Yasutora Sado

Yasutora Sado (茶渡 泰虎, Sado Yasutora) is a major character of the anime and manga series Bleach. He is a teenager who studies in the same class as Ichigo Kurosaki. Yasutora is better known as Chad, mainly because the first character in his name (茶) is almost always read as cha (meaning tea). He sometimes carries a nametag so most assume his name is Chado (Chad).

Character outline

Chad is a teenager of Mexican descent. He is extremely tall and looks much older than he really is. He is also extremely tough, demonstrated in an early episode where he is hit by a falling steel girder, and soon after suffers a head-on motorcycle collision, but retains the energy to carry the cyclist to the hospital.

Chad usually wears either his school uniform, a Hawaiian shirt, or a plain white purplish shirt with a red stripe (during the Soul Society saga). He has a tattoo on his left shoulder which reads 'Amore e Morte' (love and death in Italian) and consists of a heart, snake and angel wings around the heart.

He is generally untalkative (which is sometimes the subject of jokes), but is treated equally within his group of friends in Karakura (Ichigo, Keigo and Mizuiro). Chad also has a weakness for cute things, like small animals and Kon.

History

Chad was born in Okinawa, but taken to Mexico by his parents at a young age. They died there, and Chad was adopted by a man named Oscar Joaquin de la Rosa, whom Chad called Abuelo ('grandfather' in Spanish).

During his early years, Chad was extremely violent and because of his size, intimidated and hit any other children that annoyed him. Abuelo tried to teach Chad to be gentle, but was initially unsuccessful. However, one day Chad was attacked by the fathers of the children he would fight, seeking to punish him. Abuelo stepped in for Chad, taking his punishment without retaliation. Chad was inspired by this example to become a decent person. Afterwards, Abuelo gave Chad a Mexican coin. Years later, when Abuelo had died, Chad made a vow that he would never fight unless it was to protect others, as instructed - even if his own life was in danger. The coin would come to symbolise this vow, which Chad now claims to hold more value than his own life.

Much later, this was used against him when some thugs captured him and threatened to destroy the coin. Ichigo saved him from them, and made a pact with Chad that they would fight for each other, because Chad wouldn't fight to protect himself.

When Abuelo died, Chad decided to return to Japan, where he entered Mashiba Jr. High School. He met Ichigo slightly before the school year started when he saved Ichigo from being injured by local thugs. Eventually he and Ichigo were transferred to Karakura High.

Because of his constant involvement with gangsters, Chad gained a reputation as a ruthless gangster himself. Others were scared of him when he first entered Karakura High, though this later changed.

School

Chad studies in the same class as Ichigo. He is a highly capable student, being the 11th best in school in terms of academic achievement.

Synopsis

Early story

Chad first appears as a student in Ichigo's class. Days after Ichigo becomes a shinigami, Chad is offered a cursed cockatiel whose previous owners have all died horrible deaths. He takes possession of the cockatiel and over the next day, Chad is hit by a steel girder, hit head-on by a motorcycle and is involved in a large traffic accident. His is treated at the Kurosaki clinic with a mark of a hollow's hand burned on to his back. The hollow confronts Rukia and Chad with Chad scoring a hit on the hollow who he cannot see. The cockatiel reveals himself as Yūichi Shibata, a boy who accidentally killed a serial killer who had killed Shibata's mother. As a hollow, the serial killer got his revenge on the boy by imprisoning him in the cockatiel's body, claiming he could bring back Shibata's mother. Ichigo defeats the hollow who is sent to Hell. Ichigo performs a soul burial on Shibata with the hope he can meet his mother in Soul Society. Chad promises that if he ever meets Shibata again, he will carry him around as he did over the last few days.

When Ishida uses hollow bait to release a multitude of hollows in Karakura Town, Chad leads a hollow that he can barely see away towards a field. He meets Karin Kurosaki who can fully see the hollow chasing Chad. She helps Chad fight the hollow but Chad is thrown aside. He realizes his huge strength is to be used to protect people and punches off the hollows arm. Chad's arm is now armored and uses it to defeat the hollow. Chad is taken by Kisuke Urahara to his shop and finds Inoue there who has also been taken after her hollow encounter. They are taken to a bridge to see Ichigo fighting the Menos Grande and choose whether they will use their newfound powers to help Ichigo.

