Ichigo Kurosaki: HOLLOW, QUINCY, SHINIGAMI & HUMAN | BLEACH: Character Analysis

before this video begins i just want to express my gratitude to everybody who has subscribed to my channel helping me to share my opinion to thousands of incredible people like yourselves thank you for helping me to reach 50 000 subscribers and i hope that you enjoyed this long awaited and highly requested video on one of my favorite characters within all of anime and manga the character of ichigo kurosaki is the source of a lot of controversy and disagreement mainly stemming from the few labels that have been permanently glued onto his character deeming him to be not as compelling as his other shonen contemporaries and even going as far as to say that he is polly written one thing that you will undoubtedly have noticed if you have stuck around on my channel long enough is that taita kubo is not a terrible writer so why is it that ichigo's name gets dragged around as an example of how bleach failed as a story ichigo is commonly critiqued for not having an easily identifiable goal as a character but does this mean that he does not undergo a significant character arc which takes him from point a to point b it is also claimed that ichigo is a reactionary character responding to stimuli and not initiating action to move the story along like an active protagonist would ichigo is also labeled as a character who has his powers and abilities handed to him i've even heard people refer to him as a bland one-dimensional character dubbing him with the derogatory term mary sue a term which is used to describe a character who lacks any weaknesses and is able to unrealistically overcome their adversaries with ease in comparison to side characters who may otherwise struggle if the same threat was presented to them bleach also gets a lot of criticism from fans who dropped the series believing that after ichigo had defeated eisen the story had nowhere left to go completely undermining the significance of the four-bring arc and ignoring the long-awaited revelations that ichigo receives during the thousand-year bloodwa arc the final arc explains the true reasoning behind the death of ichigo's mother and the explanation of ichigo's powers and abilities while also resolving the conflict between the shinigami and quincy which was first mentioned by rukia as early as chapter 46 so with all of these criticisms listed i will be aiming to give my opinion on each one of these talking points the purpose of this video is to explain why ichigo is one of the most unique protagonists to appear within the pages of shonen jump and why i believe him to be a very well written character who many of us can relate to so let's begin this daunting task of disproving the common misconceptions applied to the character of ichigo kurosaki [Music] matana [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Applause] soda [Music] [Applause] foreign what better way to begin this video than by starting off with your thoughts and opinions on ichigo on twitter and on my youtube community tab i asked all of you why do you believe that ichigo is a well-written character having had close to 300 responses here are some of the key reasons behind why the protagonist of bleach resonated with fans of the series the most commonly cited reason behind ichigo being well written is because of his relatability to us since he is an average teenager living in the 21st century he is seen to be dealing with issues similar to our own like maintaining his friendships school grades his home life while also struggling with the added responsibility of being a substitute shinigami this makes his struggles as a teenager that much more admirable since he conceals his double life from everybody around him leading them to not always understand why ichigo is often absent or neglecting his personal life one example of this is in chapter 239 when his childhood friend tusky has had enough of ichigo playing dumb when she questions him about the whereabouts of arihime after she is taken to huecomundo by ukiyora tatsuki even reveals to ichigo that she has seen him in his shinigami shihak show and is aware that he is lying to her but ichigo struggles to tell his loved ones about his double life due to the fear of them being targeted by his enemies even though he doesn't want to he has to continue this facade for what he believes is the greater good even if it means that he hurts their feelings by telling them that it is none of their business like he does to tatsuki this is one of the purposefully written flaws that exist within ichigo's character which stems from the lie that he tells himself i will go into this later on in the video but as for this instance it highlights the very relatable struggle that ichigo has with balancing the various different plates that he is spinning that comprise of his life as a whole now we may not have to deal with hollows or arankas but we too have many aspects of our lives that we are all balancing at the same time for example studying for multiple school subjects maintaining friendships and sharing a home with family who may or may not understand what you are going through at one point or another we have felt that our own struggles have aligned with those of ichigo's hence why there is such a large sentiment of relatability felt for his character as a whole in fact i would be lying if i said i didn't relate to ichigo one of the moments that i always think back to is when he had been betrayed by genjo during the fulbright arc he had his newly acquired fulbright powers taken away from him these powers had symbolized his newfound hope to protect his loved ones once more after being powerless for 17 months seeing ichigo desperately plead with the enemy to return his powers back to him made me think back to my own experiences and how i had gone through such lows and moments of hopelessness later when rukia arrives and tells ichigo that despair is not enough to stop you it felt like she was saying that to me and this is credited to the undeniable relatability that ichigo has you can empathize with his struggles and appreciate the lengths that he goes through in order to fulfill his want to protect his loved ones another relatable aspect to ichigo is his struggle to find out who he is like us he struggles with finding himself for ichigo this manifests with his difficulty to actually identify the origin of his powers this ultimately holds him back from actualizing his full potential since he rejects aspects of his powers like the nature of his hollow abilities similarly there may be aspects of ourselves or our own lives that we are in direct opposition to ultimately this may be our own downfall if we never learn to accept these parts of ourselves and learn to live with the negative experiences that have shaped us into who we are today ichigo may not like that he has hollow abilities but he has to accept this part of himself because they are a crucial aspect of his powers through neglecting his hollow abilities he has disadvantaged himself and this was demonstrated during the iranka arc when he had repeatedly rejected this side of himself resulting in his hollow side fighting back for supremacy a lot of people also commented on the fact that ichigo doesn't have a wild or out-there goal that he wants to achieve this was praised by many of you stating that it results in each girl coming across as more of a believable character to follow when compared to other shonen protagonists it is not a bad thing to have no direction in certain parts of your life it is entirely natural and very common to not know what you want to do or achieve and ichigo also embodies this in his normal life for example at the start of the fulbright arc he isn't afraid to admit that he doesn't know what he wants to do after school i will talk more about ichigo's motives and desires when i discuss how his character is written from a screenwriting perspective later on but this is an example of how his lack of a crazy goal aids in the relatability of his character the next most common praise of ichigo that i noticed is that he is a realistic character which helps him appear more mature than other shonen protagonists this maturity is widely accepted to originate from his childhood trauma which was the death of his mother and his inability to protect her this is a defining moment for ichigo shaping his character for most of the series until he is forced to accept the truth of what happened to his mother the day that she died ichigo does not have an unrealistic optimistic attitude he isn't always full of hope like a typical bright-eyed protagonist he has seen and been close to death from an early age and it gives him an error of seriousness for most of the series he doesn't trust orihime shadow uryu with being capable of fighting on their own as they constantly remind him to trust in them too and that he is not alone ichigo has a problem with widening too much responsibility on his own shoulders and then feeling entirely responsible when it all goes wrong this is a result of being fueled by tragedy ichigo is driven by the desire to never let what happened to his mother happen again to any of his loved ones he had to grow up at a very young age after the death of his mother an irreplaceable void formed in his family he had desired to get stronger from a younger age trying to overcome his feelings of powerlessness that he believes led to the death of his mother he feels responsible for her death because he wasn't strong enough to protect himself and consequently her ichigo did things like joining a dojo and getting into fights with thugs in order to fight for those who were unable to fight for themselves his maturity led him to these decisions and the motive behind them is completely believable and realistic would you rarely be able to say that his character is realistic if he later went on to reveal that he wants to be the king of all shinigami or a captain of the gotei 13. of course not these are ridiculous goals and desires for a character that in my opinion follows a more complicated premise than just having a goal to reach a number one position the maturity and realism of ichigo often leads to him being misunderstood initially after gaining his powers ichigo didn't want the responsibility of having to protect everybody he only wanted to protect his close circle of people and this was enough for him this in a way was a subversion to what a typical shonen protagonist would have done typically the bright-eyed shonen protagonist would have accepted their role and fulfilled their responsibility but ichigo on the other hand puts away fight and behaves like a typical teenager maybe it is too real for some people and it doesn't provide that sense of escapism that most seek from fictional stories based on all of your responses ichigo's realism and seriousness is definitely a key reason for his appeal the last point i want to mention that everybody seemed to be in unanimous agreement about is ichigo's will to protect this having been brought up in almost every comment left on my twitter and youtube community tab within his mean exterior is a compassionate call which manifests through his desire to protect as many people as his two hands can handle even before the death of his mother ichigo had joined a dojo with the desire to protect his two sisters so we know that this wasn't entirely brought about by the death of his mother it was something that was always a driving factor for ichigo ever since he was a child he has no desire to become the strongest or seek recognition from others his is a very modest selfless desire which in my opinion is very admirable when ichigo is partaking in battle typical tropes like if i fail now i will never reach my goal are not utilized instead ichigo focuses on the suffering of those around him and how they will be impacted if he does not succeed in defeating his opponent this is why he fought against bayakiya in order to stop rukia from suffering this is also the reason behind him fighting against ukiyara you will note that ichigo did not attack ukira during the huikamundo arc until he was told by ukiora that he had brought orihime to los noches and had made her appear to be a traitor to the soul society and her friends ichigo solidifies his resolve to protect his loved ones several times throughout the story most notably during the soul society arc where he proves his resolve by rescuing rukia he even tells renji during their battle that he isn't fighting because he wants to win he is fighting because he has to win the stakes are too high for him to falter the life of rukia is on the