Yasutora Sado

is a teenager who studies in the same class as Ichigo Kurosaki. Because Ichigo first read Yasutora's name off a name tag, he pronounced his family name as due to the kanji, and Ichigo, as well as others continue to call him this throughout the series.

Appearance
Sado is a teenager of Mexican descent with baggy hair that generally hangs over his eyes. He is a muscular and extremely tall man and appears to be much older than he actually is. Sado has a tattoo on his left shoulder which reads Amore e Morte ("love and death" in Italian) and consists of a heart, a snake and angel wings around the heart. In the series, he is usually seen wearing either his school uniform or a tee shirt. At one point in the series, he is seen wearing a dark, long-sleeved shirt with a rose emblazoned on the left sleeve.

Personality
Sado is a quiet person and is sometimes the subject of jokes or bullies because he never fights back, against ordinary Humans at least, since he often engages Hollows and Shinigami only when necessary. Nonetheless, he is treated equally within his group of friends in Karakura (Ichigo, Keigo and Mizuiro). Sado also has a weakness for cute things, like small animals and Kon, he is one of the few characters that actually treats Kon with any dignity but for the most part ignores him. To match his extraordinary size, Sado possesses extraordinary superhuman durability, even before activating his spiritual powers, being able to survive the impact of a falling steel girder on his back and a head-on motorcycle collision, and is strong enough to break telephone poles. Besides his physical strength, Sado has also shown to be very intelligent; he ranked 11th out of 322 students when Ichigo ranked 23rd.

Sado wears flashy shirts with open collars and his favorite food is tomatoes. He also likes music, but rarely watches TV. The only programs he like are Carnivore Kingdom, which starts at 8 a.m. on Sundays. He likes it so much that he bought the DVDs for it. Not surprisingly, since Kon is a cheap knock-off plushie of the main character of Carnivore Kingdom, Sado finds Kon especially cute, including the fact he likes small animals. The other show is Don Kanonji's Ghost Bust. Sado also has a bass guitar, but has never been shown playing it. It has been shown in Sado's room in episode 69 and in the 8th anime ending sequence. It's also shown in episode 9 after a "band practice." He is also seen carrying it immediately preceding the appearance of the incomplete Arrancar.

Sado is shown to have a very loyal personality. He is quite loyal to his friends, especially Ichigo, who is one of his closest friends, even going as far as to try and defeat a captain to go help him. In terms of luck, Sado can be considered unlucky as whenever the group splits up, he usually if not always ends up alone and encounters a powerful enemy who dispatches Sado quickly. He is also shown to be fearless and told so by numerous enemies such as the first hollow he fights. He displays little emotion except when something he cares about is in danger.

History
Sado was born in Okinawa, Japan, but was taken to Mexico by his parents at a young age. After their deaths, Sado was adopted by Oscar Joaquín de la Rosa, a man believed to be his grandfather since Sado calls him Abuelo ("Grandfather" in Spanish).

During his early years, Sado was extremely violent; exploiting his advantage in size, he intimidated and hit any other children who annoyed him. Oscar Joaquín tried to teach Sado to be gentle, but was initially unsuccessful. One day, the fathers of the children Sado fought, seeking to punish him, attacked Sado. Oscar Joaquín stepped in between them, taking Sado's punishment without retaliation. Sado was inspired by this example to become a decent person. Afterwards, Oscar Joaquín gave Sado a Mexican coin. The coin was minted sometime between 1823 and 1909, and has the words "Republica Mexicana" ("Mexican Republic" in Spanish) engraved on it, as well as the Mexican National Emblem. The monetary reform of 1905 minted Mexican coins with the words, "Estados Unidos Mexicanos’," are seen on the Mexican peso today.

Years later, when Oscar Joaquín had died, Sado made a vow that he would never fight unless it was to protect others, as instructed — even if his own life was in danger. The coin would come to symbolize this vow, which Sado now claims to hold more value than his own life. Many years later, this was used against him when some thugs captured him and threatened to destroy the coin. Ichigo saved him from them, and made a pact with Sado that they would fight for each other, because Sado wouldn't fight to protect himself.

