#honestly all the shinigami look dope

[takibikaen]

My top 5 Bleach women and why I love them: Part 1

(Some of this based on what makes them awesome, or how they're written. Also, this is Part 1 of the entire post, so it'll only show the first 3 characters, due to Tumblr's limit on how many links/media I can use.)

5/5. Ikumi Unagiya \~ Owner of Unagiya Shop

Why?

It’s an unique choice since she doesn’t get that much screen time compared to the others but I really think she’s got a fun personalty and somewhat of a good adult character in a shonen manga that doesn’t have many adults that’ll be there for the MC on an emotional level.

In the Fullbringer arc, she’s one of the only adults in Ichigo’s life who tries to be there for him even with her unawareness of shinigami and hollows. Ikumi still reminds him that he is a kid and he should be able to rely on her, and I think it’s really profound that she says this but Ichigo hasn’t ever really believed in that for most of his life.

Another underrated moment is her getting Ginjo to stop subtly upsetting Ichigo and made him leave her shop. Ginjo wasn’t even a villain at this point but Ikumi still knew the questions he was saying about Ichigo’s dad and his family were screwing with Ichigo’s mind. Maybe I’m giving her too much credit for being a reliable adult for a shonen manga, however it still puts her in my list.

Even in the TYBW arc, she’s still there to be a form of stability to Ichigo who goes through hell before visiting her. Her personality between a dependable, intuitive adult and a stubborn woman who kidnaps teenage employees in broad daylight is what stands out to me as a character.

4/5. Tier Harribel \~ Tres Espada

Why?

Her whole look with the jacket and the hollow mask is honestly pretty cool to see in the series and her serious, calm personality is nice to see among the Espada. Plus her motif as the ‘Espada of Sacrifice’ adds a whole new layer of her concern for her Fraccion, like Nel who was the former 3rd. Her sword release is also dope, “Tiburon”.

In the Arcancar arc, she only gets one main fight (which she got done dirty on) and then gets betrayed by Aizen, but at least I have to appreciate the moments throughout the arc that build her character.

Again, it’s really rare here to see an Arcancar care about their own considering the whole process of Hollows devouring each other from Menos Grande - Adgjunchas - Vasto Lordes. Plus, having the balls to go up to Head-Captain Yamamoto and say you’ll avenge your subordinates is pretty insane.

There is no world without sacrifice. Are you unaware? We are in a sea of blood, ashes floating in hell crying the name of a fading world. - Bleach Vol. 42

The series could have used her more outside of the Arcancar arc but in TYBW arc, she was the ruler of Hueco Mundo and saved Nel & friends from Yhwach. However, they forgot about her for the rest of the TYBW arc which I’m hoping the anime will fix, maybe adding a scene. In the timeskip, she’s adjusted to the role of it all and looks OP af, I personally love this look on her.

Appearance-wise, it’s obvious how stunning how she is honestly.

I used to think “Harribel” was her first name but Tier is actually her first name.

https://twitter.com/jessjessdraws - Artist who drew the Harribel sketch on bottom right panel.

3/5. Unohana Retsu \~ Squad 4 Captain and First Kenpachi

Why?

Almost every Bleach fan loves Unohana but besides the obvious mommy vibe she gives, I really appreciate the dual traits she's had. I really love how she’s a healing captain whose committed to the Gotei 13, and how it’s revealed later that she was one of the original Gotei 13 and the First Kenpachi. The way she holds herself from the beginning of her debut to her death, she always been caring to those she healed and worked with but held a intimidating demeanor around her.

Battle is everything - Bleach Vol. 59

Kubo’s character design is something that took me a while to realize there’s certain symbolism in it. Unohana’s mainstream design is much more meaningful when you find out the core of her character and how she started. The braid she puts her hair in resembles chains that Unohana put on herself to hide away her past of immense bloodlust as the First Kenpachi like the scar on her chest.

At the core of her character, fighting is everything to her considering the environment she’s grown in. The Soul Society and Yamamoto has harnessed her strength and killing prowess for the sake of protecting their interests. One of the themes of Bleach is the “The Heart” where many characters and groups have revolved around the belief of what the heart means to them. Unohana’s role in TYBW shows how her heart is centered around fighting and how her sin is the foundation of her persona as the kindhearted, healing Captain of Squad 4.

I always heard criticism about how Unohana got centered around Kenpachi and got killed for Kenpachi’s development, but I point to the overall themes of the story and how shinigami like Unohana who had to fight harshly to survive in the Rukon district. They often centered or associated themselves around another person who brings a feeling, emotion or sensation within them, that drives them to do actions in a story.

