GRIMMJOW JEAGERJAQUES

is a fictional character in the anime and manga series ''Bleach'' created by Tite Kubo. He is an arrancar in Sōsuke Aizen's army, and the 6th Espada.

Contents

Character outline

History

Synopsis

Arrancar arc

Hueco Mundo arc

Powers

Pantera

Appearances in other media

Notes and references

Character outline

Grimmjow has light blue hair, and his eyes have blue/green lines below them that are similar to the red marks on Ikkaku Madarame's eyes. Grimmjow's attire consists of a white hakama and a black sash, his white jacket is ragged and consists of an upturned collar, with black inner lining, the sleeves are rolled and Grimmjow wears it open; chest revealed. The remains of his jawbone like hollow mask are relegated to his right cheek, and his hollow hole has moved to his abdomen.
Grimmjow appears to be a laid back and irreverent individual, but this scruffy appearance hides an impulsive, excessively violent personality and a lethally short temper. Grimmjow is blunt, rude, and quite sadistic, revealing an insane grin in battle, much like Kenpachi Zaraki. Grimmjow has little respect for authority and says whatever is on his mind, regardless of whether or not it is appropriate. This attitude leads to conflicts with Kaname Tōsen, who holds Grimmjow in the same low regard as he did Zaraki. He also has conflicts with Ulquiorra Schiffer, the 4th Espada, usually because Ulquiorra interrupts his fights or doesn't act on his own impulses. He has also developed a grudge against Ichigo Kurosaki for wounding him during their second fight, and is eager to return the favor. He purposefully kept the large scar on his chest from their first battle as a reminder of this.^[2]
Grimmjow is the sixth Espada in Sōsuke Aizen's army of arrancar, meaning he is ranked sixth in terms of strength. Grimmjow was the first character to be revealed as an Espada in the series. A crooked number 6 is tattooed on his back just above and to the right of his hollow hole. Aizen personally marks the Espada, the ten most powerful of his arrancar, with such tattoos as visible marks of their rank and ability. After Kaname Tōsen cuts off and burns his arm, Grimmjow is demoted and quickly replaced by Luppi, much to his annoyance. After Orihime Inoue heals his arm, he kills Luppi to regain his rank, impaling him on his newly restored arm and then vaporizing Luppi's torso with a ''cero'' blast.
Grimmjow's character design draws heavily from a character in Tite Kubo's earlier manga, ''Zombie Powder''. The main character of the series, Gamma Akutabi, shares both the bone-like jaw structure and lost arm with Grimmjow, although Gamma wears mechanical prosthetics to cover his disfigurements. Grimmjow's released form makes the resemblance even more apparent. The two have also been identically posed for volume covers.

History

Before Grimmjow became an arrancar, he was a jaguar-like adjuchas-class menos. At one point, he met up with Shawlong Qufang, Edorad Leones, Ilfort Grantz, Nakim, and D-Roy while attacking the latter. Shawlong suggested that Grimmjow lead their group in their quest to evolve into vasto lordes, offering to worship him as their "king" should he accept. When his subordinates realized that their evolution could go no further, they asked Grimmjow to devour a fragment of each. As a result, Grimmjow would gain a vast increase in power, but he would permanently seal off their evolution.

Synopsis

Arrancar arc

After Ulquiorra Schiffer reports his findings on Ichigo and other possible threats in Karakura Town, Grimmjow clashes with him concerning Ulquiorra's course of action. Ulquiorra had ordered his companion, Yammy, to eliminate everyone they deemed as trash, including Orihime, Yasutora Sado, and Tatsuki Arisawa. Although Ichigo had been labeled as trash as well, Ulquiorra chose to leave him alive. Although the appearance of Yoruichi Shihouin and Kisuke Urahara may have influenced this decision, Ulquiorra believes they maintained the upper hand.
Grimmjow, however, believes that Ulquiorra should have eliminated Ichigo on the spot rather than waste time waiting to see if Ichigo would eventually become dangerous to Aizen. To rectify what he believes to be a mistake, he leads a group of five other arrancar (D-Roy, Edorad Leones, Ilfort Grantz, Shawlong Qufang and Nakim) to the material world to kill anyone with even the slightest hint of spiritual pressure.
While Grimmjow's five companions are met and summarily defeated by Tōshirō Hitsugaya's team of ''shinigami'', Grimmjow himself severely injures Rukia Kuchiki by putting his hand through her stomach, and then takes on Ichigo Kurosaki. He fights Ichigo with great ease, even after Ichigo uses his ''bankai''. As Grimmjow is about to draw his ''zanpakutō'', Kaname Tōsen interrupts the fight and takes him back to Hueco Mundo to determine his punishment for disobeying orders and getting five other arrancar killed. The five killed are later revealed to have been only been gillian-class menos, meaning they are merely peons as far as the menos ranks are concerned. Tōsen requests permission to execute Grimmjow when he refuses to take responsibility for his actions, but the request is denied by Aizen. He proceeds to cut off and incinerate Grimmjow's left arm anyway, much to Grimmjow's surprise. Although Grimmjow threatens to kill Tōsen, Aizen threatens to kill him should he cause Tōsen any harm. Ulquiorra later points out Grimmjow was demoted from the Espada because he lost his arm, saying the same would have happened to Yammy had his own arm not been reattached.
When Ulquiorra later leads a second attack on Karakura Town, Grimmjow accompanies two Espada and the arrancar Wonderwice Margera, but he runs off on his own to confront Ichigo a second time. Ichigo releases his hollow form while crossing swords with Grimmjow and blasts him with a black ''getsuga tenshō'' at point-blank range. Despite his injuries and the damage to his sword, Grimmjow continues to fight with it unreleased. The tide turns as Ichigo reaches his time limit, causing his mask to break, and Grimmjow slashes him across the chest, hurling him downwards. On the ground, the battle continues, with Grimmjow maintaining the upper hand even when Rukia lands a surprise attack on him. With Ichigo disabled and Rukia about to be dealt a final blow, Shinji Hirako intervenes. After a brief struggle, Grimmjow is stopped on the verge of releasing his sword by Ulquiorra. A ''negación'' beam surrounds Grimmjow and Ulquiorra and takes them back to Hueco Mundo.

