Shinji Hirako


 * Shinji redirects here for the filler character from episode 133 see Shinji (filler)

is a recruiter and the unofficial leader of the Vizards, and was also the previous captain of the 5th Division in the Gotei 13.

Appearance
Shinji has jaw length blond hair with a straight cut and many of his facial expressions reveal his upper teeth, a trait also seen in Nnoitra Jiruga. In the past, Shinji wore normal captain robes and had considerably longer hair. As a Vizard, Shinji has been seen in standard Karakura school uniform, though he usually wears a long brown coat, shirt and tie, a newsboy cap, and shorter hair. Shinji appears to have a pierced round ring in the middle of his tongue.

Personality
Shinji is somewhat comical, adding a bit of levity to situations that are otherwise serious. He has a flippant attitude under normal circumstances and seems to like annoying his associate, Hiyori Sarugaki, which usually earns him a slap from one of her sandals. She, in turn, shows him absolutely no respect and frequently insults and attacks him; although he is no better, frequently making faces or glib insults at her expense. He also appears to have a history of referring to cute girls he meets as his 'first love', complete with a deadpan look on his face despite the obvious lie (he apparently never did this with Hiyori, further annoying her).

Underneath this, though, he is quite perceptive regarding other people, and during his time as a captain, was one of the few people who appeared suspicious of his then-lieutenant Aizen, and could apparently sense or see through some of his illusions. He also quickly notes parts of Urahara's personality. Aizen even admitted to being somewhat intimidated by him. Whenever angered or in combat, Shinji is fairly calm, serious, and level-headed. During a conversation with Ukitake, it was implied that he had been a long-running captain. However, he is not included in Shunsui Kyōraku's list of captains from 100 years before (now 200 years before, because that was said during the Pendulum arc).

History
Shinji was the captain of the 5th Division approximately 100 years before the main storyline, with Sōsuke Aizen serving as his lieutenant. Unlike the other members of the Gotei 13, Shinji was aware of Aizen's immoral nature and appeared to have some knowledge of the true abilities of his subordinate's Zanpakutō. Believing the seemingly friendly, soft-spoken intellectual was a threat to Soul Society, Shinji decided to choose Aizen as his lieutenant so he could monitor him closely. One night, approximately 99 years before the main storyline, a group of Shinigami out on patrol mysteriously disappeared. Kensei Muguruma and Mashiro Kuna who were respectively captain and lieutenant of the 9th Division at the time were sent, along with other members of the division to investigate the disappearance. When the 9th Division members disappeared for unknown reasons, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto decided to send Shinji, his fellow captains, Love Aikawa and Rōjūrō Otoribashi, and Lieutenants Lisa Yadōmaru and Hachigen Ushōda to the site with Hiyori Sarugaki already heading there.

At the site of the disappearances, Shinji and the rest of his teammates were forced to fight Kensei and Mashiro who were unable to control their new Hollow abilities. Heavily injured by the fight, the remaining members were easily subdued by Kaname Tōsen and were unwillingly subjected to Hollowfication by Aizen, who used some sort of infectious agent to trigger the change. This agent caused Shinji and his comrades to rapidly transform into Hollows.

However, before Shinji could attack Aizen, his Hollowfication progressed even more, paralyzing him. Gloating over his now helpless captain, Aizen stated that although it was wise of Hirako to keep an eye on him, he made a critical error; he refused to socialize and get to know his lieutenant, which made it easy for Aizen to deceive him. Satisfied with the results of his experiment, Aizen prepared to kill the high-ranking Shinigami, but was forced to retreat after the arrival of Kisuke Urahara and Tessai Tsukabishi.

Urahara quickly takes Shinji and the rest of the victims to his lab and tried to use the Hōgyoku to reverse the damage, but failed. The next day, Urahara and Tessai were arrested under the orders of the Central 46 Chambers. The Hollowfied Shinigami are sentenced to execution as Hollows. Before any of their sentences could be carried out, however, both Urahara Tessai were rescued by Yoruichi Shihōin, captain of the 2nd Division, who brought them to a secret underground area.

In the secluded area, she had also brought the Hollowfied Shinigami, along with the prototype for the new gigai that Urahara was working on. With that epiphany, Urahara resolved to make ten reiatsu-blocking gigai to aid him, Tessai, and the eight victims escape to the real world, where they would find a way to undo the Hollowfication process.

Bount arc
Shinji makes a minor appearance and has the last line of the arc; He appears in Karakura Town in a similar fashion as Rukia did the night before she first met Ichigo.