Learning healing kido to extend a fight for who knows how long is a pretty unique concept for the whole medical character trope. It’s so riveting to me that even through healing others, Unohana was helping the other shinigami live on for another fight which is something Kenpachi advocated to Ikkaku, besides doing her job. In her final battle, she was doing that not for Kenpachi but for the sake of the Soul Society’s survival. Thus, her heart and purpose might be with Kenpachi now, but she found meaning outside of her original role for centuries, and briefly enjoyed peace from being a fighter of bloodlust until the Wandenreich arrived.

@Mak_ai_ on Twitter is the artist who made the Unohana art with grey-black backgrounds and @srkbom108 on Twitter made the Unohana art that has red backgrounds to it. Check them out!

Bottom left art by @joranz1204 on Twitter and bottom right art by @Mak_ai_ on Twitter

Made by @rakusakugk on Twitter. Sorry about the whole art dump in this answer but I couldn’t help it lol, there’s just so much good Unohana art on the Internet, also I own none of the fan art here.

Hope you enjoyed it so far! Here's Part 2 of the post!

My top 5 Bleach women and why I love them: Part 2

Also, talking about her themes

Check me out on Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kirun-Uzumaki

[bobbypinnn]

in the human world for the drama

[smokeybrandreviews]

Love Is Rationed

I love BLEACH, man. Way back when the Big Three was the big thing, my allegiance fell in with Kubo’s tale of swords and shinigami. I thought his story was far more compelling than One Piece, at the time. I later found out, at the behest of my chick, that Oda was about that long game. Luffy has had some emotionally gut-wrenching expeditions. I concede that now. back then, though, it wasn’t on my radar. I fell off of Naturo real fast, mostly because the fandom was ridiculous. I didn’t care for the Narutards screaming about it’s superiority at me, when Kishimoto had just gotten into the meat of the Chunin Exams and it turned into power wank high school for a while.  Admittedly, the Naruto got real dope toward the end but that took, what? Decades? No, for my money, it was definitely BLEACH. Kubo captured my attention with a brilliant and unique art style but, even more than that, a dope ass narrative.

The first two arcs of BLEACH, the Substitute Shinigami and Soul Society arcs, are manga masterpieces. Kubo did an excellent job of introducing the principal characters, ichigo and his little cadre of friends and frienemies, perfectly. HE was able to carve out a world chock full of lore, intrigue, and whimsy with those first, few chapters. We went from the desperate victory against Fishbone D, to the emotionally crippling battle with Grand Fisher, to the hilarious team-up dispatching of a Menos Grande; All while maintaining a true, narrative, focus. It was outstanding. We watched Ichigo and his friends claim victory after victory, which made their defeat at the hands of Byakuya Kuchiki and Renji Abarai so goddamn devastating. That loss scarred us because be had grown to love those characters so much. Kubo brought these imaginary creations to life in a way that i had not seen in some time. I thought he had peaked bu then he topped himself with the Soul Society Arc.

The second Ichigo recovered and we realized he had to storm heaven, itself, in order to save Rukia, i was on board. We watched him struggle. We watched his friends struggle. We watched everyone claw out narrow victories in brilliant fashion, all the while being introduced to so many more dope ass characters and even richer lore. The Soul Society arc was BLEACH at it’s best. You can tell there was a real passion there, in each word, written, and frame, drawn. That Urahara reveal. The first time we saw the Old Man. That fight with Kenpachi. That fight with Kurotsuchi. That Bankai for the first time. That first Zangestsu takeover. Everything was so goddamn excellent but it’s the Aizen heel-turn that cinched it for me. I legitimately did not see that sh*t coming and was blown away. I couldn’t wait to see what was coming next. And then the Arrancar arc farted out. At this point, there was a very real, very visible decline in Kubo’s Magnum Opus and it hurts to revist.

I like the Arrancar arc, I want to be very clear about that. There is a ton of good in that thing. I enjoyed most of the Visored. That concept, in itself, was outstanding writing. I absolutely adore most of the Espada; Cirucci, Ulquiorra, Nell, Grimmjow, Coyote, and Hallibel in particular. Those are some of my favorite characters within the entire series. I also liked the little detour we took with Turn Back the Pendulum that sh*t was dope. The best part of this entire arc, though, was it’s finale. Ascended Aizen. That Mugetsu. F*ck, that Mugetsu, man. “That's the logic of a loser!!. A winner must always think not of how the world is, but how the world should be!!!!” Bro. That line. Bro. Pure f*cking kino, dude. With that one line, we understand every motivation, every reason, everything fueled Aizen’s drive. That one line laid bare one of the most enigmatic villains in manga history and he was right. Absolutely brilliant. Everything else around it was bullsh*t powerwank and lazy retread though. The entire Arrancar arc is the worst of Dragon Ball Z. There are legitimate bright spots, but it’s mostly generalized shonen cliche. That said, what came after was even more pedestrian.

