Summary
From as early asthe Substitute Shinigami arc, theBLEACHnarrative has questioned the actual moral alignment of the series' central race, the Shinigami. Introduced as balancers who maintain the life and death cycle to keep the current cosmological order, which features three distinct realms of existence, the Shinigami are what many would consider to be “the good guys”, because their objective is always stated to be the protection of peace.
However, as Ichigo’s journey progressed, we saw many ugly sides to the organizational structure, worldview and the history of not just the Shinigami, but of theBLEACHuniverse at large. What is the Shinigami conception of peace, and what about it is so warped?
“Balancers”
Understanding the Origins of the Main Role of the Shinigami
When the Shinigami are introduced throughIchigo and Rukia’s fated encounterat the beginning ofBLEACH,she teaches Ichigo and the audience the basics ofBLEACHcoosmology and the reincarnation cycle of souls. She explains that multiple realms exist; one where souls (also known as “Pluses”) incarnate and live human lives, and the afterlife, otherwise known as Soul Society. Rukia further explains the precarity of the journey of Pluses, as they are fed upon by monstrous evil spirits called Hollows, named for the telltale hole found somewhere on their bodies that is a “physical” manifestation of the deep void; the emptiness of their souls left after they lose their hearts to despair.
It is the Shinigami’s role toguide the souls of the deceased safely to the afterlife, and purify the Hollows so that their corrupted souls may also rejoin the reincarnation cycle. Balance is maintained in this way, as the number of souls entering the human world matches that of the souls re-entering the afterlife having just lived a human life or been purified as a Hollow.
I’m sorry humans, but you guys won’t be able to defeat Yhwach. But not to worry… that’s what peace is all about. Right, Yhwach?
– Ichibe Hyosube
The only time this is not the case is forHollows who were heinous criminals in their human lives, as seen with Shrieker, a powerful and intelligent Hollow who fondly remembered his life as a serial killer and even enjoyed mentally torturing Yuichi Shibata, the son of his final victim, even after his own accidental death at the child’s hands. The maintenance of the life and death cycle in this manner is how the Shinigami earned the nickname “Balancers” in the distant past, and it is revealed very early on that cessation of this important duty, or the disturbance of the balance, would cause the realms to spill into each other and cause the end of the universe. What makes the current structure possible in the first place is revealed to be the enigmatic “ruler” of the realms, a mysterious being referred to as the Soul King, whose existence serves as the “linchpin” of the current order.
The Original Sin
How the Three Realms Are Maintained
In the beginning, the universe was a gaping maw in which life and death were not separate, and chaos ruled. A mysterious being with the composition of Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy and Fullbringer called Adnyeus created the realms: the Human World or World of the Living; Hueco Mundo, where Hollows reside, and Soul Society; the afterlife. From the primordial waters, Adnyeus fashioned the realms, and created the separation between the concepts of life and death, giving rise to the life and death cycle we are introduced to at the beginning ofBLEACH. In theCan’t Fear Your Own Worldnovels, it is revealed that the Soul King created the realms to act as a lid to cover Hell. As a result of his creation,Adnyeus came to be known as the Soul King, and is understood to have possessed precognitive powers, as well as omniscience, which means that he should have been able to see what the ancestors of the five (now four) Great Noble Families of the Soul Society were plotting to do to him.
Due to the manner in which the universe lurches back to its initial, amalgamated and chaotic original state, a linchpin was needed. The ancestors of the Shihōin, Shiba, Kuchiki, Tsunayashiro and the yet-to-be-named fifth house enacted a heinous scheme in which they attacked and mutilated the Soul King, using his torso as the linchpin holding the universe together in its current state. His left and right arms; which presided over the concepts of progression and stillness respectively, as well as his heart, became sentient, with the left arm becomingthe Quincy known as Pernida Parnkgjas, while the heart became Gerard Valkyrie. The right arm became the local deity worshiped in the Rukongai as Mimihagi.
The Shinigami’s Protection of a False Peace
Victors Rewrite History
The ugly truth behind the universe protected by the Shinigami is that the very world and conception of peace they claim to protect and represent is one built on a vicious murder and perpetual sacrifice of an innocent. The sacrifice is perpetual because the removal of the Soul King’s arms, which govern stillness and progression, means the removal of the ability for his situation to change, essentially placing him in a kind of suspended animation within a special crystal that can only be broken byan entity of similar composition as the Soul King. To protect this universe and order that their ancestors “created”, the Shinigami became “balancers”, and in the process, made the decision that Quincies should not be allowed to exist for the threat they pose to the balance. The Shinigami have justified full-blown genocide; which also involved the desecration of corpses and the creation of synthetic/modified souls for the purposes of war (souls which they then scrapped regardless of their sentience) because of concerns with the ethics of their creation and use.
The protection of Shinigami interests is a constant theme throughoutBLEACH, and despite trying to kill off Ichigo and his friends in the beginning, the Shinigami become comfortable relying on them to help clean up their messes and protect their current order. The Substitute Shinigami badge is another example of the warped sense of justice of the Shinigami, who give Ichigo the badge under the pretext of it being a gesture of their trust in him, but it was actually a surveillance device. The darkest thing that the Shinigami are currently doing is the training Ichigo received inBLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2, which supposedly made him stronger in order to take on Yhwach, butIchibē Hyōsube, who literally asked Ichigo to stop Yhwach, sent him with the knowledge that they can’t win: the training was the Soul Society’s creation of a substitute linchpin should the Soul King ever die. Ichibē Hyōsube plans to sacrifice Ichigo Kurosaki and make him the new Soul King, and Captain-Commander Shunsui Kyōraku knows that.
