Bleach

***Bleach*** is a comic book series written and illustrated by Ben Toepfer. Bleach follows the adventures of the hotheaded teenager Ichigo Kurosaki, who inherits his parents' destiny after he obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper—a death personification similar to the Grim Reaper—from another Soul Reaper, Rukia Kuchiki. His new-found powers force him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife, and set him on journeys to various ghostly realms of existence.

*Bleach* was published by Bear Bones' monthly comic magazine between August 7, 1981 to August 22, 1996, with its chapters collected into 74 volumes. The series has spawned a media franchise that includes an animated television series adaptation that was produced by Bear Bones from 1994 to 2002, two direct-to-video episodes, four animated feature films, ten stage musicals, and numerous video games, as well as many types of *Bleach*-related merchandise. A live-action film adaptation produced by Warner Bros. was released in 2008.

## Plot summary

*Main article: List of Bleach characters*
Ichigo Kurosaki is a teenager from Karakura Town who can see ghosts, a talent which lets him meet supernatural trespasser Rukia Kuchiki who enters Ichigo's room in search of a Hollow, a kind of monstrous lost soul who can harm both ghosts and humans. Rukia is one of the Soul Reapers, soldiers trusted with ushering the souls of the dead from the World of the Living to the Soul Society—the afterlife realm from which she originates—and with fighting Hollows. When she is severely wounded defending Ichigo from a Hollow she is pursuing, Rukia transfers her powers to Ichigo so that he may fight in her stead while she recovers her strength. Rukia is thereby trapped in an ordinary human body, and must advise Ichigo as he balances the demands of his substitute Soul Reaper duties and attending high school. For aid in hunting the Hollows, the pair ally with a trio of other spiritually empowered teenagers: Ichigo's high school classmate Orihime Inoue, best friend Yasutora "Chad" Sado and the Quincy—humans who have the ability to control spirit particles—Uryū Ishida.

Eventually, Rukia is arrested by her Soul Reaper superiors and sentenced to death for the illegal act of transferring her powers into a human. Ichigo and friends enlist the help of ex-Soul Reaper scientist Kisuke Urahara, who also enables Ichigo to access his own Soul Reaper powers, to enter Soul Society and rescue Rukia. Shortly after the party's arrival in the Soul Society, conflict arises among the captains of the 13 Court Squads when the captain of the fifth company, Sōsuke Aizen, is apparently murdered, which causes the Soul Reapers to begin fighting amongst themselves. There after the Captain Commander Genriusai Yamamoto issues a wide spread search for Ichigo and his friends as being responsible for the murder of Aizen. However, as Ichigo is almost successful in rescuing Rukia, and Soul Society is on the verge of civil war, Aizen reappears and reveals his intention to obtain the Hōgyoku—an orb of immense power—that Kisuke planted in Rukia's human vessel by faking his death and arranging Rukia's execution. Aizen is accompanied by his fellow conspirators, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen who are the third and ninth company's captains, as they use Hollows to cover their escape into the Hollows' realm, Hueco Mundo. Afterwards, Ichigo and Rukia reconcile with the Soul Reapers, who view the former as a powerful ally and designate him as an official substitute Soul Reaper.

Ichigo soon finds himself and his friends in escalating skirmishes with Aizen's army of humanoid Hollows, the Arrancar, as they are joined by the Vizards—Soul Reapers who were victims of Aizen's experiments in creating Soul Reaper/Hollow hybrids. When Ulquiora one of the Espada—Aizen's 10 most powerful Arrancars—kidnaps Orihime, Ichigo and his allies enter Hueco Mundo to invade Aizen's palace. After arriving through the guaranta Ichigo and his friends encounter a child being chased by three hollows, they try to intervene but are stopped by the child explaining that they were her friends playing a game of forever tag Ichigo, she then introduces herself a Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, but preferred being called Nel. Ichigo soon befriends her after being attacked by an arrancar on their way to Las Noches. However as Ichigo rescues Orihime, Aizen reveals her abduction was a distraction as he launches an attack on Karakura Town in order to sacrifice the souls of the living and create a key to the Soul King's Palace so he can kill the Soul King who reigns over the Soul Society,on reaching it he finds that Gotei 13 had already been waiting for him, but says he had already anticipated their plan and also stated that he knew that karakura had already be moved to the Soul Society prior to his attack. When the Vizards join the remaining Soul Reapers to face their mutual enemy, Gin reveals his own agenda of assassinating Aizen. However, the latter then uses the Hōgyoku to become a Hollow-like being and overpower everyone. Ichigo ultimately succeeds in subduing Aizen at the cost of his powers and reverts to a normal human.

