The difference in ability……… what about it? Do you actually think I should give up just because you are stronger than me?
Ichigo Kurosaki
Ichigo Kurosaki is the protagonist of the Bleach anime and manga series. He is a human who along with his family resides in Karakura Town. His family consists of his dad, Isshin Kurosaki, his two sisters, Yuzu and Karen Kurosaki.
Ichigo’s mother, Masaki Kurosaki unfortunately died in the process of protecting him from a Hollow called “Grand Fisher”, who disguised itself as a little girl when Ichigo was a little kid. He as a kid could see spirits, yet he does not become fully aware of this until his adolescence.
One morning, on his way to school, he witnesses a female Soul Reaper [Shinigami] eliminate a Hollow that was terrorizing the city. On that very night, he crosses paths with the same female Soul Reaper who introduces herself as Rukia Kuchiki. As they were engrossed in their talks, another Hollow appeared and threatened to kill Ichigo’s family.
Rukia jumped in to defeat the Hollow but he was insanely strong and left Rukia severely wounded, as Rukia was rendered helpless, she stabs the powerful soul spirit of Ichigo which transforms him into a Soul Reaper [Shinigami].
With the powers of the Soul Reaper thrust upon him, he eliminates the Hollow, thus saving everyone.
In the process of saving his family, Rukia, and himself, he turned into a substitute Soul Reaper who has to shoulder the responsibility of patrolling the Karakura Town for any Hollow or any other evil corrupted spirits that threaten the peace.
| Birthday: | July 15 |
|---|---|
| Age: | 15[Before Timeskip] 17[After Timeskip] 27[Epilogue] 29[Post Epilogue] |
| Gender: | Male |
| Height: | 5’9” [Pre Timeskip] 5’11” [Post Timeskip] |
| Weight: | 134.5 lbs. |
| Race: | Human Quincy Shinigami Visored |
| Blood Type: | A |
| Affiliation: | Kurosaki Clinic Karukura Town Ichigo’s Group Soul Society |
| Occupation: | High School Student Substitute Soul Reaper Unagiya Shop’s Errand Boy |
| Places of Action: | Kurosaki Clinic Karakura Town Soul Society |
| Zanpakuto Shikai: | Zangetsu |
| Zanpakuto Bankai: | Tensa Zangetsu |
| First Appearance: | Episode 1[Anime] Volume 1, Chapter 1[Manga] Bleach: Heat the Soul [Video Game] |
| Relatives: | Isshin Kurosaki [Father] Masaki Kurosaki [Mother, Deceased] Orihime Kurosaki [Wife] Kazui Kurosaki [Son] Karen Kurosaki [Sister] Yuzu Kurosaki [Sister] |
| Voice Actors: | Masakazu Morita [Japanese] Yuki Matsuoka [Japanese, Child] Johnny Yong Bosch [English] Mona Marshall [English, Child] Sergio Zamora [Spanish] Eduardo Garza [Latin] |
Apperence
Ichigo has a very athletic, strong lean-built body with peachy white skin and brown eyes. His most observable trait is his bright orange wild spiky hair which has caused Ichigo to take upon several fights with his bullies and even friends.
He is seen wearing his typical uniform like any other student in his school. However, whenever we see Ichigo outside of school, he is seen wearing slim-fit clothes that fit into the general fashion of adolescent males.
His Soul Reaper [Shinigami] counterpart attire is much more serious and traditional. As a Soul Reaper [Shinigami], Ichigo wears a solid black Hakama with a bright white sash tied around his waist with his truly massive Zanpakuto on his back held by a thick red chord.
While his Bankai is activated, Ichigo’s attire undergoes a slight change, as he adds on a black overcoat which is torn at the edge with blood-red interior lining, which is in resemblance to the spirit of Ichigo’s Zanpakuto: Zangetsu.
PERSONALITY:
Ichigo has a nonchalant attitude towards his surroundings and has mostly frowned upon his face. He is a responsible person who cares deeply about his family and it is this caring that sometimes pushes Ichigo to be very obdurate and sometimes belligerent, often criticizing or yelling at people who are close to his heart.
This behavior of Ichigo is quite different from the one he carried as a young kid. Ichigo as a young boy was very cheerful and giggly, he would burst into a cry anytime something unpleasant and uncanny happened. This cheerful and amiable behavior faded away after he witnessed the death of his dear loving mother. This unfortunate scenario made Ichigo to be compassionate and empathize with other people who are experiencing similar situatuons.
