Character · Bleach
Renji Abarai
Red hair, tattoos climbing up his forehead, and a sword that unfolds into a whip made of teeth.
In Otakana the clue reads: Red-haired lieutenant with a segmented sword
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Bleach
- Letters
- 5 · Normal
Renji Abarai grew up in the poor districts of the Soul Society, running with a group of orphans that included Rukia Kuchiki. He got into the academy, she got adopted by a noble house, and the gap between those two outcomes drives most of what he does afterwards. He works his way to lieutenant of the sixth division specifically so he can stand near her again, then discovers his captain is her brother.
Zabimaru is a segmented blade that extends in a jagged line, closer to a saw on a chain than a sword, and it suits a fighter who prefers reach and force to precision. His bankai is a serpent of bone segments the width of a street. When he cannot win with it, which is often, the story tends to have him keep swinging anyway.
He is one of the clearest examples of what Bleach does with rivals. Renji loses a great deal, on screen, to people the plot is more interested in, and Tite Kubo keeps giving him the next fight regardless. He turns up in the middle of a losing battle more times than any other character in the series.
Spelling RENJI
RENJI is five letters and the game wants the given name rather than Abarai. The kanji is 恋次, and the J is a genuine J sound rather than the Y-ish J of some European spellings, so it reads ren-jee. There is no romanisation trap and no hidden long vowel. The N in the middle is the only spot worth second-guessing, since ren and rei sound close in fast speech.