Yasutora Sado

Yasutora Sado (茶渡 泰虎) is a fictional character and major figure in the anime and manga series Bleach created by Tite Kubo. He is a teenager who studies in the same class as Ichigo Kurosaki. Because Ichigo first read Yasutora's name off a nametag, he pronounced his family name as Chad (チャド) due to the variable pronunciations of kanji, and Ichigo continues to call him this throughout the story.

Character outline
Chad is a teenager of Mexican descent. He is extremely tall and appears to be much older than he actually is. Chad has a tattoo on his left shoulder which reads Amore e Morte ("love and death" in Italian) and consists of a heart, a snake and angel wings around the heart. In the series, he is usually seen wearing either his school uniform or a tee shirt. At one point in the series, he is seen wearing a dark, long-sleeved shirt with a rose emblazoned on the left sleeve. The rose may be in honor of his grandfather seeing as how his grandfather's name was Oscar Joaquin de la Rosa, de la Rosa being Spanish for "of the Rose."

Chad is a quiet person and is sometimes the subject of jokes or bullies because he never fights back, against ordinary humans, or often hollows and shinigami until necessary. Nonetheless, he is treated equally within his group of friends in Karakura (Ichigo, Keigo and Mizuiro). Chad also has a weakness for cute things, like small animals and Kon, and is one of the few characters that actually treats Kon with any dignity but for the most part ignores him. To match his extraordinary size, Chad possesses extraordinary superhuman durability, even before activating his spiritual powers, being able to survive the impact of a falling steel girder on his back and a head-on motorcycle collision, and is strong enough to break telephone poles and wield them as giant clubs. Besides his physical strength, Chad has also shown to be very intelligent; he ranked 11th out of 322 in school, while Ichigo ranked 23rd.

Chad likes music, but rarely watches TV. The only programs he likes are Carnivore Kingdom, which starts at 8 a.m. on Sundays. He likes it so much that he bought the DVDs for it. Not surprisingly, since Kon is a cheap knock-off plushie of the main character of Carnivore Kingdom, Chad finds Kon especially cute. The other show is Don Kan'onji's Ghost Bust. Chad also has a bass guitar, but has never been shown playing it. It has been shown in Chad's room in episode 69 and in the 8th anime ending sequence. It's also shown in episode 12 after a "band practice." He is also seen carrying it immediately preceding the appearance of the incomplete arrancar.

Conception and development
Tite Kubo, author of Bleach, said that he chose to make Chad of Mexican heritage because of Chad's appearance; Kubo added that he began creating characters "from their faces" and he chose to make Chad Mexican since the character "looked like he was of Mexican heritage."

History
Chad was born in Okinawa, Japan, but was taken to Mexico by his parents at a young age. After their deaths, Chad was adopted by Oscar Joaquin de la Rosa, a man believed to be his grandfather since Chad calls him Abuelo ("Grandfather" in Spanish).

During his early years, Chad was extremely violent. Exploiting his advantage in size, he intimidated and hit any children who annoyed him. Oscar Joaquin tried to teach Chad to be gentle, but was initially unsuccessful. One day, the fathers of the children Chad fought, seeking to punish him, attacked Chad. Oscar Joaquin stepped in between them, taking Chad's punishment without retaliation. Chad was inspired by this example to become a decent person. Afterwards, Oscar Joaquin gave Chad a Mexican coin. The coin was minted sometime between 1823 and 1909, and has the words "Republica Mexicana" engraved on it, as well as the Mexican National Emblem. The monetary reform of 1905 minted Mexican coins with the words, "Estados Unidos Mexicanos’," are seen on the Mexican peso today.

Years later, when Oscar Joaquin had died, Chad made a vow that he would never fight unless it was to protect others, as instructed — even if his own life was in danger. The coin would come to symbolize this vow, which Chad now claims to hold more value than his own life. Many years later, this was used against him when some thugs captured him and threatened to destroy the coin. Ichigo saved him from them, and made a pact with Chad that they would fight for each other, because Chad wouldn't fight to protect himself.

