My relationship with this video is messy; half of what you say I fully agree with, and half of what you say makes me wonder what the heck you were reading to come to that conclusion!
26:30 I would say it was kinda the point. Aizen does state to Ichigo that he has no personal issue with him so he lacks conviction, fighting for duty and nothing more. Plus, Aizen was never the Big Bad Guy for Ichigo, I would say that's Yhwach. So really Ichigo is just a tool, and the fight is actually a personal clash of ideals between Aizen and Urahara essentially. Ichigo losses against Aizen, he isn't the one to defeat Aizen at all. He weakened him, but at the end it's Kisuke who delivers the final blow (or seal, I guess). Ichigo is just a pawn in their chess game and it's implied from the start after soul society and we learn what Urahara did to Rukia.
I have to say, while I disagree with a lot of what’s in this video, there’s one thing I specifically want to highlight: I believe Chapter 565, God Like You addresses a lot of what you have to say here It strikes me as odd that you mention Yhwach's many backstories but don’t touch on this one. I genuinely believe that reading his character through the lens presented here is crucial to understanding him. Without considering this chapter, I feel like you’ve glanced over and oversimplified many aspects of his character, Ichigo's journey, and the final arc as a whole. Yhwach’s birth as a completely black entity, given permission to live by the people who took from him, plays a huge role in shaping his character. This results in him seizing the one thing that Bleach values most-a name-derived from the very words spoken to him, never having a true name of his own, either before or after. This influences his views on morality and his perception as the almighty god who gives and takes from his children, seeing them as extensions of himself. He robs them as one might take from a limb-not out of contempt, but as a genuine reflection of them as his children, united by a shared goal. He believes above all that their collective beauty is achieved through serving under him, even if it isn’t rooted in hate. While Yhwach obviously moves further away from this initial unity and connection with his children as he becomes more consumed by his own conceit after attaining the title of almighty-an important part of his tragedy-I still think it's really important to be aware of this change in his approach, rather than believing he simply dismissed them from the getgo The re-experiencing of his blackness during his fight against Ichibe-the literal author insert who uses that same blackness he was defined by, along with the powers of ink and manga presentation, against him. This time, however, Yhwach begins a path of transcendence, claiming his identity as Yhwach and giving himself permission to live. He becomes the one who will rob from the world that took from him, now acting as his own agent. This ties into his desire to obliterate the distinction between life and death, stemming from a fear of experiencing death and returning to that same black nothingness Plus, there are countless aspects related to Reio, whom he holds in contempt for being enslaved by the Shinigami who took from him and whom he rules over. Yhwach’s own morality is shaped by his role as the Quincy king and his views on how rulers and subjects should interact, leading to his bitterness toward his unnamed father-like he once was. Unlike Yhwach, who takes a name for himself, Reio chooses to submit to death and remains nameless. There are also parallels with Ichigo, who changes the definition of his own existence, breaking free from the identity his parents gave him and the definitions that accompany it. Instead, he actively chooses this path out of agency and complete self-understanding achieved in his "Blade is Me," paralleling Yhwach's attainment of the almighty. This is certainly not all there is to say, and forgive any rambling
I also believe there's a lot in this video that would be addressed by putting more emphasis on the final Courage speech and the significance of Ichigo's blade shattering Yhwach, which means so much to the story. Two other moments I believe that, when reading the series again with the context in mind, give a far stronger impression than this video gives credit for. It seems to favor certain reading approaches and standards regarding what does and doesn't constitute canon, a recon, or which events should be held to a higher standard of importance than others-which I really disagree with. It feels like there are a lot of false equivalencies being made between recontextualization and retconning, based on what you as a reader seem to decide is important to the story and when it is important. I also realise this can come across as a little presumptuous and elitist, and I apologise, there's clearly a lot of passion put into this video and the effort is undeniable. So even if I disagree with so much, still great stuff! But I think there are some very blatant problems (imo) in your approach and philosophy towards the story, deciding very early on what points and interpretations mattered and which didn't that I think led to your dissatisfaction with stuff, and what I would personally consider as very far-fetched and uncharitable interpretations
After reading your comment. I feel like the character work in ichibe vs yhwach fight is half-baked. Ichibe is very bland with no personality. And yhwach mini arc is so weightless. As you said. Being nameless is the thing he fears. Why didn’t kubo show is his psychological struggles with it ? Like what he did with aizen after gin’s betrayal. What do you think ?
2:05:00 Shinigami were always the opposites of Quincies though, "Even in this battle of spiritual powers soul reapers and quincies are completely different" because Shinigami derive their power from "within" and the Quincies from "without" (yea that was the wording in chapter 49 lol). The Shinigami and Hollows aren't actually opposites they're adjacent/parallel, both derive power from within and by subjugating a deindividualized body they can awaken deeper power (Gillian -> Adjucha, Asauchi -> Zanpakuto). The Arrancars and Vizards aren't going in opposite directions they're both aiming towards a 3rd higher thing, a being more closely related to a transcendent like God. Something to note is that Arrancars don't become shinigami, they gain shinigami-like powers but the Vizards actually do have hollow powers because there's no such thing as "shinigami" really, they're the real outliers, just souls with powers who don't fit into the other categories. The only signature detail of a shinigami is the zanpakuto but those aren't unique to them, any race in bleach with spiritual power can make an asauchi into a zanpakuto (Kubo explicitly confirmed this recently but everything pointed to that being the case since the very beginning). You could view the Shinigami as an imitation of the Hollows which is also why the Vizards are "mock arrancars" and why arrancars turned out to be a better attempt at transcendent beings. Bleach's story is just mostly focused on Shinigami vs Hollows so that fact stays kinda hidden but pokes it's head every so often.
Loved your last video , but sadly a hard disagree with 80 % of the things which you said.. The thing is that I started reading the manga just a couple of years ago(new to the world of anime and manga ik ) I had been consuming different kinds of media before my introduction to animanga.. I can vouch that among most mainstream animes, bleach is the most subtle with its writing structure and emotions portrayed on screen.. Everybody hyped up soul society arc for me as if it is the he citizen kane of bleach but IMO bleach became more and more subtle after that arc its true that hueco mundo is the peak but that doesn't disregard the fact that fulbringer arc straight up feels like psychological drama totally centred on Ichigo which I personally have only seen in hxh ,fma, fmab and the tybw has probably the best flashback in probably all of fiction (ichigo's mother is quincy one) followed by the best moment in the entire manga (The blade is me).... Sorry eng isn't my first language so I guess I couldn't word my thoughts out well... but all I would say is that the anime is killing it right now moreover *bleach falls off after soul society is a complete horeshit take* and ya IMO it's the best out of big 3 for its subtlety...
I'm a bit confused, as this isn't a discussion of the anime but the manga, I think Bleach is highly subtle and nuanced as I express in this video, nor do I think it falls off after Soul Society. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding and you're talking about general attitudes within the fandom, but I'm not sure how your comments apply. Regardless, thank you for watching and taking the time to share your thoughts 🙏
Neither fmab or bleach can be called psychological drama. Bleach is good at subtlety but sometimes it is so heavy handed that it feels absurd. That’s why OP is way better at that.
@@inpacifica2573 well you sort of got it right, i am not in general talking about the points you made because imo those are your subjective opinions on the manga, one can't simply in an objective manner dismiss those .. I am not saying you are wrong lol.. its just unfortunate that you didn't like the later half of the manga unlike i did.. Although thanks for the previous video on the first half , that video cemented the fact that why ichigo vs ulquiorra is my favourite fight both thematically and otherwise in all of anime..
@@inpacifica2573 So I think you may have some blind spots due to prior expectations, I've had it before sometimes you get a little too close to something too fully appreciate it. Personally as for the fake karakura arc I never thought Aizen's actions made sense, it doesn't match up with what we've been lead to believe. But I think that's kinda the point. Aizen is inauthentic on a thematic level. his entire character is a facade we know nothing about him besides what he chooses to tell us and even that must be taken with a grain of salt. During that arc none of his actions progressed his stated goals. It did accomplish one thing though. Without a doubt, it made Ichigo stronger. Aizen pushed Ichigo once with Orehime. Twice with the shinigami. Thrice with his friends. He did nothing but threaten them Prodding at Ichigo's raison d'être Pushing him to grow. And when he killed the cleaner it gave Ichigo a chance to catch up. In the mean time he stays close to Ichigo's friends constantly a threat but never retaliating which is contrary to the egotistical breakdown that he's presenting. It's very controlled, like stepping around ants as to not crush them. Eventually Ichigo shows up to fight him and they go tit for tat until Ichigo reaches his pinnacle, and when he sees he can go further anymore... ...he bows out. And you might say that's all speculation, but Aizen says as much to Ichigo. All the fights he's been in were set up to get him here. Even Ichigo was aware Aizen threw the fight. Now we must ask why. Well if I had to guess I'd say Yhwach. Thematically they are opposed. Yhwach symbolizes purity, perfection, stagnation. While Aizen is the exact opposite. He rebukes the status quo. He's actively tries to blur the lines between the races. He very OBVIOUSLY evolves (and makes others evolve) So what he'd be most interested in is keeping Yhwach from getting his way. Even if that means he has to become a villain to do so, because he won't be able to stop him by playing by the rules. (Not saying he is a good person) And yeah Ichigo is Quincy and shinigami. Quincy are humans though. Isshin becomes human because his shinigami powers are being given up to misaki to balance out the hollow. Fullbringers aren't really a race their more like a mutation caused by hollows. Both vizards and arrancars are shinigami+hollow+Quincy. In those cases they use Quincy reishi to stabilize it. Last point Chad is also mixed Japanese and Mexican. I believe this is a parallel, both face adversity due to their mixed race but it's also a source of there's strength. I have stuff i can say about kaien and fullbringers but this is long enough.
18:32 concerning Aizen not killing everyone... I do believe there is a panel in which Aizen splicitly says he doesn't want to kill them so they see him accomplish his goal while they watch and feel useful not being able to stop him. Or something along those lines. Aizen goal is actually pretty solid once you learn the truth. I don't go along with his sadistic methods and psychological torture haha but I support his cause to an extent. Really, he feels that nobody can oppose him so why bother killing them,also to shove it in their faces.
@@animeuploader4992 ??? It's a shounen. We know Naruto becomes Hokage and Luffy will become Pirate King within the first chapters because that is their dream so are there no stakes in the whole story? We know Ichigo will overcome Aizen and save Soul Society and his friends because that is his main goal for several arcs. Are there no stakes just because we know the outcomes? It fits Aizens character to not needlessly kill either. He wants SS to bow down and worship him as the strongest, not to kill them all.
1:56:25 The Sternritter had 1K years of training, and they were insanely powerful. They also had access to Auswahlen, which can revive and buff them to immense measures. The Vizards and the Arrancar would be used to mop the floor. I wish the SR weren't so powerful... I honestly feel like their prep time and resources limit opportunities like this. Really, really love this video :) I agree with everything else so far.
I mean, that argument could also be made for the ambiguously old shinigami captains that have also been training nonstop. And that still doesn't explain why the Sternritter aren't affected by the hollow derivations, like I said. At this point, it just feels like Kubo making up arbitrary reasons for things to happen, rather than logically progressing the story he made ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
@@inpacifica2573 Thank you for responding! I'm really enamored by your investment in the story... It's clear that you love media enough to search every nook and cranny for gold, because you have the utmost faith in the author. I would love to emulate that so much! ^-^ And of course, I agree with your point! I'm not as well versed in the series as you, so watching you solve it has been so satisfying lol
I'm measuring Yhwach based on how he engages with the text, rather than what he accomplishes in the story, if that makes sense. As the author, Kubo has the ability to decide that anyone wins anything at any given moment, so I prefer to analyze how effectively Yhwach is used and woven into the narrative. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts 🙂
You're a top-tier bleach video essay maker. You outline all my complaints with bleach as a story. I LOVE bleach like it's my 4th favorite manga of all time, but I can acknowledge that it has serious issues, and I like that you still love it and want to just voice your opinions no matter how controversial in the community. I honestly think that the thousand year blood arc is the best one (despite its admittedly mid execution). Thanks for making some really great bleach essays. Please keep making content. You're awesome
I'll be editing this comments as I go with timestamps at points which said edit is made 10:44 Bleach has 5 (or 6) arcs Substitute Shinigami, Soul Society, Arrancar (+ Turn Back the Pendulum), Lost Agent and TYBW. No More, No less. 14:14 so do you want it to be a war or not I'm confused? Because you say or war is chaos and changing aspects... which is exactly what this portion of the arc is doing by having multiple fights simultaneously. Why are multiple people attacking Aizen? IDK maybe because he's the main antagonist of the arc and a traitor of the soul society, he is the largest threat the Soul Society has faced SINCE Yhwach a 1000 years ago. 16:15 the reason as you say "aizen is playing peekaboo" is because he's petty and arrogant. Why does he do it? Because he can, because he is fascinated by the simple fact that they are able to remain conscious, Aizen likes toying with his food. Why do you think he did the entire switcharoo with Momo? Because he had to do it or else he would lose? No. He did it because he could, there is no other reason. 17:16 when is it every implied Aizen is paranoid? No genuinely. That's all I have to say for this point 17:32 because Aizen didn't want to kill them? He says so himself 20:22 BECAUSE WHITE IS A HOLLOW 21:11 Blade is me 1:06:10 so... we're just not gonna mention WHY Ginjo did what he did... ok 1:18:50 you know you can do both right? You can be wrong and also be wronged. To use a surprisingly apt example, Israel... during WW2 the jews went through unimaginable and incomprehensible horror, and now for years Israel has been doing unimaginable and incomprehensible things to Palestinians 1:23:50 the last 20 or so chapters are rough BECAUSE KUBO WAS DYING. For YEARS Kubo's mental and physical health had been on a decline, since the Lost Agent arc in fact. And for MONTHS toward the end of the Blood War one if his shoulder tendons had been torn, without him realizing 1:25:43 OK, you knew about his health... then why word the previous section in the way you did? 1:29:14 thanks for clarifying you missed the entire thematic point of Ichigo in the story 1:31:00 Ichigo's arc is not acceptance, it's understanding 1:40:48 kenpachi didn't "figure out his bankai" if anything it's the opposite, he was handed his Bankai at a point where his body LITERALLY can't handle it 1:43:14 "ending Bleach the way he wanted" is about the literal END of Bleach, like the post time skip at the end of the manga, the stories of Brave 1:45:21 THAT ISN'T WHAT MAYURI IS SAYING IN THIS! He is saying that using Zombies is better than people like Ikkaku and Yumichika having to kill their comrades 1:52:43 It's almost like there's an anime currently going on that is helping Kubo tell the story he wanted to tell but could't because he was killing himself with his work 2:08:12 Hollow are poison to quincy not vice versa. Yhwach has the ability to share power with other beings. Ebern uses Quincy powers but he is NOT a quincy
@@AntonioBlue-SW cause it's unnecessary?. He elaborated on this in his interaction with yhwach in muken and also in the final battle. He doesn't hate soul reapers or the soul society per say. He just doesn't accept the status quo that exists and that accepts the soul king as the king even though he is anything but a king. He isn't even a dictator for that matter. He is just there to stabilize everything and sacrificed himself to do it(which is pretty much the greatest thing a king could ever do)
@@rexr9781 unnecessary? how is it unnecessary, their trying to stop/kill him and aizen brought the espada to kill the soul reapers he said so himself. The only reason he stepped in is because the 3 espada mostly failed. i havent seen the final battle yet cause im anime only but it genuinely seems that aizen was just stupid and or badly written. I agree with the video creator on this one.
@@AntonioBlue-SW "I won't Kill you. With the kind of power you have... It's difficult to even pass out from a wound like that. Obersve. As you lie helplessly on the ground... The end of this battle"
He was indeed, though as others have mentioned, his health started to decline long before that. I share my thoughts on the subject and the implications on the story starting at 1:25:35 👍
He also already stated that since the Arrancar arc, he had to skip plenty of things he wanted to add and also completely scrap ideas he had. It's sad, that the manga industry is such a hard and rushed workplace
I disagree about all of the Fullbringers being forgettable. I love Riruka and her interactions with Orihime, and Orihime's kind empathy and Rukia's acknowledgement of her bonds drives Riruka to save Ichigo from Tsukishima.
I enjoy Riruka, and agree that she has an interesting mini-arc. But it's a little thin for my tastes, and the rest of the Fullbringers don't really get anything. The conversation Jackie and Yukio have after Ginjou's death is the first time I felt they really expressed their individuality (beyond the flashback), and it's right at the end. Just feels like a missed opportunity, but again, I don't think there was time or space to squeeze it in earlier.
@@inpacifica2573 Fullbring Arc definitely felt like it was planned to be longer than how it turned out. Its the shortest arc in the series and I feel Kubo wanted to alot more but since this was an unpopular arc with readers at the time, I feel due to editorial & fan pressure- he had to rush it and bring in the Gotei 13 to wrap it up and please the fans & editors. In fairness, the Gotei 13 showing up does make sense, it showed how much Ichigo's presence has influenced the rigid system of Seiretei to be less bound by tradition. But it should not came at the expense of the Karakura Gang, especially Chad. The end result being it feels like a transitional arc to get Ichigo his powers back, when it should be more than that.
I really think your understanding of the final battle is pretty weak. The Almighty is fundamentally an inversion of The Blade Is Me. Ichigo triumph over Yhwach is quite possibly the single greatest moment in the series. It’s him accepting death, something that has bought him unimaginable grief and discomfort. He accepts it when he slays Yhwach, that’s why he has a melancholic look on his face when Yhwach dies. One of Ichigo’s defining motivations is to shatter fate itself. Aizen props himself up as the “fate” for Ichigo by having Ichigo dance in the palm of his hands but Yhwach is quite literally fate itself. Yhwach is everything Aizen propped up himself as. It’s a false god and and an actual god who are both vying for the same thing for different reasons and in doing so they act as the “fate” that Ichigo so eagerly wants to shatter. In my personal opinion the final battle in Bleach is the greatest thing Kubo ever put to paper. It’s miles above everything that comes before it. Insanely dense and emotional in a way that’s all too familiar for Bleach.
This point rings hollow to me. Ichigo is only concerned about the topic of "death" in the first arc regarding his Mother. Since then Ichigo really hasn't had to struggle with that concept as many characters in the Bleach verse don't die.
@@selfimprovement5873 That makes no sense. Ichigo's big part of his character is connected to his mother's death, since that's why he wants to be powerful enough to protect everyone, have enough strength to shatter fate, that does not change until the very end. Major BLEACH characters also died, they just weren't close to Ichigo necessarily
I don't know where this "Ichigo overcoming death" final point is coming from, he did this as far back as Ulquiorra. When plunged into the depths of absolute defeat by Segunda Etapa, he was forcefully shown that he had no chance, Ulquorra succeeded in one of his goals. His other goal failed, because as he wanted to instill absolute despair and hopelessness into Ichigo, he said "I didn't fight you because I can see myself winning this battle. I'm fighting because I HAVE to win!" He knew in that moment that there was no logical or feasible hope, yet stood strong and kept standing up after being nearly ground to dust. Ichigo is very far removed from a consistent fear of death on his own part, his fear of death was from others dying which stemmed from his mother. The final Ywach encounter had great moments and meant a lot of things, but it is very heavily affected by its EXTREMELY rushed last 20 chapters and not given the time and weight it deserves.
@@somethingsomething9006 Ichigo denying a world that doesn't have a concept of death means that he, with his own hands removes a possible future where all the people he loves can live forever which would essentially accomplish his biggest "goal" of protecting everyone. He denied that and instead chose the current system where he embraces the fact that his loved ones will one day die and leave him, that's what him "overcoming death" means
1:51:47 I hate this trend of how Bleach has struggle to continue Like, okay. Burn the witch ends with a "haha it is in the same universe". But there is the Hell Saga prologue that feels so desperate to "bring me back" and the whole amount of interviews that serve to "fill the trivia section of X or Y character wiki" is SO constant even today
Aizen left the goetei alive to force Yamamoto to eat his own flames upon killing wonderweis. However there is not much reason he left yoruichi, urahara, and isshin alive. Though aizen's mentality is rather self contradictory. It's apart of his character to have sif through lies to figure out his true intentions. So when you see him breakdown and lose his entire facade screaming at urahara since he was someone he respected. It makes you question did he leave so many people alive cause he didn't mind them being in his own world once presumed he'd take the soul king? Also for Gin, I would also love more on him but a lot of Gin is said in the actions he actually doesn't take when he's on panel. The purpose of him being silent serpent rather than a rattle snake. His silence and minor appearance on panels are meant to go undetected. Now from another meta narrative perspective I would of preferred more on Gin and Rangkiku. But this is also a person who disliked a lot of hueco Mundo and felt most espada were wastes till fake katakura (still enjoyed it obviously and concept of menos and arrancar are some of my favorite ideas of bleach. It just failed in a lot of elements even for things left for interpretation) and am meh on the ichgo/otohime/ulquiorra plot thread. I know it's good just was never my pot of tea as well as that plot also rocks the boat on some general interpretations on the arc as a whole, still good. I more enjoy the desperation of the otohime/grimjow/ichigo plot. But also I hate Yammy with a passion and there were 10 times better ways to lock out half of the characters left in hueco Mundo then just having Yammy. As well as if they wanted me to care about Yammy they should have had Chad character end there. Cause the fact that Chad just got warfed again for no real purpose really just made me feel bad for liking him in the first place and it never got better for him to the point where I didn't want him on the page or screen. They do better with Uryu by having him serve actual narrative purpose by having him be another connection to ichigo in the Ulquiorra plot.