When his Abuelo died, Sado decided to return to Japan, where he entered Mashiba Junior High School. Because of his constant involvement with gangsters, Sado gained a reputation as a ruthless gangster himself. Others were scared of him when he first entered Karakura High, though this later changed. He met Ichigo slightly before the school year started when he saved Ichigo from being injured by local thugs. Eventually, he and Ichigo graduated from Mashiba and entered Karakura High School.

Agent of the Shinigami arc
Sado first appears as a student in Ichigo's class. A few days after Ichigo becomes a Shinigami, Sado is offered a cursed cockatiel whose previous owners have all died horrible deaths. The bird is in fact the container for the spirit of a dead child, placed there by a Hollow who uses him as bait. Sado is forced to fight the Hollow despite not being able to see it, assisted by Rukia Kuchiki. Ichigo defeats the Hollow then performs a soul burial on Yūichi Shibata. Beforehand, Sado promises that he will carry Shibata around again if they meet in Soul Society.

Later on, when Uryū Ishida duels with Ichigo, Uryū unleashes a multitude of Hollows upon the town and Sado is pressed into battle with another Hollow in order to protect Karin Kurosaki. It is this event that awakens his spiritual powers, which manifest as armor on his right arm. He is later brought to Kisuke Urahara along with Orihime to have everything about the Shinigami world explained.

Soul Society arc
After Rukia is taken back to Soul Society, Sado and Orihime Inoue are trained by Yoruichi Shihōin to consciously call upon their powers when needed. After a week, Sado leaves for Soul Society with Orihime, Uryū, Yoruichi, and Ichigo. In Rukongai, Sado is reunited with Shibata, who has not yet found his mother but is living with a "family" of non-related people. At this point, Sado fulfilled his promise, carrying the boy on his shoulder for most of the day.

When the group is separated once entering Seireitei, Sado ends up alone. Sado easily fights this way through a fair portion of the Shinigami about Soul Society, and eventually finds his way into the quarters of the 8th Division. There he meets Shunsui Kyōraku, captain of the 8th Division in a flashy appearance having his lieutenant Nanao Ise drop flower petals on him. After his flashy appearance Kyōraku sits down and tells Sado that he dislikes fighting and even offers him something to drink, something Sado responds to by a violent "No" because it is forbidden for minors to drink, something Kyōraku also realizes is a problem.

Sado proceeds to politely asks the captain to move out the way as he himself would also like to avoid the fight. Refusing Sado attacks the Kyōraku who easily redirects his energy blast with his bare hand. Sado does however not give up and continues his assault, something Kyōraku easily avoids with superior speed. Realizing he is outmatched, Sado remembers his promise to Ichigo, and prepares to make a final move.

Running towards the captain, Sado plans to hit him directly with a charged energy blast in his fist. Kyōraku however draws his dual zanpakutō and easily defeats Sado, leaving him heavily injured. He is however spared from Nanao, because he might be involved in the murder of Sōsuke Aizen and therefore must be kept alive for interrogation.

Following this, Sado, along with the rest of Ichigo's friends, does not actively participate in events. After being healed by the 4th Division and subsequently freed by Kenpachi Zaraki of the 11th Division, Zaraki's lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi, leads the group to the Sōkyoku where they wait as Ichigo and Byakuya Kuchiki fight. After Byakuya is defeated, the group tends to Ichigo. They then find out that the events at Soul Society were an elaborate plot masterminded by Sōsuke Aizen and confront him, but Aizen departs for Hueco Mundo. Uryū, Sado, Ichigo, and Orihime depart for the living world.

Bount arc (anime only)
Note: Events occurring in this arc are only in the anime and do not constitute canon material.

