Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-14337944-20131025130629/@comment-8986886-20131027005332

N-e-ls wrote: You should take into account that Ichigo has been a Shinigami for less than 3 years and has managed to defeat people with much more experience. He has no received no proper instruction apart from playing swords with Urahara.

That's true, N-e-ls, however Ichigo is not a unique case when it comes to talent and potential. To properly demonstrate this, I've listed a few examples below:


 * Kenpachi Zaraki was stronger than Retsu Unohana when he was still a child, before he even joined the Shin'ō Academy, and he had to restrain his own power in order to prolong and truly enjoy their fight. He easily killed the former Kenpachi without using a Bankai, and has held the captain's position ever since, without any skills in Kidõ, or Shunpo, or even learning the name of his Zanpakutõ.


 * Uryu Ishida is the same age as Ichigo, and since Sõken Ishida died years ago, and Ryuken Ishida seems reluctant to teach him, Uryu must have trained alone for the most part. Even so, he managed to defeat Mayuri Kurotsuchi, a captain with a century of experience, while using high level Quincy techniques, overcoming paralysis and using Letz Stile. Recently Yhwach saw his potential, and Uryu was given the rank Sternritter A and named successor to the Wandenreich throne.


 * A very young Gin Ichimaru graduated after just one year at the Shin'ō Academy. He then joined the 5th Division, defeated the Division's 3rd Seat at the time with ease, and assumed the vacant 3rd Seat position.


 * Tõshirõ Hitsugaya joined the Academy at a young age, and still graduated early. I'm not sure how long he had been a Shinigami before having advanced to the 10th Division's 3rd Seat. It couldn't have been long, since he didn't have any of the maturity or authority he currently possess; given how he was treated by Isshin and Rangiku in the flashback chapters. Still, after the "White incident" Tõshirõ became a full-fledged captain.

When taking this list into consideration, then clearly Ichigo is not the only prodigy, with amazing growth rate, we've seen so far in Bleach.