http://first-guardian.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
first-guardian.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh_ooc2008-09-07 03:56 pm
first-guardian.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2008-09-07 03:56 pm
Entry tags:
Spotlight on fandom: Bleach
Today I will be talking to you about Bleach and hopefully I'll manage to do it without spoilers. This fandom isn't the easiest fandom to explain, but I shall do my best to make as much sense as possible. So there will be shiny OCD. And no spoilers.
1. The eternal question: Manga vs anime
Bleach is a manga series by the author and illustrator Tite Kubo and like most popural manga series, it was later adapted into an anime series. Which in its turn produced a few movies. I'll be honest, I haven't even seen the movies. The anime series in my opinion is nice if you have read the manga and want more. I don't find it a good starting point to get into the fandom. The manga sticks to the main plotline and has a lot more purpose while the anime has what we call "filler episodes" that make very little sense (vampires, seriously?). It's fun, but it doesn't come close to the manga. So today, I shall be talking about the manga only.
2. Bleach universe
To make sense of the canon, you need to understand the world in which Bleach is set. The story is set in Karakura Town, a fictional suburb in contemporary Tokyo. The main story of Bleach however is set on a spiritual level. Not surprising when the main character of the series is able to see ghosts.
Bleach has its own theory about the after life. Once someone dies, they either go to Soul Society or hell. Soul Societ would be what we consider heaven, only it's not as nice. It can be a cruel and hard place, depending on where you end up. Soul Society is basically one huge village and at the center of it lies a fortified town where the shinigami live. Shinigami (or soul reapers) are both the rulers as the army of Soul Society. They are spirits who have a lot of "spiritual energy" and are trained to be guardians of both the spiritual world as the material world.
You see, Bleach is all about incarnation. Spirits die and move from our world to Soul Society and back again. The number of spirits in either world needs to always be balanced or things will go very, very bad. Shinigami are supposed to guard that balance. They are also responsible for helping spirits move from one world to the other. When a spirits lingers after his death, they will help them pass on. Sometimes it happens however, that a spirit doesn't get to move on and the soul is corrupted. These spirits grow 'evil' and turn into hollows. These hollows will feed themselves on other living souls and the shinigami are to purge the hollows to send them on to Soul Society (or in some cases to hell).
3. Character types
Bleach has a very, very large cast. I'm going to try to some up the most important ones without getting in too many spoilers.
a. Humans
The humans form the main cast since our story starts off in the material world.
Ichigo Kurosaki: Ichigo is our main character. He is 15 years old, had bright orange hair and he's a loud mouth. Or you know, a stander emo teenage boy. Except for how he's been able to see spirits ever since he was a little boy. The that one skill, add a hollow attacking his family and a shinigami getting injured trying to protect him and you get a young teenage boy who tries to take on the duties to a shinigami. And lo and behold, he isn't too shabby at it either. Of course, you just know this can't go well.
Orihime Inoue: Orihime is one of Ichigo's classmates. She's a sweet girl, too sweet for her own good from time to time. She has some very odd habits and you really don't want to ask her what she's eating as she cooks the most weirdest dishes ever. She also has a crush on Ichigo and due to being close to him, she develops some skills of her own.
Yasutora Sado aka Chad: Chad is the friendly giant of the story. He is very, very, very tall and as strong as he looks tall. Chad is a man of very little words and he has his own honour code. He promised his grandfather that he would never use his strength to defend himself, but only to defend others. Chad's strange appearances however, and the fact that he wouldn't fight back, meant that he got picked upon and harassed by other teenagers. Something Ichigo didn't like, so he ended up fighting for Chad and the two came to a pact where they would fight for each other. When Chad, just like the other people close to Ichigo, develops some spiritual skills of his own, he will, of course, be there to fight with his friend.
Uryuu Ishida: Uryuu is the whiny and geeky character of the bunch. He's a know-it-all and he's also a Quincy. The Quincy hate the shinigami. They were people who wanted to fight help to fighting hollows. The shinigami didn't much like their interference and had to take actions to stop them. Uryuu as default hates Ichigo and decides that he is better than Ichigo.
b. Shinigami
I already explained what shinigami are, so I'm not going to go into it again. But let me just tell you that there are a lot of shinigami characters. These are the two important ones:
Rukia Kuchiki: Rukia is the shinigami who ends up at Ichigo's house when a hollow attacks his family. Due to Ichigo's interference, she gets injured when she saves him and somehow ends up losing her powers to Ichigo. While she recovers, she insists on Ichigo taking over her duties. She ends up pretending she is one of his classmates and lives in his closet while she's stuck here.