When Abuelo died, Chad decided to return to Japan, where he entered Mashiba Junior High School. Because of his constant involvement with gangsters, Chad gained a reputation as a ruthless gangster himself. Others were scared of him when he first entered Karakura High, though this later changed. He met Ichigo slightly before the school year started when he saved Ichigo from being injured by local thugs. Eventually, he and Ichigo graduated from Mashiba and entered Karakura High School.

Karakura arc
Chad first appears as a student in Ichigo's class. A few days after Ichigo becomes a shinigami, Chad is offered a cursed cockatiel whose previous owners have all died horrible deaths. The bird is in fact the container for the spirit of a dead child, Shibata, placed there by a hollow who uses him as bait. Chad is forced to fight the hollow despite not being able to see it, assisted by Rukia Kuchiki. Ichigo defeats the hollow then performs a soul burial on Shibata. Beforehand, Chad promises that he will carry Shibata again if they meet in Soul Society, he will carry him around as he did over the last few days. Later on, when Uryū Ishida's duel with Ichigo unleashes a multitude of hollows upon the town, Chad is pressed into battle with another hollow. It is this event that awakens his spiritual powers, which manifest as armor on his right arm.

Soul Society arc
After Rukia is taken back to Soul Society, Chad and Orihime Inoue are trained by Yoruichi Shihouin to consciously call upon their powers when needed. After a week, Chad leaves for Soul Society with Orihime, Uryū, Yoruichi, and Ichigo. In Rukongai, Chad is reunited with Shibata, who has not yet found his mother but is living with a "family" of non-related people. At this point, Chad fulfilled his promise, carrying the boy on his shoulder for most of the day.

When the group is separated once entering Seireitei, Chad ends up alone. Chad easily fights his way through a fair portion of the shinigami about Soul Society, but meets his match in Shunsui Kyōraku, captain of the 8th Division in the Gotei 13. Kyōraku easily bests Chad, leaving him heavily injured but alive.

Following this, Chad, along with the rest of Ichigo's friends, does not actively participate in events. After being healed by the 4th Division and subsequently freed by Kenpachi Zaraki of the 11th Division, Zaraki's lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi, leads the group to the Sōkyoku where they wait as Ichigo and Byakuya Kuchiki fight. After Byakuya is defeated, the group tends to Ichigo. They then find out that the events at Soul Society were an elaborate plot masterminded by Sōsuke Aizen and confront him, but Aizen departs for Hueco Mundo. Uryū, Chad, Ichigo, and Orihime depart for the living world.

Bount arc
In the anime, after the Soul Society arc, Chad returns to school and helps Ichigo defeat the modified souls created by Kisuke Urahara. He is taken captive along with Orihime, and the modsoul Kuroud impersonates him in front of Ichigo, who eventually identifies the impostor. Chad is let in on the plan before this point, and thus went along with it until Ichigo figures out what's going on.

When the war against the Bount starts, Chad forms part of the group which aims to defeat them. He is paired with the modsoul Noba to seek out and destroy the Bount. He encounters Sawatari and fights him along with Rangiku Matsumoto, Noba, and Ururu Tsumugiya. The battle ends undecided.

After the Bount invades Soul Society, Chad meets up with Ichigo to fight Jin Kariya. However, the fight doesn't last very long, as their battle reveals the massive energy source Jōkaishō, which Kariya absorbs and uses its potential destructive power as a threat to keep them at bay.

Arrancar arc
After returning from Soul Society (for a second time in the anime) and being confronted by the arrival of the first arrancar, Chad is badly injured and realizes that he is not strong enough to help Ichigo fight. Chad turns to Kisuke Urahara for help, asking for training. Urahara pits him against Renji Abarai, having him fight continuously against Renji's bankai.

Hueco Mundo arc
When Orihime is captured by Sōsuke Aizen, Chad and Uryū offer their services to help Ichigo rescue her. When Ichigo hesitates, Chad demonstrates the power of his improved arm, quelling any fears he might have had. The trio then depart to Hueco Mundo. Upon their arrival, Uryū and Chad engage two arrancar named Iceringer and Demōra, telling Ichigo to watch them. After initially struggling against Iceringer, Chad switches opponents with Uryū and easily defeats the slower and less intelligent Demōra with his new attack, El Directo.

