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#since they're supposed to be hollows that turned into Soul Reapers
arabian-batboy · 8 months
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I am trying SO hard to get through bleach but by god mr kubo is not making it easy… I love the characters but sometimes I wish it kept its original plot of being a sort of supernatural vigilante concept lol (I’m on volume 44 for context)
Kubo's art is gorgeous, but if it helps, the anime makes things feels like they're moving way faster than the manga (especially the TYBW adaptation) and it all thanks to all the fillers they had, which made it so that they don't need to stretch their episodes like say One Piece does.
I just checked and volume 44 wasn't all that bad, but things will definitely get better by each volume, I mean if you managed to survive the beginning of the Hueco Mundo invasion arc (hands down the worst canon part of Bleach's story) then you would be able to survive anything in future chapters.
With that being said, I completely understand what you mean. The first arc of Bleach had its own unique charm, the whole teenagers with special powers are taking down demonic creatures was something first popularized by Bleach and it has influenced so many current mainstream shows like JJK and Chainsaw Man, the only difference is that Bleach abandoned this concept in favor of being "Dragon Ball but with swords," which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but at the same time I wouldn't be mad either if the supernatural vigilante thing stayed around either.
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zabiume · 5 months
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Random question but how would you explain bleach to someone that has trouble understanding the powers for example ? Especially the fullbring
oof this is a tough one since the power system does get convoluted by the time fb/tybw comes around, but a general way of categorizing them would be: shinigami, quincy, hollow and humans with spiritual abilities/inclinations*
in the world of bleach, when humans die, they become ghosts. to successfully head over to the afterlife, they need to be "purified" by soul reapers, who are the shinigami. however, for whatever reason, if the ghosts end up staying in the living world for too long, they begin turning darker and darker and eventually turn into hollows — creatures who devour people, both living and dead. soul reapers are responsible for the balance of souls, so they've got to make sure hollows don't eat too many people and upset that balance. that's the basic gist of it. if we want to get into specifics, though, then here's the longer cut:
shinigamis are death gods, so naturally their powers are derived from being dead and ruling over death. ichigo, especially in early bleach, needed to get out of his living body to access his powers so that's the source for them. also, 'shinigami' is a rank or a title, so you could technically be dead but not be a shinigami (rukongai citizens, recently-dead spirits, etc). you'd also have to have a certain amount of spiritual power and be recognized by soul society if you wanted to call yourself a shinigami. obviously, since 'shinigami' is a job title, they have a list of duties (mainly maintaining the balance of souls between the living world, soul society and sometimes hueco mundo).
quincies get their powers by having qunicy ancestors, and most of them are not dead. so basically they are humans with reishi-absorbing powers (as far as i can remember). in terms of socioculture, they are a clan defined by their animosity towards soul society. chapter 46 claims this is because soul reapers are too slow when it comes to extinguishing hollows, and tybw posits that this is offensive to quincies because their blood cannot tolerate hollows or whatever tf (i'm not too clear on this, but basically quincies have powers but they can't stand the shinigami or hollows). they are all also descendants of yhwach, the big bad villain of tybw.
we touched on hollows earlier, but they've got classifications depending on their power level too (menos grande, gillian, adjuchas, vasto lorde, arrancar, espada).
visoreds are shinigami who hollowfied after aizen conducted experiments on them.
fullbringers obviously have the most shaky and honestly boring lore, but they're spiritually aware human beings who derive power from an object they have an affinity towards (ichigo and his badge, chad and his skin). it can't just be any object, but something that evokes pride and a deep emotional attachment from the owner. ichigo taps into his badge to draw out power in the 17-month timeskip in an effort to get his powers back, but unknown to him, the fullbringers plan on stealing it for themselves. anyway, can power be "stolen"? i don't know, you'll have to take this up with kubo. i'm sure he has explanations for how all of this is supposed to work, but i can't be bothered to unpack it. i'll just take his word for it. if you want to go by the CFYOW novel lore, apparently fullbringers are humans whose mothers were attacked by hollows when they were pregnant. sure. whatever.
ichigo is all of the above because masaki was a quincy infected by a hollow and isshin was/is a shinigami :))))))
[*there are also humans who have spiritual abilities, but not much, like ichigo's friends in the living world. the explanation for that is that karakura is teeming with otherworldly activity, so the people there are a little more spiritually aware than people from other districts.]