Renji Abarai: Renji is another shinigami who grew up with Rukia in Soul Society. He has bright red hair and strange tattoos on his forehead and down his shoulders. He will do pretty much anything for Rukia and him and Ichigo do nothing but bicker. That shouldn't be a surprise.
c. Various
Kisuke Urahara: Kisuke is... No, you'll just have to find out who he is. Ichigo calls him 'Hat-and-clogs' because he always wears a greent striped hat, wooden sandals and a cane. He owns a shop in Karakura Town and helps Rukia get a hand on some mysterious items. He also always seems to know a little too much.
Yoruichi Shihoin: Yoruichi is a black talking cat who seems to be close friends with Kisuke and just like him, Yoruichi seems to know a lot. And seriously, I just needed to mention it because it reminds me of Faithful. (I blame![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
senor_chado for putting this in my head.)
Kon: Kon is a modsoul. He was created by Soul Society to [cut for spoilers]. He ends up being stuffed into a stuffed bar. He is obsessed with women and breasts and generally makes a nuissance of himself. Ichigo keeps him around so when he leaves his body, Kon will take his place. Somehow, it always ends up embarassing Ichigo.
4. Why I read Bleach and why I think you should too
I was slow to get into Bleach. I read the first three chapters on a day I was bored and then put it aside for weeks. A bit later, I tried it again and somehow this time I got into it. Bleach has some wonderful characters with some very complex relationships. And if you like shipping? Tite Kubo does a great job to make all and any relationships in the series interesting. From the heroes to the 'villains'.
I very much loved the world created in Bleach. Soul Society, shinigami and hollows are an interesting concept and it is interesting seeing an average teenager taking on those duties. It is a strange and novel world and I ended up loving all the characters.
I do have some nitpicks however. The biggest one is that Tite Kubo seems to have lost some of the concept that made Bleach awesome. Whereas he started off with longer chapters and fights that didn't drag on forever (there even was some mocking in it of those series where the villains just brag and brag and stand around before the actions starts), he lost his way after the first plot arc. It's a bit disappointing to see the second plotline be a weak copy of the first where the characters just continue to get insanely strong and face off one big boss after the other.
Nonetheless, Bleach makes for a good read. I highly recommend reading through the Soul Society story arc and the aftermath and then read the 'Turn Back The Pendulum' series. The latter is just genius and ties up the loose ends of the first plotline and explains exactly who people like Kisuke and Yoruichi are and why they do the things they do.
5. Links
- The previous Bleach spotlight on fandom bysenor_chado
- Okay, I want to read. Where can I find it? Go right here. These are fan scanlations (scan + translation) of the chapters.
- Bleach on Wiki
And I think that's it for me... Finally. *coughs* What? I get wordy!
1. The eternal question: Manga vs anime
Bleach is a manga series by the author and illustrator Tite Kubo and like most popural manga series, it was later adapted into an anime series. Which in its turn produced a few movies. I'll be honest, I haven't even seen the movies. The anime series in my opinion is nice if you have read the manga and want more. I don't find it a good starting point to get into the fandom. The manga sticks to the main plotline and has a lot more purpose while the anime has what we call "filler episodes" that make very little sense (vampires, seriously?). It's fun, but it doesn't come close to the manga. So today, I shall be talking about the manga only.
2. Bleach universe
To make sense of the canon, you need to understand the world in which Bleach is set. The story is set in Karakura Town, a fictional suburb in contemporary Tokyo. The main story of Bleach however is set on a spiritual level. Not surprising when the main character of the series is able to see ghosts.
Bleach has its own theory about the after life. Once someone dies, they either go to Soul Society or hell. Soul Societ would be what we consider heaven, only it's not as nice. It can be a cruel and hard place, depending on where you end up. Soul Society is basically one huge village and at the center of it lies a fortified town where the shinigami live. Shinigami (or soul reapers) are both the rulers as the army of Soul Society. They are spirits who have a lot of "spiritual energy" and are trained to be guardians of both the spiritual world as the material world.
You see, Bleach is all about incarnation. Spirits die and move from our world to Soul Society and back again. The number of spirits in either world needs to always be balanced or things will go very, very bad. Shinigami are supposed to guard that balance. They are also responsible for helping spirits move from one world to the other. When a spirits lingers after his death, they will help them pass on. Sometimes it happens however, that a spirit doesn't get to move on and the soul is corrupted. These spirits grow 'evil' and turn into hollows. These hollows will feed themselves on other living souls and the shinigami are to purge the hollows to send them on to Soul Society (or in some cases to hell).
3. Character types
Bleach has a very, very large cast. I'm going to try to some up the most important ones without getting in too many spoilers.
a. Humans
The humans form the main cast since our story starts off in the material world.
