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fandomhigh_ooc2006-12-11 12:10 am
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Spotlight on Fandoms: Skylie babbles about "BLEACH"
Skylie here, with the second Fandom Overview for this Sunday, a nice little exposition on Bleach! I hope I’m able to do this consistently and thoroughly and not-confusingly, but questions and comments will be enjoyed and squee-ed at the end of the session.
Also? I love Bleach but I’m quite aware of its sometimes crappiness. So please don’t mind the ensuing snark. : )
Ichigo “Strawberry” Kurosaki: Age 15.
Hair: Orange. Eyes: Brown.
Occupation: High School Student
Special Skill: He can see ghost.
Which was certainly enough to make Ichigo feel like he was a little…special. But beyond his angry persona, his strange family life, and this annoying little special skill, there was something more underneath his wiry body that he never knew. It wasn’t until a strange young woman showed up at Ichigo’s home, a family run clinic, claiming to be a Soul Reaper (variations as the technical term Shinigami or the more direct translation of Death God also show up) and explains that she’s there to fight a monster known as a Hollow to protect Ichigo and his family. He’s a tad bit skeptical until said monster actually shows up and the woman, one Rukia Kuchiki, battles it. Not very well. Rukia gets battered up by the Hollow and Ichigo, not one to just let this monster throw shit around and hurt his family, insists on stepping in. To prevent the boy from killing himself, Rukia gives him her powers.
But Ichigo took more of her powers than both of them could have ever anticipated. And he can’t give them back. Ichigo himself must become a Soul Reaper, unheard of for someone still living. But not nearly as unheard of as the fact that Ichigo ends up having a power within him that exceeds anyone’s expectations….
Bleach is a series created by Tite Kubo in 2001 for Weekly Shonen Jump, a popular Japanese manga (comic) magazine. The Viz publications for the States claim it to be “The world’s most popular manga”! Wooo! So far, it’s up to 25 volumes in Japan. I’ve only read through six of the sixteen thus far released in America, though, but I have seen most of the subsequent anime series that followed (up to about episode 70, aka “the good stuff”). It is up to about this part in the anime series that follows the manga (very closely, which can sometimes be surprising for a series); everything after is what is called “filler:” since the series had caught up with the manga, it had to create some episode that are not associated with the main manga storyline while the manga caught up with it. Therefore, in this fan’s humble opinion, it kind of sucks.
Either way, the basic idea of the story is that Ichigo gets to be a Death God. Crazy hijinks and kick-ass battles ensue. Hooray!
Main Characters
Ichigo Kurosaki: aka “Hi, I’m the ansty bad-ass hero. Hear me roar.
Ichigo discovers after he gets Rukia’s powers that he is an extreme bad-ass and fights Hollows, which are evil spirits of the dead manifested as monsters that need to be slayed by a Soul Reaper so they can go to the Soul Society, a name for the series’ version of the afterlife. A Soul Reaper has always been someone already dead, who has gone through special training and school in the Soul Society to earn their abilities, so when some punk fifteen year old from Japan starts killing Hollows left and right (with “great spirit force”), it gets the attention of some of the higher-ups in the Soul Society, and trouble starts a-brewing when they discover what appears to be some punk Japanese kid stealing Rukia’s power.
Rukia Kuchiki: aka “Woe, I’m mostly useless now that I have no powers.”
Rukia is the Soul Reaper that shows up one fateful night to fail at life and get her powers stolen by Ichigo’s “great spirit force.” So she masquerades as a regular girl at Ichigo’s school to show him what to do and be his guide through the Soul Reaper stuff since she can’t figure out how to get her powers back. Until the Soul Society catches wind of what has happened, are not pleased, and come back to get her. Due to her extreme breech of protocol by letting someone take her powers, she is to be execute, oh-noes!, just in time to start a new story arc in which the crew goes to the Soul Society to kick more ass, as Ichigo will, of course, go and save her.
Orihime Inoue: aka “Big Boobs McGee”
Orihime is a classmate of Ichigo’s, whose only connection with Ichigo seems to be her crush on him and the fact that Ichigo saved her from the psychotic Hollow that developed from the dead soul of her brother. Orihime’s a quirky character, known for her absent-mindedness and strange tastes in food, but there is an attempt at solid character building in there somewhere. She’s sweet, and strong-willed, especially when it comes to protecting her friends. Through her interactions with Ichigo’s “great spirit force”not dirty?, she gains her own spiritual powers. She discovers that the barretts given to her by her brother can turn into fairies. These fairies give her the ability to use special abilities: one to attack, one to shield, and one to heal.
True to the nickname I’ve given her, Orihime is known for her very large and very bouncy boobs.
