23324 dias de ocio 2.0Sin título

I think it's three things?

The first thing is that it's made pretty clear early on in Bleach (like the first 50 chapters) that as much as they bicker, Ichigo really vibes with Rukia's ethos on a deeply personal level. They also care for each other a lot, in whatever way one wants to imagine that is manifested, which is why both the live action and the musical heavily focused on their interactions and feelings, as does Kubo's own poetry and art (like the "I will pass through even 100 million blades!" spread).

Rukia is the archetypal Shinigami to Ichigo. He even wields Sode no Shirayuki until Byakuya breaks it. (Yes, his first sword is just an oversized Sode no Shirayuki; he's using Rukia's powers and her zanpakutō.) This is interesting because Rukia's mindset is very atypical for Shinigami as a whole, but Ichigo essentially acts like Rukia vouches for everyone else in the Gotei 13. They're good enough for her, so they're good enough for him.

The second thing is that Ichigo has this whole combat empathy character ability thing going on where he bonds with people through fighting them. He claims to be terrible at remembering names and faces but he easily remembers and acts super familiar with every Shinigami he fights (Renji, Ikkaku, Byakuya, and Kenpachi). He feels sympathy for Aizen at the end on that basis. He acts very casually with Ganju and Kisuke. Perhaps most notably, he identifies with Uryū a lot more than Orihime and Chad, because he only comes into more direct conflict with Uryū.

The exceptions are Yumichika, Rangiku, and Tōshirō, whom he's ostensibly familiar with from the week spent in Soul Society after Aizen flees, as he doesn't interact with them much (or at all for the latter two) during SS arc. The two he only sort of tussles with are Gin and Yoruichi, and unsurprisingly, his attitude is still fairly guarded around both of them.

Basically the result of this seems to be that he feels he gets the Shinigami in a deeper way than his human peers. Ichigo is not really particularly good at identifying with people his own age no matter how much shared experience he has with them (like Tatsuki).

The third thing is, like Karin, he hates feeling like a burden or imposition. That means keeping his human friends in the dark, because they can't do anything. That means not bothering Kisuke, because he's presumably working on big brain answers. That means not bothering Yoruichi, because she just radiates intense adult energy. (See also: Ikumi lecturing him on relying on adults.) This means not bothering Isshin. And so on, and so forth. The various Shinigami, he views as "peers" whom he isn't burdening, because they can more or less keep up, and yet they don't really register as authority figure adults to him. It seems like in his mind, they're his battle bros.

The Spirit Society, A Sequel: Chapter XIV

So a thing I always loved about Bleach is how Kubo looooves his wordplay, and it’s actually not that subtle, but it’s the kind of thing that gets lost very easily in translation.  We forget that in English, names are all borrowed from other languages, or rooted in fairly archaic forms of English, but in most languages names are actually pretty straight forward and literal.  In particular ideographic languages like Chinese and by extension Japanese are SUPER literal in that the meaning of a name is unavoidably apparent at a glance.  So, for one of my favorite examples, let’s look at some family naming schemes that Kubo played with, starting with…

朽木: Kuchiki

For one it’s an actual surname, but it’s written with the characters Kuchi(朽) and Ki(木), meaning “Decayed”/”Rotten”(but also “secluded”)” and “Tree.”  The verb Kuchiru(朽ちる) meaning literally “to decay/to rot” is also used in metaphor to mean “to die in obscurity” or “to be forgotten [over time].”  The homonym phrase Kuchiki(朽ち木) refers to “a life lived in obscurity” or “a meaningless death,” evoking the poetic imagery of a lone dead tree, not collapsed, but rotted on the inside.  For one, this obvious evocation of Death as a theme is a direct play into the role of Shinigami during Rukia’s first introduction.  But it also influenced her somber look in the very first chapter, as well as Byakuya’s similarly sullen disposition when he first appears.  It’s innate thematics also influenced Rukia’s status as an orphan, and Byakuya’s status as a widower, as well as the apparent end of the Kuchiki bloodline proper.  The Kuchiki family tree is literally a dead one: incapable of growing further, but still standing.

