Kisuke Urahara

Kisuke Urahara is a male anime and manga character who features in Bleach.

Biography

Origin

Kisuke Urahara (Japanese: 浦原 喜助, Hepburn: Urahara Kisuke) was a male inhabitant of the Soul Society who grew up as a childhood friend of Yoruichi Shihōin. In his youth, he spent much of him time at the Shihōin Mansion in the Seireitei where he spent much time with both his best friends namely Yoruichi Shihōin and Tessai Tsukabishi. In his youth, he often came to spar with Yoruichi in a secret underground site under Sōgyoku Hill that they had constructed. Eventually, he came to join the ranks of the Gotei 13 at the same time as Yoruichi after joining the Onmitsukidō stealth force. Kisuke came to serve under Yoruichi and held the position of 3rd Seat within the 2nd Division where their duties saw them closely working with the Onmitsukidō. Urahara as part of his duties as one of the top five Seated Officers came to serve as the head of the Onmitsukidō's Detention Unit. Around 110 years ago, the 12th Division captain Kirio Hikifune was promoted to the Royal Guard leaving a spot vacant among the Gotei 13 with Yoruichi recommending Kisuke to be her replacement. Some in the Soul Society had doubts on whether Urahara was capable for his new responsibilities with Suì-Fēng being among their ranks. However, he took part in the captain's exam overseen by Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Retsu Unohana and Ginrei Kuchiki where he passed the test. This saw him assume his new position as a captain in the Gotei 13 where he inherited his predecessor's lieutenant namely Hiyori Sarugaki. In this time, he came to be the founder and the first president of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute. He then went about recruiting noted prisoner Mayuri Kurotsuchi who had been captured and trapped in the Nest of Maggots with Kisuke looking to harness the man's scientific skill. Around 9 years later, Urahara was informed by Captain Shinji Hirako and his Lieutenant Sōsuke Aizen about a series of strange disappearances taking place in Rukongai. As a result, the 9th Division was dispatched with investigating the matter and uncovering the culprits.

g captain, Kisuke was framed for the hollowification of eight Soul Reapers (the future visoreds) and was officially exiled by Soul Society for conducting taboo experiments, deceiving colleagues, and causing grievous injury. Aizen states that Kisuke was exiled for creating an untraceable gigai which caused the spiritual power of the Soul Reaper inside it to deteriorate, eventually transforming them into humans.[5] He creates ten untraceable gigai to aid in the escape of himself, Tessai, and the eight vizard. Yoruichi helped him escape and ran away with him as well. He also seems to be an acquaintance of Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo Kurosaki's father, and of Ryūken Ishida, Uryū Ishida's father.

Soul Society

He along with the other members of his shop, giving Rukia Kuchiki some gikongan. Prior to this, Kisuke, offscreen, gives Rukia a special gigai that will slowly transform her into a human, locking the Hōgyoku inside her forever. Kisuke also plays a significant role by transforming Ichigo Kurosaki into his Soul Reaper state when Rukia is unable to, and also helps defeat several hollows and block Rukia from reaching Ichigo so Ichigo and Uryū Ishida can defeat a Menos Grande without interference. Urahara also transforms Ichigo into his Soul Reaper state when Byakuya Kuchiki and Renji Abarai appear to bring Rukia back to Soul Society, mainly so Ichigo would learn how outclassed he is, then trains Ichigo to regain his Soul Reaper powers and learn his zanpakuto's shikai afterwards. Kisuke also sends him, Uryū, Orihime Inoue, and Yasutora Sado to Soul Society along with Yoruichi Shihōin to rescue Rukia.

Once they return, Kisuke plays a more active role in the series. In the anime, he sends three modified souls to train the four and Renji Abarai by pretending to be enemies battling them, and also reveals to the group the existence of the Bount, who plan on invading Soul Society. Kisuke also helps the group sneak into the Bount mansion, though he prefers to stay out of the battles. When the arrancar begin to terrorize Karakura Town, Kisuke and Yoruichi fight Yammy on two occasions, and he also lets Chad and Renji train in his shop. He also attempts to hide Orihime from Aizen's view so he won't attempt to kidnap her, though this fails.

