Which yeah. That sort of thing might be a good and interesting lens to view Bleach through. Japanese Buddhism too, honestly. Especially since the series is so death centric and since death tends to be the realm of Buddhism in Japan. I've had that explained to me as...Death causes grief, anger, hatred...A lot of very hard emotions. This generates massive amounts of kegare. Kami thus don't deal with that side of things because the massive amounts of kegare. Some even explain the reason for why you do not burn incense at or near a kamidana as being because it reminds kamisama of death. But we conveniently have these bodhisatta and monks who are totes cool with dealing with all of that shit. So they get to handle death and grief, while the kamisama and Shinto can handle the side of the equation that Buddhism often neglects. Which is life and living a good life. I've had Shinto explained to me by books and people as being...a lifelong attempt at living life well and full. Living a good life. It is not focused on dogma and cannot be described as orthopraxy. It is living and trying to embody the spirit of kami from which all beings come from (and which we all are).
That's really fascinating, thank you. It's definitely information I'd trust to be more accurate and nuanced than my memory of one person explaining a small facet of a fucked up and complicated situation with no small amount of personal distress and the cynicism evoked by said distress. You are so right. Given that the story is about a guy who accidentally becomes a psychopomp and then spends a lot of time in the afterlife, it does seem like knowledge of Japanese belief systems in general would probably be useful for examinations of the story. Likely in ways that go completely over my head without even a whoosh noise. This is the kind of Bleach discussion I've been yearning for without knowing it.
Do keep in mind that this is just my understanding based off some things I've read and people I have spoken with. With both those books and those people stressing that there is like. Part of what makes Shinto Shinto is that it is a religion of Great Variability. With Inari faith in particular being renowned for how seemingly contradictory it can get within even the same shrines. And I do think it will be pertinent and meaningful! Because there's not just death but also like. The focus on honor and protecting that. And like how you brought up how a lot of the leadership in the Soul Society is frankly fucked up. But people keep their mouths shut either because they don't think they can best their superiors or because they will be banished or shamed and their family will suffer from that shame too. Like Byakuya's whole fucking deal with his wife and Rukia. and on that note the whole family's taking the shame of individuals thing with japanese culture it sticks out to me that soifon is very pointed in how she mentions it being sad to see noble families fall when she's mocking yoruichi. it's not like 'oh you got disowned you bitch' but more 'you got banished and have brought shame to your family which has tainted their name WHAT A SHAME THAT IS'. and that's quite the saucy comment coming from a woman who belongs to one of the vassal clans to the shihouin family.
OOOH that is a good point! Daaaamn, Soifon. Byakuya, he is a mess. He can only begin to admit he cares about what happens to Rukia, like apparently even to himself, let alone do anything about it, after someone who is here entirely because of Rukia has thoroughly beaten his ass. Mayuri has been to me an indicator of what Soul Society holds as important, and what it does not. He's clearly despicable. The story and Mayuri himself are not at all shy about this. He revels in it. It would be very hard to believe it's any sort of secret among shinigami. But he has fulfilled the requirements to become a captain. Then there's Kenpachi, who hasn't fulfilled the usual requirements, but he gets a pass exactly because he is just that powerful.
The Shihouin family still exists and functions as one of the four great noble families too. The current head of the family is Yoruichi's younger brother Yushiro. So Soifon is still like subservient to this family. Yushiro only shows up in like the last arc of Bleach, which was not animated due to the anime's cancellation, but Soifon is shown to have a similar kind of reverent fondness for him. Namely she blushes at the sight of him and comments on how much he has grown she last saw him (he looks like he's like twelve or so so he is a young little dude). So she's still subservient to the family overall. She's just so fucking pissed at Yoruichi that she's willing to be an unruly bitch who is stepping way out of line (even though really Yoruichi doesn't seem to give nearly as much of a fuck about her I AM YOUR ARMS AND LEGS shit as she does). Mayuri is...A thing. I kind of love him really because I just want to see what fucked up gross shit he's going to do next. Because his shit is pretty fucked up and gross. Like yeah I guess Byakuya's a cunt and a half, but he's not like reveling in the idea of his sister dying. And he's sure as fuck not going to be like 'lol i like torturing people for science'. Mayuri honestly seems like a good target for plot convenience with fucked up shit happening in fanfiction given his whole. Deal.
my brain even has thinky thoughts on fucked up shit what mayuri could do in fanfictions. but alas. said thinky thoughts rely on my very limited understanding of what happens at the end of bleach. so they will have to remain thinky thoughts for some time. they do involve yoruichi and soifon though and the whole shunko thing. I COULD SHARE. THINKY THOUGHTS. IF ONE IS INTERESTED.
