Kubo Tite - Bleach, vol. 08-13 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

Y'know, I adore Bleach. I know that there are gender issues and pacing issues and all sorts of story-telling issues with the Soul Society arc, but I love it anyway! It's just, Kubo's art is so, so good that I don't mind that half the fight scenes consist of: Ichigo is going to face off the mostest scariest worstest bad guy ever! Check out the size of his zanpaku-to!

Ichigo proceeds to defeat bad guy. Cue next bad guy.

And yet, I love the art, and I love Ichigo's face, and I love the humor (Ikkaku's fight was particularly funny).

My favorite line so far is, "You're going to try to do [incredibly hard task] with what, seven? eight? nine people?"

"Er. Five people. And a cat," says Ichigo.

And while Kubo's absolutely insane character designs remind me a little of Watsuki Nobuhiro's latter villains, I love them. I mean... one of them has an eyepatch and Statue of Liberty type hair. With bells! At the ends of his hair spikes!

And then there is a one-armed ninja lady with gigantic boobs! And she blows things up!

I am so easily amused.

My other favorite moment involves the extreme dork Ishida, who has nearly perished because of his (very small) cape. While at rest, he whips out... a spare cape!

Oh yeah, some plot stuff also goes on.

But the plot stuff completely pales next to Soul Reapers with billowing kimono, who enter, heralded by cherry blossoms. The cherry blossoms, are, of course, thoughtfully scattered in the wind by his helpful assistant captain, who later dumps the entire thing on his head in a fit of pique.

I just love looking at this manga so much.

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Now you know why I am so obsessed with icon-ing this series. Kubo's drawings just kill me.

Have you seen the color humour spreads yet? They're generally non-spoilery, though you might want to save them until after you finish the SS arc.

I actually like the character designs in Bleach much, much better than those in RK (where I'm often like, "Whoa! X-men influences!"), though there are other things about Kenshin that I just adore.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

What gets me about the character designs in RK is that it's set in a historical period and not fantasy at all, and you have the protagonists, or reasonably normal shapes and sizes, and then you have people with these incredibly bizarre appearances who are out of scale with everyone else and everyone treats them absolutely normally. I'm just reading volume 18* now, and a Bizarre Probably Antagonist walks into the inn-place where they're eating, and I'm so used to bizarre people being part of the world** that when the waitress says he's badly scarred, it takes me by surprise.

At any rate, it works so much better in Bleach because they're not from this world, and the story isn't meant to be historical fiction. If only Kubo Tite had Masashi Kishimoto's talent at making the characters' personalities more memorable...

* Read scanlations to somewhere in the beginning of the Kyoto arc, when it got licensed and got yanked off the net, then watched all the anime, and now that the entire series is out over here, I've been whimpering at the thought of how much money it's going to cost to collect them all. And then I had the brilliant idea - well, I'm rather dreading the Kyoto arc again, so why don't I just start with the book right after it ends? I am rather embarrassed at how long it took me to think of this solution.

** Yet somehow the bizarre people are almost always antagonists. You'd think they'd start showing some prejudice against bizarre-looking people by now.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

What gets me about the character designs in RK is that it's set in a historical period and not fantasy at all, and you have the protagonists, or reasonably normal shapes and sizes, and then you have people with these incredibly bizarre appearances who are out of scale with everyone else and everyone treats them absolutely normally.
That's exactly right--it seems so much more out of place in Meiji Japan than in Soul Society. Which is why the first two Samurai X OVAs are so wonderful; they take the great story and make all of Watsuki's out there character designs much more realistic.

(I bought most of Kenshin at Overstock.com, which saved me a little money. But yeah--a big ouch financially. This is why I'm not allowed to buy any more manga until the fall.)

Me, I like a lot of the the supporting characters in Bleach. I had couple keeping track of the minor ones the first time through, but I also had trouble keeping track of the minor ones in Naruto the first time through.

