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Bleach (manga)

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Bleach (manga)
File:Bleach cover 01.jpg
Cover of Bleach Manga Vol. 1
GenreAction, Shōnen, Supernatural
Created byTite Kubo
Manga
Written byTite Kubo
Published byJapan Shueisha
Anime
Directed byNoriyuki Abe
StudioStudio Pierrot
Anime
Bleach: Memories of Nobody
Directed byNoriyuki Abe
Related works

Bleach (ブリーチ, Burīchi, romanized as BLEACH in Japan) is an ongoing manga series authored by mangaka Tite Kubo. Since its debut in 2001, Bleach has been adapted into an anime series, two OVAs, an anime film, a rock musical, and numerous video games. Compilation volumes of the manga have sold over 36 million copies in Japan.

Bleach follows the lives of Ichigo Kurosaki, who is a high school student with the ability to see ghosts, and a shinigami (Soul Reaper or, literally, "death god") named Rukia Kuchiki, who crosses paths with Ichigo while hunting an evil spirit known as a hollow. Rukia is wounded during the ensuing confrontation with the spirit and is left with no choice but to transfer her powers into Ichigo. Thus the adventures of Ichigo and Rukia begin. Together they search for hollows and perform soul burials on wayward souls, cleansing the spirits and sending them to Soul Society. The early parts of the story focus mainly on the characters and their pasts, rather than the actual occupation of the shinigami. As events unfold, the story begins to delve deeper into the world of these gods of death on the "other side" called Soul Society.

Media information

Main article: Bleach media and materials
See also: List of Bleach chapters, List of Bleach episodes, List of Bleach video games, and Bleach (musical)

The Bleach manga was first released in August of 2001 in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. New Japanese-language chapters are featured weekly in the same magazine; 273 chapters have been released as of April 27, 2007. The manga has been compiled into 27 tankōbon by Shueisha. The first volume of the manga sold over 1.25 million copies in Japan, and the series as a whole has sold over 36 million volumes.[1] In 2005, Bleach was awarded the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category.[2]

The Bleach animated TV series is broadcast on Wednesdays by TV Tokyo and affiliated stations throughout Japan. It is co-produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Studio Pierrot and directed by Noriyuki Abe, with character designs by Masashi Kudō and music by Shiro Sagisu.[3] The first episode was aired on October 5, 2004. The first 63 episodes were based on the manga, and the following 46 were original to the anime. Beginning with episode 110, the anime has returned to the manga storyline, yet incorporates elements from the previous 46 filler episodes. There are no plans to end production of the series. In addition, two OVAs have been produced and an animated film, Bleach: Memories of Nobody, was released in Japan on December 16, 2006. In a 2006 internet poll by TV Asahi, Bleach was ranked as Japan's seventh-favorite anime program.[4]

VIZ Media has released 18 English-language volumes of the manga in North America, and numerous scanlation groups continue to release unofficial English translations of new chapters. North American sales of the manga have been high, with Volume 16 placing in the top 10 graphic novel sales in December 2006[5] and Volume 17 being the best-selling manga volume for the month of February 2007.[6][7] On March 15, 2006, VIZ Media obtained foreign television, home video, and merchandising rights to the Bleach anime from the TV Tokyo Corporation and Shueisha.[8] Subsequently, VIZ Media contracted Studiopolis to create the English dub of the anime,[9] and has given its individual Bleach merchandising rights to several different companies.[10]

The English version of the Bleach anime premiered on Canada's YTV channel in the Bionix program block on September 8, 2006. Cartoon Network's Adult Swim began airing Bleach the following evening. A Tagalog dub of the anime began airing in the Philippines on the GMA Network[11] on April 16, 2007. The English version of Bleach was nominated for the "best manga" and "best theme" awards at the 2006 American Anime Awards, but did not win either category. It has been nominated again in 2007 in the fields of "best manga", "best actor", "best DVD package design", and "best theme".[12]

Introduction

File:Hollow2.jpg
Ichigo facing down the hollow attacker

Ichigo Kurosaki is a rough-and-tumble teenager who has always had the special ability to see spirits. The story begins with the sudden appearance of an oddly-dressed stranger in Ichigo's bedroom. This stranger is the shinigami Rukia Kuchiki, who is surprised at his ability to see her. Their resulting conversation is interrupted by the appearance of a hollow, an evil spirit. After Rukia is severely wounded during battle trying to protect Ichigo, she decides to transfer half of her powers to Ichigo, hoping to give him the opportunity to face the hollow on an equal footing. Ichigo unintentionally absorbs almost all of Rukia's powers during the attempt, allowing him to defeat the hollow with ease.

