Bleach/Tropes H-R

Tropes for Bleach, H to K:

 * Hair Colors
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Two of Harribel's fraccions are good examples, flying off the handle at allies and enemies alike to start childish arguments even mid-battle.
 * Mayuri Kurotsuchi has a healthy dose of this as well, especially in his first appearance, where he flew off the handle at the most minute of provocations, and often took it out on his lieutenant/daughter. Since then, he has chilled out a lot, and while he is still callous and easily annoyed, he handles it a lot better. A running fan-joke that the heroes simply broke into Soul Society on one of Mayuri's bad days was recently practically confirmed. When  only for him to go on another rant about how he would torture Ichigo to death when Ichigo dared to compare him to Urahara Kisuke.
 * Hand or Object Underwear: Ikkaku in anime episode #229.
 * A Handful for An Eye
 * Hands On Approach: Yoruichi giving Soifon some pointers on how to properly use a sword in combat. Odd, considering Yoruichi is never seen using one...
 * She is seen using one in a flashback. Considering she's a Soul Reaper she probably knows how to use a sword even if she doesn't use one herself.
 * Handwraps of Awesome: Ichigo, see the picture above?
 * Happy Flashback
 * Hard Work Hardly Works: Orihime works incredibly hard, but never gets a chance to do much, either from her allies telling her to Stay in The Kitchen or her enemies being too powerful or keeping her hostage. Ichigo works for his power, too, but the results always amaze beyond expectations.
 * Orihime's problem is that she's basically a Technical Pacifist, but her only attack technique has no non-lethal mode. It either fails entirely or is a One-Hit Kill, with nothing in between.
 * Heads I Win, Tails You Lose:
 * Healing Shiv: Hanatarou Yamada's Hisagomaru, which goes from a Healing Katana to a Wounding Scalpel.
 * The Heartless: Hollows, both figuratively and literally.
 * Heel Face Door Slam:
 * Hero Antagonist: The Soul Reapers (not counting Aizen and co) in the first arc. From their perspective, they're trying to deliver punishment to a criminal and Ichigo and his team are an armed mob raiding the police station.
 * Hero With an F In Good: Don Kanonji, who thinks he's protecting children throughout the country from the monsters that go bump in the night. Ichigo has to show him that he's actually helping to create those monsters.
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Kenpachi and Mayuri are sometimes this and sometimes Sociopathic Hero.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: In Memories of Nobody, Senna does this to Save Both Worlds.
 * Also Konoka in The 3rd Phantom, in order to try and weaken Arturo.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Ikkaku and Yumichika and Kyouraku and Ukitake. The fanbase can often be found discussing the true nature of the relationships in these pairings and the anime often likes to add fuel to this debate as well. However, in the manga there's no evidence either of these pairs have any kind of sexual interest in each other which makes them straight examples of this trope.
 * Hidden Villain: Though it's safe to say he isn't exactly hidden anymore.
 * High-Pressure Blood: Everyone manages to lose incredible amounts of blood without dying.
 * Used to a comedic effect in episode 303 with Hisagi's nosebleed.
 * Hime Cut: Tobiume in the Zanpakuto Unknown Tales
 * Hoist By His Own Petard: During the Bount arc, Ugaki is killed by his own doll, albeit with a little help from Kariya.
 * Aizen
 * Hollywood Tactics: Despite being a Magnificent Bastard when it comes to conspiracies, and assuming he's not doing it on purpose, Aizen's very bad when it comes to directing his subordinates, considering he's lost basically all of them, with only two of his named subordinates still alive (Gin and Yammy, with the latter on his way out of the picture). Keep in mind Aizen's ability means he could have won the war without losing a single soldier.
 * It's likely more along the lines of We Have Reserves. Every one of his subordinates, no matter how loyal or efficient, are pawns to be sacrificed at a moment's notice if it suits his needs (even when not strictly necessary or entirely avoidable) or to be crushed like a bug once they outlived their usefulness- sometimes even before that (like what happened to ). It's safe to say that his senselessly throwing minion after minion under the bus serves to underline the utterly sociopathic level of his callous disregard for everyone who's not him- after all, why would a God bother himself with the lives of insects?