A cutting critique, but not without love. Getting to see something I love from a new angle where its flaws are visible is a precious experience, and I thank you for giving it to me. While im pretty high on the fullbring arc and TYBW myself, all your criticisms made perfect sense to me. Again, thank you.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I have a lot of love in my heart for Bleach, which is why I wanted to lay out the big things I liked and disliked with these arcs. Hopefully more can see this was earnestly done 🙏 Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Which in all fairness is even more frustrating when you consider that Kubo had a story that vastly improves the characters and themes, but you have to go out of your way to find it. I know that by this time he was likely starting to feel pretty poor, but just like the new additions to the blood war anime, it is frustrating that all of these great developments were not part of the original text and easy to miss
I have been informed of Ginjou's light novel backstory. However, that does not justify stalking, maiming, and manipulating a group of teenagers to go on yet another vengeful killing spree. This will always be a Ginjou hate account! But in seriousness, thank you for watching and reaching out 🙏
Isshin being a Shiba isn't a retcon. No one truly considers Ichigo being the son of a missing noble captain because Ichigo is a human. Don't forget that his birth was only even possible because of a specific gigai that Urahara developed that turned Isshin into an actual human. And just like probably most of Urahara's inventions, the rest of the soul society probably didn't even know it existed. Ichigo looking like Kaien is one thing, but Isshin having a human child is probably completely outside the soul society's realm of thought.
To add on to this, souls take TEN TIMES the amount of time that humans take to age. Rukia is shown to be convincingly relative in age to Ichigo when she was first introduced, and yet she's verbatim stated herself to be ten times his age. No, they wouldn't believe that Ichigo is a CAPTAIN's son when in soul years, he should be an infant. In their eyes, Ichigo really IS just a random human who developed Soul Reaper powers and went off the charts in his first visit to their world. And it also puts into perspective what Byakuya monologued about while Ichigo was prepping his first Bankai. It really wasn't possible for a Shinigami born outside of the Noble Houses to have such insane Reiatsu so young (with very few exceptions, cuz Aizen and Kenpachi are both just built different). Also, in Fake Karakura Town, Isshin literally WEARS his Captain's Haori over his shoulder? And is in possession of tech to stall the Dangai that would definitely NOT be in the hands of any regular old Shinigami, especially not FOUR of them?
Ginjo's motivations were explained in the manga, just in a very subtextual way. Ginjo told Ichigo his motivations when he told him about tsukishima the first time, he tells him that Tukishima killed the fullbringers (Bleach, Chapter 441) that were part of his group in the past. However when Ginjo tells ichigo this he is under Tsukishima's power and is made to believe that Tsukishima is his enemy. Knowing how Tsukishima's fullbring works (ie. insurting himself into the past of anything he cuts) you can pretty much deduce what actually happened. Since Tsukishima wasn't the one to kill the fullbringers (remember his ability only lets him insert him self in to someones past, he cant create other people, so the fullbringers that died did exist and were killed) the only possible explanation is that the Gotei 13 were the ones who killed them, add this to the truth about the combat pass and we can paint a pretty clear picture of Ginjo's backstory and how he was betrayed by the Soul society. This also lines up with what we learn about him in CFYOW (the cannon bleach light novel that takes place after TYBW).
Okay I do get this, and that is a nice detail that adds a lot to his character and tsukishima's character, but I don't really see why this had to be so .. idk how to put it. Tucked away in the corner? Like I don't have a problem with subtext or anything, its not like I don't like looking deeper into a story, paying extra attention, etc. But I really don't see why this couldn't have been made more clear.
@@worthyedge9307 eh thats just the way kubo writes his manga, he likes to hide details without spelling things out for the readers. Although i will admit it is not for everyone and can make the story seem lacking to people don't get the hints that he leaves.
@@gabe8914 i see what you mean. Its definitely a hit or miss aspect of kubo's writing for me tbh, because he does it so often with details that are really important, or just leaves stuff off in a side novel somewhere. And I know for a fact that Kubo isn't a hack writer, he has such amazing concepts and arcs that he can show. Love bleach but this aspect being done sooo often is something I don't like lol
@@worthyedge9307 Thats understandable, Kubo's writing is not for everyone. At the very least it seems as if he's adding stuff into the new anime to expand up things not in the manga.
No offense but how do you create a critcism video of bleach without trying to understand the thematic purposes of the characters and their actions. A lot of the criticisms are the mechanical issues of the story which I tbh agree with a lot of. The thing is Bleach has never been acclaimed for having a consice and consistent story mechanistically. Its value lies in how Kubo writes characters through subtlety in the presentstion and how it connects the individualized stories of supporting character to the major journey of the series for Ichigo/Aizen/Yhwach. If you read into the subtext of the series more and view it in a more holistic aspect (like how the Espada are reflections of Aizen/how the sternritters reflect Yhwach) and try to see how everything in the story connects to the development of Ichigo/Aizen/Yhwach a lot of your non mechanistic criticisms wouldnt exist
Pretty sure I spent about half the video engaging with the character themes, lol. I think that if the mechanics had been better and more consistent, things like character themes would be even better than they currently are. A rising tide raises all ships in storytelling, as with most things. Thanks for the engagement, though!
@@murderman8578pretty sure this person equates authorial intent given in interviews or something and personal life anecdotes to engaging with the themes of a story.
@siginotmylastname3969 Authorial intent is TIED to the themes If I told you the intent of the story is one thing and my themes are another thing than I did a poor job as a writer in conveying what I want
@@murderman8578yeah I'm pretty sure the stans have adapted their taste to prefer themes as authorial intent and supplementary info (more in the form of retcons than recontextualisation of existing material with ties to it) instead of being well developed throughout. The aggressive fans obviously aren't close to the majority of the fanbase but they really seem to have a negative relationship to manga where bleach is lifted up by putting other work down and making personal attacks or just saying people giving criticism are wrong without justification. Hell the whole theme of Ichigo's power isolating him could have been improved easily to me: have him become a captain halfway through the story and then struggle with it in a new social group. Yeah it's a massive change but as things are the problem starts with fullbringer arc having nowhere new to take him now, and he's slowly stripped of relationships by Ginjo only for the captains to do what feels like a deus ex machina. I mean the video fleshes out just how much could be added to Ginjo's opposition to Ichigo. What if he gets his powers back in exchange for drastic demands from soul society? He's already as powerful as them and instead of the captains staying as characters who constantly support the big fights, Ginjo's issues have a connection with Ichigo's new arc for hundreds of chapters which easily links into improving tybw(because now he's still in soul society against the quincy, but he's been given power within them at the cost of balance with his human life, more restrictions with that power to follow up on Ginjo's reveal about them as secretly tracking him supposedly mattering, which since he say has a timeskip starting to accept it, greater good or whatever, would actually make the quincy being their enemies and their genocide MATTER). Hell he can easily retrospectively have a deeper opposition to Aizen then too by following in his footsteps and needing to find a better resolution. As things are, I can't understand what many people call these deep themes. They're barely focused on characters which shows the characters could be giving that deep meaning all as mouthpieces for Kubo instead of themes in the story. A story with so many themes honestly doesn't really have one, it means the characters didn't develop or follow through with them enough. Having said all this, I realised Ichigo becoming captain in soul society is basically Rikuo's arc in Nurarihyon no mago. Read nurarihyon no mago, despite having a conclusion where jump tried to cancel ten chapters ish before, Shiibashi actually ended it on an emotional/thematically strong note and only the fight/flashy action aspect was the worse for it. Actually my ideas aren't that similar but still, nura just doesn't have the every yokai is on the side of the genocided ones aspect and really keeps the higher ups in the clan as morally grey in a natural disaster way instead of mad murderous scientists etc. I don't know how I'd end bleach tbh.
I personally believe that the biggest miss by far in the blood war arc is that they did not use the temporary allegience change of Uryu to allow him to fight and kill Mayuri in such a way that would seem like allegience to the ywach but is infact revenge for what mayuri did to the only quincy Uryu ever truly respected
That's an interesting idea! I'm not sure how Kubo would handle that, given the story's complicated relationship with vengeance, but it would have been nice to see Ishida have some sort of development or arc in TYBW 🥲
Nice work!! I just wanna say that, for me, ichigo is always been forced to do jobs for another one, him knowing it or not, and the series deal with how he faces many of this works. Its facing an amoral justice in soul society. Its facing Aizen, with as you said he has trully no direct confrontation when he retrieves Orihime. Its facing hope and joining a cult like society with execution. But in TYBW there is a resolve from him to do what he wants, without "saving" another friend. Yes, Uryu is in there, but Ichigo didn't know before going in. About the thing about how hollows gain quincy powers, but ichigo didn't count as one, like Ebern, i think that they come from being hollow as a basis and then gaining quincy powers. Again good work!! Hoping the anime fixes some problems for you and maybe you enjoy more the series
I enjoy how you've articulated a few of my own standing problems when it comes to engaging with Bleach narrative, especially the aspect of not using its immense length to explore ideas and central characters in favor of others. Or how Ichigo during the arrancar arc at times feels like he's not actually suited for the story being told around him. While I don't line up exactly with everything you have to say, I can understand where you're coming from and enjoy the differences in our perspectives on the overall story alongside our similarities
Thank you! Bleach has a lot of fascinating things going on under the hood that I deeply appreciate, but I think it's important to pick apart the things that don't work as well or could have been done better. For me, at least, it helps me understand how the rest of the story functions 😊 Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I don't understand your gripe with Blade is Me. You're forgetting one thing sometimes enlightenment isn't entirely down to internal factors rather it's also affected by external factors. Which is completely normal as people around you also shape you to be the person that you become. It ain't a retcon as you say.
My gripe with the Blade is Me is that it is poorly foreshadowed, has patchy justification that makes the characters and lore less cohesive than they appeared previously, undermines core relationships and themes for Ichigo's personal journey, and fundamentally changes and invalidates Shirosaki, an integral character/aspect of the first half of the series. I could not have been more clear in the video. Thank you for watching.
@inpacifica2573 what I don't understand is how you keep on repeating the same stuff and are not even trying to understand other people and their views. Poorly foreshadowed? Then let me ask you this, why did people knew about Old Man Zangetsu's truth before it was even revealed in Blade is Me. Old Man Zangetsu stopping Ichigo's blood during the Kenpachi fight, Hollow Ichigo smiling in the reflection of his sword when he was acting as a demon are some examples of Blade is Me foreshadowing.
I constantly decry my opinions as subjective in the video lol. I just don't find any of the arguments here convincing enough to change my mind, the same way my arguments didn't convince the people that disagree with me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I am just glad you were honest in your interpretations of the story and your criticisms of it. Quite frankly, more of these kinds of analyses need to be made. You can still love your favorite story and still be critical of it at the same time, that to me is the true definition of a fan. Not being overly positive/defensive or overly hating with no solid reasoning to back it up. I think a lot of Bleach fans have this knee jerk reaction to be overly protective of Kubo's work because of the comparisons it gets to it's Big 3 counterparts. It is viewed as the lesser out of the three and many people in the community take issue with that. Many people often in their defense of it become rude or take very elitist stances by saying, " Oh Bleach is too big brained for you.", " You don't understand the themes.", or "Bleach is the most mature and should have been a seinen." All of which make my blood boil because it is unnecessary rudeness and make people afraid to give actual valid praise and criticism of the story in a engaging and productive way. Bleach is a SHONEN through and through and it is a very fun and thought provoking story, but it is not without is flaws and problems, most of which I agree with in your analysis. I get wanting to protect your favorite story, everyone does, but there has to be balance when doing it. Kubo is a very thematic writer almost to a fault, to where the narrative structuring suffers. It is of my opinion that an author must find a balance of explicit exposition and subtext when writing. Kubo leaned a little too much in the subtext department to where many things were unresolved or left up to too much interpretation. Many of your issues are basically told in light novels, specifically Ginjo's reasons in the Fullbring Arc and basically the historical context of the world in Thousand Year Blood War. These being Death Saves the Strawberry for Fullbring and The Can't Fear Your Own World Trilogy for TYBW. They give sooo much context to the issues of certain characters that were undeveloped and gives sooo much lore and world building. I encourage you to read them. I could go on but this is long enough. Anyway, thank you for this analysis, you did a great job. Also, never be afraid to voice your mind even if people disagree with you.
Thank you! That really was the name of the game with this essay--to be as honest and thorough as possible. If I didn't earnestly believe something, I didn't say it, and if I couldn't clearly articulate or back up what I said, I didn't include it. And, trite as it may seem, the fact that Bleach CAN be so exceptionally good is what makes it so fascinating for me to break apart and see what isn't working. A purely perfect 10/10 story can be difficult to fully appreciate because it opperates at such a sophisticated, efficient level you don't even notice all of what's going on under the hood. But the moment something has a clear flaw, it puts everything into context and you can see how difficult it is for everything to work well. As for things missing from the story, I wouldn't even call it subtext, I think it's just flatly missing from the text. While I appreciate supplemental content and want to read the light novels, I think they should be that--supplementary. Bleach needs to be able to stand on its own as the mainline entry into the franchise and have everything make sense without consuming side content. There shouldn't be vital character context or plot lore happening in additional content that isn't as widely circulated, marketed, or consumed as the main series, otherwise people will simply miss it and think the story is bad. And, on a petty personal note, I doubt there is any backstory in this world that will make me accept Ginjou, lol. I will always be a hater! But I will give the light novels a shot 😉 Thank you for watching and your kind words!
1:19:22 there's a faction in the sternritters called the schutzstaffel. the extent to which the nazi-sternritter parallels are explored is limited but it stills is quite intentional
Agreed. But I felt like I needed far more context about what Kubo intended by including such a thing before offering any real commentary on it, so I elected to acknowledge it but abstain from including it in my analysis. Thank you for watching!
@ yeah I get it. my hypothesis is that including parallels to nazism in pop culture has just become a short hand for signalling that a character or group is supposed to be bad without engaging with the ideology. in any case, the potential religious conflict (esp as the sternritter take inspiration from Christianity and the Soul Society takes inspiration from Buddhism) would’ve been far more interesting to explore
I just recently watched the last video, so I'm glad to see another Bleach upload from you 💛✨ the fact that people love or genuinely criticize some parts of Bleach, to me it simply shows how much we love the series!! 💛✨
Happy to have you here! And truly, yes, this all came from the heart. I would have gone slightly crazy working on this project if it hadn't been a product of love, lol.
It feels like you like Bleach but dont like Kubos writing style, which is valid. Some aspects are criticism i agree with, some are valid criticism that i disagree with. Some of these takes hurt my feelings tho, felt like you were purposely not seeing the point. Like with Tsukishima at the end you made a great takeaway about his character but because it wasn't explicitly said you called it ur own "fanfiction" rather than just reading the subtext. I think this is the gap that alot of people cant cross when it comes to Kubos style and you either like it or dont. Another thing is with Aizen, "if he was as ruthless and powerful as we were led to believe, he would've murdered everyone and won by now". THATS THE POINT. THATS WHY LOSES. Its shown multiple different ways.I feel like intepreting that as bad writing instead of what it says about the character is wrong.
I mean, Kubo's writing style works for me just fine for the majority of the story, so it's probably not that. As for your other points about subtext, I think there still needs to be acknowledgement in the overt text about what the subtext is doing, which I think is fundamentally lacking in the back half of Bleach. The first half doesn't struggle with this, so I'm disinclined to believe these are just features of Kubo's writing, rather than oversights on his part. Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I def see where your points come from, but I feel like people interpret these instances very differently lol which is fair. Out of the big 3 of one piece and Naruto I believe that bleach has the best pacing out of the three of them by far and it is not even a question. When I was younger though, It did not click with me as well and I feel like that’s where I relate to you. I didn’t start to appreciate it until later on.
I think the reason why Ichigo turns into that horned Hollow thing is because the Ichigo vs Ulquiorra fight is ripping things off from Yu Yu Hakkasho when Yusuke is possessed. Ichigo as that Hollow even has similar markings to Yusuke when he is possessed and the fight, the fight is one sided and ends the same way with Ichigo blasting Ulqiorra like when Yusuke blasted Sensui and then complaining that he didn't want to win like that. So I think its mostly ripping stuff off which is why Kubo never uses that form again as it has no place in the series.
I've never been especially compelled by the argument that Bleach ripped off Yu Yu Hakusho. While I agree that there are similarities, they feel more like tropes or storytelling conventions found within the genre. Bleach is doing plenty to make these situations its own, so I'm not particularly bothered if it's influenced by Yu Yu Hakusho or not. And, to be fair, a few variations of that form show up throughout the rest of the series, albeit not in the same way as on the dome 😉
@@inpacifica2573 I think that reason why people don't make the connection that is because there isn't much crossover between the YYH and Bleach fanbase that people would make that connection. I think YYH and Bleach are very different but the Yusuke vs Sensui fight to me stood out as a bit of a rip off because the things in that battle were never mentioned again like Ulquorra's second release, if it meant that Espada who ranked 4 and higher had a second stage release then it would be fine but its not the case and we don't know why Ulqiorra specifically has it, it sounds like a way to mimic Sensui's sacred energy but Kubo never explained what was going on there and Ulquiorra was killed off and his second form was never seen or referenced again in the manga The first time Ichigo became a Hollow he became a Hollow with chicken feet and a lizard tail and then he became that horned Hollow. At first I thought it was because Ichigo had gotten stronger after his fight with Grimmjow but considering the final arc Ichigo was always strong and it was just Yhwach holding back his power so its hard to tell what its supposed to mean and the way the battle went when Ichigo became the horned Hollow reminded me of the battle with Yusuke vs Senseui mainly because of markings on his chest, the blast that finished off Ulquiorra and that Ichigo complained that he didn't want to defeat Ulquiorra that way. It makes sense for Yusuke because during the fight with Sensui he made the point that he wanted to be the one to take out Sensui and no one else, even if it meant the tunnel to the Demon World would open, Yusuke doesn't think too much. It doesn't make sense for Ichigo since he was there to rescue Orihime, not pick fights with Espada even if he wanted to fight them, it would delay his rescue mission. Remember that part when Ichigo wanted to fight in the same condition Ulqiorra was in and that moment was never mentioned again and then afterwards Ichigo says that the war has to end and that bloodlust never comes back after that moment. For me, its those parts that were never mentioned again that make me think Kubo is ripping parts of YYH
@@Timmy-mi2ef Kubo constantly makes and discards concepts at a whim. If he wanted to bring this back he could of but he didn't which makes me think he couldn't find a place for it in his story. The fight was to rip of Yusuke's fight against Sensui which is why Ichigo has a out of character outburst about having a fair fight rather than saving Orihime. Yusuke loves to fight, he even stopped caring about the tunnel to Demon World and just wanted to beat Sensui, he kept driving that point home. The fight was also to have Sensui and Yusuke reflect each other which is another thing Ichigo vs Ulquiorra ripped off. Kubo couldn't what Ichigo wants in that arc, he says he wants to rescue Orihime at the end of his fight with Grimmjow then he complains to Ulquiorra that he didn't want to win and then asks for his arm and leg to be servered which would result in him dying lol and no one mentioned it again.
I definitely disagree with a lot of what you say in this video, especially in regards to the Fullbring arc which I personally feel is one of the series strongest segments, but I definitely see where you're coming from and think you do a great job expressing why you feel the way you do so I have nothing but respect for the passion and effort you put into this video.