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shybre22 · 4 years
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Now for part two I will be doing Ichihime.
Honestly I knew Ichihime would be endgame from early on in the manga and series.
A lot of IR claim that Ichihime doesnt make sense or that they have no development..which at this point I think this is what any anti for any pairing in every anime say.. because that's obviously not true at all.
Even from the very beginning.. not only do we know that Orihime likes Ichigo, but Ichigo seems to pay attention to Orihime, extra close at times.
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In this panel, he admits that he worries about her and watching her wears him out with worry, he even wonders if she's really alright. Now its important to remember that this is fairly earlier in the story and at this time Orihime is only an acquaintance at best..but here he is worrying about her.
Not only does he notice her getting hurt...but during the Fullbringer arc he said that she was more likely to get followed or stalked than him when Orihime asked if anyone has been following him.
Hell he's even offered to walk her home.
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Weird considering they're only acquaintances at this point right? While I know it's rare for the shounen protagonist to have a crush right off the bat..for arguments sake let's say you look at ichihime interactions with the idea that Ichigo has some sort of crush on Orihime. I feel like his interactions with her make more sense throughout the series and keep this I mind through this post.
Now antis always love to say that Orihime didn't understand Ichigo or couldn't encourage him like Rukia could..but..
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Here! Even Tatsuki who has known him since childhood couldn't tell it wasnt Ichigo or his other friends.. but Orihime does notice..she knows that's not him right away.
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And here Orihime right away knew he wasn't acting like himself...even Tatsuki was impressed, she said it took her years to figure that out.
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Oh yeah she cant encourage him right?? Not only did she give Ichigo the resolve to go save Rukia..but during the Grimmjow fight.. Ichigo was so afraid of frightening Orihime with his mask that he wasn't focusing on the battle.. know think about that..he was so scared to frighten Orihime he wasn't fighting..knowing he could die or get really hurt.
I also hear antis say that Orihime is horrible for being scared of Ichigo when he was still fighting to save her but they need to understand that in the first few chapters of bleach..Orihime was attacked by her brother..her beloved brother, the only family she ever had before he died and he attacked her..as a hollow..and now she's looking at the man she loves with a hollow mask and she's afraid FOR him not necessarily OF him..she's afraid he'll turn completely hollow( which is fair, considering he does later during the ulquiorra fight).
Then all she had to say " please dont die..you dont have to fight for me and you dont have to win..just please dont get hurt". And Ichigo was ready to fight for real..then beat Grimmjow.
She was also able to feel his pain somehow and knew he was crying when he got his powers stolen despite her being far away from him at the time.
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Not to mention at this time she was brainwashed by Tsukishima making her and Chad think Ichigo was the one going crazy, but even though she was brainwashed to think it was Tsukishima who she loved..her heart knew better and still felt Ichigo's pain even without seeing him.
Not to mention she was able to see he had a plan to defeat Ywach just from one look into his eyes.
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So yeah.. Orihime does understand Ichigo more than most..and just because Rukia does too doesnt mean he should be with her.
And on Ichigo's side antis also say he doesn't care about Orihime only Rukia..and if he does care it's only because Ichigo is protective of his friends.
Now it's clear through the whole series that Ichigo does care about all his friends..but it's also apparent that Ichigo does hold Orihime to a different standard.
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This is not far into the story..at this point they are still only classmates and only a few pages ago Ichigo refused to take over Rukia's Soul reaper duties..until he found out a hollow was after Orihime.
Or when Yammy and Ulquiorra hurt Orihime..they also hurt Tatsuki and Chad but he was shown to be obsessing over Orihime ( despite the fact she could literally reverse her injuries) and the fact Tatsuki was a human with no powers should've made him worry over her more..but he felt so guilty for not protecting Orihime he couldn't even look her in the eyes..it got so bad that Rukia made him go to her and look her in the eye and he vowed to never let anyone hurt her again, pluse he didn't apologize to anyone else..just Orihime. I also find it funny how Rukia seems to be a ichihime shipper while her fans hate Orihime and want her to be with Ichigo..I find it funny.
