Population Size of Seireitei

[Insipidipity]

I was just curious what yalls thoughts were on the size of Seireitei(basically the total number of shinigami). The idea was kinda interesting with Konoha but I think Bleach has better estimates yet they seem almost contradictory.

I'm thinkin each of the 13 squads has at least 50 members, 25 seated, They said 200 shinigami have to witness a captain fight so that would be 4 squads minimum with these estimates.

Theres the Military police/ninjas, that should constitute another 100. Then theres the court of 40 people that selects new captains.

Thats about 1000. 1000 seems about right since the area of Seireitei seems like a place that could house that many, although that may be deceiving.

Now heres where it gets tricky. Theres 6 billion people in the world. If there were 1 shinigami to 100 people, that'd be pretty tough to protect, there'd have to be 60 million Shinigami. There seems to be only one school for training Shinigami, which would put the population back down in the thousands. But then again, they have to have at least 1 in every city since they don't exactly have cars. Theres about 200 countries, I'd say on average, maybe 1000 cities each(the US has 10,000 I think), thats 200,000. Theres almost 100 cities with over a million people in them.

So theres 2 general ranges for the number of shinigami. Either they number in the thousands, or they number in the tens of millions.

So which do you guys think it is?

[Sagaki]

Okay, this has also been bothering me... You're right, there's like, 6 billion people on the planet, and according to Rukia, Soul Society and Earth are kept in a soul balance...

This means without a shadow of doubt that there has to be another 6 billion people in soul society. How on earth do 6 billion people live in one ancient Japanese city? I highly doubt there are 6 billion Ryoka, but instead there are sections to Soul Society. Perhaps far off to the west, there's another Gotei 13 but is made up of knights(Western Influence) and each of these Gotei is responsible for certain area's of Earth. To be honest, this is the most logical answer I can possibly think of.

[krescentwolf]

Firstly Seireitei is the sealed off Shinigami only area. And it's relative size seems to be ridiculously large. Outside of it you have the slum areas like where Ichi and co showed up after leaving Urahara. I -think- these are numbered (i think Yachiru says that in her flashback.) and there are hundreds if not thousands of slums.

There are aparently so many people in these slums that if you died seperatly from your family your chance of finding them is almost nil.

Also there is apparently area outside of even these numerous slums, atleast thats what it looks like when Yoruichi goes off to visit Shukaku.

And, this is my opinion/theory, but I think what Rukia said about Balance might be more of a rebirth type thing. The Dead go to SS, then seem to return to life. Why do I think this? because it's said that the Quincy's, who killed off Hollows instead of saving them(like Shinigami) would eventually unhinge that balance. Not enough souls in one world to support the other type of thing.

That aside, SS seems to be a round planet-like world just like earth, and the dead are lead to SS and start out in the Slums. Seireitei is just a large city with satellite cities/slums to which is all we are exposed.

[Insipidipity]

Firstly Seireitei is the sealed off Shinigami only area. And it's relative size seems to be ridiculously large. Outside of it you have the slum areas like where Ichi and co showed up after leaving Urahara. I -think- these are numbered (i think Yachiru says that in her flashback.) and there are hundreds if not thousands of slums.

There are aparently so many people in these slums that if you died seperatly from your family your chance of finding them is almost nil.

Also there is apparently area outside of even these numerous slums, atleast thats what it looks like when Yoruichi goes off to visit Shukaku.

And, this is my opinion/theory, but I think what Rukia said about Balance might be more of a rebirth type thing. The Dead go to SS, then seem to return to life. Why do I think this? because it's said that the Quincy's, who killed off Hollows instead of saving them(like Shinigami) would eventually unhinge that balance. Not enough souls in one world to support the other type of thing.

That aside, SS seems to be a round planet-like world just like earth, and the dead are lead to SS and start out in the Slums. Seireitei is just a large city with satellite cities/slums to which is all we are exposed.

Well I meant Seireitei not all of Rukongai. How many shinigami can fit in there? I would think the shinigami to human ratio should be about the same as the average police to human ratio in the world, which is no less than 1:200, so there has to be at least 30 million Shinigami.