Ichigo Kurosaki: Ichigo is our main character. He is 15 years old, had bright orange hair and he's a loud mouth. Or you know, a stander emo teenage boy. Except for how he's been able to see spirits ever since he was a little boy. The that one skill, add a hollow attacking his family and a shinigami getting injured trying to protect him and you get a young teenage boy who tries to take on the duties to a shinigami. And lo and behold, he isn't too shabby at it either. Of course, you just know this can't go well.
Orihime Inoue: Orihime is one of Ichigo's classmates. She's a sweet girl, too sweet for her own good from time to time. She has some very odd habits and you really don't want to ask her what she's eating as she cooks the most weirdest dishes ever. She also has a crush on Ichigo and due to being close to him, she develops some skills of her own.
Yasutora Sado aka Chad: Chad is the friendly giant of the story. He is very, very, very tall and as strong as he looks tall. Chad is a man of very little words and he has his own honour code. He promised his grandfather that he would never use his strength to defend himself, but only to defend others. Chad's strange appearances however, and the fact that he wouldn't fight back, meant that he got picked upon and harassed by other teenagers. Something Ichigo didn't like, so he ended up fighting for Chad and the two came to a pact where they would fight for each other. When Chad, just like the other people close to Ichigo, develops some spiritual skills of his own, he will, of course, be there to fight with his friend.
Uryuu Ishida: Uryuu is the whiny and geeky character of the bunch. He's a know-it-all and he's also a Quincy. The Quincy hate the shinigami. They were people who wanted to fight help to fighting hollows. The shinigami didn't much like their interference and had to take actions to stop them. Uryuu as default hates Ichigo and decides that he is better than Ichigo.
b. Shinigami
I already explained what shinigami are, so I'm not going to go into it again. But let me just tell you that there are a lot of shinigami characters. These are the two important ones:
Rukia Kuchiki: Rukia is the shinigami who ends up at Ichigo's house when a hollow attacks his family. Due to Ichigo's interference, she gets injured when she saves him and somehow ends up losing her powers to Ichigo. While she recovers, she insists on Ichigo taking over her duties. She ends up pretending she is one of his classmates and lives in his closet while she's stuck here.
Renji Abarai: Renji is another shinigami who grew up with Rukia in Soul Society. He has bright red hair and strange tattoos on his forehead and down his shoulders. He will do pretty much anything for Rukia and him and Ichigo do nothing but bicker. That shouldn't be a surprise.
c. Various
Kisuke Urahara: Kisuke is... No, you'll just have to find out who he is. Ichigo calls him 'Hat-and-clogs' because he always wears a greent striped hat, wooden sandals and a cane. He owns a shop in Karakura Town and helps Rukia get a hand on some mysterious items. He also always seems to know a little too much.
Yoruichi Shihoin: Yoruichi is a black talking cat who seems to be close friends with Kisuke and just like him, Yoruichi seems to know a lot. And seriously, I just needed to mention it because it reminds me of Faithful. (I blame
senor_chado for putting this in my head.)Kon: Kon is a modsoul. He was created by Soul Society to [cut for spoilers]. He ends up being stuffed into a stuffed bar. He is obsessed with women and breasts and generally makes a nuissance of himself. Ichigo keeps him around so when he leaves his body, Kon will take his place. Somehow, it always ends up embarassing Ichigo.
4. Why I read Bleach and why I think you should too
I was slow to get into Bleach. I read the first three chapters on a day I was bored and then put it aside for weeks. A bit later, I tried it again and somehow this time I got into it. Bleach has some wonderful characters with some very complex relationships. And if you like shipping? Tite Kubo does a great job to make all and any relationships in the series interesting. From the heroes to the 'villains'.
I very much loved the world created in Bleach. Soul Society, shinigami and hollows are an interesting concept and it is interesting seeing an average teenager taking on those duties. It is a strange and novel world and I ended up loving all the characters.
I do have some nitpicks however. The biggest one is that Tite Kubo seems to have lost some of the concept that made Bleach awesome. Whereas he started off with longer chapters and fights that didn't drag on forever (there even was some mocking in it of those series where the villains just brag and brag and stand around before the actions starts), he lost his way after the first plot arc. It's a bit disappointing to see the second plotline be a weak copy of the first where the characters just continue to get insanely strong and face off one big boss after the other.
Nonetheless, Bleach makes for a good read. I highly recommend reading through the Soul Society story arc and the aftermath and then read the 'Turn Back The Pendulum' series. The latter is just genius and ties up the loose ends of the first plotline and explains exactly who people like Kisuke and Yoruichi are and why they do the things they do.
5. Links
- The previous Bleach spotlight on fandom by
senor_chado- Okay, I want to read. Where can I find it? Go right here. These are fan scanlations (scan + translation) of the chapters.
- Bleach on Wiki
And I think that's it for me... Finally. *coughs* What? I get wordy!