In Tite Kubo's Shonen action series Bleach, we meet a wide and colorful cast of characters. Over the years, this series has built up a huge roster of heroes, villains, and everything in between, but one of our favorite classic characters is Yoruichi Shihoin, a rogue Soul Reaper and a ninja master.

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We met her in Karakura Town, when she had the form of a black cat with a masculine voice. Then Ichigo and the viewer together beheld her true form: that of an athletic woman with serious combat skills. Yoruichi has proven a vital ally in the battle against evil, and she's great fun to see on screen. Now, what are ten facts that sum up the essence of Yoruichi Shihoin?

10 She Has A Major Cat Theme

This is Yoruichi's feline form, a black housecat with a masculine voice. This already establishes Yoruichi's rogueish and athletic theme, but there is more to it. Even as a woman, she's like a kitty in a few charming ways.

During her Captaincy, Yoruichi's hair looked a bit like flattened cat ears, and she had a thin ribbon around her neck like a collar. Not only that, but she liked to nap and mind her own business until trouble came to her. Don't forget her unpredictable playful side, either.

9 She Saved Kisuke From A Terrible Fate

There is a reason why we met both Kisuke and Yoruichi in the world of the living at roughly the same time: they are both outcasts. Kisuke fled the Soul Society due to his hollowfication experiments (which Aizen stole), and Yoruichi committed a major crime to help him escape the law.

There Kisuke was, facing his fate in Central 46, when Yoruichi performed a selfless act to break in and streal Kisuke away before anyone could stop her. She's the fastest woman alive, and the plan worked. Though it was at the cost of Yoruichi's good standing in the Soul Society!

8 She Is Byakuya's Unofficial Rival

yoruichi bleach

Captain Byakuya Kuchiki isn't the type to have a rival, as opposed to many Shonen characters who are driven by fierce rivalries. All the same, he does have a bit of a feud going on with Yoruichi, both past and present.

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Some time ago, before her banishment, Yoruichi visited the Kuchiki estate for fun, and teased Byakuya (who was a hot-headed teenager at the time). Now, in the present, Yoruichi took Ichigo's side against Byakuya, and showed him that she was still the faster of the two. Byakuya must have been fuming after that.

7 She Has An Affinity For Items

Yoruichi may not be a weapons specialist or a scientist, but she does know how to find the right tools for the job. Rather than invent them, like Kisuke would, she finds them, with or without the owner's permission.

She had an odd, one-winged item that helped her and Ichigo retreat into cover, and she also used a test dummy to help Ichigo train and learn bankai in an incredibly short time span. Just how did she get her hands on that thing? It's a secret!

6 She Prefers Melee Combat

All Soul Reapers have a zanpakuto, but we hardly ever see Yoruichi use one, even in her fiercest battles. Instead, she is a master of hand to hand combat. After all, she is a trained assassin, and swinging a sword isn't the assassin way.

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Yoruichi boasts extreme speed, yes, but also the agility, reflexes, and martial arts prowess to make good of that speed and incapacitate just about anyone. She even pummeled a one-armed Yammy nearly into submission this way, without suffering any blows in return. And even a grown-up Soi Fon has trouble contending with her.

5 She Is Soi Fon's Role Model

This fan art shows Yoruichi and Soi Fon together, and for a reason. During the later episodes of the Soul Society arc, these two women do battle, and we learn that Yoruichi was Soi Fon's mentor and practically a mother figure to her.

Soi Fon was devastated when Yoruichi vanished, and couldn't fathom the reason for the abandonment. Soi Fon was consumed with rage, but eventually, the anger bled out, and Yoruichi and her old student reconciled. That's a relief!

4 She Is Nobility

Yoruichi may not look like it, or even act like it, but she was born into one of the four great noble houses of the Soul Society, the Shihoin family. Through flashbacks, we saw her in a fancy kimono, and she really looked like a princess. She was quite lovely.

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In fact, she grew up with her childhood friends Kisuke and Tessai, and then they went their separate ways. What's funny about Yoruichi, though, is that she acts like a total goofball outside of combat, a total contrast to the aristocratic Byakuya Kuchiki. But never for a moment would Byakuya look down on her.

3 She Doubles As Comic Relief

Yoruichi isn't just a gag character; that would be cheap, and as we get to know her, we realize that she is one cool character. But still, Bleach likes to have fun sometimes, and Yoruichi is first in line to relieve the tension.

She joined Ichigo in the bath in her cat form... only to morph into her adult form to startle him! She teases people nonstop this way, and it's hilarious. Later, after fighting the arrancars, Yoruichi ate about ten meals' worth of food like a machine, and hardly batted an eye. Whew!

2 She Developed Shunko

Yoruichi Shunko in Bleach

We mentioned earlier that Yoruichi is a martial arts expert, but she doesn't have to fight with her bare knuckles. In fact, Yoruichi developed a kido/melee hybrid named Shunko, which manifests on the body as wind or lightning power. It can vastly increase the user's power, and even fire remotely.

Soi Fon can also use it, and her version features wind while Yoruichi's is lightning-based. Later on, Yoruichi showed off an even more advanced version of Shunko when she fought the Sternritter, which gave her cat-like features such as ears and paws.

1 She Is A Crafty Leader

Yoruichi is not only a fun character and a good friend and martial artist, but also quite smart. After all, she was once the Captain of Squad 2, and it takes a real leader to have a position like that and pull it off.

Not only that, but Yoruichi has deep knowledge of the Soul Society top to bottom, and she easily snuck her way around with Ichigo to further his mission without getting caught. She also knew exactly how to train Ichigo, Orihime, and Chad to improve their skills, and she can find her way out of just about any dire situation.

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