The poem from volume 27 as an example for those who have not seen the Bleach poems. Orihime is the cover character of this one: We as one: Are not intertwined. As two: do not share the same form. Of the third: we simply don't have eyes. Of the fourth: we have no hope in that direction. At the fifth: therein lies the heart.
On a less serious note my yorusoi shipping ass was amused by Soifon agonizing over the swimsuit. On the one hand. Yoruichi-sama picked it out. On the other hand. It is pink! That is lame! The yellow one is preferable. But Yoruichi-sama picked the pink one! What is a Feng to do...
Pffffffff and PERISH, probably! Yeah, people talk a lot of shit about Bleach, to the point where I was actually surprised at how well put together the show was, because I loved it but I love everything. But no, it's actually really good. I should read the manga. I bet I'd love it.
At the very least she did speak up and say that she liked the yellow one better? Yoruichi was fucking walking out the door by then but like. Good on you, Soifon. You get a star sticker for effort. You learned how to voice an opinion. Now maybe next time you can learn to voice it before Yoruichi fucks off. The manga has the benefit of Kubo's lovely art. He does fun shit with like. Entirely backgroundless panels to like place emphasis on certain emotional beats. And that Ulquiorra panel that from earlier. Hueco Mundo is just this lovely void of a place with stark black on stark white. It's really fucking pretty.
Also yeah I have to say I am kind of surprised by all the shit it gets. Granted I have yet to get to Lost Agent and Thousand Year Blood War arcs. And Lost Agent apparently lost A Lot Of People. Thousand Year Blood War is where the most complaints regarding his backgrounds come from. But like the first two arcs were really solid stuff. Arrancar arc seems to be similarly solid. And is showcasing Kubo's very aesthetics focused mind quite a bit. He likes fashion magazines and cares about design A Lot. That shows with characters like Ulquiorra. Hell it shows with how he put detail into like differentiating the shinigami outfits. Soifon doesn't wear the same kinds of shoes as everyone else. Some of the shinigami don't wear tabi. Some run around in tabi boots. Some wear zori, others wear waraji. We honestly probably did not need such variety in their footwear or attention to detail with it but the man put that in.
there is an alarming amount of focus on people's feet in the soul society arc, honestly. especially their footwear. kubo likes clothes
That seems like a very happy situation for someone who is gonna be drawing a lot of people, many of whom will be wearing clothes at any given time. It also probably explains why Ichigo is actually dressed casual-but-trendy and looks fairly put together in civvies, especially for a teenage anime guy. Huh. Never thought about that. I spend a lot of time not thinking about characters' fashion it turns out. I obviously see it and apparently remember, but it just doesn't register until I have reason to recall. Now I do with Bleach, so that's pretty awesome.
also in terms of fanmade stuff i found this yorusoi fanart someone did of an au where soifon hollowfies because...well it looks sick as fuck:
Yeah. If I recall correctly he's done work for fashion too? A lot of his chapter title pages are dedicated to posing the cast like they are fashion models. Dressed up in pretty outfits. Often in carefully chosen sets to accentuate said outfits. He's kind of like Araki in this area, really. The guy loves fashion a lot and is very fashion baby work it with his designs. Just he doesn't tend to have his characters be striking runway poses while in the comic text proper like Araki does with his infamous Jojo poses.
Bleach: -gives me a desert of nothingness that has critters in it- Me: …!!!! Bleach -has ichigo and co be like !!!- Me: SHOW ME THE WORM!!!! Bleach: -motherfucking sandworm hollow erupts from the dunes- Me: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!
I can't convey to you how happy I am about the fact that Kubo just seems to think that Mexico and Spanish are the coolest things ever. Growing up in California as a white passing Chicana I got to see like...one of four takes on what the language sounds like. It is ugly, it is silly, it is violent and spoken by stupid gang members, or it is sexy but only when Californians want to be sticking their dicks in maids. Spanish never gets to be a cool language. It never gets to be the language of sick ass special moves and exciting fantasy locales. In Bleach though? It does. Also that pueblo architecture for Hueco Mundo and some of them shoes and stuff people are wearing. Chad existing at all. Kubo thinks Mexico is cool and I love him for that.
An example of my recent Bleach reactions: RUKIA NO GOD RUKIA NO NOT NOW YOU CAN'T WHEN YOU'RE ALONE NO GOD NO
This is one of the most consistently fun to read and hype as fuck shonen battle series. Jesus fuck. I can see how this might be pain to read week to week given its pace. But like if you can binge it then a lot of it just keeps rolling one into the next. And given the nature of the plots in the Soul Society and Arrancar arcs and given how large the casts are this momentum can just keep going and has to keep going. man I kind of wish more series were like this.
