Tōshirō Hitsugaya

"Frozen passion." - Tite Kubo

is the Captain of the 10th Division in the Gotei 13. His lieutenant is Rangiku Matsumoto. In the Bleach-based film Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, he is the lead character.

Appearance
Tōshirō Hitsugaya is very young by Soul Society standards. Born in the province of Jurin'an in the First District of West Rukongai, he became the youngest ever to graduate from the Shinigami Academy and subsequently rise to captain rank. Thus, many call him a "boy genius". He is short (because of his age) and has white hair, which tends to draw attention in the human world. He wears standard captain's garb, save for a green sash around his shoulders held together by a round clip, and sometimes walks around in his tabi. He is also one of two Shinigami that carry a Zanpakutō on their back, the other being Ichigo Kurosaki. Hitsugaya's short stature and the blade's length (about 120cm long) may explain the similar style. The sheath completely dissolves when he draws his sword.

Personality
Hitsugaya is generally mature and serious, in contrast to his free-spirited lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto. Despite their philosophical differences, he and Rangiku seem very close. Hitsugaya is shown to be easily annoyed by others goofing off or drawing unneeded attention to themselves, as he is when he leads a team of Shinigami into Ichigo Kurosaki's school. Hitsugaya hates anything that he deems childish and hates being described as something close to a child, an elementary school child for example, a further contrast to his appearance. This is shown more in the omake chapters of Bleach, such as the short comics in VJump and the sand castle contest chapter released along with chapter 238. He is also mistaken for a kid in several of the omake chapters, much to his annoyance. During the ending credits of the Sealed Sword Frenzy, he is in the human world and dressed in a young boy's school uniform, and Hinamori has to practically drag him out of hiding. He is overly protective of Momo Hinamori, due to the fact that they were old childhood friends. Hitsugaya dislikes summer and warm weather in general.

It is also known that Tōshirō's favorite food is sweet nattō, his Granny even used to send it to him into the division quarters. He does not like dried persimmons. Back in his childhood in West Rukongai, he was so skilled with spinning tops that he became the local undefeated champion. He works very hard, but his motive seems to be that if he finishes quickly, he can return to his afternoon nap. He believes in the saying "a child who sleeps will grow up", and hopes to grow quickly, a wish shared by his subordinates. Naturally, they do not voice this fact in front of him.

He is able to hide his presence well, on several occasions he manages to surprise Hinamori and Matsumoto with his sudden appearances, which leads them to complain about "sneaking up" upon them.

Hitsugaya gets easily annoyed when anyone (especially Momo Hinamori) refers to him by anything other than "Captain Hitsugaya". Hinamori tends to call him "Hitsugaya-kun" and both she and Ukitake occasionally use "Shiro-chan" (シロちゃん) — a nickname meaning "Whitey" (Snowy in the English manga) in reference to his hair — in both cases without any repercussion. In the Shinigami Golden Cup sketches (omakes found at the end of episodes of Bleach), Jūshirō Ukitake comically gives Hitsugaya candy and other food because "Jūshirō" and "Tōshirō" sound similar and because they both have white hair, making them both "Shiro-chan." The first character in Hitsugaya's given name, Tōshirō, means "winter," which is appropriate given his white hair and ice type Zanpakutō. Ichigo also calls Hitsugaya by his given name despite his many protests, much to his annoyance, and making him one of three captains Ichigo refers to in this manner (the others being Byakuya Kuchiki and Kenpachi Zaraki).

Hitsugaya's intuition is extremely sharp, and he is one of few captains to correctly suspect Gin Ichimaru of foul play, though he understandably did not yet suspect Sōsuke Aizen of the same.

During his duel with Gin Ichimaru in the anime, Ichimaru remarks that Hitsugaya is the embodiment of a heavenly guardian that would be reincarnated once in a while. This is attributed to his given name Tōshirō, which literally means "son of the winter lion (dragon/metaphor for magnificence)".

Even though he has relatively little amount of interaction with Ichigo, he helps in several potentially disastrous events, whenever ordered to by Yamamoto.

History
Hitsugaya comes from the province of Junrin'an in the 1st District of West Rukongai. There, he lived with his grandmother and Momo Hinamori. He also meets Rangiku, his future lieutenant for the first time there.

