Ulquiorra Cifer: THE HEART - BLEACH: Character Analysis

imagine a character who finds no meaning in anything who cannot relate to anyone's emotions even his own allies however due to lacking emotion he is able to carry out orders precisely without any conflict which is caused by the distracting nature of feelings the character i describe is one of tatukubo's most consistently well written characters ukiara shiffer i want to analyze how kubo writes this character to be so detached from what is considered to be a human but he ironically ends up becoming one of the most human villains in the bleach universe let's try to understand why ukira is one of the most memorable villains in anime and how he is affected by the events of the story which ultimately lead to the growth of his character before the video begins remember to subscribe and turn on notifications to not miss any of my future uploads ukira makes his debut in chapter 190 of the manga and in episode 113 of the anime he was the very first espada designed by kubo in his debut he arrives in karakura town due to orders from izan to assess if ichigo is a threat to the iran cars in his first appearance he is accompanied by yami this reminds me of when vegeta and napa arrive on earth in dragon ball z similar to how nappa blows up the city that they land in yummy sucks out the souls of the nearby civilians comparing the similarities between both of these introductions we learned that the larger of the two is the more impulsive and short-tempered in our first impression of ukira we see him casually unzip his jacket to reveal a hollow-like hole on his throat while the medicine yummy towers behind him what makes this moment so memorable is the shock on the faces of ichigo yuzu chad and orihime as they sent incredible spiritual pressure while even yurichi urahara and ishina alerted to the arrival of the irankas from ukiara's responses we see that he is a calm and level-headed individual as he reiterates their orders to yami that they have arrived to kill only one individual he states that there are only three people with high enough spiritual pressure to put up a fight against them in the human world and the rest of the inhabitants he describes to be garbage this clearly proves ukiara is the type to come well prepared before carrying out orders as opposed to the thick headed yummy the pairing of yami and ukira serves as a great introductory contrast to emphasize the difference in their personalities yami's obnoxious behaviour clashes with ukiyara's well-planned intellectual approach as ukira advises yami to develop his passquiser so that he can detect if an individual has a high spiritual pressure for himself instead of annoyingly bothering him ukira looks down upon those with low spiritual pressure by calling them garbage he directs this insult towards chad and even ichigo after he assesses he does not pose a threat to eisen ukira always has a somber expression on his face which hardly ever changes he has green eyes with a slit-shaped pupil which resembles a feline's eyes like i said before his hollow hole appears on his throat in his first appearance but this was later amended by kubo to be located in the middle of his chest which is more in line with ukiara's interest in the feelings derived from the hearts of humans he is the fourth ranked espada with his number displayed on the left side of his chest bukior's character is written with plenty of depth which allows us to really delve deep into analyzing his beliefs behaviors and development throughout his iconic appearances within bleach his most notable interactions occur with orihime as she serves as the heartfelt counterpart to his heartless cold and indifferent nature ichigo also finds himself conflicting with ukira who questions why he is continuing to battle him when the odds are not in his favor the usually common composed ukira is infuriated by ichigo's persistence in the face of despair which shows how he has a predisposition to respect the laws of strength and power hence why he readily insults those who are weaker than him by calling them trash which explains why ichigo infuriates him as this so-called trash has the nerve to challenge ukiyara and continues to stand before him despite being thoroughly beaten up and outmatched okiora is a cruel taskmaster in comparison to the other espada he is given the most instructions by eisen indicating that he has a lot of faith and trust in ukiro to carry out his bidding his first instruction is to kill ichigo if he determines him to be a threat to eisen's plans in the future the second instruction is the captcha of orohime and the final order that is given to ukiara is to protect los noches while eisen needs to invade karakura town when orihime refuses to eat any food and after ordering her to eat fails ukiaro results to threatening her as he considers forcing the food down her throat if she does not willingly eat as it is her duty to remain alive and healthy for eisen this shows that he has the capacity to inflict cruelty and turmoil onto others without hesitation but would prefer not to get his hands dirty by resorting to these methods