Arrancar arc
One hundred years after Shinji was captain of the 5th division, Shinji appears before Ichigo Kurosaki in an attempt to recruit him to become a Vizard. While his initial attempts fail, he promises that no matter what his decision, Ichigo would eventually need to contain his inner Hollow to prevent it from devouring his own soul. Shinji then departs for the time being, receiving some physical abuse from Hiyori when he tells her that Ichigo has refused to join them. Hoping to learn how to contain his inner Hollow, Ichigo eventually comes to Shinji and the rest of the Vizard. While he initially attempts to get the information out of them by force, Shinji half-heartedly battles Ichigo. The other Vizard watch close by, noting that Shinji was not even taking the latter seriously.

After Ichigo suddenly leaves to fight Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Shinji pursues him and saves both Ichigo and Rukia from Grimmjow's Cero attack after Grimmjow defeated both of them single-handedly. He claimed that he otherwise hates to interfere in such fights, but he justifies his coming by saying that he can't ignore it when one hears the sound of fighting so close by. Having a small discussion with Grimmjow, he is then suddenly attacked by the Espada, who declares his intentions of killing him. Dodging all of the attacks, Shinji realizes how violent Grimmjow is and the fight is destroying everything around them. Thus, Shinji dons his Hollow mask and engages Grimmjow. Shinji immediately gains the upper hand and forced Grimmjow to release, but Ulquiorra Cifer comes and retrieves Grimmjow before he can do so.

Hueco Mundo arc
He seems quite angry as he realizes Ichigo has left to Hueco Mundo leaving to them only a word: "Thanks".

Fake Karakura Town arc


Around the same time when Sōsuke Aizen, Gin Ichimaru, Kaname Tōsen and the top three Espada invade the fake Karakura Town, Shinji reminisces about how Kisuke Urahara became a captain and how the Vizard would were subjected by Aizen's Hollowfication experiments. He then claims that they are in debt to Urahara and also have a score to settle with Aizen. Afterwards, Shinji and the rest of the Vizard leave their compound, armed and ready for battle, simply saying: "Let's go."



Shinji and the rest of the Vizard later arrive at the fake Karakura Town, just when Aizen and his forces begin to gain the upper hand and confronts the latter with his usual grin. Shinji asks his fellow Vizard if there is anyone in the Gotei 13 they would like to speak to and ends up in a short argument with Hiyori, followed by the rest of his teammates expressing their disinterest in speaking to their former comrades (with the exception of Lisa, who flash steps away to see captain Shunsui Kyoraku). Shinji then approaches Yamamoto to greet him, to which the captain-commander asks if he has come for revenge. Shinji plainly tells him that against Aizen, "Yes." As for the Gotei 13, he could care less; if he was mad at the Gotei 13 it would be for "making the barrier around the fake Karakura Town so hard to get through." He also points out that if he hadn't found Lieutenant Chōjirō Sasakibe outside the barrier, he and the Vizard would still be outside. Yamamoto then asks Shinji if he is right to assume they are allies, to which Shinji tells him that it's too obvious they aren't. They are not on the Gotei 13's side, but they are against Aizen and they are Ichigo's allies. He returns to the other Vizard who ask him if he is done talking. He simply replies "No," but that now is not the time as the enemy is growing impatient. The Vizard then proceed to bring forth their masks when the giant Hollow creature spews forth a huge amount of Gillian-class Menos from its mouth. . As the rest of the Vizard engage in battle with the Menos Grande, Shinji confronts Aizen face to face and tells him that "it's time to finish this," as he partially removes his mask, he attacks Sōsuke Aizen, and appears to speak the command, sever. Unfortunately, his attack is blocked by Kaname Tōsen, who manages to make a small cut above his left eye. When he was about to receive another attack from Tōsen, Sajin Komamura steps into the battle, saying that he has decided to help the Vizard and that "[he] won't accept a no as an answer".

Powers & Abilities
Master Swordsmanship Specialist: Shinji is implied to be a powerful combatant, being the unofficial leader among the group and a former Shinigami captain. At one point, when Shinji begins to fight with Ichigo Kurosaki, the other Vizard mention that Ichigo is foolish to battle Shinji proven by the fact that Shinji is not taking the battle seriously (albeit it was also mentioned that Ichigo was holding back, because he was trying to suppress his inner Hollow). Shinji is also shown to be able to hold off Mashiro Kuna during her Hollowfication metamorphosis without releasing his sword, although it took some effort. He was also able to fend off Kaname Tōsen while also trying to resist his Hollowfication.

