Aon Reads Bleach

Discussion in 'Fan Town' started by Aondeug, Mar 7, 2020.

  1. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    Fuck it we're just gonna make a thread so I don't like. Just fill the anime thread with endless Bleach posts. So for context I have never once finished all of Bleach. I in fact never got past the Soul Society arc because I fell down an endless yorusoi pit and I guess just lost interest in the series overall. And as things went on and as people got more and more sour on the series I saw less and less reason to go back.

    I just kind of accepted that Bleach was trash for years but have decided to go and read the entire thing. Partly after seeing like what friends of mine have had to say about the series in comparison to some of the other big shonen series. And after hearing what a fan had to say about the concept of Bleach as a whole being garbage compared to the other two Big Three series.

    What I am finding is that, out of the Big Three, Bleach is probably the one I'm having the most fun with. The Substitute Shinigami arc is still a really solid monster of the week thing. One of the better ones I've seen at a start of a series like this. It's up there with Shaman King in terms of beginning monster of the week arcs for me. Turns out I just really like me my dead people. Soul Society arc is still a blast and I think it's one of the most fun things one can read in the shonen battle genre. Like hands down. Soul Society is just this relentless rush of cool shit happening. And it's got some really nice touching moments. It shows what I think is one of Kubo's big strengths.

    Which is making an intriguing cavalcade of cool looking characters and then having them all fight it out to keep up a relentless pace. At least in Soul Society the comic is consistently fun to read and consistently gets me wanting to click to see the next chapter because HOLY FUCK LOOK AT THAT SHIT OMFG.

    I am happy that this seems to be playing out with the Arrancar arc. Maybe it will stop in its tracks for a bit but right now I am really into things now that we've picked up the slack again.

    Will Bleach turn out to be poorly structured and with a cast too large to ever possibly flesh out everyone in it? Possibly. Probably. I am kind of expecting that, honestly. Especially since fans of it who defend it say as much about it. But I'm having a fucking ball and there's sexy ladies and cool sword fights and like sometimes you just need to go HOLY FUUUUUUCK LOOK AT THAT HOLY SHIT HE JUST FDGHFDSHFHFGDFSHHDSF.
     
  2. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    I am now on volume 24. Going to get through it and probably stop there for the day.

    One thing I really love about Bleach is how Kubo uses his chapter title pages as like photo shoots. He poses these fuckers like they are fashion models. Put them in sexy clothes. Have them pose. DRAW THAT COOL SHIT.

    Like I enjoy the little miniarcs and such in One Piece's a lot. But.

    if am honest

    cool people posed coolly in cool clothes appeals to my brain more

    Also fashion model Ichigo is hilarious.
     
  3. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    I have finished volume 24. Ichigo is being a moody boy. Very moody. HE LOST. HIS INNER HOLLOW IS BEING A FUCK. WHY IS MR. HAT AND CLOGS SO HOT?

    'why is x so hot' is a question i must ask a lot while reading bleach honestly
     
    • Like x 1
  4. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    Also the Bleach anime had like. The coolest soundtracks? I love me my Naruto soundtracks a lot but like. Catch 22 is just. It just oozes cool. Which Bleach does in general. So it is fitting that its music does the same:

     
  5. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    in anime land i live for how absolutely crushed soifon sounds at the end of her fight with yoruichi. seiyuu just fucking killed it. it makes me feel heartbroken and want to give her a hug. this woman's world has collapsed for the second time and she doesn't know what the fuck to do.

    I will likely not watch all of the anime. But I will watch bits of it and share thoughts on things.

    like how soifon needs a fucking hug jesus
     
    • Witnessed x 1
  6. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    Ok now that the Visored are getting some screentime I am more invested in them. They showed up for a bit, did a thing, and then just kind...I dunno. It wasn't as OH SHIT as the Arrancars showing up. Or would it be Arrancares? Fucked if I know.

    on this note i love that kubo just thinks spanish is a super cool sounding language. i am so used to spanish being made fun of and called ugly or stupid sounding. so seeing some japanese guy no fuck yeah spanish is the sickest sounding shit is really rad.

    ALSO OMG THE BOY IS BACK. HOLLOW ICHIGO. OH FUUUUU
     
  7. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    Anyway. So one thing I like about Bleach and something that has been bugging me for a bit with criticisms of it is Ichigo's character development. I've heard him be called a static character who doesn't really want anything and that just...doesn't seem to be the case? He does want things and that want grows and evolves over time. Like in the Substitute Shinigami arc the big thing was Ichigo having to learn that there is more to protecting people than just his inner circle of people he deems worthy of giving a shit about. That maybe his rage at that kid having their memorial knocked over means something more. He has to learn to expand the scope.

    In Soul Society meanwhile he has to learn that that he needs a rock solid will. He can't just want to stay alive. That's not fucking adequate to save people. If he's more concerned with his own personal safety than he's not going to be able to save Rukia from a never ending assortment of dudes who are just as strong and much stronger than he is. Ichigo's still self centered. He's clinging too hard to fear and self doubt. So he has to get up and go 'I want to win' and keep going even as he is dying. Because that kind of resolve is what is needed to really protect people.

    It seems like in the Arrancar arc meanwhile we have a very different problem to deal with. And that problem is Ichigo knowing that, deep down, he's kind of a dick. He's cranky and angry and sullen, and we see that manifest in an inner Hollow that is threatening to eat him alive entirely. But he's scared of that. He's no longer scared of dying. He's scared of accidentally hurting those around him in his drive to keep them safe. Which honestly as someone with BPD is very real. And I have a feel it hits pretty hard with moody teenage boys because I mean. You're a moody teenage boy. You're finally big enough to do some harm and you finally know enough that yelling at people isn't ok. But you also know that deep down you are honestly kind of a pissy motherfucker who has the potential to hurt people.
     