line and him failing to protect her has several consequences for his character ichigo was given the power to protect bairukia something that he had desired his entire life the existence of the very person who took away the reign from his life is now being threatened will ichigo stand by and just let her be killed because she gave her powers to him or will he utilize his shinigami powers and not allow a repeat of what had happened to his mother ichigo is not a powerless child anymore and it is for this reason that he values rukia's sacrifice she had given him the only thing that he truly desired she may not know how much this had meant for him but he demonstrates what she means to him by infiltrating the soul society and fighting for her sake and in the end even rescuing her as we can see ichigo had demonstrated his unwavering desire to protect his loved ones from the very beginning of the series and it is for this reason that this attribute is remembered so fondly by all of us ichigo doesn't have a specific ambition but this doesn't mean that he is uninteresting to follow as a protagonist you all have responded with so many loving and positive accounts of how ichigo affected you personally and why you think he is well written and that alone is a testament to the legacy that has been left behind by our orange head protagonist we can all agree that ichigo is a down-to-earth character who had to deal with considerable internal conflict in order to grow as a person dealing with his internal problems give him the strength to defeat adversaries like eisen who had tried to take the throne of god and even yuhabaku had wanted to rid the world of the concept of death ichigo as a whole showed us what it means to overcome issues that we as humans face constantly throughout our lives problems of depression anxiety and feeling inadequate it is great to have stories of characters who want to be the best that they can be or be more than what they were destined to be but in a world saturated with such tales it is humbling to read about a character like ichigo who simply desires to hold on to and protect the very few things that give his life meaning and purpose ichigo's character like i have mentioned underwent an undeniable change from the very first chapter to the last however identifying what exactly changed leads to a lot of confusion and debate with some people even concluding that ichigo did not undergo any substantial character growth or meaningful change this leads me and others to believe that he is a very misunderstood character whose wants needs false and past have been overlooked by the majority of the anime fandom who write off bleach as a weak story ichigo comes across as a moody teenager but underneath this misleading first impression dwells an individual who cares deeply for others but struggles to express this because of his own deep-rooted flaws one thing that he does not struggle to express is his will and desire to protect despite others doubts of how impossible it is to infiltrate the soul society or to defeat eisen he never pays attention to the naysayers ichigo creates his own path and does the unthinkable but often we never get to appreciate the toll that this takes on a character however through ichigo we get a very realistic depiction of what it feels like to have doubts and fears when coming up against overwhelming odds people may not agree with this but i find it a strength to see ichigo falter i for one want to see him do some introspection and reaffirm his resolve because that for me is realistic and true to life you don't overcome problems in the real world because of the power of friendship in the real world you gather the strength to get up and face adversity through identifying your weaknesses so that you can strengthen them for the most part you will always have to take this first step on your own and later you may have support from friends and family members but they won't be there to tell you what you can only find out for yourself similar to how orihime uryu and chad never interfere with ichigo's inner world they support him after he comes to his own realizations and decides what he has to do himself so i have hinted at a lot of things and i've probably answered some of your questions already but now i want to go in depth into specific areas of this character which are critiqued i want to give my researched opinion on them based on common screenwriting techniques and storytelling mechanics let's once and for all resolve the misunderstandings and get a clear image of how kubo had decided to write his protagonist so the first point i want to discuss is this claim that ichigo is a reactionary character and because of this he is poorly written and uninteresting to follow the opposite of a reactive character is one that is proactive a character who takes charge of the story as opposed to reacting to the events that occur around them proactive protagonists are often defined as having clearly defined goals that the story centres itself around as we collectively cheer for the proactive character because it is likable to follow someone with ambition since this is a relatable quality to possess people like to follow someone who strives to be more than what they are hence why underdog stories are so beloved this is exactly why stories like naruto and one piece have found success on longevity this is a successful formula for storytelling especially when the plot is highly character driven the downfall for character-driven stories like these are that they would struggle to tell the same story without the protagonist and their goal being present if we are not following the protagonist or if they are no longer present then what interest will we have in the other plot points or side characters since character driven stories heavily rely on the proactive protagonist again i want to reiterate there is nothing wrong with this stories are complex and in my opinion there is no right or wrong way of doing things as long as you are making a conscious effort to tell a good story the issue that i do have is with the reductionist perspective of some shonen anime and manga fans who are so used to character-driven stories told in this particular manner that they set them up as a template for all other anime and manga to aspire to be like your character has no goal well he must be boring than reactionary ichigo doesn't aspire towards anything while kubo must be a terrible writer i think takes like this are void of any real assessment and analysis in fact they are outright lazy dare i say they don't know how to think for themselves and are just repeating what they heard from a youtube video or a reddit hot take a misconception that people who have no idea about screenwriting or storytelling often sight is that a protagonist without a goal is a bad protagonist the problem with this is that you are assuming that a goal is the only interesting thing that we should be following a character for there is more to a character arc than witnessing the successful completion of their clearly defined goal in addition to this a character who is void of a goal can still make proactive decisions within a plot just because they don't have a goal doesn't mean that they automatically become reactionary generally protagonists are reactive most of the time but demonstrate proactive decision making through their responses to situations and the subsequent actions that they take and how these actions and reactions end up having an impact on the world around them now answer this for me if ichigo is indeed reactive or passive all of the time then would his absence be felt upon the world well if he was reactive or passive then rukia would be dead each ghost inner hollow would have assumed control over his being ukiora would have killed orihime eisen would have taken over the soul king genji would have struggled to recruit ichigo into execution and so on and so forth yes ichigo has no clearly defined goal but no this does not make him reactionary and poorly written because his actions as a protagonist directly affect the world that ichigo resides within believing that things are happening to him and that he has no control over them only serves to prove how little attention you have been paying to the story of bleach the problem that we have is that bleach is often compared to naruto and one piece since it is a part of the shonen jump big three one piece and naruto feature protagonists with clearly defined goals and are recognized as being proactive protagonists but because bleach tries to tell a different type of story to one piece of naruto people find issues when attempting to compare bleach to them they attribute their own lack of understanding of the story by describing bleach as being poorly written since it doesn't follow the template laid out by one piece of naruto assuming that having a protagonist who wants to be the king or top of something is the only successful formula for telling a shonen story completely overlooking series like yuyu hakusho or jojo's part 4 which also features protagonists with no clearly defined goals but they are still enjoyable to follow despite yusuke or josuke not having a goal i still rooted for them to win with yuyu hakusho i took interest in the story which similar to bleach was about the protagonists learning to understand their identity and overcoming their own internal struggles the appeal of a character with a goal and why it is always recommended to write a character with a well-defined goal is to make them come across as likable and relatable however right at the start of the video we established that ichigo being relatable is one of his most recognizable qualities that he's praised for possessing as a protagonist the claims of ichigo being reactionary and passive failed to realize that he is in fact likeable and relatable however for this to be possible he has to be more than just a reactionary polywritten protagonist people who lazily analyze the protagonist on such simple ideas like proactive and reactive decision making overlook so many other elements which make up a good story let's look at character versus plot and try to understand why ichigo works as a protagonist despite the fact that he doesn't have a defined goal all great stories juggle a fine balance between character and plot the external conflict which affects a character is derived from the plot without the external conflict the character that we follow will have no reason to change adding to this without a character's internal conflict this renders the plot meaningless so we can establish that both plot and character have to exist synergistically in order to create an impactful story the plot or external conflict is all about what happens while the internal conflict or in other words the story explains why it matters the internal conflict is established by kubo in the first chapter one of the first things that we learn about ichigo is that he has a well-defined desire to protect his loved ones this is what gives meaning to the plot since protecting his loved ones is ichigo's established internal conflict ichigo's desire to protect his loved ones drives his motive to gain the power to protect them and subsequently strengthen his abilities in order to deal with the external conflict that arises by the plot ichigo's motive to gain the power to protect had manifested in several forms whether if this was him joining a dojo as a child accepting rookie's powers training with urohara to activate his own shinigami powers or joining execution to learn how to utilize his full bring abilities his motive or agency to gain power gave meaning to the plot that was occurring ichigo wasn't just ideally letting things happen to him the agency of a character is defined by a character's ability to make decisions that affect the story being told we know that before any external conflict fell upon ichigo he wanted to be stronger so that he could protect his sisters his character was motivated by wanting to have more power so that he could use it for good a good plot or external conflict is usually created from the words and actions of the protagonist this means that ichigo's desire and agency should be put to the test well after he accepts rookie's shinigami powers he immediately has to prove his desire to protect not only his loved ones but anybody who is affected by hollows now his desire to protect is not just limited to the people that he knows but to as many people as his two hands can handle he accepts and honors the responsibility that is attached to these newly acquired powers it is assumed that ichigo has a lack of agency but i have proven