Thank you! While the goal of this video was never to sway people into thinking like me, I wanted to be as thorough and earnest in my criticisms as possible. I love the story but not without complaints, and wanted to figure out just what was getting under my skin, haha. Thank you for watching and for sharing your thoughts🙏🏼
Thank you for making this video. I disagree with some of your points but the effort and thought put into the video is undeniable. Ignore the mean comments. The fandom is just very diffensive about Bleach because it's been so misunderstood and mistreated. We've had more than a decade to analyze the story so it's ok if you didn't get every aspect of it at once. Despite that, this is a very well made video and I got your perspective very easily. Good job. I would recommend watching the TYBW arc anime. It fixes alot of the shortcomings of the manga with kubo approved additional content.
Thank you! And I'm glad you've said that--I would much rather people disagree with me and find my arguments well-considered than agree with me and not think about it at all. And I am planning on watching the anime! I have heard only good things and I'm hopeful it will put at least some of my bellyaches to rest. I'm hoping to catch up before the end of this new season so I can experience the finale with everyone else 🙏 Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts!
Like, imagine if Ishida had trouble in the Arrancar arc and being a gag that "I came up with some flu, I guess" and being tired and poorly fighting and this being read as "he isn't strong enough" or "those fights are not a good match for him" and later being "OH, a Arrancar - a smart and devious hollow - is the worst enemy for a quincy" You open my eyes to such potential
I don't really feel like you're giving the FKT arc enough credit. The Gotei's fight against Aizen is a chess match where shit like Wonderweiss finally gets put into play and I absolutely think we need to learn more about the characters like Shunsui there both because they're great characters and because it sets up the TYBW
Aizen was simply toying with Ichigo's friends and killing time while waiting for the important people to show up. He didn't need to kill those kids because they would die in the process of forming the Ouken.
And Aizen also had no reason to kill the other captains once he incapacitated them. He was also toying with the Gotei 13 and stated from the beginning the Espada were collectively significantly weaker than him. The whole spectacle of the fight was to give time for him to fuse with the Hogyoku and he was never seriously challenged by any of the people there until Urahara, Isshin and Yoruichi rocked up.
@@MANJYOMETHUNDER111 Aizen loves toying with ichigos mind and seeing his potential for no reason so why not kill his friends it's plot armor simple as that
@@MANJYOMETHUNDER111So Aizen people are trying to kill him and he incapacitates them like a good boy it makes me think Aizen is a good boy at heart instead of a messed up sociopath we've been told he is
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I’m more than a year late to both of these videos to be honest, so I will wait until I finish the four hour escapade to give any true opinions.
Great video. Some stuff I agree with, other stuff I don't. But that's Bleach, or media in general. Loved the presentation. Edit: forgot to say, I loved the fullbring part of this video the most. That really highlighted your love for the series the most(not that I was sceptical before). I will be here for any future content about anything really.
Thank you! The Fullbring section was honestly one of my favorites. The arc itself has such an interesting, different energy that I hopefully conveyed. Thank you for watching, and I hope I can live up to your expectations 🙏
The thing with the Fake Karakura town is that it feels like what people meme about "the Z fighters waiting for Goku to arrive", in the Sayan saga in Dragon Ball. The thing is, in Dragon Ball, we have six characters (we already know a lot more than those shinigami) fighting two. Nappa being basically Yami in his first appareance, a big agressive meany who is fought by ALL of those six at the same time. Besides the two main enemy, they only "summon" some fold cannon who are literally "just little monsters" that are quickly defeated by the cost of the Z Fighters already loosing one of their numbers In the Karakura arc we have not only repetitive fights that means little in the overall arc, but all being individual and about characters ""that don't really matter"". All the enemies the "lesser shinigami" fight are basically saibaman fighting alone against a LOT of really cool Yamchas. And when the time comes to fight "Nappa"... It's still a lot of Nappas doing separate fights It could only drag and kill the pacing, since all those fights matter the same in the "screen time" of each one
2:07:04 I like this whole layout of the races but I disagree with this part. Hollows are poison to Quincy but Quincy are not poison to hollows. At worst an arrancar being given quincy powers would see the quincy powers dissipate, but even that doesn't seem necessary. I'm also pretty sure hollows aren't poison to Quincy to such an extreme degree. The Sternritter did successfully invade Hueco Mundo with little to no losses, and they have blut defending them. I don't even know how the Visord hollow masks could substantially affect the Quincy. They can't even bite. The "poison" that affects the bankai stealers is literally from Cang Du having the hollow reiatsu inside of him thanks to using Toshiro's bankai, and it doesn't even kill him. Congratulations to understanding mugetsu before the Blade is Me, because a lot of people didn't. I'm pretty sure they and Ichigo were in the same boat lol. What Ichigo sacrificed meant a lot more to me than what Ichigo did to get that power at the time. What I like about the Zangetsu "twist" is specifically how everyone is telling him that the hollow is his real spirit, but Ichigo is proactive and won't let Old Man Zangetsu go, which earns him the second, smaller blade. That little piece of him feels more earned by him for his efforts, than the larger blade that is pretty much his birthright.
I definitely misspoke in the diagram section, implying that Quincy were also poison to hollows. Rather, I was trying to express that they are incompatible and shouldn't be able to mix (this might be a bit of a stretch on my interpretation, but it doesn't make sense to me that hollow energy would break down Quincy energy while a hollow could still use Quincy powers). I was trying to go quickly to keep that section from being too lengthy, nor was I working from a script, but alas, that led to a screw up that wasn't fixed. However, I think your comments about hollows not being THAT poisonous to Quincy kind of proves my point. They never seem to have an issue with it until Kubo deems it dramatically important. Then it's intensely bad, as Cang Du and Masaki have sudden and extreme physical reactions. It feels awfully inconsistent and suspect. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Question you started the video with this , nothing you guys comments are gonna change my mind about the latter half. So,what are your intentions for the video? Your very tounge and cheek.. the latter half might hit for you in the future, shouldn't we all be able to change opinions over time with new arguments.
My intentions for this video are what I explained at the beginning--to revisit the story and figure out why certain things did or didn't work for me, since several people asked about it in my last video. I feel very confident that since my opinions haven't fundamentally changed in the 8+ years since first reading the back half of the manga (despite re-reading it several times and hearing extended discussions about it), it's highly unlikely that someone in the comments is going to stumble upon the magic combination of words that will suddenly convince me, hence my comment. While I enjoy the discussion and response to a public video, this is ultimately persuasive essay, not a plea for someone to change my opinion for me. Maybe my mind will change in future, and if it does, neat! But right now it's pretty rock solid and not much will change that.
I want to give you some Positive feedback. Your take on the "Blade is you" was very insightful. Never thought about it that way, it wasn't Ichigo's choice but rather different individuals withholding information. Also funny point here; I didn't think Ginjo was suspicious after the initial meeting because of all of Ichigo's previous trainers were suspicious. I mean think about it, he was nearly killed by Urahara having him awaken the hollow within. Urahara kept the Rukia plot line a secret from Ichigo. Also all of his other trainers were rough with him and nearly got him killed so I thought this was just the usual for Bleach writing. 🤷🏿♂️ lol
Hey thanks for making this video! Some takes I agree with, others I don’t but I’m glad you shared your opinion on a favorite series of mine. Not an EyepatchWolf moment 🤣👍 you’re good
I disagree with a lot of your points in this video. One example is when you were talking about Ginjo and was listing off all the different sides of him and why that frustrated you, I was thinking how the different aspects of him, including his lie, made him such a cool character, and so unique compared the rest of the cast. It’s why I love him wow much at least. That being said, I really love your editing style and this was so much fun to watch! Definitely subscribed, and I’d love to hear your thoughts about other shows, movies, etc!
Thank you! Like I said, I see the potential in Ginjou, but he's slightly too the left of what I want and it makes him insufferable to me, lol. I hope my future projects continue to satisfy!
It's weird and funny how the light novel after the ending (that wasn't MADE by Kubo, right? I don't know the details behind the production) is where the "real ending" happens, acording to a lot of people Where we got a lot more answers and a lot more closure. And, ironically, it appears it doesn't have much "Ichigo"
Loved your first video and I enjoy listening to your thoughts. Loving this video too. I appreciate how deep and complicated Bleach is, as each person has their interpretation of the story. You express your true thoughts and that is very respectable. I personally do believe Ichigo is afraid of his power, of that which he doesn't understand about himself. And it's a story of learning and accepting one self, the good and the bad, of what makes you yourself and embracing it. It's the bigger theme of Ichigo and the reflection of everyone reality but with crazy sword powers.
I acknowledge all the flaws in the second half of TYBW but don't blame Kubo too much as he was on life support and had to rush it to the end. The anime is adding a lot to the final arc to make it close to Kubo's intended vision. Basically a director's cut.
The things that tybw does with Ichigo specifically, and by extension the characters he meaningfully interacts with, like Yhwach or even Uryu and Orihime, are actually really good, especially for bleach standards. The blade is me is pretty incredible as a finale to his character, and his fight with Yhwach is at least thematically resonant. But I cannot grasp how people can defend the ENTIRE arc based on that alone. Ichigo does barely anything in it, and most of it is just awful bleach fights with characters that are either not even characters to begin with, have already completed their character arcs, or get very shoddy, narratively pointless development that doesn't actually amount to anything by the end of the series. What's the point of any of the new bankai shown in the arc, when almost NONE of them actually do anything? They just show up to look cool. Kubo cannot write fights on a mechanical level, so he just writes this tedious ability reveal back and forth, where the fighters will just keep on pulling out new convenient abilities based on the tide of the battle without any actual strategy. And that's ALL of the arc. It's best shown by how Kubo throws half the cast at Gerard, has them use all these new abilities against him, only for them to do nothing and him to be taken out by Yhwach. Yes the theme there is that the guy who's all about miracles is getting taken out by a miracle, but just having a theme doesn't make a fight good. It's obvious the bankai reveals in that fight only happenes because the time for the manga was running out. And what about Rukia? People LOVE her bankai reveal, even though it's literally just used as an asspull oneshot, with her new ability just so happening to be the perfect counter against the fear, and she doesn't do anything for the rest of the arc?
I think you're a bit harsh on TYBW and Bleach in general. The fights and power ups and whatnot can move the story and characters along wonderfully well, when applied correctly. Some of my favorite moments in the story are fight scenes, because they are pulling so much weight. But, to each their own ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
Regarding the Sternritters using German words and having military uniforms, it's one of those things that shouldn't stand out too much for a seasoned manga reader. The Japanese love German imagery like they love British imagery. Yes it's historically related to some... events, but they use it like we would use Asian aesthetics. Think Avatar The Last Airbender, Star Wars, the Matrix...
@@inpacifica2573I can't tell if your point is that I came off condescending or if you're telling me the Sternritters are definitely a case of that. I know an example or two of "Nazi imagery and the messaging associated with it" and I would also be very confused if TYBW was supposed to contain said messaging, cause it's a huge stretch. My whole point is I've noticed that just happens sometimes, as well as a liberal use of pre-WWII German imagery in manga. Should I have assume you already knew that? If so I promise I will in the future
But... about 1:08:50, Ichigo is a big dumb idiot, given the grand scheme of Bleach Ichigo is clueless and goes off from vibes and instinct 99% of the time, and him not realizing Ginjo is evil to me at least is not surprising in the slightest
To be fair, Ichigo was running around clueless because people were actively keeping things from him, so he's opperating on what little he can figure out on his own. Plus, he's more interested in accomplishing personal goals that are then exploited by higher level players, like Urahara, Aizen, etc. Ichigo is very canny, he's just not interested in the grabs for power happening around him. Also, Ichigo is consistently able to read the vibes of people (arguably, it's one of his hidden skills). He clearly suspects something is off with Ginjou in Miss Ikumi's shop, so it all feels a little off to me. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
It’s currently almost 3am and I’m trying to sleep so I will watch and comment what i agree, disagree, or can give extra clarification for at a later date. Probably tomorrow. Until then I’ll leave this comment here to say I’m glad you got around to re-reading the series again even if your stance on it didn’t change all too much. It’s always better to have a more recent fresh view on something as opposed to vague memories of it. You may or may not have any idea how much of undue criticism bleach gets from people who only watched the anime (which was a meh adaptation all things considered) a decade and a half ago and only remembers the broad strokes of it or who only read the manga week to week but never went back to read it in full. Also I don’t think you have to worry about having a Super Eyepatch Wolf moment here cause a lot of what he said was just nonsense 😂 a whole buncha hoopla as my friend would say 🤣
I fundamentally disagree with a lot of the criticism and am even baffled by some of the points being made, but this is still a great video that comes from the heart.
Finally got around to finishing the video, thank you for your hard work. The entire analysis really made me re-think a lot of what I also found conflicting in a new scope. I really appreciate how I can feel how honest you are about your conclusions with the story, even if they don't entirely align with the set-ideas that I have. I still found myself getting emotional at the segments where you convey parts of the story in a really heartwarming manner like you'd done with the previous video, I seriously couldn't stop getting all teary-eyed.
Thank you! I wanted to give these arcs a fair shake and really show that I was engaging with them in good faith, rather than simply writing them off for not being to my taste. Or, if something wasn't to my taste, I wanted to put in the footwork to explain why and how that affected my interaction with the story. I love Bleach, flaws and all! Thank you for watching, and for sharing your thoughts ❤️
Insightful analysis - like with your other videos! Good work. I will say the first half of the TYBW was incredible with some tragic stories like Yamamoto, Unohana, and Komamura. However, the second half of TYBW in the manga was terrible. Fortunately, the anime is already improving on that! The most recent anime episode greatly improved on Ukitake's farewell. Comparing the most recent episode to the manga was like night and day. Kubo's manga chapter was rushed and all over the place while the anime episode gave the character the respect he deserved. I am glad Kubo is working closely with the anime staff to improve upon the original chapters now that he has more time and is in better physical & mental condition.
Thank you! I wanted to give this video as fair a shake as possible, and hopefully I achieved that. And yes, the first half of TYBW is very good, I meant it when I said I enjoyed going back and reading it again! I am very excited to watch the anime and see the changes Kubo implemented, even if they don't resolve my complaints. It's such a rare and exciting opportunity for a creator to revise a public work, and I wish him the best! Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts 😊
i dont get the point of a 2 hours video if you dont want to talk about it, there at least 5 times you say something between "i dont want to talk about this scene, dont talk about this part of the history that i am criticizing i wont read it", like man i think is easier to talk to a wall if you dont want to get responses about your takes and opinions
I'm guessing you're referencing my comments about not wanting to see Ginjou apologia after I ardently explained why I found him irredeemable, as well as not wanting to have people lecture me about how the Blade Is Me makes sense after I explained why I don't think it does and all of the work I put in to give it a fair shake anyway. Or perhaps you're referencing the part where I say that I will not be convinced by paragraphs of text lecturing me about how I'm wrong, but I'll still read them and appreciate the effort and engagement? If not, I would love timestamps as to where I say this! Regardless, the point of this particular two hour video was to explain my personal views and interpretation of the story. Thanks for the response to my takes and opinions! They were wonderful engagement 🙏
@@inpacifica2573 yeah i am refering to them! i do understand not wanting to be told the same thing that you already read, but that closes a possible discourse or other point of view to those scenes when you tell people to not talk about it, and sorry if that first comment have come as ''rough'', but i liked the video, it shows that it took a lot of work and time, so i hope you could keep doing them, bc wven tho i didnt agreed with it i do enjoy watching it
I simply do not wish to engage in discourse where people will try to convince me of something when I have already made up my mind ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm happy to talk about other things, but in those cases it's a bit of a waste of time. I'm glad you enjoyed the video 👍🏼
I agree with the out of place fights in the FKA. I personally loved them, but from a story and narrative stand point it kind of messes with the beat. Same with later half of TYBW, this I believe is an issue of the reality Manga artists live in. Sometimes they can't do the story justice due to editors (maybe they told him to put more of the shinigami as fans loved them and he found the place to put their fights as fanservice in the Fake Karakura Arc... Or at the end due to illness he dropped the ball
Super well articulated, I really loved your take on the fullbring arc, I would find myself agreeing with you countless times, over and even in regards to the thousand year blood war, which i was somewhat of a fan of, ill have to revisit and comment fully once i've had time to internalize and critique my thoughts based on your arguments and get back to you, but truly hats off to you and thank you for the wonderful work of art
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I put a lot of work into this to make all of my arguments as thorough as possible (and make the video as pretty as possible), so I'm glad that it all paid off! Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts!
My comment will echo what many have said I’m sure, that while we disagree on many points, which I believe comes down to just simply having different perspectives on the story, I can still see where you’re coming from and that this is still a great video. I’m grateful that there is still BLEACH content being made in the modern day that aims to analyze or critique the manga from a place of genuine feelings and reactions. Don’t worry, this definitely isn’t your eyepatch wolf moment lmfao. To put it bluntly, his video fucking sucked and made no attempt to understand the story or its influences, while yours I can tell is being made by someone with passion who is earnestly trying to understand the story and its intentions through their eyes, which is appreciated as a mega fan of BLEACH. I loved your last video on the series and am interested to see other videos from you covering different topics besides BLEACH, good stuff🙌
Thank you! As I said in the video, this was always meant to reflect my subjective opinions and explain why certain things hit me wrong, even though I continue to love Bleach. And, to be fair, my comment about supereyepatchwolf was more about making a critique of Bleach and getting blasted for it, despite still really enjoying the series. I have my complaints with his original video (which are all on things he acknowledges as flawed), but I appreciate the discussions he's had about the topic since. He seems like a chill dude 👍🏼 Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Sorry i am late to this video .😅 Really love it. Hope you make a one piece video on it's themes but i don't want you to overwork yourself so take care and i am happy bleach is your favourite manga despite its flaws😊😊😊
I've never read/watched One Piece, though I've been meaning to get around to it. I probably won't do a deep dive like this into another manga for a while, just because it takes A LOT of time and effort, and there honestly aren't that many that I have such an intense interest for. Thank you for the well wishes and for watching the video :)
It seems like you want Bleach to be something its not. Bleach tells most of its story through visuals and subtext. Kubo writes it like a peom, he even gives peoms every volume to give off that vibe. When you went on that rant about Tsukishima's story, thats exactly how Kubo inteded you to read it. You're supposed to figure it out and put together context clues. Not everything has to be told directly. One of my favorite parts is Tosen's Zanpaktou. Tosen's abilities have to do w/ senses like when he emits sound, or blinds everyone. But then he whips out a couple doznes blades and shoots them. The Zanpaktou is supposed to have the same power, so why is this ability so different? Well we look at his characters story. We learn that he took his friends asauchi after she was murdered. He bonded w/ her so much that apart of her soul imprinted on Tosen and thats probably why he was able to use her swords abilities. Once he went full hollow he forgot about her and stopped (or lost) using her zanpaktou b/c he lost his purpose. He was still able to use his swords abilities, we see him emit poweful sound waves to incapacitate Sajin. He went from seeking justice for her, to down right hatred of the soul reapers. This is all inference of course, but after learning how zanpaktou work, and knowing the blade is the soul reaper it opens a whole new way of understanding why and how these soul reapers act in the way they do. Its the reason why we dont need 3 dozen backstories for every character. We have the information, we just need to put it together. This form of story telling isnt for everyone, and thats totally fine. Sometimes people just want a straightforward story that has people saying "I did this b/c of this reason". I feel its a bit unfair to say this storytelling is bad, or not what it could be, when youre trying to fit it into a mould its not meant to be.
I dislike the argument of 'Bleach is mostly subtext and you have to keep digging to understand it', because it often feels like a shield for the contradictory or missing things from the overt text. I believe that if a story cannot hold together and be consistent on the surface, it doesn't matter what's six layers down; it has still failed to be understandable to the average audience member who isn't aware of or interested in the deeper meaning. It also tends to be used as an accusation of audience stupidity or laziness, rather than allowing authors to be imperfect beings that can and do make flawed decisions with their story. I also don't think it's fair to say Kubo always intended to tell a story that is only understandable through so many layers of subtext, because the first half of the story or so doesn't seem to have these problems. They seem to crop only as time goes on, and seem to be caused by the reasons I outline in my video. Perhaps I am oblivious to entire chunks of the story because I didn't put in enough effort to understand it, but after months of cross referencing, analyzing, and contemplating Bleach, I'm not sure what more I could feasibly do resolve my issues with the story and make it make sense. Thank you for watching and for sharing your thoughts.
@@dune-z2707 I'd say as a story. Bleach is very music inspired so when I read the story I get similar feelings when I listen to lyrics from a song. Songs (at least ones I listen to) don't outright say the message they're trying to send. Like poetry it hides the meaning in-between the lines and through the song. I think that's why I like the story so much, b/c I love music.
