This piece talks about some of the facts about Kurosaki Ichigo, a popular anime protagonist. Even with this popularity, there are many facts that even Kurosaki Ichigo fans would not know about. As the anime aired for years, there are some details about Ichigo that even the most observant fans might have missed. These details range from facts like the meaning of the number in his room to his ranking in the popularity rankings that Weekly Shonen Jump had organized.
The story of Bleach centers around Kurosaki Ichigo whose life takes a complete turn after he meets Rukia Kuchiki. She transfers her Soul Reaper powers onto him while battling an evil spirit who then Ichigo defeats. After this, he starts working for the authorities in the Soul Society in exterminating evil spirits. The anime is an adaptation of Tite Kubo’s popular manga by the same name, published by Shueisha and serialized in Shonen Jump. If you are interested, then you can read the manga or its reprints on VIZ and MANGA Plus, respectively. You can also watch the anime on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Kurosaki Ichigo Facts
With the gripping plot of the show, the anime ran for more than seven years, which will make even the hardcore fans miss or forget about the minor details about Kurosaki Ichigo. So, to make Ichigo fans aware of these details, I present you lesser-known facts about Ichigo.
1. Ichigo’s Birthday, Zodiac Sign, and Age
Ichigo was born on the 15th of July, 1986 and the Zodiac Sign that corresponds to this date is Cancer (June 22-July 22). People whose Zodiac Sign is Cancer are considered to be compassionate, protective, and caring, making Ichigo a prime example of Cancer. Throughout the anime, Ichigo is known to have a sense of honor and is caring and protective to his family members and to his allies.
As the timeline of the series takes place in a span of 10+ years, Ichigo has grown and has different ages in various arcs of the anime. From the beginning, in the first arc, Ichigo starts off as a 15-year-old kid who is in his 1st year of high school. After the whole war against Sosuke Aizen, there was an entire 1.5-year time-skip, and Ichigo is now 17-years-old in the Fullbringer Arc.
This was followed by a manga-exclusive arc known as the Quincy Blood War. In this, the Soul Society faces off against Yhwach and a 10-year time skip takes place after the war, which makes Ichigo’s age 27 at the end of the series where he has a family and works as a translator.
Also Read: When Does Bleach Animation Get Better? How To Watch The Anime?
2. Ichigo’s Entire Family – Who They Are and What Do They Do
The family tree starts with Isshin Kurosaki and Masaki Kurosaki, who are the father and mother, respectively, of three children. First of them is Ichigo, who is their eldest child and also their only son. When Ichigo was four years old, his mother gave birth to twin sisters, who are Karin Kurosaki and Yuzu Kurosaki.
After a few years, when Ichigo was nine, and Karin and Yuzu were five years old, their mother, unfortunately, passes away in order to protect Ichigo who was trying to save a girl from jumping into the river, but it turned out to be a Hollow (cursed being) which attacked Ichigo.
Finally, after the 10-year time skip, it is shown in the get-together that all of Ichigo’s family and friends have at his house that Ichigo has married Inoue Orihime, and they have a son named Kazui Kurosaki. Inoue and Ichigo have been friends with each other since their high school days and also have fought alongside each other throughout the series.
3. Ichigo in the Popularity Polls
Weekly Shonen Jump organizes a popularity poll that asks a series’ fans to vote for their most favorite character. In total, there were nine polls, but only 4 of them were about character popularity. Ichigo stood first in the first three polls with 9472, 7388, and 8370 votes, respectively, and came in third (after Hitsugaya and Rukia) in the fourth character poll.
Out of the nine polls, Ichigo qualifies for 6 of them, and he has performed pretty well in them. The 5th poll is for Zanpakutos, and Ichigo’s Zangetsu came in third (ironically lost to Toshiro and Rukia a 2nd time in a row), and the 6th poll was for the best bout in the series in which Ichigo dominates the list where he claims the Top 4 spots with the 3rd and 4th spots with an equal amount of votes.
Also Read: What Anime is Ichigo from? Powers & Strengths
4. Ichigo’s Name
Although this sounds oddly specific topic, there are a decent amount of trivia facts related to his name. Ichigo’s father told him that his name means ‘he who protects’. Ichigo says that his name ‘Ichi’ comes from the word for ‘first prize’ and ‘go’ is from ‘guardian angel’.
If you use a certain kanji, his name can also mean ‘strawberry,’ which was addressed by two characters in the series. The first said that he has a cute name, and the second character nicknamed him Berry-tan. A third character, Ikkaku Madarame, also addressed his name when he said that people who have ‘Ichi’ in their names are considered to be powerful and talented.
The final reference to Ichigo’s name is the number 15 hanging on his bedroom door. The number 15 depicted his age at the time and also is a pun on his name where ‘Ichi’ means the number 1 and ‘go’ is the number 5. Also, his birth date is also 15 (coincidence, I think not).
Also Read: Bleach Season 17 Anime Set for Renewal, Here’s What We Know So Far Regarding the Release
5. Ichigo Had A Relatively Rough Childhood
Unlike his cool teenage days, Ichigo, as a kid had to face various hardships. As mentioned earlier, the most difficult out of them all was the loss of his mother. He was extremely attached to his mother as he would instantly smile after crying whenever he lost to Tatsuki in the karate dojo. But this was not the only issue; Ichigo could see souls so clearly that he could not distinguish them from real humans. Due to this, he was often seen staring into the air and in empty places, which led to rumors about him and kids bullying him. His hair color was another reason he was also teased because of his unusual but natural orange hair color.