 * Hollywood Voodoo: Szayelaporro Grantz's ability to create voodoo dolls of his opponents filled with replicas of their internal organs.
 * Honor Before Reason: During his fight with Ulquiorra,, he asks him to mutilate him back to make it a fair fight. This is made even worse with the fact that the fight was pretty much a Curb Stomp Battle . According to Byakuya, he had a similar reason for  during their fight in the Soul Society arc.
 * Grimmjow somewhat calls Ichigo out on this during his third fight, stating that if he really wanted to save Orihime, he could've just taken her and ran, instead of just staying around to fight. Of course, that was probably just to provoke Ichigo into using his true power. Still, he could've moved her to a safer location at least, instead of having to take a hit for her later in the battle.
 * Ishida stopping Ichigo's uberhollow from obliterating Ulquiorra also counts; Ishida being a Quincy, who completely and totally kill hollows without mercy (whereas shinigami "cleanse the spirit," and send them off on their merry way), this is a random and idiotic change of persona. And he goes on claiming that Ichigo would be just like Hollows, when he'd really be like a Quincy, since I doubt Ichigo planned on eating Ulquiorra after blasting him to oblivion., although in the anime, Ishida seemed to assume that Ulquiorra was already dead. He was actually just stopping Ichigo from "chopping up his corpse," which makes more sense from Ishida's POV.
 * Ukitake regarding Kaien. Ukitake seems to be a well-meaning chap, but he was a damn fool to place Kaien's sense of honor above the welfare of his squad and basic common sense. They did not understand the Hollow they were facing, they should not have attacked it. End of story.
 * Rukia does the same to Ichigo while he's fighting Grand Fisher. Even though there was a good chance of his death during his fight with Grand Fisher (as well as the deaths of everyone around him) Rukia still tells Kon not to interfere because it would damage Ichigo's pride.
 * Hope Spot: In several places throughout the series, but the Fake Karakura arc may have just set a new record.
 * Horror Hunger: When souls become Hollows, they are driven by an eternal and insatiable hunger to devour other souls, living or dead. However, when the void within an ordinary hollow's heart becomes so much that human souls are incapable of sustaining it, the hollows are driven to cannibalize other hollows. This usually results in them evolving into much stronger hollows.
 * Hot Blooded: Ikkaku, Ichigo, Renji, Grimmjow, Yammy, most notably.
 * Hot Mom: Almost every character is fanservice of some format or another. This goes for the mothers as well. Examples include Masaki Kurosaki and Ikumi Unagiya.
 * Human Mom Nonhuman Dad: Or in  case,  ...
 * The Hyena: Nnoitra, who is introduced laughing psychotically before his face is even shown.
 * I Am a Humanitarian: Um, what.
 * Well, He is a strawberry.
 * I Am Not Left Handed: Hardly anyone uses their strongest attack at the beginning of a battle, and often not even for an entire battle when they're losing; this is true even for many of the smarter adversaries. The most extreme examples are Ikkaku and Yumichika but they're certainly not the only ones. See trope page for examples.
 * I Am Your Opponent
 * Identical Panel Gag: Used on occasions, notably when Ichigo realizes he has noway to become a Shinigami, or when Chad and Inoue meet Hiyori and Shinji.
 * Idiot Ball: Ichigo in chapter 392.
 * In the same chapter, the captains for thinking that Aizen would actually fight fair knowing what a bastard he is.
 * The Head Captain for the entirety of the Fake Karakura Town battle. Not only does Yamamoto only intervene in fights where certain death for his Lieutenants is upon them, when he could curbstomp any opponent on the battlefield, but he also allows said soldiers to split up and have their own fights, as a training exercise.
 * Ichigo, Uryu, and Chad rushing into Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime from Aizen's lair? Sounds noble. Not waiting for Renji and Rukia to back them up, then deciding to go off by themselves in the middle of enemy territory? Very, very stupid. In fact, the only reason any of them survived was because Yamamoto was going to send Captains there anyway, and had them intervene in the beatdowns that each and every one of Ichigo's friends had winded up in.