@@inpacifica2573 for the "average" audience like you said might not care to dive into the deeper aspects of bleach characters and that's fine and not to say kubo is a perfect writer and has no flaws but for some people who really enjoy the more "surface" level aspects of bleach and want to understand kubos story better the way kubo writes his story in a up to interpretation way makes for a really enjoyable expirience for those people and by the looks of it you didnt enjoy the surface level stuff enough to want to dive into the bleach lore of characters which is fine and although you made a whole video on looking at this deeper stuff with characters and story in bleach but by the sounds of it you would have rather it be just told in a more easy way to consume. What I'm trying to say is some people like the way kubo writes and for you it wasn't your cup of tea and you believe an average person whose not emersed in what bleach is doing won't enjoy these aspect of bleach
I have a much longer response to this video but just to quickly deny one point, i think its pretty clear throughout the manga that quincy arent weak to hollow attacks, theyre weak to hollow blood/soul. Poison doesnt take affect unless it enters your bloodstream, thats exactly why just attacking the quincy using hollow powers does nothing but infusing bankai with hollow blood takes it away from the quincy. It even makes the whole bow situation make more sense because the quincy wouldnt want to get physically injured and potentially injest hollow blood. Idk how more people didnt see this very obvious point and for some reason kubo just made it even more confusing with his statement. P.S. hisagi also looks like ichigo, resemblance literally means nothing at all. Even in real life when you see someone thay looks identical to someone else you wouldnt automatically assume theyre related
Honestly though, I think it would've made the whole series more interesting if Quincy were just outright weak to Hollow attacks. It makes the theming of the Quincy as people simply afraid of death incredibly effective, and had Arrancar arc been written with it in mind it couldve made Uryu's role in the arc more interesting and involved
@@youmeltube it's already effective enough, creating a rock paper scissors type of story for tybw would've been interesting sure but would kill the horrifying nature of the Quincy hax. Uryu Will be more involved in the anime that won't be an issue
Well to be fair quincies are weak to hollow reiatsu/reishi. And for the large majority of bleach we only see one Quincy i.e. uryu who is a very special Quincy in that he was unaffected by the auscwahlen. This could also explain why he hollow reiatsu/reishi doesn't affect him.
@@rexr9781 If Uryu's susceptibility to Hollows had been emphasized during Arrancar already, it would've been amazing foreshadowing to TYBW while again giving him a more interesting role in the story. Just my two cents, I don't really enjoy the whole "Uryu is special" angle that Kubo's picked for him
I am so glad someone shares my frustration about white Zangestu just not saying ANYTHING during the blade is me. Also ichigo "supposedly" doesn't hollowify after the fullbring he fully accepted white n no longer needed to. The mask was more of misunderstanding of how to use his power since it's not a vizard
It's just a matter of choice bro ..... That's how Kubo wants to portray it as zangetsu observing with a sense of satisfaction on his expression that ichigo has finally grown to understand him and finally because the king 👑 he wanted him to be ...... Next thing fullbringer 's source of power is much closer to that of a hollow as explained in the narrative by chad , so it's obvious that ichigo is able to materialize his hollow powers from within his soul and materialize it outside on his body like a armour similar to how he used the mask ...... The thing is visards are shinigami with hollow powers being existant while not dissolving with their shinigami soul ...... But Ichigo 's shinigami and hollow powers are fused perfectly with white .....
@shubhransuoram1510 I'm not sure if u agreed or disagree with your comment. But my issue is that it doesn't mend well with the blade is me. Because we're shown and explained that ichigo, in fact does not have a good relationship with his zanpakuto mostly because he doesn't know the full truth but also because of how he treats his powers. Now I'm not saying the fullbring explanation doesn't work but it does feel incomplete. I don't mind old man Zangestu being the focus, but white almost feels unimportant, and white is ichigo soul reaper powers n has nothing to say that's just crazy work. Dangai training ichigo and the fullbring explanation is fine but when u add in the blade is me it falls apart a little bit
He's such a strong character, and yet there's not a peep! So frustrating. That explanation...just annoys me all the more, haha. I simply will never be satisfied with 'it was a misunderstanding' when half the story insisted on that understanding, and the explanation never dealt with this aspect directly and clearly and can only be derived trhough context and supplemental material. Kubo! I just want a simple answer that doesn't radically recontextualize what I already know to the point of invalidating things! Thank you for watching, and for sharing your thoughts :)
@inpacifica2573 I definitely understand also the blade is me conflicts with the fullbring explanation because we're then told again that ichigo doesn't understand his powers or have a good relationship with his zanpakuto until after he learns the truth. So he should definitely still have to hollowify since Zangestu was still lying to him. Also idk if this is **SPOILERS** but we do see ichigo hollowify at the end of TYBW so it's like which is it? Did ichigo have an understanding in the fullbring arc? Or that understanding didn't happen until the blade is me? Because it can't be both n the way kubo writes it it's suppose to be both.
I'm nearly half way through and i must say this is a great video essay. Its good to be able voice your stronger thoughts on things you like even if they are negative cause it adds depth to media. Perspective keeps the subject alive. As someone who dislikes fullbring when i first experienced it and only now come around finding things to like about it because of a friend. I feel you a lot on your thoughts on it. Its such a shift in the narrative and the its a subject that does just feel like it came from no where (fullbringers even though it contextulizes earlier powers cause of the hogyoku). The concept is contextualized post the arc as learn more about bleaches world in tybw and the novels but doesn't help when your experienceing it actively. I do think once my friend got me to focus more on ichigo emotional struggle than i originally was giving it credit. Ive been finding smaller nuances in the writing decisions for the arc. So tldr, i really like your spirit you hold throughout the entire essay. Its well documents your thoughts and is quite entertaining.
Thank you! Like I said in the video, I love the ideas the Fullbring Arc plays with, and would honestly love to see more of the slowburn, psychological mystery aspect. But alas, that's not how it turned out. Thanks for watching and for sharing your thoughts!
I want to hear someone critique one of my favorites, if not my favorite, because I am writing a story and I want to make sure that I don't fall into similar pitfalls. Since it's such a big inspiration, I might be blind to the pitfalls
Can't help you there, bud. I enjoy storytelling that effectively and efficiently utilizes all its pieces to tell a cohesive narrative ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Thanks for the engagement!
Hard agree on everything in the video. But also youre gonna have about a thousand 17 year old bleach fans who only care about "hype" and "aura" cyber bully u
First time viewer here, it’s rare to hear someone vocalize all my thoughts and critique on a narrative! Bleach is a rollercoaster, and for me never felt the same after Ichigo defeated Aizen. I’m glad the TYBW anime is trying to elevate the source material. Still overall one of my favorite series! Glad I’m not alone here
I think something that kinda sticks with me in a bad way is that the series kinda both wants to treat ichigo as this perfect hybrid of all three and a half soul types in balance, and someone whose very nature is inherently hostile to itself to the point where basically everyone within his lineage has to be just a little special to not fucking fall apart and die in the process of birthing a human quincy vizored. Even after that sword is me I would say the visual imagery of Ichigo's zanpakto definitely reflects merely acceptance, and not balance, of what he is, as the pair of swords are significantly less equal than any other dual zanpakuto and this reflects his actual use of his powers throughout the series (unless you subscribe to the interesting but ultimately entirely crackpot theory that Mugetsu is actually Leztz Stil) to the point it gives the impression that, as a reflection of his self, he sees himself as a shinigami with some fullbring/visored first and foremost and that his quincy heritage is a fully distinct and lesser part of himself. The fact that the essence of hollows inherently being poison to quincy only really ties in to it (despite being the piece of the puzzle that makes the most sense as to why Old Man Zangetsu would suppress Zangetsu Zangetsu as opposed to just hating soul reapers real bad) as a plot device to get Isshin's backstory to work, despite it itself having to fumble through that by making Masaki special enough to not immediately turn to dust. obv this is a wall of crazy person text but it just reeks of wasted potential that ultimately ended up reading like you had accidentally skipped to the Naruto chapter in Jump that week.
As for this video- there are some things I agree with and some things I disagree with. In fairness, you made me reflect and rethink alot of the thematic ideas of the series. I won't come to the same conclusion as you, but you brought up some good points that actually made me appreciate the Fullbring Arc more
I'm glad that my essay was of use! Like I said in the video, the goal was to break down the story and figure out why it made me feel the way it did, with the secret secondary goal of getting people to engage more deeply with the text on their own. Having accomplished that, I consider the video a success, even if people completely disagree with my interpretation 🙂 Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I'm yet to watch the video, so while I can't say that I agree or disagree with anything in specific yet, I agree with the sentiment. Bleach gets messier as it goes - as I find all long-running series do - yet also aspires to do much more ambitious things than it had before. We may not have gotten much od anything for eg. Chad or Ganju, but that such a huge majority of the cast still manages to feel fleshed-out, relevant and realized by the end of the story is genuinely commendable.
I'm a very big fellow bleach fan but I disagree. Yhwach is my favorite bleach villain, but he's definitely not Kubo's best character. The anime might change that but as far as the content of the manga is considered, Yhwach has all the potential but very little of the execution. He lacks clear character motivation for one. You can read the entire arc and still not come to the conclusion that Yhwach is afraid of dying that's why he's trying to break the cycle of life and death. You'd read the final battle and think he just wants to return the primordial world. Also Yhwach is an effective villain; no villain before him pushed the plot like him, but I think he does more for the other characters than they do for him. His war with Yamamoto finalizes his character, his conflict with Ichibe does wonders for Ichibe and the lore, he literally pushes Ichigo through the most pivotal point of his character arc, but none of these characters (maybe except Ichibe) do the same for Yhwach. He goes through such a disappointing arc where he goes from an exciting charismatic warlord to a one dimensional evil god. I still love his characters but I still disagree that he is Kubo's best. He has the potential but not the execution.
@@MazharHussain-ig1ub I disagree. The interpretation is up to the reader and is not the responsibility of the author. Kubo makes very deliberate choices when it comes to Bleach and his presentation for Yhwach is absolutely phenomenal. Yhwach being afraid of death is pretty obvious when you remember the Barragan fight back in FKT where his crown is falling and Hachi comments that he was just afraid of death. Yhwach death is pretty similar to Barragans. Kubo intentionally makes Ichibei label him a black ant as a callback to Barragan labelling everyone around him as ants
@@joebidenjr5902 but you have to agree that that's kind of a terrible way to reveal you're main and finals villains motivation. It's crazy to expect the reader to recall Baragon calling everyone an ant and connecting it with Ichibe calling Yhwach black ant and saying since Baragon was afraid of death so is Yhwach. Wouldn't your connection imply that it's actually Ichibe whose afraid of death and not Yhwach. You can't expect the reader to get that! I think how the anime does it is much better. In the Ichibe flash back, Yhwach says that he can feel the fear of every Quincy when they day as their souls return back to him. He was also basically in a death like state upon his birth, and he doesn't wanna return back to it. The souls of the Quincies and his origin establish a much clearer picture of Yhwach's internal desire. Kubo just putting an idea into the story doesn't automatically mean that it's been implemented well. Yhwach and the Quincies as a whole had so much potential. Some of which I feel was executed very well but we'd both be lying if we said that the Quincies and the members of the sternritter were flashed out. Yhwach had incredible presentation but he lacked the depth for a character of his magnitude. All the ideas that make him such a great character were never satisfyingly explored. He's not a bad character nor a bad villain but he certainly very messily executed.
By the way, I do wanna state that I completely disagree with her take on Yhwach. I'm not saying she's right. I'm just saying that Kubo didn't make Yhwach an easy character to understand.
Here before the "bro you dont get it its all about symbolism its all about subtext pay attentiont bro 🤓" crowd takes over when someone rightfully criticizes Bleach. Specially cus some quite of them add to their argument that "it's a matter of personal opinion" but somehow can't stand it when someone just doesn't like Bleach that much.
Okay, so I just watched this whole thing in one sitting, teared up more times than I care to admit, have so so so many parts that I want to engage with, but I am also so very sleep-deprived right now😭 So, here is my humble offering for the ever mysterious algorithm and I will be back for a proper comment ... in a few days? Maybe weekend?? (the very concept of Time is kicking my ass so hard right now it's not even funny 🙃) Anyways, yay for new Bleach video! ^_^ P.S. As a member of the Chad brigade, I understand and am satisfied with your note. But I AM coming for you for not talking about Ishida!! 🤣 A good 50% of my beef with the TYBW arc is how *severely* underutilized Ishida is. His relationships, his ideals, his history (in the Quincy sense, in the Shinigami sense, and most importantly, in the Orihime, Chad, and Ichigo sense), his experiences throughout this whole manga, his whole belonging to a g*noc*ded people thing that the manga just ... does not look in the eyes. We get crumbs of Ishida and his dearest friends. In the Quincy arc! Not to mention how criminally little we get of him on page at all when he is having one of the most organically high tension and high stakes plotline in the whole arc, that also lends itself naturally to centering our Karakura four cast as the emotional anchors. What a fantastic full circle moment for the final arc. But nooooo we scoot Ishida and all of the emotional catharsis just right off screen! I know you mentioned that in the vid. but by God it bares repeating. In the Quincy arc!!! Baffling. Okay, good night now 😂
It all for Clicks and Engagement after all. 😅 Some things you said maybe right but most of the criticisms you have are very wrong or they are downright explained or foreshadowed prior by Kubo's subtle writing. He is no way of a perfect writer but if you think later half is not good, most of Soul Society/Hueco Mundo Plot points would be loose ends without Fullbring and TYBW arc expositions. Kubo was also sick halfway and there is a reason he directly involved in anime production to tell the story he originally intended but couldn't. Also I am curious to know which manga are your favorites other than Bleach. Its good to have a strong criticisms like this but the answers for them are also in plain sight than you think.🙌
I think my biggest gripe with bleachs ending in tybw (maybe i just forgot the reason) is how they didnt just immediately lose upon ywhach absorbing the soul king. Ichigo killing Ywhach isnt the problem but im confused on how the entire universe didnt fall apart after the soul king died. They already showed, after Ichigo killed Reio, that the world would fall apart if the soul king died. So Ywhach dying and the world just staying intact felt like it diminished Ukitakes sacrifice and made mimihagi literally pointless. If im just missing the explanation I'd love for someone to tell me but it's confused me since I read it.
Such a good point! Such a frustrating stretch because I was ready for horrible, heinous consequences! But alas, just more drawn out fights that all of the good guys win... Reio ultimately functioned as a McGuffin more than anything, so I didn't really talk about him much, but I've had many of the same thoughts as you. Thanks for sharing!
Cause yhwachs body was still releasing riatsu, this is said in cfyow. They turned yhwachs body into what the original soul kings body was like. It's also revealed that if that didn't work, they were gonna use ichigo instead, which was the reason they made ichigo stronger. If the soul king dies and yhwach can't replace him, then they would use ichigo. All of which is from Can't fear your own world a cannon novel series after the tybw
@@wewillrockyou3272i get that this is canon and all but I still kinda consider it a misstep because why wasnt info like this shared in actual manga rather than a lightnovel most people likely didnt read
@miner556 "a lightnovel most people didn't read" you mean exactly like manga? Most people complained when things about the tybw were spoiled for them in bleach brave souls since the anime wasn't even confirmed to be continued at the time. You can also look at jump force as well since a lot of people complained since they didn't want to read the manga. If you're a fan of a series and learn there is a continuation in a book series, guess what fans buy it. You can look at literally ANY series and find that if it's a brand/show with books, they will sell. Do you want an example? Ninjago, one of the main powers, is just erased because a book mentioned them having darkness in them. A big factor of garmadon changing was done in a book. (Mind you, this is after all good was killed, and he was revived with only the evil left in his body. "Where was it all explained a book. Yet you ask fans of the series when the change happens. You will get the answer from the book. Another example is the fnaf Series and Gravity Falls series. New books come out, and fans buy them despite them being entirely different mediums and different cannons at times. The argument it isn't shown in the crazy when light novels are just another book type. If a horror series released a mystery comic series and it was cannon, would fans not buy it? No, it's just another book to them. If a TV show fan learn a movie is being made, would they not check it out since it isn't a TV show? No, they would check it out to see if they like it or not. But to say that "most people didn't read" is just dumb once you realize at this time the only people who would even be knowing about what's going on are the people who were already buying the manga and reading jt so why would a different medium type be breaking the camels back?
11 min into the vieo as of writing this. love the analysis, just like the previous one and the commentary vid. top tier writing, would love to have you on my bleach podcast
in regards to Ginjo, we find out in the CFYOW light novels that central 46 murdered majority of his friends, and thats why he went on the killing spree. they did this after he found out they were monitoring him. if i remember correct
Okie dokie two months late but really good video, even if I disagreed with some of the stuff. Like how I interpreted the thing with Ichigo's mini arc during TYBW, wasn't him coming to a new understanding of himself because "he's a quincy" but rather because he's gaining new context about the night that caused him to take up the identity of "protector". The death of his mother went from being Ichigo's first and greatest failure, to a tragedy utterly out of his control. Granted this interpretation also falls flat because rather than accepting he can't save everyone and moving past it, the lesson he learns is "fuck that guy he killed my mum". But I still love Bleach anyway even though yeah it is flawed, the light novels fill in some of the gaps but that's still not the best, and I'm thankful I found these videos because the last one made me actually finally go read Bleach.
Interesting perspective! I think that idea has a lot of potential, but as you said, it's a shame that it doesn't stick the landing. I would have really enjoyed reading that. And I'm glad you liked the videos, especially if it rekindled an interest in the series! That's always really pleasant to hear 😊 Thanks for watching!
I would rather publish my honest thoughts that make people look at Bleach more deeply (even if they totally disagree with me!) than sit in a room where everyone agrees with each other because they're afraid to say what they think ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Thanks for watching!
I don’t wanna sound condescending but all these people disagreeing with you are just wrong. Like you mostly point out inconsistencies and repetitive writing and retcons. One can like the story despite these mistakes but they are mistakes nonetheless. Appreciate your video a lot for expressing so many of my own frustrations with the series.
Thank you! I knew I was courting fandom ire when I made it, but I felt compelled to say my bit lol. For the most, though, people have been very nice, so that's lovely. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
My relationship with this video is messy; half of what you say I fully agree with, and half of what you say makes me wonder what the heck you were reading to come to that conclusion!
26:30 I would say it was kinda the point. Aizen does state to Ichigo that he has no personal issue with him so he lacks conviction, fighting for duty and nothing more. Plus, Aizen was never the Big Bad Guy for Ichigo, I would say that's Yhwach.
So really Ichigo is just a tool, and the fight is actually a personal clash of ideals between Aizen and Urahara essentially. Ichigo losses against Aizen, he isn't the one to defeat Aizen at all. He weakened him, but at the end it's Kisuke who delivers the final blow (or seal, I guess). Ichigo is just a pawn in their chess game and it's implied from the start after soul society and we learn what Urahara did to Rukia.
I have to say, while I disagree with a lot of what’s in this video, there’s one thing I specifically want to highlight: I believe Chapter 565, God Like You addresses a lot of what you have to say here
It strikes me as odd that you mention Yhwach's many backstories but don’t touch on this one. I genuinely believe that reading his character through the lens presented here is crucial to understanding him. Without considering this chapter, I feel like you’ve glanced over and oversimplified many aspects of his character, Ichigo's journey, and the final arc as a whole.
Yhwach’s birth as a completely black entity, given permission to live by the people who took from him, plays a huge role in shaping his character. This results in him seizing the one thing that Bleach values most-a name-derived from the very words spoken to him, never having a true name of his own, either before or after. This influences his views on morality and his perception as the almighty god who gives and takes from his children, seeing them as extensions of himself. He robs them as one might take from a limb-not out of contempt, but as a genuine reflection of them as his children, united by a shared goal. He believes above all that their collective beauty is achieved through serving under him, even if it isn’t rooted in hate.
While Yhwach obviously moves further away from this initial unity and connection with his children as he becomes more consumed by his own conceit after attaining the title of almighty-an important part of his tragedy-I still think it's really important to be aware of this change in his approach, rather than believing he simply dismissed them from the getgo
The re-experiencing of his blackness during his fight against Ichibe-the literal author insert who uses that same blackness he was defined by, along with the powers of ink and manga presentation, against him. This time, however, Yhwach begins a path of transcendence, claiming his identity as Yhwach and giving himself permission to live. He becomes the one who will rob from the world that took from him, now acting as his own agent. This ties into his desire to obliterate the distinction between life and death, stemming from a fear of experiencing death and returning to that same black nothingness
Plus, there are countless aspects related to Reio, whom he holds in contempt for being enslaved by the Shinigami who took from him and whom he rules over. Yhwach’s own morality is shaped by his role as the Quincy king and his views on how rulers and subjects should interact, leading to his bitterness toward his unnamed father-like he once was. Unlike Yhwach, who takes a name for himself, Reio chooses to submit to death and remains nameless. There are also parallels with Ichigo, who changes the definition of his own existence, breaking free from the identity his parents gave him and the definitions that accompany it. Instead, he actively chooses this path out of agency and complete self-understanding achieved in his "Blade is Me," paralleling Yhwach's attainment of the almighty.