i didn't know this prior to researching for this video but outside of the manga taita kubo wrote a backstory for ukiyara which was published in the third bleach character databook titled unmasked let's analyze his past and try to understand why ukira thinks and behaves the way that he does ukira's past is told to us via 11 pages which are poetically written and illustrated by taitu kubo but before you can appreciate his backstory you have to know that kubo wrote for each of the espada to represent an aspect of death this is shown in chapter 356 ukira is stated to represent emptiness or nothingness as his respective aspect of death it is also well known that he is nihilistic meaning he believes in nothing because he does not find value or meaning in anything a sad outlook on life which denies existence while ironically existing due to the way bleach was serialized in a weekly magazine it was impossible for kubota to include absolutely everything he wanted in the manga there are untold backstories he has written up that simply didn't make it into the story due to time constraints are being deemed as unnecessary ukira's backstory was revealed in bleach character book 3 unmasked which is monologued by ukira it begins with the words not be but be four words which could be interpreted in many ways the most obvious being a reference to hamlet to be or not to be questioning the duality and choice between existence and death however another way to interpret this is through the lens of ukira's character to not exist while existing in other words living a meaningless existence the sadness of being forced to live while you have already stopped existing on a deeper internal level we learned that ukira was born in the bottom of a dark pit where no light ever shunned he questions what is that over there curious as to what lies beyond the darkness the inverted cross on page 2 reveals to us the only source of light surrounded by darkness which is the moon but ukira determines that beyond the darkness there is nothing the light of the moon exists but because it is out of sight and reach he chooses not to accept that it is there instead believing there is nothing this philosophy is consistent with his latter interpretations of the heart which he believes to also not exist because he cannot see it with his own eyes ukiara continues to tell us about his early life in this dark pit where there was no light nothing to contrast against the dark world no hope or a future to look forward to beyond the darkness because he was formed within this darkness he was uncertain of what he would become imagine being born under layers upon layers of dark sediments we see a figure kneeling in the dark pit a silhouette of ukiara who reveals he has a white form while his comrades were all pure black he describes their dark forms with shining eyes and exposed teeth they were eating something but ukira didn't have a mouth to eat with he only had eyes as he tells us on the next page not only did he differ in color he also didn't share their appetite nor did he have the same look in his eyes as them ukiara's eyes are drawn by kubo with plenty of emotion as we see his curious eyes become terrified after he is denied companionship and rejected by this group of hollows he could not speak to them nor eat with them his sadness in his eyes reveals that he would have preferred to have had companionship instead of resorting to killing them which we can see he did via his bloody hand on page six ukiara tells us that he felt nothing no rather what he did feel was the void in this void he could hear nothing bite nothing smell nothing touch but feel nothing this void made him restless he continues to tell us that he had no companion as he was left to just walk alone his eyes were his only interface with the outside world because he could not experience life via his other senses everything he saw with his eyes lacked meaning he then says this poetic character defining quote the things that cannot be reflected in my eyes do not exist this backstory just gave us the context behind why he questions the existence of the heart he challenges arahima's belief of the heart in chapter 317 by telling her if his eyes cannot see it then it does not exist as ukiyara continued to walk all alone and aimlessly he stumbled upon something extraordinary his eyes well up with emotion as he describes this white tree he has come across stating that it has no color no sound no scent it showed no interest in anything all the tree did was simply exist similar to himself this tree also existed in the void he merged his body with this great void that was the tree and found there to be nothingness in there as his body dissolved into the void he lost his vision and felt as though everything had disappeared free from this existence ukira found happiness from a void of nothing this is emphasized as the chapter concludes with ukira telling us that if happiness exists then it should resemble limitless nothingness nihilism is the belief of having nothing and thus not having anything to lose now if that is not ultimate happiness then what is on the final page ukira's eyes