After making their way to Las Noches, joined by Rukia, Renji, and a group of friendly hollows, the group splits up. Chad runs into Gantenbainne Mosqueda, initially outmatched by the former Espada. However, the battle helps him awaken the full extent of his powers, and he easily beats Gantenbainne after they awaken. His victory is short-lived, however, as the 5th Espada, Nnoitra Jiruga, severely wounds him and leaves him for dead. Chad and Gantenbainne are eventually found by the Exequias, who plan to finish them off, but Retsu Unohana and Isane Kotetsu interrupt.

Abilities
When first introduced, Chad had no special powers aside from his unusual strength and endurance. Even without his powers, Chad is strong enough to break a telephone pole and swing it like a bat, and likewise is resilient enough to be hit by a falling steel girder and only suffer minor wounds.

After his encounter with the cockatiel containing the soul of Yūichi Shibata, he started to detect the approximate locations of spirits and hollows, but could not fully see them. Only after saving Karin Kurosaki from a hollow, during the hollow-slaying match between Uryū and Ichigo, did Chad begin to fully see spirits.

At the same time that he became able to clearly see spirits, he also awakened his latent spiritual ability, which manifests as armor on his right arm called the Brazo Derecha de Gigante (巨人の右腕（ブラソ・デレチャ・デ・ヒガンテ）). The armor is colored black with a red stripe going down the center and two white stripes surrounding it (the same colors used on Mexican military dress uniforms). Chad's armor increases his strength beyond its already impressive level, and enables him to fire powerful energy blasts from his fist. After receiving training from Yoruichi Shihouin, Chad learns to activate his powers at will and gains enough stamina to fire multiple blasts.

After seeing how helpless he was against the arrancar who invaded Karakura Town, Chad requested that Kisuke Urahara train him. Urahara proceeded to pit him in single combat against Renji Abarai's bankai. He noted Chad's powers still had room to grow, but they did not resemble those of a Quincy or shinigami. After training with Renji, Chad gains an improved version of his armored arm. Compared with its previous form, the pattern on Chad's arm becomes more intricate, and gives him an even greater increase in physical might. Chad also gains a new special attack called El Directo (巨人の一撃（エル・ディレクト）). To perform it, the flanges on Chad's arm open up and he punches the enemy.

While in Hueco Mundo, Chad's powers were affected by the environment, which disturbed his abilities. It was not until being beaten for some time by Gantenbainne Mosqueda that Chad's powers settled. With this, Chad realized that his powers were more at home in Hueco Mundo since they resembled hollow powers. When Chad was attacked by Gantenbainne, the arm felt it like an attack from its own kind and regained its composure, allowing Chad to finally admit to himself the truth about his power. This allowed him to more deeply tap his powers, which manifests as armor on both arms, instead of just his right. In addition, he also gains the ability to move at high speeds in a manner similar to flash steps, though it may be more akin to sonido since his powers are hollow based.

Chad's full-powered right arm is still called the Brazo Derecha de Gigante but is now used for defense instead of offense (though it's still more powerful offensively than his original arm). Chad says that "the soul of [his] Abuelo flows through [his] right arm," which may mean the literal manifestation of his grandfather's spirit in the arm, though it is more likely that Chad was speaking metaphorically of his grandfather's teachings. Brazo Derecha de Gigante becomes a shield that extends from his hand to some distance beyond his forearm with the same intricate pattern as before, surrounding what appears to be hollow-like teeth in the center and a rose like pattern near the end. He also loses the wing-like protrusion which extended from his shoulder, replaced with an angular plate sitting over his shoulder.

Chad's armored left arm, used for attack, is known as the Brazo Izquierda del Diablo (悪魔の左腕（ブラソ・イスキエルダ・デル・ディアボロ）). It looks similar to his original armored arm, but the color is red and white and it has a more streamlined appearance. A spike protrudes from the shoulder and two more extend over his chest. Although this arm is used for offense, it has been shown to have some strong resistance against attacks as shown when Chad blocks Gantenbainne Mosqueda's energy blasts by using only his armored left arm. With this arm, Chad gains a special attack known as La Muerte (魔人の一撃（ラ・ムエルテ）). To perform it he channels energy into his fist and punches his enemy; when used on Gantenbainne, who was against a wall, the wall cracked in the pattern of a huge skull.