In the anime, after the Soul Society arc, Sado returns to school and helps Ichigo defeat the modified souls created by Kisuke Urahara. He is taken captive along with Orihime, and the mod soul Kurōdo impersonates him in front of Ichigo, who eventually identifies the impostor. Sado is let in on the plan before this point, and thus went along with it until Ichigo figures out what's going on.

When the war against the Bounts starts, Sado forms part of the group which aims to defeat them. He is paired with the mod soul Noba to seek out and destroy the Bounts. He encounters Sawatari and fights him along with Rangiku Matsumoto, Noba, and Ururu Tsumugiya. The battle ends undecided.

After the Bounts invade Soul Society, Sado meets up with Ichigo to fight Jin Kariya. However, the fight doesn't last very long, as their battle reveals the massive energy source Jōkaishō, which Kariya absorbs and uses its potential destructive power as a threat to keep them at bay.

Arrancar arc
After returning from Soul Society (for a second time in the anime) and being confronted by the arrival of the first two Arrancar, Sado is badly injured and realizes that he is not strong enough to help Ichigo fight. Sado turns to Kisuke Urahara for help, asking for training. Urahara puts him against Renji Abarai, having him fight continuously against Renji's Bankai because Urahara says his Bankai isn't suited for training

Hueco Mundo arc
When Orihime is captured by Sōsuke Aizen, Sado and Uryū offer their services to help Ichigo rescue her. When Ichigo hesitates, Sado demonstrates the power of his improved arm, quelling any fears he might have had. The trio then depart to Hueco Mundo. Upon their arrival, Uryū and Sado engage two Arrancar named Iceringer and Demōra, telling Ichigo to watch them. After initially struggling against Iceringer, Sado switches opponents with Uryū and easily defeats the slower and less intelligent Demōra with his new attack, El Directo.

After making their way to Las Noches, joined by Rukia, Renji, and a group of friendly Hollows, the group splits up and Sado eventually runs into the Privaron Espada Gantenbainne Mosqueda. Initially outmatched by the former Espada, Sado is severely beaten around until he realizes what his powers truly are alike and reveals to Gantenbainne that ever since coming to Hueco Mundo his powers have been uneasy but taking the beating from him has calmed them down. Revealing a third form of his arm, he calls it, saying that it is the true form of his right hand. Sado is finally able to keep up with the Arrancar and begins giving Gantenbainne a beating. Gantenbainne however releases his Zanpakutō and thinking he has the upper hand attacks Sado with a huge energy blast. Sado however reveals the true armor form of his left arm, calling it and easily blocks it. With his true powers finally awoken he easily beats Gantenbainne with a new attack, "La Muerte", in turn also crushing the armor of his release form. His victory is short-lived, however, as the 5th Espada, Nnoitra Jiruga, severely wounds him and leaves him for dead. To Nnoitra's surprise however, Sado manages to get back up, gravely wounded, and attempts another attack but is stopped and defeated by Nnoitra's Fracción, Tesla.

Sado and Gantenbainne are eventually found by the Exequias, who plan to finish them off, but Retsu Unohana and Isane Kotetsu interrupt. He later attacks the Exequias who are fighting Ichigo along with Renji and Rukia.

Fake Karakura town arc
Sado is seen fighting Hollows alongside Renji. He comments after Renji complains about the number of Hollows saying, "let them come." At that moment, after he destroys a Hollow, both of them notice Yammy, along with Rukia coming down from the ceiling and Sado doesn't recall Yammy being such a giant. The group then notices Ichigo's spiritual pressure. He, along with Rukia and Renji, sensed Ulquiorra's spiritual pressure fading away from the dome of Las Noches and wonder what has happened. The group notices an enraged Yammy, who Sado says is a lot bigger than when they last met. The group then judges that Yammy is the 10th Espada. Upon noticing this, Renji tells them that together they can defeat him because he is #10, but upon hearing this Yammy decides to release his Zanpakutō. Sado, Rukia, and Renji realize in shock that Yammy's number changed into #0. Now transformed into a giant monster, Yammy says that the ten Espada are ranked from 0-9 and introduces himself to them as Espada Zero Yammy Riyalgo. Sado is later seen on the ground unconscious, having obviously been knocked out by Yammy.