The Fullbring arc, if you can call it an arc, was balls. it was. The narration was sh*t, the new characters introduced were bogus, and the Fullbring powers were poorly executed. I didn’t give a sh*t about any of that so when it ended as abruptly as it did, i was okay. Then came the Thousand-Year Blood War arc and, holy sh*t, BLEACH was back! And then it wasn’t. By this time, Kubo had lost all passion for being a mangaka. Jump has burned him out. the pressures of maintaining a tent pole manga in a tent pole magazine was too much for a dude who just wanted to draw cool sh*t. I understand. The ill thing? It was Jump that cancelled BLEACH. That rushed “ending” we got wasn’t even Kubo being lazy. Honestly, after the first few chapters, it seemed he had been reinvigorated and wanted to end BLEACH on the highest of notes. Blood War was shaping up to be dope as sh*t. There were revelations, returns, brand new lore, expanded pathos; Sh*t was legit. and then he farted out that ending. and then he farted out that epilogue. Bro, for real? IchiHime? RenRuki? For real?

Look, if that’s where we land, that’s where we end, but there was no lead up. No foreshadowing. No build up. According to the narrative, it had to be Rukia. It had to be her. Literally all of the emotional hits were in service toward or directly instigated by Rukia. Orihime was little more than a plot device or constantly damseled. IchiHime doesn’t feel earned. It feels like a “F*ck you” to the fandom, Of course, there could be a shift. Of course, there can be a course correction. We saw that in the Boruto movie or last Naruto movie or whatever. the point s, that turn toward Hinata, after an entire series focused on Sakura, had a real, emotional, pivot. Ichihime does not. And that is the major through-line of this essay; Kubo’s decline. My man had plans. he built a world in his head that he wanted to share on paper. Then that world became incredibly popular. It became incredibly profitable. Kubo suffered the same fate as Toriyama and his work, just like his predecessor, suffered with him. The narrative fell apart, the plot got messy, and the art became pedestrian. Everything that made BLEACH great, fell by the wayside. Even when Kubo showed that spark, corporate greed snuffed it out. BLEACH died the day the Arrancar arc was artificially prolonged and that betrayal festered within Kubo for the rest of it’s run.

There’s been whispered and an unconfirmed but confirmed announcement for a BLEACH 20th anniversary anime. It’s probably going to be adaption of the Thousand-year Blood War arc. Does this mean we’ll get to see the true vision of this story on screen? Will we get to see the actual events Kubo envisioned on his sketchpad? Are they going to fix that rushed ass ending and god awful epilogue? Are we getting that initial Kubo passion or the disparate Kubo finale? I love BLEACH. I know that Kubo loves BLEACH. I’m hoping we can finally get the closure we deserves, for the creator more  than any of us fans. He, more than anyone, deserves to see this story to it’s proper end. After twenty years, it only feels right.

[smokeybrand]

Love Is Rationed

I love BLEACH, man. Way back when the Big Three was the big thing, my allegiance fell in with Kubo’s tale of swords and shinigami. I thought his story was far more compelling than One Piece, at the time. I later found out, at the behest of my chick, that Oda was about that long game. Luffy has had some emotionally gut-wrenching expeditions. I concede that now. back then, though, it wasn’t on my radar. I fell off of Naturo real fast, mostly because the fandom was ridiculous. I didn’t care for the Narutards screaming about it’s superiority at me, when Kishimoto had just gotten into the meat of the Chunin Exams and it turned into power wank high school for a while.  Admittedly, the Naruto got real dope toward the end but that took, what? Decades? No, for my money, it was definitely BLEACH. Kubo captured my attention with a brilliant and unique art style but, even more than that, a dope ass narrative.

The first two arcs of BLEACH, the Substitute Shinigami and Soul Society arcs, are manga masterpieces. Kubo did an excellent job of introducing the principal characters, ichigo and his little cadre of friends and frienemies, perfectly. HE was able to carve out a world chock full of lore, intrigue, and whimsy with those first, few chapters. We went from the desperate victory against Fishbone D, to the emotionally crippling battle with Grand Fisher, to the hilarious team-up dispatching of a Menos Grande; All while maintaining a true, narrative, focus. It was outstanding. We watched Ichigo and his friends claim victory after victory, which made their defeat at the hands of Byakuya Kuchiki and Renji Abarai so goddamn devastating. That loss scarred us because be had grown to love those characters so much. Kubo brought these imaginary creations to life in a way that i had not seen in some time. I thought he had peaked bu then he topped himself with the Soul Society Arc.

