Bleach (manga)

AUTHOR: Kubo, Tite

ARTIST: Tite Kubo (illustrator); Andy Ristaino (letterer); Sean Lee (cover artist)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Burichi, 2001- (English serialization, 2007- )

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2002- (English translation, 2004- )

PUBLISHER: Shueisha (Japanese); VIZ Media (English)

Publication History

Tite Kubo started Bleach in 2001; the manga continues to be serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump and targets boys between ages twelve and eighteen. Because of Bleach’s popularity, Shueisha made the series available in larger volumes. These tankobon (paperback) volumes have sold well in Japan. Bleach has also been popular in the United States, where the manga is published by VIZ Media.

Plot

Ichigo, Bleach’s protagonist, appears to be a normal high school freshman. However, for as long as he can remember, he has been able to see ghosts. Eventually, he encounters the soul reaper Rukia, who is amazed that Ichigo can see her; she decides to explain who she is. As they talk, however, an evil spirit attacks Ichigo’s family. Rukia’s fight with the “hollow” (bad soul) is unsuccessful because of Ichigo’s interference, and their only chance for survival is for Rukia to turn Ichigo into a substitute soul reaper. Ichigo turns out to be an incredibly strong soul reaper and defeats the hollow without much effort.

The next day, everything seems to be back to normal. However, when Ichigo gets to class, Rukia is there. She explains that she meant to give Ichigo only half of the power with which he has been endowed, but because of his strength, Ichigo drained her completely. As a result, Rukia is unable to return to Soul Society; thus, Ichigo has to help her perform her duties.

Ichigo learns that soul reapers protect the balance between Earth and Soul Society. Their mission is to guide the good souls to Soul Society and vanquish the hollows. As Ichigo learns more about the duties of a soul reaper, he hones his combat skills by fighting several hollows. The first hollows Ichigo fights are connected to Ichigo’s close friends Orihime and Chad, who both develop psychic powers later.

Ichigo meets Ishida, the last descendant of the Quincy clan, and they fight. To demonstrate the fighting prowess of his clan, Ishida challenges Ichigo to a hollow-vanquishing contest. The competition gets out of control and turns into a fight for survival. When a Menos Grande (a gigantic hollow) appears, Ichigo only barely manages to defeat it.

In the second main story arc, other soul reapers from Soul Society arrive. They are not pleased that a human possesses the power of a soul reaper and wish to kill Ichigo and take Rukia back to Soul Society’s inner circle, Seireitei, to judge her for her actions. Ichigo and his friends battle the soul reapers but are not strong enough to beat their enemies; thus, Rukia is taken.

After special training designed to help him communicate with the soul of his sword, Ichigo, along with his friends, invades Soul Society to rescue Rukia. Entering Soul Society, the group fights various battles but is still not strong enough to face the soul-reaper captains. They retreat in order to regain their strength and train. Soul Society and its leaders also need to reorganize their defenses because of the mysterious murder of a captain.

Rukia’s impending execution sets the plot in motion again. Ichigo and his friends struggle to free her. Ichigo even manages to defeat Rukia’s stepbrother, Byakuya, one of the strongest captains. The execution has been only a distraction: Behind the scenes, Aizen and Gin, two captains, have staged a rebellion against Soul Society. They hope to steal the Hogyoku, a mystical sword artifact used to execute soul reapers. With the Hogyoku, Aizen and Gin escape into Hueco Mundo, the world of the hollows.

In the third story arc, Ichigo and the captains of Soul Society unite to battle Aizen. As Soul Society rebuilds, Ichigo meets a half hollow, half soul reaper named Shinji. When Karakura Town is attacked by the Arrancar (an incredibly strong breed of hollows created by Aizen), Ichigo begins training with Shinji.

Aizen is interested in Orihime powers. He sends two of the Espada, the strongest of the Arrancar, to take her to Hueco Mundo. When Ichigo finds out Orihime has been kidnapped, he sets out for Hueco Mundo.

Volumes

• Bleach:Strawberry and the Soul Reapers (2004). Collects issues 1-7. Ichigo meets Rukia, who is wounded when a hollow attacks Ichigo’s family. Ichigo becomes a substitute soul reaper.

• Bleach:Goodbye Parakeet, Goodnight My Sista (2004). Collects issues 8-16. Chad is haunted by a hollow. Ichigo fights and vanquishes the malignant spirit.

• Bleach:Memories in the Rain (2004). Collects issues 17-25. Ichigo has memories of his mother, who died when he was a child.