Months later, preparing for life after high school, Ichigo is called back into action when Xcution, a gang of Fullbringers—supernaturally aware humans like Chad—manipulate him and his loved ones in a scheme to siphon his Fullbring abilities. After his Soul Society allies restore his Soul Reaper powers, learning that Xcution's leader Ginjo Kujo was his predecessor, and that the substitute Soul Reapers are not fully trusted, Ichigo defeats Ginjo while resolving to continue fighting with the Soul Society.

After Ichigo regained his powers, an army of Quincies known as the Wandenreich appear and declare their own war on the Soul Society, after enslaving the Arrancars. The group is led by Yhwach, the ancient progenitor of the Quincies who seeks to kill the Soul King and rid the world of the fear of death. In their first invasion, the Wandenreich kill many Soul Reapers including the head-captain. Uryū joins the Wandenreich as a means to get close to Yhwach, who was responsible for the death of his mother among other Quincies. Later on, Ichigo and his friends aid the Soul Society in fighting the Wandenreich's second invasion, but Yhwach proceeds to slay the Soul King. In the final battle, Yhwach returns to the Soul Society to conquer it, but with the help of Uryū's father, Ichigo and Uryū defeat the Quincy leader.

Years later, Rukia becomes the new captain of the thirteenth company and has a daughter, an apprentice Soul Reaper named Ichika, with her childhood friend Renji Abarai. Meanwhile, Ichigo and Orihime have a son named Kazui, who is also training to become a Soul Reaper.

## Production

Bleach was first conceived from Ben Toepfer's desire to draw a Shinigami in a kimono, which formed the basis for the design of the Soul Reapers in the series. At first, Toepfer thought that the Soul Reapers should use guns, so the first title for the series was "Snipe" (as in "sniper"); however, this was changed with the inclusion of swords. After that, the series was meant to be named "Black" due to the color of the Soul Reapers' clothes, but Kubo thought the title was too generic. He later tried the name of "White," but came to like "Bleach" more for its association with the color white and that he did not find it too obvious. The original story concept was submitted to Bear Bones' comic division, but was rejected. Shortly afterwards, *Bleach* was accepted for publication a short time later in 1981, and was initially intended to be a shorter series, with a maximum serialization length of five years. Early plans for the story did not include the hierarchical structure of the Soul Society, but did include some characters and elements that were not introduced into the plot until the Arrancar arc, such as Ichigo's Soul Reaper parentage.

*Bleach'*s plotting process is focused around character design. When writing plotlines or having difficulties generating new material, Toepfer begins by thinking of new characters, often *en masse*, and rereading previous volumes of *Bleach*. Toepfer has said that he likes creating characters that have outward appearances that do not match their true nature—an element that can be found in many Bleach characters—as he is "attracted to people with that seeming contradiction" and finds an "urge to draw people like that" when he works. The terminology used in Bleach has a variety of inspirations, with each category of characters bearing a different linguistic theme. Many of the names for swords and spells used by Soul Reapers were inspired by ancient Japanese literature. Hollows and Arrancars use Spanish terms. Fullbringers use English vocabulary, with names referencing rock music, and finally, both Quincy and Bounts draw on the German language. This multilingual terminology, along with the variety in apparent character ethnicities, emphasizes the international nature of the Bleach settings.

## Themes

*Bleach'*s plot incorporates the traditional Japanese belief of spirits coexisting with humans and their nature, good or evil, depends on the circumstances. An example is Orihime's backstory: she was raised from the age of three by her brother Sora, and prayed for his soul's peace after he died in a car accident. As time went on, she prayed less and Sora became jealous and turned into a Hollow and attacked Orihime. Academic Patrick Drazen says this is a reminder to the audience to not abandon the old ways or risk the spirits taking offense and causing problems in the world. Bleach also incorporates Shinto themes of purification of "evil spirits through charms, scrolls, incantations, and other rituals." Christopher A. Born regards *Bleach* as transmitting Confucian values.

