Tōshirō Hitsugaya
| Tōshirō Hitsugaya | |
|---|---|
| 'Bleach' character | |
| File:Toushirou Hitsugaya.jpg Tōshirō Hitsugaya | |
| Created by | Tite Kubo |
| In-universe information | |
| Nickname | Shiro-chan (lit. "Whitey") |
| Species | Shinigami |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Shinigami captain of the 10th Division |
Tōshirō Hitsugaya (日番谷 冬獅郎, Hitsugaya Tōshirō) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Bleach created by Tite Kubo. He is the captain of the 10th Division in the Gotei 13. His lieutenant is Rangiku Matsumoto. He was recently voted the 2nd most popular Bleach character in Shonen Jump's polls, replacing Rukia Kuchiki, who had previously held the position. He missed first place by less than 100 votes with a total of 8,321, more than 2,000 votes succeeding Rukia.[2] In the Bleach-based film The DiamondDust Rebellion, he is the lead character.
Character outline
Tōshirō Hitsugaya is very young by Soul Society standards. Born in Rukongai,[3] he became the youngest ever to reach captain rank.[3] Thus, he is called a "boy genius" or a "child prodigy" by many. Hitsugaya is very short with size comparable to Rukia Kuchiki's. He also has white hair (which tends to draw attention in the human world) and aquamarine eyes, which evokes his ability of controlling ice and water. He wears standard captain's clothing, save for a green sash around his shoulders, and sometimes walks around in his tabi.
Hitsugaya is generally mature and serious, in contrast to his free-spirited lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto. Despite their personality differences, he and Rangiku seem to be very close. Hitsugaya is shown to also be easily annoyed by others goofing off or drawing unneeded attention to themselves, as shown when he led a team of shinigami into Ichigo Kurosaki's school. Hitsugaya hates anything that he deems childish and hates being described as something close to a child, as seen in episode 132 when he meets Ichigo's sister Karin. This is more shown in the omake chapters, where he is mistaken as a child, much to his annoyance. During the ending credits of Sealed Sword Frenzy, he was in the human world and dressed in a young boy's school uniform, and Hinamori had to drag him out of hiding. He is overly protective of Momo Hinamori, due to fact that they were old childhood friends. Fitting with the nature of his zanpakuto, Hitsugaya dislikes summer and warm weather in general.
Hitsugaya is easily annoyed when anyone refers to him by anything other than his title, Captain Hitsugaya. Hinamori has called him by "Toshiro," and both she and Ukitake have occasionally used "Lil' Shiro" (シロちゃん Shiro-chan) — a nickname meaning "Whitey" (Snowy in the English manga) in reference to his hair — in both cases without repercussion, however. In the Shinigami Golden Cup sketches (omakes found at the end of episodes of Bleach), Jūshirō Ukitake comically gives Hitsugaya candy and other food because "Jūshirō" and "Tōshirō" sound similar and because they both have white hair, making them both "Shiro-chan." The first character in Hitsugaya's given name, Tōshirō, means "winter," which is appropriate given his white hair and ice type zanpakutō. Ichigo also calls Hitsugaya by his given name, much to Hitsugaya's annoyance despite his protests, making him one of three captains Ichigo refers to in this manner (the others being Byakuya Kuchiki and Kenpachi Zaraki).
Hitsugaya's intuition is extremely sharp, and he is one of few captains to correctly suspect Gin Ichimaru of foul play, though he didn't suspect Sōsuke Aizen of the same.
During his duel with Gin Ichimaru in the anime, Ichimaru remarks that Hitsugaya is the embodiment of a heavenly guardian that would be reincarnated once in a few centuries. This is attributed to his given name, which is a homonym for a casual Japanese term meaning "amateur" (藤四郎), possibly referring to Hitsugaya's young age and inexperience relative to the other captains of the Gotei 13.
History
Hitsugaya comes from Junrinan, District 1 of Rukongai. There he lived with his grandmother and Momo Hinamori. He was also a friend of Jidanbō, the West Gate Keeper, whom he taught the "city rules."[4]
As a child, Hitsugaya was a bit of a brat with an icy demeanor that estranged others, aside from his grandmother and Hinamori. She would call him "Shiro-chan" (Lil' Shiro in the English dub) and he would retort by calling her "Bed-wetter Momo." The three were very close, and Hitsugaya was irritated when Hinamori left to join the shinigami academy. Throughout his childhood, he was always aware of what seemed to be an icy presence within himself. Five years after Hinamori's departure, Hitsugaya encountered Rangiku Matsumoto, then a normal shinigami, in a marketplace. The two got into an argument, and Rangiku noticed Hitsugaya's enormous latent spiritual power.