Soul Society arc

After Rukia is taken back to Soul Society, Chad and Inoue are trained by the talking cat, Yoruichi Shihouin, to consciously call upon their powers when needed. After a week, Chad leaves for Soul Society with Orihime, Ishida, Yoruichi, and Ichigo. In Rukongai, Chad is reunited with Shibata who has not found his mother but is living with a "family" of non-related people.

When the group is separated once entering the Seireitei, Chad ends up alone. Chad narrowly misses reuniting with Ichigo when he blasts a wall giving Ichigo a chance to escape from the 11th Division. Chad defeats the remaining 11th Division members with a single blast from his arm. Chad finds his way into 8th Division headquarters and defeats the 3rd Seat, Tatsufusa Enjōji, with another single blast. He continues on his way but is confronted by Shunsui Kyōraku. After both try to convince each other to yield, Chad fires a blast at Kyōraku, who easily deflects it. Chad fires several more but all either miss or are deflected by the captain. Chad reaffirms his promise to Ichigo to each fight for what the other protects and puts all his strength into a final blast at Kyōraku. He easily dodges and slashes Chad's chest.

Chad is put in a holding cell and healed by the 4th Division where he finds himself with Ganju Shiba and Uryū Ishida. They are freed by Kenpachi Zaraki and are reunited with Inoue. Zaraki's lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi leads the group to the Sōkyoku where they wait as Ichigo and Byakuya Kuchiki fight. After Byakuya is defeated, the group tends to Ichigo. They then find out that the events at Soul Society were an elaborate ploy masterminded by Sōsuke Aizen and confront him but Aizen departs for Hueco Mundo. Ishida, Sado, Ichigo, and Inoue depart for the living world.

After Soul Society

Manga

After returning from Soul Society, a new student, Shinji Hirako, arrives at the high school. After Shinji's arrival, Ichigo begins to act suspiciously. Chad and Inoue follow Shinji and overhear Shinji talking to Hiyori Sarugaki about convincing Ichigo to join them. Hiyori threatens to kill them but is taken away by Shinji. Inoue begins to chase them but Chad tells her not to, realizing that they will die if they follow unprepared.

Suddenly they sense a huge spirital pressure caused by the arrival of two arrancar, Ulquiorra and Yammy, and run towards the pressure. Along the way, they find people whose souls have been sucked out by Yammy but are already dead. Once they arrive, Chad saves Tatsuki Arisawa from an attack by Yammy. Chad begins to attack but has his armored arm torn by Yammy. Orihime defends herself and tries to heal Chad until Ichigo arrives. Ichigo uses his final release (bankai) and repays Chad's right arm by cutting off Yammy's right arm. Ichigo begins to lose control of his hollow self but Yoruichi and Urahara arrive to save them. Ulquiorra and Yammy withdraw having accomplished their mission of fighting and assesing Ichigo. Chad's heavily injured arm is healed by Urahara and Inoue. His injury is extensive and requires Ayame and Shun'ō to stay with Chad.

After many days of healing, Chad leaves a healing session when he senses arrancar. He is attacked by D-roy but Ichigo blocks D-roy's attempt to use his bare hand to stab Chad's heart. Ichigo tells Chad to go and leave D-roy to him. Chad leaves and sees that because of his weakness compared to Ichigo, he can no longer fulfill his promise to fight alongside Ichigo. After the arrancar are defeated and Grimmjow Jaggerjack returns to Hueco Mundo, Chad begs Urahara to train him to become stronger. Urahara decides to have Renji Abarai help in training Chad in exchange for answering all of Renji's questions. Chad begins training by fighting Renji and his final release. Inoue is called to Urahara's shop to be informed that she will not be needed in the upcoming war. Chad protests and says that Inoue is useful for healing and defense but Urahara states that her shield will be of little help and the 4th Division can heal in greater numbers than Inoue. Orihime accepts her situation and runs back home. After Orihime is captured by Aizen, Chad and Ishida offer their services to Ichigo to help rescue her. Ichigo is hesitant to accept their help at first, fearing they might get hurt, but changes his mind after seeing a demonstration of Chad's new arm. Urahara opens a portal to Hueco Mundo and the trio depart. Upon arriving within Hueco Mundo, the trio engage two arrancar named Iceringer and Demōra. Ishida and Chad engage the two, and tell Ichigo to simply watch. After switching opponents, Chad was able to blow Demōra back and over Iceringer, breaking his remaining mask at the same time, with one punch.