look intense and fixated kubo's art does well to convey emptiness in his eyes as this special chapter concludes with the words there is nothing in you and in me the words in you and in me are written in a void of black with a dot of light in the middle i interpret this as ukira telling us there is nothing within himself and within orihime but that dot of light is the essence of the heart which orihime helps to share with him this light within the darkness is his ultimate salvation from nihilism this dot of light represents the understanding of the heart the heart is something which cannot be reflected by his eyes but it does indeed exist it also holds considerable meaning to the people who acknowledge its existence this interpretation makes sense to me as this material was written by kubo after the death of ukiyara in the manga the dot of light represents the heart which is surrounded by ukira's darkness his realization in the end allows the light to consume his dark inner world now that we know his backstory and having an understanding as to why he behaves the way that he does i want to now explore what makes ukiyara a great and memorable villain the threat presented by ukiyara is solidified by his incredible power azi is on the higher tier of the espada rankings in ukira's first appearance with yummy he doesn't really battle anyone but we learn from how he is observing and commenting on yami battling ichigo yurichi and urohara that he is not someone to underestimate he only gets involved in the battle to help yami by deflecting a blast away from him this introduction solidifies that ukira has more power than ichigo as we know ukiara is physically and intellectually superior to yami making ichigo weaker as he was struggling against the army and needed to be helped by yurichi and urahara the level of threat is well established as we understand that eisen has recruited a very loyal and powerful member in the form of ukira his motivation for taking action has always stemmed from his obedience as an espada as he adheres to eisen's every order but because of ukira's curiosity and patience with his opponents we see his personality slip through during each order that eisen requests for him to accomplish the primary motivation is always to obey eisen but his curiosity leads him to personally conflict with orihime's beliefs and ichigo's courage it is his nihilistic philosophy which leads to him being personally invested in the events of the story take for example eisen ordering ukira to capture orihime the way he orders her threatens her and gives her no other option but to comply with him making him come across as precise and articulate in chapter 247 and 248 ukira informs orihime that her friends have arrived to rescue her but he tells her to feel nothing regarding it as she is one of them now and makes her swear her loyalty to izan orihime and ukira both interact with each other several times as eisen has ordered him to oversee her while she is captured in chapter 262 orihime repeatedly tells him that chad has not died but ukiaro refers to this self-assurance as nonsense as he tells her that all of her friends that have come to rescue her will eventually die comparing them to lambs to the slaughter orihime bravely slaps ukira for his cruel words and it is actions like this that make him question her beliefs giving more depth to ukira as it allows us to explore his thought process through his interactions with her the most thought-provoking interaction between orihime and ukira occurs in chapters 316 and 317 when ukira asks her if she is afraid as nothing is protecting her now that isen no longer needs her curiously he asks her if she is frightened to know that she will die here alone with nobody by her side she however replies that she is not afraid as she knows her friends will save her because the heart is with them ukira because of what he experienced in his past cannot relate to the concept of the heart he asks her if she really believes her friends will save her orihime explains what it means for multiple hearts to beat as one how she was concerned for everyone but she realized that they too were concerned for her despite her feeling sad that they came to rescue her by putting themselves in harm's way she would have also done the same for them if they too disappeared she describes the essence of the heart to him but ukira questions her use of the term heart stating that humans toss that word around as if they can hold it in the palm of their hand he then tells it that his eyes reflect everything what they cannot see simply does not exist ukira shares with her that this is what he has always believed and it is something that we also know is well established in his backstory the concept of the heart is so alien to him he asks if he rips her chest open could he see it then or if he breaks a skull open will he find it there many traditional villains adopt nihilistic beliefs but only memorable villains use this philosophy as a surface layer to their many layers of deeper nuance and complexity studying ukiara we understand that it is his inability to understand human emotion that results in