, but he's accidentally sucked away all of Rukia's powers (she only meant to give him half), meaning that Rukia is no longer a Shinigami. Ichigo is, and so now he has to do her job around Karakura Town, while she freeloads in his closet.
Ichigo's first case is a Hollow that was once his ditzy classmate Orihime's older brother, who wants to eat her soul so he won't have to leave her (Orihime manages to convince him to give up and accept Ichigo's Soul Burial). His second involves his friend Chad, who has come by a possessed cockatiel that has caused them to get chased by Shrieker, a particularly nasty hollow who was once a Serial Killer that Yuichi (the boy possessing the bird) killed by accident, and who has been tormenting the poor boy ever since, with the (false) claim that he could resurrect Yuichi's mother if the kid played along. He's such an asshole that he gets Dragged Off to Hell upon defeat, instead of being purified and returned to Soul Society. Yuichi does go to Soul Society, being reassured that his mother is there somewhere.
Ichigo then has to deal with an entirely different problem. To be a Shinigami, he must leave behind his physical body, which on its own just lies around like a corpse. Rukia gets him an artificial soul called a Soul Candy to inhabit his body when he's out and about hunting hollows, but her rather shady supplier Urahara mixes up the supply and instead gives her a banned Mod Soul, the result of an experiment in creating Soul Candy that could allow the user's body to also fight while they were out. Mod Souls enhance the body they're in in some way; this particular one has extreme leg strength. Thankfully, while the Mod Soul is a pervert and a bit of a nuisance, he's not malicious, and Ichigo names him Kon and gives him a stuffed animal to inhabit when he's not subbing for Ichigo.
With that goofy mini-arc over, it's serious time, as Ichigo visits his mother's grave and confronts the hollow who killed her- Grand Fisher, an anglerfish hollow who uses a normal-looking ghost as a lure for spiritually powerful people. A young Ichigo mistook the lure for a human girl who might be suicidal, and ran to save her- in turn taking the bait, necessitating his mother Masaki sacrificing herself to save him. This event is what caused Ichigo to be so surly and determined in the present- before Masaki's death, he was actually quite cheerful. Unfortunately, Grand Fisher gets away.
After that, it's back to the sillies, as Ichigo investigates the famous psychic Don Kanoji, who it turns out does have a bit of spiritual power... just enough to make situations worse. Ichigo then has a hollow-killing competition with his classmate Uryu, who is a Quincy- a human with a specific type of spiritual powers centered on magic arrows, who were killed by the Shinigami way back when. Uryu initially wants revenge and is willing to endanger Karakura Town to do it, but Ichigo eventually gets him to see sense and he becomes another member of the friend group. Meanwhile, Ichigo's friends start developing spiritual powers of their own. Orihime has six fairies called the Shun Shun Rikka, and Chad's right arm becomes capable of firing lasers.
All's well that ends well, but unfortunately, the massive chaos Uryu caused has caught some unwanted attention. Specifically, from Rukia's superiors, as giving one's powers to a human is against the law. Ichigo and Uryu try to save Rukia from the two agents sent to retrieve her- her adopted brother Byakuya Kuchiki, and Renji Abarai. Though they put up a good show for two teenagers who have no idea what they're doing, Renji and Byakuya are actual trained shinigami, and quickly overpower the two and leave with Rukia. Byakuya then leaves a parting gift by taking away Ichigo's powers.
All hope is not lost, because Ichigo and friends do have one lead- Urahara, the shopkeeper that Rukia got her artificial body and dodgy soul candy from. Turns out, he isn't just a back-alley dealer for spiritual goodies. He is a former Shinigami himself, and more powerful and knowledgable than he lets on. He and his associates train Ichigo and his friends to use their newfound powers so they can save Rukia, and in Ichigo's case awakens his own dormant Shinigami powers, granting him his own Zanpakuto (shinigami's swords), named Zangetsu.
Now, time to go storm the castle.
Substitute Shinigami Arc has the following tropes
- BFS: Ichigo's first zanpakuto was one, though it was just a oversized blade with no unique abilities that reflected Ichigo's unrefined spirit energy. After he gets his powers back, his new one is even bigger, but has an unusual, unfinished handle.
- Foreshadowing: This arc is chock full of it, setting up major arcs in very subtle ways.
- One of Ichigo's earliest cases is protecting Orihime from her hollowified big brother. He reveals his belief that the reason a big brother is born first is to protect the younger siblings that follow. This foreshadows his climactic battle with Byakuya and the debate they have during that fight over why Byakuya isn't protecting his sister.
- After Grand Fisher is beaten, he is shown being healed and put back together as a more humanoid Hollow. Two arcs later, we learn that he was turned into an Arrancar.
- Chad and Orihime use distinctively different powers than Ichigo, Rukia, and Uryu, who all have a known mentorship thanks to the former two being Soul Reapers and Uryu being a Quincy. Chad and Orihime's powers however are a total mystery, That is until the Lost Agent arc reveals that they are Fullbringers.
- Rukia explains that the difference between Soul Reapers and Quincy when it comes to Hollow extermination is that Soul Reapers "cleanse" the soul, while Quincies "destroy" the soul, and that they went to war over these clashing ideals leading to the extermination of the Quincies. Turns out they weren't fully annihalated and the survivors are able to swiftly turn the tides and Yhwach furthers their goal into destroying all life.
- Ichigo defeats the Menos Grande by harnessing his spiritual pressure into a wave-like attack. This wave-like attack is for all intents and purposes the first Getsugatensho.
- Kick the Dog: Shrieker, a despicable serial killer who, when he became a Hollow due to being tripped up over a balcony by Yūichi, pulled Yūichi's soul from his body and put him in a parakeet. Then lied he would bring Yūichi back to life if he could manage to flee from him for a certain amount of time.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Ishida, as he begins to realize there are more Hollows coming in then he imagined after using the Hollow bait to attract them. Even more so when a Grand Menos appears.
- You Killed My Father: Ichigo initially confronts the Grand Fisher to protect his sisters. During the fight it becomes clear that the Grand Fisher was the Hollow that killed Ichigo's mother. For that reason, Ichigo fights the Grand Fisher alone and Rukia doesn't enter the fight to help him.
Episode 1
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Ichigo can see and talk to spirits, but doesn't believe in Shinigami or the Soul Society. Rukia calls him out on it.
- Curbstomp Battle: Ichigo vs 5 troublemakers who accidentally disarranged a dead girl's memorial place. Ichigo kicks all their asses and forces them to apologize.
- Shout-Out: In the dub, when Rukia says she'll explain why she's in the world of the living, she goes on to say she'll use small words so Ichigo can understand.