This is certainly not all there is to say, and forgive any rambling
I also believe there's a lot in this video that would be addressed by putting more emphasis on the final Courage speech and the significance of Ichigo's blade shattering Yhwach, which means so much to the story. Two other moments I believe that, when reading the series again with the context in mind, give a far stronger impression than this video gives credit for. It seems to favor certain reading approaches and standards regarding what does and doesn't constitute canon, a recon, or which events should be held to a higher standard of importance than others-which I really disagree with. It feels like there are a lot of false equivalencies being made between recontextualization and retconning, based on what you as a reader seem to decide is important to the story and when it is important.
I also realise this can come across as a little presumptuous and elitist, and I apologise, there's clearly a lot of passion put into this video and the effort is undeniable. So even if I disagree with so much, still great stuff! But I think there are some very blatant problems (imo) in your approach and philosophy towards the story, deciding very early on what points and interpretations mattered and which didn't that I think led to your dissatisfaction with stuff, and what I would personally consider as very far-fetched and uncharitable interpretations
I am a bit confused. I haven’t read all of bleach. But Hasn’t ichibe said that black is the color of shinigami. How does this connect?
After reading your comment. I feel like the character work in ichibe vs yhwach fight is half-baked. Ichibe is very bland with no personality.
And yhwach mini arc is so weightless. As you said. Being nameless is the thing he fears. Why didn’t kubo show is his psychological struggles with it ? Like what he did with aizen after gin’s betrayal.
What do you think ?
2:05:00 Shinigami were always the opposites of Quincies though, "Even in this battle of spiritual powers soul reapers and quincies are completely different" because Shinigami derive their power from "within" and the Quincies from "without" (yea that was the wording in chapter 49 lol). The Shinigami and Hollows aren't actually opposites they're adjacent/parallel, both derive power from within and by subjugating a deindividualized body they can awaken deeper power (Gillian -> Adjucha, Asauchi -> Zanpakuto). The Arrancars and Vizards aren't going in opposite directions they're both aiming towards a 3rd higher thing, a being more closely related to a transcendent like God.
Something to note is that Arrancars don't become shinigami, they gain shinigami-like powers but the Vizards actually do have hollow powers because there's no such thing as "shinigami" really, they're the real outliers, just souls with powers who don't fit into the other categories. The only signature detail of a shinigami is the zanpakuto but those aren't unique to them, any race in bleach with spiritual power can make an asauchi into a zanpakuto (Kubo explicitly confirmed this recently but everything pointed to that being the case since the very beginning).
You could view the Shinigami as an imitation of the Hollows which is also why the Vizards are "mock arrancars" and why arrancars turned out to be a better attempt at transcendent beings. Bleach's story is just mostly focused on Shinigami vs Hollows so that fact stays kinda hidden but pokes it's head every so often.
Loved your last video , but sadly a hard disagree with 80 % of the things which you said.. The thing is that I started reading the manga just a couple of years ago(new to the world of anime and manga ik ) I had been consuming different kinds of media before my introduction to animanga.. I can vouch that among most mainstream animes, bleach is the most subtle with its writing structure and emotions portrayed on screen.. Everybody hyped up soul society arc for me as if it is the he citizen kane of bleach but IMO bleach became more and more subtle after that arc its true that hueco mundo is the peak but that doesn't disregard the fact that fulbringer arc straight up feels like psychological drama totally centred on Ichigo which I personally have only seen in hxh ,fma, fmab and the tybw has probably the best flashback in probably all of fiction (ichigo's mother is quincy one) followed by the best moment in the entire manga (The blade is me)....
Sorry eng isn't my first language so I guess I couldn't word my thoughts out well... but all I would say is that the anime is killing it right now moreover *bleach falls off after soul society is a complete horeshit take* and ya IMO it's the best out of big 3 for its subtlety...
I'm a bit confused, as this isn't a discussion of the anime but the manga, I think Bleach is highly subtle and nuanced as I express in this video, nor do I think it falls off after Soul Society. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding and you're talking about general attitudes within the fandom, but I'm not sure how your comments apply.
Regardless, thank you for watching and taking the time to share your thoughts 🙏
Neither fmab or bleach can be called psychological drama.
Bleach is good at subtlety but sometimes it is so heavy handed that it feels absurd. That’s why OP is way better at that.
Hey at least you agree with 20% of it. That's a start.
@@inpacifica2573 well you sort of got it right, i am not in general talking about the points you made because imo those are your subjective opinions on the manga, one can't simply in an objective manner dismiss those .. I am not saying you are wrong lol.. its just unfortunate that you didn't like the later half of the manga unlike i did.. Although thanks for the previous video on the first half , that video cemented the fact that why ichigo vs ulquiorra is my favourite fight both thematically and otherwise in all of anime..
@@inpacifica2573 So I think you may have some blind spots due to prior expectations, I've had it before sometimes you get a little too close to something too fully appreciate it.
Personally as for the fake karakura arc I never thought Aizen's actions made sense, it doesn't match up with what we've been lead to believe.
But I think that's kinda the point.
Aizen is inauthentic on a thematic level.
his entire character is a facade we know nothing about him besides what he chooses to tell us and even that must be taken with a grain of salt.
During that arc none of his actions progressed his stated goals.
It did accomplish one thing though.
Without a doubt, it made Ichigo stronger.
Aizen pushed Ichigo
once with Orehime.
Twice with the shinigami.
Thrice with his friends.
He did nothing but threaten them
Prodding at Ichigo's raison d'être
Pushing him to grow.
And when he killed the cleaner it gave Ichigo a chance to catch up.
In the mean time he stays close to Ichigo's friends constantly a threat but never retaliating which is contrary to the egotistical breakdown that he's presenting.
It's very controlled, like stepping around ants as to not crush them.
Eventually Ichigo shows up to fight him and they go tit for tat until Ichigo reaches his pinnacle, and when he sees he can go further anymore...
...he bows out.
And you might say that's all speculation,
but Aizen says as much to Ichigo.
All the fights he's been in were set up to get him here.
Even Ichigo was aware Aizen threw the fight.
Now we must ask why.
Well if I had to guess I'd say Yhwach.
Thematically they are opposed.
Yhwach symbolizes purity, perfection, stagnation.
While Aizen is the exact opposite.
He rebukes the status quo.
He's actively tries to blur the lines between the races.
He very OBVIOUSLY evolves (and makes others evolve)
So what he'd be most interested in is keeping Yhwach from getting his way.
Even if that means he has to become a villain to do so, because he won't be able to stop him by playing by the rules. (Not saying he is a good person)
And yeah Ichigo is Quincy and shinigami.
Quincy are humans though.
Isshin becomes human because his shinigami powers are being given up to misaki to balance out the hollow.
Fullbringers aren't really a race their more like a mutation caused by hollows.
Both vizards and arrancars are shinigami+hollow+Quincy.
In those cases they use Quincy reishi to stabilize it.
Last point Chad is also mixed
Japanese and Mexican.
I believe this is a parallel, both face adversity due to their mixed race but it's also a source of there's strength.
I have stuff i can say about kaien and fullbringers but this is long enough.
Eh I mostly cannot see your way but it’s fine, everyone has their preferences.
18:32 concerning Aizen not killing everyone... I do believe there is a panel in which Aizen splicitly says he doesn't want to kill them so they see him accomplish his goal while they watch and feel useful not being able to stop him. Or something along those lines.
Aizen goal is actually pretty solid once you learn the truth. I don't go along with his sadistic methods and psychological torture haha but I support his cause to an extent. Really, he feels that nobody can oppose him so why bother killing them,also to shove it in their faces.
Found it, he says it at beginning of chapter 393.
@Alekranidos09 doesn't make any sense if we know they won't be killed by him and aizen will be defeated what's the stakes
@@animeuploader4992 ??? It's a shounen. We know Naruto becomes Hokage and Luffy will become Pirate King within the first chapters because that is their dream so are there no stakes in the whole story? We know Ichigo will overcome Aizen and save Soul Society and his friends because that is his main goal for several arcs. Are there no stakes just because we know the outcomes? It fits Aizens character to not needlessly kill either. He wants SS to bow down and worship him as the strongest, not to kill them all.
1:56:25 The Sternritter had 1K years of training, and they were insanely powerful. They also had access to Auswahlen, which can revive and buff them to immense measures. The Vizards and the Arrancar would be used to mop the floor.
I wish the SR weren't so powerful... I honestly feel like their prep time and resources limit opportunities like this.
Really, really love this video :) I agree with everything else so far.
I mean, that argument could also be made for the ambiguously old shinigami captains that have also been training nonstop. And that still doesn't explain why the Sternritter aren't affected by the hollow derivations, like I said. At this point, it just feels like Kubo making up arbitrary reasons for things to happen, rather than logically progressing the story he made ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
@@inpacifica2573 Thank you for responding! I'm really enamored by your investment in the story... It's clear that you love media enough to search every nook and cranny for gold, because you have the utmost faith in the author. I would love to emulate that so much! ^-^
And of course, I agree with your point! I'm not as well versed in the series as you, so watching you solve it has been so satisfying lol
I wouldn’t say he’s a terrible villain when he literally did the one thing aizen didn’t do: become the soul king
I'm measuring Yhwach based on how he engages with the text, rather than what he accomplishes in the story, if that makes sense. As the author, Kubo has the ability to decide that anyone wins anything at any given moment, so I prefer to analyze how effectively Yhwach is used and woven into the narrative.
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts 🙂
@@vonnstevens2502 that's true but like being the soul king isn't a good thing
You're a top-tier bleach video essay maker. You outline all my complaints with bleach as a story. I LOVE bleach like it's my 4th favorite manga of all time, but I can acknowledge that it has serious issues, and I like that you still love it and want to just voice your opinions no matter how controversial in the community. I honestly think that the thousand year blood arc is the best one (despite its admittedly mid execution). Thanks for making some really great bleach essays. Please keep making content. You're awesome
Thank you! Even with my gripes, Bleach holds a special place in my heart and I wanted to analyze it earnestly, warts and all.
I'll be editing this comments as I go with timestamps at points which said edit is made
10:44 Bleach has 5 (or 6) arcs Substitute Shinigami, Soul Society, Arrancar (+ Turn Back the Pendulum), Lost Agent and TYBW. No More, No less.
14:14 so do you want it to be a war or not I'm confused? Because you say or war is chaos and changing aspects... which is exactly what this portion of the arc is doing by having multiple fights simultaneously. Why are multiple people attacking Aizen? IDK maybe because he's the main antagonist of the arc and a traitor of the soul society, he is the largest threat the Soul Society has faced SINCE Yhwach a 1000 years ago.
16:15 the reason as you say "aizen is playing peekaboo" is because he's petty and arrogant. Why does he do it? Because he can, because he is fascinated by the simple fact that they are able to remain conscious, Aizen likes toying with his food. Why do you think he did the entire switcharoo with Momo? Because he had to do it or else he would lose? No. He did it because he could, there is no other reason.
17:16 when is it every implied Aizen is paranoid? No genuinely. That's all I have to say for this point
17:32 because Aizen didn't want to kill them? He says so himself
20:22 BECAUSE WHITE IS A HOLLOW
21:11 Blade is me
1:06:10 so... we're just not gonna mention WHY Ginjo did what he did... ok
1:18:50 you know you can do both right? You can be wrong and also be wronged. To use a surprisingly apt example, Israel... during WW2 the jews went through unimaginable and incomprehensible horror, and now for years Israel has been doing unimaginable and incomprehensible things to Palestinians
1:23:50 the last 20 or so chapters are rough BECAUSE KUBO WAS DYING. For YEARS Kubo's mental and physical health had been on a decline, since the Lost Agent arc in fact. And for MONTHS toward the end of the Blood War one if his shoulder tendons had been torn, without him realizing
1:25:43 OK, you knew about his health... then why word the previous section in the way you did?
1:29:14 thanks for clarifying you missed the entire thematic point of Ichigo in the story
1:31:00 Ichigo's arc is not acceptance, it's understanding
1:40:48 kenpachi didn't "figure out his bankai" if anything it's the opposite, he was handed his Bankai at a point where his body LITERALLY can't handle it
1:43:14 "ending Bleach the way he wanted" is about the literal END of Bleach, like the post time skip at the end of the manga, the stories of Brave
1:45:21 THAT ISN'T WHAT MAYURI IS SAYING IN THIS! He is saying that using Zombies is better than people like Ikkaku and Yumichika having to kill their comrades
1:52:43 It's almost like there's an anime currently going on that is helping Kubo tell the story he wanted to tell but could't because he was killing himself with his work
2:08:12 Hollow are poison to quincy not vice versa. Yhwach has the ability to share power with other beings. Ebern uses Quincy powers but he is NOT a quincy
anyway I will now go have a lie down, stare at the ceiling and listen to Brothers from FMA on loop to cleanse my soul
why didn't aizen want to kill the soul reapers? and when did he say so?
@@AntonioBlue-SW cause it's unnecessary?.
He elaborated on this in his interaction with yhwach in muken and also in the final battle.
He doesn't hate soul reapers or the soul society per say. He just doesn't accept the status quo that exists and that accepts the soul king as the king even though he is anything but a king. He isn't even a dictator for that matter. He is just there to stabilize everything and sacrificed himself to do it(which is pretty much the greatest thing a king could ever do)
@@rexr9781 unnecessary? how is it unnecessary, their trying to stop/kill him and aizen brought the espada to kill the soul reapers he said so himself. The only reason he stepped in is because the 3 espada mostly failed. i havent seen the final battle yet cause im anime only but it genuinely seems that aizen was just stupid and or badly written. I agree with the video creator on this one.
@@AntonioBlue-SW "I won't Kill you. With the kind of power you have... It's difficult to even pass out from a wound like that. Obersve. As you lie helplessly on the ground... The end of this battle"
Wasn't Kubo sick during TYBW?? So he had to rush it and is trying to make up for all the stuff he left out by adding stuff to the anime.
Yeah but that still doesn’t make the stuff rushed
I believe he was beginning to get sick around the Ulquiorra vs Ichigo fight
He was indeed, though as others have mentioned, his health started to decline long before that. I share my thoughts on the subject and the implications on the story starting at 1:25:35 👍
Not only sick, he also was drawing with the shoulder rupture.
He also already stated that since the Arrancar arc, he had to skip plenty of things he wanted to add and also completely scrap ideas he had.
It's sad, that the manga industry is such a hard and rushed workplace
I disagree about all of the Fullbringers being forgettable.
I love Riruka and her interactions with Orihime, and Orihime's kind empathy and Rukia's acknowledgement of her bonds drives Riruka to save Ichigo from Tsukishima.
I enjoy Riruka, and agree that she has an interesting mini-arc. But it's a little thin for my tastes, and the rest of the Fullbringers don't really get anything. The conversation Jackie and Yukio have after Ginjou's death is the first time I felt they really expressed their individuality (beyond the flashback), and it's right at the end. Just feels like a missed opportunity, but again, I don't think there was time or space to squeeze it in earlier.
@@inpacifica2573
Fullbring Arc definitely felt like it was planned to be longer than how it turned out. Its the shortest arc in the series and I feel Kubo wanted to alot more but since this was an unpopular arc with readers at the time, I feel due to editorial & fan pressure- he had to rush it and bring in the Gotei 13 to wrap it up and please the fans & editors.
In fairness, the Gotei 13 showing up does make sense, it showed how much Ichigo's presence has influenced the rigid system of Seiretei to be less bound by tradition. But it should not came at the expense of the Karakura Gang, especially Chad.
The end result being it feels like a transitional arc to get Ichigo his powers back, when it should be more than that.
I really think your understanding of the final battle is pretty weak. The Almighty is fundamentally an inversion of The Blade Is Me. Ichigo triumph over Yhwach is quite possibly the single greatest moment in the series. It’s him accepting death, something that has bought him unimaginable grief and discomfort. He accepts it when he slays Yhwach, that’s why he has a melancholic look on his face when Yhwach dies. One of Ichigo’s defining motivations is to shatter fate itself. Aizen props himself up as the “fate” for Ichigo by having Ichigo dance in the palm of his hands but Yhwach is quite literally fate itself. Yhwach is everything Aizen propped up himself as. It’s a false god and and an actual god who are both vying for the same thing for different reasons and in doing so they act as the “fate” that Ichigo so eagerly wants to shatter. In my personal opinion the final battle in Bleach is the greatest thing Kubo ever put to paper. It’s miles above everything that comes before it. Insanely dense and emotional in a way that’s all too familiar for Bleach.
I actually never noticed/looked at it that way, great point and that makes me like the final battle even more
This point rings hollow to me. Ichigo is only concerned about the topic of "death" in the first arc regarding his Mother. Since then Ichigo really hasn't had to struggle with that concept as many characters in the Bleach verse don't die.
@@selfimprovement5873 That makes no sense. Ichigo's big part of his character is connected to his mother's death, since that's why he wants to be powerful enough to protect everyone, have enough strength to shatter fate, that does not change until the very end. Major BLEACH characters also died, they just weren't close to Ichigo necessarily
I don't know where this "Ichigo overcoming death" final point is coming from, he did this as far back as Ulquiorra. When plunged into the depths of absolute defeat by Segunda Etapa, he was forcefully shown that he had no chance, Ulquorra succeeded in one of his goals. His other goal failed, because as he wanted to instill absolute despair and hopelessness into Ichigo, he said "I didn't fight you because I can see myself winning this battle. I'm fighting because I HAVE to win!"
He knew in that moment that there was no logical or feasible hope, yet stood strong and kept standing up after being nearly ground to dust. Ichigo is very far removed from a consistent fear of death on his own part, his fear of death was from others dying which stemmed from his mother.
The final Ywach encounter had great moments and meant a lot of things, but it is very heavily affected by its EXTREMELY rushed last 20 chapters and not given the time and weight it deserves.
@@somethingsomething9006 Ichigo denying a world that doesn't have a concept of death means that he, with his own hands removes a possible future where all the people he loves can live forever which would essentially accomplish his biggest "goal" of protecting everyone. He denied that and instead chose the current system where he embraces the fact that his loved ones will one day die and leave him, that's what him "overcoming death" means
1:51:47 I hate this trend of how Bleach has struggle to continue
Like, okay. Burn the witch ends with a "haha it is in the same universe". But there is the Hell Saga prologue that feels so desperate to "bring me back" and the whole amount of interviews that serve to "fill the trivia section of X or Y character wiki" is SO constant even today
Aizen left the goetei alive to force Yamamoto to eat his own flames upon killing wonderweis. However there is not much reason he left yoruichi, urahara, and isshin alive. Though aizen's mentality is rather self contradictory. It's apart of his character to have sif through lies to figure out his true intentions. So when you see him breakdown and lose his entire facade screaming at urahara since he was someone he respected. It makes you question did he leave so many people alive cause he didn't mind them being in his own world once presumed he'd take the soul king? Also for Gin, I would also love more on him but a lot of Gin is said in the actions he actually doesn't take when he's on panel. The purpose of him being silent serpent rather than a rattle snake. His silence and minor appearance on panels are meant to go undetected. Now from another meta narrative perspective I would of preferred more on Gin and Rangkiku.
But this is also a person who disliked a lot of hueco Mundo and felt most espada were wastes till fake katakura (still enjoyed it obviously and concept of menos and arrancar are some of my favorite ideas of bleach. It just failed in a lot of elements even for things left for interpretation) and am meh on the ichgo/otohime/ulquiorra plot thread. I know it's good just was never my pot of tea as well as that plot also rocks the boat on some general interpretations on the arc as a whole, still good. I more enjoy the desperation of the otohime/grimjow/ichigo plot.
But also I hate Yammy with a passion and there were 10 times better ways to lock out half of the characters left in hueco Mundo then just having Yammy. As well as if they wanted me to care about Yammy they should have had Chad character end there. Cause the fact that Chad just got warfed again for no real purpose really just made me feel bad for liking him in the first place and it never got better for him to the point where I didn't want him on the page or screen. They do better with Uryu by having him serve actual narrative purpose by having him be another connection to ichigo in the Ulquiorra plot.
A cutting critique, but not without love.
