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Bleach

Setting

Bleach, a popular manga written and illustrated by Kubo Tite, is based in an altered, contemporary Earth setting; the time period is modern, and the general consensus of the world consists of normal humans. Bleach follows the life of Ichigo Kurosaki, originally a 15-year-old 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 him one day while searching for a hollow, a race of often vengeful, soul-eating spirits. During the ensuing confrontation with the spirit, who has entered Ichigo's home and endangered his family, Rukia is wounded and forced to transfer virtually all of her powers into Ichigo in order to stop the hollow. Rukia, left powerless thereafter, urges her reluctant replacement to take over her duties until her powers return. Together they search for hollows and wayward souls, cleansing the spirits and sending them to the Soul Society', the afterlife of the Bleach world. The early parts of the story focus mainly on the characters and their past, rather than the actual occupation of the shinigami. However, as events unfold, the story begins to delve deeper into the world of the Shinigami, and an intricate plot of deception and betrayal unfolds that drags Ichigo and his friends into a tremendous battle.

Culture

As noted, the majority of the world is reflected from reality, in which all contemporary peoples and cultures reside. It is never explicitly stated, however, that events in history and the present are precisely the same, and it is directly shown that trends in popular culture are, in fact, different, from shows on television and celebrities that appear during the series. It is assumed that the majority of the population have no special powers or abilities. Most of the series occurs in Japan, and more specifically, the Karakura district of Tokyo. The viewer/reader has yet to be exposed to any other portion of the world or foreign events in general.

Characters in Bleach can be divided up among several general categories:

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 soul slayers (zanpakutō) to perform soul burials on pluses. Shinigami also use zanpakutō and demon arts (kidō) to fight their archrivals, the hollows.

Humans: The humans of Bleach are much like the residents of modern Japan. Most humans cannot see or sense spirits in any way. However, spirits can inhabit artificial human bodies that are visible to ordinary humans. Rarely, some humans can be considered a 'medium'. A medium is a human with some awareness of nearby ghosts, but only a third of these are able to see them clearly; otherwise, ghosts and spirits appear as nothing but a faint blur in the air. Some humans naturally have both the power to sense and the spiritual strength to fight with spirits. Other humans can gain the ability to do so by spending time around a large source of spirit energy, as several of Ichigo's friends develop new abilities due to his spiritual influence.

Plus: Benign ghosts in Bleach are known as pluses (Wholes in the official English translation). A plus is the spirit of a person who has died, but remains in the moral world due to an emotional attachment. A chain, known as the Chain of Fate. protrudes from the chest and binds the plus to a location, object or person that they felt close to in life. The soul can move about freely if the chain is broken, but this also causes the chain to corrode. Normally, pluses are sent to the Soul Society by shinigami 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. If the Chain of Fate is torn out deliberately, this also leads to spiritual degradation.

Hollows: The hollows are the major antagonists of Bleach. They are ghosts who reside in a spiritual plane known as Hueco Mundo, but travel to the living world to feed on the souls of the living and dead alike. Hollows, overwhelmed by the emptiness of their own lost soul, must devour the souls of others to sustain themselves. Without them, hollows can be starved to a state of madness; even docile souls, after becoming a hollow, can become driven to aggressive, harmful behaviors. Characteristically, hollows will immediately attack the souls of those closest to them during life, most commonly their own family, before moving on to other victms. Like shinigami, hollows are made of spiritual matter, cannot be detected by ordinary humans, and use their internal spiritual power to fight. While most hollows can be overcome by the average shinigami, some can surpass a shinigami captain in strength.

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. As opposed to shinigami, Quincy absorb and channel energy from their surroundings. When a shinigami slays a hollow, this cleanses the hollow's soul and washes away its sins, allowing it to enter Soul Society. The Quincy technique to slay hollows simply destroys the soul entirely. Furthermore, using this method has the propensity to shatter the balance of the universe. When souls are destroyed, the number of souls entering and leaving Soul Society cannot remain equal. This issue prompted the shinigami to conduct a campaign to exterminate nearly all the Quincy about 200 years before the main storyline.

Powers

Characters in Bleach can possess any number of unique abilities, but powers are primarily based on the category each individual belongs to. For instance, Shinigami first have a wide variety of kidō to use; these include 'spells' of offensive, defensive, and healing natures, from firing intense bolts of lightning or frigid waves of ice to techniques that restrain and paralyze opponents. Stronger examples of shinigami also have the special abilities of their zanpakutō to command; zanpakutō are not only swords, but living entities of spiritual energy, each one with its own personality and power. Such power can only be reflected once the shinigami wielding it learns to communicate with the zanpakutō itself. Once this is realized, the sword can grant its user various abilities, from elemental attacks to changing shape, size, or function.

Humans, on the other hand, have displayed unpredictable abilities in the rare case that powers are developed due to prolonged exposure to high levels of spiritual energy. The only characteristic pattern in such powers is that they often stem from the individual's personality, things they value and goals that are important to them.

Quincy, as previously stated, use an ability to draw common particles of spiritual power from the air itself, then maniuplate them into an attack. Quincy are most known for using a bow-like weapon in this way, transforming spirit particles into arrows, then firing them from a bow channeled from such energies. Quincy are also able to use the energy they gather from their surroundings to boost other physical abilities, most prominantly their speed and agility.

Hollows, in general, do not use spiritual power for anything but raw strength. Common hollows are generally mindless, and merely attack any creature nearby with a high enough concentration of energy for their own consumption. More powerful hollow, though, can be very clever, and utilize their power to emit powerful blasts of energy at opponents, as well as having individual abilities to attack or confuse potential victims.

Happy_Phantom	Latest page update: made by Happy_Phantom , Feb 16 2007, 4:31 PM EST (about this update About This Update Edited by Happy_Phantom 45 words added 8 words deleted view changes - complete history)
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