• Bleach:Quincy Archer Hates You (2004). Collects issues 26-34. A famous psychic brings his television show to Karakura Town. Ichigo uses all his strength to prevent the psychic from getting hurt. In the process, Ichigo meets Ishida, the last descendant of the Quincy archer warriors.

• Bleach:Right Arm of the Giant (2005). Collects issues 35-43. Ishida challenges Ichigo to a contest to see who can kill the most hollows. In doing do, Ishida endangers the people in Karakura Town.

• Bleach:The Death Trilogy Overture (2005). Collects issues 44-52. As the contest continues, the balance between life and death shifts, and a huge hollow appears, whom Ichigo vanquishes.

• Bleach:The Broken Coda (2005). Collects issues 53-61. Soul reapers are upset to find that Rukia has given her powers to Ichigo. A group of soul reapers brings Rukia back to Soul Society.

• Bleach:The Blade and Me (2005). Collects issues 62-70. Ichigo is beaten by Byakuya and realizes he needs further training. He discovers that his sword has a soul and that he needs to communicate with it.

• Bleach:Fourteen Days for Conspiracy (2005). Collects issues 71-79. Ichigo and his friends set out to save Rukia and encounter numerous hardships along the way.

• Bleach:Tattoo on the Sky (2005). Collects issues 80-88. With the help of Kukaku, Ichigo and his friends infiltrate Soul Society.

• Bleach:A Star and a Stray Dog (2006). Collects issues 89-98. When they enter the inner city of Soul Society, the group of friends scatters. Fights break out. Ichigo defeats his opponent and discovers where Rukia is imprisoned.

• Bleach:Flower on the Precipice (2006). Collects issues 99-107. While Ichigo and his friends are infiltrating Seireitei, one of the soul-reaper captains is found dead.

• Bleach:The Undead (2006). Collects issues 108-115. Ichigo fights a desperate battle with the captain Kenpachi.

• Bleach:White Tower Rocks (2006). Collects issues 116-123. After defeating Kenpachi, Ichigo goes back to training.

• Bleach:Beginning of the Death of Tomorrow (2006). Collects issues 124-130. Ishida faces a sadistic soul-reaper doctor. Desperate to survive, Ichida uses a move that will grant him great strength at the cost of losing his powers forever.

• Bleach:Night of Wijnruit (2006). Collects issues 131-139. Rukia’s execution date is moved up; but additional problems seem to be developing in Seireitei.

• Bleach:Rosa Rubicundiur, Lilio Candidior (2007). Collects issues 140-149. Rukia’s soul-reaper friends decide to help Ichigo.

• Bleach:The Deathberry Returns (2007). Collects issues 150-158. Tension mounts as Rukia’s execution draws closer and Ichigo is nowhere to be found.

• Bleach:The Black Moon Rising (2007). Collects issues 159-168. Ichigo returns from his training and fights Byakuya.

• Bleach:End of Hypnosis (2007). Collects issues 169-178. As Ichigo defeats Byakuya, the true magnitude of the rebellion comes to the fore. Aizen and Gin have used Rukia’s impending execution as a ruse.

• Bleach:Be My Family or Not (2007). Collects issues 179-187. Aizen and Gin have stolen Hogyoku; they begin preparing to attack the human world. In Seireitei, new alliances form. On Earth, Ichigo meets a mysterious, strong man.

• Bleach:Conquistadores (2008). Collects issues 188-197. Two Arrancar arrive in Karakura Town.

• Bleach: ¡Mala Suerte! (2008). Collects issues 198-205. Grimmjow secretly travels to Earth in an attempt to kill Ichigo.

• Bleach:Immanent God Blues (2008). Collects issues 206-214. Ichigo is losing against Grimm-jow, but the fight abruptly ends when Grimmjow must return to Hueco Mundo.

• Bleach:No Shaking Throne (2008). Collects issues 215-223. Ichigo finds that controlling his inner hollow is harder than he thought.

• Bleach:The Mascaron Drive (2009). Collects issues 224-233. Aizen takes interest in Orihime’s powers and mounts an attack force to kidnap her.

• Bleach:Goodbye, Halycon Days (2009). Collects issues 234-242. The Arrancar give Orihime time to say good-bye to her friends but promise to kill her friends if she reveals their plot.

• Bleach:Baron’s Lecture Full-Course (2009). Collects issues 243-251. Ichigo and friends decide to invade Hueco Mundo.