 * Ignored Enemy: Yammy for Kenpachi and Byakuya.
 * I Lied:
 * Image Song: Boy howdy. Important characters with voice actors who can carry a tune get two or three each. Renji has one, And it is badass! Hell, even Nel and Hanatarou have them.
 * there's a three-song album dedicated to only blatantly ship Ichi Ruki, in which they have corresponding solos that are obviously about each other and a sappy duet (their second one after Memories in the Rain).
 * Immortal Hero: Despite the long run and very large cast, no one on the Soul Society's side has died. Generally, even serious wounds are healed quickly by numerous superhealers on good guys side. On the other hand, most (not all) bad guys tend to fall by the wayside, if not immediately then certainly eventually.
 * Important Haircut: Several examples in the story. Played with, played straight and inverted. See trope page for detail.
 * Impossibly Cool Weapon: This manga is full of them.
 * Incendiary Exponent: Yamamoto
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: The theme song given to Ulquiorra by Tite Kubo, Moonshield, contains the lyrics "Hollow ambitions in a hollow mind." If it's a coincidence, it's a weird one. If it's not, shame on you, Tite Kubo.
 * Incurable Cough of Death: Hisana Kuchiki, but only in the third film. Subverted by Ukitake whose terrible (and unrevealed) incurable illness hasn't killed him yet... although it did contribute to his vice-captain's death.
 * Indy Ploy: Let's face it, none of Ichigo's plans are exactly thought out. Goes with his Leeroy Jenkins nature.
 * A particularly funny one is how he planned on defeating the first Gillian he encountered, back before he had even learned shikai. Ichigo planned on cutting chunks out of its feet and body until he had sliced everything away and the mask was low enough for him to hit.
 * Informed Ability: Quite a few characters and this is before we get to the fact we haven't seen all the captains and ex-captains bankai.
 * Yoruichi Shihouin has never been seen using her zanpakutou. In fact her zanpakutou has only ever been seen once in the current storyline (it's been seen twice in flashbacks), in a background shot leaning up against a wall and even then fans aren't sure if it really is her zanpakutou or not. However, when Soifon remember her time serving under Captain Shihouin, she commented on how Yoruichi was unsurpassed at sword-fighting. Considering she's unsurpassed at speed and her preferred fighting style is unarmed combat, fans can only guess how good "unsurpassed at sword-fighting" might be.
 * Yammy (Especially with his Resurrección). When he finally got serious, his fight was completed off-panel... and he lost.
 * Supplementary materials state that Unohana is the third strongest captain, behind Yamamoto and Aizen. We never actually see her do anything except act kind and heal people.
 * Innocent Fanservice Girl: Yoruichi was initially this. She spent so long as a cat that when she took her true form in front of Ichigo, she completely forgot she was naked.
 * Instant Cosplay Surprise: This happens to Ichigo in one of the New Year specials. He's roped into helping Komamura and Unohana make a film about a humanoid dog hero that saves lives, only to find himself forced to wear a badly designed dog costume. He's not amused.
 * Instant Sedation: played with. Shinigami have access to three tranquiliser drugs that they can used as necessary: shinten, gaten and houten. Shinten is used on targets with weak spiritual pressure whereas gaten and houten are used on much stronger opponents. Hanataro has been seen using shinten to knock out low-level guards when rescuing Rukia. Yoruichi uses either gaten or houten to knock out Ichigo and rescue him from Byakuya. Kira uses gaten to knock out Yumichika during the fake Karakura Town battle. All the drugs work instantly but are also fantasy drugs made up for the setting and therefore able to work to whatever rules the author wants.
 * Interface Screw:.
 * Internal Reveal: A number of these, most obviously the fact that didn't learn that until many chapters later..
 * Intimate Healing...?: What Mayuri does to heal Nemu after his battle with Szayel. Squicks the hell out of Uryu and Renji. Mayuri, however, insists that they must be perverts to think he's doing that.
 * Invisible to Normals: Ghosts, Hollows, Soul Reapers, and their (often oversized and glowy) weapons.
