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"Aizen" redirects here. For the Israeli musician, see Infected Mushroom. For the Buddhist god, see Aizen Myo-o

Template:Bleach character info Sōsuke Aizen (藍染 惣右介, Aizen Sōsuke) is a major character from the manga and anime series Bleach. He is the former captain of the 5th Division and currently the primary antagonist of the series.

Character outline

Aizen is a soft-spoken intellectual, accented by glasses during his time as a shinigami captain. While he appears to be very kind to his subordinates, he cares very little for them in truth . According to Aizen himself, he is not bound by morals and will therefore stop at nothing to further his ambitions, including manipulating or killing anyone if he deems it necessary. According to the arrancar, Aizen is fearless, which is why they follow him.

Aizen is an extremely potent combatant, well above most captain-level shinigami. While it is not clear, he implies that he has reached the limit of his shinigami power in all four forms of shinigami combat: swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, footwork, and kidō. He goes on to state that the only way for him to advance beyond that would be to gain and master hollow powers. His mastery of the regular skills are such that he is able to stop released zanpakutō, including Ichigo Kurosaki's final release, with one finger and can near-effortlessly defeat several captain-level opponents at once. A hint to his actual level of spirit power is given when he turns Wonderwice Margera into an arrancar. When preparing to activate the Orb of Distortion, he states that despite its half-awakened state, it can be fully activated when temporarily fusing with someone with twice as much spirit power as a captain-level shinigami, referring to himself. The force of Aizen's spiritual power is also great enough to bring Grimmjow Jeagerjaques to his knees, even though Grimmjow is the 6th Espada.

Aizen's true objective is to overthrow the king of Soul Society. To do this, he needs the royal key (王鍵, ōken), a tri-pronged golden key that opens a portal to the dimension that the king resides in. While the location of the key is known only to General Yamamoto, Aizen knows how the original was created and how to manufacture another. In order to create the key, Aizen needs to gather 100,000 souls in Karakura Town, which has an unusually large concentration of spirit particles. Aside from killing the many souls used in its creation, creating the key will also vaporize most of Karakura Town.

History

Little is known of Aizen's past except that he was once the lieutenant of the 5th Division. At that time, he met Kaname Tōsen and lured him to his side. Aizen became captain of the 5th Division, and saw great potential in Gin Ichimaru, who became his lieutenant and right hand man. Ichimaru and Tōsen later became captains of the 3rd and 9th Divisions, respectively, but remained loyal to Aizen. According to Aizen, even when Hinamori was his lieutenant, he thought of no one but Gin as his lieutenant.

At some point, he also saw the potential of Momo Hinamori, Izuru Kira, and Renji Abarai, and took them all into his division. While Kira and Hinamori were obedient and loyal, becoming the lieutenants of the 3rd and 5th Divisions, respectively, Renji proved to be too rebellious and was transferred to the 11th Division (and later to the 6th).

Synopsis

Soul Society arc

When Rukia Kuchiki is brought back to Soul Society with the Orb of Distortion concealed within her body, Aizen quickly manipulates everyone into an elaborate conspiracy. Aizen first kills all 46 members of the Central 46 Chambers and begins moving Rukia's execution date up. He later uses his zanpakutō's ability to trick everyone into believing that he has been killed and has Gin leading everyone to believe Gin himself is the murderer. He also sets up his lieutenant, Momo Hinamori, to believe that he was likely killed by Captain Hitsugaya, her childhood friend, to get her out of the way.

Because of the nature of Rukia's harsh sentence and execution method, the Gotei 13 splits into factions and the captains begin fighting each other. During the turmoil, Gin executes the overt aspects of the plan, which begins to be revealed when 4th Division Captain Retsu Unohana begins to suspect that there is something wrong with Aizen's supposedly dead body.

After revealing himself to be alive to Hinamori, Aizen impales her on his zanpakutō. He justifies it as a mercy killing later on, since she was completely dependent on him. Captain Hitsugaya arriving shortly after, attempts to kill Aizen. He fails and is left in the same state as Hinamori.

