Turnabout is fair play. After Samu took his first dive into one of my favorite and formative shounen, Rurouni Kenshin, we now turn our attention to one of his – Kubo Tite’s Bleach. It’s a series I’ve only dabbled in lightly despite its status as one of the legendary “Big Three”. So – did it take? Tune in to find out!
Podcast links:
abc
May 8, 2025 at 1:49 pmWow, excited to see you and Samu discuss Bleach! Like Samu, I’m a huge fan of Bleach and it’s what got me into animanga, so it’s very interesting to hear your thoughts on it!
– The discussion on black/white is interesting… I think there was an interview where Kubo said he wanted to name the series Black, then he considered White, and he arrived at Bleach, as in to whiten. There are motifs that really stand out, like the black shinigami uniforms. And there are definitely moments in the manga which were made for manga and didn’t translate as well to the anime.
– Rukia is probably my favorite character from this arc. Love her “human cosplay” as you put it, love her squabbling and teamwork with Ichigo.
– Yeah, Uryuu in this arc feels like Kubo (or his editor) wanted Ichigo to have a rival. Sometimes it even feels like Uryuu is trying too hard to play the rival archetype.
– Urahara is another favorite of mine. And he’s voiced by Shin’ichiro Miki in the anime!
– Jujutsu Kaisen ended, but it definitely took a lot of inspiration from Bleach.
– Yu Yu Hakusho has another connection with Bleach: Noriyuki Abe directed both of their anime adaptaions!
Looking forward to the next arcs!
Guardian Enzo
May 8, 2025 at 2:50 pmThanks for that very kind comment. It was interesting to dive into it for the first time after all these years.