Moreover, Byakuya, his father, his grandfather, and even Hisana actually all share a naming convention in which each name evokes a specific color:

Byakuya(白哉)

…is actually kind of a tricky one to start with…  The Byaku(白) at least is super straight forward, being the kanji for “White,” but the Ya(哉) is a peculiar particle used for emphasis, but that has no direct translation of its own.  So in a sense his name means “White!” but given translations of 哉 in different contexts of actual prose, it could also be read as something like, “How White!“ or “White, alas…“ or “sadly, [it is] White“ or “how sad, [it is] white.“  Which are all kind of appropriate.  The exclamatory form being an overstatement of his purity, referenced in his stringent adherence to rules and law that defined his original role in the plot of Rukia’s execution; but also the lamenting form describing his relationship regarding his wife.

Soujyun(蒼純)

…is surprisingly clever for a name given to a character with no real appearance or role in the story, let alone any real personality or history to reference.  His name reads as Sou(蒼) meaning “Blue/Green“ and Jyun(純) meaning “Purity”/“Innocence.”  The Purity/Innocence part is effectively an echo of Byakuya’s use of “White,” tying the father and son together, but also perhaps a reference to the fact that no drama seems to have marred his character?  (i.e. He’s innocent and his life was pure.)

So a few notes: There was a time when Japanese didn’t actually distinguish blue and green as colors, instead treating them as differing tones of the same color.  From this the phrase “Blue” also describes someone immature, naive or inexperienced, as in an unripe fruit. (basically exactly the same as the English phrase, “Green.”  But midori(緑) is the word for “Green” and only green, and doesn’t get used in this way in Japanese.)  But Sou(蒼) can also be used to describe a color like a “Pale Blue,” a “Gray,” or even just translated as “Pale.”  This feeds back into parallels with Byakuya’s “White,” as well as…

Ginrei(銀嶺)

…the patriarch of the Kuchiki family.  His name is written with Gin(銀) for “Silver,” referring to both the metal and the color, and Rei(嶺) meaning “Peak” or “Summit.”  The phrase  together actually refers to a “snowy mountaintop.”  The “Summit” part refers to his status at the top of the family, and the “Silver” in reference to the color completes this 3 stage progression down the men of the family: From lustrous silver, to pale gray, to emphatically pure white.  The Kuchiki family is literally fading away, again referencing the metaphor of having been forgotten over time implicit to the name Kuchiki.

 But that’s not all! 

Hisana(緋真)

…Byakuya’s late wife, and Rukia’s eerily identical older sister, actually fits into this naming scheme too!   Even in just the brief moments we’ve seen of her, her name is written with Hi(緋) meaning “Scarlet,” and Sana(真) although more commonly read on its own as Shin, which means “true”/”truth” or “real”/”reality.”  The phrase “Scarlet Reality” or “Scarlet Truth” might seem jarringly out of place in this family of fading innocence and purity, but that is actually the point.  She is the harsh, blood red, mark on Byakuya’s emblematic White that cannot be ignored.  Her death is the brutal bloody truth of Byakuya’s tragic past, and she’s also the red flame of passion in his otherwise emotionless facade.

So curiously,

Rukia(ルキア)

…has no kanji for her name, just katakana.  On the one hand she came first in the list of characters, so it’s just likely that she wasn’t supposed to have a gimmicky name at the start, but it is a little odd that he specifically forwent any overt meaning at all.  There are some rumors flying around the Kubo named her after a species of Cosmos flower native to Mexico, which certain sounds in line with a bunch of Kubo’s interests and themes in Bleach, but the supposed interview has never been properly cited or otherwise corroborated.  More over, there is no indication of a flower in that family with a name that could be misconstrued into Rukia. (and presumably it would’ve been the name Lucia.)

