Shinigami Shinigami are departed human souls that have gained supernatural powers. As such, their bodies are composed of ectoplasm and they can only be seen by other spiritually aware entities, which excludes most humans. In the series, shinigami, as well as most other types of spirits, are quite capable of influencing their environment. Additionally, they can be injured and die like regular humans, though it takes considerably greater injuries for the latter to occur than it would in regular humans.
The most prominent supernatural power possessed by a shinigami is their zanpakutō, a supernatural sword generated from the shinigami's soul. Shinigami also naturally give off spiritual energy, which varies greatly in magnitude with the strength of a shinigami. A zanpakutō is a physical manifestation of this force concentrated into a blade.
Shinigami operations are based out of Soul Society, which is the afterlife in Bleach. Travel between the human world and Soul Society is extremely limited and monitored, but some shinigami are stationed in the human world to carry out their duties and therefore must often travel between the two. In addition, it is a crime for a shinigami to remain in the human world longer than a certain time limit. A shinigami's duties include leading Pluses (ghosts) to Soul Society in a practice called soul burial (konsō), and the cleansing of hollows (evil spirits). Later in the series, shinigami duties are clarified further, and it is revealed that they are also responsible for governing the flow of spirits between the human world and Soul Society.
HollowsHollows are former pluses (deceased human souls) that lose their hearts to despair or remain in the real world for too long. Any spirit that is not guided to Soul Society by a shinigami may eventually descend into a hollow. The process by which a soul becomes a hollow usually takes months (if not longer), reflected by the length of the soul's Chain of Destiny, which resides in the center of their chest The Chain of Destiny slowly corrodes over time, reflecting the degradation of the soul's ties to the living world. The process can be accelerated under certain conditions, such as being attacked by another hollow or through the use of certain spiritual powers. When the chain completely decays, the soul is warped into a unique and monstrous form with a vaguely skeletal mask and a large hole where their chain was once connected.
In Bleach, the majority of ghosts peacefully move on to Soul Society after their deaths. Some, however, stay in the living world to fulfill certain goals, such as looking after a loved one, protecting a particular location, or pursuing a grudge from beyond the grave. However, with only limited abilities to interact with the living, and by definition tied to their goals, many ghosts find they are unable to cope when their loved ones move on or old enemies forget them. At this point, some will become dangerously obsessed with fulfilling those goals, even if the means to fulfill them renders the soul empty: for example, killing anyone who comes near a loved one, in order to keep them from hurting that person. In doing so, the ghost warps into a hollow and, ironically, often makes the focus of their obsession into their first victim, such as Orihime's brother, Sora, does.
Once a soul becomes a hollow, it is driven to devour other souls, living or dead, to fill the void caused by its descent. While their former obsession often becomes their first target, most hollows will eventually become mindless creatures concerned only with finding the most potent souls to devour. Stronger and more evil hollows are often able to retain some of their intelligence in hollow form, making them more dangerous than the average hollow. While most hollows are evil, or at the very least mindless, at least a few are not, as is the case with Nel Tu and her hollow companions.
The most distinctive feature of a hollow, their 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. The mask can be shattered, temporarily allowing the hollow to regain its original identity, but it will regenerate after a short period once the hollow takes over again.
Hollows have widely varying physical characteristics and powers, and few hollows ever appear the same (the few that do are often clones). In terms of appearance, hollows can range from furry (like mammals) or lizard-like in appearance to outright demonic. A hollow's abilities are often determined by their power. Weaker (and by definition less intelligent) hollows usually only attack in a melee style, whereas stronger hollows have a wide array of abilities with which to kill their quarry. Hollows also vary in size, though it tends to be fairly consistent amongst the various classifications of hollows. In Hueco Mundo, some hollows are no larger than common pets. Most common hollows are about twice the size of an adult human, though it can vary to a degree. Huge hollows, aptly named for their size, are as large as two-story buildings. Finally, gillian-class menos are even larger than the huge hollows, standing as tall as a common skyscraper.
