#squad 11

Credits to the owners!

Girl's dads

I love the fact that despite the fact that the squad 11 is supposed to be the most dangerous company of the Gotei 13, it's still a bunch of warriors obeying (and fearing) a little girl with pink hair. :D

And in their own ways, they take care of her.

The first character we meet who is affiliated with 11 is, of course, Renji. The question is, did Kubo have his entire backstory plotted out at that point, or did he sort of build onto it as he went? It's certainly not mentioned up front. I have even heard stories that at the time these chapters were written, Kubo was still considering structuring Soul Society around the noble families instead of Squads. My memory was that the first place it comes out is Renji's character profile. Byakuya and Renji make their first appearance in Chapter 51, and the "Rukia's arrest" scene goes on thru Ch. 56, which are collected in Vol 6 and 7. In my mind, I thought their character profiles came at the end of one of these, but it actually isn't until the end of Vol 9. Now, I am not sure if/where these profiles would have originally appeared, so I suppose it could have been much earlier, but they certainly chose to put it here at some point.

So that means that the actual first mention of Squad 11 comes with the introduction of Kenpachi, when he shows up with Gin to hassle Byakuya, in Ch 65.

From this dialogue bubble alone, it feels like Kubo hadn't quite nailed down Zaraki's personality, lol. On the other hand, these guys are the 2nd and 3rd captain we meet, and Gin is going to be one of the major players of the conspiracy to follow, so I think Kubo already had an idea of the *role* Zaraki would play.

Okay, you might think, well, after that we meet Ikkaku and Yumichika, right? WRONG. The next mention of Squad 11 is....this, in Ch 79:

I think it's worth mentioning that this happens just after Gin confronts Ichigo, which included this never-followed-up-on post chapter sketch implying that Renji witnessed the fight.

I bring this up because I think what's going on here is that Kubo is dropping these little hints about the characters he's just introduced, and setting the stage for a conspiracy. We often joke about "what was Gin doing with Kenpachi anyway, do they hang out or what?" but this makes it feel more intentional. Whatever the fuck Aizen was trying to play at with Renji here, I think that Kenpachi namedrop was intentional. I mean, I'm sure Byakuya and Zaraki have never gotten along, but Zaraki shows up to harangue Byakuya (and it would certainly be easy enough for Gin to swing by and goad him into doing so), and then Aizen happens to say Zaraki's name to the guy who is Zaraki's former subordinate and Byakuya's current lieutenant. Is he trying to get Renji to think that Zaraki might be involved in the nebulous "conspiracy" that he's hinting at, in order to drive Renji apart from his former comrades? Is he hoping Renji will take this info back to Byakuya? I mean, it seems goofy to think of Zaraki being part of a conspiracy, but we didn't know any of these people back then, and they were constantly secretive and hostile to one another! It could have happened!

I want to move on, but I just can't get over the idea that Kubo made Renji part of Squad 11 in the service of setting up this web of misdirection. I mean, it is a) such a rich part of Renji's character and b) sets the precedent for the Gotei containing an intricacy of social connections. I mean, sure, it could have been all of these things at one, and I just think that's neat!

Okay, the next thing that happens is Renji's profile, which appears at the end of the Volume, and really, just codified what Aizen just told us (along with the fact that he's only been a lieutenant for month, which is hilarious to learn after the fact).

Ikkaku and Yumichika next, right? WRONG AGAIN, it's IBA TIME. (Ch 80)

Here are some facts: 1) Iba is introduced specifically as someone Renji knows, and 2) he, too, is very recently a lieutenant. I am going to guess that he was designed as a Squad 11 alum from the get-go, too. Iba doesn't do a whole lot in this arc, but what he does do is fight Ikkaku during the "everything's falling apart" portion where many former comrades are turning on one another. Also, like, look at him.

Ikkaku and Yumichika finally make their appearance in Ch 85.

We get a lot of chapters with these two, and furthermore, a lot of exposition. We've seen shinigami hanging out with shinigami, and Ichigo et al learned a little about Rukongai, but these two guys yap about Squad 11, about Zaraki, about execution pits, about principals of battle. The earliest chapters of Bleach contain a lot of Rukia explaining what a shinigami is and does, but it's in the context of what a shinigami does in the World of the Living. I think the encounter with these two starts to open the enormous can of worms of "this is what shinigami are like at home," which will basically characterizes the shift from Bleach-as-urban-fantasy to Bleach-as-magic-swordfighting-story.

We meet more of Squad 11 around Ch 93, where Ichigo and Ganju try to take Hanatarou hostage. I think it's interesting that, for all of Ikkaku's big talk, it's pretty clear that the rest of them kiiiiiiinda suck. They're jerks who hate the medics, and then Chad bowls his way through an entire crowd of them.

Kenpachi (w/Yachiru) has been appearing sporadically throughout this--getting in fights at the captains' meeting, getting lost, etc. His big fight with Ichigo is next, around Ch 103.

The last big intro, I guess, is Maki-Maki, in Ch 120. He's very much a buffoon, and once again, evidence that Squad 11 scariness takes a severe drop-off right after the top seats.

Ikkaku: A night of fashion, mischief, mayhem, and possible death.

Yumichika: Ooh, check, check, and check; not sure about that last one.

Ikkaku: It won't be you.

☀️Hello☀️ He's a bit creeped out the first instants but realised he might have found a future good opponent 😂