Getting to see something I love from a new angle where its flaws are visible is a precious experience, and I thank you for giving it to me. While im pretty high on the fullbring arc and TYBW myself, all your criticisms made perfect sense to me. Again, thank you.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I have a lot of love in my heart for Bleach, which is why I wanted to lay out the big things I liked and disliked with these arcs. Hopefully more can see this was earnestly done 🙏
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
1:05:19 there's more to exactly why Ginjo did this, albeit it's in supplementary material
Which in all fairness is even more frustrating when you consider that Kubo had a story that vastly improves the characters and themes, but you have to go out of your way to find it.
I know that by this time he was likely starting to feel pretty poor, but just like the new additions to the blood war anime, it is frustrating that all of these great developments were not part of the original text and easy to miss
I have been informed of Ginjou's light novel backstory. However, that does not justify stalking, maiming, and manipulating a group of teenagers to go on yet another vengeful killing spree. This will always be a Ginjou hate account!
But in seriousness, thank you for watching and reaching out 🙏
Isshin being a Shiba isn't a retcon. No one truly considers Ichigo being the son of a missing noble captain because Ichigo is a human. Don't forget that his birth was only even possible because of a specific gigai that Urahara developed that turned Isshin into an actual human. And just like probably most of Urahara's inventions, the rest of the soul society probably didn't even know it existed. Ichigo looking like Kaien is one thing, but Isshin having a human child is probably completely outside the soul society's realm of thought.
Fundamentally disagree, but that happens sometimes. Thanks for watching!
To add on to this, souls take TEN TIMES the amount of time that humans take to age. Rukia is shown to be convincingly relative in age to Ichigo when she was first introduced, and yet she's verbatim stated herself to be ten times his age.
No, they wouldn't believe that Ichigo is a CAPTAIN's son when in soul years, he should be an infant. In their eyes, Ichigo really IS just a random human who developed Soul Reaper powers and went off the charts in his first visit to their world.
And it also puts into perspective what Byakuya monologued about while Ichigo was prepping his first Bankai. It really wasn't possible for a Shinigami born outside of the Noble Houses to have such insane Reiatsu so young (with very few exceptions, cuz Aizen and Kenpachi are both just built different).
Also, in Fake Karakura Town, Isshin literally WEARS his Captain's Haori over his shoulder? And is in possession of tech to stall the Dangai that would definitely NOT be in the hands of any regular old Shinigami, especially not FOUR of them?
I sat and watched all through your video, and I can say only one thing:
You are absolutely right
The hollows being poisonous to quenches is kind of funny and should have been a plot point in battle😂
Ginjo's motivations were explained in the manga, just in a very subtextual way. Ginjo told Ichigo his motivations when he told him about tsukishima the first time, he tells him that Tukishima killed the fullbringers (Bleach, Chapter 441) that were part of his group in the past. However when Ginjo tells ichigo this he is under Tsukishima's power and is made to believe that Tsukishima is his enemy. Knowing how Tsukishima's fullbring works (ie. insurting himself into the past of anything he cuts) you can pretty much deduce what actually happened. Since Tsukishima wasn't the one to kill the fullbringers (remember his ability only lets him insert him self in to someones past, he cant create other people, so the fullbringers that died did exist and were killed) the only possible explanation is that the Gotei 13 were the ones who killed them, add this to the truth about the combat pass and we can paint a pretty clear picture of Ginjo's backstory and how he was betrayed by the Soul society. This also lines up with what we learn about him in CFYOW (the cannon bleach light novel that takes place after TYBW).
Thanks for the engagement!
Okay I do get this, and that is a nice detail that adds a lot to his character and tsukishima's character, but I don't really see why this had to be so .. idk how to put it. Tucked away in the corner? Like I don't have a problem with subtext or anything, its not like I don't like looking deeper into a story, paying extra attention, etc. But I really don't see why this couldn't have been made more clear.
@@worthyedge9307 eh thats just the way kubo writes his manga, he likes to hide details without spelling things out for the readers. Although i will admit it is not for everyone and can make the story seem lacking to people don't get the hints that he leaves.
@@gabe8914 i see what you mean. Its definitely a hit or miss aspect of kubo's writing for me tbh, because he does it so often with details that are really important, or just leaves stuff off in a side novel somewhere. And I know for a fact that Kubo isn't a hack writer, he has such amazing concepts and arcs that he can show. Love bleach but this aspect being done sooo often is something I don't like lol
@@worthyedge9307 Thats understandable, Kubo's writing is not for everyone. At the very least it seems as if he's adding stuff into the new anime to expand up things not in the manga.
No offense but how do you create a critcism video of bleach without trying to understand the thematic purposes of the characters and their actions. A lot of the criticisms are the mechanical issues of the story which I tbh agree with a lot of. The thing is Bleach has never been acclaimed for having a consice and consistent story mechanistically. Its value lies in how Kubo writes characters through subtlety in the presentstion and how it connects the individualized stories of supporting character to the major journey of the series for Ichigo/Aizen/Yhwach. If you read into the subtext of the series more and view it in a more holistic aspect (like how the Espada are reflections of Aizen/how the sternritters reflect Yhwach) and try to see how everything in the story connects to the development of Ichigo/Aizen/Yhwach a lot of your non mechanistic criticisms wouldnt exist
Pretty sure I spent about half the video engaging with the character themes, lol. I think that if the mechanics had been better and more consistent, things like character themes would be even better than they currently are. A rising tide raises all ships in storytelling, as with most things. Thanks for the engagement, though!
You need to have a mechanically tight story so the themes don't suffer and have actual weight
Themes are the spice not the whole meal
@@murderman8578pretty sure this person equates authorial intent given in interviews or something and personal life anecdotes to engaging with the themes of a story.
@siginotmylastname3969 Authorial intent is TIED to the themes
If I told you the intent of the story is one thing and my themes are another thing than I did a poor job as a writer in conveying what I want
@@murderman8578yeah I'm pretty sure the stans have adapted their taste to prefer themes as authorial intent and supplementary info (more in the form of retcons than recontextualisation of existing material with ties to it) instead of being well developed throughout.
The aggressive fans obviously aren't close to the majority of the fanbase but they really seem to have a negative relationship to manga where bleach is lifted up by putting other work down and making personal attacks or just saying people giving criticism are wrong without justification.
Hell the whole theme of Ichigo's power isolating him could have been improved easily to me: have him become a captain halfway through the story and then struggle with it in a new social group. Yeah it's a massive change but as things are the problem starts with fullbringer arc having nowhere new to take him now, and he's slowly stripped of relationships by Ginjo only for the captains to do what feels like a deus ex machina. I mean the video fleshes out just how much could be added to Ginjo's opposition to Ichigo. What if he gets his powers back in exchange for drastic demands from soul society? He's already as powerful as them and instead of the captains staying as characters who constantly support the big fights, Ginjo's issues have a connection with Ichigo's new arc for hundreds of chapters which easily links into improving tybw(because now he's still in soul society against the quincy, but he's been given power within them at the cost of balance with his human life, more restrictions with that power to follow up on Ginjo's reveal about them as secretly tracking him supposedly mattering, which since he say has a timeskip starting to accept it, greater good or whatever, would actually make the quincy being their enemies and their genocide MATTER). Hell he can easily retrospectively have a deeper opposition to Aizen then too by following in his footsteps and needing to find a better resolution.
As things are, I can't understand what many people call these deep themes. They're barely focused on characters which shows the characters could be giving that deep meaning all as mouthpieces for Kubo instead of themes in the story. A story with so many themes honestly doesn't really have one, it means the characters didn't develop or follow through with them enough.
Having said all this, I realised Ichigo becoming captain in soul society is basically Rikuo's arc in Nurarihyon no mago. Read nurarihyon no mago, despite having a conclusion where jump tried to cancel ten chapters ish before, Shiibashi actually ended it on an emotional/thematically strong note and only the fight/flashy action aspect was the worse for it.
Actually my ideas aren't that similar but still, nura just doesn't have the every yokai is on the side of the genocided ones aspect and really keeps the higher ups in the clan as morally grey in a natural disaster way instead of mad murderous scientists etc. I don't know how I'd end bleach tbh.
I personally believe that the biggest miss by far in the blood war arc is that they did not use the temporary allegience change of Uryu to allow him to fight and kill Mayuri in such a way that would seem like allegience to the ywach but is infact revenge for what mayuri did to the only quincy Uryu ever truly respected
That's an interesting idea! I'm not sure how Kubo would handle that, given the story's complicated relationship with vengeance, but it would have been nice to see Ishida have some sort of development or arc in TYBW 🥲
@@inpacifica2573 ultimately the fact that all the pieces were there and they didn't interact AT ALL was a huge missed opportunity
Nice work!!
I just wanna say that, for me, ichigo is always been forced to do jobs for another one, him knowing it or not, and the series deal with how he faces many of this works.
Its facing an amoral justice in soul society.
Its facing Aizen, with as you said he has trully no direct confrontation when he retrieves Orihime.
Its facing hope and joining a cult like society with execution.
But in TYBW there is a resolve from him to do what he wants, without "saving" another friend. Yes, Uryu is in there, but Ichigo didn't know before going in.
About the thing about how hollows gain quincy powers, but ichigo didn't count as one, like Ebern, i think that they come from being hollow as a basis and then gaining quincy powers.
Again good work!!
Hoping the anime fixes some problems for you and maybe you enjoy more the series
I enjoy how you've articulated a few of my own standing problems when it comes to engaging with Bleach narrative, especially the aspect of not using its immense length to explore ideas and central characters in favor of others. Or how Ichigo during the arrancar arc at times feels like he's not actually suited for the story being told around him. While I don't line up exactly with everything you have to say, I can understand where you're coming from and enjoy the differences in our perspectives on the overall story alongside our similarities
Thank you! Bleach has a lot of fascinating things going on under the hood that I deeply appreciate, but I think it's important to pick apart the things that don't work as well or could have been done better. For me, at least, it helps me understand how the rest of the story functions 😊
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
Everyone needs to chill. She is right, though. Rushed is what I'll call it. This is my favourite animanga ever, and I agree with her.
She isnt tho
People are allowed to disagree
I don't understand your gripe with Blade is Me. You're forgetting one thing sometimes enlightenment isn't entirely down to internal factors rather it's also affected by external factors. Which is completely normal as people around you also shape you to be the person that you become. It ain't a retcon as you say.
My gripe with the Blade is Me is that it is poorly foreshadowed, has patchy justification that makes the characters and lore less cohesive than they appeared previously, undermines core relationships and themes for Ichigo's personal journey, and fundamentally changes and invalidates Shirosaki, an integral character/aspect of the first half of the series. I could not have been more clear in the video.
Thank you for watching.
@inpacifica2573 what I don't understand is how you keep on repeating the same stuff and are not even trying to understand other people and their views. Poorly foreshadowed? Then let me ask you this, why did people knew about Old Man Zangetsu's truth before it was even revealed in Blade is Me. Old Man Zangetsu stopping Ichigo's blood during the Kenpachi fight, Hollow Ichigo smiling in the reflection of his sword when he was acting as a demon are some examples of Blade is Me foreshadowing.
I constantly decry my opinions as subjective in the video lol. I just don't find any of the arguments here convincing enough to change my mind, the same way my arguments didn't convince the people that disagree with me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I am just glad you were honest in your interpretations of the story and your criticisms of it. Quite frankly, more of these kinds of analyses need to be made. You can still love your favorite story and still be critical of it at the same time, that to me is the true definition of a fan. Not being overly positive/defensive or overly hating with no solid reasoning to back it up. I think a lot of Bleach fans have this knee jerk reaction to be overly protective of Kubo's work because of the comparisons it gets to it's Big 3 counterparts. It is viewed as the lesser out of the three and many people in the community take issue with that. Many people often in their defense of it become rude or take very elitist stances by saying, " Oh Bleach is too big brained for you.", " You don't understand the themes.", or "Bleach is the most mature and should have been a seinen." All of which make my blood boil because it is unnecessary rudeness and make people afraid to give actual valid praise and criticism of the story in a engaging and productive way. Bleach is a SHONEN through and through and it is a very fun and thought provoking story, but it is not without is flaws and problems, most of which I agree with in your analysis.
I get wanting to protect your favorite story, everyone does, but there has to be balance when doing it. Kubo is a very thematic writer almost to a fault, to where the narrative structuring suffers. It is of my opinion that an author must find a balance of explicit exposition and subtext when writing. Kubo leaned a little too much in the subtext department to where many things were unresolved or left up to too much interpretation. Many of your issues are basically told in light novels, specifically Ginjo's reasons in the Fullbring Arc and basically the historical context of the world in Thousand Year Blood War. These being Death Saves the Strawberry for Fullbring and The Can't Fear Your Own World Trilogy for TYBW. They give sooo much context to the issues of certain characters that were undeveloped and gives sooo much lore and world building. I encourage you to read them. I could go on but this is long enough. Anyway, thank you for this analysis, you did a great job. Also, never be afraid to voice your mind even if people disagree with you.
Thank you! That really was the name of the game with this essay--to be as honest and thorough as possible. If I didn't earnestly believe something, I didn't say it, and if I couldn't clearly articulate or back up what I said, I didn't include it. And, trite as it may seem, the fact that Bleach CAN be so exceptionally good is what makes it so fascinating for me to break apart and see what isn't working. A purely perfect 10/10 story can be difficult to fully appreciate because it opperates at such a sophisticated, efficient level you don't even notice all of what's going on under the hood. But the moment something has a clear flaw, it puts everything into context and you can see how difficult it is for everything to work well.
As for things missing from the story, I wouldn't even call it subtext, I think it's just flatly missing from the text. While I appreciate supplemental content and want to read the light novels, I think they should be that--supplementary. Bleach needs to be able to stand on its own as the mainline entry into the franchise and have everything make sense without consuming side content. There shouldn't be vital character context or plot lore happening in additional content that isn't as widely circulated, marketed, or consumed as the main series, otherwise people will simply miss it and think the story is bad. And, on a petty personal note, I doubt there is any backstory in this world that will make me accept Ginjou, lol. I will always be a hater! But I will give the light novels a shot 😉
Thank you for watching and your kind words!
1:19:22 there's a faction in the sternritters called the schutzstaffel. the extent to which the nazi-sternritter parallels are explored is limited but it stills is quite intentional
Agreed. But I felt like I needed far more context about what Kubo intended by including such a thing before offering any real commentary on it, so I elected to acknowledge it but abstain from including it in my analysis.
Thank you for watching!
@ yeah I get it. my hypothesis is that including parallels to nazism in pop culture has just become a short hand for signalling that a character or group is supposed to be bad without engaging with the ideology. in any case, the potential religious conflict (esp as the sternritter take inspiration from Christianity and the Soul Society takes inspiration from Buddhism) would’ve been far more interesting to explore
This is perfect timing lmao I just found you and your other vid like 2 days ago, so I wasnt expecting a follow up so soon😁
aye i appluade you for being different
I just recently watched the last video, so I'm glad to see another Bleach upload from you 💛✨
the fact that people love or genuinely criticize some parts of Bleach, to me it simply shows how much we love the series!! 💛✨
Happy to have you here! And truly, yes, this all came from the heart. I would have gone slightly crazy working on this project if it hadn't been a product of love, lol.
It feels like you like Bleach but dont like Kubos writing style, which is valid. Some aspects are criticism i agree with, some are valid criticism that i disagree with.
Some of these takes hurt my feelings tho, felt like you were purposely not seeing the point. Like with Tsukishima at the end you made a great takeaway about his character but because it wasn't explicitly said you called it ur own "fanfiction" rather than just reading the subtext. I think this is the gap that alot of people cant cross when it comes to Kubos style and you either like it or dont.
Another thing is with Aizen, "if he was as ruthless and powerful as we were led to believe, he would've murdered everyone and won by now". THATS THE POINT. THATS WHY LOSES. Its shown multiple different ways.I feel like intepreting that as bad writing instead of what it says about the character is wrong.
I mean, Kubo's writing style works for me just fine for the majority of the story, so it's probably not that.
As for your other points about subtext, I think there still needs to be acknowledgement in the overt text about what the subtext is doing, which I think is fundamentally lacking in the back half of Bleach. The first half doesn't struggle with this, so I'm disinclined to believe these are just features of Kubo's writing, rather than oversights on his part.
Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I def see where your points come from, but I feel like people interpret these instances very differently lol which is fair. Out of the big 3 of one piece and Naruto I believe that bleach has the best pacing out of the three of them by far and it is not even a question. When I was younger though, It did not click with me as well and I feel like that’s where I relate to you. I didn’t start to appreciate it until later on.
the goat is back 😁😁😁
I think the reason why Ichigo turns into that horned Hollow thing is because the Ichigo vs Ulquiorra fight is ripping things off from Yu Yu Hakkasho when Yusuke is possessed. Ichigo as that Hollow even has similar markings to Yusuke when he is possessed and the fight, the fight is one sided and ends the same way with Ichigo blasting Ulqiorra like when Yusuke blasted Sensui and then complaining that he didn't want to win like that. So I think its mostly ripping stuff off which is why Kubo never uses that form again as it has no place in the series.
I've never been especially compelled by the argument that Bleach ripped off Yu Yu Hakusho. While I agree that there are similarities, they feel more like tropes or storytelling conventions found within the genre. Bleach is doing plenty to make these situations its own, so I'm not particularly bothered if it's influenced by Yu Yu Hakusho or not. And, to be fair, a few variations of that form show up throughout the rest of the series, albeit not in the same way as on the dome 😉
@@inpacifica2573 I think that reason why people don't make the connection that is because there isn't much crossover between the YYH and Bleach fanbase that people would make that connection. I think YYH and Bleach are very different but the Yusuke vs Sensui fight to me stood out as a bit of a rip off because the things in that battle were never mentioned again like Ulquorra's second release, if it meant that Espada who ranked 4 and higher had a second stage release then it would be fine but its not the case and we don't know why Ulqiorra specifically has it, it sounds like a way to mimic Sensui's sacred energy but Kubo never explained what was going on there and Ulquiorra was killed off and his second form was never seen or referenced again in the manga
The first time Ichigo became a Hollow he became a Hollow with chicken feet and a lizard tail and then he became that horned Hollow. At first I thought it was because Ichigo had gotten stronger after his fight with Grimmjow but considering the final arc Ichigo was always strong and it was just Yhwach holding back his power so its hard to tell what its supposed to mean and the way the battle went when Ichigo became the horned Hollow reminded me of the battle with Yusuke vs Senseui mainly because of markings on his chest, the blast that finished off Ulquiorra and that Ichigo complained that he didn't want to defeat Ulquiorra that way.
It makes sense for Yusuke because during the fight with Sensui he made the point that he wanted to be the one to take out Sensui and no one else, even if it meant the tunnel to the Demon World would open, Yusuke doesn't think too much. It doesn't make sense for Ichigo since he was there to rescue Orihime, not pick fights with Espada even if he wanted to fight them, it would delay his rescue mission.
Remember that part when Ichigo wanted to fight in the same condition Ulqiorra was in and that moment was never mentioned again and then afterwards Ichigo says that the war has to end and that bloodlust never comes back after that moment. For me, its those parts that were never mentioned again that make me think Kubo is ripping parts of YYH
Disagree it's not used again because of it's very nature
@@Timmy-mi2ef Kubo constantly makes and discards concepts at a whim. If he wanted to bring this back he could of but he didn't which makes me think he couldn't find a place for it in his story. The fight was to rip of Yusuke's fight against Sensui which is why Ichigo has a out of character outburst about having a fair fight rather than saving Orihime. Yusuke loves to fight, he even stopped caring about the tunnel to Demon World and just wanted to beat Sensui, he kept driving that point home. The fight was also to have Sensui and Yusuke reflect each other which is another thing Ichigo vs Ulquiorra ripped off.
Kubo couldn't what Ichigo wants in that arc, he says he wants to rescue Orihime at the end of his fight with Grimmjow then he complains to Ulquiorra that he didn't want to win and then asks for his arm and leg to be servered which would result in him dying lol and no one mentioned it again.
SUCH A WONDERFUL VIDEO ESSAY
I definitely disagree with a lot of what you say in this video, especially in regards to the Fullbring arc which I personally feel is one of the series strongest segments, but I definitely see where you're coming from and think you do a great job expressing why you feel the way you do so I have nothing but respect for the passion and effort you put into this video.
Thank you! While the goal of this video was never to sway people into thinking like me, I wanted to be as thorough and earnest in my criticisms as possible. I love the story but not without complaints, and wanted to figure out just what was getting under my skin, haha.