The next day, Rukia turns up in Ichigo's classroom as a transfer student. Much to his surprise, she now appears to be a normal human. She theorizes that it was the unusual strength of Ichigo's spirit that caused him to fully absorb her powers, thus leaving her stranded in the human world. Rukia has transferred herself into a gigai — an artificial human body — while waiting to recover her abilities. In the meantime, Ichigo must take over her job as a shinigami, battling hollows and guiding lost souls to the afterlife.

Main characters

See also: Characters in Bleach
Ichigo Kurosaki (黒崎 一護, Kurosaki Ichigo) Voiced by: Masakazu Morita (Japanese); Johnny Yong Bosch (English)
The primary protagonist of Bleach, orange-haired high school freshman Ichigo Kurosaki is forced to become a substitute shinigami after unwittingly absorbing all of Rukia's powers. His cynical nature at first makes him ill-disposed towards the duty, but with the passage of time he comes to accept and welcome it, recognizing that even if he is not able to save everyone, he can at least use his skills to protect those close to him. Later, when Ichigo loses his powers as a substitute, he chooses to risk death in an attempt to become a full-fledged shinigami.
Rukia Kuchiki (朽木 ルキア, Kuchiki Rukia) Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese); Michelle Ruff (English)
Rukia Kuchiki is a shinigami who was sent on a hollow extermination patrol in Ichigo Kurosaki's hometown. Though her physical appearance is that of a teenage girl, she is actually over a hundred years old. Rukia is forced to transfer her power to Ichigo and assume a temporary lifestyle as a regular human. She registers at the local high school and takes up residence in Ichigo's closet, while teaching him how to be a substitute shinigami in her place.
Orihime Inoue (井上 織姫, Inoue Orihime) Voiced by: Yuki Matsuoka (Japanese); Stephanie Sheh (English)
Orihime Inoue is a long-time classmate of Ichigo, closely linked to him by mutual friend Tatsuki Arisawa. She is effectively an orphan, as she and her elder brother Sora ran away from their abusive home at a young age, and her brother later died. Though initially devoid of spiritual powers, she begins to develop spiritual awareness and later possesses some of the most powerful healing abilities in the Bleach universe, able to completely restore a body to its previous state regardless of how severely it is wounded.
Yasutora "Chad" Sado (茶渡 泰虎, Sado Yasutora) Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto
Yasutora Sado, better known as Chad, is one of Ichigo's few friends at school. He is a half-Japanese, half-Mexican student who towers over his classmates. Despite his imposing appearance he is quite meek, and refuses to fight unless it is for the sake of another. He does not have any awareness of ghosts at first, but when he witnesses a group of children being attacked by a hollow he discovers a unique ability that strengthens and armors his right arm and lets him fight hollows.
Kisuke Urahara (浦原 喜助, Urahara Kisuke) Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki (Japanese); Michael Lindsay (English)
A mysterious and cheery man, Kisuke Urahara runs the Urahara Shop, a candy store that also sells supernatural items to shinigami. Despite his sanguine nature he is one of the most significant figures in the Bleach universe, bearing immense knowledge of the spiritual realms which he uses to mastermind the operations of the protagonists.
Uryū Ishida (石田 雨竜, Ishida Uryū) Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama (Japanese); Derek Stephen Prince (English)
Though on the surface nothing more than the solitary class genius, Uryū Ishida is actually a Quincy, descendant of a line of priest-like hollow-hunting archers. He bears a deep grudge against all shinigami, including Ichigo Kurosaki, but comes to view Ichigo differently over time, eventually becoming an ally and friendly rival.
Renji Abarai (阿散井 恋次, Abarai Renji) Voiced by: Kentaro Ito (Japanese); Wally Wingert (English)
Renji Abarai is an elite shinigami bearing the rank of 6th Division lieutenant, making him second in command of a sub-branch of the shinigami armed forces. Although first introduced as a deadly enemy, he has conflicting loyalties between his job and Rukia, with whom he grew up. A brash and driven man, he holds both a deep respect and animosity towards his immediate superior, 6th Division captain Byakuya Kuchiki.

Character types

All Bleach characters are "souls". Living humans contain souls within their bodies, while disembodied souls, or spirits, have a form composed of particles of spiritual energy called ectoplasm (霊子, reishi), which otherwise mimics human anatomy, aside from slowed aging. This form encompasses all of the spirit's being; there is no distinction between mind and body. There are a variety of different types of spirits in Bleach, each with a differing visual theme and approach to combat. The specific types are described below.

