Ichigo Kurosaki is the main protagonist of the Bleach manga and anime series created by Tite Kubo. He is a tall orange-haired high school student who becomes a "Substitute Soul Reaper" after unintentionally absorbing most of Rukia Kuchiki's powers. Ichigo's journey begins when he meets Rukia, a Soul Reaper assigned to patrol around the fictional city of Karakura Town. These powers come at the cost of her own, and as a result, he concedes to work as her stand-in, fighting to protect people from evil spirits called Hollows and sending good spirits, wholes, to a dimension known as the Soul Society.
Ichigo was born on July 15th as the son of Isshin Kurosaki and Masaki Kurosaki, 15 years before he would go on to become a Shinigami. His sisters Karin Kurosaki and Yuzu Kurosaki were born a few years later. When he was four, Ichigo joined a karate dojo, where he met and befriended Tatsuki Arisawa. Though Tatsuki beat Ichigo in every match they had, she would help Ichigo when he was being picked on by bullies and cheer him up if he was upset.
Ichigo's character has been well received among both readers and reviewers. He featured often in Weekly Shōnen Jump character popularity polls, and was consistently ranked as the most popular character in Bleach. The 2007 Japanese Newtype magazine polls ranked Ichigo as one of the top 100 most-loved anime characters. He is also known as one of the big three anime characters, including Naruto and Luffy.
Ichigo's father, Isshin Kurosaki, is a Soul Reaper before Ichigo was ever born, and he knows the ways of zanpakuto and hollows as well as any Captain. Secretly, he rebuilt his old Soul Reaper powers bit by bit until he was ready to take on hollows once again, and even teach Ichigo a thing or two about fighting. And all the while, he continued to run the Kurosaki clinic and be an outstanding parent to Ichigo, Yuzu and Karin.
