List of Hollows in Bleach
In the fictional Bleach manga/anime universe, a Hollow is a type of monstrous lost soul who can harm both ghosts and humans. Many of the series' antagonists are hollows. Some hollows possess characteristics that are similar to those of a Soul Reaper, these Hollows are called '''. One of the series' main storylines has Sousuke Aizen and his arrancar as the force opposing the protagonists.
The creator of the series, Tite Kubo, used many Spanish motifs for the series' hollow-related elements. The fictional creatures have been praised by reviewers for the early hollows' strong emotional ties to their victims and the "interesting" concept of the arrancar. The visual appearance of the characters has also been commented on.
Overview of hollow
In the Bleach universe, a is a monstrous soul-eating spirit that results when a deceased soul is consumed by negative emotions or is forcibly converted by other hollows. All hollows have masks attached to their faces and a hollow hole somewhere on their bodies; they also have a tendency to attack those who were close to them in their human lives, which they superficially have no recollection of. Hollows possess individual reishi and intensify it through devouring any soul they come across. The 2018 film elaborates that the hollows had played a role in the concepts of the mythological creatures like Yokai.An arrancar is a hollow which has gained Soul Reaper-like characteristics through the removal of its mask, thus resulting in an increased combat versatility and more humanoid appearance. The transformation of a hollow into an arrancar can occur either naturally or artificially, but there is little information on process that occurs. The arrancar affiliated with Aizen wear distinctive white uniforms. They retain the Mexican aesthetic borne by hollows, and according to Tite Kubo, many of them are named after real life architects and designers. The arrancars are given individual numbers which are based on the order of their birth ; most arrancars are labeled as part of the Números.
Soul Reapers, including protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki, have two primary duties: Purify any hollows they encounter to protect other souls from being devoured, and perform the soul burial ritual to lay ghosts to rest before they become hollows. When either of these duties is fulfilled, the soul goes to the Soul Society to live as an ordinary human until eventually reincarnated back to earth. But a hollow who committed grave sins in life is dragged into Hell for punishment. Hollow intrusions into Ichigo's hometown are the driving plot force for Bleachs first arc, at the end of which Ichigo leaves earth for Soul Society in order to rescue one of his friends.
Arrancar are introduced into Bleach following Ichigo's return from Soul Society, serving as major antagonists until their collective defeat in the Fake Karakura Arc. Most of the arrancar antagonists served Sousuke Aizen, who used an item called the hōgyoku to artificially create more arrancar. While more conscious than their original hollow selves, some arrancars are either sadistic psychopaths or display honor or compassion which resulted in some befriending the heroes. The arrancar are first shown scouting Ichigo's hometown by ones and twos, which escalates into sorties, and eventually a battle on earth and in Hueco Mundo between the most powerful arrancar and Soul Reapers. Following Aizen's defeat, the arrancar survivors attempted to become their society before they conquered by the Quincy extremists known as the Wandenreich, with those captured either drafted as expandable foot soldiers or executed as monsters.
The Hollows and arrancar inhabit a dimension called Preta, a vast barren desert with quartz "trees" which any hollow can access, leave and return to by tearing a hole in space called a Garganta. While in Hueco Mundo, most hollows can sate their hunger simply by breathing the reishi-rich air, and are threatened only by other hollows who have turned to cannibalism, conquest for power and sport, or both. Hueco Mundo is initially portrayed as impossible to access by non-hollows, but techniques for traveling there are eventually revealed, and Hueco Mundo was entered by outsiders, first by protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki and his allies, then later by Quincy conquerors. An enormous white domed palace called Las Noches in Hueco Mundo, initially ruins, was used by Aizen to garrison his troops.
Powers and abilities of hollows
Like all spirit beings, hollows are invisible to humans with no reishi. All hollows can use their reishi to increase their strength, speed, andregeneration. Furthermore, some hollows have evolved their own unique capabilities, which are all fueled by their reishi.
Hollows become stronger by eating other souls with the most successful who avoid being slain able to eventually evolve into formidable foes known as Menos which are classified and divided into three succeeding stages. The first stage, the Gillian also called Menos Grandes, are the result of numerous hollows engaging in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy that merges them into mindless black conglomerate giants, regarded as foot soldiers by Soul Reapers. But a Gillian will sometimes develop a personality from one of the component Hollows, causing it to eventually shrink into the animalistic Adjuchas. An Adjuchas is normally compelled to feed on other hollows to prevent it from regressing back to a Gillian, though losing a chunk of itself to another Adjuchas would allow it to permanently remain in its form. The Adjuchas that succeed become the semi-humanoid Vasto Lorde, whose numbers are very few. While the first two stages demand the involvement of stronger Soul Reaper officers to dispatch them, Vasto Lordes pose an existential threat to the entire Soul Society. All Menos are capable of using Cero, a powerful blast of spirit energy depicted as a sphere or beam of colored light.
