Bleach: The Death Save the Strawberry is a Light Novel based on Bleach, co-authored by Tite Kubo and Makoto Matsubara. It was released in Japan on September 4, 2012, and has not to date been released outside Japan.
It is set during the Time Skip in the manga.
Tropes present in the novel include:
- All There in the Manual: In the main story, Urahara's group and the Visoreds are pardoned by Yamamoto. Some of the Visoreds return to Soul Society as captains but the rest do not. Urahara's group also does not return to Soul Society. The main story doesn't explain the reasons for any of this, but this novel does. The novel also clarifies why the changes in characters occur between Aizen's defeat and the Lost Agent Arc, whereas the main story skips over the explanations entirely.
- Continuity Nod: The final chapter details the scene where Yamamoto orders the entire Gotei 13 to put a portion of their reiatsu into the sword Rukia uses to restore Ichigo's Shinigami powers. Kugo Ginjo is briefly mentioned, to Hitsugaya's anger.
- Interquel: It's set between Ichigo losing his Shinigami powers and the Lost Agent Arc, ending with Rukia restoring Ichigo's power to him.
- Invisible to Normals: Normal humans do not have spiritual power and therefore cannot see ghosts, Hollows or Soul Reapers. Rukia visited the Human World to hang with Orihime, but deliberately avoids Ichigo because his loss of spiritual powers means they wouldn't be able to interact.
- True Companions: When it's suggested that Ichigo might defect to Ginjou's side once he learns the truth of why Soul Society originally nominated him a Substitute Soul Reaper, Rukia angrily retorts that Ichigo would never betray his friends. In the manga, a snippet of Rukia's reprimand is overheard by Ichigo via his badge.
