Bleach/YMMV

General YMMVs

• Abandon Shipping: The reveal of Ichigo eventually chooses Orihime in the manga's finale has not bode well with the Ichigo X Rukia shippers.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Quite a few since a lot of characters are considered as The Scrappy, but Tosen and Momo are particularly the most notable ones.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • While most villain deaths in Bleach are happy moments, there are some you'll probably feel sorry for. Early on there's Orihime's forcibly hollowfied brother; much later, in the Fake Karakura Town arc, there's not only the above Poor Scrappy but also Ulquiorra, Harribel and Starrk. It's hard to shake the feeling that their fate wasn't particularly deserved.
  • now it happened unexpectedly to Aizen. When Urahara's kidou was sealing him away, Aizen gave him a Shut UP, Hannibal regarding Urahara's opinion about the Spirit King and how the world just happens to be this way, and yelled that only a loser would think so, while a winner must always think about how the world should be, not how it is. Of course we don't yet know the full details about the King, but judging from their dialogue this can be assumed.
  • However Hallibel does gets better.
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • Hinamori (due to being brainwashed by Aizen and staying loyal for a while) and Hitsugaya (due to being extremely popular), neither of whom seem to have translated as well over here as they did in Japan.
    Ironically, Hinamori doesn't seem to have many fans on the staff of the anime itself. She appears in none of the movies, and only one of the filler arcs not counting her evil clones in the Gotei 13 Invading Army arc, and even that involved her zanpaktou talking down to her for being naive.
• Anti Goggles: Shippers of whatever pairing are particularly fond of using this as the basis for their "my pairing is better/more likely to happen than yours" arguments, but this also extends to anti-shippers and non-shippers.The latter two are often sick of these endless ship wars breaking out all over the fandom, and more often than not, use Anti Goggles in an attempt to stop the debate by 'proving' that there will not be any canon pairings whatsoever.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • One of the most painful flaws of the show (and by extension the manga). Happened first in the Soul Society arc. Then in the Hueco Mundo arc. Then in the Battle of Karakura arc. Then again in the final fight against Aizen.
  • Occasionally averted with some of the filler arcs (although the Bount arc may have overstayed its welcome), which, while not particularly inspired, get to the point and have pretty solid conclusions. With the Zanpaktou Rebellion arc, it helps that the last ten episodes were a series of loosely-connected one shots taking place after the resolution of the main story.
  • The current manga arc, regarding the Fullbringers and Xcution, seems to be an aversion. There's not as much lengthy exposition, the bad guys' backstories and motivations retain depth without requiring several chapters per head, and the fights are faster than before. Kubo is also putting some effort into a Two Lines, No Waiting / Three Lines Some Waiting pace, which is a step up from the extreme Four Lines, All Waiting dynamic of the Arrancar arc.
• American Accents: The English Dub is actually pretty good at having characters sound like they're from the same place, since the characters pretty much are. It can be, however, quite hard to ignore the fact that Rukia sounds like she's from Detroit.

Rukia: So, I'm a breh' am I?