I AM INTERESTED. I also have very limited understanding of the end. I choose to think of this as a happy coincidence.
Ok good we are both in the dark as to what the fuck really goes down for realsies realsies. Beyond a vague understanding. GREAT. So shunko is awesome and also exists for fanservice. To this we can all agree. In the 1000 Year Blood War though Kubo took this for fanservice thing to new heights. Heights high enough to finally get most of the fanbase going 'wait urahara's a dick' if they hadn't already cottoned onto that. Which was apparently a good enough chunk of the fanbase to result in fixit fics for this moment and people posting explanations of Yoruichi and Urahara's personalities and why they've been bastards for the get go. This being the whole deal that is the Thunder Beast Form Flash God shunko technique. Which essentially turns her into a naked catgirl with claws and ears made of lightning. Yoruichi is not fond of it at all. Which given that it seems to murder her intelligence and prevents her from speaking or understanding human speech makes sense, basically turning her into Actually Just A Cat But A Woman. She's also uncontrollably moody during it. I'd probably fucking hate it too if that was the case of my ultimate super form. This transformation can also be forced. Urahara in fact has developed a method of forcing it and him forcing it is how we even see the thing in action at all. We also get to see that while in it Urahara is apparently the only thing in the world she won't just fuck up during this transformation. She'll just kind of happily rub against him like a cat will. Again. I'm not surprised she hates this form. And I'd probably want to kill the man myself. But I mean then we must get into the conversation about these people's ethics in the first fucking place. We never get to see a super form of Soifon's shunko like this. But given that she is the Fuujin to Yoruichi's Raijin and given how Yoruichi words the end of their fight it is likely that she is capable of it. Albeit probably not as a cat. Which probably means wasp given her theming. So we know it can be forced and Mayuri is capable of making people. So now I have to come up with an excuse and a method for amoral science man to, one, make a seemingly perfect clone of Yoruichi and, two, capture Soifon without anyone noticing. So he can work on figuring out how exactly this fuckery works and see if he can create what are essentially pocket element gods. If you could create an army of flash or wind or whatever the fuck else gods with handlers that can force the transformation and then guide the shunko user that'd be a cool and powerful weapon. Also it lets him continue fucking with artificially created people. But the problem is What Is The Reasoning And The How For Any Of This. But TWO Yoruichi. A Yoruichi off made complicated by the very angry wind hornet lady that can't talk. Also I can't imagine that this would be particularly fun for someone to deal with after the fact given the completely stomping over consent it involves.
i just want yoruichi punching another fake yoruichi while soifon tries to murder her. also urahara is there.
People...... didn't realize that Urahara is a dick? Maybe it's the benefit of having rewatched the very beginning of the show after knowing a great deal of what goes on after? So you can grasp the true gravity of what exactly Urahara did when he threw Ichigo in a hole and let his soul fester and turn hollow, then sent the result to Soul Society without even explaining to Ichigo that he might wanna be careful about being perhaps the worst damn time bomb in the whole place? That's just a little irresponsible. Just a little. ANYWAY good thoughts!!!
Apparently not. I guess I can get why? A lot of people grew up reading the comic and it's very long. And a lot of his behavior can be written off, I suppose, as wacky anime hijinks. I myself am only really picking up on it now that I'm older and have had the benefit of seeing the first chunks of Bleach before already, both in anime and manga form. Back to thoughts. So Flash God form gives Yoruichi a cat state of mind. Which, yes, we can talk about the fanservice being creepy and unwarranted and what not. But a cat is at least something that humans have like a better concept of how they act. Enough so that there are entire kink communities based around acting like kitties and trying to enter a cat mental space. Wasps though...Wasps...aren't cuddly mammals. They're flying bastard bugs and a lot of people just assume that they are constantly angry and openly malicious for no reason. Bugs in general tend to fall into the more 'alien' side of things. And there's reasons we go for like bugs when we want to make creepy people shaped things a lot of the time. So that'd be a fun thing to think about...how that would even look like and be like to describe. Also how others seeing it might react to it. I mean she's already a stony bitch of a person but. This would likely be A Different Kind Of Bitchery. Also o-suzumebachi are eusocial wasps. And we know that Soifon's got A Thing For Subservience.
'Other behaviors include the formation of a “royal court” consisting of workers that lick and bite the queen, thereby ingesting her pheromones.' also they do this apparently
