Summary
The following contains major spoilers for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, as well as the Can’t Fear Your Own World novels by Ryohgo Narita.
The cosmology ofBLEACHis explained at the very beginning, when Rukia Kuchiki and series protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki first meet. We are told that the Grim Reaper-like entities that are the series' focus act as “balancers”,overseeing the safe passage of human soulsfrom the world of the living to the afterlife, and vice versa. Through purifying corrupted human spirits, which become the monstrous Hollows that feed on the souls of the living, the Shinigami maintain this balance, which is ultimately a cycle of the soul from one realm into the next.
However, this cosmologicalstructure is a deliberatecreation of the first being, the Soul King Adnyeus, maintained through a heinous act committed by the earliest Shinigami, and protected by the current. So, what is the original sin of Soul Society?
In The Beginning
The Creation of the Realms
Before the world took on its current form… In a chaotic place where there was no border between life and death, there was an original protector who stood between the Hollows and humans for the first time. The Quincy, the Shinigami, and also the Fullbringers… it could be said that he is the ancestor of them all. He was a Quincy and also at the same time a Shinigami, and also just a normal person bearing countless abilities like a Fullbringer. He was the symbol of hope who ruled over all in the chaotic world.
– Tokinada Tsunayashiro, BLEACH: Can’t Fear Your Own World Vol. 3
Yhwach describes a primordial existence in which there was no separation between life and death. In the second episode ofBLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, Yhwach recalls a time before the realms, and shed a tear when his father, the Soul King Adnyeus, created the current cosmology of theBLEACHuniverse, which features three main realms; the Human World (or World of the Living); Hueco Mundo, the purgatory-like plane where Hollows reside when they aren’t in the World of the Living and Soul Society, the afterlife where human souls go and are prepared to be sent back to the Human World. Shinigami exist as balancers who send the dead on their merry way and exorcise the souls of the fallen.
The main distinction between Shinigami and Quinciesis that the former purifies the souls of Hollows, while the latter completely destroys them, which means that souls incarnate but do not return, thus upsetting the balance. From the beginning, we are told that the balance is what keeps the different realms from collapsing into each other and becoming one, which we now understand to be the original state of the universe. The Soul King created the realms, as well as the interstitial Dangai, and separated life and death, thus introducing the cycle of life and death to a once deathless world. Yhwach aims to return the universe to this state of primordial chaos. Interestingly, there’s no explanation of how Hell fits into this creation story, which brings into question whether or not Hell existed in theBLEACHuniverse prior to the creation of the realms and possibly exists beyond the Soul King’s influence.
The Humiliation
The Founders of the Five Great Clans Commit an Atrocity
The Soul King, after creating the realms, was then subject to a horrendous fate thrust upon him by five Shinigami – the ancestors and founding members of the five (now four) Great Noble Clans of Soul Society. The first Shihōin, Kuchiki, a yet-to-be identified, the first Shiba, and first Tsunayashiro conspired against Adnyeus, and used him as a sacrificial lamb to maintain a certain cosmological structure. They attacked and mutilated him, removing his limbs, more importantly his arms, which represented stillness and advancement respectively, putting him into a state of undying as his torso was sealed within a special crystal that can only be broken by one with the same abilities and composition as the Soul King: one who is a Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy and a Fullbringer all at once. The left arm of the Soul King, which governs the concept of progress, is what becamethe Quincy Pernida Parngkjas, while his heart is what became Gerard Valkyrie. The right arm, which governs the concept of stillness, is what was revered in the Soul Society as Mimihagi, a deity which has taken residence inside the body of 13th Squad Captain, Jūshirō Ukitake.
His Soul Chain is revealed to be XCUTION Religious Organization leader, the Fullbringer Aura Michibane. The viscera of the Soul King is also revealed to be what makes Fullbringers, who were introduced as those who were imbued with Hollow reishi in vitro, but are actually bearers of some fragments of the Soul King called Nails. Ichibē Hyōsube bore witness to the atrocity. In theCan’t Fear Your Own Worldnovels, it is revealed that the first Shiba was reluctant to participate in perpetrating such a heinous act, but the first Tsunayashiro forced their participation. To this day, the Tsunayashiros remain one of the most powerful families in Soul Society and are responsible for preserving its history. The “balancing” that the Shinigami represent, their core role in theBLEACHnarrative, is the maintenance of this state of the universe and the perpetuation of the cycle of life and death. The truth behind the Soul King’s role as the linchpin of the realms is why Aizen bore no sense of reverence to the Soul King, and even sought to understand the limits to various types of souls and transcend them, which he did with theuse of the Hōgyoku, which was used in the creation of the Arrancar.
Bleach
Cast
Based on Tite Kubo’s battle shonen manga, Bleach centers around Ichigo, a high school student who is dragged into the world of Soul Reapers. The original anime ended in 2012, but it was revived in 2022.