So a thing I always loved about Bleach is how Kubo looooves his wordplay, and it’s actually not that subtle, but it’s the kind of thing that gets lost very easily in translation.  We forget that in English, names are all borrowed from other languages, or rooted in fairly archaic forms of English, but in most languages names are actually pretty straight forward and literal.  In particular ideographic languages like Chinese and by extension Japanese are SUPER literal in that the meaning of a name is unavoidably apparent at a glance.  So, for one of my favorite examples, let’s look at some family naming schemes that Kubo played with, starting with…

朽木: Kuchiki

For one it’s an actual surname, but it’s written with the characters Kuchi(朽) and Ki(木), meaning “Decayed”/”Rotten”(but also “secluded”)” and “Tree.”  The verb Kuchiru(朽ちる) meaning literally “to decay/to rot” is also used in metaphor to mean “to die in obscurity” or “to be forgotten [over time].”  The homonym phrase Kuchiki(朽ち木) refers to “a life lived in obscurity” or “a meaningless death,” evoking the poetic imagery of a lone dead tree, not collapsed, but rotted on the inside.  For one, this obvious evocation of Death as a theme is a direct play into the role of Shinigami during Rukia’s first introduction.  But it also influenced her somber look in the very first chapter, as well as Byakuya’s similarly sullen disposition when he first appears.  It’s innate thematics also influenced Rukia’s status as an orphan, and Byakuya’s status as a widower, as well as the apparent end of the Kuchiki bloodline proper.  The Kuchiki family tree is literally a dead one: incapable of growing further, but still standing.

Moreover, Byakuya, his father, his grandfather, and even Hisana actually all share a naming convention in which each name evokes a specific color:

Byakuya(白哉)

…is actually kind of a tricky one to start with…  The Byaku(白) at least is super straight forward, being the kanji for “White,” but the Ya(哉) is a peculiar particle used for emphasis, but that has no direct translation of its own.  So in a sense his name means “White!” but given translations of 哉 in different contexts of actual prose, it could also be read as something like, “How White!“ or “White, alas…“ or “sadly, [it is] White“ or “how sad, [it is] white.“  Which are all kind of appropriate.  The exclamatory form being an overstatement of his purity, referenced in his stringent adherence to rules and law that defined his original role in the plot of Rukia’s execution; but also the lamenting form describing his relationship regarding his wife.

Soujyun(蒼純)

…is surprisingly clever for a name given to a character with no real appearance or role in the story, let alone any real personality or history to reference.  His name reads as Sou(蒼) meaning “Blue/Green“ and Jyun(純) meaning “Purity”/“Innocence.”  The Purity/Innocence part is effectively an echo of Byakuya’s use of “White,” tying the father and son together, but also perhaps a reference to the fact that no drama seems to have marred his character?  (i.e. He’s innocent and his life was pure.)

So a few notes: There was a time when Japanese didn’t actually distinguish blue and green as colors, instead treating them as differing tones of the same color.  From this the phrase “Blue” also describes someone immature, naive or inexperienced, as in an unripe fruit. (basically exactly the same as the English phrase, “Green.”  But midori(緑) is the word for “Green” and only green, and doesn’t get used in this way in Japanese.)  But Sou(蒼) can also be used to describe a color like a “Pale Blue,” a “Gray,” or even just translated as “Pale.”  This feeds back into parallels with Byakuya’s “White,” as well as…

Ginrei(銀嶺)

…the patriarch of the Kuchiki family.  His name is written with Gin(銀) for “Silver,” referring to both the metal and the color, and Rei(嶺) meaning “Peak” or “Summit.”  The phrase  together actually refers to a “snowy mountaintop.”  The “Summit” part refers to his status at the top of the family, and the “Silver” in reference to the color completes this 3 stage progression down the men of the family: From lustrous silver, to pale gray, to emphatically pure white.  The Kuchiki family is literally fading away, again referencing the metaphor of having been forgotten over time implicit to the name Kuchiki.

 But that’s not all! 

Hisana(緋真)

…Byakuya’s late wife, and Rukia’s eerily identical older sister, actually fits into this naming scheme too!   Even in just the brief moments we’ve seen of her, her name is written with Hi(緋) meaning “Scarlet,” and Sana(真) although more commonly read on its own as Shin, which means “true”/”truth” or “real”/”reality.”  The phrase “Scarlet Reality” or “Scarlet Truth” might seem jarringly out of place in this family of fading innocence and purity, but that is actually the point.  She is the harsh, blood red, mark on Byakuya’s emblematic White that cannot be ignored.  Her death is the brutal bloody truth of Byakuya’s tragic past, and she’s also the red flame of passion in his otherwise emotionless facade.

