Bleach has a huge cast split over three major realms. Not all of them get a chance to shine, especially with the truncated finale.
- Out of all of Ichigo's friends, Sado probably suffered from this the most. Initially, he was set up as a strong ally to Ichigo, with his backstory and devotion to Ichigo endearing many in the fanbase to him. However, as the series progressed, Sado was often used to establish the threat level of antagonists, with many of his victories being immediately undercut by crushing defeats. Despite attempts to avert this with Sado being made, Kubo never really seemed to follow through. All the training he underwent ending up as a bad case of Hard Work Hardly Works and his character arc unintentionally being cut short every time. The Lost Agent arc explores Fullbring (Sado's power type) and has him join the Xcution group to help Ichigo regain his Shinigami powers, yet Sado is barely part of the training process, establishes no relationships with the other Xcution members, and learns nothing from his time with the Fullbringers. Ultimately he was used as a pawn against Ichigo by the villains and not even allowed to join the final battle against the Fullbringers. The final arc is no better either, as he has very little if any relevance either.
- Nelliel, Pesche and Dondochakka tag along with Ichigo for much of the Hueco Mundo arc largely as comic relief. Then Nelliel is revealed to be a former Espada in Sleep-Mode Size, and the latter pair are secretly her Fracción Obfuscating Stupidity. She regains her true form and starts kicking Nnoitra's ass...and then her power runs out. Basically a glorified Hope Spot. She quietly disappears from the story after Kenpachi wins the fight in her place. Her Fracción likewise get serious against Szayelapporo only to have their efforts No Selled, and are literally tossed away by Nemu after Mayuri wins the fight in their place. Worse, there's no follow up to them once the arc's over. They're just gone without a trace for the Deicide through Fullbringer arcs before returning for the Vandenreich arc wherein, despite receiving a bracelet from Urahara to maintain her adult form, Nelliel only gets set up for an offscreen rescue before the rushed ending.
- Uryu Ishida unfortunately fell into this camp during the Thousand Year Blood War arc. Considering the fact that the arc was focused on the Quincies, and he was the only truly established Quincy before it began, it would make a lot of sense for Uryu's character to be heavily spotlighted and his backstory examined, especially when it's revealed that he has joined the Vandenreich. Instead Uryu appeared very sporadically throughout the arc with only a little focus on his character when necessary. Worse the reveal that he was a mole within the Vandenreich (already in itself a patently obvious reveal) comes off as poorly thought-out on his part, since he doesn't really accomplish anything in this role. Uryu doesn't even have a proper fight during the arc getting mostly Curb Stomped off-screen by Jugram before the latter gets absorbed by Yhwach and then only getting to fire a single arrow at said villain (although that arrow happened to be Yhwach's Kryptonite Factor, weakening him enough that Ichigo could finish him off).
- The Visoreds during the final arc. The three returning captains, Shinji, Rose and Kensei are beaten around in each fight they show up in (the latter two outright die, get briefly zombified, and despite being cured by Mayuri, only reappear in the epilogue), and they glaringly never even attempt to use their Hollow masks, which would not only augument their powers but could give them an advantage against the Quincies, who are revealed to be susceptible to the essence of Hollows. The other Visoreds sparsely appear, with their most notable appearance being an utterly inconsequential team attack on the enlarged Gerard (though at least they tried using their masks).
- Tessai Tsukabishi. He's a former Soul Reaper of the Kido Corps, making him essentially The Archmage in terms of Kido, and potentially the best (or one of the best) users of it in the series. Plus he has a history for Urahara, the Visoreds, and knew of Aizen's evil like those who were wronged by him. Unlike just about all the other exiled Soul Reapers, he never gets any chance to appear in any meaningful way beyond being a shopkeeper, while being mostly comic relief. He's the only one of that group to not show up to fight Aizen or the Vandenreich, which is strange when everyone else appears in either arc to fight.
- Jushiro Ukitake. One of the oldest Captains in the series, essentially the equal to Kyouraku, and someone tied to the deep history of Soul Society alongside Yamamoto, Unohana, and Kyouraku. Of all of them, he's used the least in the wider story, sitting on the sidelines for most of the story and only having two fights, one against Yamamoto that is offscreen, while the other, a brief fight against Starrk, gets ended when Wonderweiss injuries him and takes him out for the rest of the arc. This is made worse in the final arc, where it turns out he's Living on Borrowed Time thanks to having a piece of the Soul King in him as a child, only to then perform a Heroic Sacrifice that only buys the heroes a few minutes at best. Compared to the other three Captains, he gets barely any usage in the story, his powers are barely explained and utilized, and his personality remains almost entirely just a Nice Guy even with the vague hints of Beware the Nice Ones. While some of this is understandable since he has an illness that cripples him occasionally, he doesn't get much exploration save his past, which is used to justify his Heroic Sacrifice moreso than giving him more depth.
