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Aug. 17th, 2012
This is going to be a mess, because I'm shattered, but it's only an update anyway:
Ok, I went out shopping today (I think this will probably end up being how most of my posts start for a while - with a shopping trip) and bought the 41st Bleach volume. I read it to the point where Ulquiorra turns to ash, and had to stop. I just felt that to continue would be to lessen the moment's impact. Anyway, after closing the book, I just felt like sitting there and crying in the middle of the bus.
That part of Bleach has always moved me, and yet, I've never felt the need to justify it until I was just looking up the number of the chapter (it's 354, by the way). It was then that I found this page:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tite-kubo-the-heart
I'm not sure how widespread the viewpoints expressed on this page are in Bleach fandom, but, I must say I found them rather harsh. Yes, Tite Kubo has never been one for making much of backgrounds, but I always felt that he made up for it with nearly always perfect character drawing and design.
Tite Kubo is one of my favourite artists, as, along with Bryan Lee O'Malley and Jamie Hewlett, he's one artist I know who always makes his characters LIVE. Then, yes, I think that page 4 of chapter 354 is pretentious and obvious, but, forgivably so - it was an important character moment which needed emphasis.
Ok, I went out shopping today (I think this will probably end up being how most of my posts start for a while - with a shopping trip) and bought the 41st Bleach volume. I read it to the point where Ulquiorra turns to ash, and had to stop. I just felt that to continue would be to lessen the moment's impact. Anyway, after closing the book, I just felt like sitting there and crying in the middle of the bus.
That part of Bleach has always moved me, and yet, I've never felt the need to justify it until I was just looking up the number of the chapter (it's 354, by the way). It was then that I found this page:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tite-kubo-the-heart
I'm not sure how widespread the viewpoints expressed on this page are in Bleach fandom, but, I must say I found them rather harsh. Yes, Tite Kubo has never been one for making much of backgrounds, but I always felt that he made up for it with nearly always perfect character drawing and design.
Tite Kubo is one of my favourite artists, as, along with Bryan Lee O'Malley and Jamie Hewlett, he's one artist I know who always makes his characters LIVE. Then, yes, I think that page 4 of chapter 354 is pretentious and obvious, but, forgivably so - it was an important character moment which needed emphasis.
I wouldn't call it 'the utmost perfect example of [the] author: “drawing nothing and being paid millions for it”.' Then, there's the allegations that Kubo is a 'professional troll' and that
'his plot is redundant, inconsistent, or just plain stupid. In the Bleach manga, characters have received insane boosts of power from ridiculous plot devices, such as Zaraki Kenpachi becoming much stronger just by using his sword with 2 hands or Yammy going from the 10th strongest espada (number 10) to the strongest (number 0) by eating a lot and then releasing his sword’s power.'
I was fine with most of the leaps in power that happened in the series, I must say, because, to a point, they fitted with the internal logic of the series so far. The plot also was decent enough, to a point. I would say that the series went downhill after the death of Ulquiorra, certainly, but I never saw this as a sign of the laziness of the creator. Indeed, I saw the problems with narrative pacing, redundant and disappearing characters, lost fights and fluctuating power dynamics as a sign of the mangaka having got out of his depth. It seemed to me that he'd had a big, epic plan, but somehow it had gone awry, possibly due to an inability to curb a certain amount of narrative excess. Idk, this might seem like I'm assessing Bleach in a superior way, but, really it's just how I saw the latter part of the series. And, it's not necessarily that I feel that Tite Kubo needs any sort of defending - Christ, he's done well enough to not give a damn about his haters. It's just that I suppose, no matter how much I know 'haters gonna hate' or that haters will always be in a minority, it still depresses me that people feel the need to be like that, instead of thinking about why something is good.
I was fine with most of the leaps in power that happened in the series, I must say, because, to a point, they fitted with the internal logic of the series so far. The plot also was decent enough, to a point. I would say that the series went downhill after the death of Ulquiorra, certainly, but I never saw this as a sign of the laziness of the creator. Indeed, I saw the problems with narrative pacing, redundant and disappearing characters, lost fights and fluctuating power dynamics as a sign of the mangaka having got out of his depth. It seemed to me that he'd had a big, epic plan, but somehow it had gone awry, possibly due to an inability to curb a certain amount of narrative excess. Idk, this might seem like I'm assessing Bleach in a superior way, but, really it's just how I saw the latter part of the series. And, it's not necessarily that I feel that Tite Kubo needs any sort of defending - Christ, he's done well enough to not give a damn about his haters. It's just that I suppose, no matter how much I know 'haters gonna hate' or that haters will always be in a minority, it still depresses me that people feel the need to be like that, instead of thinking about why something is good.