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Aizen is finally defeated after 5 years (including a flashback that took a volume and half) in the manga and over 100 episodes of filler equaling to eight years in the anime. However, Ichigo loses his powers.
  • The Xcution arc was initially a breather from the action packed scenario happening earlier and got us interested in a new battle concept until the new characters turned out to be the new enemy.
  • The Arrancars are back, including Nelliel and Harribel.
• Ass Pull: Lots of them:
  • It has been established early in the series that Hitsugaya can control the weather, and freeze pretty much anything in a large radius. However, nobody ever said anything about him being able to create decoys of himself.
  • Yammy being the 0th and the 10th Espada.
    • Fan theory stands that this is an in universe ass-pull as well.
  • Ichigo's uber-Hollow form.
  • To some, Wonderweiss' true purpose (revealed in chapter 393) comes across as this.
  • Possibly everything Aizen does after being revealed to be the villain, especially in the chapters before his final defeat.
    • Provided it's actually true and not a lie he made up to mess with Ichigo's head, Aizen's claims towards having been manipulating Ichigo's entire life would qualify.
  • Some view Gin's motives for working with Aizen in this light.
  • As do some the revelation of his Bankai's true abilities.
  • Averted with Isshin Kurosaki actually being a former captain of the Gotei 13. It can seem a huge stretch at first, but Tite Kubo planned him to be a Soul Reaper from chapter 1 (see here for the interview).
  • The Hogyoku's role in the development of Ichigo, Orihime and Chad's powers when it was supposedly dormant and sealed inside Rukia.
  • The revelation in the Soul Society Arc that because the group went in on the day the cleaners were in the dangai, they went back in time seven days, extending the amount of time they have to save Rukia. Immediately afterward, however, Rukia's execution is pushed forward again, leaving them with only one day left.
  • Izuru being a former Fourth Squad Member. However, Kira's history is quite difficult to disentangle. In Chapter 173, Aizen makes it clear Renji, Kira and Hinamori were drafted from the Academy into the fifth squad. Renji was quickly moved into the 11th division while Aizen and Gin took responsibility for Hinamori and Kira. Aside from this information, all the manga tells us is that at some point Gin left the 5th division (against Aizen's wish) to become 3rd division captain. At some point Kira joined the 3rd division to become Gin's vice-captain. Eventually we find out he was in the fourth division at some point, too. The manga never claimed Kira left the 5th division with Gin so him being in the 4th division at some point is actually possible, albeit more convoluted than it needs to be.
  • A huge one for the anime-only Reigai arc, after Ichigo uses the last of his reiatsu to launch Getsuga Tensho at Kageroza, it's moments later revealed Kageroza had a cloning ability, so Ichigo basically wasted it on a clone.
  • Some consider the recent revelation that Chojiro Sasakibe, recently deceased at the hands of the Vandenreich, knew Bankai to be an example.
• Author's Saving Throw: All over the place, but two recent ones come to mind on opposite ends of the spectrum. As a first example, Isshin declares he's going to teach Ichigo the "Final Getsuga" so he can defeat Aizen, who by this time is pretty much a deity.
• Base Breaker: Lots of characters have a good amount of fans and haters, especially Hitsugaya, Orihime, and Aizen. Check out the character-specific section below for more.
• Non Sequitur Scene:
  • The noodle scene. Yoruichi is shown eating noodles for close to two full minutes for no apparent reason and the most that is said about it is Urahara commenting that her arm is working.
  • Probably Filler to pad out the episode. The same scene in the manga took all of two panels or so.
    • In the North American broadcast, this scene was edited so it didn't last as long because 1.) they probably felt it was redundant, and 2.) American shows are shorter because networks require longer commercial time than in Japan.
  • As Aizen and Gin are leaving for the real Karakura Town, Aizen offhandedly mentions that he's going to eat Ichigo. Not only is it never explained what he meant by that, but it's never brought up again.
  • The most likely explanation is that Aizen's transformations made him close enough to a hollow that he could absorb Ichigo's powers by devouring him. Still, it's a pretty odd thing to say without context.
• Broken Base: Certain fans have a hard time accepting what a few of the characters end up doing, seeing it as a case of the Idiot Ball rolling into their court. Others see their actions as justified, rationalizing that there was enough going on within the scene itself that implied something more than stupidity.
  • In the American dub, a huge amount of drama results whenever a characters' voice actor is replaced for any reason, and many many completely give up on the show entirely because of it. Chad's and Ikkaku's voices were replaced only temporarily, but Kaien, Hiyori, Kenpachi, Urahara, and Komamura each have a permanent Other Darrin. This is not helped by the fact that nearly no one in the course of the show in Japan had any voice replaced except for temporary occasions. It's not like actors are human beings with lives that sometimes get in the way of things!
  • An exception seems to be Komamura. His original voice actor, Kim Strauss, retired from voice acting in 2008. From episode 99 onwards, Sajin is voiced by JB Blanc. The lack of rage seems to be either from either Komamura being not as popular as the others, or the fact that their voices sound near identical.
  • Was the Lost Agent arc a badly-placed Filler-esque Story Arc that detracted from the important stuff, or a well-paced and refreshing expansion of the series' lore? The only consensus is that it robbed the fans of a satisfying backstory for Ginjo and Character Development via Book of the End.
• Complete Monster: Has its own page.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Everything Mayuri does. Everything.
• Deconstruction Fic: Hammered Down, and Downfall are two very good examples of the trope.
• Die for Our Ship: The actual page elaborates it best. The summary is that, even though the Het Is Ew mentality exists in the eyes of the yaoi pairings, it's the het fans that cause the most amount of trouble over shipping.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Plenty, each more infuriating than the last.
  • Hollow Ichigo is the Super-Powered Evil Side to Ichigo. No, we don't care if Ichigo is a Base Breaker—you're not supposed to root for the guy that stabbed Ishida.
  • Sosuke Aizen is a longtime Complete Monster, but his fans still cheer him on and bash his victims for being his victims... until he became a God Mode Sue who Forgot About His Powers and became uglier with each One-Winged Angel. By then, the cheering turned into booing.
  • Gin Ichimaru, a creepy, sadistic Manipulative Bastard that screwed with Rukia's mind, sliced Hiyori in half, and pursued a vendetta without even consulting Rangiku over it (or taking her feelings into account). The author himself was surprised at how large Ichimaru's fan following became.
  • Tesra Lindocruz is stereotyped in fanfics as a softspoken, obedient Butt Monkey for Nnoitra, or as his faithful boyfriend. He's treated like a Punch Clock Villain who doesn't harm anyone more than he has to, but his fans tend to forget that Tesra freely chose to blast a Cero at Nel, fully knowing that she was in her child form at the time. Furthermore, when the time came to finish Ichigo off, Tesra freely chose to break Ichigo's arm. He wasn't even ordered to continue torturing Ichigo.
  • Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, the 6th Espada. He stabs through Rukia's gut; beats Ichigo to a pulp; cared very little about his Fraccion dying; chokes Orihime for speaking out against him; grabs Rukia's face and nearly shoots her with a point-blank Cero; took potshots explosive at Nel and Orihime just to make Ichigo to protect them so he could get wounded; and only wanted to revive Ichigo just to kill him again. Despite all this, part of the fanbase views him as an Anti-Hero that's already redeemed and ready to join the good guys.
  • Ulquiorra Cifer, the 4th Espada. Despite kidnapping and mentally torturing Orihime until he almost makes her cross the Despair Event Horizon, killing Ichigo twice, mocking Ichigo about Rukia's "death" and tearing Ishida's arm off, Ulquiorra remains one of the best-liked characters in the series, and his improbable pairing with Orihime is possibly one of THE most popular pairings in Bleach. Some fans will even state "Alas, Poor Villain" and say his final moments saved him in their eyes.
    • Not only that, but some... special and VERY loud Ulquiorra fans tend to bash the shit out of Orihime for not having romantic feelings towards him and still preferring Ichigo. To the point of claiming that "Ulquiorra makes her strong while Ichigo makes her a weak piece of shit". Because choosing the dude who considers you one of his True Companions, whould lay his life to protect you and any of your common friends and has done lots of things for your sake over the one who mentally tortures you until you end up as a screaming wreck, kills the first dude AND mutilates/tortures another friend who is quite dear to you... makes you weak, clingy and a total co-dependent bitch, instead of a strong and feminist female character.
• Ear Worm: Several of the openings and endings. considering there are now 16 openings and 23 closings, the Bleach music tends to be a good listen in general.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: The popularity polls are most telling: Toshiro Hitsugaya is the most popular character ranked in the latest poll.
• Evil Is Cool: Several of the Arrancar exhibit this, but the ones that stand out are Grimmjow and Ulquiorra. They constantly score in the top five of the show's character popularity polls. Being badass, good-looking and having cool personalities might have something to do with that.
• Evil Is Sexy: Many of the Arrancars and a good percentage of the movie characters.
• Fandom Rivalry: With One Piece, Fairy Tail and especially Naruto.
• Fan Dumb:
  • Quite a large group. Once the Lost Agent arc started, fans near-universally expressed distaste in it, whether because they wanted other questions answered, because they felt it was moving too slowly, because they felt the Fullbringers were just there for the sake of giving Ichigo's powers back, or because they couldn't enjoy the Fullbringers due to favoritism towards the Shinigami. So, what happens? The Shinigami return to the scene, Ichigo gets his powers back and starts kicking Ginjo's ass, and now everyone hops back on the bandwagon.
  • There are several fans that preferred the arc without having the Shinigami butt into the scene, but they're in a minority. In fact, there are fans that were fine with Rukia and Renji returning, but they felt that Ichigo regained his powers far too early, without any lasting impact over what Xcution put him through. Naturally, they're in the minority.
  • Let's not forget the people who seem to think that Bleach is few more than Ichigo and Rukia's Love Story and nothing else, ignoring how important Ichigo's friends and family are for him as well. He cares for Rukia very much, kids, but she is NOT the only one he cares for, and he would NOT ditch his friends to follow her to Soul Society as soon as he could.
• Fan Nickname: The sheer amount of these in the main page is enough for Bleach to get its own page on it.
• Fetish Retardant:
  • To some, Harribel's Stripperific design, or Bleach's use of giant boobs in general. Note that both also count as Fetish Fuel.
  • Never Live It Down: There are many girls with more modest (and realistic) endowments: Rukia, Suifeng, Hiyori, Hinamori, etc.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Grimmjow's obsession with Ichigo. Seriously, at first he just thought of Ichigo as an annoyance, but it got progressively worse, until the point where everything coming out of his mouth and his entire goal was to fight Ichigo. Not to mention how he chose to keep that huge scar on his chest just so he could be reminded every day of how Ichigo defeated him. Grimmjow also got inordinately pissed when he found out Ulquiorra's been going after "his prey" (Ichigo).
  • Attention Ichigo Shippers: Squee in joy at Japan's newest poll of Bleach's best bouts, which seems to feature Ichigo giving valentines to his fan-voted greatest rivals.
  • The English dub doesn't help matters any. What with Grimmjow demanding Ichigo say "That you want to get a hold of me and rip me apart!"
  • Ichigo has had varying degrees of Foe Yay with pretty much all of his rivals so far, starting with Ishida.
  • Ulquiorra/Ichigo. The fact that Ulquiorra puts his arm through Ichigo's bare chest which results in a gaping hole. And how Grimmjow later mentions that Ulquiorra only puts that hole on his favorite victims. And later on Ulquiorra blasts Ichigo again which causes the hole to get even bigger.
  • Grimmjow/Ulquiorra. Especially on Grimmjow's part.
  • Neliel's relationship with Nnoitra can give off a few vibes of this, particularly on his end of the spectrum. One particular scene is where they lunge their swords towards their faces, but abruptly stop.

Nnoitra: Why did you stop your sword? Nelliel (smirking): Why'd you?** No mention of Nnoitra/ Nel? For a guy who supposedly hated her, Nnoitra sure went out of his way to gain her acceptance as a fellow warrior. And when that didn't work, well...