 * I Owe You My Life: In the anime, during the Soul Society arc Ichigo says that the reason he's trying to rescue Rukia is because she saved his life from the Hollow in the first episode. Also, Komamura Sajin to Yamamoto Genryuusai Shigekuni.
 * I Reject Your Reality: Orihime.
 * Irony:
 * Ironic Echo: After Ichigo returned and started laying the smackdown on, he notes that   is keeping his distance,   having previous to Ichigo's Badass Level Taking asked Ichigo why he was keeping his distance.
 * It Got Worse: Several times throughout the series. The most striking example is Chapter 390, also known as . After the Hope Spot that was Chapter 391, it gets... rather malicious. Generally, any time Chad goes down. Kubo uses his defeat as a turning point in both the Soul Society Arc and the Hueco Mundo Arc.
 * It Always Rains At Funerals: Anime ''Zanpakuto: The Alternate Tale" arc. In episode 255, after 's death it starts to rain.
 * It's Personal: Ichigo is incapable of fighting at full power unless someone he cares about is in immediate danger. When he first shows up in
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: For all he acts constantly as the Blood Knight trope personified, aside from his blood-soaked backstory (including a duel to the death with the former captain of the 11th Division), we've only seen Kenpachi kill two humanoid opponents after defeating them.
 * Depends whether you accept his "I just want to fight you again" explanation is genuine. It would after all fit his battle mania.
 * I think it's safe to say that every other character in this series caters to this trope. If they're not blatantly a jerk, they're subtly a jerk.
 * Johnny Yong Bosch: Voices Ichigo Kurosaki, and Hollow Ichigo.
 * Just in Time: Too many to count. The show practically thrives off of this for battle turnarounds.
 * Kabuki Sounds
 * Karma Houdini: Mayuri. In his first appearance he uses his subordinates as bombs and was both physically and emotionally abusive of his Lieutenant/daughter/, Nemu. Additionally, he plays into Uryu Ishida's backstory by having arranged the deaths of Ishida's clan so that he could run torturous experiments on them. So far the only one who actually seems to care about any of this is Uryu.
 * Kick the Dog: This manga is incredibly dog-unfriendly. Downright abusive, in fact. See trope page for the proof!
 * Kill It With Fire: Yamamoto, Edorad, Hinamori.
 * Kill It With Ice: Hitsugaya and Rukia.
 * Kill It With Water: Haribel and Findor.
 * Kindhearted Cat Lover: Yuzu has a whole episode devoted to finding a cat (which turns out to be the spirit of a dead cat) and taking care of it, thus when she's in trouble with hollows, it protects her and in so doing can finally pass on.
 * Klingon Promotion: It's how Kiganjo became the 10th Kenpachi of the 11th division. It's also how Zaraki defeated him to become the 11th Kenpachi of the 11th division. They're the only two known examples and both in the 11th division. It's an accepted Gotei 13 method of obtaining a captain's rank, however.
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: Ichigo lives and breathes this trope and he'll convert (by the sword) failing big brothers to his way of thinking if he has to, as both Orihime and Rukia's big brothers discover.
 * Once Byakuya manages to resolve his conflicting vows, he goes from being an Aloof Big Brother to one of these.
 * Hitsugaya has a bad case of this towards Hinamori, although in his case, he's actually the younger of the two (they're adoptive siblings, having been raised by the same old woman that they both regard as their grandmother).
 * Knockback Slide: Happens in virtually every fight scene.
 * Kudzu Plot: Arguably the Soul Society arc, as well as the Arrancar Saga.
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: Ichigo lives and breathes this trope and he'll convert (by the sword) failing big brothers to his way of thinking if he has to, as both Orihime and Rukia's big brothers discover.
 * Once Byakuya manages to resolve his conflicting vows, he goes from being an Aloof Big Brother to one of these.
 * Hitsugaya has a bad case of this towards Hinamori, although in his case, he's actually the younger of the two (they're adoptive siblings, having been raised by the same old woman that they both regard as their grandmother).
 * Knockback Slide: Happens in virtually every fight scene.
 * Kudzu Plot: Arguably the Soul Society arc, as well as the Arrancar Saga.