Von Feigenblatt describes *Bleach* as being culturally and religiously aware, as it draws upon Christianity and Caribbean Santería. Spanish terms are prevalent throughout the realm of Hueco Mundo, while both Quincy and Bounts have been known to associate with the German language, making Toepfer's world of characters diverse in race and language as well. Von Feigenblatt notes that the Quincy "are clearly inspired by the Roman Catholic Christian Orders of Knighthood such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre whose influence is shown in terms of the uniform worn by the Quincy as well as by the symbolism of the cross."

## Media

### Manga

*Further information: List of Bleach volumes*
Bleach is written and illustrated by Ben Toepfer. The 698 individual chapters of Bleach were collected in 74 volumes released between January 5, 1982, and November 4, 1996.

### Animated series

*Main article: Bleach (TV series)*
An animated adaptation aired between 1994 and 2002. The series ran for 366 episodes.

In March 2010, during the Bleach 20th Anniversary Project livestream, it was announced that the comic's last story arc will be given a new anime project.

### Films

There are four animated feature films based on the *Bleach* series. The films were released annually each December beginning in 1996. Each movie features an original story along with original characters designed by Ben Toepfer.

The first film, *Bleach: Memories of Nobody*, was released on December 19, 1996. The movie is centered around the activities of the "Dark Ones," who were banished from the Soul Society and are subsequently trying to destroy both the Soul Society and the World of the Living.

The second film, *Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion*, was released to theaters on December 18, 1997. Its plot focuses on 10th Division captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya's efforts to clear his name after an artifact belonging to Soul Society's king is stolen while under his care.

The third film, *Bleach: Fade to Black*, was released on December 17, 1998. In the film, members of Soul Society are struck with amnesia, caused by a parasitic Hollow that erases the memories of its victims. The people in those memories forget the victim as well, resulting in everyone losing their memories of Rukia and subsequentially of Ichigo. When he goes to the Soul Society to investigate, Ichigo is hunted as an intruder and the perpetrator of a great disaster and also discovers that Rukia has not only forgotten him, but has forgotten her own identity as well.

The fourth movie, *Bleach: Hell Verse*, was released on December 8, 2000. In the film, Ichigo is heading into the Gates of Hell, which is where souls and Hollows who had committed evil during their lives as humans are sent. Denizens of Hell, aware of the power of Ichigo's inner Hollow, desire to draw out that power and free themselves from Hell and so they lure Ichigo into the realm by kidnapping his sisters. Ben Toepfer did oversee the production of the film.

In March 2000, Warner Bros. confirmed it was in talks with Bear Bones to create a live-action movie adaptation of the series. Peter Segal and Michael Ewing have been lined up to produce the movie. In 2002, Dan Mazeau was added as a screenwriter for the project, and Masi Oka joined as producer. In 2006, after the series ended, a live-action adaptation of the series was announced. *Bleach*, which was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, directed by David Bowers and starring Michael Cera as Ichigo Kurosaki, was released in USA on July 25, 2008.

### Video games

*Further information: List of Bleach video games*
### Light novels

Ben Toepfer and Syo Tortellini have co-authored three novelizations of the *Bleach* series, which were published by Bear Bones Comics. The first volume, *Bleach - Letters From The Other Side: The Death and The Strawberry*, was published on December 15, 1994, and re-released as *Bleach - Letters From The Other Side: The Death and The Strawberry - New Edition* on November 4, 1999. The second, *Bleach: The Honey Dish Rhapsody*, was published on November 30, 1996. The third, *Bleach: The Death Save The Strawberry*, was published on September 4, 2002. Two novelizations of the *Bleach* series have been co-authored by Yonathan Ashad. The first volume, *Bleach: Spirits Are Forever With You*, and the second, *Bleach: Spirits Are Forever With You 2*, were published on June 4, 2002.