Powers & Abilities
Enhanced Strength: Even while unarmored, Sado possesses a remarkable amount of strength, being capable of destroying large objects with a single punch. Sado is strong enough to break a telephone pole and swing it like a bat. He was even able to battle a normal Hollow that he couldn't see with his bare fists, a remarkable feat. His strength is further enhanced with his armored arms, allowing him to take on those bigger them himself with relative ease as a single punch was shown able to knock a giant Gillian-class Menos down. His strength also becomes great enough to block incoming attacks and blasts.

Enhanced Endurance: He is resilient enough to be hit by a falling steel girder, be clawed on the back by the Hollow Shrieker, and take a head-on collision with a motorcycle (and the driver was actually hurt worse than himself) and only suffer minor wounds. When his arms are armored he seems to attain an even greater level of endurance allowing him to take relentless beatings as well as being thrown into structures without showing any signs of injury.

Spiritual Awareness: After his encounter with the cockatiel containing the soul of Yūichi Shibata, he started to detect the approximate locations of spirits and Hollows, but could not fully see them. Only after saving Karin Kurosaki from a Hollow, during the Hollow-slaying match between Uryū and Ichigo, did Sado begin to fully see spirits. Even so, he was still able to battle a Hollow that he couldn't see.

Enhanced Speed: During his fight with Gantenbainne Sado develops a level of speed that can easily keep up with that of Sonído, even capable of appearing behind his opponent and attacking. Even without the armor's speed, he can still run faster than most normal humans.

High Spiritual Power: At the same time that he became able to clearly see spirits, he also awakened his latent spiritual ability, which manifests as armor on his right and left arms. He commonly uses spiritual energy to augment the strength of his punches. During his basics training in spirit energy with Kūkaku Shiba, Sado was shown to have intensely strong and high levels of spiritual energy that the Shiba Clan cannon orbs had difficulty handling.

Hand-to-Hand Combatant While never officially trained, Sado has shown himself a powerful fighter even when outnumbered. During the assault on Soul Society, Sado was able to effortlessly defeat countless Shinigami before being defeated by Shunsui, who was impressed by Sado’s raw might.

Armored Arms
(Brazo Derecho del Gigante in the English dub and English manga). Sado says that "the soul of (his) Abuelo flows through (his) right arm," which may mean the literal manifestation of his grandfather's spirit in the arm, though it is also likely that Sado was speaking metaphorically of his grandfather's teachings. In the scene where his grandfather protects him from his childhood victims, the coin he receives is put onto his right hand.


 * First Form (formerly): He covers his right arm all the way up to his shoulder in a liquid which then solidifies into a form of armor. The shoulder fans out a bit into an upward extension parallel to his height. It has an indentation at the top in the middle of the extension stopping just where his shoulder begins separating the upward extension into two. There are two wing-like protrusions on either side of his wrist. The arm is black with a dark magenta strip running down the middle of the arm tapering down towards a point that stops at the wrist. The dark magenta strip is outlined by a thin white line. These patterns are both on the top as well as the underside of his arm.


 * Spiritual Energy Blasts: He is able to fire powerful energy blasts from his fist. After receiving advanced training from Yoruichi Shihōin, Sado learns to activate his powers at will and gains enough stamina to fire multiple blasts. These spiritual energy blasts have become more powerful with each form taken.


 * Second Form: He covers his right arm all the way up to his shoulder in a liquid which then solidifies into a form of armor. The shoulder extension becomes pointed as well as slightly longer making it a little bit taller then Sado. The arm maintains its black color but the magenta becomes slightly lighter and the design becomes more intricate, while the white is lost altogether.


