Renji Abarai

Renji Abarai (Abarai Renji). He is the lieutenant of the 6th Division in the Gotei 13 under captain Byakuya Kuchiki.

Appearance
Renji is one of the more unusual characters in Bleach in terms of his appearance, long crimson hair, usually kept in a high ponytail, and his entire upper body is covered in tribal tattoo work. How he got these tattoos is unknown, but it appears that with every achievement Renji attains, his tattoos increase as well, starting from his early days as a shinigami candidate until when he was imprisoned by Byakuya Kuchiki (his tattoos cover his entire back at this point of time). He dresses in the standard shinigami outfit, though he usually includes some sort of elaborate headgear (usually expensive-looking glasses or a white headband). All of Renji's sunglasses are from Seireitei's popular "Silver Dragonfly Glasses Store" and cost half a year's worth of his paycheck. Unfortunately, every time he wears a pair, they are broken in one way or another (usually in a fight with Ichigo). He likes taiyaki (a popular fish-shaped pancake usually filled with sweet bean paste) and dislikes spicy food.

Personality
As far as his personality goes, Renji is about as eccentric as any other shinigami. He varies from smug and cocky in his first appearances to downright angsty and depressed after his major defeats, but shows himself to be an incredibly serious and determined fighter when confronted with an actual challenge. Renji harbours deep affections for Rukia Kuchiki. This is proved numerous times throughout the story, particularly during his flashback of his youth with Rukia in Rukongai. Willing to fight, kill, and die for whatever he believes in, Renji is a dangerous man to those who stand in his way. He is much like Ichigo Kurosaki in many respects, and the two are mistaken for brothers in the anime's Bount arc. Ichigo claims they are cousins to keep things simple, allowing many hilarious situations to occur later.

History
Renji Abarai came from the 78th district of Rukongai and grew up as an orphan with several other children, including Rukia Kuchiki. The company of children lived by stealing or hunting for food. Though Renji and Rukia quickly discovered they had spiritual powers, they remained with their friends until they all died, which prompted them to become shinigami for a better life.

At the shinigami academy, Renji was admitted into the top class, being very adept at swordsmanship, although quite inept at kidō. His senpai was Shūhei Hisagi. At the academy, Renji befriended Izuru Kira and Momo Hinamori, who each proceeded to become lieutenants. His relationship with Rukia became distant after her adoption by the Kuchiki family since he felt he had no place interfering with her life now that she was a noble, despite the fact they both seemed to regret losing the company and confidence of the other.

Renji, Kira and Hinamori served under Sōsuke Aizen and Gin Ichimaru in the 5th division, after which Kira and Hinamori were put under Ichimaru and Aizen in the 3rd and 5th divisions respectively. The rebellious Renji was moved to the 11th Division and eventually rose to the 6th seat. During his time in the 11th Division, he befriended Ikkaku Madarame, who taught Renji how to fight. It was also shown that Renji was aware that Ikkaku had a bankai, but refused to use it to train Renji. On the same day Rukia headed for the human world, Renji was promoted to lieutenant of the 6th Division. After meeting Byakuya Kuchiki, the 6th Division's captain, Renji's greatest dream has been to surpass him in strength.

Soul Society arc
Renji first appears with Byakuya when they come to the human world to arrest Rukia. Their attempt is interrupted by Uryū Ishida, and Renji easily defeats him. Ichigo then arrives to stop them, faring better than Uryū after unlocking his hidden spiritual power. Byakuya steps in to save Renji, cutting Ichigo's sword down to just a stump and severely wounding him. He's later seen checking on Rukia at her cell, trying to cheer her up by saying that Byakuya won't let her be executed. Rukia, however, knows better, since Byakuya follows the rules above all else.

After Ichigo's group invades Soul Society to rescue Rukia, Renji blames Ichigo for Rukia's troubles and goes out to fight him. Though Renji does well at first, as he is not operating under a power limit as he was in the human world, Ichigo eventually overcomes him, severely maiming Renji. Seeing Ichigo's strength, he begs Ichigo to save Rukia.

After being healed and imprisoned, as Byakuya claims that he has no excuse for losing if he was so eager to fight alone, Renji has a conversation with his zanpakutō's spirit, Zabimaru. While Zabimaru wants a rematch with Zangetsu, Renji insists that they are no longer enemies. He then breaks out of confinement and finds his way to Ichigo, who is in an underground training area with Yoruichi Shihouin attempting to learn the bankai of his zanpakutō. Renji is fairly close to learning it, as well, and walks off to a separate part of the training area to finish.

