Uryū Ishida

Uryū Ishida (石田 雨竜) is a fictional character and major figure in the anime and manga series Bleach created by Tite Kubo. He is a classmate and companion of Ichigo Kurosaki and is introduced as the last Quincy. He ranked 5th in the fourth Shonen Jump poll.

Character outline
Uryū Ishida is a black-haired, bespectacled teenager of average height. At school, Uryū wears the school uniform along with a tie, while outside he dons white Quincy clothes with blue stripes representing a Quincy cross, and a mantle.

Uryū is generally shy and quiet, but tries harder to act cool when other people are around. For example, during the Soul Society arc he wears a mantle that serves no purpose other than to make him look cooler, despite the fact that it hinders his movement. He even keeps a spare to that effect. In addition, he also has a tendency to say things with characteristic drama.

Uryū operates on a moral ethic known as the "Pride of the Quincy" and has a strong sense of justice. He has also shown to be very chivalrous, stating that he enacts justice on men who abuse or treat women badly. He demonstrates this at multiple points throughout the series, such as when he tried to defend Rukia Kuchiki from Renji Abarai when he and Byakuya Kuchiki came to the real world to take her, or when he defends Orihime Inoue at multiple points throughout the Soul Society arc. Uryū also has a tendency to not use lethal force in battle unless thoroughly provoked, especially if he can win without doing so. Instead, he will simply incapacitate his opponent.

Uryū has low blood pressure and hates procrastination. The other things he hates are quite odd: buttons (despite being an expert in sewing) and the word "haphazard." His favorite food is homemade mackerel miso stew. The television program he likes is Don Kanonji's "Bura-Rei". The shadow that jumped out of the crowd at Kanonji's first appearance was in fact Uryū. Like his grandfather, Sōken Ishida, Uryū is left-handed, and he is also a great archer, capable of great feats of archery.

School
At school, Uryū is the highest scoring student. Fitting with his habit of misreading names, Ichigo misreads Uryū's given name as Ametatsu, likely assuming he is female (雨 can also be read as 'ame' and 竜 as 'tatsu', usually in female names).

Uryū is also captain of the fine crafts club, being a master of sewing and design. He is the most skilled of the members (his nickname is "The Four-Eyed Sewing Machine") and as such the other members of the club often ask him to help them fix their wares. Uryū repeatedly repairs the stuffed lion Kon, though he generally adds something fancy and unwanted, which annoys Kon. After one of Kon's retaliatory beatings, Uryū sewed a Quincy cross on the back of his head as revenge. He also designed dresses for Orihime and Rukia as well as redesigned Chad's shirt to replace the solitary vertical stripe with a Quincy-like cross. Chad comments that he seems to be better at designing women's clothing than men's.

Uryū is an outcast at school, almost never interacting with anyone. He refuses to eat lunch when Ichigo invites him to, but eventually agrees when someone else pays for it. Like some of the other main characters (i.e. Orihime and Chad), he lives alone, and as revealed in the manga, he is not well-off financially.

History
As a child, Uryū mostly interacted and trained with his grandfather, Sōken Ishida. His father, Ryūken Ishida, was less than enthusiastic about being a Quincy, claiming that it wasn't a profitable occupation. They don't appear to be on very good terms as a result, given Uryū's casual use of his father's given name, which is considered very rude in Japanese society. Sōken understands Ryūken's reasoning, since being a Quincy is more about justice than material rewards and Ryūken has a family to support. Sōken told Uryū that he would someday understand his father's motives, but thus far this isn't the case.

At a fairly young age, Uryū's grandfather was killed by hollows right in front of him. This is one of the reasons he hates the shinigami, who didn't come to rescue Sōken in time. It is later revealed that the current captain of the 12th Division, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, was behind the delay so that Sōken's soul could be collected for study.

Synopsis
After Ichigo Kurosaki gains the shinigami powers of Rukia Kuchiki, Uryū confronts him in an attempt to prove that Quincy are superior. Using some special bait, Uryū attracts a swarm of hollows to Karakura Town so that he and Ichigo can compete to see who can kill the most hollows in a day. This bait, however, attracts too many hollows, including a menos grande, and Uryū and Ichigo are forced to band together. They drive the menos off, but its brief time in Karakura Town attracts the attention of Soul Society. Two shinigami are dispatched to capture Rukia. Uryū confronts the two in an attempt to stop them, but is easily defeated by the much stronger shinigami. After they return to Soul Society with Rukia, Uryū realizes that he is not as strong as he thought he was.

Wanting to go and save Rukia, Uryū trains to better equip himself for the next time he needs to battle a shinigami. To this effect, he masters the sanrei glove, and joins the rescue team going to Soul Society. Their group is split up soon after their arrival, and Uryū ends up partnered with Orihime Inoue. Though the pair manage to avoid detection for some time, they are eventually found by 12th Division captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, who quickly takes an interest in Orihime's abilities. Uryū sends her away to remove her from harm, and battles Mayuri in order to buy time.