him coming across as a monster he cannot relate to this very human concept through which all emotion and feeling are derived from the heart ukira exists with the inability to appreciate what it feels like to exist as a human although he believes in nothing himself it doesn't stop him from questioning the beliefs of others despite not being able to appreciate or understand their perspectives life is literally meaningless to ukira so of course it is natural for him to find interesting beings who have come to an alternative conclusion than his own he demonstrates his belief of nothing really mattering several times throughout the series for example how he tries to convince orihime her friend's efforts to save her a futile or how he attempted to make ichigo give up in their final battle by trying to show him true despair through demonstrating the vast difference in their power i want to expand upon this point by exploring the relationship between ichigo and ukiyora what is it about their conflict that intrigued so many fans to eagerly anticipate their final battle while bleach was being serialized over 10 years ago from ukira's very first encounter with ichigo he determines him to be trash even after ichigo trains with the vaisards ukira notices he has acquired a new power when he arrives and interrupts krimja's battle with shinji but despite ichigo progressing with the control of his horror powers ukira still refers to his growth as insignificant the two of them battled twice in the series their first battle takes place between chapters 270 and 272. this encounter begins with ukiyobu revealing to ichigo that rukia has been killed but ichigo doubts him and decides to try and save her before he can leave ukira questions shouldn't he kill him first but ichigo responds by telling him he has no reason to kill him to which ukira reveals that he was the one who brought orihime to gwykomundo ichigo instantly strikes ukira and their first battle begins ichigo activates his bankai while his holomask is equipped which shocks ukira he then releases a getzkatencho which overwhelms ukira as ichigo believes he has defeated him bukiora survives the attack and begins to beat down ichigo while advising him to give up but he refuses to surrender azi believes ukira is the leader of the espada if he defeats him then he has basically defeated the espada but ukiara quickly corrects him as he reveals that he is in fact the fourth ranked sparta ichigo is impaled through the chest as he reminds him that he cannot defeat him and even if he does there are three more espada ranked above him he helps us to understand the impossible nature of ichigo's desire to save orihime by reminding him that despite however many times he stands back up there is no victory for ichigo here in their second encounter ichigo tells ukira to step away from arihime to which he replies that he intended to as his orders are to protect los noches he won't kill her until he is ordered to but ichigo he will not spare he states that protecting los noches means killing him for the first time against ichigo he draws a sword which prompts ichigo to ask him if he considers him as an equal now budukira tells him that he considers him someone who must be destroyed their final battle really begins from chapter 340 onwards the chapter is titled the antagonizer which fits well with how ukiaro provokes ichigo throughout their encounter how both of them act in opposition to each other he notes that ichigo has grown in strength and questions if this was due to his battle against rimjao or if he is stronger because of his desire to protect orihime and his friends fighting below him ukira characteristically tells ichigo it is futile to save orohime as she is one of them now another example of him failing to see the meaning in others actions the chapters from 341 onwards are titled after the seven deadly sins while battling ukira ichigo begins to predict his movements stating that in their last encounter it felt like he was battling a stone statue ichigo then questions the reason behind why he can predict ukira's actions is it because he is closer to our hollow or is it because ukira is becoming more human due to his interactions with urohime an incredible contrast is highlighted here which foreshadows each of those vast old order transformation and ukiah's realization of the heart the polarity between growing stronger by becoming a monster or to become weaker by becoming more human ichigo struggles to keep up with ukiara after he activates his released form murcia lago ichigo is attacked by a black sorrow and is severely wounded but continues to stand up to challenge ukiara who yells at him that it is futile ukiyara doesn't understand why ichigo won't let go of his sword he is faced with a great imbalance of power but he states that he won't give up just because he is stronger than him this response shocks ukira who listens to ichigo admit that he knew how strong he was but despite this it makes no difference as he still intends to defeat him the one who fails to see the meaning behind ichigo's actions decides to show him true despair by activating his second