While Ichigo continues training, Renji attempts to save Rukia on his own, only to be intercepted by Byakuya. Renji attempts to use his bankai to defeat Byakuya, but both his inexperience and their difference in power leads to his defeat. Byakuya states that the main reason Renji cannot surpass him is because of their difference in class. Byakuya gives him the analogy of the monkey that is always trying to catch the moon, but no matter how hard the monkey tries, it is impossible. Renji attempts once last charge against Byakuya, but only succeeds in breaking his own zanpakutō against Byakuya's immense spiritual power. Byakuya leaves a dying Renji with his shawl and acknowledges that Renji's "fang" reached him that time.

After being healed again, Renji attempts another rescue, this time finding Ichigo at the execution grounds with Rukia in tow. From the high perch of the execution stand, Ichigo tosses Rukia to Renji and orders him to defend her with his life. Renji willingly obliges and escapes from the execution grounds with Rukia in his arms. He barely makes it down the winding steps of the mountain they're on before being stopped by Kaname Tōsen, who teleports the three of them back to where they started. Sōsuke Aizen, having also teleported there, insists that Renji leave Rukia. Unwilling, he attacks Aizen along with Ichigo Kurosaki, who has not recovered entirely from his encounter with Byakuya. Despite their combined efforts, both are defeated easily. After Aizen's escape, Renji waits in the hospital with Byakuya, who was injured while saving Rukia from Aizen. When Byakuya asks why he's there, Renji responds that it's because he is his captain and that if Byakuya weren't alive, Renji would have no one to challenge in strength. Their conversation is interrupted by Ichigo, who's looking all over Soul Society for Rukia. He is then seen at the gathering where Ichigo and his group returns to the human world.

Bount arc
In the anime, after the events at Soul Society, Renji is assigned to the human world in Rukia's place. While he does not mention exactly why, he is angered at Ichigo's suggestion that he has been demoted from lieutenant. He also claims that Ichigo's inability to hide his huge spiritual power attracts hollows, so he's there to lend a hand. During his visit to the living world, Renji stays at the Urahara Shop where they give him the nickname of nihongo (freeloader) and constantly deny him second helpings of food by playing on his guilt.

After the Bount reveal themselves, he joins Ichigo's friends in confronting the Bount at Kariya's mansion where Jin Kariya sacrifice Yoshino Sōma in order to create the bitto. While patrolling around the city, Renji finds a child being attacked by the bitto and defends him. The bitto eventually withdraw on orders, but Renji is already seriously injured and the child is almost completely drained of his soul. Renji is healed by Hanatarō Yamada, but the child is left struggling to stay alive. Later on during a short at the end of episode 92, it is revealed that Hanatarō successfully healed the child.

Meanwhile, Izuru Kira, Shūhei Hisagi, Rangiku Matsumoto, and Yumichika Ayasegawa are assigned by Tōshirō Hitsugaya to defeat the Bounts in the human world. The shinigami find the hideout of the Bount and enter, but are all disabled by Ugaki's doll, Gesell. Renji, Ichigo, and his friends enter the cave later on and are also attacked by Gesell. Most of the group is left to tend to their injuries while Renji and Ichigo continue on, finding the other injured shinigami along the way. After Gesell almost kills Yumichika Ayasegawa, Renji remembers the fighting spirit he was taught in the 11th Division and fights Gesell one-on-one with his bankai. Yumichika Ayasegawa keeps Ichigo from interfering, explaining that anyone who's been in the 11th Division believes their fights should be one-on-one and helping would be considered dishonorable. Renji manages to wound Gesell, driving it insane and causing it to kill its owner.

During the brief discussion period between Ichigo and the shinigami after the Bounts enter Soul Society, an injured Renji (needing Yumichika's help to walk) tells the group he will also be returning to Soul Society. Although he does not enter Soul Society with Ichigo, he is later visited by Tōshirō Hitsugaya who wants to know if Renji knows anything helpful about the Bounts.

In Soul Society, Renji, Hitsugaya, and Matsumoto investigate reports of strange activity in a forest in Rukongai. By the time the three of them arrive in the forest, the Bount are gone. Maki Ichinose, on the other hand, is waiting for them, hoping to slow their pursuit and buy time for the Bount. Though initially successful, he is engaged by Kenpachi Zaraki and abandons his plan for the opportunity to kill Kenpachi.