• • • Don't forget about Nel/Nnointra. What's about constantly hanging around the man you supposedly despise, refusing to strike him down even when he tries his best to provoke you, crying out for him when he's mortally (?) wounded?
  • Not so much "Foe Yay" as "Rival Yay," but Renji seems to have a whole lot more on his mind than just becoming able to beat Byakuya...
  • Aizen seems to have a little bit of a thing for Orihime. I mean LOOK at that!
  • Hell, Nnoitora/Orihime. That spoon seemed a little too interested in her. Eeeep.
  • Grimmjow/Orihime. Considering that she's pretty much the ONLY character in the series he's done anything decent for, (even if he wanted a favour off her after it), some of his behaviour/dialogue towards her (handcuffs, anybody?) and his total lack of personal space with her. Not to mention, he seemed somehow bothered by her wounds from Menoly and Loly, which coming from a man who didn't even bother to mourn his dead subordinates, is definitely interesting.
  • Chapter 381 has this with Ichigo finally meeting Mayuri. Their interactions are... interesting, to say the least. Ichigo appears to have merrily escaped Mayuri's wrath for now. But it looks like Mayuri now seems very interested in him - both because of Ichigo's happy comment which pissed him off, and because of Ichigo's potential.
  • Aizen/Ichigo. Chapter 388 gave us this.
    • Aizen/Ichigo has catapulted every chapter since then, culminating with the ultimate stalking phrase: I've known about you since the day you were born. Thank you, Aizen. Your constant smirking, lack of personal space and smexy hairdo have put you on the level of Foe Yay as the Borg Queen and the Joker. Although, considering that these continued revelations probably mean that Aizen sent Grand Fisher to kill Ichigo's mother. Meaning this could be Aizen/Isshin, with Ichigo being the kid Aizen wants to buddy with. Not to mention Aizen telling Ichigo "You are the very thing I'd been searching for" and telling him not to disappoint him because he knows he's a strong fighter.
    • Even before that after Aizen reveals himself as a Big Bad he informs Ichigo "For a human, you were truly fascinating."
    • Add to it the ultimate Stalker with a Crush phrase ("I have been watching you since you were born"), and it could be said that the Foe Yay is just two steps away from canon.
    • And when Aizen leaves to destroy Ichigo's home town, he tells Ichigo that he will come back to eat Ichigo.
  • There is an uncomfortable amount of this between Loly and Orihime. When not beating the crap out of Orihime, Loly is stroking her hair, calling her "Orihime-chan" ("little Orihime"), invading her personal space, caressing her face, pinning her against walls, tearing her clothes...it's surprisingly easy to do Alternate Character Interpretation of Loly as a Depraved Bisexual targeting Orihime.
  • Musn't forget Kisuke/Mayuri! There's so much Foe Yay there it's crazy. That jail scene was pretty heated and you can bet that Mayuri reacts super pissed off at Ichigo upon mentioning Urahara's name. Methinks Mayuri and Urahara might have a similar situation to Soi Fon and Yoruichi. Abandonment issues much?
  • On a slightly lesser note, Muramasa got this with Ichigo during their last fight, ending with Ichigo holding Muramasa's hand as he slowly dies, happy to have found someone that genuinely connected with him, that "connected" part is up for interpretation, of course.
    • Not only in the last fight but mainly with all their fights, Muramasa insisted that he was greatly intrigued by Ichigo, that he had an interest in him.
    • And Tobiume once states to Haineko "You know, Muramasa-san seemed pretty infatuated with him (Ichigo), didn't he?
  • Ulquiorra and Orihime. Given how much he looks down on humans he is sure interested in her, and their last scene together is seen by some shippers as possibly romantic, in a very creepy way.
  • And in the Bount filler arc the Ax Crazy villain Yoshi called her opponent Rukia "cute", says that she's making her excited before giggling and tears at Rukia's clothes with her weapon while generally fighting very close to her while trying to kill her.
  • Kaszeshini is a Ax Crazy, psychotic, sneaky bastard who licked his weapon at one point, and wrapped the chains from it around Ichigo before Shunpo'ing so that he was basically draped over said berry.
  • There's also some Riruka and Rukia Foe Yay, though not quite as blatant as with Riruka and Orihime.
  • Szayel Aporro Granz, the 8th Espada, toward Ishida Uryuu. (Arguably, Renji too — all three of them have some interesting lines in those chapters, whether Szayel telling Renji "he's not into that sort of thing", Renji telling Ishida "flattery will get you nowhere", and Szayel's extreme reaction to learning that Ishida is a Quincy).
• Freud Was Right: A Bleach character book lists the locations of the Espada's Hollow holes, with a few being oddly specific and causing a stir. Halibel's is her womb, Zommari's is his right nipple, while Szayelaporro's is his glans. And they have been wearing them on their face. It may be time to awkwardly reexamine the Zanpakuto.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • More often than it's given credit for. Aizen's reveal itself is the first example.
  • Nel's saliva is a healing solution. Human saliva contains a chemical that does accelerate healing in Real Life. Congratulations, Kubo.
  • See Foreshadowing above. Also some comments on the Wild Mass Guessing page.
  • As grating as Mayuri's Karma Houdini is, it makes some sense with the reveal of Tosen's motives. Tosen's reason for wanting to destroy Soul Society involved an officer who killed a fellow Soul Reaper in an argument, then killed Tosen's friend (who was either in the academy or a full Soul Reaper at the time of her death) when she complained about it, and didn't receive any punishment. Seems like getting away with killing subordinates is something that isn't just limited to Mayuri.
  • Aizen fears Yamamoto's Zanpakuto because flames cannot be hypnotized, so his Shikai would not affect them.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Kenpachi never makes the top 10 over in Japan, but he's a bigger Ensemble Darkhorse than Hitsugaya over in America. Interestingly, Second Espada Baraggan Luisenbarn is much more popular in the west than he is in Japan, his popularity exceeding Aizen's in some places. Shunsui also has a considerably larger fanbase with the American Audience.
  • Mexicans love Chad, seeing as how he's half-Mexican.
• Growing the Beard: Despite the anime ending, the Vandenreich arc is really building up to be good, if not better than the Soul Society arc.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ishida once declared VERY HAMMILY that " Aizen's True Enemy isn't a Shinigami, but a Quincy!" Fast forward some arc, and the newest villains, the Vandereich, are VERY closely related to the Quincy. And they're invading Soul Society. FUUUUUUU...
• Ho Yay: Also has its own page.
• I Knew It!:
  • People had begun to theorize that Gin was actually the Snape to Soul Society's Dumbledore awhile before it was revealed.
  • Ginjo is actually evil? Nooo... really?
• Jumping the Shark:
  • While some people think this is when the series Grows the Beard, some feel that the Soul Society arc ruined much of what was good about the series, ruining most of the characters and making the series about constant battles with no consequences.
  • Other people think this about the Hueco Mundo arc. Or the Fake Karakura Arc. Or the Ichigo vs Ulquiorra fight. Or Yammy being Espada #0. Or...you get the picture.
  • Growing the Beard: Pretty much the whole fanbase was sick of the Arrancar saga until Chapter 414.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ichigo can be paired with almost anyone in the cast.
• Les Yay:
  • Soifon's "admiration" for Yoruichi. She literally stalks Yoruichi in an attempt to see her naked, and in the video games expresses jealousy that Ichigo and Yoruichi had a bath together.
  • The fairly infamous Orihime and Nude Rangiku scene counts as well as a blatant attempt at Les Yay fanservice. The Yuri undertones in that scene were intentional, but in a "how I can add in as much Les Yay as I can without them actually... you know swinging that way."
  • There is also a lot of Les Yay between Orihime and Rukia. Ironic, really.
  • How 'bout the Romantic Two-Girl Friendship between Orihime and Tatsuki? If that doesn't qualify, I don't really know what else does.
    • Kubo doesn't seem shy about including everything from lesbian overtones to outright lesbianism in Bleach: Soifon is pretty much a canonical example of the latter if all the subtext and a great deal of the omake is to be believed, and there was a blatantly lesbian girl in Ichigo's class who had the hots for Orihime.
• Magnificent Bastard: Has its own page.
• Memetic Mutation: Also has a page.
• Mind Game Ship: Like Aizen before him, Tsukishima seems to LOVE trolling the hell out of Ichigo. And Ginjo too.
• Moe: Orihime (pre-kidnapping), Ururu, Hanataro, and Isane. But mostly Hanataro.
• Never Live It Down: Poor Orihime. You get kidnapped once, this happens only via a terrible Sadistic Choice that you truly can't refuse... and suddenly, you're the Princess Peach of anime.
• Nightmare Fuel: Here's its page.
• No Yay:
  • Any scene involving Nnoitra and Orihime. It's quite clear what he wants to do. Ulquiorra even calls him on it.
