Template:Bleach character info Ichigo Kurosaki (黒崎 一護 Kurosaki Ichigo) is the fictional main character of the anime and manga series Bleach who receives shinigami powers as a result of a run-in with Rukia Kuchiki, one of the many shinigami who inhabits Soul Society. The powers came at the cost of Rukia's own, and as a result, Ichigo dedicated his life to working as Rukia's stand-in, fighting to protect people from hollows (evil spirits), and sending "Pluses" (pure souls) off to the afterlife. Template:Spoiler
Character outline
Ichigo (sometimes called "Strawberry", though this nickname is more prevalent in the manga version) is a tough 15-year-old teenager. However, he is kinder and more intelligent than his appearance and attitude would suggest.
In addition, he has always been able to see ghosts. This changes, however, when a wounded Rukia transfers her power to him, in order to save his family from a hollow. As it turns out, Ichigo is very powerful spiritually. With his new power as a shinigami, Ichigo makes quick work of the hollow, and Rukia leaves.
The next day, Rukia turns up in Ichigo's classroom as a transfer student. Much to his surprise, she is now apparently a normal human. The strength of Ichigo's spirit caused him to fully absorb her powers rather than taking half, leaving her trapped in a Gigai- An artificial body that is used by Shinigami for various purposes. While she recovers her abilities, Ichigo must take over her job, watching over the region and battling hollows in her stead.
Ichigo's new duties set off a flurry of activity both in the human and soul worlds. An increased amount of hollows (and at one point, even a Menos Grande, a sort of Superhollow) come to the human world and are dispatched in one form or another by Ichigo, Rukia, and eventually a group of friends whose own powers awaken after prolonged exposure to Ichigo's increased abilities.
At one point, Ichigo loses the powers gained from Rukia after fighting Renji Abarai and Rukia's brother Byakuya Kuchiki - who came to arrest Rukia because she committed treason by transferring her powers to him. Desperate to save Rukia, he undergoes intensive training with Kisuke Urahara that nearly costs him both his life and soul but awakens his own latent shinigami abilities. Immediately upon "re-becoming" a shinigami, he leaves for Soul Society with Orihime, Chad and Ishida to rescue Rukia.
Ichigo battles against many shinigami during his time in Soul Society, managing to tie most of his fights with the lieutenant-level (Abarai Renji) and captain-level shinigami (Byakuya Kuchiki). After leaving Soul Society, he is given a kind of license that allows him to hunt hollows in his area officially. He is currently facing off against a group of arrancar that have come to his hometown.
Ichigo's powers
Though Ichigo already had a marked (though latent) amount of spiritual ability as a result of his lineage, once he receives power from Rukia, they are unlocked and begin their increased climb. Amongst other things, this is reflected in the enormous zanpakutō he manifests (the zanpakutō, or soul cutter, is the primary weapon of all shinigami, and its size correlates with spiritual strength).
Zangetsu/"Old Man"
Like any other shinigami, Ichigo has a zanpakutō. Ichigo's zanpakutō is named Zangetsu (lit. moon cutter or cutting moon), and nicknamed "old man" by Ichigo, as its materialized form seems to resemble a 30-40 year old man (in Japanese, they are referred to as "uncle")
During his initial sealed state, Zangetsu just looks like a giant version of a normal zanpakutō. It has a rectangular handguard and Ichigo carries it in a giant sheathe on his back. This version has not been seen since Byakuya Kuchiki broke it in two. Ichigo continues using what's left of it until Kisuke Urahara chops it to bits during his training.
The shikai form of Zangetsu is an "incomplete sword" with no guard or sheath. It bears the appearance of a giant elegant cleaver. It is as tall as he, around six feet, is and has a black blade and silver edge. This is intended to reflect Ichigo's lack of control over his power, as it appears that the sealed form of the zanpaku-tō is not its natural form, the shikai is. Upon learning their zanpakutō's name, most shinigami gain the control to keep it in a subdued state. Ichigo has not yet been able to (or not wished to) do this. Most members of Soul Society who carry a zanpakutō are disciplined to subjugate their zanpakutō's spirit, Ichigo has naturally not undergone this conditioning.
He carries it wrapped in a bandage-like cloth on his back, though the cloth is actually generated by Zangetsu himself. When in battle, it shrinks away from the blade and hangs like a decorative scarf from the bottom of the hilt. Zangetsu's special ability, named Getsuga Tenshō (lit. moon sky-piercing fang), is to fire concentrated energy beams from its tip. Kisuke Urahara forces Ichigo to perfect this ability in order to fight at least at lieutenant level.
