is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Bleach manga series and its adaptations created by author Tite Kubo. He is a teenage boy with ginger hair who receives Soul Reaper powers after meeting Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper assigned to patrol around the fictional city of Karakura Town. These powers come at the cost of her own, and as a result, he concedes to work as her stand-in, fighting to protect people from evil spirits called Hollows and sending good spirits, wholes, to a dimension known as the Soul Society. When Rukia is captured and sentenced to be executed, Ichigo goes after her in the Soul Society. To save her, he must learn Bankai. Ichigo appears in other media after the manga series, including the anime television series, four anime films, two original video animations, rock musicals, several video games, light novels and the 2018 live-action film.
Ichigo is voiced by Masakazu Morita in the Japanese anime adaptation; Johnny Yong Bosch in the English dubbing; and played by Sota Fukushi in the live-action film.
Ichigo's character has been well received among both readers and reviewers. He featured often in Weekly Shōnen Jump character popularity polls, and was consistently ranked as the most popular character in Bleach. The 2007 Japanese Newtype magazine polls ranked Ichigo as one of the top 100 most-loved anime characters. He is also known as one of the big three anime characters, including Naruto and Luffy. Reviewers of the series have praised his personality, though some consider him to be a stereotypical anti-hero. Critics have expressed dislike, however, for Ichigo's anticlimactic fights in the latter half of the series' due to his lack of memorable scenes at those points. Merchandise based on Ichigo's likeness has also been released, including toys, clothing and action figures.
Creation and conception When drawing the manga series, Tite Kubo commented that Rukia Kuchiki, the first Bleach character he introduced, was originally intended to be the protagonist. Through subsequent development of the series, however, Kubo decided to make her a valued ally and instead introduced Ichigo as the central character of the manga series. Initial design sketches show Ichigo wearing glasses, and having dark hair and softer eyes. When designing Rukia, Kubo modified Ichigo's appearance to contrast with hers, giving Ichigo orange hair, a trademark scowl, and removing the glasses. Rukia's first name was conceived as a result of Kubo hearing the Latin name for cosmos on television, and later decided that the name really suited her since the Latin word from which her name is derived means "light" and Kubo sees her as "a ray of light for Ichigo." Shonen Jump asked in an interview if Kubo had any plans to make Ichigo and Rukia a couple, but Kubo chose neither to confirm nor deny it. During the series' first chapter, Ichigo's wristwatch was based on one Kubo himself wore at the time. In later chapters, his wristwatch was based on Naoto Fukasawa's W11K cellphone. According to Kubo, Ichigo, along with Orihime Inoue, are the most arduous characters to sketch.Weekly Shōnen Jump interview, year 2004, issue 42 While illustrating one of Ichigo's scenes, Kubo found it awkward to draw him with a cheerful smile.
Kubo attributes Ichigo's popularity among readers to the fact that he "looks cool". He also mentioned that as people read more about him they will discover that he is a warm and kind-hearted person. Kubo has stated that Ichigo's greatest strength is his considerate and thoughtful nature. He always thinks about other's needs. However, he noted it as his greatest weakness, since worrying about his friends tends to put him in danger. When asked in an interview if he had any plans to focus on the love triangle between Ichigo, Orihime, and Rukia, Kubo chose neither to confirm nor deny it as he did not want to focus on romance.
Following over fifty volumes of the manga's released, Kubo believes that Ichigo was the most developed character. He said that Ichigo leads the story and introduces readers to the events in it. When the Arrancar arc ended, Kubo rebooted the series which resulted in Ichigo losing his Soul Reaper powers. In the same way Ichigo became a Soul Reaper during the series' first chapter; he starts searching for methods to recover his original powers. During the story arc, Ichigo wears a new outfit after developing his Fullbring powers. Kubo wanted to bring the readers a feeling of uneasiness when creating this design as it resembles more of a tokusatsu character rather than his kimono counterpart from the Soul Reaper form to the point it would fit Ginjou Shinjo better. As a result, Kubo noted that readers were relieved reobtained his Soul Reaper as he once again wore a kimono despite being sightly different from the original one.
Casting Ichigo is voiced by Masakazu Morita as a teenager and Yuki Matsuoka as a child for the Japanese anime. Morita said that Ichigo was one of his favorite characters he ever played, alongside Tidus in Final Fantasy X. While describing Ichigo as one of his best roles, Morita notes that voicing him can be at times difficult.
Johnny Yong Bosch voiced him as a teenager and Mona Marshall as a child for the English dub. Bosch has enjoyed voicing Ichigo's character due to his personal interest in the character's morals. However, he experienced difficulty voicing him in some scenes where Ichigo shouts for a long time.
Sota Fukushi played Ichigo in the live-action adaptation of the series with the storyline's first arc, with Bosch reprising his role in the English dub.
