Description

Personality

Tōshirō Hitsugaya is very young by Soul Society standards. Born in Rukongai, he became the youngest ever to reach captain rank. Thus, he is called a "boy genius" or a "child prodigy" by many. Hitsugaya is generally mature and serious, in contrast to his free-spirited lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto, although he can sometimes be short-tempered and irritable. Despite their personality differences, he and Matsumoto seem to be very close. Hitsugaya is shown to also be easily irked by others goofing off or drawing unneeded attention to themselves, as shown when he led a team of Soul Reapers (himself, Matsumoto, Renji Abarai, Ikkaku Madarame, and Yumichika Ayasegawa) into Ichigo Kurosaki's school. He hates anything that he deems childish and hates being described as something close to a child, evident in a filler episode when he meets Ichigo's sister, Karin, who pats him over the head further angering him. This is also shown more in the omake chapters, where he is repeatedly mistaken for a child, much to his annoyance. Despite calling it a child's game, he is shown to be extremely good at soccer, easily beating a jr. high school team.

Hitsugaya's intuition is extremely sharp, and he is the first person to correctly suspect Gin Ichimaru of foul play, though he understandably did not suspect Sōsuke Aizen of the same. He is very protective of Momo Hinamori, due to the fact that grew up like they were siblings , promising to kill those who harm her.

A running gag is Hitsugaya getting annoyed when anyone refers to him by anything other than his title, "Captain Hitsugaya" (日番谷隊長, Hitsugaya-taichō?). Ichigo always refers to him by just "Tōshirō". Hinamori has called him "Tōshirō," ("Hitsugaya-kun" in the Japanese manga and anime) and both she and Ukitake have occasionally used "Little Shiro" (シロちゃん Shiro-chan) — a nickname meaning "Whitey" (Snowy in the English manga) in reference to his hair — in both cases without repercussion, however. In the Shinigami Golden Picture Book sketches (omakes found at the end of episodes of Bleach), Jūshirō Ukitake comically gives Hitsugaya candy and other food like watermelon which there are certain amounts of flashbacks towards because "Jūshirō" and "Tōshirō" sound similar and because they both have white hair.

Equipment

Hitsugaya's zanpakutō is Hyōrinmaru (氷輪丸?, literally "ice ring", idiomatically "full moon"). Hyōrinmaru's shikai command is "Reign over the frosted heavens" or, alternately, "Reign over the frosted, frozen sky" (霜天に坐せ, sōten ni zase?, literally "Sit upon the frozen heavens"). Hyōrinmaru is the strongest of all ice/snow element zanpakutō in Soul Society. Hyōrinmaru's spirit is a winged Chinese dragon made of ice, while in the Zanpakutō Unknown Tales anime arc it takes the form of a amnesic man with long green hair and a blue x-shaped scar on his face, being calm and quiet most of the time. Hyōrinmaru allows Hitsugaya to control ice and snow. The slashes created by Hyōrinmaru gives off an immense amount of spirit power which overflows from the tip of the blade, creating a flow of ice vaguely shaped like Hyōrinmaru's dragon spirit. The dragon flies at opponents and instantly freezes anything it touches. The chain-blade also freezes anything Hitsugaya traps with it.

Hyōrinmaru's bankai.Hyōrinmaru's bankai, named Daiguren Hyōrinmaru (大紅蓮氷輪丸?, literally "great crimson lotus ice ring"), causes ice to flow from Hyōrinmaru onto Hitsugaya, forming into two large wings, a tail, guards over his feet in the shape of dragon claws, a gauntlet of sorts, in a shape vaguely reminiscent of Hyōrnimaru's dragon spirit form, over his right hand, essentially binding his hand to Hyōrinmaru's hilt, and twelve large flower petals. During one of Hitsugaya's earlier battles, the arrancar Shawlong speculates that Hitsugaya's bankai will fade when all twelve petals disappear and that Hitsugaya's bankai is incomplete due to his young age. Later during his fight with Luppi, Hitsugaya states that "even if [Hyōrinmaru is] shattered, it will reform as long as water is present in the surrounding area.

Hyōrinmaru's bankai has several known special techniques. The first is Ryūsenka (竜霰花?, literally "dragon hail flower"), which freezes any enemy Hitsugaya stabs, locking them into a cocoon of ice and freezing them to the core. Once frozen, Hitsugaya can shatter his opponent.[9] The second is Sennen Hyōrō (千年氷牢?, literally "thousand-year ice prison"), which forms a multitude of ice pillars using the moisture in the atmosphere. These pillars hold the enemy prisoner for a thousand years, also freezing them.[8] His third technique, Guncho Tsurara (literally "icicle flock"), he launches a multitude of ice shards in an attempt to impale his opponent. Once per bankai release, Hitsuagaya can create a clone of himself out of ice to distract and offset his opponent. "). A fourth attack, Hyōryū Senbi (literally "Ice Dragon Swirling Tail") allows Hitsugaya to swing his sword in a linear direction and create overflowing ice from his blade in the form of a crescent. Zekku (literally "Void Sever"), allows Hitsugaya to control his Hyouryū Senbi technique and send it up into the air. His implied most powerful move is called Hyōten Hyakkaso (literally "frozen sky-hundred flowers funeral"). This attack causes 100 snow flakes to fall from the sky, freezing anything they touch in a flower like shape. When all 100 flakes fall, the life of the one trapped by the attack is ended.

History

Hitsugaya’s early life was spent in Junrinan, District 1 of Rukongai. There he lived with his grandmother.

As a child, Hitsugaya had an icy demeanor that estranged himself from others, with the exception of his grandmother and Hinamori. She would call him “Shiro-chan” (Lil’ Shiro in the English dub) and he would retort by calling her “Bed-wetter Momo.” The three were very close, and Hitsugaya was irritated when Hinamori left to join the Soul Reaper academy. Throughout his childhood, he was always aware of what seemed to be an icy presence within himself and had continuous dreams about a plain of ice. He claims or believes he died on that plain. Five years after Hinamori’s departure, Hitsugaya encountered Rangiku Matsumoto, then a normal, unranked Soul Reaper, in a marketplace, when she stood up to a merchant who left his change on the counter, rather than handing it to him. The two got into an argument, and Rangiku noticed Hitsugaya’s enormous latent spiritual power.

That night, Hitsugaya dreamt again of the icy plain and finally met Hyorinmaru for the first time, though he could not hear the spirit’s name. He woke up to find Rangiku admonishing him for not being able to control his power, which had been freezing his grandmother. She told him that power like his needed to be controlled, and convinced him to become a Soul Reaper. With Hitsugaya’s natural talent, he entered the Soul Reaper academy in spite of his age and became known as a prodigy, quickly ascending to captain of the 10th Division, ironically making him Rangiku’s superior.

Hinamori has continued to call Hitsugaya “Shiro-chan” out of habit, and still feels protective of him. Because of a promise she had made, she only began to call him by name after he had achieved his zanpakuto’s shikai and was recognized as a Soul Reaper. Highly capable and knowledgeable, he remains the youngest of the captains within the Gotei 13.