As their battle progresses, Uryū proves to be no match for the captain. Nevertheless, Mayuri comments on Uryū's impressive Quincy abilities, noting that the thousands of Quincy he has studied over the years fail to measure up to Uryū. After showing Uryū a picture of his most recent test subject, Uryū's grandfather, Uryū decides to defeat Mayuri at all costs. He removes his sanrei glove, greatly increasing his Quincy powers and allowing him to beat Mayuri. However, Mayuri is able to escape and Uryū, robbed of his Quincy powers by removing the glove, is easily captured by Kaname Tōsen. He is soon reunited with other members of his rescue team that have also been imprisoned, and they are freed by Kenpachi Zaraki. Upon reuniting with Ichigo and saving Rukia, the rescue team returns to the human world.

With his Quincy powers gone, Uryū is of little use during the initial stages of the Bount invasion. He accompanies Ichigo and the others from battle to battle, but is unable to make any major contributions. Needing access to his former abilities in order to help his friends, Uryū strikes a deal with Mayuri; if Uryū lets the Bount into Soul Society, Mayuri will briefly restore his Quincy powers. Uryū complies, giving the Bount access to the Soul Society, and receives a Quincy artifact for his troubles. Though inexperienced with it, Uryū is able to use the artifact to kill Yoshi. He later assists Ran'Tao in her battle with Jin Kariya, though the Quincy artifact is destroyed during the fight. Once Kariya and the remaining Bount are defeated, Uryū returns home.

Back in Karakura Town, Uryū is attacked by two incomplete arrancar. He attempts to use some Quincy equipment to defeat the two, but is ultimately unsuccessful. It is not until the arrival of his father, Ryūken Ishida, that the arrancar are vanquished. Disappointed by Uryū's weakness, Ryūken offers to restore his Quincy powers on the condition that Uryū never associate with shinigami again. Uryū agrees and trains with his father whilst arrancar continue to attack Karakura Town. After the third arrancar invasion ends Uryū regains his powers, ending his training.

After learning that Orihime has been captured by the arrancar, Uryū joins Ichigo and the remainder of a rescue team organized to save her. Because Soul Society has abandoned Orihime, Ichigo is technically not acting as a shinigami, giving Uryū a loophole with which to accompany them. After they arrive in Hueco Mundo and their group splits up, Uryū is joined by Pesche Guatiche. Though Pesche continues to annoy Uryū, he proves invaluable in defeating Cirucci Thunderwitch. As they continue on their way they meet Renji Abarai as he is about to be killed by the eighth Espada, Szayel Aporro Granz. Uryū intervenes and is briefly able to drive Szayel off, but Szayel soon returns and forces Uryū, Renji, Pesche and Dondochakka into a corner. Just as their last hope of winning fades, Mayuri arrives and rescues them. He even heals the two of them, despite vocal protests from Uryū.

Abilities
Having undergone formal training and possessing prior experience in combat, Uryū is one of the strongest protagonists in the series, with his victories roughly paralleling Ichigo's throughout the story. As a Quincy, Uryū's main weapon is a bow, but he is also able to use many Quincy techniques and items to augment his abilities, including some high-level techniques such as ransōtengai, which are rare enough that even Mayuri Kurotsuchi, who had studied over 2000 Quincy, had never seen them in person. Uryū's trademark finishing move involves shooting spiritual arrows at his opponents through their chain link and soul sleep, depriving them of their powers and allowing him to win a bloodless victory.

Aside from his Quincy powers, Uryū is well-trained in both mind and body, having substantial athletic abilities and a genius intellect. He also possesses some knowledge of Spanish, as he understands the Spanish terms used by the arrancar.

Bows
When first introduced, Uryū uses a bow named Lone Sparrow (弧雀), which has a basic (albeit exaggerated) form and a luminescent, translucent blue quality to its appearance. Being made of free-flowing spirit particles, its size can be affected the amount of spirit particles and spiritual pressure available to it, as seen in his interaction with Ichigo during his first encounter with a Menos Grande. With this bow, Uryū is able to kill most hollows in a single strike.

As preparation for his travel to Soul Society, Uryū later masters the sanrei glove, greatly increasing his abilities. In this state, Uryū's bow is solid and covered in an intricate pattern. It is attached to his glove by a series of thin struts. This new bow allows Uryū to fire several shots simultaneously. By removing the glove, Uryū attains the Quincy Final Form. The Quincy Final Form gives him a vast increase in power, enough to defeat a captain-class shinigami with ease. All the extra energy collects on his right shoulder, much like how a quiver is worn. As a result of removing the glove, however, the Quincy Final Form uses too much power for Uryū's body to handle, causing his body to block his Quincy powers completely after it wears off.

In the anime's Bount arc, Uryū recovers his powers for a short period through an ancient Quincy artifact which mimics the natural powers of a Quincy. The artifact produces an appropriate Quincy uniform on demand and creates a new metal crossbow mounted on Uryū's wrist. The artifact is unstable, however, firing arrows in odd arcs and with inconsistent power levels when first used. Additionally, it is fragile, eventually breaking after repeated use. Uryū eventually is able to use the artifact at its full efficiency.

After Uryū regains his powers with the aid of his father, he uses a new Quincy cross, this one resembling a pentacle, and a variant of his original bow called Lone Sparrow on a Silver Cliff (銀嶺弧雀). Unlike his original bow, this bow is shaped like a spiderweb and can fire up to 1,200 shots at once. Uryū also acquires a set of Seele Schneiders, special arrows which can be used as swords.