that the decisions that ichigo makes directly impact the story without ichigo karakura town will be littered with hollows rukia wouldn't have been saved the soul society wouldn't have a large debt of gratitude towards ichigo for defeating eisen ichigo's actions resulted in him being recognized by the soul society who were once his enemies he is integral to the resolution of the major conflicts that occur within bleach he takes an active role in participating in battles that don't involve him and he even disobeys orders from the soul society and goes to wacom window in order to rescue orihime with all of this stated it is very hard for me to buy this idea that each girl has no control over his own life when most of the decisions that he makes he does so in defiance choosing to face off against overwhelming odds and desiring to put the safety of his friends and family before his own this nuanced outlook debunks this notion that the plot is simply happening to him and ichigo's character is reduced to being reactionary bleach is also a character-driven story and there are several ways to tackle this type of story most shonen fans are used to character-driven stories where the protagonist must accomplish a goal that is larger than themselves since we are so accustomed to these types of stories it is understandably jarring when you are presented with a protagonist like ichigo who is written with a different destination in mind bleach focuses on the internal conflict or story of ichigo while the plot tries his best to derail him and strike doubt powerlessness and hopelessness into his character arc before going into his character arc let's go over how ichigo is written as a protagonist understandably he is the most important character to feature within bleach and kubo makes a lot of excellent decisions in respect to how he writes his main character which in turn leads to him finding success with the story that he is trying to tell as the foundational character of bleach ichigo was written with several elements in mind which lead to him becoming a strong protagonist the first and most important of which are the beliefs that ichigo holds these are the moral philosophical and ethical ideas that he has adopted bleach being a long-running story results in ichigo holding more than one of these beliefs but let's focus on the most important character defining belief that he holds ichigo believes that it is his sole responsibility to protect his loved ones this stems from his belief that he is responsible for the death of his mother prior to this he had just wanted to protect his loved ones but after the death of his mother and his inability to do anything to prevent it it resulted in him feeling a deep sense of powerlessness and regret he felt regret for something that wasn't in his control blaming himself for not being strong enough as the reason behind his mother's untimely demise this leads to ichigo manifesting the flaws of his character through rejecting help from his loved ones and burdening himself entirely with protecting everybody around him even if they have demonstrated that they are strong enough to take care of themselves this is because ichigo doesn't want a repeat of what had happened to his mother who had tried to protect herself on ichigo but had been killed in the process of doing so this is both his fear and his flaw that he must learn to overcome this belief is the core of who ichigo is and kubo does an excellent job of conveying this to us during the battle with the grand fischer very early on in the series and this explains why we are all very familiar with ichigo's desire to protect others this belief defines ichigo and we see it challenged several times throughout the story without a strong belief your character will fail to have a want which consequently results in no meaningful story having taken place the beliefs of the protagonist at the core of any story this needs to be firmly established in order to create a great story featuring dynamic characters in addition to having well-defined beliefs a well-written protagonist will also have a strong want that leads them to taking action if ichigo had no wants then the story of bleach would fail there is no story without the protagonist wanting something and taking action in order to get it the want of ichigo is based upon his beliefs and in 10 his belief defines his want the story of bleach has found success thanks to ichigo adhering to these screenwriting principles he takes action to fulfill his want which results in a meaningful story being told ichigo wants to gain power in order to protect his loved ones he goes through extreme lengths in order to gain the power to protect for example during his training with urohara to unlock his own shinigami powers he desired power desperately so that he could go to the soul society to rescue rukia he wanted the power to protect so badly that the consequences of not awakening his power would have transformed him into a hollow this is another quality of a well-written protagonist that ichigo possesses ichigo desires to fulfill his want so badly that he would destroy or be destroyed in order to attain his goal a well-written character must also have something at stake for ichigo this was his sanity as he was battling against his inner hollow in order to retain control over his powers his principles would not allow him to accept help from anyone even from his own inner hollow after he had awakened his own shinigami powers his inner hollow was activated at the same time and thus began the battle for supremacy and the stakes were set following this ichigo had the safety and well-being of his friends and family at stake during the fulbright arc he wanted to gain the power to protect again so that he could once again protect his loved ones after being powerless for 17 months and lastly during the thousand-year blood war arc ichigo had to accept the truth about how his mother had died and his connection to the enemy of the ark as he also has quincy blood flowing through his veins only after coming to terms with his identity and understanding the real cause of his mother's death ichigo was able to face the overwhelming odds which were yuhabak threatening to destroy the soul king and removing the concept of death from reality these are several examples of stakes that ichigo was up against while simultaneously desiring to fulfill his want the character of an individual is demonstrated through the choices that they make under pressure the decisions that a character makes under pressure reveals their true nature if ichigo was just taking action without any consequences then we would not care about the outcome nor his journey the fact that there are stakes and consequences gives meaning to ichigo's actions if ichigo had no clearly defined want then there would be no story nothing would matter adding to this a character does not need to have a grandiose want or a goal like becoming the king of the parrots orokage or the number one hero not every story has to be about the protagonist becoming the best in the world instead what really matters is how important the want is to the beliefs of the protagonist ichigo wants to gain the power to protect because he believes that it is his responsibility to protect others his beliefs and wants are interchangeable and synergistic which adds further significance to the foundations of his character ichigo realized that after rukia was taken back to the seoul society that everybody in karakora town had forgotten about rukia aside from his close friends orihime chad and uryu who would notice or even care if rukia was executed by rescuing her he isn't going to be saving the world but instead he is going to be saving an individual who brought meaning to his world by granting him the power that he so desperately desired when his family were being attacked by the hollow fishbone d because of ichigo's beliefs rescuing rukia matters a great deal to him and it is for this reason that we are invested in ichigo's journey to save her these stakes eventually become greater with the appearance of eisen and yuhabak who threaten to destroy existence thus warranting ichigo to gain the strength to protect reality as a whole and not just his close circle of family and friends he learns the responsibility that is attached with acquiring power understanding that he must use these abilities to protect as many people as possible even if he doesn't know them a strong protagonist will take action that changes and impacts the story we can see several instances where ichigo taking action has resulted in a shift in the course of the story when eisen had the upper hand in fake karakora town ichigo's intervention was pivotal to turning the tide of the battle and it was thanks to his actions that led to eisens defeat another example is the invasion of the soul society which is attributed to ichigo taking action it was because of his want to protect rukia that led us to enjoy the conflict between the invaders and the gote 13. contrastingly not all of the events that impact the story need to be caused by the protagonist ichigo did not cause the espada to invade the world of the living isaan did he did not initiate the counter-attack against izan the soul society did also he did not cause the quincy to invade the soul society you have buck did for the majority of the time the situations that arise are not caused by ichigo but rather they are happening to him or affecting people that he cares about what matters is how ichigo reacts to these situations this creates the conflict which keeps us invested in the story he takes action in response to these events so that he can get what he wants which is obviously to protect his loved ones ichigo demonstrates throughout bleach that he can carry the burden of the conflict as he puts up a fight and takes action against the antagonistic forces constantly proving that he has conviction and enough stamina to see his fights through to their conclusion even when all hope seems to be lost ichigo is able to overcome his despair and his conviction to fulfill his want leads him to overcoming the different conflicts that are presented to him he takes more action than people are willing to give him credit for mostly because they have a difficult time interpreting a story that doesn't fit their expectations of a conventional shonen story bleach works because our protagonist ichigo has a well-defined want backed up by strong beliefs he is willing to fight for these beliefs even when up against impossible odds and frankly it keeps us engaged with following his story as we cheer for him to succeed i have seen people claim that ichigo does not undergo any change as a character but as i'm about to explain ichigo is a dynamic character he undergoes a change arc of his own which keeps us captivated and engaged until the resolution of his character arc we have discussed the external and internal conflict as well as ichigo's beliefs and wants however these concepts are only effective when they are matched with dynamic character writing which fleshes out these wants and needs what a character wants and needs can be explained by the light that they believe in as well as the ghosts from their past not all protagonists need to undergo change rather you have to ask yourself do they need to change or do the characters around the protagonist need to change from what we have discussed about ichigo it should be obvious that he needs to undergo change within bleach ichigo's beliefs are changed through his character arc even within different story arcs we see him undergo some form of minor change but by the end of the story a significant change does occur if he did not have any change then you would have a story with no meaning or stakes to prevent this from happening the beliefs of the protagonist must result in him winning or alternatively he must change his beliefs in order to triumph ichigo undergoes change when he realizes that he wasn't responsible for his mother's death and that it isn't solely his responsibility to protect his loved ones he doesn't have to continue burdening himself and hurting himself in the pursuit for more power by working together and trusting his loved ones he realizes that he is much stronger fighting with them rather than fighting on his own the change of beliefs is demonstrated during the final battle with juha buck to understand this change arc we have to understand what makes ichigo a dynamic character through discussing his wants and needs most people have accepted that ichigo's goal is to protect his loved ones while there is some truth to this there is a lot more