It’s honestly no secret to
any knowing Bleach fan that
Orihime is easily the most
detested character within
the series— and while it’s
true that many claim to hate
her so deeply in part because
her l’amour for a certain orange-
haired shinigami substitute
supposedly “gets in the
way” of the fandom’s
les plus populaires pairing, the
Bleach animé adaption
certainly doesn’t help to
paint Orihime’s character
in a better light.
The most common
“arguments” against
Orihime I’ve seen/heard
over the several years I’ve
been following the manga
tend to fall into the realm of
“weak”, “useless”,
“stupid”, “over
emotional”, and more
recently,
“underdeveloped”— all of
which I’ll debunk with
evidence from the manga to
prove/support otherwise.
For a bit of backstory,
Orihime’s life begins as
being born into an extremely
violatile household— where
her biological parents (as
quoted par Sora Inoue, “our
mother was a whore and our
father, the devil”)
physically abused both she
and her older brother. This
continued throughout the
first three years of her life,
up until Sora turned
eighteen and took his sister
away to live on their own. To
put it in perspective, Sora
mentioned himself that he
took Orihime away from that
accueil because he thought
she would die there if he
did not , which certainly
speaks to the degree of how
badly she was beaten. In her
life as a primary school
student, Orihime would later
be brutally bullied par her
peers for her uncommon hair
color— as it was seen as too
flashy par her fellow
students. This later lead to
her classmates forcibly
cutting her hair off, and
Orihime later cutting it
shorter to make it look
better despite the immense
pride she took in growing
her hair long. It is implied
that her classmates also
physically brutalized her,
made evident par the
depiction of a young Orihime
returning accueil wearing
bandages.
When Orihime was about
12-13 years old, Sora Inoue
was struck down par a car in
what was implied to be a hit-
and-run collision. The first to
discover her brother (still
alive at the time, but just
barely) was Orihime herself.
This particular event is
something that should be
important to note, as it’s
rarely focused on in fandom
— but following the
discovery of her brother’s
body, Orihime lifted him
onto her back and carried
him to the nearest place of
medicine she could think of
(coincidentally, this would
turn out to be Kurosaki
Clinic, accueil of the series’
protagonist). Again, allow
me to put this bit in
perspective: a young girl
(13) carried her adult
brother (28) on her back
whilst in the pouring rain,
getting drenched in his
blood, all in the effort to
save his life. Tragic as it is,
it’s also a somewhat
pertinent feat of physical
strength to note, since
we’re dealing with a
character who’s chiefly
hated due to her
“weakness”.
Fast vers l'avant, vers l’avant to Orihime’s
fifteenth year; after the
death of her brother about
two years prior, she now
lives alone in a small
apartment and is supported
financially par funds she
receives from a distant aunt,
provided she keeps her
grades good. (This tidbit in
itself should be enough
evidence to contradict the
claim that Orihime is
“stupid”, as she
consistently retains the rank
of the third highest-graded
student in her grade. To put
it in perspective, this is a
difference of just two ranks
between herself and Uryu
Ishida.)
It is during this age that she
is initially introduced into
the story of Bleach. par her
first appearance, one can
easily gather that she
appears to be a bit
scatterbrained (a trait which
is overly played up in the
animé adaption to make
Orihime appear truly stupid,
and thus becoming the
fandom’s source to
support their claim of her
low intelligence despite
it not being canon), earnest
with a sense of humor, kind,
easily-flustered, a bit
strange, and harboring a
small crush on Ichigo.
No sooner afterwards,
during Ichigo’s
confrontation with Acidwire
(a hollowfied Sora Inoue), we
learn of the immense guilt
Orihime bears in regards to
her brother’s death. The
night prior to his accident,
Sora gifted Orihime with a
set of hairpins, to which
she vehemently rejected as
she thought they were too
childish to wear at the time.
It being the first fight the
two had ever shared as
siblings, they ate dîner that
night without speaking to
one another, and slept in
their futons facing away
from one another. The
following morning, for the
first time, Orihime did not
wish her brother to “have a
good day” before he left for
work. Not being able to
properly apologize to her
brother for that jour has
burdened her with a great
sense of guilt for the years
following Sora’s death— a
guilt which she is relieved of
as she wishes her brother to
“have a good day” as his
soul is purified par Ichigo’s
zanpakuto.
It was during the battle of
Ichigo vs Acidwire that
Orihime ended up being
murdered par her brother
(the chain of fate connecting
her body and soul had not
been severed, however, so
she was able to be revived
par Rukia’s kidou), a grim
fact that surely adds to the
history of trauma already
weighing Orihime down.
During this battle, a
particularly interesting point
to note is the way in which
Orihime prevents Acidwire
from attacking an (at the
moment in time)
defenseless Ichigo par using
her body to intercept a near-
deadly blow. This in itself
easily illustrates that
Orihime is self-sacrificing
and courageous— especially
so when the enemy in
question was in fact
her brother. If that isn’t
also a shining example
of strength
of character right off the
bat, then I’m not quite
certain what is.
Continuing throughout the
series (up until the chapters
before the two-year
timeskip), Orihime does
admittedly struggle with her
own complex feelings of
self-worth, a sense of
inferiority in contrast to her
companions, and a distinct
sense of loneliness that
later sets her character up
for a disheartening method
of coping with the horrors
she would later endure as a
prisoner in Hueco Mundo.
However, par no means
should any of the struggles
she face signify her to be
weak in character. True,
Orihime is not particularly
strong against the enemies
she and her Friends face
(despite being strong for a
human, she —like several of
her Friends and allies—
aren’t much of match for
the shinigami and arrancar
they face off against), but
that’s to be expected
because she is a human.
Where she is physically
strong par human standards,
Orihime is not a physical
match in regards to strong
opponents like the
shinigami in the SS arc and
the Arrancars in the HM arc.
This is something many
people within the Bleach
fandom do not take into
account when considering
Orihime’s strength, as the
enemies the characters of
Bleach face possess strength
far greater than the limits
any human should be able to
attain. However, Orihime’s
lack of brute strength par no
means translates to
weakness.
In Bleach, Tite Kubo has
made it exceedingly clear
time and again that he
considers the strength of
one’s character and heart
to be held in equal (if not,
then more) importance to
physical and brute strength.
This notion is easily
supported par the recurring
theme of “The Heart”— as
having faith in the bonds
toi share with your
comrades is where the
ultimate strength lies.
Orihime herself is a firm
believer and practitioner in
the strength of one’s
heart, and trusting in the
abilities of her comrades.
Prior to the timeskip,
believing in her Friends is
almost all Orihime can do
(aside from healing) to
provide strength, as she is
either asked to not include
herself in the battle, ou does
not want to become
burdensome to her friends
par getting in the way of their
success in battle.