As a child, Hitsugaya was a bit of a brat who likes to eat watermelons and poke fun at Hinamori. She calls him "Shiro-chan" (Lil' Shiro in the English dub) and he retorts by calling her "Bed-wetter Momo." The two are close friends and Hitsugaya, despite being younger and much shorter than his friend, always feels that he needs to protect her.

When Hinamori left to become a Shinigami, he stayed behind despite knowing about his power. Her friends from next door were scared of him, although he does nothing to them, and does not visit or talk to him at all. "Granny" and Hinamori are the only ones in the district that weren't afraid of him. He was supposedly "cold as ice" or at least thought to be, and he often wondered if it was due to his appearance or attitude. After Momo had been in the academy for 5 years he began to notice how he hadn't grown an inch, while Hinamori's hair grew longer and she visited less often, seeming to have a goal in life now, and "Granny" was getting skinnier. It was there that he met Rangiku Matsumoto. She yelled at a shop keeper who was being rude to him and then at him for "lying there crying about it and not standing up like a man" although it was her who knocked him down with her large breasts in the first place, but he shook her off and ran away, probably in embarrassment. During that night he had a vivid dream of his Zanpakutō's spirit not only calling out to him (like in previous nights), but actually materializing in front of him in the form of a large dragon, and trying to tell him its name, which was unfortunately muffled by the strong winds. Soon after, Rangiku was able to track him down and woke him up, telling him that his Reiatsu was uncontrolled and leaking all over the place so it was causing Granny to freeze and get sicker, which may also explain why she got thinner. It was possible that if he stayed for too long while his reiatsu was still uncontrolled, he might have killed her. Rangiku told him to become a Shinigami in order to learn how to control his Reiatsu.

He is also a friend of Jidanbō, the West Gate Keeper, who taught him the "city rules."

With Hitsugaya's natural talent, he quickly entered the Shinigami Academy and graduated early despite his age. Hinamori continued to call him "Shiro-chan" out of habit and felt she needed to protect him. Because of a promise she had made, she only began to call him "Hitsugaya-kun" after he had achieved his Zanpakutō's Shikai and was recognized as a Shinigami. Highly capable and knowledgeable, he quickly became the youngest of the captains within the Gotei 13 in the entire history of Soul Society.

Soul Society arc
Introduced along with the rest of the Gotei 13, Hitsugaya's sharp sense of intuition and keen sense of observation leads him to suspect 3rd Division captain Gin Ichimaru of foul play as the circumstances surrounding the coming execution of Rukia Kuchiki become more complicated. He warns Hinamori of these suspicions, which inspires her to attack Gin following Sōsuke Aizen's apparent murder, leading him to lock both her and Izuru Kira in prison. Hitsugaya also warns Gin that if he causes Hinamori to drop even a single drop of blood, he will kill him, culminating in a short battle between the two. Hitsugaya manages to freeze Gin's arm before Matsumoto interrupts and breaks it up. Seeing how destructive Rukia's execution is becoming, Hitsugaya tries to stop the execution by appealing to the Central 46 Chambers, only to discover all 46 members are dead and Aizen is responsible for murdering them, having faked his death. When Hitsugaya discovers Hinamori injured and asks Aizen why he did it, Aizen replies that he was being compassionate and states that admiration is the furthest thing from understanding. Hitsugaya tries to kill him, pulling out all the stops including releasing his bankai, but ends up just as wounded as Hinamori.

Bount arc
During the anime Bount filler arc, Hitsugaya later sends several Shinigami to fend off the Bount in Karakura Town. When the Bount infiltrate Soul Society, he, along with Renji and Matsumoto, investigate reports of Bount activity in a forest in Rukongai. The Bount, however, are gone by the time they reach the forest. Hitsugaya later has a battle with the Bount Gō Koga, whom he easily defeats thanks to the advantages his style of combat holds over Koga's. Though he assumes the Bount to be dead, Koga survives.