That night, Hitsugaya had a dream where he met Hyōrinmaru for the first time, though he could not hear the spirit's name. He woke up to find Rangiku admonishing him for not being able to control his power, which had been freezing his grandmother to death. She convinced him that power like his needed to be controlled, and convinced him to become a shinigami.[5] With Hitsugaya's natural talent, he then entered the shinigami institute in spite of his age and became known as a prodigy, quickly ascending to captain of the 10th Division, ironically making him Rangiku's superior.
Hinamori has continued to call Hitsugaya "Shiro-chan" out of habit, and still feels protective of him. Because of a promise she had made, she only began to call him "Hitsugaya-kun" after he had achieved his zanpakutō's shikai and was recognized as a shinigami. Highly capable and knowledgeable, he remains the youngest of the captains within the Gotei 13.
Synopsis
Introduced along with the rest of the Gotei 13, Hitsugaya's sharp sense of intuition and keen sense of observation leads him to suspect 3rd Division captain Gin Ichimaru of foul play as the circumstances surrounding the coming execution of Rukia Kuchiki become more complicated. He warns Hinamori of these suspicions, which inspires her to attack Gin following Aizen's murder, leading him to lock both her and Izuru Kira in prison. Hitsugaya also warns Gin that if he causes Hinamori to drop even a single drop of blood he will kill him, culminating in a short battle between the two. Hitsugaya manages to freeze Gin's arm before Matsumoto interrupts and breaks it up. Seeing how destructive Rukia's execution is becoming, Hitsugaya tries to stop the execution by appealing to the Chamber 46, only to discover all 46 members are dead and Aizen is responsible for murdering them, having faked his death. When Hitsugaya discovers Hinamori injured and interrogates Aizen, he angrily explains how Hinamori truly cared about him and how she worked so hard to be his lieutenant. Aizen replies that that's why it was easy to manipulate her and states that "admiration is the furthest state from understanding". Hitsugaya tries to kill him, but ends up just as wounded as Hinamori.
During the anime filler arc, Hitsugaya later sends several shinigami to fend off the Bount in Karakura Town. When the Bount infiltrate Soul Society, he, along with Renji and Matsumoto, investigate reports of Bount activity in a forest in Rukongai. The Bount, however, are gone by the time they reach the forest. Hitsugaya later has a battle with the Bount Koga Gō, whom he easily defeats thanks to the advantages his style of combat holds over Koga's. Though he assumes the Bount to be dead, Koga survives.
Hitsugaya later leads a group of shinigami assigned to defend Karakura Town against the arrancar threat. During the first attack, he battles Shawlong Qufang. Though heavily injured, he wins after being allowed to remove his power limit. Hitsugaya then has a conversation with Hinamori through video-conference. Hinamori apologizes to Hitsugaya about pointing her sword at him, Hitsugaya tells not to worry about it. After bickering, they start talking about Aizen. Hinamori, who still cares for her former captain, begs Hitsugaya to save Aizen, thinking that Gin is manipulating him somehow. Angered by the fact that Hinamori is still devoted to Aizen, despite what he did to her, Hitsugaya hopes for revenge. During the second attack, he fends off Luppi. Though initially unable to defend against Luppi's attacks, being knocked to the ground in a single hit, Luppi's inattentiveness gives him ample time to build up a finishing move. Luppi escapes death and promises to kill Hitsugaya in turn; however, he is later murdered by Grimmjow. Upon learning that Orihime has followed the arrancar back to Hueco Mundo, Hitsugaya and his team return to Soul Society to help in the preparation for war against Aizen.
Hyōrinmaru
Hitsugaya's zanpakutō is Hyōrinmaru (氷輪丸, lit. "Ice Ring", idiomatically "Full Moon"). When sealed, Hyōrinmaru looks almost exactly like a normal zanpakutō with the exception of the guard, which is in the shape of a four-pointed star. The hilt is light-blue while the sheath is a deep blue, which matches Hyōrinmaru's abilities. Hyōrinmaru's shikai command is "sit upon the frosted heavens" (霜天に坐せ, sōten ni zase, Viz: "reign over the frosted heavens," English TV: "reign over the frosted frozen sky"). Hyōrinmaru is the strongest of all water-ice element zanpakutō in Soul Society.[6]
Hitsugaya is the only shinigami that carries his zanpakutō on his back aside from Ichigo Kurosaki, whose zanpakutō necessitates such a style. Hitsugaya's short stature and the blade's length may explain the similar style. His sheath dissolves whenever he draws his sword. Hitsugaya is also one of the three shinigami whose zanpakutō spirit has been seen. Hyōrinmaru's spirit is a large, winged, Chinese dragon.