6. His Relationship with Tatsuki Arisawa
Tatsuki Arisawa is one of Ichigo’s childhood friends and has often been shown alongside Ichigo whenever he is attending his high school. As the anime shows, they have been friends ever since they were four because that was the time when Ichigo had joined a Karate class and lost every single karate match until they had their last match when they were in Junior High School.
Ichigo was made fun of for a lot of reasons, and Tatsuki was the one who came and helped him whenever he got into fights with his bullies and lifted his spirits when he was feeling low. After Ichigo’s mother passed away, he started to skip classes and constantly walked alongside the river where his mother died, which compelled Tatsuki to look for him and eventually cheer him up, even saying that it hurt her to see him like this.
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7. Ichigo’s Number in Xcution is 007
After his fight against Aizen, Ichigo loses all of his Spiritual Power (Reiryoku) and goes back to his daily life. This was until he meets a person named Kugo Ginjo, who introduces him to the power of Fullbring. Ichigo then becomes allies with Ginjo in order to defeat Tsukishima, an ex-Xcution member. When Ichigo joins Xcution, his registry number is 007, and this reference doesn’t seem unusual for Kubo Tite, the manga’s author. Now, you don’t need me to tell you as this is obviously a pop culture reference to James Bond. Bond is a British Secret Service Agent in the fictional novel by Ian Fleming.
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8. A Fan Named Their Child After Ichigo
As Bleach grew in popularity, there was a higher chance for events like these to happen. So, the author received a letter from a fan that stated that they had named their son after Ichigo. This led to Kubo reflecting upon the fame of his work and giving his best to make Ichigo a model character. He wanted the child to grow up and feel proud about the person after who he takes his name.
9. Ichigo’s Lineage
Now those who have completely watched the anime and read the Quincy Blood War arc will know that Ichigo has a special lineage. His father, Isshin, was the Captain of the 10th Division in the Soul Society. In his Shinigami days, he had Toshiro Hitsugaya and Rangiku Matsumoto as his 3rd Seat and Lieutenant, respectively.
In a surprise twist, it is later revealed that Ichigo has Quincy’s blood in him from his mother’s side. Masaki was a pure Quincy and was looked after by Uryu Ishida’s grandmother in hopes of her getting married to Ishida’s father. But as we all know, this is not what happened, and after a series of events, she married Isshin Shiba and gave birth to Ichigo, Karin, and Yuzu.
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10. His Sword Isn’t As Heavy As It Seems
Anyone familiar with Ichigo’s sword will know that it looks like a massive version of a khyber knife. So, a publisher from Shonen Jump asked Kubo about how does Ichigo swing such a dense sword. Kubo replied by saying that a Zanpaku-tou derives its power from within the user, and hence he does not find it heavy. But, this is not true for a person using someone else’s Zanpaku-tou so if Renji were to use Zangetsu or Ichigo were to use Zabimaru, they would find it difficult to wield it.
Also Read: How Many Swords Does Zoro Have? Each Sword Of Zoro Discussed
11. Ichigo Was Not Meant To Be The Main Character
One of the most bizarre facts on this list is the fact that Ichigo was not even going to be the main character. The center stage was originally planned for Rukia Kuchiki, but as the plot developed, Kubo made the decision for Ichigo to take the protagonist’s role and Rukia to be an important side character.
Along with this, Ichigo’s initial design was also not the one he had in the series. Before his orange hair and stern expression, Ichigo had a softer look and black hair, but Kubi wanted his character design to be in contrast to that of Rukia’s.
Also Read: Will Retsu Unohana Die in Bleach? The First Kenpachi
12. Manga And Anime Differences
Even though there are cases of anime completely skipping or diverging from the manga’s plot but the Bleach anime, fortunately, stays true to the manga but not entirely. The first change which is evident is the censorship of the gore and injuries that Ichigo suffers throughout his fights. The anime censored some of his injuries, like how Aizen obliterates Ichigo’s stomach and when Hollow Ichigo throws Ulquiorra’s arm at him. Another change is made, albeit a minor one, which is the color of his Reiatsu, which in the manga is gold, but in the anime, it is blue.
Now that we have looked upon the major facts about our favorite orange-colored protagonist, I present to you some of the smaller, less relevant facts that even some of the hardcore fans might have skipped.
- His younger sister, Yuzu, cuts his hair. Initially, he used to go to a hair-dresser for his haircuts but eventually, he got tired of the constant inquiry about his unusual hair color.
- Kubo assigned a song titled, ‘News From The Front’ by a band named Bad Religion as Ichigo’s theme song.
- Ichigo has great physical abilities which are shown by him practicing karate in his childhood, being an expert at Shunpo (Flash Step), and also when Karin points out his muscle gains.
- Ichigo despises fortune-telling and psychics because he believes that these practices are a way to take advantage of emotionally vulnerable people.
- Ichigo’s Shinigami badge broke during his Hollow transformation against Ulquiorra, which meant that he no longer had control over his Shinigami self.
Also Read: What Episode Does Ichigo Become Full Hollow?