Appearances In Bleach
Ichigo is one of the students attending Karakura High School and having the ability to see ghosts. He meets a Soul Reaper named Rukia Kuchiki from a secret organization called the Soul Society, who are in charge of sending souls to the afterlife. At the same time, Ichigo's younger sisters are attacked by a Hollow, a deceased spirit becoming a warped soul-eating monster which Soul Reapers deal with. After being wounded in an attempt to save Ichigo from a Hollow attack, Rukia transfers her Soul Reaper powers to him so he can save his family. In the following months, Ichigo acts in Rukia's place as the Soul Reaper in protecting Karakura Town from Hollows as their friendship continues to grow. Ichigo's past is also revealed as he faces the Grand Fisher, a hollow who killed his mother when he was nine years old. In time, the Soul Society sends two high-seated officers to take Rukia back for committing the crime of transferring her Soul Reaper powers to a human. In training with Kisuke Urahara in order to rescue Rukia, Ichigo obtains his own Soul Reaper powers and learns the name of his Zanpakutō, , turning his Zanpakutō into Shikai state. He takes his friends with him to the Soul Society: Sado “Chad” Yasutora, Orihime Inoue, and Uryū Ishida. Ichigo is confronted by members of Gotei 13, the main military force in the Soul Society. As he approaches the prison where she is being held captive, Ichigo does battle with, faces and defeats other Soul Reapers, including Renji Abarai, Kenpachi Zaraki, and Byakuya Kuchiki, who adopted Rukia as his sister. For his match against Byakuya, Ichigo learns his Bankai state, , which highly increases his speed. After a long fight, he defeats Byakuya, who confesses why he tried to kill his sister. Sousuke Aizen, who faked his death prior, have been behind Rukia's sentencing and the chaos that plagued the Soul Society. He leaves the Soul Society and flees to the realm of Hollows, Hueco Mundo.
In time, Aizen targets Karakura Town with an army of Arrancars, Hollows that assumed human form with Soul Reaper powers, after subjecting them to the Hōgyoku. In order to defeat the Arrancars and to control his Hollow powers, Ichigo begins to train with the group of Soul Reaper outcasts known as the Vizard. During the invasion of Karakura Town, Ichigo's friend Orihime Inoue has been abducted by Ulquiorra Cifer, one of Aizen's strongest Arrancars: The Espadas. Ichigo and his friends independently head to Hueco Mundo to find Orihime. After defeating the Espada Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Ichigo manages to save Orihime and defeat Ulquiorra using his internal power of hollow. Soon after, Ichigo returns from Hueco Mundo to Karakura Town, and confront Aizen. During the battle interim, Ichigo learns an ultimate technique called the that weakens Aizen at the cost of all his powers, allowing Urahara to seal him within a kidō barrier.
Seventeen months later, Ichigo becomes a senior in high school. The start of the Lost Agent arc describes his life after losing his power. One day, he meets Kūgo Ginjō, a Fullbringer and leader of the Xcution. Ginjo offers to replenish Ichigo's Soul Reaper powers in return for helping him and his group to become ordinary humans. With their help, Ichigo unlocks his own Fullbring powers through his Substitute Soul Reaper Badge. However, Ichigo later learns that Ginjo and his ally Shūkurō Tsukishima, the former leader of the Xcution who is a Fullbringer with ability to change people's memories, used him to take Fullbring powers for Xcution's use. Rukia transfers the Reiatsu of the Gotei 13's senior officers and other Soul Reapers through a special sword and restores Ichigo's Soul Reaper powers. Ichigo fights Ginjo with his improved Shinigami powers and during their duel, it is revealed that Ginjo was the first Substitute Soul Reaper. Despite learning the truth, Ichigo resolves to protect everyone and help other Soul Reapers defeat Ginjo. Though learning from Ginjō that the Soul Society monitor and limit their powers, Ichigo promises the Soul Reapers to continue fighting by their side.
While patrolling Karakura Town, Ichigo is informed about the invasion of Hueco Mundo by Wandenreich, a group of Quincies. He goes to Hueco Mundo with his friends to liberate it from one of the Wandenreich's high-ranked officers Quilge Opie. Later, Ichigo finds out that the Quincies are attacking the Soul Society. Arriving just after Captain Commander Yamamoto's death, Ichigo encounters the Wandenreich's leader Yhwach. During the fight against Yhwach that ends with a draw, Ichigo's Tensa Zangetsu is shattered and Yhwach leaves the Soul Society. Ichigo returns to the World of the Living, where he learns the truth that his mother was a pure-blood Quincy who was on a verge of hollowification after she was infected by White, Aizen's experimental Hollow. She was saved by Isshin at the cost of his Soul Reaper powers. Ichigo later learns that entity he believed to be Zangetsu is actually the embodiment of his Quincy powers while his inner Hollow is the True Zangetsu. Despite this, Ichigo still accepts him as he gains his reforged True Zanpakutō in its split True Shikai state. During the second invasion by the Wandenreich, Ichigo and his friends confront Yhwach at the Soul King's Palace. Ichigo gets overwhelmed with his True Bankai state broken, but Tsukishima and Orihime's combined efforts fixed True Tensa Zangetsu. Together with Uryū, Renji and Aizen, Ichigo finally defeats Yhwach.
As revealed in the light novel Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, Ichigo was a potential heir of the Soul King due to the nature of his origins and was spared the burden when a new Soul King was created from Yhwach's remains. In the manga's epilogue, taking place ten years after Yhwach's defeat, Ichigo and Orihime had a son named Kazui who destroys the remnants of Yhwach's power.
In other media