Arrancar arc
Hitsugaya later leads a group of Shinigami assigned to defend Karakura Town against the Arrancar threat. During the first attack, he battles Shawlong Kūfang. Kūfang easily fends him off, even using Daiguren Hyorinmaru. Though heavily injured, he wins after being allowed to remove his power limit with one blow. However, right after Kūfang's defeat Hitsugaya collapses due to his critical injuries combined with exhaustion. Hitsugaya then has a conversation with Hinamori through video-conference. Hinamori apologizes to Hitsugaya about pointing her sword at him, Hitsugaya tells her not to worry about it. After bickering, they start talking about Aizen. Hinamori, who still cares for her former captain, begs Hitsugaya to save Aizen, thinking that Gin is manipulating him somehow. Angered by the fact that Hinamori is still devoted to Aizen, despite what he did to her, Hitsugaya hopes for revenge. During the second attack, he first takes on Yammy. Toshiro's shikai freezes the espada, but onl for a moment. Yammy comments that the cold attack felt "refreshing." At this point Toshiro realizes even his shikai at 100% is not enough for the espada. Their fight is cut short by the new 6th Espada, Luppi. He fends off Luppi. Though initially unable to defend against Luppi's attacks, being knocked to the ground in a single hit, Luppi's inattentiveness gives him ample time to build up a finishing move - just in time to save his subordinates. Luppi escapes death, having only been incapacitated by the ice, and promises to kill Hitsugaya in turn; however, he is later murdered by Grimmjow. Upon learning that Orihime has followed the Arrancar back to Hueco Mundo, Hitsugaya and his team return to Soul Society to help in the preparation for the war against Aizen.

Fake Karakura Town arc
When Aizen along with his top three Espada attack the fake Karakura Town, Hitsugaya along with his lieutenant and the rest of the of the Gotei 13 Captains currently not in Hueco Mundo are seen awaiting for Aizen's arrival. He and Matsumoto are currently fighting Halibel and her Fracción, Matsumoto taking on all three Fracción while Hitsugaya prepares to face Halibel alone. After Hinamori arrived, Hitsugaya has flashback of when she asked him to help Aizen while Halibel asked why his Reiatsu became disordered. He answered her that he doesn’t know even though he was wondering why Hinamori was here.

Hitsugaya's match against Halibel seemed to have taken a new turn when the latter sensed her fraccions' defeat. Halibel forces Hitsugaya back with sheer power from her blade swing and unzips her jacket, revealing her rank as the #3 Espada which is tatooed on her right breast. Hitsugaya is shocked to find out that Halibel is only #3 despite her strength. When Halibel taunts Hitsugaya that she has yet to fully demonstrate her strength, Hitsugaya quickly uses Bankai in an attempt to match her very sudden and large increase in power as Halibel then charges forward to land a devastating blow that forces Hyorinmaru to shatter ice all around the area. It is not known whether Hitsugaya blocked the blow or not, due to lack of blood, but the attack was sufficient enough to force him into his final release.

Powers & Abilities
Master Swordsmanship Specialist: Hitsugaya has proven to be a skilled swordsman in battle, competeing on the same level as Ichimaru and Ichigo. He even rarely uses his Shikai in battle. Instead he relies on Hyorinmaru's sealed form, only using its bankai when things get tough.

Child Genius: Perhaps the most astonishing trait of Hitsugaya is that he is the youngest Shinigami to ever reach the rank of captain. He has been called many things due to this. Renji and Iba have called him a child genius and Ichimaru has called him the embodiment of the "heavenly white angel that blesses Soul Society once a century". He was even the first to suspect Ichimaru of treason and saw that there was more to Rukia's execution than what was being said.

Vast Spiritual Power: Toshiro's spiritual power has the same effect as his zanpakuto as it is elemental representative of Ice. His Spiritual Pressure is said to be very large and "cold". Even before he became a Shinigami, his immense spiritual pressure was uncontrollable and caused people around him to freeze, namely his grandmother who lived with him at the time. This cold spiritual power of his reflects his attitude as well. He is also the youngest Shinigami to ever acheive their bankai. He even had visions of Hyorinmaru's spirit before he attained it or entered the Shinigami academy.

Expert Strategist & Tactician: Despite his age, Hitsugaya is a great battle strategist. He is given missions from General Yamamoto to lead teams into the human world many times to deal with large threats. Hitsugaya has a the tendency to find a way to defeat his opponents quite easily despite the great power they possess.

Tolerance: Given Hitsugaya's age, he is usually joked about by many of the other Shinigami in Soul Society as well as by his enemies. Despite these jokes or perhaps because of them, Hitsugaya has developed a cold attitude towards most people. He tolerates these jokes and goes on with his duties. Although he has shown anger toward jokes he doesn't take action against whomever insulted him unless they are his enemies, but he has never overreacted because of them. The only thing he can't tolerate is not being addressed as "Captain Hitsugaya" or an inappropriate use of his name, he worked very hard for the title so he gets angry when not addressed as such. The only people that actually call him by his given name are Ichigo, who is constantly reminded to address him properly, and Hinamori (the only person allowed to get away with it).

