BLEACH ANIME SERIES

Bleach ( ブリーチ, Burīchi?, romanized as BLEACH in Japan) is a manga and anime series by Tite Kubo, mangaka of Zombie Powder. Bleach follows the life of Ichigo Kurosaki, a 15-year-old high school student with the ability to see ghosts, and a shinigami (Soul Reaper or, literally, "death god") named Rukia Kuchiki, who crosses paths with him one day while searching for a hollow (an evil spirit). During the ensuing confrontation with the spirit, she is wounded and forced to transfer virtually all of her powers into Ichigo. Thus the adventures of Ichigo and Rukia begin. Together they search for hollows and perform soul burials on wayward souls, cleansing the spirits and sending them to Soul Society. The early parts of the story focus mainly on the characters and their past, rather than the actual occupation of the shinigami. However, as events unfold, the story begins to delve deeper into the world of these gods of death on the "other side" called Soul Society.

Why is Bleach called Bleach?

There is no official reason to why Bleach is called Bleach although there are a few theories put forward. The First being that when Japanese people bleach their hair occasionally it doesn't go so well and goes Orange rather than Blonde. Ichigo is attacked in one manga chapter by a guy claiming Ichigo stole his hair style (In fact the guy bleached his hair, Ichigo just had his normal hair). The third being that the Shinigami "Bleach" the souls of the hollows and spirits sending them to the afterlife, cleansing them.

How many episodes/chapters will Bleach be?
No one knows how many Episodes or Chapters there will be. There were rumors that Bleach would only be 52 Episodes, this is 100% false. First of all it was just a rumor started by someone and eventually everyone fell for it except for a few smart people (Ahem, me. No one believed me when I said it was a rumor *sigh*) It was later proven false by the announcement of a new Opening and Closing theme for Bleach starting Episode 53, so obviously there will be more than 52 Episodes. As for the manga, it is still going strong and Kubo Tite has made no sign of slowing down the onslaught of bleachy goodness, so rest assured Bleach has a while left in its batteries!


What is Bleach Manga? Who are Manga-ka?

For those of you anime watchers who don't know what manga is, a manga, put simply, is a Japanese comic. The vast majority of Shonen anime’s are based off original manga’s. The artist/writer of a manga is often referred to as a "manga-ka." Bleach's manga-ka is none other than Kubo Tite, who is known for Bleach (Obviously) and an awesome series called Zombie Powder. The manga, off which the anime is based off, runs in Weekly Shonen Jump, a weekly magazine in Japan. The manga is quite far ahead in the series than the manga, so if you're considering reading the manga, but do not want to be spoiled beyond the anime, refer to our Chapter to Episode Guide, it explains which chapter each episode corresponds to.

Here are some Bleach links that I would like to share with all you anime addicts out there:

-- Get to know the singer behind "Rolling Star", Japanese rock star YUI , and watch her other music videos at SickCycleCarousel.

-- See the piano version of "Rolling Star" at Zeroing In

-- Get Bleach's "Rolling Star Lyrics "at Tildemark.Com and 32Flavors.
For Bleach Episode Guides click here.

Trivia:The third ending, “Houki Boushi,” had a different animation for each episode, one for each of the 13 squads. The squad for each episode is as follows: Episode 26- 6th Squad, Episode 27- 3rd Squad, Episode 28- 11th Squad, Episode 29- 12th Squad, Episode 30- 4th Squad, Episode 31- 2nd Squad, Episode 32- 9th Squad, Episode 33- 7th Squad, Episode 34- 5th Squad, Episode 35- 10th Squad, Episode 36- 1st Squad, Episode 37- 8th Squad, and Episode 38- 13th Squad.



In addition to the Captain and Lieutenant from each squad, they also show major characters from that squad, other characters that squad interacts with (ex. many of the female Lieutenants are shown hanging out in multiple endings), and a shot of our “heroes”.

Early scanlations of the manga noted Ichigo’s birthday as July 7 instead of July 15, causing great confusion among fans. BLEACH creator Tite Kubo assigned several characters theme songs which are used to give insight to characters that might not normally appear in the run of the manga or anime.Ichigo names the mod soul he finds Kon, which is fitting seeing as “Kon” literally translates to “soul”.

In episode 41 a familiar piece from Neon Genesis Evangelion playsNeon Genesis Evangelion and BLEACH share the same musician , Shiroh Sagisu. When Ichigo used to go to the hair dresser, people would ask him about his hair color and since he hated that, he doesn’t go anymore. Normally, Yuzu cuts it.

In the first anime episode, there is an electric guitar which suggests Ichigo might like to play or listen to rock music (which is viable, considering one of his favorite celebrities is Mike Ness from the band Social Distortion). According to the Shonen Jump’s character popularity polls, Ichigo is consistently the Bleach series’s favorite character.

Rukia likes to climb to high places, rabbit-themed items (evident when she reveals she wanted a “Chappy the Bunny” soul candy dispenser), and her favourite foods are eggs and cucumbers.Rukia has consistently been the second most popular Bleach character in Shonen Jump’s polls. Her position has been usurped only very recently by Toshiro Hitsugaya in an official poll.The Shiba siblings have a naming pattern. The first characters in their names refer to a type of terrain (”kai” means “sea,” “kuu” means “air,” “gan” means “boulder) and the second characters refer to birds (”en” means “swallow,” “kaku” means “crane,” “ju” means “eagle”).

On the front of the magazine that is offered to kon by the young boys in “Kon-samma’s diary Part 1″ (ep 56) is Matsumoto in a red bathing suit.Starting from minute 30 of the 1 hour special (episode 68-69) you can hear, in the background, what was the current ending theme “My Pace” by SunSet Swish. “Menos Grande” probably was meant to be translated as “Big Minus”, in the sense of a very large Hollow, but in this specific order it is literally translated from Spanish as “Less Big”.

Kuchiki Byakuya wears the standard captain uniform along with a white headpiece called a kenseikan (symbolizing his noble rank as the head of the Kuchiki family) and a white scarf made by the master weaver, Tsujishirō Kuroemon III. The scarf is called ginpaku kazahana no uzuginu (lit. silver-white windflower light silk), and is a family heirloom handed down through the generations to the head of the Kuchiki family. Ten large houses can be built from the cost of just one of these.

During the fourth opening, “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” (episodes 75-97), after the closeup of Kariya’s right eye, there is a different still picture for every of those episodes.In order to promote the new Bleach movie, the production team decided to replace the new Opening (Rolling Star - YUI) and Ending’s (Baby it’s you! - June) animation with footage from the movie “Memories of Nobody”.Did you know that Ichigo was nicknamed “strawberry” in the manga because “ichigo” actually MEANS “strawberry” in Japanese?“Ichigo” using certain kanji does mean “strawberry,” which is where his nickname comes from. However, the kanji used in his name means “to protect one.”Ichigo’s name also sounds like ichi (one) and go(five). Thus in episode 113, you can see a sign on Ichigo’s bedroom door saying 15.