Character Profile: Inoue Irihime

Inoue Orihime is the classmate and friend of Kurosaki Ichigo, whom she has a crush on. She is a friendly and sweet girl who quickly developed spiritual powers of her own after Ichigo became a Shinigami. Orihime’s best friend is Tatsuki Arisawa. She hangs out often with her and Tatsuki has made a promise to protect her. Although at one point of the series, Orihime managed to use her new-found powers to protect Tatsuki from a Hollow. Orihime is very sensitive and emotional. She would blame herself for not being stronger and be of more help to her friends. She is also very clueless at times. Orihime also has a somewhat large bust, which is occasionally made the subject of jokes.

Orihime used to stay with her brother, who brought Orihime and ran away from their drunkard father and cheating mother. After her brother died from a car accident, she began wearing the hairpins that her brother gave her everyday.

Inoue Orihime’s Powers

Orihime’s powers come from her hairpins. With them, she is able to summon six fairies called the Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield, and individually they are named Shun’ou, Ayame, Tsubaki, Hinagiku, Baigon, and Lily. Orihime’s powers are mostly defensive, except for her Koten Zanshun (Single Heavenly Cutting Shield) technique, which involves firing Tsubaki at her enemy with such power that he can split enemies into halves. Her most incredible power is the Soten Kisshun (Double Heavenly Reflecting Shield) technique, which Orihime would summon Ayame and Shun’ou, and they would form a shield around an injured person. The shield reverses time, thus returning the injured person to an earlier state, effectively healing all wounds. The last of Orihime technique is the Santen Kesshun (Triple Heavenly Binding Shield).In this technique, Hinagiku, Lily and Baigon are summoned to form a giant triangular shield which repels any attacks directed at Orihime.

Orihime first realized her powers when she had to protect her best friend Tatsuki from a Hollow attack. And so far, the Hollow has been the only thing that Orihime has ever killed.

Other than her fairies, Orihime knows karate as well. Thanks to Tatsuki, she is able to attain black belt level.