So curiously,

Rukia(ルキア)

…has no kanji for her name, just katakana.  On the one hand she came first in the list of characters, so it’s just likely that she wasn’t supposed to have a gimmicky name at the start, but it is a little odd that he specifically forwent any overt meaning at all.  There are some rumors flying around the Kubo named her after a species of Cosmos flower native to Mexico, which certain sounds in line with a bunch of Kubo’s interests and themes in Bleach, but the supposed interview has never been properly cited or otherwise corroborated.  More over, there is no indication of a flower in that family with a name that could be misconstrued into Rukia. (and presumably it would’ve been the name Lucia.)

Faraway Point

Full version: https://youtu.be/H5fDPf2ExvA

Last time, in Part 1, I seemed to have exhausted Tumblr’s ability to nest images in a text post. So, let’s finish this up on this go-around:

Rukia & Kaien and the Hōgyoku

@mysteriousshopkeeper​​ had a post fairly recently entitled Urahara’s Motive, Means and Opportunity for Suppressing the Hōgyoku, about why Kisuke chose Rukia as the host for the Hōgyoku. Within was the conclusion that she was chosen because, “I think she was most likely just a target of opportunity.” Our thinking (as we discuss these things regularly) has somewhat advanced since then (as evidenced in the post His Research), but given all the above, it has an even simpler explanation, given in chapter 268:

Rukia is—quite simply—Kaien’s final disciple, inheritor, heir, successor, protégé, or whatever else you want to call her, and thus the most recent and also purest of them. (It’s easy to see that Yoruichi and Kisuke, given the demands of the Onmitsukidō and 2nd Division, were likely at least partially corrupted, tainted, or compromised by their experiences, in a way which Rukia would not be.)

If you take it for granted that Yoruichi was heavily influenced by Kaien (which I think has been well-demonstrated), it would make sense that the same be true of Kisuke. If that was indeed the case, his selection of Rukia on the basis of her holding Kaien’s heart would make complete sense. But what other proof of this do we have…?

Rukia is born in secret to Hisana and Sōjun Kuchiki. Sōjun fell in love with her sometime after the death of his first wife and they routinely met in secret.

Sōjun dies in combat, no one else knows of Hisana. She is no longer able to provide for Rukia and feels forced to abandon her.

Rukia is retrieved by Kisuke, who, as an Onmitsukidō spook, knows of her true heritage. Yoruichi soon finds out what he’s doing.

“Kidnapping, Kisuke? That’s low, even for you.”

“You’d be surprised if you heard the story.”

“Yeah?”

[…]

Yoruichi frowned. “You better not be thinking of asking me to be a wet nurse or something.”

Urahara didn’t look up from changing Rukia’s diaper. “It would be rather simple to introduce the proper hormones.”

“I’m warning you,” she hissed. “It would be only slightly less trivial to synthesize milk—provided I could make the proper observations,” he replied, turning and smiling.

“Pervert. I can’t believe you stole a baby just to ogle my breasts.”

They’re the ones who name her Rukia, which is a localization of Lucia, because they have great hopes for her.

They wind up raising Rukia together, albeit sort of remotely since they can’t easily conceal her in the Seireitei. They’re not really what you’d call parents and act more like godparents, but they become attached to her and provide for her. Imagine Yoruichi teaching a tiny Rukia how to defend herself and using Kisuke as a practice dummy.

Given one of the Onmitsukidō’s big responsibilities is (probably) keeping order in Rukongai through spying and assassination, it’s rather easy for them to task their minions to watch over her when they can’t. Her life isn’t the most comfortable, but she grows up rather safe.

Everything with Aizen and Hollowfication in Turn Back The Pendulum goes down, and Kisuke and Yoruichi are forced to flee Soul Society (along with Tessai and the Visored). They have a heated argument over what to do about Rukia, with Yoruichi insisting they bring her along and Kisuke insisting she’s safer where she is. He ultimately wins out, because of course he does.