Although the viewers believed that this personality of Ichigo would stay the same throughout the series, Ichigo’s personality changes quite a lot during the Soul Society arc when Rukia was captured and sentenced to execution. He starts to smile a lot more and feels all those emotions he had stopped feeling since the premature death of his mother. Although Ichigo relationships with people do not change a lot, he still becomes more approachable and a lot more open with others.
Despite his loud boisterous attitude, Ichigo is an insanely good critical thinker. This aspect of his well-written character is proved every time we see Ichigo in battle. His crisp sharp analytical thinking allows him to instinctively pick up and notice things that most people easily ignore. Ichigo has an outstanding battle sense as he easily comprehends the abilities and faults of his opponents, he understands where he is lacking in the fight and therefore, he evolves incredibly after every battle which brings him appraisal from friends and foes alike.
At times however, Ichigo becomes extremely shy and is discomforted and is especially teased by Yoruichi Shihoin and Rangiku Matsumoto. Ichigo has a hard time dealing with traditional respect and authority as he appears rude and disrespectful to those older than him. This is depicted in scenes where Ichigo calls out several Captains of the Soul Society by their first name and at times when he calls Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto “Gramps” and “Old Man”.
HISTORY: THE PAST OF ICHIGO KUROSAKI
Ichigo Kurosaki was born to Isshin Kurosaki and Masaki Kurosaki on July 15th with his two sisters Karin and Yuzu Kurosaki were born several years later. At the age of 4, Ichigo joined a karate dojo where he meets and befriends Tatsuki Arisawa who defeats Ichigo every time they spar in the karate dojo. Every time little Ichigo would be bullied by some kids, Tatsuki would beat up those bullies to help Ichigo and lift his spirits whenever he felt low by mocking like close friends.
Ichigo was not aware that his father was himself a Soul Reaper [Shinigami] and his mother was a Quincy [People that murder Hollows using nature force around them] and therefore, he was born as with an extremely strong empowering spiritual pressure and this granted Ichigo the ability to see minor spirits such as Pluses and easily distinguish them from the living.
One evening when Ichigo was 9 years old, he along with his mom was walking back home when he saw a little girl about to jump into one of Karakura Town’s rivers. Impulsively he marched down to save her, unaware of the fact that this was merely a trap to lure Ichigo by the monstrous Hollow, “The Grand Fisher”. Masaki Kurosaki, his mom, shouted after Ichigo to stop but he was already on a run as an innocent child who wanted to save a little girl.
In the attempt of saving Ichigo, his mom suffered fatal injuries while trying to eliminate “The Grand Fisher”. With these fatal injuries, Masaki died and laid upon Ichigo who was knocked unconscious by the Hollow. Aftermath the death of his dear loving mother, Ichigo felt cold and desolate. He would wander around the riverside where his mother had died and would thoughtlessly roam there.
Before the Kurosaki Clinic had opened, a 12-year Ichigo heard a sharp knock on the door of his clinic. Ichigo answered the door only to find a young girl carrying someone on the back-revealed as her brother who was soaked in blood and was in a dire critical situation. Although the clinic had no essential tools required to treat the patient, Ichigo and his family welcomed them inside and provided basic first aid until the ambulance arrived to carry her brother to the city hospital. This girl later turned out to be Ichigo’s future classmate- Orihime Inoue.
A couple of years later when Ichigo joined Mashibi Junior High School, he picked up on fights with various bullies who ridiculed Ichigo for his bright orange hair and it was in this very school that Ichigo has his first-ever victory over Tatsuki Arisawa which was the last fight between the two. Ichigo in middle school also saves Yasutora Sado from a group of delinquents and later when Yasutora Sado was kidnapped by that very group of delinquents, Ichigo tracks down the gang and wins over the gang’s leader, Yokochini. He then calls the ambulance for the injured Yasutora Sado and the two form a pact to always protect each other and have always remained as close friends since then. He even calls Yasutora Sado by his nickname: “Chad”.
Upon his admission into Karakura High School along with Yasutora Sado, Ichigo was already known for his strong reputation. He yet again gets involved in another fight with a gang that was led by Reiichi Oshima. Yasutora and Ichigo together defeat the entire and meet classmates – Keigo Asano and Mizuiro Kojima who although at first were scared of Ichigo, become close friends with Ichigo.
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
INNATE SOUL SPIRIT:
Ichigo belongs to the minority group of humans that possess Innate Soul-Spirit so extraordinary and so empowering that it cannot be contained in their own body and therefore leaks out. This is the reason why some of Ichigo’s close friends have Soul-Spirit namely Yasutora Sado and Orihime Inoue.
