Bleach Character Rangiku Matsumoto

Rangiku Matsumoto (松本 乱菊, Matsumoto Rangiku) is Lieutenant of the 10th Division of the Gotei 13, serving under Captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya.

Appearance And Personality

Rangiku has long and wavy strawberry blond hair, icy blue eyes, full lips, and a beauty mark located under the right side of her mouth. She is well-known for her curvaceous figure, her most distinctive feature of it is her very large breasts, which are even larger than Orihime Inoue's. She dresses in the garb typical of Shinigami, though she lets her robes hang loose for her ample bosom to be revealed. She wears a thin golden necklace tucked between her cleavage and a long pink scarf over her shoulders. In addition, her lieutenant's armband is worn on her uniform's sash, as opposed to around the arm. She carries her Zanpakutō behind her back.

While in her Gigai in the real world, she has been shown to dress either very provocatively or stylishly. She wears the school uniform with several buttons undone so that she can reveal her ample bosom as she usually does in the Soul Society with her Gotei 13 uniform. 

Rangiku tends to be a slacker who dislikes paperwork and loves to drink. She is not the slightest bit modest about her appearance, frequently referring or complaining about her large breasts in normal casual conversation, much to the embarrassment/amusement of anyone around at the time. She is not above using her considerable feminine charms to get her way, as shown when she tries - albeit unsuccessfully - to bribe Ichigo Kurosaki into letting her stay at his house. In episode 228, at the scenes of the next episode, she was going to strip naked because nobody complimented her extremely skimpy swimsuit.

Her easy-going and free-spirited personality makes a sharp contrast to the serious Hitsugaya, but the two seem to be quite close regardless. Rangiku met the young boy prior to him utilizing his power and encouraged him to enter the Shinigami academy. As a lieutenant, she is extremely causal around him, almost constantly by his side and showing deep loyalty to him on several occasions, even though her laziness frequently annoys him.

While she seems somewhat self-centered, she is sensitive to the feelings of others, evident when she sees the concern Hitsugaya has for Momo Hinamori, the guilt Izuru Kira shares with her when Gin Ichimaru is revealed as a traitor, and when Orihime feels depressed about her role in Ichigo Kurosaki's life. Despite her lackadaisical image, she can be extremely serious when needed and is a capable fighter and strategist, best-shown when she uses clever teasing to manipulate the third Espada's Fracción into squabbling among themselves long enough to drop their guard and leave them open for an attack.

Rangiku's favorite food is dried persimmon, just like that of Ichimaru. She also shares Orihime's very strange taste in food. She dislikes bamboo shoots because she finds their taste too strong and their texture unpleasant. She likes Japanese dancing, and in addition to her shihakushō robes, she enjoys buying superfluous amounts of clothing from various department stores in the human world. When she feels like drinking, she finds free people and invites them to come out with her, and then has them treat her to drinks, so that she wouldn't have to spend any money. She is drinking buddies with Shunsui Kyōraku and Shūhei Hisagi.

Power And Ability

Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: Rangiku shows a great proficiency in wielding her Zanpakutō. While she can obviously hold her own in a fight, her skill in the wielding of her Zanpakutō comes from her mastery of its special ability. Through sheer imagination in conjunction with her Zanpakutō's special ability, Rangiku has become skilled at taking on large groups at once.

Flash Steps: Rangiku's flash steps are great enough to keep up with her captain, but her skill at it is most likely of the same level as most lieutenants. Her skill has proven great enough to easily out-maneuver Arrancar capable of fighting at lieutenant-level skill.

Kidō Practitioner: As a lieutenant, Rangiku seems to have capable understanding of Kidō spells at least enough to identify them upon sight. Though she is not a common user of this art, she has been seen capable of using Bakudō #58. As well as using Hadō #31 without incantation and still have respectable power.

Enhanced Strength: Despite her highly feminine appearance, Rangiku has shown herself to be deceptively strong. During her battle against Nakeem Greendina, she was easily able to hold back the Arrancar's large stomping foot with a single hand and his fist with her forearm, the former while her limiter was still active.

Enhanced Endurance: Rangiku has been shown to have a high endurance. Even fighting against three Arrancar's Fracción she was able to hold her own against the three of them at once.

Enhanced Durability: Rangiku has shown to have a high durability. As she has taken a direct hit from the hollow creature Ayon resulting in the loss of the entire right side of her abdomen and she still was alive.

High Spiritual Energy: Being a lieutenant of the Gotei 13, Rangiku boasts a high spiritual energy. She is shown manifesting reiatsu to intimidate Chad and Noba. Her spiritual power is white.

Expert Tactician: Rangiku has shown to be quite intelligent when she needs to be such as in her battle with Nakeem whom she fooled into believing that she was unconscious in-order to request that the limiters be removed more easily, as well as in her battle with Harribel's Fracción and caused them to argue with one another and attempt to defeat them with one concentrated attack.

Zanpakuto

 Haineko (灰猫, "Ash Cat"): The Zanpakutō's form is that of a straight-bladed katana. The tsuba is in the shape of a cat's head, with two triangles on the top half curving into ear-points and the bottom half tapering down into a single point. It has a dark red handle. Rangiku keeps Haineko behind her clipped onto her waist obi. 

In its Shikai, Haineko's blade turns to ash, and with a flick of the hilt, she can cut anywhere the ash has landed on. All the ash that surrounds her opponent(s) might as well be her sword. With simple hand gestures and a thought she can control where the ash goes as well as make it take various forms. So far she has created an enveloping cloud which she can then enclose around her opponents turning it into a deadly tornado. This provides her an advantage while fighting groups of enemies. Though it now takes on the look of scattered ash, each particle is a tiny blade. Rangiku controls the ash to attack from any direction as soon as she moves the hilt, ultimately enveloping and tearing up the enemy. So evidently, Haineko is very hard to fight against in this form. The main attack strength of Haineko comes from how much ash makes contact, thus why it is clumped together. If the ash was to attack the opponent in single particles, the damage would be little to nothing. The ash can cut through objects as easily as a sword would, similar in principle to Byakuya Kuchiki's Senbonzakura. Rangiku has shown that Haineko can be a defensive weapon as well by having it take the form of a shield to defend against Apache's attack.

Trivia

• Rangiku's release command was originally introduced as "Roar" in the English dub, but was later used as "Growl" in the Arrancar arc.
• Rangiku's inner monologue in episode 60 is different in the English dub than in the Japanese version. The English dub has her inner monologue directed to Kira while the Japanese version and the manga both have it directed to Ichimaru.
• In the latest popularity poll, Rangiku placed 21st (in previous ones, she placed 39th and 17th). Her Zanpakutō, Haineko, placed 18th, tying with Sōsuke Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu and Kaien Shiba's Nejibana.