Anime

In the anime after the Soul Society arc Chad returns to school and helps Ichigo defeat the modified souls created by Kisuke Urahara. He is taken captive along with Orihime Inoue, and the modified soul Claude impersonates him in front of Ichigo, who eventually identifies the impostor.

When the war against the Bount starts, Chad forms part of the group which aims to defeat them. He is paired with the modified soul Nova to seek out and destroy the Bount. He encounters Sawatari and fights him along with Rangiku Matsumoto, Nova and Ururu Tsumugiya. The battle ends undecided.

Chad's powers

File:Chad arm2.JPG

Chad's armored arm

When first introduced, Chad had no special powers aside from his unusal stength and could not even see ghosts, although seemingly able to hear them. After his encounter with the cockatiel boy Yūichi Shibata, he started to see the approximate locations of ghosts and hollows, but could not fully see them yet. Finally, after saving Karin Kurosaki from a hollow during the match between Uryū Ishida and Ichigo, Chad started fully seeing spirits.

The same event also awakened his latent spiritual abilites, which manifested itself as armour on his right arm (dubbed the right arm of the giant), colored black with a red and white stripe (the colors used on Mexican military dress uniforms). In this form, Chad can fire off powerful energy blasts from his arm. After receiving training from Yoruichi Shihouin, Chad learns to activate his powers at will and gains enough stamina to fire multiple blasts.

File:Chads arm.JPG

Chad's improved armoured arm

After seeing how helpless he was against the arrancar who invaded Karakura Town, Chad requested Kisuke Urahara to train him. Urahara proceeded to pit him in single combat against Renji Abarai's final release. He also noted Chad's powers still had room to grow, but they did not resemble Quincy or shinigami powers. As a result of this training, the pattern on Chad's arm becomes more intricate, with a corresponding increase in power: when engaging the arrancar Demōra, Chad was able to break the arrancar's remaining mask and send him flying with a single punch. However, the speed of his attacks are still lacking, a fact commented on by Demōra's partner Iceringer.

Trivia

• His nickname, Chad, is a word play on his family name, Sado. The kanji used for 'Sa' is also the kanji used for tea, usually pronounced 'Cha.' Add that to 'Do,' and you get 'Chado,' or the American equivalent, Chad.
• Chad's favourite food is tomatoes.
• He likes music so he rarely watches TV. The only program he likes is "Carnivor Kingdom" that starts at 8 AM on Sundays. He likes it so much that he bought the DVDs for it. Not surprisingly, since Kon is a cheap knock-off plushie of the main character of "Carnivor Kingdom", Chad finds Kon especially cute.
• Chad has a guitar, but it is not known if he plays it. It has been shown in Chad's room in episode 69 and in the 8th anime ending sequence. It's also shown on episode 9 after a "band practice". In the manga, he is seen carrying it immediately preceding the appearance of the incomplete arrancar.
• The Mexican coin Chad wears as his grandfather's memento was minted sometime between 1823 and 1909, and has the words 'Republica Mexicana' engraved on it, as well as the Mexican National Emblem. The monetary reform of 1905 minted Mexican coins with the words 'Estados Unidos Mexicanos,’ which are seen on the Mexican peso today.
• Chad's power is markedly similar to Kazuma's in the anime/manga s-CRY-ed. They even grow the armor on the same arm. As well, some fans have nicknamed Chad's ability to fire energy blasts from his arm "Spirit Gun".