The second Ichigo recovered and we realized he had to storm heaven, itself, in order to save Rukia, i was on board. We watched him struggle. We watched his friends struggle. We watched everyone claw out narrow victories in brilliant fashion, all the while being introduced to so many more dope ass characters and even richer lore. The Soul Society arc was BLEACH at it’s best. You can tell there was a real passion there, in each word, written, and frame, drawn. That Urahara reveal. The first time we saw the Old Man. That fight with Kenpachi. That fight with Kurotsuchi. That Bankai for the first time. That first Zangestsu takeover. Everything was so goddamn excellent but it’s the Aizen heel-turn that cinched it for me. I legitimately did not see that sh*t coming and was blown away. I couldn’t wait to see what was coming next. And then the Arrancar arc farted out. At this point, there was a very real, very visible decline in Kubo’s Magnum Opus and it hurts to revist.

I like the Arrancar arc, I want to be very clear about that. There is a ton of good in that thing. I enjoyed most of the Visored. That concept, in itself, was outstanding writing. I absolutely adore most of the Espada; Cirucci, Ulquiorra, Nell, Grimmjow, Coyote, and Hallibel in particular. Those are some of my favorite characters within the entire series. I also liked the little detour we took with Turn Back the Pendulum that sh*t was dope. The best part of this entire arc, though, was it’s finale. Ascended Aizen. That Mugetsu. F*ck, that Mugetsu, man. “That's the logic of a loser!!. A winner must always think not of how the world is, but how the world should be!!!!” Bro. That line. Bro. Pure f*cking kino, dude. With that one line, we understand every motivation, every reason, everything fueled Aizen’s drive. That one line laid bare one of the most enigmatic villains in manga history and he was right. Absolutely brilliant. Everything else around it was bullsh*t powerwank and lazy retread though. The entire Arrancar arc is the worst of Dragon Ball Z. There are legitimate bright spots, but it’s mostly generalized shonen cliche. That said, what came after was even more pedestrian.

The Fullbring arc, if you can call it an arc, was balls. it was. The narration was sh*t, the new characters introduced were bogus, and the Fullbring powers were poorly executed. I didn’t give a sh*t about any of that so when it ended as abruptly as it did, i was okay. Then came the Thousand-Year Blood War arc and, holy sh*t, BLEACH was back! And then it wasn’t. By this time, Kubo had lost all passion for being a mangaka. Jump has burned him out. the pressures of maintaining a tent pole manga in a tent pole magazine was too much for a dude who just wanted to draw cool sh*t. I understand. The ill thing? It was Jump that cancelled BLEACH. That rushed “ending” we got wasn’t even Kubo being lazy. Honestly, after the first few chapters, it seemed he had been reinvigorated and wanted to end BLEACH on the highest of notes. Blood War was shaping up to be dope as sh*t. There were revelations, returns, brand new lore, expanded pathos; Sh*t was legit. and then he farted out that ending. and then he farted out that epilogue. Bro, for real? IchiHime? RenRuki? For real?

Look, if that’s where we land, that’s where we end, but there was no lead up. No foreshadowing. No build up. According to the narrative, it had to be Rukia. It had to be her. Literally all of the emotional hits were in service toward or directly instigated by Rukia. Orihime was little more than a plot device or constantly damseled. IchiHime doesn’t feel earned. It feels like a “F*ck you” to the fandom, Of course, there could be a shift. Of course, there can be a course correction. We saw that in the Boruto movie or last Naruto movie or whatever. the point s, that turn toward Hinata, after an entire series focused on Sakura, had a real, emotional, pivot. Ichihime does not. And that is the major through-line of this essay; Kubo’s decline. My man had plans. he built a world in his head that he wanted to share on paper. Then that world became incredibly popular. It became incredibly profitable. Kubo suffered the same fate as Toriyama and his work, just like his predecessor, suffered with him. The narrative fell apart, the plot got messy, and the art became pedestrian. Everything that made BLEACH great, fell by the wayside. Even when Kubo showed that spark, corporate greed snuffed it out. BLEACH died the day the Arrancar arc was artificially prolonged and that betrayal festered within Kubo for the rest of it’s run.

There’s been whispered and an unconfirmed but confirmed announcement for a BLEACH 20th anniversary anime. It’s probably going to be adaption of the Thousand-year Blood War arc. Does this mean we’ll get to see the true vision of this story on screen? Will we get to see the actual events Kubo envisioned on his sketchpad? Are they going to fix that rushed ass ending and god awful epilogue? Are we getting that initial Kubo passion or the disparate Kubo finale? I love BLEACH. I know that Kubo loves BLEACH. I’m hoping we can finally get the closure we deserves, for the creator more  than any of us fans. He, more than anyone, deserves to see this story to it’s proper end. After twenty years, it only feels right.