release from ichigo still firmly faces off against ukira who is thinking that ichigo is not confused enough to not feel fear and his eyes show that he isn't willing to give up so does this mean that ichigo still believes that he can defeat him ukira calls him a fool for challenging somebody that he cannot defeat he admits that he cannot comprehend each other's belief in his ability to win he then asks if this is what it means to have a heart and deems the heart to be a liability rather than a strength as he will make ichigo pay the ultimate price for following his heart ichigo reaffirms his faith in his heart by stating that he isn't fighting because he wants to win but because he needs to win ukira failing to find meaning in his words once again refers to them as nonsense during his battle with bastarda ichigo he cannot believe that ichigo survived and is alive he realizes that he can no longer speak to ichigo as he has become a monster so that he can defeat okiara he is forced to face an opponent who has resorted to sinking into nothingness to defeat him ukira finally gets to experience what it feels like to battle against a monster who is similar to himself what is so ironic here is that ukira is the one showing emotion and expressing surprise or shock due to the actions of vaster lorda ichigo who has turned the tables and has become a true stone statue so detached from the heart ukira follows a positive change character arc which is described by km wyland in a book creating character arcs she states that a successful positive change arc consists of four aspects which are the lie that the character believes what the character wants what they truly need and the ghost which is their past or backstory which causes them to believe in their lie the lie that ukira repeats to himself is that which cannot be reflected by his eyes does not exist he believes this lie due to his backstory which reveals how he was formed and came to find no meaning in the world as he fell into a void of nothingness what ukiro wants is to serve eisen as he give purpose to ukira by saving him from a void of nothingness and giving him a false sense of purpose through his ranked position within the espada ukira however is serving eisen only because of a sense of duty he will not find true meaning through serving him and blindly obeying his orders what ukira needs is to find the true meaning behind his existence he eventually does this through orihime successfully conveying the concept of the heart to him when he questions orohime i feel this proves that he subconsciously desires for true meaning behind his existence his intrigue with the concept of the heart and his desire for meaning drives his character arc to a satisfactory conclusion the ukira we see in the manga is no longer alone or without purpose he has companionship in the form of the espada and leadership through eisen his purpose is to follow eisen's orders he is not entirely made up of nothing like he was in the past which is shown to us via the unmasked special chapter as we know through our own history incredibly evil acts were committed due to individuals blindly following orders this is also true for ukira he lacks true meaning which results in lacking a personal purpose to exist for at the moment he is purely living to serve eisen which explains why he is exceptionally good at what he does with no room for distractions when he is pinned to the ground by vastol order ichigo and is about to take a cerro at point-blank range he encourages him to fire it stating that his life has no meaning now that he has lost to ichigo confirming his false sense of meaning that he derived from following eisen's orders he failed to protect lost no chess because he was defeated by ichigo he willingly accepts his death encouraging it even now that he is failed the little meaning he did have has gone so he reverts back to his past self who has no meaning not even a false sense of it he now accepts the ultimate void of nothingness which is his death ukira restores ichigo's humanity by breaking the horn on his skull reverting him back into his normal human form the nihilistic ukiara prevents ichigo from firing a saro at uryu he had realized that at this point he was already dying due to his organs having been destroyed by the cerro blast from earlier despite knowing his death is coming he still chooses to save uru's life which proves just how much of an influence everyone ended up having on changing ukira's outlook on life he then hands ichigo zampakdo to him so that they can finish their feud but ichigo tells him that what he was fighting before wasn't the real version of himself he was unconscious while the monstrous hollow took over him he asks that ukira cut off his limbs so that they can fight as equals to which he agrees while ukira fades into ash he quickly asks ichigo to settle this by cutting him down but he refuses with sadness and sympathy for his opponent ichigo yells that he didn't want to win like this ukiara in his final moments is visibly surprised by ichigo refusing to finish him off in a bittersweet way he muses that even in the end he refuses to listen