• Bleach:The Slashing Opera (2009). Collects issues 252-260. As the invaders make their way into Hueco Mundo, they make friends with three seemingly innocent hollows.

• Bleach:There Is No Heart Without You (2010). Collects issues 261-269. Includes more fighting between the invaders and the lesser Arrancar.

• Bleach:Don’t Kill My Volupture (2010). Collects issues 270-278. Ichigo is beaten by Ulquiorra. As his heart is pierced, only Orihime’s healing powers can save him.

• Bleach:Howling (2010). Collects issues 279-286. A fight breaks out between Ichigo and Grimmjow. During the fight, flashbacks reveal Grimmjow’s past.

• Bleach:The Bad Joke (2010). Collects issues 287-295. Arrancar arrives just as the fight between Ichigo and Grimmjow finishes. Ichigo does not stand a chance against this new enemy.

• Bleach:King of the Kill (2011). Collects issues 296-305. The fight between Nnoitra and Nel continues.

• Bleach:Higher than the Moon (2011). Collects issues 306-315. Reinforcements from Seireitei help turn the tide in the fight against the Arrancar. Several captain soul reapers help Ichigo.

• Bleach: Turn Back the Pendulum (2011). Collects “Turn Back the Pendulum” 1-9. This volume looks to the past, revealing dramatic moments in Soul Society.

• Bleach: Beauty Is So Solitary (2011). Collects issues 316-322 and “Turn Back the Pendulum” 10 and 11. Shinji finds that Aizen has betrayed him. In the present, a grand battle begins.

• Bleach: Fear for Fight (2012). Aizen and his underlings try to destroy Karakura Town, and Ichigo and the others stand sentry over the four pillars that protect the town.

• Bleach: El Verdugo (2012). Features the continuation of the fight over Karakura Town. General Yamamoto joins the fight.

Characters

• Ichigo Kurosaki, the protagonist, is a teenage boy who is quick to anger and somewhat sarcastic but good-natured. He treasures his friends and family, and will do anything to protect them.

• Rukia Kuchiki is a relatively old soul reaper who looks like a teenage girl. She has dark hair and is rather small. She values duty and honor but holds friendship and sacrifice in higher regard.

• Orihime Inoue is a beautiful girl with red hair. She is shy and has a secret crush on Ichigo. She develops strong healing powers. She is kidnapped in the third story arc.

• Yasutora “Chad” Sado is a half-Spanish, half-Japanese teenage boy. His huge size and strength make him a formidable fighter. He rarely speaks and keeps to himself but always protects his friends.

• Ishida Uryu is a smart but silent teenager who wears glasses. He is the last descendent of the ancient human-hollow fighting clan the Quincy. Because the Quincys have been murdered by the soul reapers, he hates Soul Society.

• Renji Abarai is a teenage soul reaper who was raised in the poorest part of Soul Society. His personality is similar to Ichigo’s.

• Byakuya Kuchiki, an antagonist, is the ideal image of the Japanese samurai warrior. He is silent and values duty and honor before anything else. Though he is Rukia’s brother, he is the leader of the squad that takes her back to Soul Society to be executed.

• Aizen Sosuke, the primary antagonist, loses his dorky hairdo and glasses and assumes the look of a true villain as he leads the rebellion. Aizen is the driving force behind the plot of the second and third story arcs.

Artistic Style

Kubo’s style has become less dense as the series has progressed. The pages of the first chapters are crowded, with illustrations and text balloons fighting for panel space. Kubo has an acute eye for detail, which can be seen in his overuse of shadows and blacks in the first chapters. Initially, Bleach looked as much like a horror manga as it did an action-based manga. However, it has evolved into a primarily action-based manga. Thus, Kubo uses less shadow and less crowded action pages; in fact, the action often occupies many consecutive pages.

Bleach’s illustrations have a somewhat different feel to them than those of other shonen manga. Kubo’s sharp and dark style gives Bleach a more mature feeling than Fairy Tail (2008- ) and Naruto (2003- ), for example, and makes the series Artistically more akin to manga developed for adult audiences.

Themes

Bleach is a coming-of-age story. As Ichigo and his friends fight various battles, they find out more about themselves and what is important to them. As with other shonen, however, the coming-of-age process is continually thwarted by the realities of comic-book publishing and the endless expansion of the series because of its popularity. As a result, the characters make the same mistakes and often arrive at the same conclusions. In other words, Bleach’s characters hardly evolve; although the series has more than ten years worth of adventures, Ichigo has not really matured and has roughly the same opinions and problems that he had at the beginning.