That would potentially be between the population of Canada or Afghanistan. While the area of Seireitei may seem large, its not nearly as big as either of those countries. Especially if you consider the spherical nature of the field around it, for Seireitei to be the size of those countries, the field should potentially go into space, which Ichigo and company didn't seem to go into.

So the way I see it, there can't be nearly enough Shinigami to take care of the number of people in the world.

[The Space Cowboy]

Congratulations. You've found an excellent plot-hole and something that will make great fanfiction fodder if anyone ever decides to use the idea.

Soul-Society did strike me as being a rather...small organization simply for the role of Hollow-Hunting.

Perhaps however, Hollows are not as common in some places as they are in others (You know...the Hollows created after large events such as Hiroshima, the London Blitz, or Auschwitz would be absolutely...NASTY to fight, soemthing you'd send Zaraki Kenpachi to deal with).

[EvilMoogle]

Well, this was part of the reasoning the Quincy had, right?

But one thing that's overlooked, is SS has some way of tracking hollows, at least when they're on Earth, so I would think one Shinigami could cover a much larger area than one police officer could.

The real question is how common are hollows on earth vs. the number of Shinigami.

[DrunkenYoshimaster]

I like the idea of less shinigami being needed in some areas compared with others. In japan where beleif spirits on earth and ESP powers is higher one would expect more spiritual energy to attract hollows. but in the middle of kansas itd be surprising if even one hollow shows up a year.

[The Space Cowboy]

You forget hauntings. Perhaps Hollows adapt different strategems depending on the area. We know there are animalistic hollows (Renji kills one in a flashback) and there are more human hollows like Inoue's brother.

But even with the specialized spiritualistic physics of Bleach, I still don't think people not believing in Hollows would greatly effect the number of Hollows in a given location. The only generalized rule you could draw about Hollows is that there would be less of them in areas that had always been sparsely populated.

The other thing I forgot to figure in is the fact that the Hollows prey on their own kind to some degree (Menos Grande EAT lesser hollows). So you might have...the hollows of deceased American Indians wandering the plains of Kansas pursued by cowboys-turned-death-gods, or something like that.

[xeno]

I really agree with Sagaki's idea on the whole having other Gotei 13's, if only because it would definitely be a big twist in the plot.

[DrunkenYoshimaster]

^^ I guess my point was that more people beleive in the dead walking on earth and more will effectively make ways to try and contact them there thus resulting in a higher overall spirit pressure to attract hollows. Think of all the shinto shrines where people have things to attract and ward of spirits and some dedicate their lives to that sort of thing. Eventually after enough reading and actual beleiving youd think someone would actually be able to accomplish something in that realm, and since the rates are probably higher than elsewhere in the world it wouldnt be surprising for more hollows to be attracted.
Could be a flawed theory though.

[Nihonjin]

I don't think Gotei 13 is one of a kind...
At first I thought it was (and that would make Yamamoto the grand leader), but then, after Shunsui pwned Sado he said something along the lines of "Yama-jii wants us to eliminate them ASAP, because he doesn't want to look bad" Look bad? isn't he the top? Look bad for what :o....
So now I'm thinking there are places like Gotei 13 all over the damn dead realm (linked together as one big organisation.

[Insipidipity]

I don't think Gotei 13 is one of a kind...
At first I thought it was (and that would make Yamamoto the grand leader), but then, after Shunsui pwned Sado he said something along the lines of "Yama-jii wants us to eliminate them ASAP, because he doesn't want to look bad" Look bad? isn't he the top? Look bad for what :o....
So now I'm thinking there are places like Gotei 13 all over the damn dead realm (linked together as one big organisation.
Well theres those 40 people that were said to choose new captains. Which makes me think they have power over even Yama-jii. I think Hitsugaya just broke into their place though. But anyways, between them and also theres non Gotei 13 like the Military police Yoroichi was in charged of, or even the 4 noble families watching over.

All those are people Yami-jii would want to save face in front of.