Thank you for watching and for sharing your thoughts🙏🏼
Thank you for making this video. I disagree with some of your points but the effort and thought put into the video is undeniable. Ignore the mean comments. The fandom is just very diffensive about Bleach because it's been so misunderstood and mistreated. We've had more than a decade to analyze the story so it's ok if you didn't get every aspect of it at once. Despite that, this is a very well made video and I got your perspective very easily. Good job.
I would recommend watching the TYBW arc anime. It fixes alot of the shortcomings of the manga with kubo approved additional content.
Thank you! And I'm glad you've said that--I would much rather people disagree with me and find my arguments well-considered than agree with me and not think about it at all.
And I am planning on watching the anime! I have heard only good things and I'm hopeful it will put at least some of my bellyaches to rest. I'm hoping to catch up before the end of this new season so I can experience the finale with everyone else 🙏
Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts!
Like, imagine if Ishida had trouble in the Arrancar arc and being a gag that "I came up with some flu, I guess" and being tired and poorly fighting and this being read as "he isn't strong enough" or "those fights are not a good match for him" and later being "OH, a Arrancar - a smart and devious hollow - is the worst enemy for a quincy"
You open my eyes to such potential
I don't really feel like you're giving the FKT arc enough credit. The Gotei's fight against Aizen is a chess match where shit like Wonderweiss finally gets put into play and I absolutely think we need to learn more about the characters like Shunsui there both because they're great characters and because it sets up the TYBW
Aizen was simply toying with Ichigo's friends and killing time while waiting for the important people to show up. He didn't need to kill those kids because they would die in the process of forming the Ouken.
I'd arguing not knowing Gin's backstory until the last second actually makes sense, given his chatacter type.
And Aizen also had no reason to kill the other captains once he incapacitated them. He was also toying with the Gotei 13 and stated from the beginning the Espada were collectively significantly weaker than him. The whole spectacle of the fight was to give time for him to fuse with the Hogyoku and he was never seriously challenged by any of the people there until Urahara, Isshin and Yoruichi rocked up.
@@MANJYOMETHUNDER111 Aizen loves toying with ichigos mind and seeing his potential for no reason so why not kill his friends it's plot armor simple as that
@@MANJYOMETHUNDER111So Aizen people are trying to kill him and he incapacitates them like a good boy it makes me think Aizen is a good boy at heart instead of a messed up sociopath we've been told he is
I’m more than a year late to both of these videos to be honest, so I will wait until I finish the four hour escapade to give any true opinions.
Great video. Some stuff I agree with, other stuff I don't. But that's Bleach, or media in general. Loved the presentation.
Edit: forgot to say, I loved the fullbring part of this video the most. That really highlighted your love for the series the most(not that I was sceptical before). I will be here for any future content about anything really.
Thank you! The Fullbring section was honestly one of my favorites. The arc itself has such an interesting, different energy that I hopefully conveyed.
Thank you for watching, and I hope I can live up to your expectations 🙏
The thing with the Fake Karakura town is that it feels like what people meme about "the Z fighters waiting for Goku to arrive", in the Sayan saga in Dragon Ball.
The thing is, in Dragon Ball, we have six characters (we already know a lot more than those shinigami) fighting two. Nappa being basically Yami in his first appareance, a big agressive meany who is fought by ALL of those six at the same time. Besides the two main enemy, they only "summon" some fold cannon who are literally "just little monsters" that are quickly defeated by the cost of the Z Fighters already loosing one of their numbers
In the Karakura arc we have not only repetitive fights that means little in the overall arc, but all being individual and about characters ""that don't really matter"". All the enemies the "lesser shinigami" fight are basically saibaman fighting alone against a LOT of really cool Yamchas.
And when the time comes to fight "Nappa"... It's still a lot of Nappas doing separate fights
It could only drag and kill the pacing, since all those fights matter the same in the "screen time" of each one
2:07:04 I like this whole layout of the races but I disagree with this part. Hollows are poison to Quincy but Quincy are not poison to hollows. At worst an arrancar being given quincy powers would see the quincy powers dissipate, but even that doesn't seem necessary.
I'm also pretty sure hollows aren't poison to Quincy to such an extreme degree. The Sternritter did successfully invade Hueco Mundo with little to no losses, and they have blut defending them. I don't even know how the Visord hollow masks could substantially affect the Quincy. They can't even bite. The "poison" that affects the bankai stealers is literally from Cang Du having the hollow reiatsu inside of him thanks to using Toshiro's bankai, and it doesn't even kill him.
Congratulations to understanding mugetsu before the Blade is Me, because a lot of people didn't. I'm pretty sure they and Ichigo were in the same boat lol. What Ichigo sacrificed meant a lot more to me than what Ichigo did to get that power at the time. What I like about the Zangetsu "twist" is specifically how everyone is telling him that the hollow is his real spirit, but Ichigo is proactive and won't let Old Man Zangetsu go, which earns him the second, smaller blade. That little piece of him feels more earned by him for his efforts, than the larger blade that is pretty much his birthright.
I definitely misspoke in the diagram section, implying that Quincy were also poison to hollows. Rather, I was trying to express that they are incompatible and shouldn't be able to mix (this might be a bit of a stretch on my interpretation, but it doesn't make sense to me that hollow energy would break down Quincy energy while a hollow could still use Quincy powers). I was trying to go quickly to keep that section from being too lengthy, nor was I working from a script, but alas, that led to a screw up that wasn't fixed.
However, I think your comments about hollows not being THAT poisonous to Quincy kind of proves my point. They never seem to have an issue with it until Kubo deems it dramatically important. Then it's intensely bad, as Cang Du and Masaki have sudden and extreme physical reactions. It feels awfully inconsistent and suspect.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Question you started the video with this , nothing you guys comments are gonna change my mind about the latter half.
So,what are your intentions for the video?
Your very tounge and cheek..
the latter half might hit for you in the future, shouldn't we all be able to change opinions over time with new arguments.
My intentions for this video are what I explained at the beginning--to revisit the story and figure out why certain things did or didn't work for me, since several people asked about it in my last video. I feel very confident that since my opinions haven't fundamentally changed in the 8+ years since first reading the back half of the manga (despite re-reading it several times and hearing extended discussions about it), it's highly unlikely that someone in the comments is going to stumble upon the magic combination of words that will suddenly convince me, hence my comment. While I enjoy the discussion and response to a public video, this is ultimately persuasive essay, not a plea for someone to change my opinion for me.
Maybe my mind will change in future, and if it does, neat! But right now it's pretty rock solid and not much will change that.
I want to give you some Positive feedback. Your take on the "Blade is you" was very insightful. Never thought about it that way, it wasn't Ichigo's choice but rather different individuals withholding information.
Also funny point here; I didn't think Ginjo was suspicious after the initial meeting because of all of Ichigo's previous trainers were suspicious. I mean think about it, he was nearly killed by Urahara having him awaken the hollow within. Urahara kept the Rukia plot line a secret from Ichigo. Also all of his other trainers were rough with him and nearly got him killed so I thought this was just the usual for Bleach writing. 🤷🏿♂️ lol
Hey thanks for making this video! Some takes I agree with, others I don’t but I’m glad you shared your opinion on a favorite series of mine. Not an EyepatchWolf moment 🤣👍 you’re good
Thank you! Like I said in the video, I just wanted to share my thoughts, and I'm glad I was able to do that well 😊 Thanks for watching!
The pain of being a Bleach fan is knowing with certainty that this series is both peak and ass at the same time. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS
I disagree with a lot of your points in this video. One example is when you were talking about Ginjo and was listing off all the different sides of him and why that frustrated you, I was thinking how the different aspects of him, including his lie, made him such a cool character, and so unique compared the rest of the cast. It’s why I love him wow much at least.
That being said, I really love your editing style and this was so much fun to watch! Definitely subscribed, and I’d love to hear your thoughts about other shows, movies, etc!
Thank you! Like I said, I see the potential in Ginjou, but he's slightly too the left of what I want and it makes him insufferable to me, lol.
I hope my future projects continue to satisfy!
It's weird and funny how the light novel after the ending (that wasn't MADE by Kubo, right? I don't know the details behind the production) is where the "real ending" happens, acording to a lot of people
Where we got a lot more answers and a lot more closure. And, ironically, it appears it doesn't have much "Ichigo"
Shuhei is the MC
Loved your first video and I enjoy listening to your thoughts. Loving this video too. I appreciate how deep and complicated Bleach is, as each person has their interpretation of the story. You express your true thoughts and that is very respectable. I personally do believe Ichigo is afraid of his power, of that which he doesn't understand about himself. And it's a story of learning and accepting one self, the good and the bad, of what makes you yourself and embracing it. It's the bigger theme of Ichigo and the reflection of everyone reality but with crazy sword powers.
I acknowledge all the flaws in the second half of TYBW but don't blame Kubo too much as he was on life support and had to rush it to the end. The anime is adding a lot to the final arc to make it close to Kubo's intended vision. Basically a director's cut.
The things that tybw does with Ichigo specifically, and by extension the characters he meaningfully interacts with, like Yhwach or even Uryu and Orihime, are actually really good, especially for bleach standards. The blade is me is pretty incredible as a finale to his character, and his fight with Yhwach is at least thematically resonant. But I cannot grasp how people can defend the ENTIRE arc based on that alone. Ichigo does barely anything in it, and most of it is just awful bleach fights with characters that are either not even characters to begin with, have already completed their character arcs, or get very shoddy, narratively pointless development that doesn't actually amount to anything by the end of the series. What's the point of any of the new bankai shown in the arc, when almost NONE of them actually do anything? They just show up to look cool. Kubo cannot write fights on a mechanical level, so he just writes this tedious ability reveal back and forth, where the fighters will just keep on pulling out new convenient abilities based on the tide of the battle without any actual strategy. And that's ALL of the arc. It's best shown by how Kubo throws half the cast at Gerard, has them use all these new abilities against him, only for them to do nothing and him to be taken out by Yhwach. Yes the theme there is that the guy who's all about miracles is getting taken out by a miracle, but just having a theme doesn't make a fight good. It's obvious the bankai reveals in that fight only happenes because the time for the manga was running out. And what about Rukia? People LOVE her bankai reveal, even though it's literally just used as an asspull oneshot, with her new ability just so happening to be the perfect counter against the fear, and she doesn't do anything for the rest of the arc?
I think you're a bit harsh on TYBW and Bleach in general. The fights and power ups and whatnot can move the story and characters along wonderfully well, when applied correctly. Some of my favorite moments in the story are fight scenes, because they are pulling so much weight. But, to each their own ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
is it not just poison when hollow reiatsu is in the quincy?
What video editing software do you use?
DaVinci Resolve and a lot of elbow grease 👍🏼
@inpacifica2573 thank you
Regarding the Sternritters using German words and having military uniforms, it's one of those things that shouldn't stand out too much for a seasoned manga reader. The Japanese love German imagery like they love British imagery. Yes it's historically related to some... events, but they use it like we would use Asian aesthetics. Think Avatar The Last Airbender, Star Wars, the Matrix...
As a seasoned manga reader, I can pick up on overt and repeated Nazi imagery and understand the messaging associated with it.
@@inpacifica2573I can't tell if your point is that I came off condescending or if you're telling me the Sternritters are definitely a case of that.
I know an example or two of "Nazi imagery and the messaging associated with it" and I would also be very confused if TYBW was supposed to contain said messaging, cause it's a huge stretch.
My whole point is I've noticed that just happens sometimes, as well as a liberal use of pre-WWII German imagery in manga. Should I have assume you already knew that? If so I promise I will in the future
But... about 1:08:50, Ichigo is a big dumb idiot, given the grand scheme of Bleach Ichigo is clueless and goes off from vibes and instinct 99% of the time, and him not realizing Ginjo is evil to me at least is not surprising in the slightest
To be fair, Ichigo was running around clueless because people were actively keeping things from him, so he's opperating on what little he can figure out on his own. Plus, he's more interested in accomplishing personal goals that are then exploited by higher level players, like Urahara, Aizen, etc. Ichigo is very canny, he's just not interested in the grabs for power happening around him.
Also, Ichigo is consistently able to read the vibes of people (arguably, it's one of his hidden skills). He clearly suspects something is off with Ginjou in Miss Ikumi's shop, so it all feels a little off to me.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
It’s currently almost 3am and I’m trying to sleep so I will watch and comment what i agree, disagree, or can give extra clarification for at a later date. Probably tomorrow. Until then I’ll leave this comment here to say I’m glad you got around to re-reading the series again even if your stance on it didn’t change all too much. It’s always better to have a more recent fresh view on something as opposed to vague memories of it. You may or may not have any idea how much of undue criticism bleach gets from people who only watched the anime (which was a meh adaptation all things considered) a decade and a half ago and only remembers the broad strokes of it or who only read the manga week to week but never went back to read it in full.
Also I don’t think you have to worry about having a Super Eyepatch Wolf moment here cause a lot of what he said was just nonsense 😂 a whole buncha hoopla as my friend would say 🤣
I fundamentally disagree with a lot of the criticism and am even baffled by some of the points being made, but this is still a great video that comes from the heart.
If nothing else, I'm always earnest lol. Thanks for watching!
Finally got around to finishing the video, thank you for your hard work. The entire analysis really made me re-think a lot of what I also found conflicting in a new scope. I really appreciate how I can feel how honest you are about your conclusions with the story, even if they don't entirely align with the set-ideas that I have.
I still found myself getting emotional at the segments where you convey parts of the story in a really heartwarming manner like you'd done with the previous video, I seriously couldn't stop getting all teary-eyed.
Thank you! I wanted to give these arcs a fair shake and really show that I was engaging with them in good faith, rather than simply writing them off for not being to my taste. Or, if something wasn't to my taste, I wanted to put in the footwork to explain why and how that affected my interaction with the story. I love Bleach, flaws and all!
Thank you for watching, and for sharing your thoughts ❤️
tks for the video. do another manga! the medium is perfect each year i'm more in love
Insightful analysis - like with your other videos! Good work. I will say the first half of the TYBW was incredible with some tragic stories like Yamamoto, Unohana, and Komamura. However, the second half of TYBW in the manga was terrible. Fortunately, the anime is already improving on that! The most recent anime episode greatly improved on Ukitake's farewell. Comparing the most recent episode to the manga was like night and day. Kubo's manga chapter was rushed and all over the place while the anime episode gave the character the respect he deserved. I am glad Kubo is working closely with the anime staff to improve upon the original chapters now that he has more time and is in better physical & mental condition.
Thank you! I wanted to give this video as fair a shake as possible, and hopefully I achieved that. And yes, the first half of TYBW is very good, I meant it when I said I enjoyed going back and reading it again! I am very excited to watch the anime and see the changes Kubo implemented, even if they don't resolve my complaints. It's such a rare and exciting opportunity for a creator to revise a public work, and I wish him the best!
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts 😊
i dont get the point of a 2 hours video if you dont want to talk about it, there at least 5 times you say something between "i dont want to talk about this scene, dont talk about this part of the history that i am criticizing i wont read it", like man i think is easier to talk to a wall if you dont want to get responses about your takes and opinions
I'm guessing you're referencing my comments about not wanting to see Ginjou apologia after I ardently explained why I found him irredeemable, as well as not wanting to have people lecture me about how the Blade Is Me makes sense after I explained why I don't think it does and all of the work I put in to give it a fair shake anyway. Or perhaps you're referencing the part where I say that I will not be convinced by paragraphs of text lecturing me about how I'm wrong, but I'll still read them and appreciate the effort and engagement? If not, I would love timestamps as to where I say this!
Regardless, the point of this particular two hour video was to explain my personal views and interpretation of the story. Thanks for the response to my takes and opinions! They were wonderful engagement 🙏
@@inpacifica2573 yeah i am refering to them! i do understand not wanting to be told the same thing that you already read, but that closes a possible discourse or other point of view to those scenes when you tell people to not talk about it, and sorry if that first comment have come as ''rough'', but i liked the video, it shows that it took a lot of work and time, so i hope you could keep doing them, bc wven tho i didnt agreed with it i do enjoy watching it
I simply do not wish to engage in discourse where people will try to convince me of something when I have already made up my mind ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm happy to talk about other things, but in those cases it's a bit of a waste of time.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video 👍🏼
I agree with the out of place fights in the FKA. I personally loved them, but from a story and narrative stand point it kind of messes with the beat. Same with later half of TYBW, this I believe is an issue of the reality Manga artists live in. Sometimes they can't do the story justice due to editors (maybe they told him to put more of the shinigami as fans loved them and he found the place to put their fights as fanservice in the Fake Karakura Arc... Or at the end due to illness he dropped the ball
Super well articulated, I really loved your take on the fullbring arc, I would find myself agreeing with you countless times, over and even in regards to the thousand year blood war, which i was somewhat of a fan of, ill have to revisit and comment fully once i've had time to internalize and critique my thoughts based on your arguments and get back to you, but truly hats off to you and thank you for the wonderful work of art
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I put a lot of work into this to make all of my arguments as thorough as possible (and make the video as pretty as possible), so I'm glad that it all paid off!
Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts!
My comment will echo what many have said I’m sure, that while we disagree on many points, which I believe comes down to just simply having different perspectives on the story, I can still see where you’re coming from and that this is still a great video. I’m grateful that there is still BLEACH content being made in the modern day that aims to analyze or critique the manga from a place of genuine feelings and reactions.
Don’t worry, this definitely isn’t your eyepatch wolf moment lmfao. To put it bluntly, his video fucking sucked and made no attempt to understand the story or its influences, while yours I can tell is being made by someone with passion who is earnestly trying to understand the story and its intentions through their eyes, which is appreciated as a mega fan of BLEACH. I loved your last video on the series and am interested to see other videos from you covering different topics besides BLEACH, good stuff🙌
Thank you! As I said in the video, this was always meant to reflect my subjective opinions and explain why certain things hit me wrong, even though I continue to love Bleach.
And, to be fair, my comment about supereyepatchwolf was more about making a critique of Bleach and getting blasted for it, despite still really enjoying the series. I have my complaints with his original video (which are all on things he acknowledges as flawed), but I appreciate the discussions he's had about the topic since. He seems like a chill dude 👍🏼
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Sorry i am late to this video .😅
Really love it.
Hope you make a one piece video on it's themes but i don't want you to overwork yourself so take care and i am happy bleach is your favourite manga despite its flaws😊😊😊
I've never read/watched One Piece, though I've been meaning to get around to it. I probably won't do a deep dive like this into another manga for a while, just because it takes A LOT of time and effort, and there honestly aren't that many that I have such an intense interest for. Thank you for the well wishes and for watching the video :)
@@inpacifica2573 thanks for replying,looking forward to your Next video.
It seems like you want Bleach to be something its not. Bleach tells most of its story through visuals and subtext. Kubo writes it like a peom, he even gives peoms every volume to give off that vibe. When you went on that rant about Tsukishima's story, thats exactly how Kubo inteded you to read it. You're supposed to figure it out and put together context clues. Not everything has to be told directly. One of my favorite parts is Tosen's Zanpaktou. Tosen's abilities have to do w/ senses like when he emits sound, or blinds everyone. But then he whips out a couple doznes blades and shoots them. The Zanpaktou is supposed to have the same power, so why is this ability so different? Well we look at his characters story. We learn that he took his friends asauchi after she was murdered. He bonded w/ her so much that apart of her soul imprinted on Tosen and thats probably why he was able to use her swords abilities. Once he went full hollow he forgot about her and stopped (or lost) using her zanpaktou b/c he lost his purpose. He was still able to use his swords abilities, we see him emit poweful sound waves to incapacitate Sajin. He went from seeking justice for her, to down right hatred of the soul reapers. This is all inference of course, but after learning how zanpaktou work, and knowing the blade is the soul reaper it opens a whole new way of understanding why and how these soul reapers act in the way they do. Its the reason why we dont need 3 dozen backstories for every character. We have the information, we just need to put it together.
This form of story telling isnt for everyone, and thats totally fine. Sometimes people just want a straightforward story that has people saying "I did this b/c of this reason". I feel its a bit unfair to say this storytelling is bad, or not what it could be, when youre trying to fit it into a mould its not meant to be.
I dislike the argument of 'Bleach is mostly subtext and you have to keep digging to understand it', because it often feels like a shield for the contradictory or missing things from the overt text. I believe that if a story cannot hold together and be consistent on the surface, it doesn't matter what's six layers down; it has still failed to be understandable to the average audience member who isn't aware of or interested in the deeper meaning. It also tends to be used as an accusation of audience stupidity or laziness, rather than allowing authors to be imperfect beings that can and do make flawed decisions with their story.