Sword fights are the most important and appealing aspect to Bleach; thus, power is an important theme as well. Ichigo fights to protect his loved ones. One subtle aspect of Bleach, however, is that Ichigo also discovers that he is addicted to the thrill of fighting. Ichigo is somewhat disgusted by his bloodlust, an aspect of his character that is not developed thoroughly; therefore, the philosophical implications of Bleach are rather bleak. In the end, characters who fight to protect always vanquish those who fight just for the thrill.

Family and friends also play an important thematic role. Not only are they safe havens to which Ichigo can return after his fights, but his fights almost always involve protecting his family or friends. Whether one should also protect those that are not friends or family is referenced only briefly, when Ichigo is asked to perform the duties of a soul reaper. Ichigo finds that he cannot sit by idly as innocents get hurt.

Impact

Bleach is as much a continuation of the standard manga tropes as it is an influence on the creation of such tropes. It is influenced greatly by other successful shonen manga such as Dragon Ball (2003-2004), Naruto, and One Piece (2003- ). With these manga, it shares a common style and a set of morals. However, Bleach differs from its predecessors in the dark quality of its illustration and the increased quantity of explicit violence and bloodshed. Thus, Bleach has cleared the way for a breed of more violent and darker manga marketed to an adolescent audience.

Bleach has also become one of the most popular manga series in the English-speaking world. After the groundbreaking popularity of Dragon Ball and Naruto, Bleach has introduced many English-speaking youths to manga. Even though anime and manga had already found their way to the West by the 1980’s, they mainly remained underground forms of popular culture. However, Naruto and Bleach can be bought in most bookstores in the United States, and anime adaptations have been translated and aired on Cartoon Network and have been released online by VIZ.

Rather disappointingly, there has hardly been any serious critical work done on Bleach. Bleach’s popularity and its lack of originality mean it is generally ignored by most manga critics. This is a shame, as in-depth analysis of Bleach might provide insights into why it is so popular and what its impact on contemporary mainstream culture is.

Films

Bleach: Memories of Nobody. Directed by Noriyuki Abe. Gekijo Ban Bleach Seisaku Iinkai/Studio Pierrot/Toho Company, 2006. This anime stars Masakazu Morita as Ichigo and Fumiko Orikasa as Rukia. Though its basic themes are the same, the film does not follow the narrative of the manga.

Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion. Directed by Noriyuki Abe. Gekijo Ban Bleach Seisaku Iinkei/Studio Pierrot/Toho Company, 2007. This anime stars Morita as Ichigo and Orikasa as Rukia. Ichigo and Rukia have to fight for their lives as they try to stop an unknown enemy from changing Seireitei forever.

Bleach: Fade to Black. Directed by Noriyuki Abe. Gekijo Ban Bleach Seisaku Iinkei/Studio Pierrot/Toho Company, 2008. This anime stars Morita as Ichigo and Orikasa as Rukia. Ichigo faces an enemy with the power to wipe out his friends’ memories.

Bleach: The Hell Chapter. Directed by Noriyuki Abe. Gekijo Ban Bleach Seisaku Iinkai/Studio Pierrot/Toho Company, 2010. This anime stars Morita as Ichigo and Orikasa as Rukia. A new enemy appears to threaten Ichigo’s family. Ichigo and his friends must save their town and friends.

Television Series

Bleach. Directed by Noriyuki Abe. Dentsu Music and Entertainment/Studio Pierrot, 2004- . Though some differences exist in the way that the story is told, this anime adaptation of Bleach follows the narrative of the manga.

Further Reading

Kishimoto, Masashi. Naruto (2003- ).

Mashima, Hiro. Fairy Tail (2008- ).

Oda, Eiichiro. One Piece (2003- ).

Bibliography

Born, Christopher E. “In the Footsteps of the Master: Confucian Values in Anime and Manga.” ASIANetworkExchange 17, no. 1 (Fall, 2009): 39-53.

Cools, Valérie. “The Phenomenology of Contemporary Mainstream Manga.” Image [&] Narrative 12, no. 1 (2011): 63-82.

Gallacher, Lesley-Anne. The Sleep of Reason: On Practices of Reading Shonen Manga. PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 2010.

Handa, Issei, and Daniel Komen. The Bleach Breakdown: The Unofficial Guide. Tokyo, Japan: Cocoro Books, 2007.

Kubo, Tite. All Colour but the Black:The Art of Bleach. San Francisco: VIZ Media, 2008.