Bleach is an expansive shonen anime with countless characters, supernatural phenomena and settings to its name. Even if Bleach falls well short of One Piece’s legendary worldbuilding, its own relatively modest worldbuilding has found clever ways to set apart its different worlds and factions. One such technique is the use of multiple languages.
For convenience’s sake, most characters in a single anime world speak the same language as one another. The same is true in Bleach, where all Soul Reapers, Arrancars and Quincy evidently speak modern Japanese. However, when it comes to naming a location, supernatural abilities or characters, Bleach flexes its creative muscles with three different languages, one of them being modern Spanish.
Notable Spanish Names for Hollows and Arrancars in Bleach
Right away in Bleach’s story, it was obvious that Hollows had different naming conventions than the humans or Soul Reapers. Ordinary Hollows had whimsical or self-descriptive names such as Acidwire, Fishbone D and Shrieker. Then a much bigger, stronger Hollow appeared — a black-robed giant capable of shooting energy blasts from its mouth. Ichigo’s friend Rukia Kuchiki said it was a Menos Grande, an amalgamation of many Hollows fused into one creature. “Menos Grande” is obviously not Japanese, nor is it English — it’s Spanish, meaning “less big.” These creatures’ spirit energy attacks are called cero blasts, with “cero” being Spanish for “zero.” Clearly, Hollows come from a very different world from Rukia.
In the “Arrancar” and “Hueco Mundo” story arcs, Ichigo learned for himself how many Spanish names and words are used for Arrancars and Hollows. Even the term Arrancar itself fits this trend, with “arrancar” being the Spanish word for “to tear off,” referring to Hollows losing their masks. During this time, Ichigo and his friends faced many more combat techniques or spiritual phenomena with Spanish names, some of them equivalent to what Soul Reapers can do. One example is the sonido, or “sound” technique, when an Arrancar uses rapid movement to step from one place to another like shunpo/flash steps. On defense, an Arrancar has armor-like skin called hierro, that being Spanish for “iron.” Meanwhile, Hollows and Arrancars can travel between worlds not with a senkaimon gate but a garganta, or “throat.”
On a larger scale, the entire world of Hueco Mundo is Spanish for “hollow world,” with the primary landmark being the enormous palace Las Noches, or “nights.” Las Noches’ most notable inhabitants are the 10 Espadas, or “swords,” possibly to describe not just the members’ zanpakuto, but also how they are Sosuke Aizen’s best weapons. Even “Menos Grande” can be broken down into three classes with Spanish names, with all Menos being powerful Hollows that cannibalized other Hollows to gain strength. Gillians are the lowest type, while the middle subclass is Adjuchas, Spanish for “attached.” The smallest and most elite subclass of Menos Grande is the Vasto Lorde, Spanish for “vast lord” or perhaps “great lord.” True to their name, the rare Vasto Lordes are enormously powerful lords of Hueco Mundo, and several Espada are in this class, including the blonde Tier Harribel and the Grim Reaper-like Barragan Luisenbarn.
The Blunt But Effective Worldbuilding of Bleach, Including Languages
It’s true that Bleach’s worldbuilding lacks the complex, multi-layered depth of One Piece’s, and it also lacks the international political intrigue of another “big three” anime, Naruto. Instead, Bleach focuses on more intimate themes such as hope vs. despair and the power of the heart, so the worldbuilding is comparatively straightforward and fairly cosmetic in nature. On the plus side, this means that each of Bleach’s three worlds has a strong visual impact and combined with the use of exotic languages, this helps establish Bleach as a partial isekai anime. Ichigo’s in a truly different world when people use Spanish or German to describe their abilities and world.
Author Tite Kubo often used his personal tastes as inspiration for Bleach’s design, from the main characters wearing trendy clothes in bonus art to the use of Spanish. Kubo once explained that to him, Spanish has a “mellow, bewitching sound,” so he used it for his mysterious, bizarre Arrancar villains. If Soul Reapers use zanpakuto with Japanese names like Hyorinmaru and Suzumebachi, then the Arrancars are truly alien with zanpakuto releases like Murcielago, Brujeria and Los Lobos. The use of Spanish, combined with the stark white desert of Hueco Mundo under a perpetual crescent moon, gives the Hollow world an exotic edge that no Bleach fan can miss.
This is similar to the Wandenreich’s use of German, from Wandenreich being German for “hidden empire” to names such as Blut Vene, Sankt Zwinger and Voll Stern Dich/Vollstandig. All that, in turn, contrasts clearly with the comfortingly familiar feudal Japan-based Soul Society and its Japanese names such as Seireitei, Rukongai District, Dangai and Sokyoku Hill. Languages and names are some of the most intriguing and engaging ways to tell two nations or cultures apart, and with its modest but effective worldbuilding, Bleach takes full advantage of that with its trilingual narrative.