Name : Matsumoto Rangiku
Birthday : September 29
Height : 172 cm
Weight : 57 kg
Occupation : Shinigami lieutenant of the 10th Division. Currently posing as a high school student in the human world.
Rangiku is an attractive woman with long wavy fair hair (worn short in her youth). Her most distinctive feature is that she is even more well-endowed than Orihime Inoue, which both the manga and anime tend to poke fun at from time to time.
She dresses in the garb typical of shinigami, though her robes hang loose enough for her bosom to be revealed. She wears a necklace and a pink scarf over her arms. In addition, her lieutenant's armband is worn on her uniform's sash, as opposed to around the arm.
 Rangiku tends to be a slacker who doesn't like paperwork and likes to drink sake a lot. Her easy-going and free-spirited personality is in sharp contrast with the serious Hitsugaya; however, she has proven time and time again her loyalty to the captain. While she also 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 traitor of Soul Society, and when Orihime feels depressed about her role in Ichigo Kurosaki's life.
Little is told about Rangiku's past. She came from Rukongai and was rescued as a child by Gin Ichimaru; the two soon became friends. In one short chapter from the manga, she was once asked by Ichimaru during her childhood what her birthdate was. She replied that she did not know because she had been alone for as far as she could remember. This possibly meant she was orphaned since birth. When he heard about this, Ichimaru told her that if this was the case, then her birthdate should be set on the day they met (the day she was not alone anymore).
It is not known how she became a shinigami or how she became lieutenant of the 10th Division. There are strong hints that she had been lieutenant of the 10th Division prior the promotion of the current captain, Toushirou Hitsugaya.
 Rangiku first appears at a lieutenants' meeting, the first one in a long time, and subsequently at another lieutenants' meeting, where it is announced that the 11th Division has been nearly annihilated.
She (with Tetsuzaemon Iba, and others) takes Momo Hinamori to her jail cell and later gives her a letter from Sousuke Aizen, addressed to Hinamori.
As the conspiracy revolving around the supposed death of 5th Division Captain Sousuke Aizen and Rukia Kuchiki's execution begins to escalate, Rangiku stands by her captain's side. At one point, Hitsugaya confronts Gin, whom he suspects of murdering Aizen. When Hitsugaya is trapped between defending Hinamori and fighting Gin, Rangiku steps in to confront her friend and help her captain.
She and Hitsugaya attempt to make a final appeal to the Chamber of 46 at the advent of Rukia's execution only to discover all 46 members of the chamber have been killed. Gin's lieutenant, Izuru Kira leads them away from the chamber. When Hitsugaya decides to return to the Chamber of 46, Rangiku stays behind to fight Kira.
 Despite the betrayal of Gin, Rangiku remains fairly positive. She is one of six shinigami assigned to aid Ichigo in the human world with the new arrancar threat. She and Hitsugaya appear to be staying with Orihime for the time being. Orihime and Matsumoto have hit it off quite well, partly due to Matsumoto's undiscriminating tastebuds.
The espada Grimmjow Jaggerjack leads an assault on the living world with 5 other arrancar. Rangiku's opponent is the arrancar Nakim. Though as of chapter 208, she seems to be beaten down by Nakim, in chapter 209 it is revealed that she was merely buying herself time, waiting for the approval of her application to lift her power limit (a limit placed on all shinigami captains and lieutenants in the human world in order not to cause unnecessary influence).
After she lifts the limit, she easily defeats Nakim.
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