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Bleach-anime-groupshot

The Five-Man Band, clockwise from top: Yasutora 'Chad' Sado, Orihime Inoue, Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki and Uryu Ishida. And Kon.

Cquote1
"We stand in awe at that which cannot be seen."
Rukia Kuchiki
Cquote2


Ichigo Kurosaki would have liked to have been an Ordinary High School Student. Unfortunately, his ability to see and hear ghosts (and his orange-colored hair) kept getting in the way of a normal life. This is all he knows of the spirit world until the day he encounters Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper whose profession requires her to destroy evil spirits ("Hollows") and send good spirits ("Pluses" or "Wholes") to the afterlife. When Rukia is injured while trying to slay a powerful Hollow about to kill Ichigo and his family, she offers the boy a portion of her powers to defeat it in her place. Unfortunately, his abnormally-high amount of spiritual energy absorbs all of her power instead, forcing him to take up her duties until she can recover and return home.

Bleach starts off as a quirky Urban Fantasy action-comedy, but soon becomes a much more standard Shonen Fightin' Anime with the start of the Soul Society arc. In it, Rukia is arrested by her fellow Shinigami for the crime of transferring her powers to a human, and taken back to the afterlife ("Soul Society") to be executed. Naturally, Ichigo wants to mount a rescue (sponsored by his sort-of other mentor, the retired Soul Reaper Kisuke Urahara) and is joined by three human friends of his who also have adquired spiritual powers: the sweet-natured healer Orihime Inoue, the Gentle Giant hand-to-hand fighter Yasutora "Chad" Sado, and the caustic archer and once-rival Uryuu Ishida. Training montages, Shonen Upgrades and ridiculously complicated plans ensue. This arc is infamous for introducing Loads and Loads of Characters (tripling the previous cast; manga author Tite Kubo has admitted that when he creates new characters, he does it to avoid writers' block), drastically changing the formula and tone of the series, and for its sheer length, which coined the meme, "Are they still in Soul Society?"

That said, this change of direction has led to not only one of the most ludicrous Wham Episodes in manga history, but many an awesome moment as well, and its continued popularity speaks for itself. Hell, it even has musicals! It remained one of the "Big Three" long-running shonen manga/anime in serialization today (or... then), and it inevitably gets compared to its colleagues, as well as Dragon Ball (of which Kubo is inspired by) and Yu Yu Hakusho (which shared the same director). It's also notable for having one of the largest Peripheral Demographics in the history of shonen manga — it has not so much an Estrogen Brigade as an Estrogen Legion.

After 10 long years, the manga entered its final arc, which began on February 8, 2012 and finished on August 17, 2016. The anime ended after 7 1/2 years on March 27, 2012 in favor of the Naruto spinoff Rock Lees Springtime of Youth, leaving the ending to be the only arc not planned to be adapted to animation. But it didn't last forever: 52 episodes long second anime started being aired in October 2022, in four cours that will likely last until 2025. There's also a sort-of prospective new arc set some time after the formal end of the manga, known as the Howls from the Jaws of Hell Arc, but Kubo hasn't said whether it will properly kickstart one last arc or not.

There are fourteen story arcs so far, including the anime-original Filler:

  • Substitute Shinigami Arc (Volumes 1-6; episodes 1-14)
  • Soul Society Arc (Volumes 7-20; episodes 15-63).
  • Bount Arc (Filler; episodes 64-109)
  • Arrancar Invasion Arc (Volumes 21-27; episodes 110-143)
  • Hueco Mundo Arc (Volumes 27-35; episodes 144-167, 190-205)
  • New Captain Arc (Filler; episodes 168-189)
  • Turn Back The Pendulum Arc (Volumes 36-37; episodes 206-213)
  • Fake Karakura Town Arc (Volumes 37-46; episodes 216-226, 266-296)
  • Zanpakuto Rebellion Arc (Filler; episodes 229-255)
  • The Beast Swords Arc (Filler, episodes 256-265)
  • Deicide Arc (Volumes 46-48; episodes 297-316)
  • Gotei 13 Invasion Army Arc (Filler; episodes 317-342)
  • The Lost Agent / Fullbringer / X-Cution Arc (Volumes 49-54; episodes 343-366)
  • The Thousand-Year Blood War Arc (Volumes 55-74; is the focus of the 52-episode second anime series that started being aired in October 2022 in four Cours/seeasons)
  • The Howls from the Jaws of Hell Arc (?) (as of late 2023, one single special chapter. As said above it's unclear whether Kubo will keep it a one-shot with a cliffhanger-like ending or continue it)

On February 22, 2012, Warner Brothers Studios announced the licensing and planned development of a live-action Hollywood movie. It never was made.. but there WAS a Japanese live-action movie released in 2018, which covered the first arc of the series. It had Souta Fukushi (Gentaro from Kamen Rider Fourze) as Ichigo, Hana Sugisaki (Reiko Kannazuki from the Ouran High School Host Club dorama) as Rukia, Erina Mano (from the Hello! Project idol band, plus Nadeshiko from Kamen Rider Fourze movies and Yurika from the Sakamichi no Apollon dorama) as Orihime, and Takamasa Ichihara aka Miyavi as Byakuya.

Feel free to check out Ichigo's companions character sheet and six more on the other side of the link. Bleach is also amongst those few anime that earned its own Die For Our Ship, Ho/Foe Yay, Fan Nickname, Getting Crap Past The Radar, and Complete Monster pages. This page has gotten so long that it is necessary to give both the movies and the Anime their own page and character sheet. Under Construction - See the discussion page as to why.

It now has a page discussing one of its DS outings, Bleach: The 3rd Phantom. There are many other games as well, the most recent one being the gacha mobile one Bleach: Brave Souls.

Note: This article is not about a laundry detergent or the Nirvana album. Sorry. It also (usually) has nothing to do with Brain Bleach or Bleached Underpants.

Please revamp the main trope pages by moving all character tropes to their respective characters.

If you are watching the English dub or haven't read the whole manga, there are major spoilers below.

Bleach is the Trope Namer for:
Tropes used in Bleach include:

Show me your bankai, All The Tropes.