Hollow (Bleach)

Fish Bone D, the first Hollow to appear in the series Bleach.

In the manga and anime Bleach, hollows are evil spirits. During the first part of the manga, they are the principal antagonists. Hollows reside in the Hueco Mundo (Spanish, lit. "Hollow World"), but can cross over to the human world and Soul Society.

A hollow is a Plus spirit that has lost its heart. They are easily identified by the holes in their chests and their white masks. Any Plus spirit that is not guided to Soul Society by a shinigami will eventually descend into a hollow. The process normally takes months or years as the Chain of Destiny (因果の鎖 inga no kusari) slowly corrodes. However, the process may be accelerated under certain conditions.

Hollows wear white masks to protect their true identity and to protect them from injuries (although a shinigami with enough power can cut or shoot right through). Different hollows have different abilities and appearances, the low level hollows are small and can only attack melee, whereas the bigger and better hollows have all sorts of killing implements. Hollows can be furry (like mammals) or lizard-like in appearance. Some other ones just look demonic.

Shinigami do not truly kill hollows. A shinigami's zanpakutō purifies the spirit of the sins it committed as a Hollow, and allows it to enter the Soul Society. However, those hollows who also sinned heavily in life are consigned to Hell.

The Quincy, however, do truly kill hollows. When a Quincy destroys a hollow, the spirit is completely annihilated.

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The first hollow that poses a real threat to the main character (Ichigo) is the Grand Fisher, the hollow that murdered his mother. Grand Fisher uses a tentacle-like limb to create a decoy copy of a person that the attacker cannot hurt (because of their emotional attachment to the subject). Ichigo managed to repel it, but not defeat it outright.

Grand Fisher appeared again after Ichigo had returned from Soul Society and was quickly run through by Isshin, Ichigo's father.

Arrancar

The arrancar are a group of hollows who have almost completely removed their masks and gained shinigami powers. Initially, only a very small number of hollows could do this, but Sōsuke Aizen used the hōgyoku to enable more to do so.

This makes them a fundamental opposite to the vizard. Arrancars' dominant/original form is a hollow that has awakened shinigami powers inside of it (shinigami being the subordinate form); vizards were originally shinigami that awoke hollow powers. The only character with both hollow and shinigami of similar power is Ichigo Kurosaki.

Because of the hybrid nature of arrancar, they have features of both shinigami and hollows. They still retain holes in their chests to signify that they lack a heart. They lack a full mask, but still retain some remnants of it on their faces. Their appearance (in their sealed form) is generally humanoid, although some are 7 or 8 feet tall and have pale skin or somewhat animalistic features.

In addition, they carry zanpakutō like shinigami. They can perform one level of release but when they do so, the effect is completely different than a shinigami's release. When they release, it doesn't transform the sword into a more powerful weapon; rather, it unseals an arrancar's true power and becomes an armour-like enhancement to the arrancar's body. Therefore, it is implied that an arrancar's zanpakutō is not a living being like a shinigami's. Once released, an arrancar increases their power by a tremendous amount. Some arrancar also grow to huge statures, although some remain the same size. It is believed that arrancar do not have a second release since their base form already rivals a shinigami's shikai, and their first release rivals a shinigami's bankai.

The arrancar are currently under Aizen's command, as he holds the key to their creation.

The name arrancar, is a Spanish verb meaning "to remove" or "to rip off", hence it was used in reference to the removal of the hollow masks. In the manga, it is written 破面 (lit. rip mask), but has no native Japanese pronounciation, using the katakana for arankaru instead.

Espada - (lit. sword, in Spanish) Arrancar with particularly destructive powers in Aizen's army are honoured with numbers of 1 to 10. They are known as the Espada and are given control over arrancar numbered 11 and above. Espada numbers indicate rank (i.e., arrancar number 1 is stronger than arrancar number 2); arrancar numbered 11 and up are given numbers based on their order of birth (i.e., arrancar 11 is the oldest non-Espada). There is a tattoo somewhere on their body reflecting the number they are honoured with as proof of their status. Grimmjow is so far the only known Espada. However, Ulquiorra could also be an Espada based on his attitude. They are hence the most powerful fighters of the menos and their strength far surpasses the arrancar numbered 11 and above. On a side note, chapter 213 of the manga has mentioned that the 5 arrancar killed in battle with the shinigami on earth were only composed of gillians so a vastorōde-based arrancar that Aizen is planning to create would greatly exceed them in power.

Menos

As of chapter 197, three classes of menos have been revealed. Menos are created by many hollows piling on top of one another and merging. The menos are further divided into three classes: Gillian, Ajūkasu, Vastorōde.

It is important to note the difference between the classes of menos and the arrancar status. All menos are classified into one of three classes; arrancar simply signifies if they are merged with shinigami or not. Thus, it is possible to have pure menos, a non-menos arrancar, or an arrancar who is based on the menos.

Gillian - the weakest class of menos, they are large and physically strong but not agile, and don't have much brain power. They are much weaker than a shinigami captain. In Soul Society, gillians are known as Menos Grande, hollows that are combined of many regular hollows, and shown in textbooks discussing menos. Aizen has apparently created a much improved group of human-sized gillian arrancar, capable of matching shinigami lieutenants in combat.
Ajūkasu - smaller but smarter than the gillians, they are thought to be far superior. It is likely they could fight evenly with at least a shinigami lieutenant. it is unknown how powerful they would become as arrancar.
Vastorōde - the top fighters of the menos. Each of them is stronger than an average captain; therefore, Tōshirō Hitsugaya claims that 10 is enough to defeat all of Soul Society. The leaders of Soul Society (including himself) do not have definite information on the number of vastorōde. As of chapter 213 of the manga, Aizen is currently in the process of finding and gathering the Vastorōdes with the ultimate aim of turning them into arrancar. a vastorōde as an arrancar is likely the most powerful hollow possible.

Trivia

Although Hueco Mundo is taken from the Spanish language, the correct way to use it in a sentence is mundo hueco.
Menos Grande literally means less big in Spanish