  • In the transition from manga to anime, some of the subtext was toned down; for instance, where the manga has Nnoitra shove his fingers down Orihime’s throat during Ichigo’s fight with Tesla, in the anime he covers her mouth with his hand.
• Periphery Demographic: One of the largest, strongest and craziest in the history of Shonen manga serialization.
  • The generous amount of genuine Action Girls and well-executed Character Development are major reasons why Bleach has quite a large female fanbase.
  • That, and the gratuitous amount of Clothing Damage suffered by the male part of the cast.
  • It could also be because almost the entire cast is good-looking (both male and female), with something that appeals to everyone.
  • In addition, the pseudo-romantic relationships bring out the Shojo undertones from the series. The anime even took it to form with their adaptation of the farewell scene between Ichigo and Rukia.
• Real Women Never Wear Dresses: It had its own page, if that tells you how bad it gets. Since the troe now covers in-universe examples, and the page itself was ripe with subjectivity, we had to take it down.
• The Scrappy: With Bleach's Loads and Loads of Characters... lots of them. Go to the character section below for the specifics.
• Seasonal Rot: While the manga is (arguably) still going strong, by the time the anime reached the Fullbringer arc, it became more and more obvious that both the animators and the voice actors were putting less and less effort into it, ultimately culminating in the anime being unceremoniously swept aside to make room for a Naruto spinoff.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • While the entry elaborates more on just how bleh it gets at its absolute worst, we'll give you a bit of a preview. The three most prevalent characters in the ship wars are Ichigo, Rukia and Orihime. Rabid fans of both Ichiruki and Ichihime are notorious for clawing out each others' throats on a daily basis, while those that support Ulquihime end up primarily going against Ichihime.
  • Ship Mates: On the more benign side, fans of one pairing generally support another pairing that makes a b-line for theirs. Those that ship Ichigo with Orihime tend to like Rukia, so they usually pair her up with Renji (which makes sense considering their backstory). Those that prefer Ichigo with Rukia are often more than happy to give Orihime off to Ulquiorra or Ishida, while allowing Renji to go with Tatsuki.
    • Which is quite odd, since the only thing Renji and Tatsuki have in common are their hot-blooded personalities, and their being childhood friends to either Ichigo or Rukia. Aside from that, the two have never met.
• Squick: Most things involving Mayuri. Everything involving Szayel. Same goes for Fura. Take Our Word for It.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: As a childhood friend of Ichigo and with strong innate spiritual power, Tatsuki had much potential to be a main character. Only time will tell if that potential will ever be brought to fruition.
  • Pick a Bleach character at random. There's at least a 20% chance that at least some fans feel this way. Not helped at all by Kubo's tendency to suddenly introduce a ton of new characters and not really go anywhere with most of them either.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Speaking broadly, this probably describes a lot of people's feelings about the series. It's a unique concept with some quirky characters, but complaints about the series being bogged down by long arcs, repetitive writing and typical shonen cliches are frequent. On a more specific note, the moral ambiguity of the Soul Society and the crappy conditions of the afterlife have been shown to us many, many times, yet none of the characters have really sat down and talked about it. You sometimes wonder why Kubo bothered putting stuff like that in if he was just going to end up writing a straight action series, unless he did so because he wanted to flesh out his action series more.
  • Other examples of wasted plots: Ishida and Mayuri's conflict, Ichigo's friends gaining powers (which Kubo mentions was part of the initial plan, but this was shot down by Shueisha), the new powers Ichigo gained during his Fullbring training, et cetera.
• Too Good to Last: The anime got cancelled while the Xcution Arc ended, but before the Final Battle Arc began.
• Unfortunate Implications:
  • Many fans set the series under fire for having a seeming sexual favoritism of men over women. While it's not half as bad as other shonen or seinen series, it's not completely untrue. Most female characters are battle-active but they fighting stronger opponents and needing to be saved by men. In one occasion, Soifon vs Baraggan, Soifon was a female Captain and was saved by a former male Lieutenant who didn't even use a Zanpakuto. There was also the case of Nel vs Nnoitra. A huge backstory evolved between the two in a massive conflict of Nnoitra having ruined Nel and her fraccion's lives essentially. Just when Nel is about to win, she suddenly goes back to her almost useless loli form and needs to be saved by Kenpachi Zaraki.
  • In said battle between Soifon and Baraggan, she used Bankai - the first female character thus far to have done so, and the fight still ended up having the aforementioned outcome.
  • It doesn't help matters that, in the fights with the Fullbringers, Rukia is the only member of the main cast who loses. Though to another female.
  • Let's not even go into the horrors that Nemu had to deal with from that one Espada.
• Villain Decay:
  • Aizen starts out as a cool, composed, Big Bad who hands out Gambit Roulettes like they handed out Kool-Aid at Jonestown. Lately he's been getting Drunk with Power, his illusions used to aid his thrown-together brute-force solutions, and his constant petty taunting is threatening to get his Magnificent Bastard status downgraded to Smug Snake.
  • Baraggan after Soifon shoots him at point blank range with a frickin ICBM.
  • Hollows as an entire species have pretty much been subject to villain decay.
• What an Idiot!:
  • The Soul Reapers face down Aizen and the top three Espada, a small army of the most dangerous foes they have ever faced. They neglected to bring so much as a single 4th Division healer with them, and wonder what went wrong when half the lieutenants are dying or incapacitated while the bad guys are going strong.
  • Often, for no reason at all, characters in fights will take time to explain the nature of their powers to their opponents, rather than just kill them already. This usually gives their opponents the chance to counter them and win the battle.
    • Zommari might have been able to win his fight with Byakuya if he had kept his ability a secret, Matsumoto might have avoided being eviscerated if she had refrained from explaining her sword's powers to Harribel's minions, and in Chapter 387 Shinji blew a perfect opportunity to get the revenge he'd been seeking for over 100 years because he just couldn't keep his mouth shut. Also while he manages to draw blood on the Big Bad, he aims for Aizen's shoulder instead of, you know, his neck, his heart, or the back of his head.
    • It has been proven quite conclusively and mentioned by Komamura that getting pissed off at Aizen's well-placed barbs and attacking in anger is a quick way to get your ass handed to you. Hitsugaya, knowing this, falls for it hook, line, and sinker when Aizen lazily taps his Berserk Button once. Probably justified in that Hitsugaya is not nearly as collected as he would have you believe. He's insanely emotional, and Aizen specializes in exploiting emotional weaknesses.
    • Or Team Good Guy not using their Bankai right off the bat? A lot of them might still be alive or intact if this were the case.
    • One possible justification given for not using Bankai is Kyoraku's, as Ukitake warns him not to use it where others could see. Given what his shikai does, potentially having the entire battlefield under the influence of his zanpakuto's 'rules' would surely be disastrous.
    • Komamura gets a free pass for not only using his bankai, but criticizing Ikkaku for not doing the same.
  • Now with its own page!
• What Measure Is a Non-Badass?: Depending on which portion of the fanbase you talk to, Orihime is either this, an example of Underestimating Badassery or Badass for non-fighting reasons.
• The Woobie:
  • Most of the good guys at some point achieve Woobie status, but the ones that stand out are, not surprisingly, the nominal cuties: Orihime, Momo, and Rukia in their various Damsel in Distress moments.
  • By the end of the Deicide arc, Matsumoto has been pegged as this by the fandom. Gin too.
• Woolseyism:
  • The replacement of "Shinigami" with "Soul Reaper" in the English releases, something that the Japanese studio actually agreed with.
  • The Spanish occasionally gets partially cleaned up as well. Yammy screaming "¡Suerte!" (Luck!) was changed to "¡Qué suerte!" (What luck!). While this is more grammatically correct, it's not a proper Spanish idiom. They would say "Tengo suerte." (literally: I have luck)
    • It depends on the country. "¡Qué suerte!" is totally correct for some countries.
  • Another change in the Spanish: As he uses Sprenger on Szayel, Ishida goes from saying "Hasta Aqui" (see you later) in the original, to "¡Está terminado!" (It's over!) in the dub.
    • Actually, "See you later" would be "Te veo luego" or "Hasta luego". "Hasta aquí" would be literally translated "until here", or less literally to "this is it", so "Está terminado", while too literal and not exactly correct in some countries, is somewhat similar to "hasta aquí".