 * A powerful special attack learned upon attaining the second form. The ends of the extension on Sado's shoulder opens up and charges up, appearing somewhat like the flaming exhaust from a car engine, and then he releases a huge blast of spiritual energy that he can use to augment his punches or simply as a long or medium-range attack.

While in Hueco Mundo, Sado's powers were disturbed by the environment, which hindered his abilities. It was not until being beaten for some time by Gantenbainne Mosqueda that Sado's powers settled. With this, Sado realized that his powers were more at home in Hueco Mundo since they resembled Hollow powers. When Sado was attacked by Gantenbainne, the arm felt it like an attack from its own kind and regained its composure, allowing Sado to finally admit to himself the truth about his power. This allowed him to fully tap his powers, which manifests as armor on both arms, instead of just his right.


 * Third Form: He covers his right arm all the way up to the shoulder in a liquid which solidifies into a form of armor. Brazo Derecha de Gigante becomes a shield that extends from his hand to some distance beyond his forearm with the same intricate pattern as before, surrounding what appears to be Hollow-like teeth in the center and what appears to be a rose like pattern or skeletal nose and eyes near the end. He also loses the wing-like protrusion which extended from his shoulder, replaced with an hexagonal plate sitting over his shoulder. In this form it is used for defense instead of offense (though it's still more powerful offensively than his original arm).


 * Enhanced Strength: It gives him an even greater increase in physical might. This augmentation is evident as it increases in each form.


 * Enhanced Agility: For some reason, this recent furtherance of Sado's powers seem to augment his natural agility to the point where his reaction time became sufficient enough to anticipate high-speed attacks and counter them.

(Brazo Izquierdo del Diablo in the English dub): He covers his left arm all the way up to the shoulder with a liquid which solidifies into a form of armor. The arm is white, with a red stripe running down the length of the center. His fingertips of red diamond shaped marks on them. A spike protrudes from the shoulder and two more resembling claws extend over his chest.


 * (El Muerte in the English manga): A powerful special attack. His finger tips charge in the forms of five disks of crackling spiritual energy, then he forms a fist and punches his opponent. The blow is devastating and upon contact a huge skull-shape is created upon the surface behind the target. The power can easily defeat a Privaron Espada, and is most likely Sado's strongest attack, as it comes from the arm formed from Sado's will to attack, rather than defend.

Ichigo Kurosaki
Sado is one of Ichigo's best friends. They first met when Sado saves Ichigo from being beaten. They also once fought together against a group of bullies, and after that, promised to protect and help each other in any situation that calls for it. Ichigo mispronounced his name wrong as "Chad" instead of Sado when they met, but he continues to call him Chad afterwards. Sado has shown that he is willing to help Ichigo in any situation, even after Ichigo received his Shinigami powers, helping him in many situations.

Censorship
Sado's injuries from his first encounter with Yammy Riyalgo were drastically toned down in the anime. In the manga, his armored arm was torn off and broke into two, while in the anime, he was simply knocked out without so much as bleeding from the arm itself.

Trivia

 * The meaning of his name is in contrast with the meaning of the name of Uryū (whose name can be translated as "Rain Dragon").
 * His theme song according to Tite Kubo is "No Song Unheard" by the Hellacopters.
 * Although their interaction is never shown in either the manga or the anime, in the Bleach Bootleg it is stated that Sado gave Hisagi instructions on how to play the guitar.

Quotes

 * "The more complex a person, the weaker they are."
 * (To Demōra) "Sorry. The truth is, I don't like doing things like dealing the deathblow to opponents who have lost the will to fight. But this time, it seems I can't even say such naive things."
 * (To Gantenbainne) "This power of mine seems to be less like a Shinigami or a Quincy and more like you Hollows"
 * (To Gantenbainne) "Because you fought me with all your might, I was able to grasp my power. Thanks. Because of you, I'll be able to tough it out ahead. I'll spare you life and pray for your good fortune."