Now, normally when you’re watching a Shonen anime, the show doesn’t focus on what the kids in the series are capable of. I mean, the last time I saw literal children fight at the same level as the adults was in Dragon Ball. And, let’s be honest, Dragon Ball just has and issue with balancing power dynamics on a whole. So, when Bleach introduced tiny baby Ururu Tsumugiya and immediately gave her a canon of a Bankai, well. People still have a lot of questions.
Fans have always believed the secret to her strength might be the fact that she’s created to be so strong through a combination of technologies, aka an Enhanced Artificial Soul. First of all, we already know Ururu isn’t your regular kid. I mean, she works in Soul Society, has nearly the same powers as the Shinigami despite being so young, and is also capable of sniffing out spiritual beings around her with no problem. Yet, she’s almost robotic in her reactions when fighting, and meek when not.
Like, the girl is a mystery, from start to finish but I think the fans are onto something. After all, it’s not like we haven’t seen the existence of artificially augmented beings in Bleach before. Hell, oddly enough, the only times we’ve encountered these Enhanced Artificial Souls is at Kisuke Urahara’s shop, which is where Ururu is also employed, selling Shinigami items to people. And we know the Shinigami are capable of creating them if they wish, just like we saw with yet another captain within Soul Society. And because they are artificially engineered, that might explain why they are so strong as well.
But why create them at all? It’s not like the Shinigami are struggling against the Hollows that they are sent to take care of. And why would they take the shape of someone as young as Urara? There is a lot more here than meets the eye and that’s exactly what I want to break down in today’s segment of Character Analysis – where we take mysterious characters from across the Animesphere to see what secrets they might be hiding. Today, it’s the sweet but unknowingly lethal shop assistant at Urahara Shop!
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Ururu Tsumugiya: She’s Just Trying Her Best!
Honestly, Ururu is such a refreshing character in a roster filled with individuals that are constantly sure of themselves, mature in a way that can be very one note. But Ururu is so odd amongst other residents of Soul Society.
She’s just a child, tending to a tiny shop and it seems so out of place. She often cries when the people she’s selling to complain about the merchandise being subpar and not up to quality. So, she ends up being reserved and cautious as a result. However, that doesn’t mean she should be underestimated, as the protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki learns soon enough.
The girl is nearly a one-woman army. When Urahara asks Ichigo to spar with her, he initially refuses because, well yeah. She is a literal child, around the same age as his baby sisters. But he quickly learns that underestimating her was a huge mistake. She defeats him in battle almost mechanically, like she wasn’t even thinking about it.
And that’s the weird thing about her. She has this weird instinct where she can sense things like Hollows and Arrancars, and immediately start attacking them. It’s not even like she has to be awake for this to happen, considering how often she starts fighting out of nowhere when near a being like that, even as she was sleeping moments before. Not even the Shinigami are spared.
With her Senren Bakusatsu Taihō, she is a force to be reckoned with.
So, Why Is Ururu So Strong?
Honestly, there is no true consensus over why Ururu is so freakishly adapt at fighting. Her skill set alone rivals some of the best in the series, and her strength at her age is unparalleled.
The easiest answer is that she is an Artificial Human, just like Jinta Hanakari, created by Urahara. Her Genocide Mode and allusions to being ‘programmed’ to act a certain way, definitely make that theory sound plausible.
However, the mangaka for Bleach, Tite Kubo, has decided to keep her origins a secret. So, it’s likely we’ll never know!
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