Live disgracefully

present day is 2012 (based on the characters’ zodiacs)

mob is 14 when the story starts, so it must be after may 12th

TERM 1 

April to mid-July [3.5 months]

springtime of youth [a few days / ch 1-4]

(lol) [one day / ch 5-9]

hanazawa [a week / ch 10-19]

big cleanup [few weeks / ch 20-33] goes immediately into

7th division [one day / ch 34-50]

SUMMER VACATION six weeks

TERM 2 

September to christmas [3.5 months]

mob’s girlfriend [two weeks / ch 51-52]

urban legends [a few weeks / ch 53-58]

mogami [a day / ch 59-67 ]

separation [a few weeks / ch 68-73 ] includes 10/10; reigen turns 28

world domination [a few days / ch 74-91] includes salt mid marathon/eikiden

Shigeo and Reigen start working together.

Serizawa is recruited by Touichirou.

PRE-SERIES

T-48: Touichirou grows up in seasoning city

T-34: when he’s 14, he realizes with ambition he could take over the world (90.2)

T-25: Mogami kills himself and becomes an evil spirit

T-20: Touichirou creates a plan to take over the world & starts storing energy. he is 28; Reigen is 7; Serizawa is 10

T-18: Serizawa loses control of his powers and becomes a hikkikomori. he is 12

T-14: Shigeo is born, Teru is born

T-13: Shou is born, Ritsu is born

T-4: Reigen quits his job and starts Spirits and Such. he is 23/4

T-?: Ritsu and Shigeo are bullied by high schoolers; ???% emerges

T-3: Mob meets Reigen, Pops meets Seri (at least minegishi and shimazaki are already members of claw)

absolutely indisputable information:

the squad’s birthdays & zodiacs* [d/m/y]:

teru 13/4/98 tiger

mob 12/5/98 tiger

ritsu 2/7/99 rabbit

shou 1/12/99 rabbit

year of the tiger was: 28/01/1998 - 15/02/1999

year of the rabbit was: 16/02/1999 - 04/02/2000

the manga covers reigen’s birthday, october 10th

almost certainly canon:

current day is 2012 for the entire run of the series so far*****

where it gets noodly:

the months are, at first glance, a shitstorm**

shigeo is fourteen. okay, series starts after may 12th. that’s plenty of time to get to october

ritsu is thirteen. getting a little cramped, but still manageable! we can fit eight story arcs into 3.3 months if we have to

shou is thirteen. alright whaaaaaat???

IF shou is 13 AND teru and shige, but teru is first in the birth order is 14 THEN it must be between dec 1st 2012 and april 13th 2013

YOU MIGHT NOTICE THIS DOESN’T COVER OCTOBER 10th 2012, REIGEN’S CANONICAL, ONSCREEN, 28th BIRTHDAY. fuckery

now, you could solve this by breaking canon!

move shou’s birthday to late ‘98

now he is older than ritsu instead of younger

so any time after july 2nd and before dec 1st [2012] will have everyone be the correct age

this would make his new zodiac tiger

but there is an insidious, terrible answer that takes all these facts into account:

SHOU IS FUCKING TWELVE

here’s how it works:

we know that shou is thirteen two ways: from his zodiac/birthdate & the likelihood of 2012 being the present day AND because it says so at the top of his profile

however, we only got this profile as an omake attached to chapter 92.02

omakes are unmoored in time, mostly. for example, we get a christmas comic when it’s christmas for us, not for the characters

but if we chronologically link the omake to the events of the chapter it’s attached to, then we can say that as of that chapter, shou was 13***

using this reasoning, ANYTHING BEFORE CHAPTER 92 IS FAIR GAME for how old he is, it just depends on how you schedule the story arcs

the birthdays all still work, ritsu is still 13, mob and teru are still 14, all is as it should be

as long as we make shou 12

~~footnotes under the cut~~

I think a lot of people who only give Bleach a passing glance fail to see Ichigo's true character growth. It's not about what his goals are or who he's trying to protect, but rather, it's about how he achieves it.

Ichigo is very self-sacrificing in the first third of Bleach. He believes that if the mission is successful, then it doesn't matter how broken or close to death he gets. The mission, saving Rukia (and hurting/killing as few people in the process), is all that matters.

Then, when a part of himself (his inner hollow) emerges, and says "hey yeah no, I'm not letting you get yourself killed and I'm also not letting you hold back against your enemy", Ichigo immediately rejects it.

It's not until he defeats his inner Hollow that we see Ichigo really dive into a fight with the intent to kill. The problem is, once his Hollow is defeated, he thinks that's it. He's freed himself of that part of him and he can go back to being self-sacrificing.