  • Human: The humans of Bleach are much like the residents of modern Japan, and most cannot see or sense disembodied spirits in any way. However, spirits can inhabit artificial human bodies called gigai that are visible to ordinary humans. One in 50,000 humans is a medium with some awareness of nearby ghosts, but only a third of these are able to see them clearly, and only the strongest of mediums are actually able to speak with or touch ghosts.[13] Certain unique humans naturally have both the power to sense and the strength to fight with spirits. Ordinary humans can gain the ability to interact with spirits by spending time around a large source of spirit energy.[14]
  • Plus: Benign ghosts in Bleach are known as pluses (wholes in the official English editions). A plus is the spirit of a person who has died.[15] A chain, known as the Chain of Fate (因果の鎖, inga no kusari), protrudes from the chest and binds the plus to a location, object or person that they felt close to in life.[16] The soul can move about freely if the chain is broken, but this also causes the chain to corrode.[16] Normally, pluses are sent to Soul Society by shinigami in a ritual called soul burial (魂葬, konsō) before this corrosion becomes significant. However, if the Chain of Fate is corroded entirely before a soul burial can be performed, a hole will form in the chest of the soul where the chain was once anchored. Such souls are driven mad and become evil ghosts known as hollows.[16] If the Chain of Fate is torn out deliberately, this also leads to spiritual degradation.[17]
  • Shinigami: Shinigami (Soul Reapers in the official English editions, Death Gods in most subtitled versions) are the psychopomps of Bleach. They are souls with inner spiritual power, recruited from the ranks of the residents and nobility of Soul Society. Like all spirits, they cannot be detected by normal humans. Shinigami use their zanpakutō, supernatural swords that are the manifestation of their owners' power, to perform soul burials on pluses.[15] Shinigami also use zanpakutō and magic known as kidō to fight their archrivals, the hollows.[15] A group of shinigami known as the vizard have also obtained hollow powers through illegal means, gaining removable masks and access to certain hollow abilities.
  • Hollow: The hollows are the major antagonists of Bleach. They are evil ghosts who reside in Hueco Mundo but travel to the living world to feed on the souls of the living and dead alike. Like shinigami, hollows are made of spiritual matter and cannot be detected by ordinary humans. While most hollows can be overcome by the average shinigami, some can surpass even the most elite shinigami in strength. All normal hollows wear white masks,[16] but a small group of hollows have broken them, becoming arrancar. By shattering their masks, these hollows regain the ability to reason, obtain a humanoid form, and gain access to some shinigami powers.[18]
  • Artificial soul: Artificial souls are a type of soul mass-produced by the shinigami.[19] Issued in pill form, they are used to force shinigami out of their gigai during protracted stays in the living world, and also to evict pluses that refuse to leave their bodies after death.[19] They come with a pre-programmed personality that animates the host body until the owner returns.[19] In addition to the mundane versions, a series of experimental souls authorized and created by shinigami researchers exists.[20] Known as modified souls, these were meant to hunt hollows by possessing soulless human bodies and supercharging a particular aspect of them (for example, strength or speed).[20] The shinigami decided to scrap the project due to the inhumanity of forcing dead bodies to fight, and ordered the destruction of all modified souls.[20] Only one modified soul exists in the manga, but there are three more such characters in the anime.
File:Quincy (Bleach).jpg
Quincy with their distinctive bows
  • Quincy: The Quincy are a clan of spiritually aware humans who once fought against the hollows, using weapons composed of spiritual energy to slay them.[21] As opposed to shinigami, Quincy absorb and channel energy from their surroundings to fight.[22] Unlike the shinigami method of killing hollows which allows the hollow to enter Soul Society, the Quincy technique simply destroys the hollow's soul entirely.[21] This method has the propensity to shatter the balance of the universe, because when souls are destroyed, the number of souls entering and leaving Soul Society cannot remain equal.[23] This issue prompted the shinigami to conduct a campaign to exterminate the Quincy about 200 years before the main storyline.[24] However, at least two Quincy remain.
  • Bount: Exclusive to the anime, the Bounts are a clan of human beings with high spiritual energy and special powers. They were accidentally created by shinigami scientists looking for a way to create eternal life. Bounts consume the souls of human beings to survive; theoretically, a Bount could live forever by doing so. Although the Bounts have a strict rule to consume only the souls of the dead, the final group of Bounts chose to drain souls from living humans in order to become more powerful. Each Bount uses a "doll" in combat, a type of familiar possessing its own special abilities. Every doll is unique and is a manifestation of the user's power. If the doll is destroyed, its owner is destroyed as well.

Setting

There are several planes of existence in the Bleach universe. These broadly correspond to the life and afterlife of human belief systems. The living humans of Bleach reside in a world resembling the present day; buried souls live in a kind of Heaven called Soul Society; evil souls are sent to Hell. Once in Soul Society, a spirit is able to live much longer than humans in the living world, with many aging into the thousands. Once a spirit dies in Soul Society, its soul is sent back to the living world and reborn as a new human. This provides the two worlds with balance.

