User blog comment:Njalm2/Nanja's Point of View: Shinigami Edition/@comment-136273-20150503184455/@comment-3403804-20150503212627

When you posit these arguments, Saris, I sorta wonder if you've actually taken the time to read this blog, or if you entered solely for the sake of the debate itself, cause many of these concerns should be written in the guide. Shinigami ARE godlike, their name translates to God of Death after all, and in comparison to a basic human such as you or I their power would be akin to that of a god, even if that power is weak in comparison to what the greatest of them can accomplish. While only a handful of Shinigami are really powerful in the context of their universe, when I mention demigods and the likes, I compare them to us ordinary folk.

To address your point that they're from the cycle of reincarnation, and will eventually be human again, that still doesn't change the fact that most souls have no recollection whatsoever of who they were before they entered Soul Society, so the difference between a Shinigami that's born into Soul Society and another that became one over time is actually not that great. Both of them would be subjected to the lengthened lifespan of a Shinigami, and over time, that would. I also disagree with the notion that Shinigami are human for a number of reasons. Pluses are us, and they vastly outnumber the Shinigami, and Pluses, like I stated in this guide of mine, likely have similar life expectancy of us ordinary humans (otherwise keeping the balance between the worlds would require massacre after massacre in order to ensure a steady influx of new souls).

Yes, Shinigami are a long-lived race if we go by what has been shown and what has been stated. While some Shinigami live for only a few centuries, it's unlikely that any of them would die at the same rate as humans do, the absolute weakest Shinigami, with no drive whatsoever might live very limited lifespans in comparison to other Shinigami, but in these cases I'd still peg them as living significantly longer than any human. One thing I can say however, is that Shinigami are a subrace of pluses, rather than something entirely and utterly different. The differences between Shinigami and humans are largely born by their very long lives.