  8. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    This I think is why it is relevant that Orihime's jealousy is brought up. That doesn't come up without reason, I don't think. I think it has a reason and I think that that kind of fear of what one's potential to harm others and the nastier sides of oneself may be one of the central driving themes of this arc. Kind of like how one of the big themes of the Soul Society arc was based around pushing past fear of death and having unshakeable resolve. Or like the entire deal with 'The furthest thing from understanding is adoration'. That arc involves a ton of misunderstandings and misdirections. We all miss Aizen because we're too busy focusing on other things. Soifon can beat Yoruichi because she is far too trapped in an adoration filled misunderstanding of who Yoruichi is. Momo ends up being an easily used pawn because she can't look past her adoration of Aizen. Hitsugaya is blind too until the very end.

    Everyone's so caught up in the one thing they care about that they can't actually grasp the reality of the people they love. And worse than that they're letting something awful fester under the surface and bring its plans to fruition. It's why Buddhism stresses so much that you need to not get caught up in attachments.
     
  9. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    You see that with like Rukia's deal too? She's so obsessed with a particular way of reading a particular situation that she's just incapable of understanding the reality of that situation or the people involved in it. The Soul Society arc has a lot of people being met with difficult truths that they couldn't see because they were too obsessed with their own particular perception of events.
     
  10. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    I appreciate the Kubo's themes are very on the nose. He has people just spell them out in catchy lines. He has the word show up in stylized kanji. He has his character designs based around it. I am constantly shown the theme every time I look at Ulquiorra's face and Ichigo's Hollow mask. I am not permitted to ignore the theme because he has two entire fucking groups with differing relationships to masks just up in my jock.

    Kubo kicks you in the dick with his themes and symbols. Then he dresses them up in sexy outfits and shows off some titties and is like ooh fashion baby work it.
     
  11. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    27 volumes in! I am really liking the usage of stark white and black. It’s very stylish. Appears to be meaningful. He’s also doing lovely stuff with expressions and panel layouts still. Kubo does really nice shit with just blacks and whites. Like.

    really nice

    I think in terms of shit happening in backgrounds this is probably my favorite so far with the series. And I think it stands out A Lot for battle shonen with me. Like I guess it’s not like the lovingly hyper detailed city scapes of Naruto but that doesn’t make it bad. It’s more…mood created through stark usage of blacks and whites over simple forms.

    Kubo’s also been improving over time I feel like with his…mood backgrounds? I am not sure the term for them. But like panels where we don’t have a background background, but instead abstract colors and shapes which are meant to convey an emotion. Those have been standing out more as time goes by. And they’re one of my favorite things about manga. Those panels. Those backgrounds which aren’t backgrounds in the physical sense but in the emotional.

    I also really love the like color dichotomy between Rukia and Ichigo’s swords and attacks. Her stark white versus his solid black. And they both just kind of eat the world entirely. It’s beautifully striking and provides this nice link between the two that I’m going to have to examine further.
     
  12. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    Kubo's very focused on tonal aesthetics. His manga is very...There's a strongly Japanese quality to it. With the way he uses colors, imbalances, simplicities, and so on. It falls in line a lot with traditional Japanese aesthetic standards. Which works really fucking well with a series that is so heavily based around what are basically fantasy samurai.

    It's wondrous.
     
  13. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    kubo baby please i can't handle these colors. these compositions. it's fucking me up. giving me the vapors.
     
  14. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    this is one of the single most beautifully effective panels i have ever seen in a shonen battle manga for setting an emotional tone:

    [​IMG]
     
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    • Winner x 1
  15. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    This tells us everything we need to know about Ulquiorra and this moment between him and Orihime. But it also says a lot about how Orihime herself is feeling at the moment. Which isn't fucking good. She's weak and she was told so by multiple people. She's not able to cheer up Ichigo like Rukia seems able to. Now she can't protect two people and is being told that if she doesn't comply willingly her friends will be murdered.

    And by a void of a man. A shell of a person. Someone who seems to be her polar opposite.

    Ulquoirra feels nothing, wants nothing, believes in nothing. He is a void that does what he is told. He is a nihilist in the extreme. He is nihilism personified.

    And the bright and cheery Orihime whose powers work by rejecting reality itself and saying 'No, I very much want this person to be okay and believe they are going to be okay because I want them to be,' is being confronted by this lack. As though she will be consumed by that void.

    i just

    FUCK
     
    • Agree x 1
  16. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    Ulquiorra's design isn't just cool looking either. It's like. Actually. Related to the thematics behind him and his deal. He is Sad Boy McNihilism.
     
    • Agree x 2
  17. Verily

    Verily surprised Xue Yang peddler

    This thread gives me life.
     
    • Like x 1
  18. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    people have said some shit about this boy and also about kubo's backgrounds and i will hear none of it you leave my aesthetic mood boy alone he is a good lad

    He is just like. SYMBOLISM. IN YOUR FACE.

    FUCK.
     
    • Agree x 1
  19. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    i am happy it is giving someone life! i am used to bleach being talked poorly of and just kind of treated as worthless. so it is nice to like. see my hype liked.
     
    • Agree x 1
  20. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    I also really loved the wilting flowers at the ends of chapters for Orihime's leaving as her confidence crumbles. And the bird getting up from those petals and soaring away. Off to save her. It's very pretty.

    also there are poems at the start of every volume and they are often tied to the cover character which just. yes please sign me the fuck up for that shit.
     
    • Agree x 2
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