I also don't think it's fair to say Kubo always intended to tell a story that is only understandable through so many layers of subtext, because the first half of the story or so doesn't seem to have these problems. They seem to crop only as time goes on, and seem to be caused by the reasons I outline in my video.
Perhaps I am oblivious to entire chunks of the story because I didn't put in enough effort to understand it, but after months of cross referencing, analyzing, and contemplating Bleach, I'm not sure what more I could feasibly do resolve my issues with the story and make it make sense.
Thank you for watching and for sharing your thoughts.
@vastos2587
Lemme ask you. As a passionate Bleach fan, coming from a conflicted fan do you like Bleach more as a world or as a story?
@@dune-z2707 I'd say as a story. Bleach is very music inspired so when I read the story I get similar feelings when I listen to lyrics from a song. Songs (at least ones I listen to) don't outright say the message they're trying to send. Like poetry it hides the meaning in-between the lines and through the song. I think that's why I like the story so much, b/c I love music.
@@inpacifica2573 for the "average" audience like you said might not care to dive into the deeper aspects of bleach characters and that's fine and not to say kubo is a perfect writer and has no flaws but for some people who really enjoy the more "surface" level aspects of bleach and want to understand kubos story better the way kubo writes his story in a up to interpretation way makes for a really enjoyable expirience for those people and by the looks of it you didnt enjoy the surface level stuff enough to want to dive into the bleach lore of characters which is fine and although you made a whole video on looking at this deeper stuff with characters and story in bleach but by the sounds of it you would have rather it be just told in a more easy way to consume. What I'm trying to say is some people like the way kubo writes and for you it wasn't your cup of tea and you believe an average person whose not emersed in what bleach is doing won't enjoy these aspect of bleach
I have a much longer response to this video but just to quickly deny one point, i think its pretty clear throughout the manga that quincy arent weak to hollow attacks, theyre weak to hollow blood/soul.
Poison doesnt take affect unless it enters your bloodstream, thats exactly why just attacking the quincy using hollow powers does nothing but infusing bankai with hollow blood takes it away from the quincy.
It even makes the whole bow situation make more sense because the quincy wouldnt want to get physically injured and potentially injest hollow blood.
Idk how more people didnt see this very obvious point and for some reason kubo just made it even more confusing with his statement.
P.S. hisagi also looks like ichigo, resemblance literally means nothing at all. Even in real life when you see someone thay looks identical to someone else you wouldnt automatically assume theyre related
Honestly though, I think it would've made the whole series more interesting if Quincy were just outright weak to Hollow attacks. It makes the theming of the Quincy as people simply afraid of death incredibly effective, and had Arrancar arc been written with it in mind it couldve made Uryu's role in the arc more interesting and involved
@@youmeltube it's already effective enough, creating a rock paper scissors type of story for tybw would've been interesting sure but would kill the horrifying nature of the Quincy hax.
Uryu Will be more involved in the anime that won't be an issue
Well to be fair quincies are weak to hollow reiatsu/reishi. And for the large majority of bleach we only see one Quincy i.e. uryu who is a very special Quincy in that he was unaffected by the auscwahlen. This could also explain why he hollow reiatsu/reishi doesn't affect him.
@@rexr9781 If Uryu's susceptibility to Hollows had been emphasized during Arrancar already, it would've been amazing foreshadowing to TYBW while again giving him a more interesting role in the story. Just my two cents, I don't really enjoy the whole "Uryu is special" angle that Kubo's picked for him
@@youmeltube but I think that's evident given he is the "last Quincy"
I am so glad someone shares my frustration about white Zangestu just not saying ANYTHING during the blade is me. Also ichigo "supposedly" doesn't hollowify after the fullbring he fully accepted white n no longer needed to. The mask was more of misunderstanding of how to use his power since it's not a vizard
It's just a matter of choice bro ..... That's how Kubo wants to portray it as zangetsu observing with a sense of satisfaction on his expression that ichigo has finally grown to understand him and finally because the king 👑 he wanted him to be ...... Next thing fullbringer 's source of power is much closer to that of a hollow as explained in the narrative by chad , so it's obvious that ichigo is able to materialize his hollow powers from within his soul and materialize it outside on his body like a armour similar to how he used the mask ...... The thing is visards are shinigami with hollow powers being existant while not dissolving with their shinigami soul ...... But Ichigo 's shinigami and hollow powers are fused perfectly with white .....
@shubhransuoram1510 I'm not sure if u agreed or disagree with your comment. But my issue is that it doesn't mend well with the blade is me. Because we're shown and explained that ichigo, in fact does not have a good relationship with his zanpakuto mostly because he doesn't know the full truth but also because of how he treats his powers. Now I'm not saying the fullbring explanation doesn't work but it does feel incomplete. I don't mind old man Zangestu being the focus, but white almost feels unimportant, and white is ichigo soul reaper powers n has nothing to say that's just crazy work. Dangai training ichigo and the fullbring explanation is fine but when u add in the blade is me it falls apart a little bit
He's such a strong character, and yet there's not a peep! So frustrating.
That explanation...just annoys me all the more, haha. I simply will never be satisfied with 'it was a misunderstanding' when half the story insisted on that understanding, and the explanation never dealt with this aspect directly and clearly and can only be derived trhough context and supplemental material. Kubo! I just want a simple answer that doesn't radically recontextualize what I already know to the point of invalidating things!
Thank you for watching, and for sharing your thoughts :)
@inpacifica2573 I definitely understand also the blade is me conflicts with the fullbring explanation because we're then told again that ichigo doesn't understand his powers or have a good relationship with his zanpakuto until after he learns the truth. So he should definitely still have to hollowify since Zangestu was still lying to him. Also idk if this is **SPOILERS** but we do see ichigo hollowify at the end of TYBW so it's like which is it? Did ichigo have an understanding in the fullbring arc? Or that understanding didn't happen until the blade is me? Because it can't be both n the way kubo writes it it's suppose to be both.
I'm nearly half way through and i must say this is a great video essay. Its good to be able voice your stronger thoughts on things you like even if they are negative cause it adds depth to media. Perspective keeps the subject alive. As someone who dislikes fullbring when i first experienced it and only now come around finding things to like about it because of a friend. I feel you a lot on your thoughts on it. Its such a shift in the narrative and the its a subject that does just feel like it came from no where (fullbringers even though it contextulizes earlier powers cause of the hogyoku). The concept is contextualized post the arc as learn more about bleaches world in tybw and the novels but doesn't help when your experienceing it actively. I do think once my friend got me to focus more on ichigo emotional struggle than i originally was giving it credit. Ive been finding smaller nuances in the writing decisions for the arc.
So tldr, i really like your spirit you hold throughout the entire essay. Its well documents your thoughts and is quite entertaining.
Thank you! Like I said in the video, I love the ideas the Fullbring Arc plays with, and would honestly love to see more of the slowburn, psychological mystery aspect. But alas, that's not how it turned out.
Thanks for watching and for sharing your thoughts!
1:56:00 I enjoyed the vizards appreciation
They deserved
The power up during the soul society arc was insane.
I want to hear someone critique one of my favorites, if not my favorite, because I am writing a story and I want to make sure that I don't fall into similar pitfalls. Since it's such a big inspiration, I might be blind to the pitfalls
this utility/ no waste of time/efficiency/narrative function approach to storytelling is weird to me.
Can't help you there, bud. I enjoy storytelling that effectively and efficiently utilizes all its pieces to tell a cohesive narrative ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for the engagement!
I mean I get that, but bleach goes a lot of the opposite direction of utility/no waste of time/effeciency/narrative.
Hard agree on everything in the video. But also youre gonna have about a thousand 17 year old bleach fans who only care about "hype" and "aura" cyber bully u
You're overgeneralizing
Im interested in seeing what this videos gonna talk about because i feel like i might agree.
This is the best video I have ever seen on Bleach. I also think this is incredibly messy.
LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
😭😭
I can only do my best, lol. Thank you for watching!
@@inpacifica2573you realize he is a bleach hater? He has never read bleach he is tricking you just because you didnt liked it
Said the bleach hater who has never rrad bleach
Everybody in the comments only watched the 1000 year blood war anime..😂😂
First time viewer here, it’s rare to hear someone vocalize all my thoughts and critique on a narrative! Bleach is a rollercoaster, and for me never felt the same after Ichigo defeated Aizen. I’m glad the TYBW anime is trying to elevate the source material. Still overall one of my favorite series! Glad I’m not alone here
I think something that kinda sticks with me in a bad way is that the series kinda both wants to treat ichigo as this perfect hybrid of all three and a half soul types in balance, and someone whose very nature is inherently hostile to itself to the point where basically everyone within his lineage has to be just a little special to not fucking fall apart and die in the process of birthing a human quincy vizored.
Even after that sword is me I would say the visual imagery of Ichigo's zanpakto definitely reflects merely acceptance, and not balance, of what he is, as the pair of swords are significantly less equal than any other dual zanpakuto and this reflects his actual use of his powers throughout the series (unless you subscribe to the interesting but ultimately entirely crackpot theory that Mugetsu is actually Leztz Stil) to the point it gives the impression that, as a reflection of his self, he sees himself as a shinigami with some fullbring/visored first and foremost and that his quincy heritage is a fully distinct and lesser part of himself. The fact that the essence of hollows inherently being poison to quincy only really ties in to it (despite being the piece of the puzzle that makes the most sense as to why Old Man Zangetsu would suppress Zangetsu Zangetsu as opposed to just hating soul reapers real bad) as a plot device to get Isshin's backstory to work, despite it itself having to fumble through that by making Masaki special enough to not immediately turn to dust. obv this is a wall of crazy person text but it just reeks of wasted potential that ultimately ended up reading like you had accidentally skipped to the Naruto chapter in Jump that week.
As for this video- there are some things I agree with and some things I disagree with.
In fairness, you made me reflect and rethink alot of the thematic ideas of the series. I won't come to the same conclusion as you, but you brought up some good points that actually made me appreciate the Fullbring Arc more
I'm glad that my essay was of use! Like I said in the video, the goal was to break down the story and figure out why it made me feel the way it did, with the secret secondary goal of getting people to engage more deeply with the text on their own. Having accomplished that, I consider the video a success, even if people completely disagree with my interpretation 🙂
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
jezus christ its a anime calm down
Thanks for the engagement!
I'm yet to watch the video, so while I can't say that I agree or disagree with anything in specific yet, I agree with the sentiment. Bleach gets messier as it goes - as I find all long-running series do - yet also aspires to do much more ambitious things than it had before. We may not have gotten much od anything for eg. Chad or Ganju, but that such a huge majority of the cast still manages to feel fleshed-out, relevant and realized by the end of the story is genuinely commendable.
Calling Yhwach a terrible villain is insane when he’s quite possibly the greatest character Kubo has ever written 😭
I'm a very big fellow bleach fan but I disagree. Yhwach is my favorite bleach villain, but he's definitely not Kubo's best character. The anime might change that but as far as the content of the manga is considered, Yhwach has all the potential but very little of the execution. He lacks clear character motivation for one. You can read the entire arc and still not come to the conclusion that Yhwach is afraid of dying that's why he's trying to break the cycle of life and death. You'd read the final battle and think he just wants to return the primordial world.
Also Yhwach is an effective villain; no villain before him pushed the plot like him, but I think he does more for the other characters than they do for him. His war with Yamamoto finalizes his character, his conflict with Ichibe does wonders for Ichibe and the lore, he literally pushes Ichigo through the most pivotal point of his character arc, but none of these characters (maybe except Ichibe) do the same for Yhwach. He goes through such a disappointing arc where he goes from an exciting charismatic warlord to a one dimensional evil god.
I still love his characters but I still disagree that he is Kubo's best. He has the potential but not the execution.
@@MazharHussain-ig1ub I disagree. The interpretation is up to the reader and is not the responsibility of the author. Kubo makes very deliberate choices when it comes to Bleach and his presentation for Yhwach is absolutely phenomenal. Yhwach being afraid of death is pretty obvious when you remember the Barragan fight back in FKT where his crown is falling and Hachi comments that he was just afraid of death. Yhwach death is pretty similar to Barragans. Kubo intentionally makes Ichibei label him a black ant as a callback to Barragan labelling everyone around him as ants
@@joebidenjr5902 but you have to agree that that's kind of a terrible way to reveal you're main and finals villains motivation. It's crazy to expect the reader to recall Baragon calling everyone an ant and connecting it with Ichibe calling Yhwach black ant and saying since Baragon was afraid of death so is Yhwach. Wouldn't your connection imply that it's actually Ichibe whose afraid of death and not Yhwach. You can't expect the reader to get that!
I think how the anime does it is much better. In the Ichibe flash back, Yhwach says that he can feel the fear of every Quincy when they day as their souls return back to him. He was also basically in a death like state upon his birth, and he doesn't wanna return back to it. The souls of the Quincies and his origin establish a much clearer picture of Yhwach's internal desire.
Kubo just putting an idea into the story doesn't automatically mean that it's been implemented well. Yhwach and the Quincies as a whole had so much potential. Some of which I feel was executed very well but we'd both be lying if we said that the Quincies and the members of the sternritter were flashed out. Yhwach had incredible presentation but he lacked the depth for a character of his magnitude. All the ideas that make him such a great character were never satisfyingly explored. He's not a bad character nor a bad villain but he certainly very messily executed.
By the way, I do wanna state that I completely disagree with her take on Yhwach. I'm not saying she's right. I'm just saying that Kubo didn't make Yhwach an easy character to understand.
Oh he definitely is one of the best characters Kubo wrote, considering most of the villains in the series aren't even characters
Here before the "bro you dont get it its all about symbolism its all about subtext pay attentiont bro 🤓" crowd takes over when someone rightfully criticizes Bleach. Specially cus some quite of them add to their argument that "it's a matter of personal opinion" but somehow can't stand it when someone just doesn't like Bleach that much.
Reading comprehension 🥲
@13:00 This whole making us watch a side character whom we do not know well fight for several chapters is the sort of filler I expect from Oda...
Okay, so I just watched this whole thing in one sitting, teared up more times than I care to admit, have so so so many parts that I want to engage with, but I am also so very sleep-deprived right now😭 So, here is my humble offering for the ever mysterious algorithm and I will be back for a proper comment ... in a few days? Maybe weekend?? (the very concept of Time is kicking my ass so hard right now it's not even funny 🙃) Anyways, yay for new Bleach video! ^_^
P.S. As a member of the Chad brigade, I understand and am satisfied with your note. But I AM coming for you for not talking about Ishida!! 🤣 A good 50% of my beef with the TYBW arc is how *severely* underutilized Ishida is. His relationships, his ideals, his history (in the Quincy sense, in the Shinigami sense, and most importantly, in the Orihime, Chad, and Ichigo sense), his experiences throughout this whole manga, his whole belonging to a g*noc*ded people thing that the manga just ... does not look in the eyes. We get crumbs of Ishida and his dearest friends. In the Quincy arc! Not to mention how criminally little we get of him on page at all when he is having one of the most organically high tension and high stakes plotline in the whole arc, that also lends itself naturally to centering our Karakura four cast as the emotional anchors. What a fantastic full circle moment for the final arc. But nooooo we scoot Ishida and all of the emotional catharsis just right off screen! I know you mentioned that in the vid. but by God it bares repeating. In the Quincy arc!!! Baffling. Okay, good night now 😂
It all for Clicks and Engagement after all. 😅
Some things you said maybe right but most of the criticisms you have are very wrong or they are downright explained or foreshadowed prior by Kubo's subtle writing. He is no way of a perfect writer but if you think later half is not good, most of Soul Society/Hueco Mundo Plot points would be loose ends without Fullbring and TYBW arc expositions.
Kubo was also sick halfway and there is a reason he directly involved in anime production to tell the story he originally intended but couldn't.
Also I am curious to know which manga are your favorites other than Bleach.
Its good to have a strong criticisms like this but the answers for them are also in plain sight than you think.🙌
Thanks for the engagement!
@@inpacifica2573 We know that
But you didnt answer my question
I think my biggest gripe with bleachs ending in tybw (maybe i just forgot the reason) is how they didnt just immediately lose upon ywhach absorbing the soul king. Ichigo killing Ywhach isnt the problem but im confused on how the entire universe didnt fall apart after the soul king died. They already showed, after Ichigo killed Reio, that the world would fall apart if the soul king died. So Ywhach dying and the world just staying intact felt like it diminished Ukitakes sacrifice and made mimihagi literally pointless. If im just missing the explanation I'd love for someone to tell me but it's confused me since I read it.
Such a good point! Such a frustrating stretch because I was ready for horrible, heinous consequences! But alas, just more drawn out fights that all of the good guys win...
Reio ultimately functioned as a McGuffin more than anything, so I didn't really talk about him much, but I've had many of the same thoughts as you.
Thanks for sharing!
Cause yhwachs body was still releasing riatsu, this is said in cfyow. They turned yhwachs body into what the original soul kings body was like. It's also revealed that if that didn't work, they were gonna use ichigo instead, which was the reason they made ichigo stronger. If the soul king dies and yhwach can't replace him, then they would use ichigo.
All of which is from Can't fear your own world a cannon novel series after the tybw
@@wewillrockyou3272i get that this is canon and all but I still kinda consider it a misstep because why wasnt info like this shared in actual manga rather than a lightnovel most people likely didnt read
@miner556 "a lightnovel most people didn't read" you mean exactly like manga? Most people complained when things about the tybw were spoiled for them in bleach brave souls since the anime wasn't even confirmed to be continued at the time. You can also look at jump force as well since a lot of people complained since they didn't want to read the manga.
If you're a fan of a series and learn there is a continuation in a book series, guess what fans buy it. You can look at literally ANY series and find that if it's a brand/show with books, they will sell. Do you want an example? Ninjago, one of the main powers, is just erased because a book mentioned them having darkness in them. A big factor of garmadon changing was done in a book. (Mind you, this is after all good was killed, and he was revived with only the evil left in his body. "Where was it all explained a book. Yet you ask fans of the series when the change happens. You will get the answer from the book.
Another example is the fnaf Series and Gravity Falls series. New books come out, and fans buy them despite them being entirely different mediums and different cannons at times.
The argument it isn't shown in the crazy when light novels are just another book type. If a horror series released a mystery comic series and it was cannon, would fans not buy it? No, it's just another book to them. If a TV show fan learn a movie is being made, would they not check it out since it isn't a TV show? No, they would check it out to see if they like it or not. But to say that "most people didn't read" is just dumb once you realize at this time the only people who would even be knowing about what's going on are the people who were already buying the manga and reading jt so why would a different medium type be breaking the camels back?
11 min into the vieo as of writing this. love the analysis, just like the previous one and the commentary vid. top tier writing, would love to have you on my bleach podcast
in regards to Ginjo, we find out in the CFYOW light novels that central 46 murdered majority of his friends, and thats why he went on the killing spree. they did this after he found out they were monitoring him. if i remember correct
Okie dokie two months late but really good video, even if I disagreed with some of the stuff.
Like how I interpreted the thing with Ichigo's mini arc during TYBW, wasn't him coming to a new understanding of himself because "he's a quincy" but rather because he's gaining new context about the night that caused him to take up the identity of "protector". The death of his mother went from being Ichigo's first and greatest failure, to a tragedy utterly out of his control.
Granted this interpretation also falls flat because rather than accepting he can't save everyone and moving past it, the lesson he learns is "fuck that guy he killed my mum".
But I still love Bleach anyway even though yeah it is flawed, the light novels fill in some of the gaps but that's still not the best, and I'm thankful I found these videos because the last one made me actually finally go read Bleach.
Interesting perspective! I think that idea has a lot of potential, but as you said, it's a shame that it doesn't stick the landing. I would have really enjoyed reading that. And I'm glad you liked the videos, especially if it rekindled an interest in the series! That's always really pleasant to hear 😊
Thanks for watching!
This video is incredibly messy. I respect the balls to upload this very misinterpreted analysis of bleach tho
I would rather publish my honest thoughts that make people look at Bleach more deeply (even if they totally disagree with me!) than sit in a room where everyone agrees with each other because they're afraid to say what they think ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for watching!
@@inpacifica2573 I respect that!
These one on one duals during a war or a siege also seems very Oda like ...
I don’t know what said besides hopefully ur ready for cour 3
I don’t wanna sound condescending but all these people disagreeing with you are just wrong. Like you mostly point out inconsistencies and repetitive writing and retcons. One can like the story despite these mistakes but they are mistakes nonetheless.
Appreciate your video a lot for expressing so many of my own frustrations with the series.
Thank you! I knew I was courting fandom ire when I made it, but I felt compelled to say my bit lol. For the most, though, people have been very nice, so that's lovely.
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!