Kisuke manages to arrest the Hollowfication of the Visored and needs to hide the Hōgyoku somewhere—it’s not the kind of thing to just be left lying around. He chooses to hide it in Rukia, unaware of its true potential.

At this time, he leaves her the equivalent of a soul pager to get in touch with them in the event of emergencies.

Yoruichi still has loyalists among the Onmitsukidō, given she was well-regarded as a commander, and never suffered the degree of disgrace that Kisuke and Tessai did. She uses these connections to continue to have Rukia watched over. She occasionally visits while sneaking into Soul Society for other reasons (for example to visit Kūkaku).

Aizen is not unaware of these developments but his plans aren’t ready and the Onmitsukidō are well-entrenched, so he does nothing.

Things go on in this manner until WWII and the occupation of Japan, which disrupts the ability of Kisuke and Yoruichi to maintain contact with Soul Society.

Left to her own devices and possessed of a strong moral compass, Rukia meets Renji and company and rescues them, which is easy given her training and budding reiryoku. The implanted Hōgyoku has no small role in unlocking her full potential. The Onmitsukidō sort of lose track of her but she’s more than able to defend herself by then, and usually also their friends… usually, but not always.

After learning about Rukia’s new situation, Kisuke is the one who leaks information to Byakuya regarding Hisana in the hopes of getting Rukia out of Rukongai. Having her under the watch of her “real” family should make her even safer from Aizen—keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Why would he ever suspect the Hōgyoku was walking around under his nose?

Byakuya marries Hisana as a pretext to keep her safe and stave off her illness until he can find Rukia. Hisana dies before he locates his half-sister, and he ultimately decides to bury the whole enterprise.

The Hōgyoku is, unknown to everyone, a major component of how Rukia is able to so quickly gain shikai, and turn around and defeat a Hollow fused with a Lieutenant, through sheer force of will.

Likewise, it isn’t really any doing of Aizen’s that Rukia is eventually the one to be dispatched to Karakura. (Bleach, although often following Ichigo, is very much the story of Rukia’s Will.)

When Rukia appears in the Living World on assignment, she’s rather familiar and comfortable with a shady exile and engages with him in such personal ways—she knows him quite well and has since childhood, so of course she treats him similarly to Renji and Ichigo.

Kisuke’s plan to use a gigai to humanize Rukia is a sort of grudging admission that perhaps Yoruichi was right all along, and a decision on his part that she’d be happier living a normal life with Ichigo. Instead, of course, the exact opposite winds up happening.

Yoruichi’s teasing of Ichigo in Soul Society, in addition to being her usual antics, also serve the purpose of sussing out his character and whether she can really trust him with Rukia. All she’s really heard before being dispatched on the mission to Soul Society is that Rukia had been sleeping in his closet for 2 months and that the two of them had repeatedly risked their lives for one another, and she’s not happy:

“You idiot, a girl shouldn’t be sleeping in a boy’s room at that age!”

These are just my opinions and should be considered, again, as opinions, and not as a motive to hate me or as words to be worshipped. Read the thing if you're up to and create your own opinions about it

From here on, there's SPOILERS about the chapter and the Bleach Manga, if you want to read those by yourself STOP right here and do NOT read further, also, sorry for my broken English, it's not my first language.

Without further ado...

Kazui Also, i will have nightmares about him from the last panel forever. The fact that he puts a promise with a stranger before her promise to her mother to stay safe and sound is so funny to me ngl (i mean, i can't blame him, he is selfish like his mother)

Kon, I'm sorry you have to put up with this shit daily

Ichigo basically leaves his wife at home to clean and be a trophy wife and looks off for a reason my brain can't comprehend. At least he's still Ichigo and the only intelligent/useful one in the whole chapter. It wasn't very cash money of him to never question if Kazui/Orihime were really okay when danger appeared meanwhile his child was literally doing SHINIGAMI'S WORK AT 9 YEARS OLD behind her mother's back (I bet Ichigo doesn't even know about Kazui doing it or about Orihime reprimanding him for it or about the little sperm champion disobeying his mother). Ichigo most likely sleeps on the couch and drinks himself to sleep every night while crying Rukia's name. I really liked the fact that he is a translator now, but just because in the future that could be my job too.