  • Human world: The human world of Bleach is modern Japan, or more specifically, a fictional area of Western Tokyo called Karakura Town.[25] In this world, Ichigo attends school and fights hollows. Places of note are the high school, Urahara Shop, the river where Ichigo's mother was killed, the cemetery, Karakura Hospital, and Ichigo and Orihime's homes.
File:Soul Society.jpg
A view of Seireitei in Soul Society
  • Soul Society: Soul Society consists of an expansive walled city (Seireitei, "Court of Pure Souls"), in the center and four regions, each with 80 districts, outside of it. The districts outside of the Seireitei are known as the Rukongai ("Town of Wandering Spirits") and are the place where non-shinigami and commoners live.[26] The district number of the Rukongai (ranging from 1 to 80) also describes its conditions.[27] District 1, the closest to Seireitei, is peaceful and orderly, while the most distant District 80 is filled with criminals and has the poorest living conditions.[27] A king resides in another realm within Soul Society.
  • Hueco Mundo: Hueco Mundo is the desert-like area between the human world and Soul Society. Literally meaning "hollow world" (the word hueco can also mean "empty"), it is where hollows reside when not hunting in the human world or Soul Society, and where they are nigh undetectable. Entrances to Hueco Mundo are created by ripping the dimensional fabric between the two worlds.
  • Hell: Hell is the destination of those who committed unforgivably evil acts during their lives in the human world. When a hollow whose mortal soul is too wicked to enter Soul Society is slain by a zanpakutō, the gates of hell (giant doors held by skeletons) appear and begin to open. A giant, laughing spiritual being with a blade spears the wicked spirit and drags it down into hell.[28]

Bleach characters move from world to world by several means. Shinigami open passages between worlds by means of their zanpakutō. Butterflies created during soul burial, called hell butterflies, make these routes safe. Human souls usually cross between planes only through birth into the human world or soul burial by shinigami. Living humans can also use special portals to move between worlds, but this is dangerous. While hollows are portrayed as able to move between planes at will by opening rifts in space, they usually remain in Hueco Mundo due to the risk of discovery in Soul Society or the human world. Encounters between characters crossing realms are a driving plot force in Bleach.

References

  1. ^ 2ch Jump Log Template:Ja icon. Accessed 2007-03-27.
  2. ^ Shogakukan Manga Award Template:Ja icon. Accessed 2006-12-14.
  3. ^ TV Tokyo's Bleach staff listing Template:Ja icon Accessed 2007-03-27
  4. ^ "Japan's Favorite TV Anime" on Anime News Network. Accessed 2006-12-14.
  5. ^ Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--December 2006 on ICv2. Accessed 2007-03-28.
  6. ^ Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--February 2007 on ICv2. Accessed 2007-03-28.
  7. ^ 'Civil War' Finale Tops the Charts on ICv2. Accessed 2007-03-28.
  8. ^ "VIZ Media named master licensor for hit Japanese action manga Shonen Jump's Bleach" (press release) on VIZ Media.com. Accessed 2007-04-01.
  9. ^ Studiopolis on Anime News Network. Accessed 2006-12-14.
  10. ^ "Viz Announces Bleach Merchandise Licenses" on Anime News Network. Accessed 2007-03-24.
  11. ^ GMA Network on Anime News Network. Accessed 2007-02-25.
  12. ^ NYCC 07: Viz Anime Dominates Award Noms on IGN. Accessed 2007-03-26.
  13. ^ Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 1. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 1, 9. ISBN 4-08-873213-8
  14. ^ Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 6. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 44, 19. ISBN 4-08-873366-5
  15. ^ a b c Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 1. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 1, 19-21. ISBN 4-08-873213-8
  16. ^ a b c d Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 4. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 28, 10-12. ISBN 4-08-873310-X
  17. ^ Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 4. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 28, 18. ISBN 4-08-873310-X
  18. ^ Kubo, Tite (2006). Bleach, Volume 21. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 187, 14. ISBN 4-08-874027-0
  19. ^ a b c Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 2. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 13, 14-16. ISBN 4-08-873237-5
  20. ^ a b c Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 2. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 15, 9-10. ISBN 4-08-873237-5
  21. ^ a b Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 5. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 36, 12-14. ISBN 4-08-873335-5
  22. ^ Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 6. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 49, 2. ISBN 4-08-873366-5
  23. ^ Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 6. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 46, 1-6. ISBN 4-08-873366-5
  24. ^ Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 6. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 46, 9. ISBN 4-08-873366-5
  25. ^ Kubo, Tite (2006). Bleach Official Character Book SOULs. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, 31. ISBN 4-08-874079-3
  26. ^ Kubo, Tite (2003). Bleach, Volume 9. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 71, 18. ISBN 4-08-873495-5
  27. ^ a b Kubo, Tite (2003). Bleach, Volume 11. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 98, 5. ISBN 4-08-873555-2
  28. ^ Kubo, Tite (2002). Bleach, Volume 2. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, chapter 12, 8-13. ISBN 4-08-873366-5
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