---

Main Characters

Ichigo Kurosaki

• Base Breaker: An interesting protagonist with his fair of Badass moments, a Jerkass that's obsessed with protecting people when they flat-out don't want it, a Marty Stu that steals the spotlight from everybody else, or a generic shonen hero that gets far too many ridiculous power-ups?
• Designated Protagonist Syndrome: People tend to dislike Ichigo for this reason.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: His hollow only appears a handful of times in the series, but in many fanfics he's portrayed as regularly speaking to Ichigo.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: To such an extent that he's often promiscuous in fanfics, but his 'specialty' is Ho Yay.

Rukia Kuchiki

• Base Breaker:
  • Those that feel indifferent simply don't find her to be an interesting character, so they get aggravated over her high amount of popularity.
  • Others view her as a Jerk Sue, with a large amount Ron the Death Eater in play.
  • On the flip side, those who love her character (not just rabid fans, mind you) view her in the opposite light, finding Rukia to have one of the more interesting personalities and backstories for a Shonen heroine.
• Die for Our Ship: Oh, boy. Check out her entry on the actual page for details.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Her 'specialty' is Crack Pairing.
• Possession Sue: Frequently twisted into one by her rabid fans.
• Real Women Never Wear Dresses

Orihime Inoue

• Base Breaker:
  • We have several wagons for her.
  • The ones that twist her into a Possession Sue, believing that she deserves a pass on all the shit she goes through because she's a girl.
  • The ones that feel bad for her frequent track record of not being able to develop much, though they tend to blame the author himself for making her out that way.
  • The fans that find her to be a useless, stereotypical Damsel in Distress that can't get over her lust-filled obsession with Ichigo.
• Damsel Scrappy: Due to Arc Fatigue.
• Die for Our Ship: Primarily by the Ichigo/Rukia side to the fandom.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Her 'specialty' is Foe Yay. And some bits of Les Yay, as well.
• Real Women Never Wear Dresses: In spades. She's probably the main target (alongside Momo) of this in the Bleach fandom.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: During the Fake Karakura Town arc Ulqiorra implies that Aizen has done something to significantly alter her. This is never mentioned again.

Yasutora "Chad" Sado

• Base Breaker: No, really. The first camp enjoys Chad's quiet side and his development prior to the Hueco Mundo arc, but bemoan his constant track record of losing and following Ichigo too much. The second camp views him as a Satellite Character for Ichigo, and the third camp is indifferent to him, viewing him as The Generic Guy.
  • For worse, in the X-Cution arc he was Brainwashed and Crazy alongside Orihime thanks to Tsukishima. Fans now whine and bitch about how he "is not a true friend of Ichigo", despite how all of this was beyond his reach and he was shown clearly distressed upong having to fight Ichigo while genuinely believing he had gone mad..
• Mexicans Love Yasutora Sado

2nd Division

Soi Fon

• Base Breaker: A cold-hearted Jerkass, or a well-developed Defrosting Ice Queen?
• Die for Our Ship: More than one Urahara/Yoruichi rabid fan has been caught twisting her into a Psycho Lesbian to make Urahara a better "suitor" for Yoruichi.

4th Division

Retsu Unohana

• Base Breaker: Half of the fans are just dying to see her in action, while the others find her to be bland and overhyped.
• Crazy Awesome: Turns out that she was the first Kenpachi, and a psychotically violent criminal to boot. And she is indeed very awesome.
• Real Women Never Wear Dresses: One VERY welcome aversion of this obnoxious trope. Very feminine, gentle, and ladylike, and is liked because of those traits. Should be noted that her Word of God strength and her ability to scare Squad 11 into submission with a mild glare might also help in the matter.

5th Division

Momo Hinamori

• Base Breaker: Some feel bad for her realistic reaction to Aizen's betrayal. Others don't, put bluntly.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • A popular target, especially by fans of other Hitsugaya ships: specifically, Hitsugaya/Rangiku.
  • Parodied with their Zanpakuto
• Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Alongside Orihime, she's the main target of this in Bleach fandom.
• The Scrappy:
  • For still thinking Aizen has some good in him. Well, honey, denial's not just a river in Egypt...
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Ever since she re-joined the Shinigami side to fight the Arrancar, showing that she has started to get over her trauma and shake Aizen's More Than Mind Control off her. Reinforced in the Zanpakutou arc, where she's quite more action-oriented than she used to be- her zanpaktou even lampshades this trope with her in this arc.
• Woobie:
  • Aw, you poor girl. Poor doesn't even begin to describe it when your childhood friend who swore to protect you with his life impales you with his sword from behind... and the one to blame is Aizen. AGAIN.

6th Division

Byakuya Kuchiki

• Base Breaker: A well-developed, but flawed Badass with Hidden Depths, or an arrogant Jerkass that's bordering on being a Marty Stu?

Renji Abarai

• Badass Decay: Most of the American audience seems to forget that Renji was originally introduced as a formidable opponent, who Ichigo only beat the first time on a fluke. He even has a fanboy in the ranks of his squad.
• Base Breaker: His fight with Jackie. Did he have a point in regards to it, or was it an horrible Out-of-Character Moment?
• Die for Our Ship: Has been increasing steadily with time, specially from rabid Ichigo/Rukia fans who think of him as an abusive, misogynistic loser who has no right to Rukia's love. Despite after winning his fight against the Fullbringer Jackie, he refuses her request to kill her, saying that only a piece of trash would slaughter a woman. Does that make him an abusive, misogynist loser?

7th Division

Sajin Komamura

• Memetic Mutation: The look on Komamura's face when Tosen says he's ugly.

8th Division

Shunsui Kyoraku

• Ensemble Darkhorse
• Memetic Molester: His behavior towards his subordinates occasionally seems rather suspect, especially towards the future Lieutenant Nanao Ise during the flashback arc.

9th Division

Shuhei Hisagi

• Ensemble Darkhorse: In Japan he is very popular in certain all-girl circles. Not even KT himself expected it, according to his own words.

10th Division

Toshiro Hitsugaya

• Americans Hate Hitsugaya:
  • Despite being the most popular character in Japan, in America he has many very vocal haters.
  • In Europe and Latin-America, it's fairly different. He's nowhere as divisive or loved than in Japan and the USA. Basically, he's simply the target of affectionate jokes.
• Base Breaker: The only one who can cause greater rifts in a fanbase is Sasuke Uchiha. Similarly with the latter, it's a case of Values Dissonance, given he doesn't have this status in Japan or Europe. See also Ensemble Darkhorse and The Scrappy below.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Ranked #1 in a popularity poll in Japan, and has a notable fanbase elsewhere, although he has less screentime than many other characters.
• The Scrappy: To a large portion of the American Fanbase, even accusing him of being a Creator's Pet.

Rangiku Matsumoto

• Ensemble Darkhorse: While she never made it into the top ten, judging by the four popularity polls given out thus far, she developed a pretty strong fan following, both in America and in Japan.
• The Woobie: Her relationship with Gin gets more tragic as the series goes on.

11th Division

Kenpachi Zaraki

• Americans Love Kenpachi.
• Base Breaker: A Badass with surprising Hidden Depths, or a testosterone-induced caveman with little substance?
• Crazy Awesome: Quite simply, Kenpachi is insane. Before he became the Captain of Squad 11, he had nothing, did nothing but fight and kill.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: If you don't like Hitsugaya, you WILL love this guy.

12th Division

Mayuri Kurotsuchi

• Base Breaker: Hilariously colossal asshole, horrifically colossal asshole, or efficiently colossal asshole? Or, Heaven forbid, all of the above?! You decide.
• Complete Monster: While he's more of a darkly humorous asshole now, he was definitely this during his first few appearances in the series. The guy is essentially the Soul Society's Josef Mengele due to committing all sorts of horrific experiments on Quincies, was a horrific employer who turned a lot of his division's flunkies into living bombs, and not to mention is a completely horrible father given how he didn't think twice about cutting through his own daughter, then proceeded to stomp on her for faltering to his neurotoxin. Needless to say, some fans are not happy that these actions have more-or-less ben swept under the rug.
• Creepy Awesome: Replacing your organs to counter voodoo!? Insanely awesome yet horrendously squicky.
• Crosses the Line Twice / Dude, Not Funny: Everything he does.
• Memetic Molester: Any wonders?
• Nightmare Fuel: his Bankai... to start.
• Magnificent Bastard: For some, after his flawless owning of Szayel.
• Moral Event Horizon: His proper introduction in the series? Turning his men into bombs, and detonating them while they're aware and horrified.

Nemu Kurotsuchi

• Fan-Preferred Couple: A lot of fans like to pair her with Ishida.
• Iron Woobie: The poor girl puts up with a lot of shit, but handles it with a stoic face and without much complaining.
• Woobie: Probably the biggest one in the series, just look who her father is!

13th Division

Jushiro Ukitake

• Ensemble Darkhorse
• Memetic Molester:
  • He's shown to be awfully friendly towards the young Captain Hitsugaya. Run, Hitsugaya, RUN.
  • Not to mention the memes that got started once his zanpakutou was shown during the filler arc...
    • Specifically that arc showed that his bankai is 2 little boys and he is over 1000 years old though since the zanpakutou are supposed to be a reflection of the person you could say he is young at heart.