QuincyUnlike the shinigami, who use a sword as their primary weapon, the Quincy's weapon of choice is a bow. It is constructed from spiritual particles drawn from their surroundings, also unlike the shinigami, who rely on their own innate spiritual energy. (As a reflection of this, Quincies have white spirit threads like normal humans, while shinigami have red spirit threads.) Flashbacks in the anime show earlier Quincy using longbows or crossbows and firing spiritual arrows from them. Quincy bows are summoned using an artifact called a Quincy Cross. The only limit to a Quincy's ability to create and fire arrows is their own stamina and ability to absorb ambient spirit particles. Quincy also have various tools and battle aides that can increase their power or serve as secondary weapons.
Another contrast between the shinigami and the Quincy are their methods. While shinigami purify hollows, thus preserving the balance of souls between the two worlds, the Quincy destroy hollows, former soul and all. In doing so, the balance between the worlds is slowly tipped towards one side, endangering both worlds. This danger led to a Quincy-shinigami war, which ended in victory for the shinigami and the deaths of many Quincy. The Quincy line was closely monitored over the decades, as their numbers continued to dwindle. Later Quincy advanced the idea that since they were already among the living and still more numerous at the time, they could act as "first responders" to hollow attacks, protecting humans until the less-numerous shinigami could send a representative to finish the hollow off. Embittered by the recent war, the shinigami refused to participate, opting instead to allocate their limited resources to reacting to the most dangerous hollows and current hollow attacks. This caused great enmity towards shinigami by Uryū Ishida, Ichigo's classmate and a Quincy, whose grandfather (the last advocate of the Quincy plan) had been slain by a team of hollows before the shinigami could arrive.
The final point of contrast between Quincy and shinigami is their respective choice of uniform. While the shinigami wear traditional, black, flowing hakama, the Quincy wear white, form-fitting, high-collared tunics. These bear some resemblance both to Mandarin Chinese dress and to the cassocks of Catholic priests. This gives the Quincy a distinctly "foreign" or "Western" style compared with the shinigami. One peculiar recurring motif of Quincy is that of a cross, which appears frequently on their uniforms and artifacts. The cross is not the same shape among all Quincy (e.g. Uryū uses a Celtic cross, while Ryūken uses a pentacle). There is also a six-pointed cross that appears on the back of Uryū's Quincy tunic. In the Christian church of the late Roman era and early Dark Ages, the Latin cross had not yet come to dominate church imagery, and all three of these symbols would have been in use. This, combined with their attitude and goals, gives the Quincy much in common with medieval knights, or, more specifically, crusaders.
VaizardThe vizard are the antithesis to the arrancar; they are shinigami who have obtained hollow powers and whose shinigami powers remain dominant (although they do have to undergo a process and maintain their dominance over their hollow), while the arrancar are hollows that have obtained shinigami powers and whose hollow powers remain dominant. Having begun as shinigami, the vizard appear entirely human. Unlike the arrancar, they do not have holes or partial masks (common traits of transformed hollows) anywhere on their body, though they can produce masks on demand, and they carry zanpakutō like normal shinigami. When using their hollow powers, a vizard's appearance does not change except for the mask on their face and the color of their eyes, with the whites of their eyes turning black and the irises gold. This process of donning one's hollow mask is referred to as "Hollowification."
The existence of shinigami/hollow hybrids was first hinted fairly early in the manga. When Ichigo Kurosaki was training with Kisuke Urahara, Urahara severed Ichigo's Chain of Fate in order to force him to regain his lost shinigami power. Ichigo was able to recover his shinigami powers when his body began the process of turning into a hollow. Ichigo's transformation happened out of sequence, his mask forming first instead of his body breaking apart and reforming, a sign of his resistance. When he emerged as a shinigami, he was also wearing a hollow's mask, which he broke off. After he arrived in Soul Society, the hollow mask reappeared on him on several occasions, even though he repeatedly discarded it. In the fight against Byakuya Kuchiki, Ichigo's hollow form resurfaced and his mask started to reform around his face. However, before he completely transformed, Ichigo was able to regain control and tear off the mask once again. Whether this process is uniform for all vizard or merely unique to Ichigo is unclear, though the later symptoms are hinted at being common.
