Character typesHuman: The humans of Bleach are much like the residents of modern Japan, and most cannot see or sense disembodied spirits in any way. Spirits can, however, inhabit artificial human bodies called gigai which are visible to ordinary humans. One in 50,000 humans is a medium with some awareness of nearby spirits, but only a third of these are able to see them clearly, and only the strongest of mediums are able to speak with or touch spirits.[2] Certain unique humans naturally have both the power to sense and the strength to fight with spirits. Ordinary humans can gain the ability to interact with spirits by spending time around a large source of spirit energy.[3]
Wholes: Benign spirits in Bleach are known as wholes (pluses in the official Japanese editions). A whole is the spirit of a person who has died.[4] A chain, known as the Chain of Fate (因果の鎖, inga no kusari?), protrudes from the chest and binds the whole to a location, object or person that they felt close to in life.[5] The soul can move about freely if the chain is broken, but this also causes the chain to corrode.[5] Normally, wholes are sent to Soul Society by Soul Reapers in a ritual called soul burial (魂葬, konsō?) before this corrosion becomes significant. If the Chain of Fate is corroded entirely before a soul burial can be performed, a hole will form in the chest of the soul where the chain was once anchored. Such souls are driven mad and become evil spirits known as hollows.[5] If the Chain of Fate is torn out deliberately, this also leads to spiritual degradation.[6]
Soul Reaper: Soul Reapers, or shinigami as they are called in Japanese-language releases, are the psychopomps of Bleach. They are souls with inner spiritual power, recruited from the ranks of the residents and nobility of Soul Society. Like all spirits, they cannot be detected by normal humans. Soul Reapers use their zanpakutō, supernatural swords that are the manifestation of their owners' power, to perform soul burials on wholes.[4] Soul Reapers also use zanpakutō and magic known as kidō to fight their archrivals, the hollows.[4] A group of Soul Reapers known as the vizard have obtained hollow powers, gaining removable masks and access to certain hollow abilities.
Hollow: The hollows are the major antagonists of Bleach. They are evil spirits who reside in Hueco Mundo but travel to the living world to feed on the souls of the living and dead alike. Like Soul Reapers, hollows are made of spiritual matter and cannot be detected by ordinary humans. While the majority of hollows can be overcome by the average Soul Reaper, there are some which surpass even the most elite Soul Reapers in strength. All normal hollows wear white masks,[5] but a small group of hollows have broken them, becoming arrancar. By shattering their masks, these hollows regain the ability to reason, sometimes obtain a humanoid form, and gain access to Soul Reaper powers.[7]
Quincy: The Quincy are a clan of spiritually aware humans who once fought against the hollows, using bows composed of spiritual energy to slay them.[8] As opposed to Soul Reapers, Quincy absorb and channel energy from their surroundings to fight.[9] Unlike the Soul Reaper's method of killing hollows which allows the hollow to enter Soul Society, the Quincy technique simply destroys the hollow's soul entirely.[8] This method has the propensity to shatter the balance of the universe, because when souls are destroyed, the number of souls entering and leaving Soul Society cannot remain equal.[10] This issue prompted the Soul Reapers to conduct a campaign to exterminate the Quincy about 200 years before the main storyline.[11] At least two Quincy still remain.
Artificial soul: Artificial souls (also known as Modified Souls, or Mod Souls) are a type of soul mass-produced by the Soul Reapers.[12] Issued in pill form, they are used to force Soul Reapers out of their gigai during protracted stays in the living world, and also to evict wholes that refuse to leave their bodies after death.[12] They come with a pre-programmed personality that animates the host body until the owner returns.[12] In addition to the mundane versions, a series of experimental souls authorized and created by Soul Reaper researchers exists.[13] Known as modified souls, these were meant to hunt hollows by possessing soulless human bodies and supercharging a particular aspect of them (for example, strength or speed).[13] The Soul Reapers decided to scrap the project due to the inhumanity of forcing dead bodies to fight, and ordered the destruction of all modified souls.[13] Only one modified soul exists in the manga (Kon), but there are three more such characters in the anime.
Bount: Exclusive to the anime, the Bounts are a clan of human beings with high spiritual energy and special powers. They were accidentally created by Soul Reaper scientists looking for a way to create eternal life. Bounts consume the souls of human beings to survive; theoretically, a Bount could live forever by doing so. Although the Bounts have a strict rule to consume only the souls of the dead, the final group of Bounts chose to drain souls from living humans in order to become more powerful. Each Bount uses a "doll" in combat, a type of familiar possessing its own special abilities. Every doll is unique and is a manifestation of the user's power. If the doll is destroyed, its owner is destroyed as well.
World:
The planes of existence in the Bleach universe broadly correspond to the life and afterlife of human belief systems. The living humans of Bleach reside in a world resembling present-day Japan, buried souls live in a kind of Heaven called Soul Society, and evil souls are sent to Hell. Once a spirit dies in Soul Society, its soul is sent back to the living world and reborn as a new human.[14] This provides the two worlds with balance.
Human world: The human world of Bleach is focused on modern Japan; specifically, a fictional area of Western Tokyo called Karakura Town.[15] In this world, Ichigo attends school and fights hollows.
Soul Society: The spirit world called Soul Society (尸魂界（ソウル・ソサエティ）, Sōru Sosaeti?) consists of two portions: the expansive walled city of Seireitei (瀞霊廷, Court of Pure Souls?), where Soul Reapers and nobility reside, and the eighty-district residential area of Rukongai (流魂街, Town of Wandering Spirits?).[16] The number of the district describes its conditions, such that lower-numbered districts are more peaceful.[17] Living conditions resemble those of feudal Japan. A king resides in another realm within Soul Society.[18] Souls in the Soul Society are much like normal humans, but age at an extremely slowed rate, such that lifespans of several centuries are commonplace. Children can even be born as they are in the human world.
Hueco Mundo is a sparse, white-sanded desert.Hueco Mundo: Hueco Mundo (虚圏（ウェコムンド）, Weko Mundo?) is a dimension between the human world and Soul Society. It is where hollows reside when not hunting humans, and they are undetectable as long as they remain inside. Entrances to Hueco Mundo are created by ripping the dimensional fabric between the two worlds. On the surface of Hueco Mundo is a desert-like realm, covered in perpetual night. The little vegetation that meets the eye is actually formed from crystal; and while the sky has clouds, there is no water to be found anywhere. Few hollows reside on the surface, and the landscape is dominated by the imposing Las Noches palace. Directly underneath is the Forest of Menos, where the hollows mainly reside until provoked to leave.
Ако намеря време може и да го преведа.
Чет Юли 31, 2008 9:43 am