Kaien Shiba

• Epileptic Trees: He looked like a more cheerful, purple-haired Ichigo. Lots of fans (not all of them being rabid Ichi/Ruki shippers, mind you) believed that Ichigo was his reincarnation. But he wasn't.

Villains and Arrancars

Sousuke Aizen

• Base Breaker: Used to qualify as one, before his Villain Decay. Is he a Villain Sue, Generic Doomsday Villain or Magnificent Bastard? The answer came in the form the Deicide arc - a Smug Snake, with Villain Sue and Generic Doomsday Villain thrown in between.
• Complete Monster: It has been doubtful for quite a lot of time, since even when he was first outed as a villain and he shanked Momo, he still seemed enough of a Magnificent Bastard to remain cool... but he really sealed the deal in 392. If that's not enough, 409 has him slaying innocent Karakura peeps for the hell of it, and in chapter 410, he planned to fridge Tatsuki just to piss off Ichigo.
• Creator's Pet: Kubo actually considered his favorite character to be Aizen. Come the Deicide arc, and the fans thoroughly disagree.
• Evil Is Sexy:
  • Just for a few minutes, ladies, let's forget that he's one of the most controversial characters in recent history and appreciate what he has in the looks department, hmmm?
  • Subverted completely as of 419, where his newest transformation has his face rip off, revealing a black skull underneath and his face being worn like a bonnet around his neck. Eww.
• Fountain of Memes: Nearly everything he says has meme potential.
• Nightmare Fuel: In chapter 419 and episode 309, his final transformation. Jesus, Kubo.
• It Was His Sled: Aien being the Big Bad was a major spoiler for its time, but the series has gone on for so long with Aizen as the main villain, that his status as the villain is no longer spoiler-tabbed here.
• Memetic Mutation: His tea and his couch, among other things.
• Memetic Molester: Practically everything he does, as on that page.
• Memetic Sex God / Draco in Leather Pants: Post reveal, da-yum!
• Magnificent Bastard: Was a very collected, calculating and cunning antagonist, more than proving himself capable of (for the most part) realistically adjusting to any given combat situation, if not plan out events well in advance, and when needed, advantageously switching up several his plans over, around, behind and above one another to suit the situation. His intellectual, almost philosophical speech-taunts to his opponents, his impressively formidable displays of power and his resourceful intellect also earned him a strong amount of popularity for many sectors of the fandom, up until the Deicide arc, at least. And even then it may be part of his plan.
• Villain Sue: Aizen breathes this trope, defeating even Invincible Villain, which is "all power and no personality" with "no motive, clear goals or clever plan". Aizen has motives (POWER!!), personality (Magnificent Bastard anyone?) and has been written by Xanatos.
  • He wasn't so bad at first, as he just seemed to be an exceptionally-powerful villain very good at Xanatos Speed Chess. Then, however, her started doing things explicitly stated to be impossible (getting used to the Inverted World instantly, anyone?) and was upgraded from "simply a very good planner" to "basically omniscient."

Gin Ichimaru

• Alas, Poor Villain: As of 416. Major Tear Jerker.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: When giving Ichigo "The Reason You Suck" Speech, was he trying to motivate Ichigo to regain his resolve as a backup in case his own plan to kill Aizen failed, or was he just doing it for his own amusement? Knowing Gin, it could very well be both.
• Draco in Leather Pants / Misaimed Fandom:
  • He was supposed to be creepy and off-putting, but gained a rather significant fangirl following regardless.
  • It's gotten worse since his betrayal of Aizen. Several fans have gone so far as to call him a "good guy," despite his psychological torture of Rukia, his gleeful bifurcation of Hiyori, and the fact that he attacked Aizen for Rangiku's sake and no one else's. You could argue that he's an anti-hero, but flat-out calling him a "good guy" is going too far.
    • Specially creepy considering his motivations. Sure, it's understandable to be pissed off when your Only Friend has a good part of her soul stolen — but staging a brutal revenge? Without actually asking her if she wanted him to get even? And when, in fact, it caused Rangiku herself horrible emotional pain? It becomes even worse when his fangirls slutshame the Hell outta Rangiku for going on with her life afterwards and nor mourning for him forever.
• Woolseyism:
  • In Japan he has a Kansai Regional Accent. They couldn't quite pull that off for the English version seeing as it would sound downright silly and uncharacteristic, so instead he gets a faux-British accent with a facetious tone.)
  • More specifically, he has a Kyoto accent. The Kyoto accent is softer, more polite and more indirect than standard Japanese, so the dub choice is actually pretty spot on for an analogue. The way he plays with his enemies by constantly using a mockingly polite tone seems to be fairly effective. This is, of course, much different from the Osaka accent that Shinji and Hiyori have.

Coyote Starrk

• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Appears to be the third most popular Espada after Ulquiorra and Grimmjow.
  • Which means that he is possibly the coolest Espada, since you know that lots of people voted for the others since A: They were more mainstream antagonists, fighting Ichigo, and B: they got more screentime.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: With Tia Harribel, since they're the most 'humane' of all the Espada.

Baraggan Louisenbairn

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Post-resurrection, he was incredibly well-received by the fandom, and his EPIC Ham qualities and Badass actions (as well as getting all the best lines in the heavily controversial Fake Karakura Town mini-arc) have made him popular in some places to a downright Memetic Badass in others.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: He has a very large online American fanbase. He's often more popular than Aizen in the online fandom.

Tia Harribel

• Base Breaker: She has her fans, but those that aren't tend to view her as an unimpressive fighter whose only real purpose was to strut around half-naked, while giving Hitsugaya a chance to seem legitimately competent.
• Evil Is Sexy: She's not really evil per se, but still quite sexy, especially in her powered up state.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: She's quite often paired up with Starrk.
• I Knew It!: It was a fairly popular Alternate Character Interpretation that she was reluctant to kill Hitsugaya and joined Aizen to protect her friends. Her expanded backstory in the Anime basically confirms this.

Ulquiorra Cifer

• Draco in Leather Pants: Sometimes to really creepy degrees. Specially when it's paired with Die for Our Ship towards Orihime for not returning his hypothetical Villainous Crush, to the point of saying that Orihime is weak, useless, antifeminist and slutty unless she's paired up with him.
• Ensemble Darkhorse :
  • The second most popular villain in Bleach, behind Grimmjow, and the tenth most popular character in the series - an excellent accomplishment for any series, but in Bleach, it's especially incredible. Their popularity is so rampant that, despite the fact that Aizen and Gin are more signifcant villains, Grimmjow and Ulquiorra are vastly more popular.
  • Kubo said at the Jump Festa 2010 that the response to Ulquiorra's last scene, after he asked for feedback on it, was enormous and came from all over the world.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: with Orihime.
• Jerkass Woobie
• Villainous Crush: some people interpret the scenes in the manga and the Masked databook as him having a crush on Orihime.

Nnoitra Gilga

• Draco in Leather Pants: Not nearly as much as others, but he does have his share of fangirls who don't seem to care that he's a male chauvinist and an outright creep. Some fan arts even portray him as being far more good looking than he actually is.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Nnoitra is... oddly popular with Bleach fans, both male and female, in spite of (or perhaps because of) his utter lack of redeeming qualities.
  • This probably amounts to the fact that he provides one of the best fights in the series thus far. He utterly curbstomps Ichigo, proves to be a match for Nel, and even gives Kenpachi a good kicking. Reason for his Ensemble Darkhorse status is simple: the dude is in no way a pushover.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: With either Nel (for obvious reasons) or Harribel (because... they talked once, I guess).
• Foe Yay: There's a lot of this between him and Nel. Some subscribe to the Yandere Alternate Character Interpretation, others believe he really did hate Nel but also lusted after her.
• Memetic Molester: His rapeface puts Grimmjow's Slasher Smile to shame.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Treachery fits magnificently when he releases his Resurreccion.
• Fashion Victim Villain:
  • The infamous spoon-shaped thing behind his head, and dear Lord, those shoes.
  • Not quite so much when Nel was still around. Apparently he just lost what little fashion sense he had over the years.

Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez

• Draco in Leather Pants: He does plenty of horrible things throughout the series, and his overall personality is petty and sadistic. Despite not being any less of an asshole than most of the villains in Bleach, many fans treat him as an Anti-Hero who only wanted a good fight.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: The most popular villain in Bleach and the fourth most popular character overall.
• Evil Is Cool: What else can you expect when you combine Evil Is Sexy with an over the top Badass?
• Evil Is Sexy: Grimmjow's unrestrained ax-craziness combined with his character design has made him a fan favorite.