So I am now 29 volumes into Bleach. This arc ends in volume 48. Still got a ways to go then but we're making progress! Oh yeah! So far out of the fights after arriving in Hueco Mundo my favorite one has been the one between Rukia and Aaroniero. This isn't to say that the other fights so far have been bad really, but I think that this is the one that has the most emotional oomph of the ones I've seen since getting to Hueco Mundo. It's really nice to see Rukia come into contact with someone who shakes her faith in the lesson she learned in the last arc. To see her struggle to keep that lesson in tact. That's a very real thing that you go through with shit like this. So it's rad seeing that happen via a fucking magic samurai duel. Where Rukia succeeds and pulls herself together. And then she's like. So firm in her convictions to not leave Orihime alone in isolation and to avoid dying alone so that she can pass her heart on to another that she like. Tries to fucking drag her dying ass across the floor to Orihime. Like. Realistically. What is she going to do in that state? She can't even walk and her sword is broken. Hell, she can't even sit up. She is just limited to pulling herself across the floor. But that doesn't matter. What matters is Rukia's conviction and it is absolute. Even then. And that's something I like a lot about Bleach. I like how much the idea of firm will and absolute conviction in your ethics and code of honor is like. A big running theme. and the thing is is that it's not just the good guys who have this conviction. we also get to see how conviction can twist a person and result in hypocrisies and cruelties like with tosen. or we can see how one can seemingly have a firm conviction and then it turns out it's just an obsession hiding an ache that was never really dealt with, as with soifon.
Bleach is just people's ideological debates about honor, justice, and what we should about the state of the world but with magical anime swords that turn into magical anime INSERT WEAPON HERE instead of debates.
that's a very fine argument you've made there about justice and peace, tosen. but you see. it turns out. that i have the better argument. because i broke your fucking nose and stabbed you so hard that you exploded into a fountain of blood and also lost half your body in a big spirit energy explosion.
Now I'm thinking of Mayuri vs Ishida specifically in terms of a debate and it's murdering me on every level. Bleach often makes me think of my Japanese teacher explaining why someone would perform a Shinto ceremony at the grave of a war criminal who had a successful military career. He said it isn't about morality at all. It's an idea that if the universe tolerates you to become powerful, you must be acting in harmony with it in some way. This is one person's take voiced in relation to specific political events, and I know very little about Shinto. But it does provide a very interesting angle to think about Bleach, I think. Soul Society seems pretty amoral, really. They don't just tolerate powerful people who are awful, their rules don't seem to take awfulness into account at all one way or another. Individual people have opinions about right and wrong, but they seem to be discouraged from voicing or acting on them to the point where it can get you shunned by your family or even locked away for mental instability. Then here comes Ichigo, an anomaly powered by his complete inability to ignore his moral conviction.
That is interesting. I sadly can't really say anything about like war criminals and shit with Shinto as like. That is not yet a thing that has come up with what I've been learning in specific. Also Shinto varies pretty heavily on things I have been learning, from shrine to shrine. I'm more used to a concept of...I cannot remember the term that he had used in Japanese for it but 'one-heartedness' I think is a translation of it? It's a thing that comes up in Inari faith in particular. Namely that what really, truly matters is if you are able to hold this kind of firm and unwavering trust and awe for Inari Okami that is unbent and focused solely on Inari Okami. Not because other kamisama aren't important but because...That's just kind of how Inari faith seems to roll? So like one of the things that comes up with Inari faith is the entire concept of tatari, a curse from a kami. And Inari tatari is like. Renowned. Inari Okami is feared by quite a good chunk of people as a scary kami because Inari tatari is supposed to be like Extremely Fierce And Serious Shit. But the thing that gets stressed is that like, so long as you have one-heart and you are sincere in that one-heart then you are safe from Inari tatari. Even if you fuck up on a detail somewhere. Like, yes, you should be performing misogi and you should be doing norito as the priests at your particular shrine told you. But fucking up isn't going to result in Inari tatari. What will is insincerity and ungratefulness. There's also this very big focus on honne and tatamae. If you have weird shit going on that involves Inari Okami then that's fine so long as you keep it to yourself. You know you and your personal relationship with kamisama because that is something built up in your heart with Inari Okami. But also you don't say fucking weird shit that goes against what the priests or priestesses say and you do not argue with them on shit. Even if you have it like on good from kamisama that your differing point of view or way of doing things is appropriate. So there's a kind of...acceptance and acknowledgement that individual relationships and quirks exist. But also this great respect for, I suppose, appearances and tradition? A harmonious social situation. You can have your personal convictions that do not align just right and in fact it is assumed that you do have them. But you keep them quiet because Grandma might think it's bad and then there will be a fight. This has been explained to me, both by a book and by someone training to be a priest, that like...It's supposed to act as a kind of freeing thing. You are free to have your own shit. No one can tear down your honne truths because they are honne and you do not share them save with an extremely limited number of people you have deemed safe to share with. So it's not just keeping the peace entirely but also partly understood as offering the individual a kind of safety. They have a private world that is all their own and no one has a say in that.