Yasutora “Chad” Sado: aka “What the hell is this big giant Mexican doing in Japan?”
Another classmate of Ichigo, Chad has a vague enough connection with the main character, apparently, to warrant joining his fight against Hollows and the Soul Society. Chad used to be a little shithead when he was little, which caused his grandfather to give him a dramatic speech on how because Chad is so strong and big and handsome, he should use his powers for good and not for beating everyone up. Chad took this to mean that he’d never hit anyone unless it was to protect someone else, especially after watching his grandfather pretty much get beat to death by a bunch of gangsters because his grandfather wouldn’t fight back. Flash forward a bit to Chad being tied upnot dirty? and beat up by a bunch of jerks picking on him just because they know he won’t fight back. Enter Ichigo Kurosaki who, after a moment of WTF?, protects Chad. They make a pact at that point to protect each other, because Ichigo thinks Chad’s really stupid for not fighting back. This is why Chad ends up in the group, because he feels he owes him one and because he wants himself a piece of orange-haired Japanese ass. He also manifests a power because of Ichigo’s “great spirit force,” which comes in the form of a super-strong arm armour that lets him beat the crap out of things even better, but which he uses mostly just to block things, because his dead grandfather prevents him from hitting things too much.
Oh, and his nickname, Chad, (or Chado as pronounced by his Japanese classmates), is a lame pun about tea, because his last name "Sado" has very similar character(s) (? I have no idea, Japanese is weird) to the character(s) for "tea," or Cha. Therefore, Sado becomes Chado. ....I think?
Ishida Uryuu: aka “Bastard who Sews Things and Shoots Arrows”
Ishida is introduced to the group when he challenged classmate Ichigo to a Hollow killing contest because Ishida is a Quincy, of which there are supposed to be none left, and a Quincy hates Soul Reapers, by law, because, a long time ago, Soul Reapers and Quincies had a little bitch fit about how Hollows should be killed. Since Hollows were evil, Quincies didn’t believe they deserved to go to Soul Society, so they tried to kill them all before the Soul Reapers could send them off. Bitch fight ensues, and Ishida follows Ichigo in a personal spite quest to prove that Quincies are better, or get in Ichigo’s pants. Or maybe Orihime’s. Or something. Ishida already has the spiritual power to create a Hollow-killing bow and arrow, but, of course, since Ichigo has such “great spiritual force,” it gets bigger and badder around Ichigo.
Kon: aka “Don’t call me a mascot!”
Kon is a modified soul that takes care of Ichigo’s human body when Ichigo takes his Death God form. When he’s not taking over Ichigo’s body, he takes the form of a stuffed lion. Whichever form he’s in, he’s a pervert. He is awesome. Poor guy doesn’t get to go to Soul Society, though, and then just gets abused maliciously by subsequent minor characters.
The Soul Society Arc
Bleach, as it exists now, can be divided into three parts: the first part, the Soul Society arc, and the Filler Crap. The first part establishes the characters and show them getting and using their powers in their world as it exists in Japan. Then two death gods, a Renji Abarai and a Byakuya Kuchiki (hey, wait, isn’t that Rukia’s last name? Oh, my could that possibly mean something?) show up to take Rukia back to the Soul Society to be executed for her transgressions. This means it’s time for an adventure! Yay! Quick, group of main characters, let’s pack up again go! Which they do.
And then we have a character explosion. The Soul Society is broken up into a military type construction, where there are thirteen divisions, each with a quirky captain/lieutenant pair. It would really take forever to go through all the characters introduced through this arc, especially since a lot of them are relatively there to just appeal to the “Ooh, look! Shiny new character who can do cool things! Look! Another one! Now they can have awesome battles, yay!” But there are a few of note that actually have strong significance to the story line:
Kisuke Urahara: Urahara owns a specialty Death God shop in Japan that Rukia frequents for all her Death God needs; turns out that he used to actually to be a captain of one of the divisions and had to leave due to nefarious reasons. He trains Ichigo to become stronger and learn how to use his zanpakutō (aka fancy word for cool sword with a spirit) and utilize his bankai (aka cool word for special power of cool sword with a spirit).
Yoruichi Shihouin: Yourichi is what Chad thinks Faithful should be. When we first meet Yoruichi, we meet a snarky, deep-voice black cat (familiar, anyone?). Turns out,t hough, that this cat is really a beautiful woman who will kick your ass, teach you how to utilize your special powers, and be a romantic interest for former Soul Society lieutenants and captains alike.
Gin Ichimaru: Through most of the Soul Society arc, this is the guy everyone wants to kill, as he’s got that suspicious as hell grin and is a jerk to everyone. He’s GOT to be behind the death of Aizen, right?