We see this throughout the Hueco Mundo arc. It's why saving Orihime parallels saving Rukia. Ichigo naively thinks he can suppress a part of himself. He bottles it up until it explodes, coming back to haunt him in his fight with Ulquiorra, etc. He learns that side of himself isn't so easily tucked away, and if he recklessly endangers himself, he could end up endangering his friends too. At his own hand, no less.

Then Ichigo discovers he can commit the ultimate sacrifice. Final Getsuga Tenshou. He can throw away these powers and the parts of himself that he doesn't like, and he can get rid of Aizen all in one go. He's lucky that it worked, but only because Kisuke was there.

Then, once Ichigo is powerless, he learns that's not what he really wants. Life doesn't "go back to normal". The can is open, and there's danger out there beyond just Aizen. And Ichigo can't do anything to stop it unless he gets his powers back.

So he does. Then he cuts down the threat to his friends and family. And he doesn't hesitate this time. Yes, he still has compassion for his enemies (he even goes to the Soul Society to ask for Ginjo's body so he can give him a proper burial), but he's learned not to hold back and he's learned that new threats will appear and he'd rather have the power to face them head on.

So then comes TYBW, and Ichigo is facing battles head-on without hesitation. He goes straight to the "bad guys" with the intention of cutting them down. He learns the truth about who his Inner Hollow is, and he accepts it. He's even willing to accept whatever consequences may come from training in the Royal Palace and becoming stronger. He accepts his power and potential fully, and learns that he has what it takes to protect his loved ones with his strength, and not with a sacrifice.

Ultimately, he heals the part of himself that thinks his life is worth less than other people's. He heals the part of himself that blames himself for not protecting his mother (when he was 9!! Like come on Isshin, put the kid in therapy!! Anyway...) He grows into someone who knows his self worth. And I think, for me at least, that makes him one of my favourite protagonists of all time. Because can't most of us relate to feeling worthless at times? And don't we also wanna overcome that?

I love the way unions are framed as love for your community, and how community is the moral of the story but also showing the dangers of the media preying on people who want that sense of community. I love the friendship between the two main leads and how their personalities realistically clash but how they love each other at the end of the day and are willing to go to hell and back for each other.

I love the examination on how everyone loses in the system, from the people making the clothes for dirt cheap in other countries to the shipment drivers who don't get jobs because the company would rather invest in scifi technology then pay and wait to the store employees who see a fraction of the overall cut to the creative visionaries whose work goes taken and uncredited because of a figurehead and even to the assistant who is putting up with it all for the chance at being a boss.

I see the blatant commentary with making the main antagonist a wealthy white woman and a minor antagonist a white gay man who uses "progressive" language to talk down to his employees of color (or the figurehead of the union eventually being a light skinned woman of color). I love this too, especially paired with the backstory made for the wealthy white woman with implications of her being an underage victim of a white man but still doing massive amounts of harm as soon as she is the one in power.

There is probably a lot more I could be talking about but I don't want to spoil too much for those who want to see the movie plus I know there are things which flew over my head.

One of the only asexual activists is Yasmin Benoit, a Black woman. She has raised so much awareness for the community. She was the first asexual person to lead Pride in London, she started the #thisiswhatasexuallookslike movement and is THE leading voice for the community.

And you all will celebrate international asexuality day on April 6th but we wouldn't even have that if she hadn't cofounded it.

Marshall Blount: https://www.instagram.com/marshall_blount?

Ace in Grace/Ashabi: https://www.instagram.com/_aceingrace_?

Yagirllici: https://www.instagram.com/yagirllici?

This one is more of a group but there’s Black Ace Culture: https://www.instagram.com/blackaceculture?

Asexual/AroaceBarbie: https://www.tiktok.com/@asexualbarbie?_r=1&_t=ZT-97gFM9iWa3a

Kim Riottt: https://www.instagram.com/kimriottt?

Obviously, this has already been pointed out by Black people in the fandom, but I wanted to bring it up because I’ve had a few asks about that song specifically that I’m not comfortable with answering. I am extremely happy that Jax is canonically transfem because even though I’ve never watched the show, I’ve witnessed people’s excitement about it, and I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, but I’m also not going to pretend like the racism doesn’t exist because that’s not the kind of blog I’m running here. Any other song could’ve been used, and perhaps there wasn’t much thought put into its choice; I’m sure it wasn’t a deliberate act of malice, because from an outsider perspective that song seems to fit perfectly, but that ultimately doesn’t make it any less harmful, especially given the context surrounding the production.

I feel similarly about how United In Grief by Kendrick Lamar became a popular TikTok sound for people to make funny jokes about something going wrong when the original lyrics are specifically about Black grief. Or about the new trend of “the saxaphones are getting louder” taken from Boyz N The Hood, which is a movie about Black-American experiences that a lot of (white) people using this sound likely haven’t even seen.