Flash Steps Expert: Shinji excels in shunpō. His skill is shown to be great enough to easily outmanuever Grimmjow, the Sixth Espada. In Turn Back the Pendulum, before he even became a Vizard, he was the first to arrive to save Hiyori even when Lisa had a headstart and all the other Captains left at the same time. Also, when he met up with Aizen during the Karakura Town arc, he seemingly Flash Stepped to his position instantly, with extreme speed albeit wearing his Hollow mask at that time.

Keen Intellect: Despite his childish attitude at times, Shinji has shown himself to be a very insightful and perceptive man. During his time as captain of the 5th division, he was able to see through Aizen's deceptions and some of his illusions. Even Aizen himself admitted to be intimidated by Shinji's cunning.

Immense Spiritual Pressure: Being a captain, he must have had enormous spiritual pressure. Since becoming a Vizard, he now has the dual type spiritual pressure, similar to the Espada.

Zanpakutō
Not much has been revealed about Shinji's Zanpakutō, as he rarely uses or even visibly wears it. The hilt and sheath are red and its guard is shaped like an hour-glass. None of his release states have been shown, and the times that he does seriously fight he seems to rely more on his Hollow mask.


 * Shikai: Not Yet Revealed


 * Bankai: Not Yet Revealed

Vizard
Hollow Mask: Shinji's Hollow mask strongly resembles a pharaoh's mask, with a short, flowing hood hanging down the back of his neck. When donning his Hollow mask, Shinji's sclera turn completely black and his irises become grey. Shinji is quite skilled with his Hollow powers, using his increased speed and strength to overwhelm Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez in a short amount of time before catching him in a powerful Cero blast, which the Espada barely defended against with a Cero of his own (Although, Grimmjow's was hastily fired and not very powerful).


 * Cero: In the Anime, Shinji gathers energy that is displayed in a horizontal line. He then releases a crimson Cero with an extremely wide arc and devastating force. The video games also depict him being able to split the Cero blast into multiple smaller beams or a real yellow/golden Cero in a few games, while he uses a large crimson Cero in anime..

Quotes

 * (To newly-appointed Captain Urahara) "I will give you advice as someone who has been a Captain before you; The feelings of those below should not be considered by the one who stands on top, even if the one on top understands those feelings. You can do whatever you like, then if no one follows you, it means you're just not qualified."
 * (To Grimmjow) "Can't ya hold back a little while you're fighting? If I dodge an attack and the city gets destroyed bit by bit instead, then I can't just ignore it and keep dodging."
 * (before leaving to fight in the war) "... Kisuke said 'There were no miscalculations. That was my biggest miscalculation. Everything preceded just as expected to worst outcome. We really are indebted to Kisuke... and... Aizen. Let's go."
 * (To Yamamoto) "If there's anything I'm really pissed off at you for, is for making that damned barrier so strong."
 * (To Yamamoto, after being asked if the Vizard were on the Shinigami's side) "Isn't it obvious? Of course we aren't. We're not on your side. We're against Aizen. And we're on Ichigo's side."
 * (To Aizen) "Like it? Gone an' got pretty good with these Hollow forms, ain't we?"
 * (To Komamura) "You sure you want to help a bunch of suspicious characters like ourselves? Well, not that you're not pretty strange-looking yourself."

Trivia

 * An early drawing of Shinji can be seen in the art of the first chapter.
 * One of Shinji's previous acclaimed crushes was Lisa Yadōmaru, a fellow Vizard; his current is Orihime Inoue.
 * During several points in the anime, Shinji's outfit is depicted to look like Lupin the III, likely as a homage on the part of the animators.
 * In the Turn Back the Pendulum mini-series, Shinji tells Aizen about a (then) new thing called jazz that Aizen would not understand because he's "not hip." This implies that even as a captain, Shinji was just as youth-orientated as he is now.
 * Shinji is the only original Vizard to appear in a filler arc: at the end of the Bount Arc, but for less than a minute. He was on top of a pole and jumped off in a way like Rukia did before her introduction.
 * Shinji is one of the few characters to be featured in more than one Bleach manga volume cover (volume 21 and volume 36), the others being Ichigo Kurosaki, Orihime Inoue, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez and Ulquiorra Cifer.
 * He is also, until now, the only Vizard that has been featured in a Bleach manga volume cover (with the exception of Ichigo).
 * The early design of Shinji that appeared in the cover for the first manga chapter was ranked #103 with three votes in the 2nd Bleach Popularity Poll.
 * Shinji is one of the two canon characters to share his given name with another character, the other being Ryo Kunieda.

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