Bleach Character types

All Bleach characters are "souls". Living humans contain souls within their bodies, while disembodied souls, or spirits, have a form composed of particles of spiritual energy called ectoplasm, which otherwise mimics human anatomy, aside from slowed aging. This form encompasses all of the spirit's being; there is no distinction between mind and body. There are a variety of different types of spirits in Bleach, each with a differing visual theme and approach to combat. The specific types are described below.

* Human: The humans of Bleach are much like the residents of modern Japan, and most cannot see or sense disembodied spirits in any way. Spirits can, however, inhabit artificial human bodies called gigai which are visible to ordinary humans. One in 50,000 humans is a medium with some awareness of nearby ghosts, but only a third of these are able to see them clearly, and only the strongest of mediums are able to speak with or touch ghosts. Certain unique humans naturally have both the power to sense and the strength to fight with spirits. Ordinary humans can gain the ability to interact with spirits by spending time around a large source of spirit energy.
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* Plus: Benign ghosts in Bleach are known as pluses (wholes in the official English editions). A plus is the spirit of a person who has died. A chain, known as the Chain of Fate, protrudes from the chest and binds the plus to a location, object or person that they felt close to in life.The soul can move about freely if the chain is broken, but this also causes the chain to corrode. Normally, pluses are sent to Soul Society by shinigami in a ritual called soul burial before this corrosion becomes significant. If the Chain of Fate is corroded entirely before a soul burial can be performed, a hole will form in the chest of the soul where the chain was once anchored. Such souls are driven mad and become evil ghosts known as hollows. If the Chain of Fate is torn out deliberately, this also leads to spiritual degradation.
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* Shinigami: Shinigami (Soul Reapers in the official English editions, Death Gods in most subtitled versions) are the psychopomps of Bleach. They are souls with inner spiritual power, recruited from the ranks of the residents and nobility of Soul Society. Like all spirits, they cannot be detected by normal humans. Shinigami use their zanpakutō, supernatural swords that are the manifestation of their owners' power, to perform soul burials on pluses. Shinigami also use zanpakutō and magic known as kidō to fight their archrivals, the hollows.A group of shinigami known as the vizard have also obtained hollow powers through illegal means, gaining removable masks and access to certain hollow abilities.
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* Hollow: The hollows are the major antagonists of Bleach. They are evil ghosts who reside in Hueco Mundo but travel to the living world to feed on the souls of the living and dead alike. Like shinigami, hollows are made of spiritual matter and cannot be detected by ordinary humans. While the majority of hollows can be overcome by the average shinigami, there are some which surpass even the most elite shinigami in strength. All normal hollows wear white masks, but a small group of hollows have broken them, becoming arrancar. By shattering their masks, these hollows regain the ability to reason, obtain a humanoid form, and gain access to shinigami powers.