Flash Steps Expert: Hitsugaya is highly proficient in flash steps with the average speed of a captain-level shinigami.

Kido Expert: Hitsugaya is highly proficient in kido and is capable of performing high-level kido spells without the incantation.

Zanpakutō
is the strongest of all ice element Zanpakutō in Soul Society. When sealed, Hyōrinmaru looks like a normal katana with the exception of the guard, which is in the shape of a four-pointed star. It is about 1.4 meters long, which is as tall as Hitsugaya himself, causing him to carry it on his back. Its hilt is light blue and sheath dark blue.


 * Shikai: Hyōrinmaru's release command is . In its Shikai, Hyōrinmaru extends slightly in length, and gains a crescent-shaped blade attached to its hilt by a long metal chain.


 * Shikai Special Ability: Hyōrinmaru allows Hitsugaya to control water and ice. His slashes create an immense amount of spirit power which overflows from the tip of the blade, creating a flow of ice shaped like a Chinese dragon. The dragon flies at opponents and instantly freezes anything it touches. The chain-blade also freezes anything Hitsugaya traps with it. The power it expels is so overwhelming that in Soul Society (where Hitsugaya is not placed under a limiter), its mere release affects the weather within the immediate vicinity, creating a thunderstorm or a blizzard.


 * Bankai: : causes ice to flow from Hyōrinmaru onto Hitsugaya, forming into a long tail, two large wings which enable him to fly, and his 4-pointed star hilt changes into an 8 star one. Ice also forms into a dragon's head around his sword hand, encasing it up to the hilt; which is in the shape of an eight-pointed star. His left arm is covered completely by ice from his shoulders and his hand ends in claws, with his fingers encased inside. Hitsugaya's feet are encased in ice in a similar manner to his left arm. His shoulders are also partly encased in ice and sprouting from his back are wings. Three flowers of ice used to form flouting behind him, each consisted of four purple petals shaped like diamonds. These petals melted away petal by petal as Hitsugaya's battle with the Arrancar Shawlong Kūfang progressed, leading his opponent to speculate that Hitsugaya's Bankai will fade when all twelve petals disappear, assuming that the captain's Bankai was incomplete due to his young age. But he has since surpassed this "stage" as shown during his battle with Luppi(the sixth Espada for a time), where he states that as long as there is water in the surrounding area or atmosphere, his Bankai can regenerate itself indefinitely


 * Bankai Special Ability: Hyōrinmaru's Bankai has several special techniques.




 * When Hitsugaya stabs his opponents, a huge burst of ice erupts from the point of contact between Hyōrinmaru and the opponents, encasing and freezing them. Hitsugaya can then proceed to shatter the ice and his opponent with it.


 * Hitsugaya creates many ice pillars which encircle him and his enemy. At his command (when he turns his sword 90 degrees counter-clockwise), these pillars then move towards the enemy, enveloping and crushing it. Though this technique is very powerful, Hitsugaya speculates that it takes a considerable amount of time to prepare, and therefore the distraction of his enemy is crucial in successfully completing this attack.


 * Enhanced Ice Defense: Hitsugaya is capable of wrapping his wings around himself like a sphere protecting him from any attacks.


 * Enhanced Ice Dragon: As seen in the movie Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, Hitsugaya can release a more powerful form of his Shikai attack during Bankai. Instead of creating just a dragon's head attached to a long serpentine tail of ice, Hitsugaya can create a full-fledged dragon with wings matching his own, which can fly independently and encircle his opponents, constricting and crushing before biting them. As this is in a movie, the ability is not canon.