Zommari Rureaux

• The Scrappy: It's more in the vein of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character, Zommari's the Dark Chick that no one knew about, and how he fit in the Espada. At first, he does seem intimidating.... three chapters later, and he gets the most idiotic looking release, a ballerina pumpkin with eyes and his phrase "Accept My Love" and "Banzai Lord Aizen", made him the least liked Espada. His easy defeat by Byakuya does not help his case.
  • Heck, this wiki's characters page makes fun of him.
• Unfortunate Implications: His What Measure Is a Non-Human? speech combined with his dark skin color brings subtexts of racism in the series.

Szayelaporro Granz

• Complete Monster: And how! He's probably worse than Mayuri, which is saying quite a lot!
• Draco in Leather Pants: Inverted. Most of his fans make no effort to downplay his faults and instead love him because of what a Complete Monster he is.
• Evil Is Sexy: More like Creepy Sexy.
• Moral Event Horizon: Poor, poor Nemu.
• Squick: Incarnate, even moreso than Mayuri. Even his "pretty" resurrection gets pretty gross when you realize it's a parasitic worm. His sword's name translates to "you will fornicate", for crying out loud! Since he specifically wants people to hate him, appearing as grotesque as possible is likely intentional on his part, or he could just be a narcissist.

Yammy Llargo

• Hilarious in Hindsight: The whole Cero Espada deal.
• Memetic Badass: More of a Memetic Troll, really.

Luppi Antenor

• The Scrappy: The vast majority of fans dislike him for his flamboyant, condescending nature.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Oh yes.

Tesra Lindocruz

• The Woobie: fanon would have you believe that Tesla is just Nnoitra's unusually willing punching bag... among other things.
• Ho Yay: Oh, Nnoitra-sama~
  • Strangely, the dub managed to make it even more explicit, with the way he call's Nnoitra "Master".

Loly Aivirrne and Menoly Mallia

• Alas, Poor Scrappy:
  • While a great many people rejoiced when they apparently bit the dust, others felt a little bad for them in spite of it, especially since Yammy just brutalized both of them because he was bored. They both get a slightly more sympathetic sendoff in the anime, since Menoly was more reluctant the second time they went after Orihime, and Loly seems to have gradually gained some respect for Orihime, if her almost coyly smirking at Orihime right before Yammy throws her against a wall is anything to interpret.
  • It could be because while their beatdown by Grimmjow was awesome and well deserved, Yammy's beatdown of them was just Dude, Not Funny.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Well, their fanbase rejoiced since they've been revealed to have survived after all.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Since the animation of Loly's scenes with Orihime called special attention to the Foe Yay between them, a growing interpretation of Loly as a Depraved Bisexual has started to crop up.
  • Also open to interpretation is the reason that they decided to go after Orihime a second time after she had gone through the trouble of healing them, once they were mauled by Grimmjow. Much fan wank ensued (see below), but it should be remembered that these two Hollows, spirits born from death, despair and fear, were faced with a being that can literally rewrite reality so that events do not occur (i.e. revive them). Taken in this context, Orihime is less like an angel of mercy to these two and more like an Eldritch Abomination from their perspective - a being whose nature and abilities are so alien that they outright defy explanation. Considering this, it's understandable that they would react less than pleasantly to what happened to them.
• Draco in Leather Pants: No, seriously, on a few forums, YouTube and Deviant ART, there are fans of Loly, but are thankfully sane enough to not discount her Yandereness.
  • A more clear example is the fact that both of them are (big surprise) popular among Orihime haters.
• Evil Is Sexy: Loly may be an insufferable bitch from hell, but at least she's a hot bitch, plus her outfit is quite nice. Menoly's not bad looking either, despite the haircut.
• Jerkass Woobie: For some, that would be Loly. A few also feel for Melony, too, since her primary problem is that she follows Loly loyally in spite of her own doubts.
• Rooting for the Empire: Orihime haters cheer them on in their beatdowns on her.
• The Scrappies: Subjective, but Menoly's smugness and Loly's complete obsession with Aizen, plus her absolute bitchiness to Orihime, just makes them unlikable characters, especially if you compare them to the Shipping Fan Dumb... of course, since there's no word on what happened to them after their beatdown by Yammy Llargo, there is a chance they could be more or less "redeemed", slim as it is.
  • There are some who find them to be likable for all the same reasons, though.

Cirucci Sanderwicci

• Epileptic Trees: One of the mysterious "spoils of war" Mayuri collected from Szayel is believed by many to be her remains. Kubo has said the spoils are important, but for now, What Happened to the Mouse? strikes again!

Lilynette Gingerback

• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • If Starrk is dead, there's a good chance she went with him. It's never exactly clear whose perspective the dying flashback of the two meeting as separate beings for the first time is from, if it's not from both of them.
  • In the anime she dies first. She was controlling the wolves, and protected Stark from an attack. Kyoraku used the wind from his Bushugoma attack to separate the reishi that made up the wolves.
• Tear Jerker: Lilynette's death is the anime is sudden and very heartbreaking, Lilynette taking a blow for Starrk and dies. The following shot of Starrk calling for Lilynette as smoke from the attack reveals her fate adds to the revelation of her death.
• The Woobie

Charlotte Cuuhlhourne

• Alas, Poor Villain: For all of his Large Ham behavior, he faced his death at the hands of Yumichika quietly and even with dignity. Rest in Pieces, Oh Hammy Rosa Blanca.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Charlotte's "peculiarities" made him quite popular among some fans.

Emilou Apacci, Franceska Mila Rose, and Cyan Sung-Sun

• Alas Poor Villains: Subverted, like above, Orihime healed them after the battle, as revealed by a story written by Kubo himself
• Evil Is Sexy: Each has something appealing in the looks department, but Mila-Rose takes the cake; dark skin, Stripperific outfit, a Rangiku-like face, busty chest, curvy figure, nice-looking rear.... still doesn't hold a candle to Harribel, though.
• Nightmare Fuel: Allon.
  • Until you see his face

Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck

• Base Breaker: Nelliel is an Ensemble Darkhorse, true enough, but half of her fans prefer her child form, while the other half prefers her adult form. Child form was actually funny, says one half, while the adult form was condescending and boring. Adult form is far more badass and attractive, says the other half, while the child form is annoying, both in voice and personality.

Wonderweiss Margela

• Viewer Gender Confusion: Many people, especially manga readers, have mistaken him for a girl.

Fullbringers

Kugo Ginjo

• Alas, Poor Villain. Arguably.
• Moral Event Horizon: He wants to kill Shishigawara, just because he might become too powerful for Ginjo and Tsukishima to handle, without any real basis over why. Not even Tsukishima had done anything so clearly self-serving and cold, but he's acting rather nonchalant about being told to kill his most loyal follower.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: His backstory? The one fans hoped was connected to Isshin? We got one panel with him meeting a younger Tsukishima, before he was Killed Off for Real.

Giriko Kutsuzawa

• Moral Event Horizon: Revealed after his death, strangely. He randomly killed his wife with Time Tells No Lies, just to test out his power, but to his defense, he did try to stop, which interfered with his power and burned out his right eye.
• The Scrappy: In the same vein as Zommari. He seemed interesting at first, until he became Drunk with Power in such a way that it felt massively out of character. It's the biggest reason as to why the fans were fine with Kenpachi slicing him in half.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Anyone else wanted to see a more interesting fight with him and Kenpachi?

Riruka Dokugamine

• Base Breaker: A stereotypical Tsundere, an arrogant Bratty Half-Pint, or an interestingly-developed Tsundere?
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: It seems like she simply walks away after her arc is over and won't return...yet the hollows and arrancar do.

