Kisuke Urahara
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| Bleach character | |
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| Kisuke Urahara | |
| Occupation | Owner of the Urahara Shop; former shinigami captain of the 12th Division; founder and former president of the Shinigami Research Institute |
| Birthday | December 31 |
| Height | 183 cm (6' 0") |
| Weight | 69 kg (152 lb) |
| Zanpakutō | Benihime |
| Seiyū | Shinichiro Miki |
| Voice actor | Michael Lindsay |
Kisuke Urahara (浦原 喜助 Urahara Kisuke?) is a major character in the manga and anime series Bleach. He runs the Urahara Shop, which sells various shinigami items. The shop is maintained by Kisuke himself as well as Ururu Tsumugiya, Jinta Hanakari, and Tessai Tsukabishi.
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[edit] Character outline
Kisuke Urahara always wears traditional Japanese wooden sandals and a bucket hat, which has earned him the nickname "sandal-hat" (ゲタ帽子 geta-bōshi?, "Mr. Hat-and-Clogs" in the English version). He is generally a laid-back, jovial fellow, although he can be deadly serious when the situation warrants it. Despite his carefree attitude, his speech is always polite, though it is sometimes sarcastic. Yoruichi notes that he tends to go over the top with whatever he becomes passionate about. He once described himself as a 'mere honest, handsome, perverted businessman'. During the Bount arc of the anime, when Ganju Shiba calls Kisuke an "old man," Kisuke replies that he is the same age as Ganju's sister, Kūkaku Shiba.
Kisuke can usually be found near the scene of an important event, but will rarely step in to intervene, preferring to be in control from outside. After the event is over (i.e. the battle between Ichigo Kurosaki and Renji Abarai), he kindly pops up and helps the side he deems fit. Thus far, it has tended to be the side of the protagonists. He often tends to know more than he reveals and tends have some form of relationship with most of the story's characters. While he is a major driving force throughout much of the story, he is usually only the catalyst, allowing others to do the work for him. Despite appearances he is a powerful fighter, using a combination of powerful attacks and cunning deceptions, and is capable of holding his own against Espada-level arrancar. He also likes to build large underground training spaces in secret. He built the first one in Soul Society with Yoruichi for their training, and then created a second one under his shop in the mortal realm for a similar purpose.
[edit] History
Kisuke Urahara is a former captain of the 12th Division of the Gotei 13. He is also the founder and the first president of the Shinigami Research Institute (succeeded by Mayuri Kurotsuchi in both positions).
At some point (over 100 years before the main Bleach storyline), Kisuke was sentenced into exile by Soul Society for creating an untraceable gigai which caused the spiritual power of the shinigami inside it to deteriorate, along with his creation of the Orb of Distortion.[1] Yoruichi Shihouin ran away with him, as well, for reasons yet unknown. He also seems to be an acquaintance of Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo's father.
[edit] Inventions
Having founded the research institute in Soul Society, Kisuke has developed a number of unique items. The notable ones are below:
- Gikongan (義魂丸) – More commonly known as Soul Candy, this item is an artificial soul in the form of a green ball of candy. When ingested, it forces the user's soul out of their body. The artificial soul then operates in a pre-programmed manner while inhabiting a body. Its name was changed to Soul Candy after its creation because the Shinigami Women Organization complained that the name gikongan wasn't cute.
- Tenshintai (転神体, lit change [death] god body, VIZ "Divine Transfer Body") – This item is a vaguely human-shaped, man-sized doll used to forcibly materialize the spirit of a zanpakutō into the real world when stabbed by the zanpakutō. In doing so, the user can subjugate the spirit and attain the final release of their zanpakutō. The materialization lasts for about a day, after which the spirit reverts back into the doll that spawned it. Without this invention, achieving the final release takes at least ten years, not to mention the many years of combat experience needed. This method, however, is very dangerous due to the fact that it forcibly materializes the zanpakutō's spirit. If used more than three times consecutively, it's possibly fatal to the user.
- Hōgyoku (崩玉, lit. crumbling orb, translated as orb of distortion)[2] – This item is a small orb which dissolves the boundary between a shinigami and a hollow. It can allow a shinigami to use hollow powers and vice-versa. As Aizen reveals to Orihime, continued use of the orb seems to weaken it.[3]
- Variations of gigai (faux bodies) – Having experimented with gigai at length, Urahara has created at least two variations. One is an untraceable gigai which drains the user's spiritual power instead of restoring it, eventually leaving them as a regular human. He also developed an inflatable gigai[4] for use as a decoy in combat.
In addition, Urahara has also developed several novel techniques throughout the course of his research as the captain of the 12th Division, most notably the technique to bury matter within a soul and later remove it without any damage to the bearer. This was used by Aizen to remove the Orb of Distortion from Rukia.
[edit] Benihime
Kisuke Urahara's zanpakutō is Benihime (紅姫, lit. Crimson Princess). It is one of the few known female zanpakutō. By default, Benihime is hidden inside Kisuke's cane. The shaft of the cane is able to separate a soul from a body, much like Rukia Kuchiki's glove. The initial release command of Benihime is "awaken" (起きろ okiro?).
In its initial release, Benihime's blade becomes a bit wider than that of a sealed zanpakutō and the hilt curves, adding a crimson ribbon and other elaborate decorations around it. Benihime has two special abilities, one for offense and one for defense, both of which are activated by the command "cry" (啼け nake?, "scream" in the English version). Benihime's defensive ability forms an oval-shaped barrier of blood in front of Urahara. The barrier seems to be fairly powerful, as it was able to block Ichigo's getsuga tenshō attack while only slightly eroding. Its offensive ability fires powerful blasts of energy in a manner comparable to Ichigo's getsuga tenshō attack. The blasts are similar in potency to a hollow's cero blast; a parallel further enhanced by the anime, which depicts the attack as a carbon copy of a cero blast different only in that Urahara's travels along the ground. Urahara was easily able to cancel out a cero blast by the arrancar Yammy by striking it head-on with this attack.[5]
Benihime's final release has yet to be revealed. Urahara remarks to Renji Abarai that the final release of his zanpakutō was not capable of training others or lending power to them; however, this may have simply been an excuse for Urahara not to reveal his final release.