Hueco Mundo arc

After Orihime arrives at Hueco Mundo, she is ordered by Aizen to display her abilities by healing Grimmjow's arm.^[3] After she restores his arm, Grimmjow orders her to handle one more thing: restoring the "6" tattoo to his back. Immediately afterwards, he reclaims his rank by impaling Luppi with his arm and then destroying his upper body with a ''cero'' blast.^[4]
During an Espada meeting concerning the invasion of Ichigo Kurosaki, Yasutora Sado and Uryū Ishida, Grimmjow tries to leave in order to take care of the problem, but is forced to return to his seat by Aizen.
Later on, when the arrancar Lolly and Menoly attack Orihime,^[5] Grimmjow blasts the door apart and incapacitates them, blowing Menoly apart with a ''cero'' blast and snapping Lolly's leg off at the knee. Grimmjow explains to a confused Orihime that it was repaying her for his left arm.^[6] He then tells her he wants a favor from her, and tells her to come with him. Before they leave, Orihime revives the two arrancar.^[7] The two make their way to Ichigo, whom Nell Tu is trying to help.^[8] At Grimmjow's insistence, Orihime begins to heal him. Grimmjow would prefer to fight Ichigo at full strength, and is annoyed that Ulquiorra took his "prey". Before Orihime can fully heal Ichigo, however, Ulquiorra appears behind Grimmjow.^[9] Grimmjow uses a portable ''negación'' field to temporarily trap Ulquiorra, then has Orihime continue. Once Ichigo is healed, the two begin to battle.^[10]
Much like Kenpachi before him, Grimmjow insists that Ichigo not battle for his friends, instead just wanting him to focus on killing him, and reveals that he kept the scar from their first battle as a reminder to fight and kill Ichigo to prove that he is stronger.^[2] Ichigo dons his hollow mask to deal with Grimmjow, while Grimmjow releases his ''zanpakutō'' in response. Ultimately, after both deal several damaging blows to one another, Ichigo comes out on top.
Grimmjow falls to the floor, seemingly defeated. However, as Ichigo prepares to leave, a bloodied Grimmjow appears behind him and reverts to his unreleased state. Stating that he isn't done yet, Grimmjow attacks Ichigo, only to have his attack blocked bare-handed. Before he can continue, Nnoitra slashes him using his ''zanpakutō'' in an attempt to kill him.^[12] Disappointed with Grimmjow surviving the blow, Nnoitra swings his ''zanpakutō'' at Grimmjow once again, only to have Ichigo save him. Nnoitra then mocks the fallen Espada for being protected by his enemy.

Powers

Grimmjow is the ''Sexta Espada'', making him the sixth most powerful arrancar under Aizen's control. Aside from those granted by his ''zanpakutō'', he has demonstrated no unique personal abilities, but makes liberal use of the generic menos and arrancar abilities, such as ''cero'', when in combat. As an Espada, he is able to use the Espada-exclusive ''gran rey cero'' attack, which produces a larger and more powerful version of the normal ''cero''.

Pantera

The name of Grimmjow's ''zanpakutō'' is .^[13] His ''zanpakutō's tsuba resembles a crooked "S", while the sheath and handle are light blue. The release command for his ''zanpakutō'' is .^[14]
After releasing his ''zanpakutō'', Grimmjow's appearance becomes feline and predatory, taking on features such as jagged teeth, paws for feet, and a tail that can be used as a powerful whip.^[15] His hair becomes long and flowing, and his eye markings enlarge, extending to the tips of his ears, which also become cat-like. He loses his trademark jaw mask, which is replaced by a sort of crown just above his forehead. Aside from his already impressive speed and power, Grimmjow's released state augments his speed drastically and gives him animal-like agility and movements to match. He can roar when released, creating powerful shockwaves in the air. He can also fire a large number of "darts" from his elbows with enough force to demolish large buildings, as well as creating energy claws from his fingertips. These energy claws are called ''desgarrón'' (Spanish for tear).

Appearances in other media

Grimmjow is a playable character in several different fighting games, and will also have his own character album as part of the Bleach Beat Collection 3rd Session. The two vocal tracks are entitled ''BrEaK'' and ''Six feelings''.

Notes and references

1. http://www.atsuicon.com/Guestlist-VA-DavidV.html
2. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 279, pages 18 & 19.
3. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 240, page 12.
4. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 240, page 17.
5. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 272.
6. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 273.
7. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 274.
8. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 276, page 19.
9. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 277, page 18.
10. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 278, page 19.
11. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 279, pages 18 & 19.
12. Bleach manga; chapter 286.
13. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 281, page 6.
14. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 236, page 13.
15. ''Bleach'' manga; chapter 282, page 13.