The 2 new characters are there ig, the one that was "inspired" by the Garyu "trend" (also, an old trend) is a mix of Riruka and Orihime but if this lovechild was dressed like the bullies in Y*ndere S*mulator and I don't know if I like this combination. At least her convo with Ichigo was kinda funny.

Uryuu, Chad, Byakuya and Yoruichi are an hallucination (i don't know if Byak died honestly but I don't think he did, correct me if I'm wrong with anything i wrote here)

Rukia baby looks questionable at best, I miss those panels where Rukia literally glowed from beauty and strength. Here she is worn out or something, idk. Also, her smiling because she heard Ichigo's voice says a lot about her situation. (I liked her bickering with Ichigo about her being a boomer tho and I also liked her calling him out for being a shitty husband). I appreciated her distressed state when she shook Kyoraku when she asked him if the whole 'Sending Captain's in Hell was true" for the whole Ukitake' s ritual situation. More traumas for her incoming, as if her life wasn't already bad.

Keigo and friend don't even question Orihime, Chad and Uryuu not being there with them (unless I didn't see them in the bg).

Ichika is annoying and her relationship with Madarame is a rip-off of Shinji and Hiyori relationships. I find her kinda annoying but better than Kazui for sure. She has Senna's hair, but red and Rukia's front bangs. She has a zanpakuto already and she is ALREADY in a squad apparently. She has basically Ichigo's name and he cares about her more than his own son.

Yumichika is so beautiful (the only thing I regret is that I found cute was when Ichika called him pretty tbh) and I liked the married couple energy he radiates with Ikkaku.

Ikkaku, my boy, is the only one that's still the same, the others design is cool (Izuru Kira supremacy btw, because he is probably not associated with any squad of losers anymore) , but design is not K*bo's problem anyway (at least that).

I also enjoyed Lisa's new design for some reason, less so Isane and Kiyone's hair, the bowlcut energy is strong in those two.

Renji is basically only good for flexing his iPhone and telling Ichika "YOu'Re GoNNa GeT SCoLdED WHen We GO HoMe". Also, not very cash money of Rukia to literally never question where is her daughter giving me very much wish you were never born energy from Ichigo and Rukia.

M*yuri still going freely trough SS is scandalous and he is the second characters that will give me nightmares after dreaming about Kazui.

Good for Urahara that is now the owner of the electronic store of the SS making M*yuri jealous of his wealth.

SS sucks in general before the whole new final twist present in the chapter and even more after sending their comrades to Hell, hope all those who finished there come back to kill all of them. Rukia and Ichigo then can finally stop caring (they never did) for their respective families and start making their love not platonic in Hell. At the end of the day they will end up there unlike their companions and children.

Szayelaporro's appearance was so random but when he called Ichika thing I laughed, I hoped he could finally kill M*yuri but he died. Also, new complicated lore and designs for no reason go BRR. "Hahaha i needed to show up to explain what the fuck is happening before being killed AGAIN moment"

I literally vomited whatever came to mind about the chapter so, I'm sorry if I missed anything or if I sound pissed off, I basically ranted on Tumblr because i don't have no one to talk about animes irl so...

If you red all of this, I want to let you know that you're the best and I'm sorry I wasted probably 10 minutes of your life.

In Christmas event they went full Oriwank and made popular female characters babysit her and be friendly with her. Just like Kubo and novel writers they showed a forced friendship between Orihime and Rukia. Again they are trying to make Rukia fans change their opinion on Orihime and stop hating her.

For all my capslock flailing, I do wish Kubo had refrained from actually printing out the damn chapter title on Yoruichi’s ASS, but I’ll let it slide, because everything else we got was beautiful.  MY THOUGHTS ON THIS CHAPTER, LET ME TELL YOU THEM: