Hollow (Bleach)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the manga and anime series Bleach, hollows are evil spirits, comparable to the vetala of Hindu mythology. During the first part of the manga, they are the principal antagonists. Hollows reside in the Hueco Mundo (Spanish, lit. hollow world), but can cross over to the human world and Soul Society.

A hollow is a plus spirit that has lost its heart, and is driven to devour others (both living and dead) to fill that void. Starting out as a standard human ghost, the transformation into a hollow warps the ghost into a uniquely monstrous form, though all hollows wear a vaguely skeletal mask and have an obvious hole in their bodies. Any Plus spirit that is not guided to Soul Society by a shinigami may eventually descend into a hollow. The process normally takes months or years as the Chain of Destiny (因果の鎖 inga no kusari) slowly corrodes, reflecting the warping of the ghost's ties to the living world. However, the process may be accelerated under certain conditions (such as the attack of another hollow or through the use of certain spiritual powers).

In Bleach, the majority of ghosts peacefully move on to Soul Society after their deaths. Some, however, stay in the world of the living to fulfill certain goals, such as looking after a loved one, protecting a particular location, or to continue a grudge from beyond the grave. Unfortunately, with only limited abilities to interact with the living, and by definition tied to these goals, many ghosts find they are unable to cope when their loved ones move on (or old enemies forget them, etc.). At this point, some will become dangerously obsessed with fulfilling those goals, even if the means to fulfill those goals renders them empty (for example, killing anyone who comes near a loved one in order to keep them from hurting the loved one). At this point, the ghost warps into a hollow, and ironically, often makes the focus of their obsessions into their first victims.

A hollow's mask is formed to protect the naked instinct that is left in a being after the loss of its heart, and in some ways is the tangible form of the hollow's madness. The masks of different hollows can differ greatly in shape and form, but they are always white and skull like. The masks also obscure the original identity of the hollows, but if shattered, the hollow may be able to temporarily resume its original form and personality. The hollows have different abilities and differing monstrous appearances; the low level hollows are small and can only attack in a melee style, whereas the bigger and better hollows have all sorts of killing implements. Hollows can be furry (like mammals) or lizard-like in appearance. Other hollows merely appear demonic.

Shinigami do not truly kill hollows. A shinigami's zanpakutō purifies the spirit of the sins it committed as a hollow, and send it to the other side, to enter the Soul Society. However, those hollows who also sinned heavily in life are consigned to hell. The Quincy, however, do destroy hollows. When a Quincy kills a hollow, the spirit is completely annihilated, which has potentially disastrous effects on the spiritual balance of the worlds.

Contents 1 Menos 2 Arrancar 2.1 Números 2.2 Espada 2.3 Tres Cifras 2.4 Exequias 2.5 Known Hollows 3 Abilities 4 Trivia 5 References

[edit] Menos

Menos are created by numerous hollows piling up on top of one another and merging. These composite entities can be enormous, and pose such a serious threat to both the living and the dead that the Soul Society has had to create highly trained strike teams devoted just to handling Menos incursions. In chapter 197 of the manga, three classes of Menos have been revealed: gillian, adjuchas and vasto lorde.

It is important to note the difference between the Menos and the arrancar status. All Menos are classified into one of the three classes; arrancar simply signifies if a hollow has removed its masks or not. Thus, it is possible to have a pure Menos, a non-Menos arrancar, or an arrancar who is based on a Menos.

• Gillian (girian) - the weakest class of Menos, they are large and physically strong but not agile, and don't have much brain power. They are formed when many hollows merge together, and though much more powerful than an average hollow, they are still much weaker than a shinigami captain. In Soul Society gillians are known as Menos Grande, and are shown in textbooks discussing Menos.

• Adjuchas (ajūkasu) - smaller but smarter than the gillians, they are thought to be far superior. It is likely they could fight evenly with at least a shinigami lieutenant. This type of Menos is much smaller in population compared to the gillian class.

• Vasto Lorde (vastorōde) - the top fighters of the Menos with an extremely small population who are believed only to exist within the very depths of Hueco Mundo. They have a more humanoid appearance than the other classes of hollow. Each of them is stronger than an average captain; therefore, Tōshirō Hitsugaya claims that 10 is enough to defeat all of the Soul Society. Soul Society does not have definite information on the number of vasto lorde, and it seems that Sōsuke Aizen has important plans with them which hasn't been revealed as of yet.

[edit] Arrancar

The arrancar (sometimes written allankar or arankaru) are a group of hollows who have almost completely removed their masks and gained shinigami powers. This makes them a fundamental opposite to the vizard, who were originally shinigami that acquired hollow powers. Initially, only a very small number of hollows could do this, and their strength was limited. Sōsuke Aizen used the orb of distortion (hōgyoku) to create numerous new arrancar with significantly higher power levels. The process of transforming a hollow into an arrancar is called shinigamification (死神化, shinigami-ka^?).^[1]

Arrancar and ordinary hollows differ in 2 ways: the location of their holes, and the almost-total disappearance of their masks. When hollow become arrancar, the chances of them retaining a humanoid form increase with their intelligence; only Vasto Lorde-based arrancar have a 100% chance of assuming a humanoid form.

If powerful enough, an arrancar seals its power in the form of a zanpakutō. Therefore, their first release is a simple unsealing of the arrancar's true power and form. Arrancar do not have a known second release.

The name arrancar, is a Spanish verb meaning "to remove" or "to rip off", hence it was used in reference to the removal of the hollow masks. In the manga, it is written 破面 (lit. rip mask), but has no native Japanese pronunciation, using the katakana for arankaru instead.

The Números and Espada (see below) are under Sōsuke Aizen's command; lesser Arrancar are either assigned menial guard duties or ignored altogether.