Sōsuke Aizen: When the group gets to Soul Society, it appears the execution of Rukia isn’t the only thing on. There’s a great plot going on revolving around the brutal murder of Captain Sosuke Aizen. This motivates most of the characters in this plot: while these silly humans are trying to break in, they’ve got to deal with a murderer among their ranks. Oh noes!
Byakuya Kuchiki: This guy seems to have a pretty strong iron grip on the balls of the Soul Society and, despite being an obvious relative of Rukia’s, is the main orchestrater of her execution. Ichigo wants to kick this guy’s ass bad.
Renji Abarai: Starts out as a good guy, ends up being kind of a good guy, a really good school-time friend of Rukia’s who ends up helping Ichigo save her. Despite the fact that both of them want to kill each other. I claim UST on that one.
Ganju Shiba: Ganju’s a regular joe in the Soul Society who joins the group in crusading against the Powers That Be, because those damn Soul Society bastards killed his brother. Everyone’s so vengeful in this damn arc.
So, basically, what you have is Ichigo trying to save Rukia, while inner turmoil rolls among the fifty million new characters of the Soul Society. For a really long time. Some of the battles seem to be taking inspiration from Dragon Ball Z (“Are they still on Namek?!?”), but it’s good stuff.
I’ll be honest. I don’t think I completely understand what happens at the end of Soul Society arc. Just that Soul Society turns out to be corrupt and there’s a pending civil war. That will be postponed while we go into The Filler Arc.
I’m not touching the Filler Arc. I stopped watching at this point….. Sorry. >_<
Things that would make me Squee
What of Bleach canon would I love to see in Fandom, as a fun way to round out my ramblings?
Yoruichi, meeting Faithful.
I was considering aping Urahara and bringing his Urahara Shoten to Fandom at one point, but went with Rosette instead.
An Orihime Inoue. The character would be such a gem of a student, baking disgusting things and making everyone try not to notice those gigantic boobs.
Kenpachi Zaraki as a teacher. If I didn’t have such a long list of possible characters, I’d do it…
And I’m spent. Sorry if it isn’t as great as it could be. If you’re interested, they show episodes of Bleach every Saturday on Cartoon Network (12;30 EST, I think), and YouTube has all of them as well, I’m sure. And there’s always wonderful Wiki and Bleach 7.
I gotta go write massive paper-age now. Wheee!
Also? I love Bleach but I’m quite aware of its sometimes crappiness. So please don’t mind the ensuing snark. : )
Ichigo “Strawberry” Kurosaki: Age 15.
Hair: Orange. Eyes: Brown.
Occupation: High School Student
Special Skill: He can see ghost.
Which was certainly enough to make Ichigo feel like he was a little…special. But beyond his angry persona, his strange family life, and this annoying little special skill, there was something more underneath his wiry body that he never knew. It wasn’t until a strange young woman showed up at Ichigo’s home, a family run clinic, claiming to be a Soul Reaper (variations as the technical term Shinigami or the more direct translation of Death God also show up) and explains that she’s there to fight a monster known as a Hollow to protect Ichigo and his family. He’s a tad bit skeptical until said monster actually shows up and the woman, one Rukia Kuchiki, battles it. Not very well. Rukia gets battered up by the Hollow and Ichigo, not one to just let this monster throw shit around and hurt his family, insists on stepping in. To prevent the boy from killing himself, Rukia gives him her powers.
But Ichigo took more of her powers than both of them could have ever anticipated. And he can’t give them back. Ichigo himself must become a Soul Reaper, unheard of for someone still living. But not nearly as unheard of as the fact that Ichigo ends up having a power within him that exceeds anyone’s expectations….
Bleach is a series created by Tite Kubo in 2001 for Weekly Shonen Jump, a popular Japanese manga (comic) magazine. The Viz publications for the States claim it to be “The world’s most popular manga”! Wooo! So far, it’s up to 25 volumes in Japan. I’ve only read through six of the sixteen thus far released in America, though, but I have seen most of the subsequent anime series that followed (up to about episode 70, aka “the good stuff”). It is up to about this part in the anime series that follows the manga (very closely, which can sometimes be surprising for a series); everything after is what is called “filler:” since the series had caught up with the manga, it had to create some episode that are not associated with the main manga storyline while the manga caught up with it. Therefore, in this fan’s humble opinion, it kind of sucks.
Either way, the basic idea of the story is that Ichigo gets to be a Death God. Crazy hijinks and kick-ass battles ensue. Hooray!
Main Characters
Ichigo Kurosaki: aka “Hi, I’m the ansty bad-ass hero. Hear me roar.