After returning to Seireitei, Renji mainly fends off the many shinigami possessed by the Bount Mabashi's doll, Ritz. After Mabashi is killed, he assists in caring for the wounded. He also helps take Rukia to the execution grounds later on, where Kariya and Ichigo are fighting.

Arrancar arc
With the emerging threat of the arrancar in the human world, Renji, along with Rukia and four other shinigami, are assigned to aid Ichigo Kurosaki in the living world. He appears to stay with Kisuke Urahara for the duration of his assignment.

When the Espada Grimmjow Jeagerjaques leads an assault on anyone in the material world, Renji battles the arrancar Yylfordt Granz. Even with his bankai, he is initially no match for Yylfordt. Things get even worse when Ururu Tsumugiya, the girl who works at the Urahara shop, interferes, injuring Yylfordt and forcing him to release his zanpakutō, thus transforming into a bull-like creature. In this form, he impales Ururu on one of his horns and breaks through Renji's blades effortlessly. The tables are turned, however, when Renji is allowed to lift the power limit placed on him, allowing him to defeat Yylfordt with some effort.

After the battle, Urahara allows him to live at the shop. However, Urahara has persisted in avoiding Renji's questions (which are the primary reasons as to why Renji decided to go to Urahara's shop). During his time there, he helps train Yasutora Sado to increase his ability because of an agreement Renji made with Urahara; Renji will do whatever miscellaneous jobs Urahara asks of him for the next three months in exchange for the answers to all of Renji's questions.

Hueco Mundo arc
When the arrancar launch a second attack with the purpose of distracting the shinigami while Orihime Inoue is coerced into working for Aizen, Renji and Chad are left behind at the shop while Urahara goes to aid their allies. When Hitsugaya's team learns that Orihime is with the arrancar, Renji volunteers for Ichigo's sake to form a team and "force" Orihime back to her senses and bring her back by coercion. He is denied that request and is instead forced to return to Soul Society with the rest of the shinigami under the threat of force from Byakuya Kuchiki and Kenpachi Zaraki. Later on, however, Byakuya gives both him and Rukia permission to enter Hueco Mundo to fight alongside Ichigo's team.

After reaching Aizen's palace and discovering five separate paths, the group prepares to split up. Before they split up, Renji talks to Ichigo about the need to respect his comrades' skills in battle and leads the team in a chant used by the Gotei 13 in the past, vowing to never falter and come out alive together. Afterwards, Renji is mistakenly chased by the hollow Dondo Chakker, even though they are allies. Though Dondo Chakker is only concerned with the safety of his sister Nell Tu, his appearance and attitude is enough to freak Renji out and convince him to run with the hollow chasing after him. Both continue for some time after realizing this, arguing that the other should stop first. Eventually, Renji senses Rukia releasing her zanpakutō and stops, only to fall into a trap (along with Dondo Chakker) set by Szayel Aporro Granz, who mocks them and introduces himself. He then reveals that the room they're in is designed to suppress Renji's bankai, which Szayel Aporro was able to accomplish by analyzing the corpse of his defeated brother, Yylfordt.

Renji learns of Rukia's spirit pressure disappearing through Szayel. He is initially disbelieving of Szayel when told that one of the Espada and one of his companions had killed each other off at the same time. However, when Szayel mentions that the shinigami was called "Kuchiki", Renji, using his shikai, immediately attacks Szayel. Despite Szayel saying that Renji would not be able to injure him with just his shikai, Renji manages to do so. Regardless, Renji cannot manage to duplicate the feat, and is saved by Uryū, who quickly ends up in the same situation. The two join forces to deal with Szayel's minions. In order to give Uryū an opening, Renji uses Zabimaru to tie himself and Szayel together, and then uses a kidō spell which injures them both. Szayel retreats, falling into Uryū's trap, a massive gintō-triggered explosion. Szayel survives the explosion, albeit with major injuries, and heals himself completely by eating Lumina. He then departs to replace his ruined outfit and formulate a new plan. Renji and Uryu try to find a way out of Las Noches because their main target was to retrieve Orihime, not fight an Espada. They should also plan to head to help Rukia and Chad. However, Szayel manipulates the corridors to make them come back to the same room. Szayel appears behind them, and releases his zanpakutō. As soon as the liquid from Szayel's release makes contact with Renji and Uryū, multiple clones of them appear. Szayel then notes that the device used to restrict their spirit energy has been deactivated, and that they can now fight against their clones at full power. After some time Renji activates his bankai, causing all of his clones to activate their own. In doing so they destroy the room they are in and a now irritated Szayel disperses all of the clones of Renji and Uryu saying that he will show them the "true power" of his released zanpakuto. Szayel proceeds to use his wing to swallow Uryū, which spits out Uryū and making a miniature doll of him. He then hits the doll and reveals that he has control of all the five senses of Uryū. Despite Renji begging him to stop, Szayel rips the doll apart, but although Uryū didn't lose his legs, Szayel crushes the mini stomach organ inside the doll, injuring Uryū badly. When Renji attacks again, Szayel's zanpakuto swallows Renji, spits him out and creates a minature doll of Renji. Szayel rips the doll Renji in half and crushes his achilles tendon, making him unable to walk. Szayel's further attempts are then interrupted by Mayuri Kurotsuchi who seems intent on capturing Szayel as a research specimen.