Relationships
Tōshirō Hitsugaya was the main protagonist during his half of the Soul Society arc, being the first to discover the mastermind behind the events that transpired during The Seireitei Conspiracy, with Gin Ichimaru being his antagonist. After Aizen's emergence into Hueco Mundo, Hitsugaya became a major deuteragonist throughout the remainder of the series and is the most prominent Captain shown in Bleach, being the only one starring in his own feature-length film. Tōshirō has encountered a number of characters in the series, though not nearly as much as Ichigo. The most prominent of these relationships are listed below:

Ichigo Kurosaki
Hitsugaya and Ichigo have little interaction throughout the course of the series, and Ichigo consistently refers to him as "Tōshirō", which Hitsugaya finds both insulting and annoying, repeatedly stating that "the proper way" to address him is to call him "Captain Hitsugaya". However, despite this and their rare interactions, Hitsugaya has some degree of respect for Ichigo, assisting him in Senna's rescue, and explains to his sister (during the Arrancar Arc) that although he doesn't have knowledge of Ichigo's whereabouts, he's confident that Ichigo's working to get stronger. During the movie Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, Ichigo aids the then rogue Tōshirō, unconvinced that he has betrayed Soul Society to help Sōjirō Kusaka. When the final battle occurs, Ichigo tells Tōshirō of his feelings concerning his mother's death, that are much like his own concerning Sōjirō.

An another interesting trait between them, is that Hitsugaya seems to be the only captain that will go against orders to help Ichigo on his cases. This could be because of their bonds or that Hitsugaya just knows that Ichigo usually deals with real threats. Similar to Kurosaki, Hitsugaya also has a high amount of reiatsu, and could not control it as a child.

Momo Hinamori
Hitsugaya and Hinamori are childhood friends and both of them came from Rukongai, District 1. When Hinamori joined the Academy, Hitsugaya was a little bit upset about it because they could not meet as often as they used to do. They have a very close relationship and Hitsugaya cares about the well-being of his friend very much. He even threatened to kill Gin Ichimaru if he spilled a drop of her blood. Hitsugaya even fought with Ichimaru after Hinamori attacked Hitsugaya in the belief that he was the murderer of Aizen.

Rangiku Matsumoto
Although they have very different personalities, they have a very close relationship. It was Matsumoto who convinced Hitsugaya to join Shinigami Academy in order to control his leaking reiatsu.

Quotes

 * "Sōten ni Zase, Hyōrinmaru!"


 * "Bankai, Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!"


 * (To Gin Ichimaru) "If you ever make Momo bleed, I'll kill you myself!"


 * "Matsumoto!!!"


 * "Aizen, you've talked enough. Time to die."

In other media
Hitsugaya appears in the second Bleach movie, Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, as one of the two main characters. When the "King's Seal," an ancient artifact, is stolen, Hitsugaya goes out in search of the thieves. After crossing paths with and fighting them, he goes missing, leading Seireitei to suspect him of treachery. As Ichigo Kurosaki and others go out in search of Hitsugaya, Hitsugaya himself stumbles across a dark secret concerning a long-dead Shinigami....

Hitsugaya has been a playable character in every Bleach-related video game released so far, the only exceptions being Bleach: Heat the Soul. Oftentimes, he's playable in several different forms, such as his Shikai and Bankai and even in a Gigai. In Bleach: Heat the Soul 4, Hitsugaya is also playable in his school uniform.

He is one of only three Bleach characters to appear in two Bleach Beat Collection albums, the others being Rukia Kuchiki and Ichigo Kurosaki. The first one was a compilation album with Momo Hinamori and his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto where he sang This Light I See. The second one was also a compilation album, this time with the protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki where he sang Bleach the Limitation.

Trivia

 * He was recently voted the most popular character in Bleach on the January 26, 2008 Shonen Jump character poll. He won with 8278 votes, exceeding Rukia Kuchiki by 383 votes. In the first Bleach polls, he came in second place.
 * Hitsugaya has used Bankai without effort despite his young age, and it is more then likely that his full potential is untapped.
 * Hitsugaya and Rukia Kuchiki have both had a Bleach movie's plot centered around them. Coincidentally, both are very popular, and both use water/ice-element zanpakutō.
 * Currently Tōshirō has used his Bankai more than any captain, and any character other than Ichigo Kurosaki: a total of 4 times in the manga, 5 in the anime (including his fight against Gō Koga,) and finally 8 times total (this includes the second OVA, the first movie and the second).
 * Interestingly enough, Hitsugaya is almost Captain Commander Yamamoto's total opposite, as far as abilities and appearance. Yamamoto is the oldest and most powerful current captain in Soul Society, and wields a fire-element Zanpakutō. In contrast, Tōshirō is the youngest shinigami to become a captain in the history of the Gotei 13, is arguably one of the lower-tier captains (due to inexperience) and wields an ice-element Zanpakutō (fire is created by heat while ice is made by the absence of heat).