to him he reaches his hand out towards orihime as his final question he asks is directed to her asking her if she is afraid of him she replies empathetically that she is not while she too reaches out for his hand the final page of chapter 353 shows a black dot surrounded by white space which is the total inversion of the white dot surrounded by a void of black from the final page of the unmasked chapter visually showing us ukiara's realization of meaning the spot of light is enlarged by his understanding of the heart he asked earlier that humans speak of their heart so casually as if they can hold it in the palm of their hand we visually see ukira realize what this means as he raises his hand and reaches out towards orihime he ironically sees her in the palm of his hand while orihime's hand also reaches out for ukiyara as he tends to ash we can see him in the palm of her hand kubo conveys this realization so subtly before writing any great visual story it is known that you need to convey meaning to your audience through showing them as opposed to telling them bleach follows this principle of show don't tell flawlessly i believe that this is literally the best example of kubo employing it in this work to appreciate just how much ukira changes we can compare the two poems that kubo writes about him in his poem from volume 22 he writes there is no meaning in our world neither is there any meaning in us the ones who live in it it is then meaningless for us who are equally meaningless to conceive the world in our thoughts despite knowing there is no meaning to be found this poem perfectly captures the nihilistic philosophy of the character we see throughout the series it serves to show us just how little meaning ukira derives from life now let's compare this to his poem from volume 40. envious because i have a heart gluttonous because i have a heart greedy because i have a heart prideful because i have a heart slothful because i have a heart wrathful because i have a heart because i have a heart i lost for all that you are the seven deadly sins once again make an appearance how i interpret this is through understanding ukiara to be a perfect robotic being when we compare this to the nature of a human we realize that we cannot exist without making mistakes or in other words sinning just as there cannot be light without darkness or good deeds without sin humans cannot exist without being flawed by this logic pure perfection is a contradiction to a human existence upon discovering meaning in his life ukira disappears as if to poetically state that he can only exist in a state of meaninglessness ironically in the end ukira becomes the most human out of all the other espada the realization of the heart remedies his meaninglessness but at the same time this makes him flawed ukira was the only asparta to follow eisen perfectly without fail his emotions never got in his way because he was always in a constant state of apathy he didn't react egotistically to grim jiao challenging him or rahim is slapping him or noiter at taunting him he doesn't even get annoyed by yami's stupidity but what frustrates him is futile efforts as we see him yell at ichigo for not giving up these futile efforts are rooted in the heart of the people pursuing them fighting through finding meaning whether it is right or wrong in whatever cause that they hold dear to their heart human sin they falter they do wrong they behave irrationally and do things that don't make sense we exist in a state of imperfection because of our heart but without the heart what meaning would we have in our life even if that life was a perfect one it holds no value if we deem everything to be meaningless like ukira did in the end meaning is given to him through understanding what it means to hold another in the palm of your hand he fades away while finally understanding how many hearts can become one if you made it this far into the video then i really want to thank you for supporting my content i love talking about manga and anime and really appreciate that there are people out there wanting to hear what i have to say as the channel is approaching 10 000 subscribers i want to ask all of you what character or story arc you want me to analyze next it doesn't have to be bleach it can be whatever series leave your comments down below i really want to do a highly requested video to celebrate hitting the 10 000 subscriber milestone once again a big thank you for helping the channel to grow to this point you

Channel: DBZimran

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Keywords: Ulquiorra, ichigo vs ulquiorra, bleach, ulquiorra death, ulquiorra resurrection, ulquiorra vs grimmjow, ulquiorra and orihime, bleach 2020, bleach character analysis, ulquiorra analysis, ulquiorra second release, bleach breakdown, bleach analysis, ulquiorra past, ulquiorra story, history of ulquiorra, segunda etapa, ulquiorra vs ichigo first fight, past of ulquiorra, ulquiorra first appearance, ulquiorra backstory, ulquiorra character analysis, ichigo, ulquiorra cifer

Id: CA-fRl00AcE

Length: 26min 33sec (1593 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020