This makes Ichigo a complete badass and a powerful beast. The powerful Soul-Spirit of Ichigo flows out as super-strong Spiritual Pressure that has earned Ichigo some big positive remarks from a lot of people. Although at the start of the series Ichigo has no ranking it was hinted in the Soul Society Arc that Ichigo is on a level equal to the Captains of the 13 Squads of the Soul Society.
ZANPAKUTO:
After Ichigo turned into a Substitute Soul Reaper, he possessed a Zanpakuto like any other Soul Reaper. His Zanpakuto was named – “Zangetsu” [Literally means Slaying Moon]. While in its sealed form, Ichigo’s Zanpakuto is just like a regular katana but abnormally huge. While Ichigo underwent training with Kisuke Urahara, he learned out his release his Zanpakuto unleashing the very first form- “Zangetsu’s Shikai”
ZANGETSU’S SHIKAI
When Ichigo unleashes his Zanpakuto, the first form is activated which is Zangetsu’s Shikai. In its form of Shikai, Zangetsu is a large jet-black cleaver almost as tall as Ichigo himself with a white hilt that serves as a handguard. The white hilt wrap around the hilt unravels whenever Ichigo puts his sword into action. One very cool thing about Ichigo’s Zanpakuto- Zangetsu is that it is one of the only two known Zanpakutos that is always in their released state even when the user loses his consciousness.
SHIKAI’S SPECIAL ABILITY
GETSUGA TENSHO [Literally “Moon Fangs Pierce Heaven”] is an extremely concentrated attack of wave soul spirit particles that is unleashed by Ichigo Kurosaki’s Zangetsu.
ZANGETSU’S BANKAI
In the Bankai, Zangetsu’s drastically resemble a Nodachi [which is a large, two-handed, Japanese katana] with a solid black sharp blade, a hilt with a chain attached to it which gets connected to Ichigo’s arm and a Swastik shaped handguard. In the Bankai form, Ichigo’s speed outclasses the “Flash Step”, a high-speed movement technique used by swift Soul Reapers like Byakuya and Yoruichi. This is because Ichigo’s powerful soul spirit compresses to a small lethal katana, it increases his agility by a couple of times.
Getsuga Tensho sometimes backfires in the Shikai mode since the inner Hollow of Ichigo has the power so great that it cannot be suppressed in the Shikai Mode. However, in the Bankai Mode, Ichigo can remarkably use Getsuga Tensho and effortlessly manipulate the dark concentrated waves of spirit. This powerful concentrated dark attack is called Enhanced Getsuga Tensho.
Ichigo with his Bankai mode activated can also use Tensa Zangetsu which has a lot of agility and precision-based attacks but he only uses them for normal or moderate battles.
HOLLOW OR VISORED ABILITIES
It might sound very bizarre but it is true, Ichigo has the powers of a Hollow, not just some typical corrupted Hollow but a very arrogant cocky strong Hollow. Ichigo is not even the first Soul Reaper [Shinigami] to harness the powers of an evil Hollow, a few Soul Reapers had already attained the powers of Hollow while being a Soul Reaper previously.
These Soul Reapers with attained Hollow Powers are termed as Visors. When Ichigo was trying to regain the powers of Soul Reaper, he nearly turned into a Hollow himself. This arrogant inner Hollow that had developed inside Ichigo grew stronger in correlation to Ichigo. At first, Ichigo paid no heed to this issue however, as time progressed, he realized what big of a threat his inner Hollow was as the Hollow would constantly try to take over Ichigo completely.
For this problem, Ichigo approached the Visoreds, who trained Ichigo to use the powerful abilities of a Hollow by turning into a partial Hollow by allowing the Hollow Mask to cover up his face but Ichigo still stays in control of himself. The limitation of this Partial Hollow ability was that Ichigo could stay as a partial Hollow for just 11 seconds after which the mask would break and Ichigo would turn back to his normal state. He finally conquered this limitation in Hueco Mundo [The House of Hollows] after battling several Arrancar of Espada Level.
Complete Hollow Transformation
The unexpected happened between the fight of Ulquiorra and Ichigo when Ulquoirra outpowered Ichigo to such an extent that the latter was about to die. In this absolute state of helplessness and desperation, Ichigo gave in to the Inner Hollow who took complete control over Ichigo’s body.
Ichigo turned into a complete Hollow-like person and his look was unlike the previous partial Hollow look which he was trained for by the Visoreds, this new look had a far eviler aura to it and a lot more ominous animalistic berserk grunge dark visual. With this Complete Hollow Transformation came an exponential surge in his power, Ichigo was able to effortlessly defend against Ulquiorra’s strongest techniques and attacks.
This new power made him forsake all his Soul Reapers powers and pushed to use Hollow techniques such as Sonido and Cedo.
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