Arrancar possess many of the abilities of their original hollows selves, with the Menos-based arrancar possessing their own unique cero variations. The abilities arrancar have include: sonido, which momentarily boosts their speed, bala a glowing colored projectile made of solidified reiatsu that is described as being weaker than cero but is twenty times faster, and hierro a defensive technique which hardens their skin to the point that they can catch blades bare-handed. While possessing their zanpakutō like Soul Reapers, arrancar zanpakutōs are meant to contain their full power with some manifesting in other forms besides swords. When an arrancar uses Resurrección to absorb its zanpakutō to use its full power, it transforms into a form reminiscent of its original hollow with all previous injuries healed.
Known Hollows
The majority of named hollows appearing in Bleach are monsters of the week used during Bleach's first arc. After Ichigo's return from Soul Society, the hollow-based characters known as arrancar are introduced, with the basic hollows having lesser roles and rarely used as villains except in the anime side-story episodes.; Fishbone D
; Hexapodus
; Acidwire
; Shrieker
; Grand Fisher
; Demi-Hollow
; Bulbous G
; Numb Chandelier
; Metastacia
; Bawabawa
; Runuganga
; Hooleer
; White
; Teres Holcan
; Aromazon
; Becunes
; Parateraul
; Zonzain
; Battikaroa
; Michel
Arrancar
The Arrancar are more humanoid Hollows who were the results of them removing their Hollow masks.Espada
The Espadas are an order of ten Arrancar who are the strongest and most powerful in Sousuke Aizen's army; each member represents an aspect of death. They are ranked from 10 to 1 based on reiatsu density, with 10 the weakest and 1 the strongest. However, the Espadas are also ranked from 9 to 0, since Yammy Llargo, basically the weakest Espada, can become the strongest when certain conditions are met. Espadas ranked 4 to 0 are forbidden from using Resurrección within the confines of Las Noches due to their immense destructive potential, which could be enough to destroy the fortress. Espadas may be demoted when they are maimed, replaced by a more powerful arrancar, or have violated Aizen's orders. The Espadas are also allowed to personally choose any two-digit arrancar as their direct subordinate, referred to as their Fracción. Each Espada also possesses a Caja de Negación, a cube-like item whose apparent function is to temporarily seal away any one Fracción as a punishment, but may also be used on Espada arrancar.Yammy Riyalgo
Yammy Riyalgo, as signified by the "10" tattooed to his left shoulder, is the Decimo Espada, but only when he is not in his Resurrección form. The aspect of death he represents is rage. Yammy is also "Espada Number 0", as the "1" on his tattoo flakes off through his Resurrección, and thus the most powerful Espada. Yammy primarily uses his brute strength, along with bala and Cero blasts, in battle, taking little interest in using his sword unless he is overwhelmed.He has three unique abilities: the first is called Gonzui, which allows him to suck souls from living humans en masse within a wide area, except those with reishi, which allows them to resist the technique. The second is to conserve reiatsu through much eating and rest. The third is to gain additional spiritual pressure from his rage. The name of his Zanpakutō is Ira. When released, all the reiatsu he has conserved beforehand will be unleashed, granting him the rank 0, causing Yammy's size and power to increase dramatically as he takes on the form of an incredibly gigantic, multi-legged Ankylosaurus-like centaur. In this form, Yammy can easily crush Soul Reapers with one of his huge hands, create extremely massive ceros, and boasts being stronger than Ulqiuorra, Nnoitra, and Grimmjow combined. Furthermore, Yammy may gain additional sequential transformations whenever his rage becomes high enough, these forms resembling different animals, with each form much more powerful and titanic than the one before it.
Yammy is one of the first arrancars to be introduced, appearing alongside Ulquiorra when they arrive in the human world to find Ichigo Kurosaki. Soon after they arrive, Ichigo and his friends appear, and a battle occurs between them, during which Yammy loses an arm to Ichigo before they retreat. Later, an arrancar surgeon reattaches Yammy's arm and he accompanies [|Luppi], Grimmjow, and [|Wonderweiss] to attack the Soul Reapers in the human world. He shortly loses to Kisuke before he and his allies fall back to Hueco Mundo. There, he rests and eats as much as he can, later appearing during Ichigo's battle with Ulquiorra. He fights Uryu, which ends with Yammy falling to the bottom of the palace due to Uryu's anti-arrancar land mines. He later interrupts Rukia, Renji, and Sado's battle against Rudbornn Chelute, accidentally smashing the subdued arrancar. Yammy enters resurreccion and defeats Rukia, Chad, and Renji. As he is about to kill Rukia, Ichigo saves her and takes over the battle. Though Ichigo is also overwhelmed, Byakuya Kuchiki and Kenpachi Zaraki intervene and engage Yammy so that Ichigo can proceed to the human world to deal with Aizen. While Byakuya and Kenpachi manage to disable Yammy, he undergoes a second, much larger transformation. He is eventually defeated by two Soul Reapers offscreen.
He is voiced by Kenji Nomura in the original Japanese version of the anime and by Paul St. Peter in the English dub.