Zanpakuto

 * Voice Actor: Vic Migogna

Zabimaru (Snake Tail): Renji is one of the rare instances where a shinigami's zanpakutō spirit is actually seen, the other being Ichigo's. Zabimaru is a nue (a baboon with a snake's tail), hence his name. Zabimaru's spirit is portrayed as battle-loving and proud, similar in personality to Renji. It insisted on fighting Zangetsu again after losing, confident that it could succeed on the second attempt. Both the snake and baboon are capable of speaking, though the baboon is usually the more dominant one. The snake seems to be the more violent of the pair. Zabimaru's sealed form resembles a typical katana which, even in its sealed form is very useful in combat due to Renji's proficiency with a sword


 * Shikai: Zabimaru's shikai command is "howl" (hoero, "roar" in the English dub). In its shikai, Zabimaru transforms into an even longer segmented blade; each segment is wider than the one preceding it from the hilt with 2 pick-like protrusions on the front and back of each segment, with the ones on the front much longer than the ones at the back. The segments are connected by a stretchable thread, making Zabimaru more useful as a whip than an actual sword, though it can serve as a regular sword just as easily, thanks to Renji's swordsmanship. While Zabimaru can be stretched to incredible lengths in its whip form, Renji has a limit of three consecutive attacks before having to bring the segments of Zabimaru back together for recovery - which makes him fairly vulnerable during the time interval. To make up for this, Renji usually relies on Shunpo for evasion as he retrieves Zabimaru's segments. Renji's Shikai, while durable to an extent, can ultimately sustain serious damage the longer the fight drags on. Not that it can withstand dangerously prolonged combat but even it has limits in enduring high-level attacks that were conducted by either the enemy or by Renji himself. Because of these many drawbacks, Renji states that out of all the other Zanpakuto wielded by the other Lieutenent Shinigami, his Zabimaru is the most difficult to master. Yet the fact that Renji is capable of wielding Zabimaru against almost any foe is only proof of his high-level fighting skill inherent to a Vice-Captain level Shinigami.


 * Shikai Special Ability: Renji can also use his spiritual power to separate the segments and surround an opponent with them, allowing him to execute a one-shot omni-directional attack called higa zekkō (broken baboon's fang) but it is damaging to Zabimaru and leaves Renji defenseless.


 * Bankai: Hihiō Zabimaru (Baboon King Snake Tail): transforms Zabimaru into a massive version of its shikai form resembling a skeletal snake. Zabimaru gains many more segments, which are much larger than in its shikai form, and also gains a snake-like head about the size of a small car. Renji is also slightly transformed, gaining a fur cowl around his neck. Unlike its shikai, Zabimaru's segments are held together by Renji's spiritual power, allowing him to separate and reattach them at will. The segments themselves are extremely tough, making it extremely difficult to destroy Zabimaru. Even if a segment is damaged, knocked off, or even destroyed, Renji can simply detach it and reform (or reconstitute) Zabimaru. Zabimaru itself, in bankai form, does not literally "cut", Renji usually catches his opponent with the snake-head of his weapon and smashes his opponent into the ground with it. The head has also proven capable of inflicting heavy damage through biting.


 * Bankai Special Ability: Zabimaru also gains a special technique known as Baboon Bone Cannon (hikōtsu taihō) after Renji becomes more adept with using his bankai. The technique fires a dense blast of spiritual energy from Zabimaru's mouth. Unfortunately, the technique costs a substantial amount of energy from Renji which usually causes an aftermath that breaks the segments out of formation. He can also use a much more powerful higa zekkō, where all the segments detach and sharpen using spiritual energy.