Bleach Episode 1 Summary

Two monsters shoot down from the night sky and land sinisterly on the dark ground. A mysterious woman standing atop a telephone pole overlooking a town. She speaks nothing more than to explain that she senses strong spiritual power.

The episode cuts to day time and an orange haired youth dressed in a school uniform and carrying a book bag, confronting five guys, one of which, is already on the ground. Apparently, the high school student is angered by the knocked over vase and flowers that were an offering to someone who had died there.

Although faced with 4 more guys, the boy cares not and stomps an unlucky punk's face into the street. After asking them a few questions, and punishing them physically for each right answer, the five boys are scared away and in the opposite direction. The orange-haired turns to a ghost girl and promises that he will bring her fresh flowers the following day. After this inquisitive observation of him being able to see ghosts, a monologue occurs in which the boy tells us who he is. His name is Kurosaki Ichigo and he is a 15 year old high school student.

It is now night time in Karakura town as Ichigo walks into his house. The building directly adjacent to his own reads "Internal Medicine Pediatrics, Kuroskai Clinic." A normal greeting, by most standards, would be a simple "hello," but instead, the boy is greeted with a round house kick to the face by his father. While the two start fist fighting and arguing about how unhealthy it is to set a curfew for a teenage boy at an astonishing 7pm, his sweet little sister Yuzu tries to stop the fight from the dinner table.

Knowing that once they start fighting, there is no way to stop them, Karin, Ichigo's other sister, asks for seconds and Yuzu happily obliges. Fed up with his father, and tired of having to knock him to the ground, Ichigo turns around and half-heartedly calls over his shoulder that he is going to sleep. Yuzu and Karin explain to Ichigo's father that he has been under a lot of stress lately because more and more ghosts visit him to be exorcised. Stunned by the fact that Ichigo refuses to talk to his father about the ghost issue, he asks his daughters, to which Karin coldly replies that he has the maturity of a child. The man runs to a huge poster of his dead wife and hugs it passionately, blaming his children's misbehavior on puberty.

The next day, Ichigo wakes up and while he is eating his toast, he watches a live news feed explaining how a building was maliciously destroyed by an unseen force. He states that the building is nearby, gathers his things, and starts his walk to school, a fresh vase of flowers placed carefully in his book bag. His initial intentions were to bring the female ghost the flowers he had promised her the day before, but before he could find her at her usual place, a scream rings out from behind him. He turns and runs to investigate the cause only to be met by a mob of horrified citizens running in the opposite direction. A building close by has stone gouged out by three seemingly massive claws, but there is nothing to be seen.

After the people have cleared the area and are no doubt on their way home for a new pair of underwear, a large mantis-like monster appears a few dozen yards from Ichigo and he is chasing the little ghost girl. Realizing that it is even dangerous for the dead, but disregarding his safety all together, Ichigo sprints to the girl to help her and they both begin to run away until she falls. The monster is a mere few feet from them and all seems lost until an ornate black butterfly flutters calmly in front of Ichigo's face. Before he even realizes what has happened, the girl from the telephone has appeared, dressed in black robes, and unsheathes a katana with the intent to kill. A swift horizontal slash to the monster's face and he writhes in pain. The unrelenting woman lands and begins the onslaught once more, and without emotion, tears the beast in half with the tip of her blade. The horrid creature disappears and the calm beauty returns her katana from whence it came and walks away. Ichigo tries to talk to her, but she just keeps walking.