to it than just that let's break down this idea of a character's goal into proper screenwriting concepts starting with the want of a character the want is a character's visible goal this is what usually makes up the plot of our story which i described earlier on as being external consequently the want is also external and we as an audience should be well aware of what a character wants the want of a character is in direct opposition to the external forces of antagonism that appear within the story in bleach ichigo is put under pressure by antagonistic forces which overwhelm him and threaten to endanger the people that he cares about ichigo initially wants power so that he can protect his loved ones but soon realizes he has to grow stronger in order to challenge the antagonistic forces that continue to appear these antagonistic forces serve to test ichigo's resolve and his conviction by pressuring him we are left to wonder now that he has the power can he actualize his external want ichigo fought against the odds several times and failed he lost against renji biakia eisen ukiyara grimjao and even yohabak in some instances he failed on more than one occasion against these opponents however ichigo continued to fight despite being outmatched he trained and grew stronger despite being defeated at the same time he was facing other pressures like his inner hollow consuming his consciousness and his feelings of helplessness after orihime was injured by yami and rukia was hurt by grimjao he had felt responsible for them getting hurt because he was unable to protect them these feelings of helplessness were further emphasized during the fulbright arc when he had no power and this is when he was furthest away from his wand since the beginning of the series ichigo must overcome these feelings of powerlessness his fear of his inner hollow and at the same time fight off the antagonistic forces if he desires to fulfill his want having strong opposition to a character's want creates drama you will struggle to create a dramatic story with a character who doesn't want anything we have established that the plot follows the external want of the character in this case ichigo's want to protect let's now look at another fundamental concept for creating a character which is their need so after having understood the reasoning behind ichigo's want why is it important for a character to even want something in order to better understand his want we need to look at his need the need is something that the character must discover about themselves or the world around them so that they can become complete or whole for most of the story a character will spend their time pursuing their external goal which is what they want however a story on a deeper level is about the growth of a character from subconsciously to consciously recognizing and pursuing their inner goal which is the thing that they need meaning that the want is external while the need is internal this was talked about earlier on when i brought up the points about internal and external conflict they arise thanks to the wants and needs of characters wants are opposed by external antagonistic forces while needs are opposed by something that comes from within the character it is their own beliefs that hold them back from realizing the truth and becoming a more balanced version of themselves ichigo knows what he wants but his need is much more complicated ichigo rejects his inner hollow and he blames himself for his mother's death he feels powerless despite having power he has doubt about his own abilities and feels responsible for carrying the burden of protecting everyone and he even lies to himself during the forebring ugg that he doesn't miss rukia and the soul society when in fact he does ichigo has power but his beliefs hold him back from fulfilling the true potential of his latent abilities he is a protector who doesn't trust the source of his power nor does he trust the people that he is protecting to fight for themselves by this point we should be able to deduce that the want drives the plot while the need drives the theme of the story the need is the emotional drive or the theme of the story that the author is trying to convey to us we can see through ichigo's character arc that the theme of bleach is the acceptance of death this is portrayed to us through how ichigo accepts the death of his mother and that he wasn't responsible for it he uses his acceptance of death to defeat the final villain of the story who wanted to rid reality of the concept of death thanks to bleach being a long-running story it results in it conveying to us multiple themes one significant theme is the idea of accepting and believing in yourself as ichigo believes in himself and accepts the origin of his abilities no longer rejecting his inner hollow by the end of the story the want of a character results in the action battles and rivalries it is the journey of the character or the fun of the story while the need results in as being emotionally invested in the character and their story the need is hinted at immediately at the start of the story when we see ichigo in his family and immediately noticed the absence of his mother it is quickly elaborated upon that she had died and we are pulled in and begin to feel the emotions of the protagonist what it must have felt like to lose the center of your world at such a young age this is why i formed my connection to ichigo's character even before i realized that he is very relatable and leads a similar school and home life to my own ichigo's want is unique to him he wants to protect his loved ones but to do this he wants to gain more power the need that is conveyed to us through stories is usually a universal concept ichigo's need to accept himself and the trauma of his past is a universal concept that we can all get behind it is a heartfelt theme that we resonate with the need of bleach's protagonist connects us to the plot and makes us care for the main character the need of a character can be further understood and better appreciated after knowing the light that the character believes the lie that the character believes stops them from achieving what they need to become whole or complete in bleach ichigo's lie is that he believes he is responsible for his mother's death so it is his duty to protect his family and his friends while not accepting help from them or trusting them to look after themselves because he is afraid of losing them the fear that they may die like his mother did is always driving him to continue believing in this lie that he was responsible for her death due to his powerlessness this lie also manifests through his fear and rejection of his inner hollow which is an integral aspect of his inherited abilities this fear limits him from actualizing his full potential he refuses to accept help from my hollow considering his mother was killed by a hollow for a character to undergo a positive change they have to start the story by lacking something in their life ichigo started the story without power this is what he was desiring yet lacking as he gains power he realizes that he will need more power but for this to happen it is necessary for ichigo to change he needs to accept himself and overcome his past to reach his full potential until he does this he will remain incomplete ichigo must undergo internal change he will not accomplish his need by simply focusing on his external want to protect his loved ones he will fail at this if he does not undergo this pivotal internal change the need of a character can only be fulfilled by them learning the truth in stories where the protagonist undergoes a positive change the truth or need is hidden from them they will attempt to solve their problems by chasing after the thing that they want but it is in vain as this will not resolve their internal problem the inner conflict of ichigo is all about a silent war that is taking place between his want and his need the want of a character is a side effect of what is missing within the character this means that the want and need are closely linked to each other what a character wants can change ichigo has different immediate wants within each arc while he is working towards his ultimate want of course ichigo's ultimate want is to protect but his immediate want constantly changes for example during the substitute shinigami arc he wants to protect karakora town from hollows during the soul society arc he wants to rescue rukia during the iranka arc he has several ones firstly to overcome the fear of his hollow and then to rescue rukia and lastly his want to defeat eisen during the fullbring arc he wants to regain his powers and lastly in the final arc he wants to protect the soul society from the quincy all of these immediate wants work towards his ultimate want which is to protect ichigo is confronted with multiple forces of antagonism and they save to alter his immediate want however this does not change the need of ichigo's character which usually remains the same from the beginning to the end of the story ichigo's need is to realize that he isn't responsible for his mother's death he does so after he learns about the truth everything but the reign reveals a past where we find out about the origin of ichigo's parents the flashback also serves to explain the origin of his inner hollow and the culprit who is responsible for the death of his mother the need to change and learn the truth is hinted to each go early on in the story via his inner hollow who constantly taunts him and reveals to him that he is his true zompocto stating that he is zangatsu when he enters watsuni maya's domain to restore his broken zombucto he is deemed unfit to wield his unpokedo because he has yet to reconcile with his past for the upcoming final battle against the man who is responsible for his mother's death he cannot gain more power and grow stronger without resolving his inner conflict he has to learn the truth and actualize his need if he wants to defeat yuhobak he has to accept that his mother was attacked by the hollow white which he had inherited from her the hollow had fused with his shinigami powers that he inherited from his father thus becoming his true zombocto he also has to accept that he was not responsible for his mother's death yuho bak was he had casted ashwall in that night which had robbed masaki over quincy powers and made her vulnerable to attack from the grand fisher masaki had died protecting her son and she would not want him to resent himself and to feel guilt for something that wasn't his fault when he learns of the truth ichigo realizes that he has been burdening himself with protecting everybody when he should have trusted in them and believed in them as much as they believed in him now that we know about what a character wants and needs what is it about a character that makes us engage with them to write an engaging character we the audience need to be interested in their struggle to the point that we want to know what will happen next to them one way for us to begin caring about a character is to give that character likable qualities like how ichigo is caring and compassionate we like that he brings flowers to pay respect to the spirit of a little girl we admire his love for his friends and family and we can see through his harsh exterior revealing his kind-hearted nature in addition to this we admire his resolve to follow through with what he sets out to do even if the odds appear to be stacked against him what you have to realize is that a character isn't engaging or admirable just because we see them do nice things engagement comes from seeing a part of ourselves in that character this is defined as empathy we empathize with ichigo because of how relatable he is how often we can see a part of ourselves in him whether if this is him overcoming despair or realistically giving in to despair ichigo isn't overly optimistic and cheerful he is that angsty misunderstood teenager that we all wear at one point in our lives for us to empathize with ichigo we have to care about him and understand him one way for us to empathize with the character is to attach the audience to aspects of a character that they can relate to or wish that they could be like ichigo appears to always be in a mood with a constant scowl on his face even if he isn't actually feeling angry or bad tempered his double life as a substitute shinigami appears to be an outlet for ichigo to express his care and his desire to protect his loved ones while he maintains his tough guy act in his day-to-day life this is really easy to empathize with since some of us including myself struggle