Ulquiorra Cifer

H: 169cm W: 55kg Birthday: -
Zanpakutou: Murcielago (Bat)
First Appearance: Manga chapter – 190 | Anime episode – 113

Ulquiorra Cifer is the first Espada to be introduced in the series, alongside Yammi Riyalgo. He is the Cuatro Espada (Foutrh Sword) in Aizen Sousuke’s Arrancar army.

Koyote Stark and Lillinette Gingerback

Koyote Stark and Lillinette Gingerback

H: - cm W: - kg Blood Type: – Birthday: -

Zanpakutou: Los Lobos (Wolf Pack)

First Appearance: Manga Chapter 229, Anime Episode 138

Last Appearance: Manga Chapter 375, Anime Episode -

Stark is an Arrancar under the command of Sousuke Aizen’s army. He is the Primera (1st) Espada, and as such is the second strongest Arrancar under Aizen’s command. The remains of his Hollow mask consist of his former lower jaw bone, and is worn as a necklace. His Hollow hole is just below his neck, and his ranking tattoo is on the back side of his left hand, covered by his white glove. His aspect of death is loneliness.
Lillinette  is a female arrancar with a helmet-like mask. She treats Stark with much disrespect. On multiple occasions she has been seen physically abusing him for not acting as the Primera Espada should, like when he allows Barragan (a lower ranked Espada) to take charge in Aizen’s absence.

Stark is a very laid back Espada, often not caring about the catostrophic events occuring around him. He is often compared to Shunsui, Captain of the 8th Division in the Gotei 13. When encountering the shinigami in the fake Karakura, he even insists to Shunsui that they fake fight until the battle is over. He has shown little care for his fellow Espada, and even less for Aizen’s goals. He is however quite disturbed after witnessing all of his fellow arrancar die.

Despite his carefree appearance, Stark has proven to be a very skilled individual, snatching Orihime for Aizen, with Ichigo and Kenpachi were only a few feet away. Also, when him and Shunsui were fighting, he displayed the ability to completely analyze the swing speed and power of his opponent.

An interesting fact about Stark and Lilinette is that they were once a single hollow, which split into two, thus when they activate their ressureccion, they merge into one being again. In resurrected form they can split off more parts of their spirit to produce wolf bombs. Stark’s specialty is the cero. He can fire especially strong ceros, including a barrage of ceros, from his twin guns – the shape Lilinette takes after the ressureccion.

Stark and Lilinette participate in the battle of Karakura town, where they take on Ukitake Jyuushiro, Kyouraku Shunsui, Aikawa Love and Otoribashi Rose. Even though they are successful in defeating Love and Rose and getting rid of Ukitake, they are killed by a surprise attack from Shunsui. In their last moments they remember their life, filled with loneliness and sadness.

Bleach Manga Chapter 357 – The Colossus of Fear

Download Bleach Chatper 357

Whew! Wow! Dang! Things are gettin’ scary!  This chapter reminds me a lot of those ‘Lust’ chapters a few weeks back – not much conversation, but sooooo much action and gore, detailed violence and scary monsters! Just the way ‘Bleach’ should be. That’s why I just had to post this now, even though the translation isn’t out yet.
Oh, where should I start, with so much awesome scenes this chapter…
The beginning would be best, I guess.  As expected, Barragan’s ressureccion is a bit too scary, even for a shinigami at Soi Fon’s level.

Both the Captain and Vice-captain of the 2nd Division seem shocked, because apparently they’ve never read One Piece and thus haven’t seen a walking, talking skeleton. The 2nd Espada wasn’t kidding last chapter when he said anything he touches starts aging. Just stepping on the roof a building made the whole thing disappear into thin air! To top things of, he even uses a long distance technique – “Death Breath”. It is similar to a cero or the deadliest of acids – it immediately disintegrates all matter around it.
The shinigami try to run away from the attack, but Soi Fon’s left hand is grazed by the attack and is reduced to bones.

The effects of the ‘Death breath’ don’t end there – her entire arm starts to decay at a fast rate, threatening to destroy her body. At first her reaction is normal – she screams in fear and anger, but quickly regains her composure and orders Omaeda to cut her arm off. The chubby vice-captain hesitates at first, but after realizing that his Captain might die, he cuts off the dead arm with one strike. Their actions  intrigue Barragan, who decides (for the 5th time in the past 4 chapters) to put an end to the fight.

