Ichigo Kurosaki

About:
Ichigo is the main protagonist, with an extremely high soul power. He appears to be an ordinary teen, but in fact he is quite unique. He is able to see ghosts. For as long as he can remember he has been able to see them, so he tries to get rid of them by helping them. But he also sees more than just ghosts; he can see soul reapers!

Meeting Rukia, the soul reaper, for the first time he is given explanations of the world of the deceased. Later when a hollow attacks his family, he and Rukia try to save them but she ends up getting hurt. In order to kill the hollow, she gave her powers to Ichigo. Now he's a substitute for Rukia and sends the spirits to the Soul Society until Rukia's able to regain her power.

Appearance:
Ichigo is a well built teenager, with blazing orange hair. Of course, it's an unusual hair colour, and he's usually asked if it's natural or dyed. He's even gotten into a lot of trouble because of his unnatural hair colour.

Style:
Most of the time, he's seen wearing his school uniform which consists of a grey jacket, grey pants, and a white shirt. Of course, when he's not in school, he's wearing casual clothing. His casual clothes are usually shirts and jeans. There's something interesting about his style thought because his shirts are always unique. Even in the manga, they're simple but awesome at the same time.

Power:
He was nothing more but a mere human... with immense amounts of energy. When Rukia gave him half of her powers, he ended up taking them; becoming a soul reaper in the process. Because of his large amount of energy, his zanpakutou was not the standard image of one. It looked like a giant butcher knife with bandage around the handle. He also learns quickly and managed to reach his bankai within a few days.

During his stay in the Soul Society, Yorouichi helped him learn his bankai within three days to take on Byakuya. Because of his fast ability to grasp the concept of things, he was able to achieve the bankai within a short period of time. He's also skilled in martial arts because of his lessons at a younger age, and from protecting and fighting off his father whenever he was late. So in battle, he relies on his zanpakutou. Of course, if his sword is rendered useless, he's switch to fist-to-fist combat.

Let's not forget that when he was training to save Rukia, he had to gain back his shinigami powers. Of course, during the test, he almost failed and turned into a hollow for a few seconds. He did gain back all his shinigami powers though, but the mask simply haunts him. Later on his hollow inner self makes itself known, and tries to take over Ichigo. But he would not let it happen, and this goes on some times to the point where his physical body is frozen because of the on-going battle inside.

Of course, having a hollow inner self isn't all that bad. Ichigo is eventually able to have that side come out at any time he wants. During that time, his powers are increased; having added hollow powers to shinigami powers. However, his hollow state can only last for a couple of seconds.

Finally, there's the zanpakutou he gained after becoming an unofficial shinigami. The name of his zanpakutou is Zangetsu, and it seems to be a bigger version of a cutting knife. This is his bankai form, and for some reason unknown, it has always remained that way whenever he used it. It is mostly because Ichigo has a large amount of energy in him. His bankai's technique allows the tip of the blade to release energy blasts which appears in the shape of a crescent. Knowing the name of this technique later on, Ichigo was able to make it inflict heavier damage.

The bankai of Zangetsu changes the current form into a slimmer black sword. Too add more oddness to his sword, Ichigo's shinigami clothes are replaced by a long-sleeved coat that is black, and red on the inside. Unlike other shinigami's, his bankai compresses his power instead of multiplying it like a regular bankai (as explained by Byakuya). So because his power is compressed, he's able to move faster, and has better reflexes.

History:
He took karate lessons when he was a kid, but was rather bad at it and always got hurt. Tatsuki was in the same class as him, and would see him cry. But when his mother came to pick him up each day after class, he would always smile the brightest. One rainy night on the way home, he saw a figure near the river and approached it. Unfortunately the figure only meant to harm him, but instead of harming Ichigo, it killed his mother. After that he blamed himself for her death, started seeing ghosts, and promised to never let his sisters cry and suffer again.