Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6901880-20130304064503/@comment-1904799-20140102160919

Rayzur wrote: Ok the main argument here against ichigo being a shinigami was isshin and nimaiya saying so but after attaining a true zanpakuto and training with the royal guard, The "Chief" royal guard ichibei stated ichigo is now a true/authentic shinigami but the adminstrators deny that fact and use the isshin/nimaiya comment and their own "superior" logic to state otherwise. if we where to go strictly by race then okay ichigo and quincies are human and shinigami and hollows are just souls but do you ever see or hear anyone address a shinigami/hollow as a soul or a quincy as human? nah because whether we like it or not in bleach the type of power you wield is what identifies you before your "race" This just isn't true. Quincies were explicitly stated to be humans. Fullbringers were too. Both Quincies and Fullbringers are living, breathing humans that just happen to have extraordinary abilities. Shinigami, on the other hand, are souls from Soul Society who have trained to use a zanpakuto and have become members of the Gotei 13. "Shinigami" is not a race, just as "Quincy" and "Fullbringer" are not races.

This argument is fairly old at this point, but as a final means of clarification: Ichigo is a human being who possesses Quincy and Shinigami abilities. He is not a true Shinigami, because he is not an official member of the Gotei 13. He used to have Hollow abilities and Fullbring abilities, but as far as we can tell, both of those powers are gone now.