with showing how much we care about others but would love an opportunity to express it during the early portions of bleach when his friends and family didn't know that ichigo had powers we could relate to ichigo's desire to protect his loved ones but also deciding to keep it a secret from them ichigo fighting for his friends and family is admirable and it is indeed something we all wish that we could do since it's a way for us to prove ourselves to the people that we care about the most especially if you feel misunderstood by your loved ones and want to demonstrate to them that you do care about them we all want to be accepted and understood by the people around us ichigo too desires this but his biggest problem is that he feels responsible for taking his mother away from his sisters and his father he feels that because of him they are now having to suffer with this void in their life his own mind has led him to believe that he is misunderstood by his family when an actual fact that care deeply for him and don't hold him responsible for masaki's death the trauma guilt and powerlessness that ichigo feels combined to form a rich character backstory that gives the opportunity for ichigo to change in a positive way ichigo is nuanced and relatable thanks to the excellent writing that we can get behind and empathize with we feel empathy because we see a troubled teenager residing in a world like our own he struggles and fails like us but what we love is that he never gives up and kubo conveys this aspect of his character in a more realistic manner than others shown in series people complain that ichigo gets beat down or he is constantly losing but this is what makes his growth feel natural and earned through introspection and overcoming his fears doubts and anxiety he returns to the battlefield stronger than ever we know how it feels like to try our best at something but still fail this is why we admire ichigo's response to his failures by going through intense life-threatening training he constantly pursues greater power to fulfill his desire he endures pain but conceals it he burdens himself and fights for the sake of others ichigo behaves very selflessly he gains power and fights for others and this in my opinion is a welcomed breath of fresh air since we are saturated with stories of protagonists fighting for their own goal or personal fulfillment you can only empathize with the character once you understand why they do what they do in the case of ichigo it is very simple we know his motto for action and we can understand how his childhood trauma has been carried forward into his adolescent years feeling empathy leads us to follow the protagonists through to the end we want them to resolve their issues overcome their flaws and come to terms with their past so that they can ultimately accept themselves for who they are so i have just described a character arc and this is what we follow stories for it is the change that occurs from one spiritual emotional or intellectual place to another witnessing a character arc is the whole point of fictional stories because humanity is constantly undergoing spiritual emotional and intellectual change it explains how humanity has come so far character arcs are a vital aspect of a well-written story serving to explain why the plot has been created the conflict tension and structure of a story are all reliant upon how characters are written and how they change from the beginning to the end of the story ichigo undergoes a positive change arc this is where the character begins the story with believing a lie the character then encounters the truth and lastly the character overcomes the lie by finding and accepting the truth because bleach is a long-running story it results in ichigo believing in several lies thus resulting in him encountering several truths which i covered earlier on in most stories the character will struggle to find and accept the truth until the very end of the story and this appears to be the case for ichigo as he struggles until the thousand-year boudoir arc where he finds and accepts the truth leading to the change in his character the whole point of a positive change arc is for the character to undergo a change from believing a lie to finding the truth when this change occurs it doesn't mean that the character is a perfect person now it just means that they have overcome the lie that they believed at the start of the story resulting in them becoming a more balanced or complete version of themselves it doesn't mean that they cannot fall back to feeling a human emotion like despair momentarily and this is what most people criticize ichigo for referring to how he had felt hopeless during his battle against juha buck he had come to realize that his opponent was unbeatable and it led him to feel momentary hopelessness and there is nothing wrong with this it doesn't mean that ichigo has regressed he is once again demonstrating his very relatable human qualities he isn't an optimist high in his own supply if his growth as a character is critiqued for moments like this then it highlights to me that people don't even know what criteria to base the growth of a character on ichigo at this point has undergone a positive change arc him feeling despair does not undo the change that has occurred this is an opportunity for us to appreciate how ichigo will overcome adversity after accepting the truth it's an opportunity to appreciate the change that has occurred indeed ichigo's hopelessness is short-lived as he quickly snaps out of it and defeats yuhabak he demonstrates that he can trust renji to fight alongside him and to execute a plan to defeat the enemy something that he wouldn't have done in the past as the lie that he believed would have made him feel like burdening himself with all of the responsibility and not accepting help from others during a battle earlier i spoke briefly about the theme of a story and how bleach has several themes that it tries to convey through its plot a theme that often comes up when speaking about ichiko is this concept of shattering fate i have mentioned several times in this video that ichigo has had to overcome unstoppable obstacles but this is slightly different it is the idea to challenge predetermined destiny this idea of shattering fate is so prevalent amongst fans they often theorize and attribute it as the true ability of ichigo zombakdo to discuss this idea of shattering fate further we need to discuss some special side chapters we learn more about ichigo's feelings from two special prequel chapters that taite kubo had published at the end of volume 23 the first is titled side a the sand and the second side b the rotator in these chapters we get to see the events that led up to ichigo and rukiya meeting said the sand is about ichigo while side b the rotator is about rukia let's first speak about said and understand each ghost's feelings prior to him becoming a substitute shinigami foreign foreign [Music] these prequel chapters reveal a brief glimpse into ichigo and rukia's life just before the events of the first chapter while also delivering to us a poem about fate these chapters reveal their feelings bringing a much needed clarity to that frame of mind leading up to their fateful encounter side a the sand follows an average day in the life of ichigo at the end of a school day his friends try to talk to him about a tv show but he has a disinterested expression that is until he senses something has happened this is when the poem begins as ichigo leaves school in a hurry he arrives at his destination to discover spots of blood on the ground as an elderly spirit tells ichigo that the boy is gone ichigo can do nothing but to helplessly agree with the old man he says to himself that he can see ghosts he can touch them and even speak to them but this is all that he can do for them sometimes they disappear without warning like the spirit of this little boy that ichigo had wanted to give a toy airplane to he says that he doesn't know what happens to them but sometimes they leave behind spots of blood that only he can see and there is always this lingering smell of fear he then admits to himself that no matter how strong he may get he is unable to protect them the defeated expression on ichigo's face should convey to you how much this means to him without any words you can tell that he is deeply impacted by the loss of this boy realizing that he is powerless and could do nothing for the boy cuts his heart like cold steel ichigo leaves the toy when the boy was last seen as we later see him encounter the spirit of a little girl he comforts her and reassures her telling her not to cry and promises that he will be back to visit her again and this is a brief breakdown of the events that occur within this chapter let's now look at the poem which helps us to understand ichigo's problem and how fate is heavily involved in it the poem is written from ichigo's perspective and it begins with the world changes it turns each time it touches the sun and the moon it takes a new shape this is in reference to how with each rotation of the earth passing of a day into night and vice versa the world we reside within changes we are powerless to stop the world from rotating and cannot stop these changes from occurring this powerlessness is spoken about in the next verse the only thing that does not change is my powerlessness this beautifully complements the first verse and emphasizes ichigo's desperation for wanting to grasp fate by his hands and steer it in his direction the poem concludes with the following verses it's turning if fate is a gear and we are the sand that falls between those gears then there is nothing that we can do so i wish for strength if i cannot protect them from the gears of fate then give me a strong blade and enough strength to shatter fate this final verse metaphorically describes our position in the world since our lives consist of being pulled into the direction of fate and destiny we have little control over what happens to us and this is exactly like the sun that is crushed between the rotating gears we are powerless to stop the gears and are taken in the direction that the gears are rotating towards ichigo has seen how cruel fate can be and it is for this reason that he wishes for the strength to not just protect his loved ones from fate but to shatter it completely the follow-up to this is called side b the rotator which follows rukia prior to her arrival in the world of the living equally as short as side a in this chapter we learn that rukia has been assigned to a first solo mission in the world of the living she will leave the soul society for a month and be assigned to a five mile in diameter area centered around karakora town ukitake explains to her that this mission shouldn't be too difficult for her before she leaves we learned that renji has been promoted to the lieutenant of the sixth division but he wishes to share the news with rukia once she has returned from her assignment while rukia is leaving for the world of the living the second half of the poem is told to us referencing the first poem it reveals to us the perspective of shinigami who have power and what they think about fate it's turning if fate is a gear then we are the ones that make it turn we believe that the crushing gears are guided by an infallible power this second poem answers the first and has a different outlook and even outcome from the first the first poem focuses on ichigo's powerlessness and his desire for power while this speaks of the shinigami who have power the shinigami are stated to control the rotation of the gears hence why side b is titled the rotator in reference to rukia and said a is titled the sand in reference to ichigo because of the power that the shinigami have they are described as being incapable of making mistakes or being wrong rukia steps forward as if to answer ichigo's wish for power she gives ichigo control over fate when she transfers her powers to him thanks to rukia he was able to know what it feels like to fight against fate he was no longer powerless and he immediately intervened when his family was threatened by a hollow as if he is righting the wrongs of the past his powerlessness stopped him from saving his mother as well as the countless spirits that he encounters but can do nothing to protect them their crushing gears of fate were broken by ichigo as his wish to receive a blade strong enough to shatter fate was fulfilled thus fighting against fate and destiny becomes an intrinsic theme which always resurfaces within the pages of bleach we see the idea of fate brought up during ichigo's battles