how can this be?

[kaiblume]

if i remember correctly,if you die and start living in the "afterbleachworld",you dont age!but in episode 32 there is a background story about rukia how she spent her childhood.how can this be?

[kurue]

not sure... but i think death gods r not actually dead , cuz how can they sentence to death someone who is already dead ?
hmmm confusing huh? *scratches head*

[cthulu]

I thought shinigami were *not* human spirits. We only know that human spirits do not age. (Which kinda sucks. I wouldn't want to die at the age of 5 and be stuck in that body forever. Nor would I want to die of old age and be some decrepid old fool in the afterlife, either.)

[Jinchuu]

Still they were human spirits and normal spirits can become shinigami by taking exams and stuff.

[Darren337]

maybe aging is really slow. also, maybe it depend on the person.

as for shinigami sentencing others to death, that is because the spirit can also die, not just the body

[hasuke]

Here's the deal. You age at a normal pace as a human spirit. However, when you become a Shinigami, you become a GOD of death, hence, you're immortal unless slain.

[kaiblume]

not aging does not mean u r immortal.they mentioned that "no-aging-thing" in the episode,where ichigo and friends arrived at the spirit world,where they met the kid who was trapped in a bird.

[cook32]

hmmm good question... the only thing i'm sure is that normal spirits don't need food, and shinigami or potential shinigami (spirits with spiritual powers) would need to eat... and from this i am taking big leap and say maybe that normal spirits don't eat, so don't grow (don't age)... but shinigami eats, grows (age) but at slower rate when compare to human...

[largosama]

And if you're in a noble family like Byakuya, you can live to a few thousand years if not killed xD

[greenrider85]

what i was thinking is that maybe rukia and all of them were sent to the soul society. like it's another lifespan?? i don't know

[Darren337]

i think that there probably is a lifespan for shinigami. it makes sense i guess. otherwise they wouldnt need such a large institution with which to recruit more shinigami

[Kenta]

I think the time works differently in soul society than the human world. Kind of like 1 day in soul society is 1 min in the human world. It's like the reverse of the belief that in heaven, in which case, 1 day is many years in the human world. We have 1 day in human world = many years in soul society. souls can age in soul society and in the human world, they can only age if they have their shell or physical body.

old yama is probably 10,000 years old or something. :winking56

[sinkinswimmer]

Umm... I think it's more along the lines of the slow aging, cause Rukia did say she's gotta be at least 10x Ichigo's age. She also mentions death gods aren't immortal, but she meant they could be slain... Does that mean they die of old age? Beats me.

[Darren337]

makes you wonder about the 1st division captain, no?

[hasuke]

i think that there probably is a lifespan for shinigami. it makes sense i guess. otherwise they wouldnt need such a large institution with which to recruit more shinigami

I wouldn't say so. They need to recruit more due to multiple reasons.

Hollows killing them.
Hollows merging with them, perhaps?
Challenging captains and vice captains (can you challenge seated members for their position to? i don't remember if they said that at all) and killing them.
Challenging captains and vice captains and dying.
Executions by breaking crimes, etc.
Having their powers stripped of them for specific reasons.

----------
Also, Immortality doesn't necissarily mean you're unable to die. You can't die from old age, illness, starvation, dehydration, etc. However, if you were to have your body destroyed to the point that it's multiple pieces, bloody pudding, or get decapitated, you can't really survive.

[Kenta]

old yama is the commander. :winking56

[Darren337]

I wouldn't say so. They need to recruit more due to multiple reasons.

Hollows killing them.
Hollows merging with them, perhaps?
Challenging captains and vice captains (can you challenge seated members for their position to? i don't remember if they said that at all) and killing them.
Challenging captains and vice captains and dying.
Executions by breaking crimes, etc.
Having their powers stripped of them for specific reasons.

----------
Also, Immortality doesn't necissarily mean you're unable to die. You can't die from old age, illness, starvation, dehydration, etc. However, if you were to have your body destroyed to the point that it's multiple pieces, bloody pudding, or get decapitated, you can't really survive.

i already factored that.