Yukio

• Complete Monster: Interestingly deconstructed. He was totally deprived of moral guidance as a child for having been a Cute Mute whom his parents shoved aside due to said speech impediment, he wanted his parents to aknowledge him as an equal due to their abandonment (as he thought and still thinks that adults see children as inferior beings), and the deal about enjoying his parents's deaths was actually a lie. (he used his powers in the past to recreate visions of Mom and Dad treating him kindly). In short: the dude did do really nasty shit and there's no way to deny it, but his Start of Darkness didn't come from inherent evil, and it looks like he wasn't beyond the point of no return, considering that the last time we saw him, he held a rather civil talk with Jackie and promised to help her financially when his enterprise is bigger.
• The Scrappy: Unusually, he started off with a pretty sizable fanbase by the time he made his debut, but once his Moral Event Horizon was revealed, he's fully devolved into one of the most disliked Fullbringers.
  • Base Breaker: And then we see his Freudian Excuse, which isn't as heartbreaking as Jackie, but has helped him regain some popularity in some fandom circles due to showing his Start of Darkness as well as how heavily neglected he was.
• Moral Event Horizon: Driving his father to suicide really soured him in the eyes of the fans. Subverted later, when we see that he wasn't as heartless about it as he himself thought.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Does anyone else see him as sort of the Game Master? And anyone else would have loved to see him act more? well...maybe not the people who thought him as The Scrappy

Jackie Tristan

• Ambiguously Brown: Moreso in the anime.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Her popularity skyrocketed once pieces of her past were revealed.

Shukuro Tsukishima

• Complete Monster: Zig-zagged. There's no discussion that he's a total asshole, and specially to Ichigo, Orihime and Chad—and yet we find out that he Used to Be a Sweet Kid and that he genuinely cares for Ginjou's well-being, having a total Villainous Breakdown when Ginjou dies. The discussion, instead, is about whether or not those small tidbits earned your sympathy for him.
• Draco in Leather Pants
• Ensemble Darkhorse: If you ask a group of fans over who the most interesting Fullbringers are in Xcution, Tsukishima will almost always be amongst those added to the list.
• Moral Event Horizon: If implanting false memories into Ichigo's friends and family to drive Ichigo through the Despair Event Horizon didn't do it for you, then his literal Mind Rape of Chad and Orihime should.
• Villain Sue: Arguably WORSE THAN SOSUKE FREAKING AIZEN! His Fullbring being able to insert himself into people ALONE makes it broken compared to Kyoka Suigetsu, to make it WORSE, this ability is also applied to NON-LIVING OBJECTS. WOW! JUST WOW!
  • Actually, no. Byakuya manages to figure the Fatal Flaw in his strategies and does defeat him fair and square.

Moe Shishigawara

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Has started to pick up a bit in popularity. It helps that he's one of the few Fullbringers to give their Shinigami opponent a good fight.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The anime, especially, made it seem like he was going to make a Heel Face Turn, but he just shrugs it off.

Others

Tatsuki Arisawa

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Especially in America. When she finally reappeared in the Deicide arc, the fandom rejoiced.

Don Kan'onji

• Crazy Awesome: See Memetic Mutation.
• Ensemble Darkhorse
• Memetic Mutation: BWAHAHAHA!

Chizuru Honsho

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Not super ultra popular, but still quite well-loved in fandom.

Kon

• Base Breaker: Either you think he's funny, adorable, Woobie-ish due to his backstory and a Plucky Comic Relief, or you want him to die in a fire for being an annoyance to Ichigo all around. There is NO middle ground.

Kukaku Shiba

• Crazy Awesome: An old friend of Yoruichi, a one-time ally and trainer of Ichigo, both of whom she shoots out of a giant fireworks cannon into the very heart of the Seireitei.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Thanks to being a total badass and incredibly attractive to boot, she has tons of fans who are eager to see her make a reappearance.

Bount Arc

Lirin

• Most Annoying Sound: Her utterly obnoxious laugh during the Training from Hell.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: During the Training from Hell segment of the Bount arc, her smug demeanor and grating laugh (in addition to the grating length of that segment itself) made her almost insufferable. After she officially joined the team, she becomes much more tolerable.

Sawatari

• Nightmare Fuel: Baura is...pretty unsettling.

Ugaki

• Nightmare Fuel: Gesell's true form.

Unknown Zanpakuto Tales Arc

Senbonzakura

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Many fans seem to like him quite a bit, what-with being a somewhat more emotional Byakuya and all.

Kazeshini

• Ensemble Darkhorse: One of the best-liked zanpakuto males, reasons being his insanity, appearance and badassery.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Fans like having Haineko as his pseudo-girlfriend.

Haineko

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Nicely developed variant - She gradually evolved from a slightly less divisive Base Breaker, into one of the most beloved female characters in the series.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Get this - with Kazeshini

Ashisogi no Jizo

• Ugly Cute: Some fans think that about him.

Minazuki

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Never had any dialogue, barely had any screen time, and we don't even know what Minazuki's gender is, much less its appearance and personality. Therefore, this leaves fans the opportunity to come up with their own ideas about what Minazuki is; some fans think that Minazuki is an Eldritch Abomination that embodies the aspects of Unohana's personality that so many people seem to fear, while others think that Minazuki is apathetic, cold and mute, or that Minazuki continues to be the mysterious enigma that we've seen in the actual arc. Either way, anything goes, since there's not much shown/known about Minazuki in general.

Koga Kuchiki

• Ho Yay: More than enough of this with Muramasa, mostly from the latter's side though.

Gotei 13 Invading Army Arc

Nozomi Kujo

• Conflict Ball: The method she used to defeat all those Reigai was to drain the reiatsu of about six or seven lieutenant-class shinigami and four lieutenant-class humans all at once and throw it at the Reigai captains. That just begs the question: if those lieutenant and humans collectively had enough power to defeat those four super-powered REIGAI captains, why was Nozomi needed in the first place? Even if they didn't have the power to defeat those four captains, how could combining "not enough power" suddenly become "more than enough power"?
• Creator's Pet: She's even worse than Aizen in this regard, and she's consequently earned a reputation for being the most loathed of all filler characters in Bleach.
• The Scrappy: She was accused of being a Flat Character from the get-go by the fans. Come a few episodes later, and she's even more reviled (as a Creator's Pet) than Aizen.

Kageroza Inaba

• Fashion Victim Villain: His costume is... weird.
• Only the Author Can Save Them Now:
  • Seriously, he has command over (stronger and more agressive) copies of Kenpachi, Kyoraku, Ukitake and Unohana. His army is leagues above Espada, he has a cloning ability that wasted Ichigo's abilities, and he's got the ability to steal Nozomi's power, Ichigo's power and Yamamoto's power all at the same time.
  • The only way he, now fused with Nozomi to be Ouka again, and the Reigai were permanently defeated was through a massive cop-out (the reigai sacrifice themselves to stop Ouka from destroying Soul Society, and Nozomi forces Ouka to destroy his soul chain, costing him his powers).
• Villain Sue: He survived and repelled the best attacks from Nozomi and Yamamoto, just by using his basic ability. Even Aizen recognized that he needed help to deal with tougher opponents.
  • Now that he merged with Nozomi to become Ouka again, he's even more overpowered than he already was as Ouka's zanpaktou ability is both Inaba and Nozomi's combined.

Bleach: Memories of Nobody

Senna

• Die for Our Ship: Despite only appearing in one film, Senna's chemistry with Ichigo provoked a lot of attacks from shippers of both Ichigo/Rukia and Ichigo/Orihime, but since she's never featured in any other Bleach-related media, outside of the first movie, a video game and a cameo in episode 204, the hate for her (thankfully) isn't as frequent or heated.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Quite popular, at least in America, despite only ever having appeared in the movie; fans are begging for her to return to the series as a permanent member of the main cast.
• Relationship Sue: She barely escaped having this label slapped on her by Fan Dumb, possibly because she died before she and Ichigo could ever get into a romantic relationship.

Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion

Ying and Yang

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Milder example compared to Senna, but several viewers expressed their disappointment that Yang and Yin recieved less development than Hitsugaya and Kusaka did in the second film.
• Evil Is Sexy: They're actually rather good-looking, with looks comparable to that of Senna and Apacci.

Bleach: Fade to Black

Shizuku

• Alas, Poor Villain In his dying moments, the viewer learns the truth about his connection with Rukia, and their being possessed while saving her.
• Stoic Woobie: Been through all the stuff his sister did, but still manages to keep his head rational and calm, maybe even a bit aloof.

Homura

• Alas, Poor Villain In her dying moments, the viewer learns the truth about her connection with Rukia, and their being possessed while saving her.
• Jerkass Woobie: Her love for Rukia is genuine, but she could've been less of a Clingy Jealous Girl.

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