Ichigo later discovers that there are other shinigami who have acquired hollow powers besides himself. Shinji Hirako, a boy carrying a zanpakutō and a hollow mask, reveals that these renegade shinigami call themselves the vizard. Shinji tries to convince Ichigo to join their group, saying that only he can teach Ichigo how to control his "hollow within" and keep it from taking over and destroying everything Ichigo cares about. Ichigo initially refuses Shinji's offer, but relents after realizing he can't control his inner hollow on his own. Ichigo insists that he's merely using them to learn how to control his inner hollow.
It is unclear what the motives of the vizard are. It is known, however, that vizard are considered criminals by Soul Society for committing the ultimate taboo of acquiring hollow powers. Hollows would also never accept a vizard, due to their former status as shinigami. It is because of this that it can be presumed that the only side the vizard are on is their own. Regardless, they seem to be valuable allies-to-be in the battle against Sōsuke Aizen's army of arrancar, as Kisuke Urahara mentioned.
Unlike in Soul Society, where the rank is given accordingly to shinigami within a division, or in Hueco Mundo, where a number is assigned to each arrancar reflecting their strength, the vizard have not yet revealed a structure based on hierarchy. However, Shinji Hirako does appear to be in some sort of leadership role.
BountThe Bounts were created as the accidental result of an explosion during an experiment by the predecessor to the Seireitei Technological Institute. The experiment was an attempt to develop eternal life using the already slow-aging shinigami souls as the base, but the materials used in the experiment crossed with the development of souls in the real world and led to the creation of a new spiritually-active human race, the Bount.
The Bount souls were scattered about the world, giving rise to a new race that never aged after reaching their twenties or thirties. They were generally treated as outcasts due to the fact that they did not age. The shinigami scientist responsible for their creation, Ran'Tao, gathered most of the Bount into a small community in a secret cave structure, several centuries before the main storyline. It was her intent to improve the quality of life for the people whose suffering she felt responsible for.
However, the embarrassment of this accidental creation, as well as the fact that a tenth of Seireitei was destroyed in the resulting explosion and the possible threat they posed to the balance between the worlds, led the Chamber of 46 to rule that the experiment and its failure was to be covered up, and the Bount destroyed. Shinigami were dispatched to kill the Bount community, but a handful survived, including a young boy saved by Ran'Tao herself, to whom she gave a seal that would help unlock the Bounts' true power.
The Bount who survived the massacre wandered nomadically and eventually fell prey to constant attacks by hollows. It was during this time that the boy, who would later become known as Eugene, activated the seal's power and merged with his doll - the Bount equivalent to a shinigami's zanpakuto - and killed off the attacking hollows. The survivors eventually found refuge in another cave and began devising a plan to return to Soul Society, which they saw as more of a home than the real world ever could be. Eugene, now an adult, was against this plan. He had witnessed the massacre and believed the only thing that would await the Bount if they returned to Soul Society would be subservience or death. Regardless, the Bount leadership decided to gain access to Soul Society by means of the Quincy's powers. The Quincy were unwilling to assist, and a battle ensued, in which the Quincy and shinigami killed most of the surviving Bount.
Further infuriated by this, Eugene took the last few surviving Bount, all of whom were of a similar mindset to him, and began plotting revenge on Soul Society. These Bounts managed to perfect the control of their dolls, and by the time of the main storyline Eugene, now going by the alias, Jin Kariya, was ready for vengeance. However, Jin and most of the Bount were killed in Soul Society in somewhat recent events. All Bounts are assumed to be dead, but there are probably one or two stragglers out there.
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