against biakiya ukira eisen and even yuhabak as long as he is wielding his blade he is able to protect the weak and resist against the crushing gears of fate so now that we know the significance of what it meant for ichigo to gain the power to protect let's now explain the powers that he obtains since there is a lot of confusion regarding ichigo's powers and the different forms that he takes during the series some of this widespread confusion about ichigo's powers is understandable since most people didn't read the manga after the conclusion of the anime and missed out on key revelations regarding ichigo's character the thousand year budwar arc reveals that ichigo is a hybrid being he is a human who has inherited shinigami hollow and quincy abilities we understand why this is the case during the everything but the rain flashback which occurs during the thousand year budwar arc during this flashback we learn about the circumstances behind masaki and ishin meeting on why ishin had to give up his life as a captain of the gotei 13 in order to save masaki so why is it that i'm talking about ichigo's powers well most people online believe that his powers were handed to him and he did nothing to earn them and another misconception is that ichigo wins thanks to unexplained power-ups what's important to understand about ichigo is that he has incredible latent potential and this is credited to his parents in everything but the reign we learned that ishin is a captain of the gote 13 and he is a member of one of the four great noble families within the soul society called the sheba clan in chapter 162 when ichigo activates his bankai biakya is surprised by this unexpected development as he states that only the most experienced shinigami can perform bangkai as it's the final stage of the zampato adding that even within the four great noble families who are born with incredible spiritual pressure only one in several generations will ever attain the level of bangkai during this chapter biaqia doesn't understand the source of ichigo's power as he claims that ichigo is still using his shinigami powers that he had borrowed from rukia as well as this he states that ichigo is not from noble lineage when we know that both of these things are not true as i am about to explain ichigo had lost his shinigami powers that were given to him by rukia when biakiah had attacked him and taken rukia back to the soul society and for the second point ichigo does have noble lineage as he is a descendant of the shiba clan hence why he resembles rukia's former lieutenant kaine shiva during everything but the rain we learned that ichigo's mother was attacked by a hollow called white this hollow had become a part of masaki thanks to the help of urohara ishin was able to save musaki by giving up his shinigami powers and becoming a human yet tethered his life to masaki's life he had done so in order to subdued hollow which was trying to take control of her being his life was tethered to masaki until the birth of her eldest child ichigo this is because the hollow white was passed on from masaki to ichigo after he was born this now leads us perfectly into chapter one of bleach where ichigo has no abilities or powers that is until he encounters rukia and borrows his shinigami powers becoming the substitute shinigami now what you have to understand about this form is that these are none of ichigo's abilities it is like a temporary form but kubo does hint at the incredible spiritual pressure which lays dormant within ichigo through the size of the zombocto which even rukia comments on a typical zambok dough is nowhere near the size of ichigo's nonpacto in a substitute shinigami form arukia also comments that it was because of ichigo coming into contact with the spirit of a little girl that his spiritual pressure began to be released it was so intense that it was preventing rukia from even sensing nearby hollows and this is why she wasn't able to sense the hollow fishbone d approaching their location another instance within the first chapter where ichigo demonstrates his incredible spiritual pressure is when rukia binds him with a keto spell she is pretty confident that ichigo won't be able to break out of it but because of his dormant spiritual pressure and his desire to protect his family he breaks free from the aikido spell with ease of course the powers that he obtains from rukia are very short-lived as after biyakia attacks him in chapter 56 he reveals that even if ichigo manages to survive the attack he will no longer have the borrowed shinigami powers that he obtained from rukia in chapter 59 while ichigo trains through the urohara he reaffirms this as he states that yakiya had destroyed the source of ichigo's spiritual energy up until this point urahara's intention is to restore ichigo's spiritual energy that was taken away from him by byakuya after removing his spirit from his body he intends to teach ichigo how to control his spirit body since this is the first time that his spirit has left his body without becoming a shinigami after ichigo gets used to being in a spiritual body and is able to move and breathe without any trouble urahara states that he has successfully recovered his spiritual pressure now as early on as this training which occurs within the first arc of the series you can see that these powers are not handed to ichigo he is having to work hard to obtain his own shinigami powers while he trains with urohara at the end of chapter 60 ichigo's soul chain is severed azi explains that ichigo's soul chain is going to be devoured until it reaches his chest at which point he will become a hollow urohara explains that the only way for ichigo not to become a hollow is to become a shinigami but he has to do this within a strict time limit urahara's second lesson is about ichigo regaining his shinigami powers and it is at this point in chapter 63 that ichigo is plunged into his inner world and is first introduced to all manzangatsu ichigo has a time limit of three days until the encroachment tends him into a hollow his inner world is composed of several skyscrapers and the only inhabitant appears to be odman zangatsu ichigo questions who he is but in chapter 63 he appears to be surprised that ichigo doesn't know his identity he states his name by saying it's me but his name appears to be purposefully blacked out and this is an excellent foreshadowing if you're a member of kubo's official fan club that he is currently running then you will know that one of the members of the royal guard called ichibe had intervened here and had blacked out the true identity of omanzangatsu in the next panel you even see a confused ichigo who didn't manage to hear what he had said ulmanzangatsu states that in the world that he resides within there is nobody who knows him better than ichigo during his first visit within his inner world even odaman zangatsu reveals to ichigo that the shinigami powers that biakia had removed from him were only those that were given to him by rukia but odman zangetsu states that biakya was careless because he overlooked the fact that ichigo has shinigami powers dormant within him he further elaborates that when ichigo had borrowed rookie's shinigami powers they had awakened his own at the time when biakya had attacked him and had removed rookie's powers from his being ichigo's own shinigami powers were laying dormant within his soul and it is now in chapter 63 that odman zangetsu tells ichigo to find these shinigami powers ichigo's inner world is crumbling as his body on the outside is slowly transforming into a hollow the skyscrapers around him are crumbling into small boxes as on manzanga 2 states that his shinigami powers lay within one of the boxes if ichigo is unable to find his shinigami powers before all of his inner world crumbles then he will become a hollow ichigo is able to find the correct box which contains the hilt of a zombacto he has successfully found his own shinigami powers as odman zangatsu appears to be pleased stating that hopefully next time his name will reach ichiko's ears in chapter 64 when it appears that ichigo's body is about to be transformed into a hollow he emerges from the dust and rubble wearing a black shinigami shihakusho but the only difference is that he is donning a hollow mask ichigo immediately shatters and removes the hollow mask revealing that he hasn't become horrified you can see that at this point ichigo has activated his shinigami powers but there is a twist what is the source of this hollow mask and why was it formed we get some answers to these questions when ichigo once again enters his inner world when he's battling against kimpachi between chapters 109-112 but before ichigo had entered into his inner world again the hollow mask that had first appeared when he activated his shinigami powers kept reappearing especially on areas of his body where he was going to be fatally wounded it was like the mask was protecting him from being attacked one such instance was during his battle against renji when renji uses his zambocto to strike ichigo near his heart after the battle when hanataro is healing ichigo he discovers the hollow mask over ichigo's heart in chapter 100. this now leads to ichigo entering his inner world for the second time and this occurs when he is stabbed in the chest by kimpachi urban zangatsu who we later learn is the manifestation of ichigo's quincy powers had used bluetv to seal ichigo's wound to prevent it from bleeding when these quincy powers were manifested ichigo was poured into his inner world for the second time and this is why he meets holo ichigo for the first time during this visit to his inner world he is deemed unworthy to wield his zambakdo zangetsu instead he is given a nameless zampato called an asuchi to wield on his own zambak though zangetsu is wielded by an individual wearing a white shinigamishi hakusho we learned that this inverted version of ichigo is called holo ichigo when ichigo questions who he is holo ichigo refers to him as his partner during this second instance where he enters his inner world it's a test to see if ichigo is worthy of wielding zangatsu once more ichigo realizes just how powerful his umbacto is when it is utilized properly the spiritual pressure that is emanating from zangetsu is so intense that it is burning up the air around it he feels like the nameless zambok dough that he is wielding is like a stick in comparison to his own zombucto holo ichigo is condescending and insults ichigo he is surprised that ichigo was able to be injured so much by kenpachi despite the fact that he's holding such a powerful zampato holo ichigo questions him by asking is it possible to become friends with somebody just by knowing their name because that's basically what ichigo is doing here he is calling out to zangatsu without trying to bring out zangatsu's true power or trying to understand him his zambakdo is capable of so much more but halo ichigo tells him that he will only be able to tap into this power if he opens his heart up to zangatsu more holo ichigo continues to scold him as he tells him that he doesn't care about his zombukdo and that ichigo is only focused on training himself and not his zambakdo and this is where ichigo realizes that he never tried to get to nozangatsu zambakdo are not just soulless blades they are alive during this encounter ichigo realizes that he was no different to kimpachi who was fighting without knowing the name of his zombukdo the only thing that ichigo knows about is zampato is its name when halo ichigo is about to strike him again ichigo says to himself that he wants to make the effort to learn about zangatsuma in this inner monologue he pleads with his unbukdo as he refers to it as his priceless assistant begging zangetsu to let him fight with him once more with determined eyes as halo ichigo strikes their blade swap as ichigo is once again holding zangetsu while holo ichigo is now hoarding the asuchi it appears that zangetsu has given ichigo another chance he is grateful as he finally learns what it means to form a connection with your zambocto more than just blindly calling out his name and expecting zampakdo to be there for him when ichigo leaves his inner world at the beginning of chapter 112 halo ichigo tells odman zangetsu to train each go well and he will assist him in any way that he can considering that ichigo is the king of this world before leaving holo ichigo does warn that his powers will become his eventually and this is where odman zangetsu has an inner monologue as he states that he hates the rain within ichigo's inner world it also rains when he's upset the skies become gray