Just look at that scary face! If that doesn’t say: “Now I’m serious!”, then I don’t know what does…
The author takes us back to Hitsugaya and Halibel’s fight. The beautiful shark-girl keeps attacking, yet she achieves no progress. Every time the Espada uses her water abilities the young captain just freezes the waves with ease. Toushiro states that he has the obvious advantage – his sword is also able to control water, by turning it into ice, and furthermore, Hyourinmaru’s regenerative ability is triggered by absorbing water.
Hitsugaya also uses a new attack – a dragon ice missile. Even though it’s similar to his shikai, it’s supposed to be a lot more powerful. Halibel doesn’t seem very impressed and stops the dragon’s onslaught by cutting it in half, her zanpakuto not even touching the ice.

The Espada explains that her water-based skills are the strongest elemental ability amongst all of the Espada. With a fast counter-attack – ” Cutting Waterfall”, she sends her opponent flying.

Little Weapons

Post Author: ssj sousuke

After reading an interesting comment about the child prodigies in Bleach, I though it would be noteworthy to analyze them a little bit. So here it is…

Kaien Shiba:

Kaien Shiba was undoubtedly a child prodigy. He gew up in one of the great noble households in Soul Society. After deciding to pursue becoming a shinigami, he completed the 6-year curriculum of the shinigami academy and graduated in only one year.  After this it only took him one year to work his way into being a seated officer. He didn’t become a Lieutenant until he was somewhat older and married, but that is most likely due to his stubborness. It is very probable that if he didn’t die so young, he would have soon achieved bankai, and with the right motivation, might have received a Captain position in time. Perhaps one of his strongest attributes is his maturity and intellect, especially for someone so young. After his death the Shiba Clan fell from one of the 5 Great Noble Households.

Gin Ichimaru:

Gin grew up in a rough part of the Rukongai, but even as a kid he displayed the ability to easily fend for himself. Just as most of Gin’s motives are unknown, so is his reason for becoming a shinigami, but for whatever the reason, Gin entered and graduated the academy all in under one year. It was noted that this was even faster than Kaien himself. Strait out of the academy Gin was placed as a seated officer, and almost immediately killed the third seat of that division with very little effort. To put it in perspective, Gin decided to become a shinigame, entered the academy, and advanced all the way to becoming a very strong seated officer all in one year. He didn’t become a Captain for some time though, serving as Aizen’s Lieutenant at least until he grew physically some more. He then must have achieved bankai in this period because he later became the captain of the 3rd Division. I think out of the information available, Gin has this most impressive resume’ for a child prodogy.

Toshiro Histugaya:

Even as a child, Hitsugaya possessed a tremendous amount of spiritual pressure, to the point where he made the environment around him colder because he couldn’t control his rietsu from leaking. After joining the shinigami academy, he quickly surpassed his friend Momo (who had already been in the academy for 5 years), and graduated very early. How long it took him to complete the shinigami academy was never stated, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was close to Kaien or even Gin’s time. His graduation time however is not what makes him such an impressive child prodigy however, but how fast he advanced post-graduation. Toshiro sailed through the ranks becoming the youngest shinigami captain in Soul Society history. Since he is still so young, it is likely that Toshiro, more so than any of the other captains, still has room to grow and reach his full potential…

Ichigo Kurosaki:

Ichigo probably possesses the fastest progress the Soul Society has ever seen; as stated by Urahara and Aizen alike. He obtained his shinigami powers, learned to trace rietsu, achieved bankai, mastered flash step, and discovered and mastered his Vaizard abilities, all within months. These are each things that take years for even some of the most skillful shinigami out there. And even though he may not have started as young as Gin or Toshiro, he still went from zero experience to a Captain level in record breaking time. Perhaps the most impressive fact is that he is a human. At age 15, he may look older than Toshiro, but he is actually way younger since humans age faster than people in Soul Society. Just like our other bright haired friend over in Shannaro, the key to Ichigo’s quick success is  determination.

Some sketchy possibilies -

Byakuya Kuchiki:

Byakuya was around the same age as Gin in the Turning Back the Pendulum arc. and didn’t graduate yet, but was noted by his grandfather to be very strong, and he already had an abnormally good handle on flash steps. Since then he has achieved the same rank as Gin, and (even though we don’t know if it is true since we don’t know just how strong Gin is) he was definitely more feared as a combatant when they were both captains.

Yachiru Kusajishi:

Yachiru is the youngest ranked officer in the Soul Society. To be a Lieutenant alone at her age seems prodiginous. The only question is if she is actually as strong as the other Lieutenants, or if she has her position because of Kenpachi’s influence. She at least has powerful enough rietsu to scare off standard level shinigami as seen when she loses her temper in the Ichigo vs Kenpachi fight. She is seen to be incredibly fast on her feet, and is confident enough in her skills to “take all the strong ones,” when going to help Ichigo on Soukyoku Hill. At such an incredibly young age, she is definitely at least a candidate to be considered a child prodigy.

I’m sure there are other possibilities out there, and if you can think of any worth mentioning, do so here.

-ssj