Ichigo
Kurosaki
"Itsygo"
Kurosaki Clinic Ichigo's Group Karakura Town Loosely Soul Society
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Background
Ichigo Kurosaki is fifteen when Rukia Kuchiki climbs through his bedroom window, and his defining trait is already in place: he cannot watch someone get hurt without stepping in front of them. When a Hollow called Grand Fisher's kin attacks his family that night, Rukia is forced to stab him with her own Zanpakuto to transfer her powers, and instead of borrowing a fraction he drains nearly all of it. From that day he does her job, cutting down Hollows around Karakura Town with a cleaver-sized blade while she coaches from a gym uniform.
Every arc of the show is Ichigo hitting a wall and tearing through it slightly wrong. When Byakuya Kuchiki and Renji Abarai drag Rukia back to Soul Society to be executed, Ichigo learns Bankai in three days inside Kisuke Urahara's training ground because the proper method takes ten years. He beats Renji, beats Kenpachi Zaraki more or less by surviving him, and stops Rukia's execution by catching the execution stand's blade with one hand. The cost of all that speed is the Hollow living inside his power, which takes his body over mid-fight against Byakuya and later has to be beaten down in a war against his own inner world with the Visored watching.
The show keeps rewriting what he is. Shinigami powers from Rukia. A Hollow from the way Urahara restored him. Then, in the Thousand-Year Blood War, the last pieces: his mother Masaki was a Quincy, and she lost her powers to Yhwach's Auswahlen in 1994 at the exact moment Grand Fisher attacked, which is why she died shielding him. The old man in his inner world was never Zangetsu at all, it was the shadow of Yhwach's Quincy blood, and the horned Hollow was his real Zanpakuto the whole time. Oetsu Nimaiya reforges Zangetsu into two blades, one large and one small, and Ichigo carries both into Wahrwelt. As of the end of Part 3 he has fought his way up the Quincy city with Orihime and Sado, been poisoned by Askin Nakk Le Vaar, and crossed blades with Uryu Ishida in front of a Gate of the Sun without knowing whose side his friend is really on.
Key Events
30 momentsIntroduced: Protagonist, fifteen-year-old with the ability to see ghosts
Ichigo vs. Grand Fisher. Ichigo wins (Grand Fisher escapes wounded)
Awakens Shinigami powers fighting Fishbone D
Ichigo vs. Renji (first duel). Renji wins; Rukia taken to Soul Society
Ichigo vs. Kenpachi Zaraki. Draw (mutual collapse)
Bankai revealed: Tensa Zangetsu. Revealed mid-battle against Byakuya Kuchiki during Rukia's rescue, drastically shrinking his cleaver into a thin black daitō.
Ichigo vs. Byakuya (Bankai duel). Ichigo wins
Achieves Bankai (Tensa Zangetsu) during rescue operation
Kariya Jin, killed by Ichigo Kurosaki. Defeated by Ichigo Kurosaki after consuming Jōkaishō
Begins Visored training to control his Hollow
Ichigo vs. Grimmjow (first fight). Interrupted by Kaname Tōsen
First controlled use of his Hollow mask in combat
Resurrección released: Pantera. A panther-like feral form revealed during his second duel with Ichigo Kurosaki.
Ichigo vs. Grimmjow (second fight). Inconclusive (Grimmjow's Pantera debut)
Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra (first fight). Ulquiorra wins (Ichigo left for dead)
Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra (final fight). Ichigo wins (Vasto Lorde-tier Hollow transformation)
Enters Vasto Lorde-level Hollow form to kill Ulquiorra
Ulquiorra Cifer, killed by Hollow Ichigo / Ichigo Kurosaki. Fades to ash after being defeated in his Segunda Etapa form by Hollowfied Ichigo
Ichigo vs. Aizen (final). Ichigo wins using Mugetsu; loses his Shinigami powers
Uses Final Getsuga Tenshō, Mugetsu, at the cost of his Shinigami powers
Ichigo vs. Kūgo Ginjō. Ichigo wins and regains his Shinigami powers
Has his Shinigami powers restored by the Gotei 13's ritual blade
Travels to the Royal Palace to forge a new Tensa Zangetsu
Receives his reforged dual Zanpakutō from Ōetsu Nimaiya
Ichigo and Orihime vs Yhwach. The Soul King's darkness swallows every Getsuga Tenshō until Ichigo wakes Zangetsu's Hollow side with Yhwach's own Quincy Reiatsu
Wakes Zangetsu's Hollowfied form by exposing the blade to Yhwach's Quincy Reiatsu, regaining the horn and markings from the Ulquiorra fight
Fires Cero Creciente, a Getsuga Tenshō fused with a Gran Rey Cero, into Yhwach's side
Bankai revealed: True Zangetsu (Blood Chains Ichigo). Called under a full lunar eclipse after Yhwach pins him. A second horn mirrors the first, red Reiatsu chains ring his neck and wrists, and Rukia names it the power of Ichigo's true Zangetsu.
Ichigo and Rukia vs Yhwach. Yhwach runs both through and stands on Ichigo's head; Ichigo's Bankai turns it around until Orihime flies into Yhwach herself and the chamber fills with red petals
Blood Chains Ichigo deflects a dozen of Yhwach's beams behind a wall of red Reiatsu chains and spawns shadow clones that attack from every angle
Zanpakuto
Zangetsu
Tensa Zangetsu
Personal Data
Also Known As
Itsygo
Shinigami Daiko (Substitute Soul Reaper)
Ichi-nii
Ryoka Boy
Voice Actors
Masakazu Morita, Yuki Matsuoka
Johnny Yong Bosch, Mona Marshall