and cloudy when he is sad it rains aurdwan zangetsu cannot stand it he questions if ichigo can truly grasp the terror of being rained upon in a lonely world zangetsu desires to hold back the reign and in order to do this he will give ichigo everything that he has as long as ichigo trusts in odwanzangatsu then he will not allow him to be upset and thus no rain will fall into his inner world ordwan zangatsu states that he is no longer fighting alone when ichigo stands up to battle against kimpachi once more kimpachi notes that the bleeding from the wounds that he had inflicted has stopped and this is credited to the quincy powers that odman zangatsu had manifested by using bluetv he was able to stop the bleeding but we only learn about this much later on in the series during the thousand-year blood war arc through this battle there's a very important foreshadowing as you can see that odmanzangatsu is supporting ichigo by using his quincy powers so how is it that zangatsu is supporting ichigo well we find this out in chapter 113 as both kim pachi and ichigo unleash their riatsu for a final strike we see odman zagnetsu appear behind ichigo and it's a very common misconception that we were all led to believe at this point but ichigo asks old man zangetsu to lend him his strength we were led to believe that urban zangatsu was lending ichigo this rayatsu when in actual fact it was halo ichigo whose true identity is zangetsu and we only learned this in the thousand year budwar arc but in chapter 113 there's an excellent foreshadowing when kim pachi's riatsu is unleashed it forms the shape of a skull while ichigo's released riatsu takes the form of a holo mask which indicates that he is being supported by zangetsu or in other words holo ichigo this is so subtle and so easily overlooked especially if you have not read the manga after the end of the anime moments like this cannot be appreciated until you know the payoff that kubo was building towards there is additional foreshadowing that occurs during ichigo's training with the vizards where he enters his inner world once more and halo ichigo refers to himself as zangetsu and of course reading these chapters as they were being published is incredibly confusing and you only really get to know the full picture after having read chapters 540-542 but i will elaborate upon this as i continue to break down the origin and source of ichigo's powers after ichigo fails to save rukia he is rescued by yurichi and thus begins his bankai training in chapter 127 urban zangetsu materializes in the real world and assists ichigo to learn bankai in chapter 143 we see a glimpse of how intense ichigo's bankai training truly was and it really casts doubt into this notion that ichigo has his powers and abilities handed to him he's trying his utmost best with a time limit of three days to learn bangkai otherwise he will not be able to save rukia completely bloodied he persists with his training and eventually does achieve bangkai while ichigo battles against byakuya and is about to receive the final blow ichigo's body is taken over by his inner hollow it manifests through forming a mask on his face you can see that when ichigo's position as the king of his inner world is being questioned and when he is allowing himself to become close to death his inner hollow intervenes he is able to fight off his inner hollow and regain control of his body in chapter 166 but going into the aranka arc this is where ichigo begins to struggle with his inner hollow his inner hollow has had enough of him trying to reason with his enemies after the battle against byakuya ichigo can hear the hollow calling out to him the influence of his inner hollow is growing more and more and ichigo doesn't know how to stop it when ichigo battles against yami in chapter 193 his inner hollow interrupts and begins to take over his body but he only serves as a distracting interruption because ichigo ultimately rejects help from his inner hollow and this results in him losing the battle against the army in chapter 196 ichigo tries to gain his confidence again by fighting a hollow but his inner hollow tries to take over once more which results in him being attacked by the hollow and then in chapter 211 when he is fighting against gringzhou and is losing he is forced to use one of holo ichigo's techniques the black getzkatencho after having done this the influence from his inner hollow grows further as you can see in chapter 212 that one of ichigo's eyes have turned completely black left with no other choice ichigo is forced to go to the vaisards and request that help in order to control his inner hollow and this is where ichigo enters into his inner world for the third time and this occurs between chapters 216 to 222 the vizards are trying to teach ichigo how to hollow fight and control his hollow abilities the wizards explain to ichigo that he is going to be hollified but he must resist it instead of being consumed by his hollow he needs to consume the hollow instead time and time again when ichigo is going into training there are consequences and stakes for not successfully completing the training through entering into his inner world he is having to earn the powers that he has they are not simply being given to him this is why odman zangatsu and holo ichigo exist in the first place in order to assess if ichigo is even worthy of having power at the end of chapter 217 ichigo once again meets his inner hollow who refers to him as the king in chapter 218 ichigo asks where is zangetsu his inner hollow responds by referring to himself as zangetsu and it appears that he too is holding a zombocto which appears to be a white copy of zangetsu they both clash as the battle between the two of them begins ichigo repeatedly asks his inner hollow what he has done with zangetsu but halo ichigo continues to refer to himself as zangetsu and this for me is the best for shadowing because holo ichigo is not lying to him he is in fact his zampakdo spirit zangetsu and it is ichigo who is unable to realize this this is the truth that is presented to him that he is unable to learn until the thousand-year blood war arc both of them end up activating bangkai at the same time as his inner hollow reveals that he had learned bankai the same time that ichigo did but it is evident that halo ichigo is able to utilize bangkai far more effectively than ichigo his inner hollow reveals to him that he isn't good enough to use bankai telling him to give up his inner hollow grabs horde of zombocto as it begins to turn white and disintegrate after holo ichiko delivers a speech about the king of the horse and reveals to him the importance of killer instinct and it is this that he is lacking he is disgusted that ichigo fights with his head and he tries to reason with his opponents he states that this is like fighting with a sheath to blade holo ichigo bluntly tells him that he will never be the horse to a king that is weaker than him this is because ichigo will only lead them to defeat and end up dying he simply tells him that if ichigo is weaker than him then he will crush him and become the king himself ichigo only ends up regaining control once he affirms his reason for fighting after he speaks to a inner manifestation of kimpachi ichigo realizes that he craves power it is here that it is deduced that ichigo instinctively seeks battle because it's the only way for him to gain more power and only if he is able to gain more power is he able to continue to protect those people that he loves his reason for battle is reaffirmed as he is made to understand what it means to fight instinctively regaining control of zangetsu he attacks his inner hollow before his inner hollow leaves he warns ichigo that if he gets himself killed then he will return since the position of kingdom horse is interchangeable we know that this is a forewarning for ichigo's transformation into the bastogde while he's fighting against ukiyara i used to always be confused by this training i understood that ichigo had to learn how to fight instinctively but it felt like there was still something missing that is until i went back and reread chapter 541 and understood that when ichigo had acquired his bankai he was unable to control or handle his zambocto's power and thus odman zangatsu and his inner hollow had planned for a way to teach ichigo how to properly utilize his bankai and this was through making him learn about killer instinct and what it means to mercilessly take down your opponent ichigo's inner hollow is this true zlampakto spirit after all and in chapter 541 oduman zangetsu who is revealed to be a younger version of yuhabak and the representation of ichigo's inner quincy powers states that whenever he had to teach ichigo how to use his zambocto he had the help of his inner hollow which confirms that holo ichigo was indeed zangetsu confirming that he was telling the truth in chapter 220 when he told ichigo that he zangetsu in chapter 408 we learned that ichigo has to learn the final getskatencho and the only way for him to do this is to enter into his inner world for the fourth time once again like always ichigo has a time limit to learn this ability as ishin tells him that he can only give him three months of training time he tells ichigo that he must make zangetsu tell him what the final getskatenshow is ichigo takes up a meditative position called jinzan this allows him to communicate with his zombucto and enter into his inner world every other time he has been forced into his inner world but this is the first time that he is entering into it out of his own will he arrives in his inner world to discover that it is completely submerged in water because he has entered into his inner world with his bankai for the first time he is greeted by an individual called tensa zangatsu this individual appears to be very hostile as he charges towards ichigo to attack him ichigo blocks a strike from tenza zangnetsu as his father who is observing ichigo meditate states that the final getzkatencho is a technique that no zambakdo would want to teach to his user tensa zangetsu refuses to teach ichigo the final getskatencho as he states that he doesn't care what happens to the things that ichigo wants to protect reminding ichigo that the things that he wants to protect are not the same as the things that tenza zangatsu wants to protect he refers ichigo's attention over to his inner world how it differs from its usual appearance the tall skyscrapers are replaced by small building structures that are completely submerged underwater gone are the skyscrapers that towered into the heavens filled with hope they have been replaced by a replica of karakura town once ichigo had started to feel sadness and despair the rain began to pour upon his inner world and it was not too long before this tiny town was submerged completely underwater this has happened because ichigo has lost hope and has stopped moving forward tensa zagnatsu assists ichigo by pulling out the root of his despair ichigo's inner hollow appears and he resembles his vast aldore form that he had transformed into against ukiyara we begin to understand that ichigo is afraid of this form he is terrified of how he had lost control of his body and had even injured one of his friends ichigo had assumed that he had gotten rid of his inner hollow the last time that he had encountered him but holo ichigo reminds him that if he wants to stay in control then he has to try not to die after ukiyara had pretty much killed ichigo his inner hollow was left with no choice but to manifest thus once more making ichigo feel like he has no control over his abilities and feeling afraid that he is going to be taken over by a monster in order to help each girl overcome his despair tencel zangatsu merges with his inner hollow as he reveals that the two of them make up his power tessa zanga 2 represents his quincy powers while his inner hollow represents his shinigami and hollow abilities in chapter 420 we see that quite some time has passed since the battle between merged tensile zangatsu and ichigo began ichigo thinks to himself why has he not been defeated yet their power is that unequal merged sensa zagatsu is clearly stronger than him if you really had no intention of teaching ichigo then he could have stopped this fight a long time ago if you follow the story then you know that ichigo can feel the emotions that are emanating from his opponent zambakdo he feels loneliness emanating from merged tensa zangetsu's blade it is here that he realizes what he has to do he lets go of his zambak dough and he allows tensa zangetsu to run his blade through his body this