The son of a town council member in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima, Tite Kubo graduated from the local high school. In an interview, Kubo has stated that he entered a magazine's manga contest, and that although he did not win, one of the magazine's editors noticed his talent. They subsequently worked together on joint projects.[1] Not long afterward, his first manga short, "Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine", was published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump Special in 1996. This was followed by two more shorts, and in 1999 his first serial, Zombie Powder, began in Weekly Shonen Jump and ran for four volumes until 2000. His next serial, Bleach, about a high school student who becomes a shinigami and fights evil spirits called "hollows", began running in the same magazine in 2001. As of December 4, 2006, Bleach has reached 25 volumes and an anime based on it began running in Japan in 2004. The manga was named a winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award for its category in 2005, and a Bleach movie was released in Japan on December 16, 2006.