Then we all know how hurt he was when Orihime got taken to Hueco Mundo.. Yes I understand he did rescue Rukia as well but he even said its because he owed her..and he did he owe her his and his families lives..and she was his friend and only on death row because of him. But with Orihime she chose to go to protect her friends and Ichigo had no obligations to her other than she was his friend..
He also walked around like a zombie not even caring when Tatsuki beat the hell out of him asking where Orihime was. He even yelled and threw a fit at the captain commander(you know the strongest soul reaper alive) for suggesting she was a traitor..
He even went against the entire soul society wishes (as a substitute soul reaper no less) to go find Orihime in Hueco Mundo.
One of my favorite scenes is when Ichigo was hurrying to go help Chad and Rukia who were badly injured at the time..when Ulquiorra appears and tries to goad him into a fight.. nothing works until Ulquiorra mentions he was the one who brought Orihime to Hueco Mundo ..which in turn infuriates Ichigo and he swings his sword at him in a blind rage..(remember he was supposed to be helping Chad and Rukia who were injured) but he was so angry that he was the one who brought Orihime there...he didn't say he hurt her or tortured her...he only said he brought her. And. Ichigo. Flipped.
One of my other favorite scenes is when he almost literally rises from near death to get Grimmjow's hands off of Orihime
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LET GO OF HER! Was the first thing he says never mind he was almost dead a few minutes ago and still can barely stand. And look at that face his eyes mean business.
And of course one of the most epic Ichihime moments is when Ulquiorra defeats Ichigo and kills him.. he hears Orihime calling for help as Ulquiorra advances to her.. and as he's dying he hears her and tells himself he needs to help her and protect her..even in death he needs to protect her. And yes I'm aware that his inner hollow is the one keeping him from dying..but the only reason Hichigo doesnt completely take over Ichigo and lose his humanity was his will to protect Orihime. Ichigo was chanting " help her", "help her", over and over like a mantra..that's was the last shred of his humanity and even his last shred of humanity wanted nothing more than to protect Orihime.
Not only is Ichigo extra protective of Orihime..but he get flustered around her too.
Like during The Thousand Year Blood War Arc.. when Ichigo was asked by Chad if he liked Orihime's outfit ( Which was very revealing..especially in the boob area) and Ichigo was blushing like an idiot of course.
While most antis swear it's just because Orihime is very beautiful and has a very large chest..remember Chad or Uryu didn't react despite them being males as well..just Ichigo.
Not only that but all of Ichigos enemies always use Orihime to bait him into fights. Enemies like Grimmjow, Nnotora, Ulquiorra, and even Ginjo..they all taunted him about how he was so determined to protect Orihime that they would use her presence to push Ichigo into fighting them.
Antis also claim that they didn't develop.. they went from classmate acquaintances to friends fighting side by side in battle. Orihime went from being shy and stuttering and being nervous in his room to borrowing manga from him and just marching in his room and both teasing each other. Ichigo also went from wanting to protect Orihime by leaving her on the side lines and out of harm's way.. to trusting her to be his shield in battle.
IR"s also claim that Rukia is better than Orihime because she's stronger. Now I know Rukia is strong no doubt..especially when she finally releases her bankai. But for most of the series she hardly does anything..even my husband noticed she only won like two or three fight the whole series and most of the time she was so beat up after she looks like she lost the fight. I'm not trying to talk down on Rukia I love her actually.. it's just is you go back and read the manga..Rukia didn't do much either.. plus Orihime actually has a really really OP power she just doesn't have the heart to hurt anyone so she usually uses her shield or healing, but just like Rukia they didn't do much with her powers.
In the end Ichihime had quite a bit of development..I'm not saying Rukia and Ichigo didnt have a bond..because they had a strong one..but that doesn't always mean romantic..I always felt it was more brother/ sister type than anything. But if you go back and look at all of the Ichihime moments you'll realize their bond as well..you'll realize that Orihime was always their during the really important times and fights.. like the Grimmjow fight, Ulquiorra, fight, the Nnotora fight, his Fullbringer training, his Visored training, and she stood side by side with him in the Ywach fight.
He was actually separated from Rukia more than he was with her..even when they were in the same places..they were always separated. Kubo..I feel made it very clear from early on that ichihime would be endgame..I feel some people were just in denial.
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