In its shikai, Hyōrinmaru itself remains the same, but gains a crescent-shaped blade attached to the hilt by a chain. Hyōrinmaru allows Hitsugaya to control water and ice. The slashes created by Hyōrinmaru gives off an immense amount of spirit power which overflows from the tip of the blade, creating a flow of ice vaguely shaped like Hyōrinmaru's dragon spirit. The dragon flies at opponents and instantly freezes anything it touches. The chain-blade also freezes anything Hitsugaya traps with it.
Hyōrinmaru's bankai, named Daiguren Hyōrinmaru (大紅蓮氷輪丸, lit. Great Crimson Lotus (Mahāpadma) Ice Ring, Viz: Great Roaring Coldly Shining Moon), causes ice to flow from Hyōrinmaru onto Hitsugaya, forming into two large wings and a tail. Ice also forms into a dragon's head around his sword hand, encasing it up to the hilt; which is in the shape of an eight-pointed star. His left arm is covered fully until the wrist where it then spans into claws, leaving his hand and fingers free. Hitsugaya's feet are encased in ice in a similar manner to his left hand. Additionally, his wings are capable of folding around him to serve as ice shields. In various Bleach games, as well as in the anime, the wings can be used by Hitsugaya to fly. Three "flowers" of ice, shaped similarly to the lotus shaped guard of his zanpakutō, are also created behind Hitsugaya with four petals each, which melt away as Hitsugaya attacks.
Hyōrinmaru's bankai has two known special techniques. The first is "dragon hail flower" (竜霰花, ryūsenka), which freezes any enemy Hitsugaya stabs, locking them into a cocoon of ice and freezing them to the core. Once frozen, Hitsugaya can shatter his opponent. The second is "thousand years ice prison" (千年氷牢, sennen hyōrō),[7] which forms a multitude of ice pillars using the moisture in the atmosphere. These pillars then envelop the enemy.[8]
During a battle where Hitsugaya was fighting under a power limit, the arrancar Shawlong speculates that Hitsugaya's bankai will fade when all twelve petals disappear, assuming that Hitsugaya's bankai is incomplete due to his young age. During his fight with Luppi, Hitsugaya states that as long as there is water in the surrounding area, his bankai can regenerate itself indefinitely, during which time the flowers are not visible.[9]
In other media
Hitsugaya appears in the second Bleach movie, Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, as one of the two main characters. When the "King's Seal," an ancient artifact, is stolen, Hitsugaya goes out in search of the thieves. After crossing paths with and fighting them, he goes missing, leading Seireitei to suspect him of treachery. As Ichigo Kurosaki and others go out in search of Hitsugaya, Hitsugaya himself stumbles across a dark secret concerning a long-dead shinigami named Kusaka Sōjirō, who was a close friend and rival of Hitsugaya's when he was younger. A one-shot manga chapter focusing on Histugaya's past was released to promote the film.
Hitsugaya has been a playable character in every Bleach-related video game released so far, the only exception being Bleach: Heat the Soul. Often, he's playable in several different forms, such as his shikai and bankai and even in a gigai. In Bleach: Heat the Soul 4 and Bleach: Shattered Blade, Hitsugaya is also playable in his school uniform.
He is the only Bleach character to appear in two Bleach Beat Collection albums (aside from Ichigo himself). The first one was a compilation album with Momo Hinamori and his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto. The second one was also a compilation album, this time with the protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki.
References
- ^ Bleach Official Bootleg; page 105
- ^ Bleach manga Character Poll; volume 24 tankōbon.
- ^ a b Kubo, Tite (2006). Bleach Official Character Book SOULs. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, page 133.
- ^ Weekly Shonen Jump interview, year 2004, issue 42.
- ^ Bleach manga; chapter -15, page 20.
- ^ Kubo, Tite (2006). Bleach Official Character Book SOULs. Tokyo, Japan: Shueisha, page 165.
- ^ Bleach manga; chapter 234, page 18.
- ^ Bleach manga; chapter 234, page 19
- ^ Bleach manga; chapter 234, page 17
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