His newfound powers force him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife.
In addition to adapting the manga series it is based on, the anime periodically includes original self-contained storylines and characters not found in the source material.
Although initially reluctant to accept his responsibility, he takes her place, and during this time they discover that a few classmates are spiritually aware and have their own powers: Quincy survivor Uryū Ishida uses spiritual particles, Orihime Inoue has a group of protective spirits called Shun Shun Rikka and Yasutora Sado ("Chad") has strength equal to the Hollows encased in his arm.
After this, it is revealed that ex-squad captain Sōsuke Aizen framed Rukia for the crime and has been illegally experimenting on Soul Reapers and Hollows.
After being trained by the Vizards, other exiled Soul Reapers and the victims of Aizen's experiment, Ichigo and his friends travel into Hueco Mundo.
Along with Aizen, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen, the Espada as a group possess comparable strength to Soul Reaper captains.
After rescuing Orihime, Aizen reveals her kidnapping was a distraction to allow him to take Karakura Town, as its spiritual energy is what is needed for the Oken.
The third arc features the evil Zanpakutō spirit Muramasa, who turns itself and other ones into spiritual beings to take revenge on the Soul Society for imprisoning its master Kōga Kuchiki.
After succeeding, he is double-crossed and transforms into a monstrous creature that Ichigo defeats, but after Muramasa reveals the intention was to have Soul Reapers and Zanpakutō communicate on equal terms.
The fourth and final arc features an event in which Kagerōza Inaba creates modified copies of all Soul Reapers in Reigai bodies.
Ichigo's voice actor, Masakazu Morita, tried to re-create the mood that he felt when he read the manga and imagined hearing the dialogue.
The English-language cast was assembled from experienced industry actors that have dozens of roles in other anime series, films and video games.
[4] Bosch acknowledges that the directorial control was loosened as the work progressed; stating around episode 10, as he was guided into the role of Ichigo and the growth of the character.
[4] Stephanie Sheh noticed the difference in the tone of her Orihime voice in the English adaptation and described it as being higher-pitched and "innocent-sounding".
[4] Throughout the production, Prince acknowledges his role as the English voice actor of Shino Aburame from Naruto and sets them apart by taking a Clint Eastwood tone for Uryu.
[4] The voice actors often made suggestions for the scenes that differ from the approved script and results in rewriting and additional takes that were put into the dub.
[4] Noriyuki Abe was chosen as director of the series while Masashi Sogo [ja] acted as head writer for episodes 1–212.
He acknowledged that his art style has changed as a result of his work and gave an example that he no longer draws hair growing from behind the ears of characters.
[h] Viz Media obtained the foreign television, home video and merchandising rights to the Bleach anime from TV Tokyo Corporation, and Shueisha on March 15, 2006.
It was replaced with another Viz Media series, Death Note, to provide Studiopolis more time to dub additional episodes of Bleach.
[83] A live action film adaptation of the same name produced by Warner Bros.[84] directed by Shinsuke Sato and starring Sota Fukushi was released in Japan on July 20, 2018.
There have been five musicals produced which covered portions of the Substitute and Soul Society arcs, as well as three additional performances known as "Live Bankai Shows" which did not follow the Bleach plotline.
Key actors in the series include Tatsuya Isaka as Ichigo Kurosaki, Miki Satō as Rukia Kuchiki and Eiji Moriyama as Renji Abarai.
It has something for everyone: the supernatural, comedy, action and a little bit of romance, all tied together with excellent animation and a very enthusiastic sounding bunch of voice actors.
"[101] Adam Arseneau of DVD Verdict, felt Bleach was a "show that only gets better with age" and was "surprisingly well-rounded and appealing" with well-developed characters and pacing.
[103] She felt that the series "does a wonderful job of building on its continuity to provide increasingly tense and layered episodes involving not only Ichigo and Rukia, but the secondary characters as well".
"[105][106] In reviewing the series for DVD Talk, Don Houston felt the characters surpassed the usual anime typicals and liked "the mixture of darker material with the comedic".
[107] Another fellow reviewer John Sinnott felt series starts out as a boring "monster-of-the-week program" that becomes more epic as the stories build and the characters are fleshed out.
[108] Otaku USA's Joseph Luster wrote that "the storylines are consistently dramatic without hammering it home too heavily, the characters manage comic relief that's not as eye rolling as one would expect, and the action (in classic fighting series form) has only gotten more ridiculous over the years; in a good way, of course".
[109] Mania.com's Chris Beveridge describes the series as "Bleach is a solid entry into the Shōnen Jump line up, this is a very easy recommendation to make if you're looking for something in this genre".