Zangetsu's cloth has also been used as a weapon by a "ghost" Zangetsu summoned, who used it to swing the sword around and attack at considerable distances. It has been established that this ghost was actually Ichigo's inner hollow. Ichigo used this himself in order to destroy a massive execution ground (stand of Sōkyoku), implying the technique can be used to temporarily focus and enhance his power.
The bankai form of Zangetsu, named Tensa Zangetsu (lit. chains of heaven - slicing moon), is considered completely out of the ordinary for any zanpakutō. It consists of an ordinary katana (or it could be considered a Nodachi, as it is the same size as Ichigo (174 cm)) with a black blade, a handguard in the shape of the manji, which is the kanji for "ban" (full), and a short broken chain dangling as the blade's tassle and replacing the lon cloth from its Shikai form.
As explained by Byakuya Kuchiki, Ichigo's bankai appears to be a compression of his power, rather than a vast expansion as other bankai are. This hugely compressed power enables Ichigo to move at incredible speed, far surpassing shunpo (flash steps), and agility to match, while allowing him to use his strength to its limits. It appears as though Ichigo has yet to fully master his bankai though, because while fighting using his bankai, Ichigo's body hasn't been able to keep up with power for long, rendering inmovable at some point, furthermore we see additional proof: at that time his inner hollow came out to fight Byakuya, it used a number of abilities that Ichigo himself probably couldn't when he was in control (including a black crescent-shaped energy waves called Kuroi Getsuga, though Ichigo himself fired off blue energy waves called Getsuga Tenshou).
Vizards are shinigami who have acquired hollow powers through the usage of forbidden spells and techniques. As Ichigo had done in his confrontation with Kuchiki Byakuya, it has been implied that forcibly removing the mask that was appearing due to his inner hollow's takeover also made him into a vizard. While Ichigo also has shinigami and hollow powers, his method of acquiring them, while unknown to most (with the exception of Urahara), is not through the same method as vizards. However, since Ichigo is more similar to Vizards than the other group of hybrids (vizards are the shinigami-hollow hybrids, arrancar are hollow-shinigami hybrids), the vizards are keen to add Ichigo to their ranks. To date, very little is known about this group.
It is somewhat implied that Ichigo is a perfectly balanced hybrid of hollow and shinigami since he became a hollow and a shinigami at exactly the same time.
Ichigo's family
Ichigo lives with his father, Isshin Kurosaki, and two sisters, Yuzu and Karin. His mother Masaki Kurosaki died six years ago while protecting the young Ichigo from being attacked by a hollow. His father runs a small medical clinic in their house and the entire family pitches in to help. His father is always excited, and constantly "fights" with Ichigo, although it is always in a joking way. Karin is extremely athletic, active, and can suppress her feelings while Yuzu is very passive and emotional.
On the outside, this seems to be a fairly normal family, except for one fact. Ichigo has had an exceptional ability for much of his life: he is able to see and communicate with ghosts. As a matter of fact, the entire Kurosaki family has some degree of spiritual power. Of the children, Ichigo has the most amount of spiritual power (consequently making him the strongest), with Karin coming in next and Yuzu ranking in last. It is also known that their mother had spiritual power. This leads to the belief that the Kurosaki children get their power from their mother's side. Initially, Karin can see ghosts (though not shinigami or hollows) as clearly as Ichigo, while Yuzu can only see fuzzy outlines and hear ghosts.
As the series progresses, everybody's powers increases (including some of Ichigo's spiritually-aware friends) because of their contact through Ichigo. Ichigo has an incredible amount of spiritual force, but he cannot control it well; due to this fact, he leaks out his spiritual power (unconsciously and unaware that he is doing this), which affects spiritually-aware people close to him.
Later on in the manga, Ichigo's father is revealed to be a captain-level Shinigami whom even Urahara knew. This suggests that Ichigo gets his tremendous powers from his father. This is the first case of a shinigami having a child which would render Ichigo very special indeed. It has yet to be determined if Yuzu and Karin have the same potential.
Trivia
- Bleach creator Tite Kubo assigned several characters theme songs which are used to give insight to characters that might not normally appear in the run of the manga or anime. In Ichigo's case, the song is "News From the Front", by Bad Religion.
- Ichigo likes chocolate and spicy food. His favourite celebrities are Al Pacino and Mike Ness, the person he admires most is William Shakespeare.
- Ichigo's birthday is on the most important day of Obon, a Japanese festival honoring one's deceased ancestors.
External links
- Deathberry - fansite and fanlisting for Ichigo Kurosaki, listed at the animefanlistings.org