results in tensors and gets to congratulating him as he states that the final gets katencho can only be taught once ichigo accepts tenza zangetsu's blade and it is for this reason that he feels no pain after it pierces his body because he will not be able to feel pain from that which he has accepted and that which has always been a part of him he wonders why tensa zangetsu is crying as he reveals to ichigo that that which he had wanted to protect was him he has tears in his eyes because he knows what it means for ichigo to have power and he knows how hard he worked in order to get stronger and to obtain more power he is well aware of ichigo's desire to protect and how he will feel once he becomes powerless he wanted to protect ichigo by not teaching him this technique by using the final getzkatencho ichigo would lose his shinigami powers despite all of this growth he will return to being that powerless child who was unable to protect his mother that night he knows how much pain that ichigo will feel not being able to protect the people that he loves constantly reminded of the one that he couldn't protect and now he is thrown back into that position of powerlessness this difficulty that ichigo has dealing with powerlessness manifests during the fulbright arc this occurs 17 months after the defeat of eisen and we learned that ichigo has been powerless for this entire time during the fulbright arc despite having lost his shining army powers ichigo still has considerable strength for a human being in this arc we know that ichigo's friends are being targeted by an unknown figure and it is for this reason that ichigo contacts the group called execution and requests help from genji hugo in order to teach him how to utilize his own fulbright abilities when these newly acquired following abilities are stolen by genji kugo ichigo falls into despair but that is until he has pierced through the chest by a reishi sword which we learned that all of the members of the gotei 13 had pulled their reishi into in order to return ichiko's powers back to him as a token for their appreciation for ichigo after he had defeated eisen rukia who had given him the power to protect in the first chapter symbolically returns to restore ichigo's shinigami abilities he emerges with a brand new shinigamishi hakusho with the full bring markings on his body prior to this arc ichigo's hollow abilities didn't translate into fulbright so they always manifested through a hollow mask but during the four bring arc when ichigo had called upon his hollow abilities and created his own fulbright his hollow abilities were able to become a part of his body and after his shinigami abilities were restored they were able to merge with his hollow abilities that he had channeled into his fulbright this explains why ichigo no longer manifests hollow masks after the fulbright arc since his hollow abilities are now merged with the shinigami powers this reaffirms what tensa zangetsu had told him earlier that his hollow and shinigami powers have always been won after the fulbright arc they have finally become one the only thing left for ichigo to do is to combine his quincy abilities with his newly merged forebring and shinigami powers when ichigo heads to the soul king's palace in order to reforge his unbakdo he is told by uwetsunimaya to fight against the asuchi as he needs one of them to submit to his will and to become the base to form his new zambachdo upon in chapter 527 when it becomes evident after three days that ichigo is unable to defeat an asuchi he is sent back to the human world by uwetsu nimaya just like most of the other instances where ichigo undergoes training he had a time limit of three days but in all of this time he wasn't chosen by an asuchi he tells ichigo that without a zampakto he is no longer a shinigami he tells him to never return back to the soul society and transports him back to the human world ichigo can only refugee zombucto once he has learned the truth about his past and how it has been possible that he has been able to survive this long without having an asuchi he needs to understand who has been helping him up until this point after ichigo learns about how his parents had met and that his mother was a quincy he returns to uwatsu nemaya's domain in chapter 538 when he arrives all of the asuchi kneel before him willing to accept ichigo when he touches the hand of one of the isuchi it changes form it begins to resemble ichigo's inner hollow and this further emphasizes that ichigo's inner hollow was indeed his zompak doe spirit zangetsu nimaya then offers to re-forge ichiko zambakdo personally but he tells him at the end of chapter 539 to brace himself because he will be bidding farewell to zangetsu while reforging his zombucto he speaks to ichigo and questions if he has figured it out yet if he understands the reason behind why his asuchi had turned white the moment that he had touched it he questions if ichigo had thought that this asuchi resembles his inner hollow nemaya then goes on to confirm that the asuchi is indeed the hollow that is inside of him in chapter 540 ichigo finally learns that his inner hollow was a zambok dough this whole time he explains that he had inherited the holocaust white from his mother and it had merged with the shinigami powers that he had inherited from his father and this had become his zombucto this then leads each good question who on earth was odwan zangetsu them nimaya tells him that this individual has been pretending to be ichigo zampakdo this whole time ichigo then is taken into his inner world where he confronts odoman zangetsu nimaya tells him that this individual is not zangetsu but rather he resembles somebody that he has seen up close recently wetsunimaya reveals that odman zangatsu resembles yuhobak stating that he does not represent ichigo's shinigami powers but rather he is a representation of ichigo's quincy powers and it is for this reason that the person that is standing before him is uh back from a thousand years ago it is the manifestation of his quincy abilities this whole time we were led to believe that he was zangatsu when this couldn't be further from the truth in chapter 541 ichigo convinced young yuho back he reveals to him that he is not zangetsu telling him that he is the source of his quincy powers in a way he is your buck and he isn't new her back when ichigo questions if he is his enemy or his ally he reveals that he is neither he also reveals to ichigo that the only lie that he told him was his name everything else has been the truth when he had wanted to teach ichigo about how to handle his zombucto he had called upon the help of halu ichigo when he couldn't handle the power of islambakdo or when he was on the verge of losing his life the person that had saved his life was not young yuhabak but rather his inner hollow we learned that the representation of his quincy powers did not want him to become a shinigami and it is for this reason that young yuhobak had suppressed ichigo's powers he had done this in order to keep ichigo away from danger and conflict through suppressing his powers that were not yet mature jung yoohabak had become the center of ichigo's power if ichigo had become a shinigami then he would have been dragged into battle he would have been hurt and he would have suffered this would have led to ichigo feeling upset and thus causing rain to fall upon his inner world and if this was to happen then young yuubak had decided that he would have killed ichigo himself he would have killed ichigo if he became a shinigami this is what he had thought but when he had seen ichigo had chosen the path of a shinigami he had seen how he had made the most out of this opportunity through pain and suffering ichigo had ultimately strengthened himself and he had traveled down that path of his own free will and when young uh back had witnessed ichigo growing stronger he had felt his heart wavering so instead of preventing ichigo from becoming a shinigami he had decided to assist ichigo if you recall back to chapter 112 young yuhobak states that he will help ichigo in any way as long as no rain falls upon his inner world young yuhobak states that he is stepping away as he releases the limits that he placed upon ichigo's powers he states that what ichigo has been using up until this point is just a fragment of his power that he could not contain he says that now ichigo can fight with his own power he reveals to him his true zampakdo the real zangetsu the real form of zangetsu is revealed to be two distinctive blades the shorter blade representing his quincy powers while the longer blade with a hole resembling a hollows hole representing his shinigami and hollow powers i don't blame people for being confused about ichiko's powers since it requires you to really piece together all of the moments that ichigo enters into his inner world and to bring together all of the hints and the foreshadowing that kubo puts into the story but hopefully this section in this video should summarize and explain to you how ichigo's powers work and how they are not just handed to him he goes through intense training and overcomes personal struggle to achieve most of these power ups if you want to understand more about ichigo's powers especially from the perspective of his inner hollow then definitely go and check out my holo ichigo character analysis in that video i break down everything that you need to know about halo ichigo covering every time that he appears within the story and to wrap up my thoughts on ichigo's character i still believe him to be one of the best characters to feature within shonen jump through his relatability determination and the desires that he has they set his character apart from the typical shonen protagonist there are still a lot of talking points regarding ichigo's character and the things that i haven't mentioned in this video have been brought up by a video that james hansen has done over on his channel his 51 minute video on ichigo kurosaki's character development does an excellent job of covering how ichigo embodies this idea of the mitama this is a term derived from shinto buddhism and the mitami refers to the soul of a dead person it theorizes that the human spirit consists of four souls and james hansen's video does an excellent job of applying these shinto beliefs to the story of bleach as he explains that ichigo's human shinigami hollow and quincy hybrid nature is an example of the mitama so check that video out as an addition to this one as it covers a lot of topics that i haven't gone into and when it comes to breaking down ichigo's involvement within each story arc i recommend you go and check out my bleach rune reputation documentary the breakdown and analysis of the story arcs that i do within that video are heavily centered around ichigo's character i go over his past and his involvement within each story arc and it really helps to paint a picture of the character arc and the journey that ichigo goes through so if you want a fresher and a reminder of all of these story events that ichigo takes part in then definitely watch the bleach ruined reputation video and lastly i hand over the discussion to all of you did you enjoy this video and did it teach you anything new about ichigo and after watching this video did your thoughts about his character change at all i would love to hear your thoughts on ichigo kurasaki so definitely leave a comment under the video and continue the discussion and lastly i want to thank you for helping the channel reach 50 000 subscribers and i hope that you accept this video as a token of my appreciation if you enjoyed this video and would like to see more like it then please consider supporting my channel on patreon i have multiple tiers with the rewards including access to an exclusive discord server video scripts as well as being the first to know about unreleased upcoming videos thank you for your time and whatever you choose to contribute i will appreciate and it will mean a lot to me [Music] you

Channel: DBZimran

Views: 374,953

Keywords: ichigo, ichigo kurosaki, ichigo bleach, ichigo analysis, ichigo kurosaki analysis, ichigo bleach analysis, bleach analysis, ichigo kurosaki character analysis, ichigo character analysis, ichigo backstory, history of ichigo, ichigo kurosaki bleach, ichigo past, dbzimran ichigo, ichigo bleach character analysis, bleach ichigo analysis, bleach ichigo, bleach 2021, ichigo bankai, hollow ichigo analysis, dbzimran bleach, Ichigo Kurosaki's Character Development, Ichigo Kurosaki

Id: skyU3MJcec4

Length: 87min 32sec (5252 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 08 2021