After Orihime was captured, Kisuke came to inform Uryū in Karakura Hospital about her kidnapping at the hands of Aizen's forces. At the time, Ishida was training in a secret location at the hospital with Urahara helping him leave along with acquiring some Seele Schneider for him. Later on, he opened a Garganta portal for Ichigo, Chad, and Uryū to enter Hueco Mundo in order to rescue Orihime. Shortly afterwards, he opened a Garganta to allow Rukia and Renji to travel to Hueco Mundo to help Ichigo. During Ichigo's absence, Urahara began to work on two projects given to him by Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai with the first being to create a portal that will allow some of Soul Society's forces to enter Hueco Mundo and the second being to prepare the remaining forces for Sōsuke Aizen's eventual invasion of Karakura Town.

Fake Karakura Town

With Aizen weakened, Kisuke's Kido spell came into effect where it began to seal him with Urahara arriving just then witness Sōsuke's defeat.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Kisuke Urahara was a tall, lean man with light skin and gray eyes. Kisuke always wore traditional Japanese wooden sandals and a bucket hat, which had earned him the nickname Mr. Hat-and-Clogs (ゲタ帽子 geta-bōshi).

Around a century ago, he was shown to had originally been a quiet person who was easily flustered and tended to be nervous. This was to such an extent that some were surprised at his promotion to being a shinigami Captain as he showed no such traits of someone of that ranking. In that time, he was unsure of himself and lacked confidence in his ability to be a good leader. As a new Captain, he was occasionally confused on how to deal with matters in his own division. Though uncomfortable in his role, he was more at ease in his former position in the Detention Unit. Over time, he came to be harden his resolve and began to be more determined and serious.

He was generally a laid-back and jovial person although he can be absolutely serious when the situation warranted it. Despite his carefree attitude, his speech was always polite though it was sometimes sarcastic. Yoruichi Shihōin noted that he tended to go over the top with whatever he becomes passionate about and could not be dissuaded once he had his mind set on doing something. He once described himself as a being 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, most of the time when it's a bit too late, but will rarely step in to intervene, preferring to be in control from outside. After the event is over (e.g. the battle between Ichigo Kurosaki and Renji Abarai), he kindly pops up and helps the side he deems fit. Even though he is sometimes duplicitous when giving aid, his actions are always done for what he views as the greater good. He often knows more than he reveals and has had 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, getting others to do the work for him. Despite his appearance, Kisuke is an extremely skilled fighter, using a combination of powerful attacks and cunning deceptions, and has been capable of toying with Yammy, an Espada-level arrancar, with nothing more than his shikai.

He also liked building large underground training spaces in secret. He built the first one under the Sōkyoku hill in Soul Society with Yoruichi for them to play in and later made it larger so they could keep up their training, and created a second one under his shop in the mortal realm for a similar purpose.

Aizen later noted that he despised Kisuke for his willingness to serve the Soul King and being content with a life of servitude.

Powers and abilities

Kisuke Urahara was a soul that came to reside in the afterlife of the Soul Society that possessed the ability to manipulate and channel spiritual pressure.

Aizen himself acknowledged that Urahara's intelligence surpassed his own immense intellect. The SRDI still held a great deal of respect for his talents even after he was exiled for a century.

As a former Captain, he possessed great amounts of spiritual energy that was intense enough to make even powerful opponents sweat with fear. Releasing his spiritual pressure could result in shockwaves strong enough to affect a considerable area and sent weaker individuals falling backwards. The 4th Espada Ulquiorra Cifer came to consider Kisuke to be highly dangerous and opted to avoid fighting him.

He came to receive considerable physical conditioning due to being a former member of the Onmitsukidō. This saw him being trained in unarmed combat by learning the art of unarmed combat namely Hakuda (白打, White Hits; Viz "Hand-to-Hand Combat") where he became proficient in it after fighting without weapons in the Nest of Maggots. As a commander of the Detention Unit, he was shown to had effortlessly stopped a punch from a giant man with a single hand.

Among the spells known to him included:

• Hadō #91. Senju Kōten Taihō (千手皎天汰炮, Thousand-Hand Incandent Heaven Culling-Sear; Viz "Thousand-Hand Bright Heaven Cannon") : an incantation spell whereby he generated ten pink energy points around themselves and fired them all at a target where their impact resulted in devastating explosions.
• Bakudō #99, Part 1. Kin (禁, Prohibition; Viz "Forbid") :
• Kyūjūrokkei Kakafūmetsu (九十六京火架封滅, Ninety-Six Capitol Fire-Suspended Seal Destruction) : a Kidō seal created by Kisuke Urahara specifically for use against Sōsuke Aizen where it activated on its when the target was weakened after which it pierced the enemy from the inside out causing several cross-shaped beams of light to emerge where they joined into a single star-shaped barrier that sealed the person inside of it.
• Keikaigi (繫界儀, World-Tying Rite) : a spell that connected the space tying the Human World and Hueco Mundo by creating portal to the Garganta. The opening was generated between two large wooden posts jutting out from two large rock formations