However, with the appearance of Nell and her group in recent chapters, it appears that not all arrancar are necessarily evil. In fact, Nell appeared to be terrified of shinigami as the "bad guys" but has quickly grown fond of Ichigo.

[edit] Números

Números are arrancar who were formerly Menos, and include a 2-digit number (11-99) in their name. They are regarded as combat specialists, and are led by the Espada. The basic Numero uniform consists of a white-collared jacket and robes, held with a black sash. However, the uniform is customizable, giving each Numero a sense of individuality. The fighting ability of Números is thought to be superior to all other arrancar except for the Espada.

[edit] Espada

Espada (Japanese: 十刃, lit. ten swords; Spanish: lit. sword) are arrancar with particularly destructive powers in Aizen's army who are honored with the numbers of 1 to 10, and are subsequently given control over the Números. Espada numbers indicate rank (i.e., arrancar number 1 is stronger than arrancar number 2); All other números have numbers based on their order of birth (i.e., arrancar 11 is the oldest non-Espada).

The Espada have a distinct feature which discerns them apart from non-Espada: a tattoo somewhere on their body (e.g. the number 6 on Grimmjow's lower back, the number 10 on Yammy's shoulder) reflecting their number as proof of status. Espada are hence the most powerful fighters of the Menos and their strength far surpasses the average Numero, similar to the power gap between the captains and lieutenants in Gotei 13.

The Espada consist of nine males and one female.^[2]

[edit] Tres Cifras

Former Espada who have lost their rank ("Privaron Espada") are assigned a 3-digit number. These arrancar, known as the Tres Cifras, are far stronger than the normal números. Tres Cifras translates literally from Spanish as "three digits". As mentioned by Dordonii, these former 'naturally created' Espada were rendered obsolete after Aizen obtained the hōgyoku, and was able to create new Espada to his own standards.^[3]

[edit] Exequias

Arrancar that are part of the execution division, apparently charged with dealing against intruders/rebels.^[4]. The name means funeral in Spanish.

[edit] Known Hollows

Main article: Hollows in Bleach

[edit] Abilities

Like the shinigami, the hollows have a multitude of combat skills and abilities. They usually acquire energy to power their abilities by devouring souls, but can also ingest energy from the air when in spiritual realms such as Hueco Mundo.^[5]

• Cero (虚閃, lit. translation is "hollow flash," pronunciation is Spanish for zero) is a high powered energy blast that can be fired from the mouth, or hand. Only menos, arrancar and vizard have so far been shown to use cero, and it appears that higher classes of hollow can use it more efficiently. It is unknown whether sufficiently strong regular hollows are capable of it, but when Ichigo Kurosaki's inner hollow fully took over he almost shot a cero of his own before Ichigo regained control of his body.^[6]
• Negación (反膜, lit. translation "counter membrane," pronunciation is Spanish for negation) is used to rescue fellow hollows. It has so far only been used by the gillian class. A beam of light encases the hollow's comrades and seals them off from the dimension they are in. They then float back to safety in another dimension.^[7]
• Gonzui (魂吸) is a technique applied by Yammy to suck the souls from a large number of living people. Those with above average energy are able to survive despite being weakened.
• Pesquisa (探査回路, lit. translation "inquiry circuit," pronunciation is Spanish for search) is an arrancar technique used to sense spiritual pressure.^[8]
• Hierro (鋼皮, lit. translation "steel skin," pronunciation is Spanish for iron) refers to the ultratough skin of the arrancar; while very strong, it is by no means invincible.^[9]
• Sonido (響転, lit. translation "resounding revolution," pronunciation is Spanish for sound) is the arrancar equivalent of the shinigami shunpō or Quincy hirenkyaku; it allows the user to travel at incredibly high speeds.^[10]
• Bala (虚弾, lit. translation "hollow bullet," pronunciation is Spanish for bullet) is an arrancar technique in which the user hardens his spiritual pressure and fires it at around 20 times the speed of a cero blast. It is not quite as strong as a cero, however.
• Garganta (黒腔, lit. translation "black cavity," pronunciation is Spanish for throat) is a technique used by the arrancar to travel between Hueco Mundo and other dimensions. It literally tears open the dimensional fabric separating the worlds, revealing a tunnel of whirling, torrential energy that must be focused and solidified to create a discernible pathway.^[11]

[edit] Trivia

• While Hueco Mundo is Spanish for Hollow World, the grammatically correct Spanish phrase would be Mundo Hueco, meaning 'a world that is hollow'. Therefore the word hueco was likely meant as a noun (an invention, like many terms in Bleach) to convey the meaning 'world of hollows'.
• Menos Grande literally means Big Minus in Spanish ("Less big" is also a possible translation).
• The kanji used by Tite Kubo for hollow is 虚, which means emptiness (or 虚ろ, utsuro - hollow). However, it's pronounced hollow (horō) and does not use its native Japanese pronunciation. Similarly, the kanji for Menos Grande is 大虚 (大 - big, 虚 - emptiness).

[edit] References

1. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 175, page 11.
2. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 244, pages 16-17.
3. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 254, page 1.
4. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 254, pages 12-15.
5. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 245, page 16.
6. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 222, page 4-5, 8.
7. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 178, page 10.
8. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 199, page 16.
9. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 203, page 01.
10. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 210, page 11.
11. ^ Bleach manga; chapter 240, page 03.

v • d • e  Bleach
Races: Shinigami | Quincy | Hollow | Vizard | Bount
Characters: Characters | Hollows | Bounts
Places: Soul Society | Urahara Shōten | Hueco Mundo | Karakura Town
Combat: Zanpakutō | Demon arts
Media: Media and materials | Manga chapters | Anime episodes | Movie | Video games | Musical