[hasuke]

Ya know what the solution to all this is?

Kubo has a lot of PLOTHOLES in his story.

I still stand by my immortality theory. After all, they ARE gods...

[Zerocannon]

Logic:
Moral1 :Only Shinigami get Zanpakuto
Moral2 :Urahara Kisuke has a Zanpakuto, and was the captain of the 12th Squad
Conclusion: Maybe he grew tired of living in the Soul Society? o_o

[Kenta]

actually there is a reason urahara is outside society. if you haven't read the manga, it's a spoiler for you.

but in case you want to know...
He was exiled from Soul Society.

[kaiblume]

there is no lifespan for deathgods.for example the big guy with the 2 axes guarded the gate for a few hundred years.
rukia is 10 times older than ichigo ,that doesnt prove a different timepassing in both worlds.maybe she died 200 years ago!
the japanese title god is different from our image of a god.our a god is more omnipotent like jesus god or zeus.in anime its more a person who has unnatural powers and is superstrong!

[Ryudell]

Mmmm... if Rukia is 10 times older than Ichigo then you wonder how old is Ol' Yama

[aya724]

^ good point~ if Rukia is a couple hundred years old, I say Yama is about... lessee... pretty close to a century old? not unthinkable right?

point:
i think you age but slowly... i mean, in a hundred years i'm sure the embodiment of a spirit ages.. kinda like how they still want to eat even tho technically they don't get hungry.

point:
Let's not forget that the 46-seki (i'm guessing IMPORTANT shinigami) were killed... since shinigami are technically spirits with higher powers (i.e. to extinguish hollows and to release spirits from the human world with zanpakutoh), i'm guessing zanpakutoh can also destroy that spirit... add a couple hundred times the zanpakutoh power (*soukyoku) and it can probably completely destroy the *container* for the spirit, too.

so they're not invincible... rite? so why not say they can also age? ;)

[Jinchuu]

But in the manga Renji grew taller and older in 10 years, just like Rukia did. But still he says he has been Shinigami for thousands of years, so this must mean that once you become Shinigami you do not age. As we can see since Renji became a Shinigami the only thing that changed in his body is the tatoo. *lol*

[Darren337]

yeah i guess thats how you pass the time when you dont die and hardly age.

[hasuke]

But in the manga Renji grew taller and older in 10 years, just like Rukia did. But still he says he has been Shinigami for thousands of years, so this must mean that once you become Shinigami you do not age. As we can see since Renji became a Shinigami the only thing that changed in his body is the tatoo. *lol*

refer to my theory. As a Konpaku, you age normally. Renji didn't become a Shinigami until later. If he became a shinigami when he was a little brat, he'd be that young as a Shinigami.

[Jinchuu]

Yeah, Hasuke's theory +1 then.

[hasuke]

haha, my bad Jinchuu, i misread the last part of your post XD.

Yeah, i just think they don't age when they become a Shinigami. Immortality isn't some end all be all excuse to not die. It simply means age and natural deaths can't kill you, but unatural deaths can (decapitations, being eaten alive, burned alive, rended in half, etc etc etc)

Hitsugaya is pretty damn old, but he's still a kid. If time in the soul society passed slower or faster, Urahara would've had to train Ichigo faster, or take more time training him then, wouldn't he?

He said something like "Rukia will be executed in 30 days, i'll train you for 5 days which leaves 25 days to save her" or something (forgot the exact number). Now if time passed differently he'd have stated that.

"Rukia will be executed in 30 soul society days which equals around 2 human world days. So i'm gonna train you to captain level in 10 minutes."

Also note that not everyone can pass the entrance exams. I bet you over 80% of those shinigami in class with Renji and Rukia, hell, 60% in the whole academy failed the exams. Those who pass are shoved into squads in the divisions, and some succeed and climb the ranks, others stay scabs, and others die from various reasons. Thats why they keep training more.