As a shinigami, Kisuke Urahara wielded a Zanpakutō (斬魄刀, Soul-Cutter Sword; Viz "Soul Slayer") with his taking the name of Benihime (紅姫, "crimson princess"). In its sealed form, the sword took the form of a shikomizue which was a blade hidden inside a cane. The shaft of the cane was able to separate a soul from a body. His Zanpakutō was one of the few spirit that were known to be female where it was originally sealed in an ordinary katana with a flower-shaped guard. The shikai command of Benihime is "awaken" (起きろ okiro).

In its shikai, Benihime's blade becomes wider than that of his sealed zanpakutō and the hilt curves, adding a crimson ribbon and other elaborate decorations around it. Benihime has two known special abilities, one for offense and one for defense, both of which are activated by the command "scream" (啼け nake, "sing" or "cry" in Japanese versions). Benihime's defensive ability forms a polygonal "blood mist shield" in front of Urahara. The barrier is able to block Ichigo's first use of his Getsuga Tenshō while only slightly eroding. Benihime's offensive ability fires a crimson-colored energy blast which is similar to a cero[9] as Urahara was easily able to cancel out the blast by the Espada Yammy by striking it head-on with this attack.[10] In the game Bleach: Blade Battlers, Urahara has a special skill/effect that when used, causes Benihime's bloodmist shield becomes an opaque golden pyramid that completely engulfs Urahara and even reflects projectiles. Benihime's energy blasts also become larger and more destructive. In Bleach: Dark Souls, Urahara's shield also possesses the ability to shatter on contact, trapping the opponent in the flying shards.

According to Yoruichi, Urahara had managed to learn bankai in three days using a special training method he invented. When Yasutora Sado comes to Urahara for training, he instead had given the task to Renji Abarai, remarking that Sado needs to face the strength of a bankai to improve. When Renji asks why Urahara, who also possesses one, does not train Sado himself, he states that his bankai is not fit for training others or lending power to them.

Having founded the research institute in Soul Society, Kisuke had developed a number of unique items. Among his notable creations inludd:

• 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 preprogrammed manner while inhabiting a body. Its name was changed to "Soul Candy" after its creation because the Soul Reaper Women Organization complained that the name gikongan wasn't cute enough.
• Tenshintai (転神体, literally "transferred god body," translated in the English manga as "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 bankai of their zanpakutō. The materialization lasts for about one day, after which the spirit reverts back into the doll that spawned it. Without this invention, achieving the bankai 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 is possibly fatal to the user.
• Hōgyoku (崩玉, "breakdown sphere") : This item is a small orb that dissolves the boundary between a Soul Reaper and a hollow. It can allow a Soul Reaper to use hollow powers and vice-versa. It was created to strengthen souls, as hollowification is one method of accomplishing this. He uses it to stabilize the vizard affected by Sōsuke Aizen's own hollowification experiment. As Aizen reveals to Orihime Inoue, continued use of the orb while it is in a dormant state seems to weaken it [7]
• Gigai (faux bodies) : Having experimented with gigai at length, Kisuke has created at least two variations. The most notable one is an untraceable gigai which drains the user's spiritual power instead of restoring it, effectively making them human if used long enough. He also developed an inflatable gigai for use as a decoy in combat.

In addition, Kisuke 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 Hōgyoku from Rukia.

Within the Soul Society, he was the founder and first head of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute (技術開発局, Gijutsukaihatsu Kyoku; lit. "Technological Development Department").

Notes

• Kisuke Urahara was created by Tite Kubo where he featured in the setting of the Bleach universe.

In other media

Television

• In Bleach, Kisuke Urahara appeared in the setting of the anime television series adaptation where he was voiced by Japanese actor Shinichiro Miki and by English actor Michael Lindsay in the English dub until role was recast to Doug Erholtz.

Films

• In Bleach, Kisuke Urahara appeared in the setting of the live-action film adaptation where he was portrayed by actor Seiichi Tanabe.

Appearances

• Bleach:

External Links

• Bleach Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

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