Ichigo discovers after he gets Rukia’s powers that he is an extreme bad-ass and fights Hollows, which are evil spirits of the dead manifested as monsters that need to be slayed by a Soul Reaper so they can go to the Soul Society, a name for the series’ version of the afterlife. A Soul Reaper has always been someone already dead, who has gone through special training and school in the Soul Society to earn their abilities, so when some punk fifteen year old from Japan starts killing Hollows left and right (with “great spirit force”), it gets the attention of some of the higher-ups in the Soul Society, and trouble starts a-brewing when they discover what appears to be some punk Japanese kid stealing Rukia’s power.
Rukia Kuchiki: aka “Woe, I’m mostly useless now that I have no powers.”
Rukia is the Soul Reaper that shows up one fateful night to fail at life and get her powers stolen by Ichigo’s “great spirit force.” So she masquerades as a regular girl at Ichigo’s school to show him what to do and be his guide through the Soul Reaper stuff since she can’t figure out how to get her powers back. Until the Soul Society catches wind of what has happened, are not pleased, and come back to get her. Due to her extreme breech of protocol by letting someone take her powers, she is to be execute, oh-noes!, just in time to start a new story arc in which the crew goes to the Soul Society to kick more ass, as Ichigo will, of course, go and save her.
Orihime Inoue: aka “Big Boobs McGee”
Orihime is a classmate of Ichigo’s, whose only connection with Ichigo seems to be her crush on him and the fact that Ichigo saved her from the psychotic Hollow that developed from the dead soul of her brother. Orihime’s a quirky character, known for her absent-mindedness and strange tastes in food, but there is an attempt at solid character building in there somewhere. She’s sweet, and strong-willed, especially when it comes to protecting her friends. Through her interactions with Ichigo’s “great spirit force”
True to the nickname I’ve given her, Orihime is known for her very large and very bouncy boobs.
Yasutora “Chad” Sado: aka “What the hell is this big giant Mexican doing in Japan?”
Another classmate of Ichigo, Chad has a vague enough connection with the main character, apparently, to warrant joining his fight against Hollows and the Soul Society. Chad used to be a little shithead when he was little, which caused his grandfather to give him a dramatic speech on how because Chad is so strong and big and handsome, he should use his powers for good and not for beating everyone up. Chad took this to mean that he’d never hit anyone unless it was to protect someone else, especially after watching his grandfather pretty much get beat to death by a bunch of gangsters because his grandfather wouldn’t fight back. Flash forward a bit to Chad being tied up
Oh, and his nickname, Chad, (or Chado as pronounced by his Japanese classmates), is a lame pun about tea, because his last name "Sado" has very similar character(s) (? I have no idea, Japanese is weird) to the character(s) for "tea," or Cha. Therefore, Sado becomes Chado. ....I think?
Ishida Uryuu: aka “Bastard who Sews Things and Shoots Arrows”
Ishida is introduced to the group when he challenged classmate Ichigo to a Hollow killing contest because Ishida is a Quincy, of which there are supposed to be none left, and a Quincy hates Soul Reapers, by law, because, a long time ago, Soul Reapers and Quincies had a little bitch fit about how Hollows should be killed. Since Hollows were evil, Quincies didn’t believe they deserved to go to Soul Society, so they tried to kill them all before the Soul Reapers could send them off. Bitch fight ensues, and Ishida follows Ichigo in a personal spite quest to prove that Quincies are better, or get in Ichigo’s pants. Or maybe Orihime’s. Or something. Ishida already has the spiritual power to create a Hollow-killing bow and arrow, but, of course, since Ichigo has such “great spiritual force,” it gets bigger and badder around Ichigo.
Kon: aka “Don’t call me a mascot!”
Kon is a modified soul that takes care of Ichigo’s human body when Ichigo takes his Death God form. When he’s not taking over Ichigo’s body, he takes the form of a stuffed lion. Whichever form he’s in, he’s a pervert. He is awesome. Poor guy doesn’t get to go to Soul Society, though, and then just gets abused maliciously by subsequent minor characters.
The Soul Society Arc
Bleach, as it exists now, can be divided into three parts: the first part, the Soul Society arc, and the Filler Crap. The first part establishes the characters and show them getting and using their powers in their world as it exists in Japan. Then two death gods, a Renji Abarai and a Byakuya Kuchiki (hey, wait, isn’t that Rukia’s last name? Oh, my could that possibly mean something?) show up to take Rukia back to the Soul Society to be executed for her transgressions. This means it’s time for an adventure! Yay! Quick, group of main characters, let’s pack up again go! Which they do.