So in conclusion, time passes in the soul society the same as it does in our world. Konpaku are basically humans in the spirit world, but when they're given shinigami powers they become immortal. And the shinigami academy bit was to explain why they keep training more. It isn't because Shinigami age and die so they need replacements, it's because those damn maggots/scabs/rookies keep getting themselves killed and stuff.

[Nudel]

I read somewhere once, that they do age, when they become shinigmai, but very very slow.

[subzeRo]

so hitsugaya become a death god when he was really small and is not going to age now?

[Nudel]

As said before i read that they do age...just look at Captain Yamamoto (thet’s the old man, isn’t he?) I mean he’s really old, so would he become a shinigami when he’s already that old? I think that they do age, very slow though…

[hasuke]

Just curious, but where'd you read that?

Also, I think Yamamoto was the first Shinigami, forgot if they mentioned that. So it may have taken him all his life (as a konpaku) to discover how to become a Shinigami, perhaps.


Well, whatever, I have a request:

Dear Kubotite. Please be sure to explain stuff in the next arc more thuroughly. And by stuff I mean important stuff, not new releases on a Zanpakutou.

[greenrider85]

maybe it will be explained soon?

[hasuke]

I certainly hope so XD

I also am ridiculously curious about Komamura. How did he get the Kitsune head? (if they explained it, I may have missed the chapter)

[greenrider85]

komamura, he looks like a clown or something. he's creepy.

[Ryudell]

Er?? Clown? I think you mean Mayuri; ol' furry head doesn't look anything like a clown to me.

[greenrider85]

ok, mayuri is the clown then who is komamura?

[Jinchuu]

Fox guy. 7th division captain.

[greenrider85]

man, they need to make something that shows all the caps and vice captains. too many to keep straight....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hurts my brain.........

[Darren337]

yeah my mental list is slipping... time to go compile one!

[hasuke]

yeah my mental list is slipping... time to go compile one!

http://img199.echo.cx/img199/5390/11166834298457vg.png

Someone was way ahead of ya. However their version didn't have Isane on it (so i found this newer updated version) Also, the name they put for Yachiru is wrong. It's Kusajishi, not Kusajika.

They also don't show Genryuusai's vice captain, but out of the kindness of my heart, here's a picture of him.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/neonrhapsody/GenryuuVC.jpg
Some say he's not Genryuusai's VC, but we've seen everyone elses, with the exception of Ukitake's new one, if he replaced Kaien that is. (however Genryuusai is always seen with a man behind him who has a moustache) so who knows.

[greenrider85]

ummm.. some reason couldn't get to the link...nevermind. it worked. hard to read the font though.

[Darren337]

ummm.. some reason couldn't get to the link...

check it again, i fixed it

[greenrider85]

i noticed :doindadom :face82:

[KuroShinobi]

i think the reason is becuz only souls with spirit powers age and they're basically more mortal. shibata doesn't have any spirit powers so, he may be immortal and NOT know about it. maybe rukia and renji's friends died of accident or maybe souls without spirit powers will rot and dissappear after a certain time? the only way to find out is to ask Kubo himself...

[summer22]

hey, i noticed that when renji was recalling his childhood with rukia, his tattoos on his forehead were smaller. does this has anything to do with status or power? like as he went up the ranks, his tattoos grew bigger? (just wondering since i read byakuya wears those metal clippy thingys as a sign of status). i wonder how u actually become a shinigami... they all died, came to soul society and suddenly they got spirit power? so its like destiny or something haha. :)

[Sunfire249]

It probably does show a sign of status summer22. I don't really know how you become a shinigami though, because for example, in Yami no Matsuei those who commit suicide become shinigami, and others are just spirits. Maybe SS is like another dimension for spirits to be born in, because in the first volume (i think it was) Rukia was talking about other dimensions, so maybe she was just born in the SS, and since they are already spirits they live for longer...? Shinigami could have been born with the ability too.