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10 Years of Shinigami, Hollows, & Lots of Fighting: My Love/Hate Relationship with BLEACH

(Glad to see Ginjo & Tsukishima make it to the party.)

Has it been 10 years already? It felt like it was yesterday when I began following Tite Kubo’s BLEACH. Back when the world was not in disarray, BLEACH was one of my personal favorite anime/manga series to watch/read. I just loved following the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, & friends. As much as the series’ storyline has deteriorated over the last 3-4 years, I will still see this series to the end. Why can’t I quit BLEACH despite being disappointed multiple times in the story? Maybe because the series still resonates in my heart, like an ex-girlfriend who I can’t seem to get out of my mind.

I remember first hearing about BLEACH back in late 2004, when the anime started airing. Some of my friends were talking about it through Xanga (does anyone still use that!?). I didn’t start following the series until the summer of 2005 when I purchased the first volume of the manga, courtesy of VIZ Media. I also liked how all the volumes had English titles on the covers. The titles really piqued my interest & were catchy. Rukia Kuchiki stole my heart. She was so amazing to me, because I never seen a heroine like her in a shonen manga at the time. I also became hooked on the poems in each volume and I currently have a collection of all the covers & poems on a Facebook photo album.

Ichigo unleashing Bankai for the first time.

(Fun fact: The first time I saw Ichigo’s Bankai, I immediately thought of Neo from the Matrix.)

One reason why BLEACH still lingers & piques my curiosity is how it makes the color, black, a positive color. Black is probably my favorite color. Growing up, I was pretty much an outcast/rebel/lone wolf. I wear a lot of black to represent the darkness in my heart & how that darkness can help me help others. Yeah, you can say that I have a somewhat emo personality.

Another reason that got me BLEACH-addicted was the multitude of characters in the series. Many of them were very interesting & had some quirky traits. I was a big fan of the Zangetsu avatar who helped encourage Ichigo. His two speeches during Ichigo’s training with Kisuke Urahara (in Volume 8) & Ichigo’s fight with Kenpachi Zaraki (in Volume 13) continue to motivate me to move forward & succeed without fear.

However, the insane number of characters is also the reason why I started to dislike BLEACH. I do believe that it began to go downhill when Kubo introduced proper villains into the storyline. Don’t get me wrong. The plot twist involving Sosuke Aizen as the mastermind behind the events at Soul Society was great & well-done, but afterwards, the series slowly became a generic battle manga with fights that dragged on too long with many characters & little character development.

The Espada, a once-great army of Arrancar.

(Kubo, why’d you treat the majority of this group like garbage?)

Sometimes, I feel as if Kubo has an unhealthy habit of inserting certain characters at certain points in the story to put some “immediate value” (i.e. short-term plot device, fanservice, crazy plot twist, etc.). Afterwards, he’ll put them off until when he feels like they could be useful and/or when he runs out of ideas. In an interview at San Diego Comic-Con 2008, Kubo once said that he feels that characters come first, then the story. Honestly, it seems that he feels too inspired by Akira Toriyama’s (of Dragon Ball fame) letter of encouragement back when he first started out to the point that he began using DBZ-like elements in BLEACH. I wonder if the series is only popular right now because a lot of people loved & missed Dragon Ball Z greatly.

Now that I think about it, I loved Dragon Ball Z a LOT and I do miss it. Maybe I just love power-ups and crazy villains with crazy powers. My inner child seems to be unleashed when I watch/read BLEACH (though my physical maturity does place limits). It also doesn’t hurt that the art is pretty damn good. Manga & anime are all about fun and escape. That’s why I read manga & watch anime in the first place. Kubo is showing that simplicity is sometimes the best & usually the most popular choice to a majority of anime/manga fans.

IchiRuki 2001 and IchiRuki 2011.

(The Death & The Strawberry: IchiRuki 2001 & IchiRuki 2011.)

At Jump Festa 2010, Kubo said that he would keep BLEACH going for 10 more years. The reaction to this has been very mixed. I’m looking forward to see how he can continue writing before he runs out of ideas and fans really start questioning the directions he takes. Is he trying to be like Eiichiro Oda? I wonder if Kubo wants to make every part of his personality a character, since he has stated that many characters reflect traits of his personality. Possible egomaniac or just very expressive? Though so far, Kubo looks like he’s redeeming himself with recent developments in the manga. (RUKIA NEE-SAN! *squeals like a fangirl* XD)

So, yeah, there you have it. That’s why I love/hate BLEACH so much. If you think there’s something wrong with me, feel free to comment below, share this entry, & reblog it to others. I’d appreciate everyone’s help to cure my indecisiveness & confusion.

**To add more to my complicated situation, if it weren’t for BLEACH, I would have never gotten introduced to a hidden, yet precious diamond known as Gintama.**

Gintama parodying BLEACH from JUMP Festa 2005.