And then we have a character explosion. The Soul Society is broken up into a military type construction, where there are thirteen divisions, each with a quirky captain/lieutenant pair. It would really take forever to go through all the characters introduced through this arc, especially since a lot of them are relatively there to just appeal to the “Ooh, look! Shiny new character who can do cool things! Look! Another one! Now they can have awesome battles, yay!” But there are a few of note that actually have strong significance to the story line:
Kisuke Urahara: Urahara owns a specialty Death God shop in Japan that Rukia frequents for all her Death God needs; turns out that he used to actually to be a captain of one of the divisions and had to leave due to nefarious reasons. He trains Ichigo to become stronger and learn how to use his zanpakutō (aka fancy word for cool sword with a spirit) and utilize his bankai (aka cool word for special power of cool sword with a spirit).
Yoruichi Shihouin: Yourichi is what Chad thinks Faithful should be. When we first meet Yoruichi, we meet a snarky, deep-voice black cat (familiar, anyone?). Turns out,t hough, that this cat is really a beautiful woman who will kick your ass, teach you how to utilize your special powers, and be a romantic interest for former Soul Society lieutenants and captains alike.
Gin Ichimaru: Through most of the Soul Society arc, this is the guy everyone wants to kill, as he’s got that suspicious as hell grin and is a jerk to everyone. He’s GOT to be behind the death of Aizen, right?
Sōsuke Aizen: When the group gets to Soul Society, it appears the execution of Rukia isn’t the only thing on. There’s a great plot going on revolving around the brutal murder of Captain Sosuke Aizen. This motivates most of the characters in this plot: while these silly humans are trying to break in, they’ve got to deal with a murderer among their ranks. Oh noes!
Byakuya Kuchiki: This guy seems to have a pretty strong iron grip on the balls of the Soul Society and, despite being an obvious relative of Rukia’s, is the main orchestrater of her execution. Ichigo wants to kick this guy’s ass bad.
Renji Abarai: Starts out as a good guy, ends up being kind of a good guy, a really good school-time friend of Rukia’s who ends up helping Ichigo save her. Despite the fact that both of them want to kill each other. I claim UST on that one.
Ganju Shiba: Ganju’s a regular joe in the Soul Society who joins the group in crusading against the Powers That Be, because those damn Soul Society bastards killed his brother. Everyone’s so vengeful in this damn arc.
So, basically, what you have is Ichigo trying to save Rukia, while inner turmoil rolls among the fifty million new characters of the Soul Society. For a really long time. Some of the battles seem to be taking inspiration from Dragon Ball Z (“Are they still on Namek?!?”), but it’s good stuff.
I’ll be honest. I don’t think I completely understand what happens at the end of Soul Society arc. Just that Soul Society turns out to be corrupt and there’s a pending civil war. That will be postponed while we go into The Filler Arc.
I’m not touching the Filler Arc. I stopped watching at this point….. Sorry. >_<
Things that would make me Squee
What of Bleach canon would I love to see in Fandom, as a fun way to round out my ramblings?
Yoruichi, meeting Faithful.
I was considering aping Urahara and bringing his Urahara Shoten to Fandom at one point, but went with Rosette instead.
An Orihime Inoue. The character would be such a gem of a student, baking disgusting things and making everyone try not to notice those gigantic boobs.
Kenpachi Zaraki as a teacher. If I didn’t have such a long list of possible characters, I’d do it…
And I’m spent. Sorry if it isn’t as great as it could be. If you’re interested, they show episodes of Bleach every Saturday on Cartoon Network (12;30 EST, I think), and YouTube has all of them as well, I’m sure. And there’s always wonderful Wiki and Bleach 7.
I gotta go write massive paper-age now. Wheee!
no subject
A girlfriend for Faithful? That could be so terribly amusing :)
no subject
no subject
That means his ass, right?
P.S. If you applied Kenpachi as a teacher I would build a shrine in your honor.
no subject
no subject
2. Yoruichi, meeting Faithful.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yesyesyesyesyesyesyes.
3. "What is this spirit force?!"
4. If we have a Kenpachi, we'd need the little pink haired girl. NEED.
5. You've killed me. And the stuff after ep 70 isn't THAT bad. . . . Chad's gotten to do stuff. (says she who spent the last two weeks mainlining the damned anime series)
no subject
:D
no subject
Actually, now that I think about it, it was like the later seasons of BtVS that way.
Whatever. You could always try hoarding it and then watching it in
not dirtyspurts?no subject
no subject
So what is the big giant Mexican doing in Japan? And why does he have a Japanese name instead of, like, 'Jose Rodriguez' or something? Or do we not know?
no subject