Once Rukia's execution is disrupted, Aizen takes a more direct approach to retrieving the Orb of Distortion, having fellow conspirator Kaname Tōsen bring Renji Abarai and Rukia to him. Ichigo Kurosaki teams up with Renji to interfere, but Aizen displays his prowess by quickly disposing of them, and later finishes off 7th Division Captain Sajin Komamura with a level 90 kidō spell. Afterwards, he removes the Orb of Distortion from Rukia's body by using information researched by Kisuke Urahara. Although Rukia's soul is not harmed during the extraction, Aizen coldly orders Gin to kill her anyway, but Byakuya Kuchiki shields his sister with his body. The other captains arrive in an attempt to arrest Aizen and the other conspirators, but several Menos Grande rip a hole into Soul Society above them and shield them from harm, drawing them into Hueco Mundo.

During their ascent, Aizen removes his glasses and sweeps a hand through his hair, revealing menacing eyes and a very different hairstyle. As he had previously revealed to Renji Abarai that the Aizen they all knew never existed, this would seem to be a visual representation of that claim. Before he leaves, he tells Jūshirō Ukitake that no one stands at the top of the world, not even God. He then says that he will be the one to stand at the top and end the unbearable vacancy on the world's throne.

Arrancar arc

Aizen is later shown in Hueco Mundo wearing clothing similar in style to the arrancar he has been creating; he is also seated on a throne, implying that he has some level of political power. Aizen controls his new minions either through acquired respect, as can be revealed through Ulquiorra Schiffer's conversation with Orihime where he tells her that they are all here to further Aizen's ambition, or through fear, such as when he threatened to kill Grimmjow Jeagerjaques if he attacked Kaname Tōsen. It was also stated by the arrancar Iceringer that they follow Aizen because he has no fear, which beings born from fear and despair find inspiring.

Eventually, he takes an interest in Orihime Inoue's powers, more specifically her ability to reject past events, and has Ulquiorra capture her. Aizen's reasons for her abduction are prompted by the deterioration of the Orb of Distortion. He plans to use her powers to restore the Orb to its original state before he began forcing its use. He is aware of the intrusion of Ichigo, Chad, and Uryū into Hueco Mundo and organizes a meeting of Espada to notify them of the threat.

Kyōka Suigetsu

Aizen's zanpakutō is Kyōka Suigetsu (鏡花水月, lit. Mirror Flower Water Moon). In its sealed form, it looks like a normal katana. Its initial release command is "shatter" (砕けろ, kudakero). The name Kyōka Suigetsu suggests its illusionary properties; the moon reflected in water and a flower in a mirror are things that can be seen but not held. It is a Chinese saying for seeing and desiring something that is a dream that cannot be easily grasped in hand, teaching people about temptations.

Kyōka Suigetsu's initial release has the ability to place anyone who sees it under a state of complete hypnosis, after which Aizen can make them see whatever he wants. The hypnosis is unbreakable, even if the target is aware that they are hypnotized. The only way to avoid the effect is to not see Kyōka Suigetsu's initial release, making Kaname Tōsen the only person in Soul Society completely immune to its effects. The effect seems to be permanent, or at the very least long-lasting, as Aizen uses it on nearly all of the lieutenants and captains in the Gotei 13 during a ceremonial release of his zanpakutō well before faking his own death. While the illusions Kyōka Suigetsu creates are quite powerful, they are not perfect; Captain Retsu Unohana was able to detect something was amiss with Aizen's fake corpse, even though she did not realize what until seeing Aizen alive.

Kyōka Suigetsu's hypnotic abilities make it a useful tool in combat as well, as Aizen can quickly create simple illusions to deceive opponents. By creating a decoy of himself, Aizen can hide his own movements and attack with impunity; his opponent, meanwhile, will remain focused on the illusion until it's too late to react. The most prominent example of this is his fight against Sajin Komamura, where an illusionary copy of Aizen is seen melting away after the real Aizen has moved close enough to use the devastating Black Coffin spell.

See also

• List of fictional characters who can create illusions

References

1. Bleach manga; chapter 229, page 15.
2. Bleach manga; chapter 245, page 11.
3. Bleach manga; chapter 223, page 9.
4. Bleach manga; chapter 178, page 15.
5. Bleach manga; chapter 176, pages 9-11.

• Shinigami in Bleach