In Bleach, Modified Souls (or Mod Souls for short) are artificial soul-based beings who have been modified to do certain tasks. But who in Bleach is a Mod Soul, what can they do, and how did the Mod Souls even come to be in the first place?
Mod Souls, while mostly associated with the anime, are a type of being who do have their roots in the Bleach manga. Ichigo’s lion plush friend Kon is a Mod Soul, a being created to help increase the size of the Soul Reapers’ forces in the face of the nearly endless amount of Hollows. These Souls, which come in an easily transported candy-sized sphere, would be placed in the mouths of corpses and allowed to control those bodies in order to continue fighting. The project was eventually shelved because it was too unethical even for Soul Society research, and the fate of most existing Mod Souls was destruction. Kon was mixed in with a batch of regular artificial souls, which Soul Reapers use to force souls out of bodies, including their own. Ichigo ends up using Kon for this purpose, allowing Kon in Ichigo’s body to get himself and others to safety, while Ichigo himself can immediately begin fighting in Soul Reaper form. The rest of the time, Kon is kept in a plush lion doll.
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In the anime, three other Mod Souls built specifically to detect spiritual pressure are created by Kisuke Urahara, with the intent of using them to track down Bounts. As a result, each Mod Soul seen has slightly different powers, ranging from illusions to shapeshifting to creating pocket dimensions. Kon’s abilities are the most tame, as he’s largely limited to increased strength and speed. All Mod Souls have some limited spiritual power, but since they’re artificial souls in Bleach, it’s really only enough to let them see spirit beings rather than form a spirit weapon like a Zanpakuto. When first introduced, Urahara’s three Mod Souls attack Ichigo and company as a test, but soon become recurring characters and allies.
Notable Mod Souls
The most notable Mod Soul by far is Kon, since he is canon to both the manga and the anime. Despite having been created for combat, Kon is a pacifist as a result of his early brush with death, so he only fights to defend others. Kon is a “pervert” type character (much like My Hero Academia’s Mineta), constantly harassing Orihime and Rukia and using his plushy body to get close to women. Kon doesn’t have a true form, so he’s almost always represented in plush lion form. Urahara’s three Mod Souls are known as Noba, Ririn, and Kurodo. Noba is the one with the pocket dimension; his true form resembles a ninja, while his plushy is a turtle. Ririn is capable of creating illusions; her true form is that of a young blonde girl, and her plushy is a bird. Kurodo can shapeshift into almost anyone; his true form is a mustached man with both black and blonde hair, while his plushy body is that of a bunny.
Fans who skip the Mod Souls’ arc can be quite confused. Despite being mostly anime filler characters, Bleach‘s Mod Souls are fairly noteworthy characters simply because they continue to show up long after their arc is over, occasionally helping out in manga-canon battles which they weren’t originally present for.
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