[oyceter]

EEEEEEE you've seen the Kenshin OVAs! What did you think?? And have you finished Kenshin already??

I actually really love all the supporting characters in Bleach so far! Especially Ganju! Hee! And Ikkaku doing the lucky dance. And one-armed ninja lady that blows things up. And small pink-haired companion to Kenpachi. And Hinamori Momo.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

When I saw one-armed ninja lady on the cover, I didn't notice she had only one arm, and mistook her for Tatsuki (? Ichigo's childhood friend) and wondered when and why her breasts had gotten so huge.

[oyceter]

Yes! I am totally stealing some of your icons as soon as I get home. Also, I am probably going to comb through all of the scans I have and icon those.

I haven't seen the color humor spreads! Are they in the CDs you burned me?

OMG, I keep saying this, but I adore adore adore Kubo's drawings and character designs and panel layouts and expressions. One of my problems with Naruto has actually been figuring out who all the minor characters are (I swear, they all have pointy hair) and figuring out what happens in the fight scenes.

Watsuki's character designs are totally on crack. Although, I adore the Spawn-inspired cloak of Kenshin's shishou and how it gets more and more dramatic.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I have no idea what was on those CDs I burned for you now. They'd probably be in a folder named "Omake", since that's how I've filed them on my own hard drive. (But I'd advise waiting until after you've finished the SS arc, since I don't think you've met all the characters who turn up in them yet.)

I've finished RK--am woefully behind on writing them up. I'll get to it eventually. I really liked the OVAs: as I mentioned above, I like RK more for the story than the character designs, so I got the best of both worlds in the OVA.

[oyceter]

Oooo ok.

I adore the OVAs; they're so beautiful and tragic.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I love Bleach. I love your write-up of Bleach, too.

Ishida's cape! That is one of the best moments ever! I really, really wish they made Ishida plushies (they don't-- they make Ichigo and three of Kon and one of Ichigo wearing a Kon costume for no discernable reason and Spoiler!Ichigo and Rukia and Zaraki Kenpachi (the guy with the bells you just mentioned) and, of all people, Byakuya, whom I spend a lot of time cuddling when I want to see something homicidal), because I want one of him in his little Quincy cape. Ishida is my favorite character in Bleach, bar none, because he knits. And crochets. And does cross-stitch. *Nobody else in the entirety of anime does cross-stitch!*

I really want to see Ishida meet the cherry-blossom-throwing lieutenant, because they look like twins separated at birth, and also because they would have a lot to commiserate about.

And Bleach as a whole has some of the best omake ever. I am never going to get over the five minutes of watching Zaraki Kenpachi try to put those bells on his hair spikes in the morning.

*icon used not out of annoyance but for subject matter*

[oyceter]

EEEEEEE! Ishida knits! I had no idea! I mean, I knew he was a monster with a sewing machine (also, that never fails to crack me up), but knitting!

I bet he makes his own spare capes.

I need to watch the Bleach anime just so I can see Kenpachi put the bells in his hair!

ZOMG how I love the zany insanity of Bleach.,

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I have no Bleach icons! This is sad, and must be corrected.

And yes, I love Kubo's character designs SO MUCH.

[oyceter]

rilina has many nifty ones that I plan on stealing! And as soon as I get back home, I am going to icon a great deal, because my only Bleach icon is the Parakeet Cockatiel of DOOM.

I love Kubo's art. LOVE.

[nazmo.livejournal.com]

I was really happy with the translation from manga to anime, with the notable exception of the music that accompanies Ichigo 'powering up'. I say was, because when the the filler arc began it put me off the show a bit. :/

I can't get enough of Ishida, Kenpachi, Uruhara, Isshin and Gin. I have had enough of Don Kanonji.

[oyceter]

Hee!

I want to watch the anime now just for the omake! Also, in the few episodes I did watch, it was totally worth it, just for Rukia's voice actress and the frightening change from normal!Rukia to SuperSparklyShoujo!Rukia.