- Ginjo was the first Substitute Soul Reaper who turned against the Soul Society because he felt betrayed. His actions were the reason it was against the law to give humans Soul Reaper powers. He had potential to explore more of Soul Society's dark past and being setup as Ichigo's Evil Counterpart. Despite having all these interesting elements Ginjo's history wasn't explored in detail unlike the other members of the Xcution and he's defeated in a single chapter after both he and Ichigo release their bankai. Fans felt cheated at not getting Ginjo's history, especially since it was hinted that he knew of Urahara and Isshin. He had the chance to appear in the final arc, but he only appears roughly twice before vanishing, both times being mostly just cameo roles with no significance.
- Tatsuki is possibly Bleach's crowning example of a wasted character. Early on in the story, things seemed to be setting up for her to join the main cast. To wit, she is a childhood friend of Ichigo, is one of the best martial artists in the country, and develops spiritual awareness early on. However, once characters started getting powers, Tatsuki didn't. After this, she spends several arcs Locked Out of the Loop and hell-bent on figuring what the hell is going on with her friends. She's shown several times to have high spiritual power for a human, and when the Deicide arc comes around, she's the first person in Karakura to wake up. After Aizen's defeat, she finally gets the explanation that she's been looking for off-screen, and then she has no further relevance, only making small appearances for the rest of the series. In response to fan frustrations about Tatsuki's lack of development, Tite Kubo explained that her role was reduced because Shueisha wanted to focus on the Shinigami.
- While the Sternritters on a whole had some wasted characters, Robert Accutrone stood out at first for his Old Soldier appearance and mentality in an organization that was filled with younger characters, on top of his first showcase being a No-Nonsense Nemesis who shoots out Shunsui's eye, all of which made it seem like he was going to be a fairly important antagonist. Despite a strong first showing, he vanishes for most of the final arc, only reappearing out of the blue to try and kill Ichigo, before being offscreen beaten by Byakuya with no difficulty, and then being killed by Yhwach, leading many readers to feel he should have been given more spotlight considering how he was introduced. The series never even reveals what his powers were. At the very least, he's given a better showcase in the anime where his battle with Byakuya is shown and he's given a Sklaverei power-up, with his ability being hinted to be speed-based, but it only highlighted how wasted he was after his first showing.
- Despite his backstory suggesting he's going to be a massively important character, Ryuuken is heavily underused in the series. He gets one "fight" against Uryu when wanting to unlock Uryu's powers again, before sitting around for the rest of the series, only making brief appearances at best. In particular, the final arc seems to place importance on Ryuuken due to the flashbacks that detail how Isshin and Masaki met, but after the flashbacks end, he only shows up once, and its to hand over something to kill the Big Bad. Compared to Isshin, the character he is most compared to in the story, Ryuuken feels like he was never given the chance to be explored unless it furthered Ichigo or Uryu's character arcs, with many feeling that the plotpoints established about him weren't developed or used enough.
- Kon's introductory arc paints him as a considerably more serious character, refusing to take life as a result of having lived in fear of being discarded. After this, though, he's mostly portrayed as perverted comic relief and occupies Ichigo's body whenever he goes out as a Soul Reaper, and he ends up having almost no appearances as the story goes in before getting only one or two appearances in the final arc and then vanishing again. Although he's used in a lot of supplementary material, some people feel that Kon could be used for so much more.
- Byakuya is an odd example in the final arc; despite being around for almost the entire arc, after his fight with Äs Nödt at the start of the arc, he plays no role aside from being involved in other characters' fights. Everything following the aforementioned fight feels like Kubo had no idea what to do with him but didn't want to outright kill him off because of his popularity: he regains his Bankai from Äs before even returning to the Seireitei through Urahara's invention, and then Rukia defeats Äs while Byakuya just shows up for moral support, which completely shuts out any possibility of a rematch; his "fight" against Pepe ends when Mayuri's zombie Captains step in and defeat Pepe, while Liltotto is the one who kills him; and despite being involved in the fight against Gerard from start to finish, the fight focuses on Kenpachi and Hitsugaya, with his only real "contribution" being a finishing move against Gerard that just powers him up again. There are some fans who feel like he would have been better off dying so others (like the Visoreds or humans) could be given more screentime. The anime at least gives some mild expansion on some of the stuff he did, but it only highlighted how Out of Focus he is.
- Sui-Féng is a glaring example on two fronts:
- First and foremost, we're told in supplemental material that she and her division routinely scout enemy territory and that they exel at espionage. Yet, the reader never gets to see it for themselves. Instead, Kubo repeatedly has her act out in the open, or simply attacking the enemy head-on like Ichigo and Zaraki.
- Second, her skill set sounds impressive on paper, except almost every enemy she faces is able to No-Sell all her abiliities. Her Shunko? Yoruchi had already discovered it and was far better at it. Her 2-hit kill Shikai only worked against a lowly Fraccion, everyone else rendered it useless. Even her bankai ultimately failed to accomplish anything, other than to show how resilient Barragan and BG9 were.
