How Old Is Ichigo Kurosaki at the End of Bleach & What Happens to Him?
Ichigo Kurosaki is, as everyone knows, the protagonist of Bleach, and the story revolves around his growth as a human and as a Shinigami. His journey started in 2001 when Ichigo Kurosaki was a 15-year-old high school student, and the last published material, the Hell one-shot, portrays him in 2015. A lot has happened since then, and several important points need to be discussed in relation to Ichigo’s age in the series, which is what we are going to do in this article.
Ichigo Kurosaki had 15 years in 2001, and when the original Bleach manga ended, it was 2003, and he was 17 years old. The manga’s original epilogue takes place in 2013, when Ichigo is 27 years old, has a family with Orihime, and works as an English language translator while still being the Substitute Shinigami in Karakura Town. The “NO BREATHES FROM HELL” one-shot, which was published recently, takes place in 2015, which means that Ichigo is, in the to-date last published Bleach work, 29 years old and is still an English language translator and has a family with Orihime, with whom he has a son named Kazui Kurosaki.
As you might assume, the rest of this article will focus on Ichigo Kurosaki and his personal life. We are going on an interesting journey to uncover the history and age of this extremely popular character from the Bleach manga. The article will contain many spoilers from the original manga, so be careful how you approach it if you’re not fully up-to-date.
Ichigo started his journey when he was 15 and is currently 29 years old as of the “NO BREATHES FROM HELL”
As we have stated, the story of Bleach begins in 2001, when Ichigo was 15 years old and had just started high school in Karakura Town. This means that he was born on July 15, 1986. The original Bleach story ended two years later, in 2003, meaning that Ichigo was 17 years old when he defeated Yhwach; he was also 17 when Can’t Fear Your Own World took place.
As for the epilogue, it took place ten years later, in 2013, which means that Ichigo was 27 years old at the time. Finally, in the “NO BREATHES FROM HELL” one-shot, he was 29 years old, as the one-shot took place in 2015, and that is also Ichigo’s current age as far as the manga is concerned. So, what happened to Ichigo at that time?
Ichigo lives with his father, Isshin, and his two younger sisters, Karin and Yuzu, and has the peculiarity of seeing and interacting with ghosts. One day he accidentally meets the Shinigami Rukia Kuchiki while she is in the middle of a fight against a Hollow, an evil spirit.
Although Rukia is unable to fight, she wants to give part of her powers to Ichigo, but the boy unwillingly absorbs them completely. Ichigo then assumes the role of Substitute Shinigami and faces some battles until he attracts the attention of the Soul Society, the world of Shinigami, which sends two high-ranking emissaries – Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, Rukia’s older brother and his lieutenant Renji Abarai – to take Rukia, accused of having shared her powers with a human, back to Soul Society.
Ichigo tries to save her, but is heavily defeated and loses his powers. Later he trains under the guidance of Kisuke Urahara, a former Shinigami captain banished forever on earth, and manages to awaken his powers and release his real Zanpakutō, the sword that every shinigami possesses, called Zangetsu.
To save Rukia, Ichigo then goes to the Soul Society, where he faces some members of the Gotei 13, the divisions defending Soul Society, including Ikkaku Madarame, Renji, and Captain Kenpachi Zaraki; in anticipation of the inevitable clashes with the other officers of the Gotei 13, Ichigo learns the Bankai form of Zangetsu, Tensa Zangetsu.
Arriving in time to stop the execution of Rukia, Ichigo fights again against Byakuya, and this time, the fight ends in a draw; immediately after, the captain of the Fifth Division, Sōsuke Aizen, who turns out to be the real mastermind behind the kidnapping of Rukia and the riots in the Soul Society, reveals his betrayal and extracts from the body of the Shinigami the Hōgyoku, a powerful invention of Urahara, before fleeing to Hueco Mundo along with his other two traitorous captains, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tosen.
Ichigo then returns home with his companions, but when Aizen, through the Hōgyoku, creates an army of Arrancar and sends them against him and his friends, he decides to train with a group of renegade Shinigami called Visored, who teach him to use his inner Hollow through Hollowfication. During an outing by the Arrancar in Karakura, Ulquiorra Schiffer, one of Aizen’s strongest subordinates, kidnaps Ichigo’s friend Orihime Inoue as the former captain wants to get his hands on her healing powers. When Soul Society refuses to help him, Ichigo and her friends decide to go to Hueco Mundo to save their friend.
After defeating Grimmjow, Ichigo faces Nnoitra Gilga, being saved by Kenpachi; he later faces Ulquiorra, whom he only defeats after transforming into his inner Hollow, managing to free Orihime. Ichigo then goes to Fake Karakura, created by Urahara on the orders of the Gotei 13, to face Aizen, and here, after witnessing the defeat of the other captains by his hand, he trains with his father Isshin to learn the technique of the Ultimate Getsuga Tenshō succeeding, with the sacrifice of his powers, to weaken Aizen to the point of allowing Urahara to seal him.
Seventeen months later, Ichigo meets Kūgo Ginjō, a Fullbringer belonging to the Xcution organization, who offers to give him back his Shinigami powers in exchange for helping him become a mere human again. Getting help from Xcution, Ichigo unlocks his powers from Fullbringer but discovers that Kūgo and his companions have tricked him into appropriating his abilities to his advantage; however, the Gotei 13 arrives to his rescue, restoring his powers and helping him to defeat the members of Xcution.
A bit later, learning that Hueco Mundo had been invaded by the Quincy group named Wandenreich, Ichigo travels there with his friends and defeats the Sternritter Quilge Opie. The Wandenreich later attacks the Soul Society, prompting Ichigo to travel to the location; here, he confronts the king of the Quincy, Yhwach, discovers that his mother was one of them, and witnesses the destruction of his Zanpakutō. While the situation becomes critical in the Soul Society, the Royal Guard invites Ichigo to the palace of the Soul King, where the young man meets the creator of the Zanpakuto, Ōetsu Nimaiya. Undergoing his training, Ichigo manages to reconcile his powers by obtaining a new version of Zangetsu formed by two swords.
During the second invasion of the Wandenreich, Ichigo attempts to stop Yhwach from murdering the Soul King – the lynchpin of the Soul Society – but arrives too late; however, thanks to Captain Jushiro Ukitake’s sacrifice, the Soul King survives. Relying on the aid of his Sternritter and Uryu Ishida, Yhwach rejects Ichigo and his companions and absorbs the Mimihagi (who was residing inside Ukitake’s body).
During the second attack on the palace, Ichigo is defeated again by Yhwach, who breaks Zangetsu, but thanks to the help of the Fullbringer and Orihime, Ichigo manages to repair his sword and faces the king of the Quincy again, managing to defeat him with the help of Aizen and Ishida. Ten years after the fall of Yhwach and his empire, Ichigo married Orihime, and they have a son named Kazui.
