Life Gaiden

Let's assume that, at this point, I'm just really, really not going to stick to the schedule which I had set myself for these posts.

Yesterday, I had a pretty horrible day, with pain, with raging fever and with my whole body turning into one big rash.

However, I still managed to read the newest Bleach chapter, and this page made my day:



Because I would recognise that elbow anywhere.

Now, I'll admit, I've always had mixed feelings about the possibility that Grimmjow might return. On the one hand, I hated the fact that Tite Kubo had left it tantalisingly uncertain as to whether the Sexta Espada had actually copped it from Nnoitra's blow. Dangling threads are, indeed, one of the main things that annoy me about Bleach, not just because they are left for interminable amounts of time before being addressed, but also because most of them could do with not having been planted in the first place. Part of the reason why I like Fairy Tail so much is that it is a master class at swerving all the problems with pacing which Blecah falls into like a champ. But, it's this annoyance more than anything else that made me hope that we would one day find out Grimmjow's ultimate fate.

But then, I got to thinking about the logistics of the thing, and I couldn't figure out how or why there would be a reason to return to the arrancar after Aizen's defeat ... which shows my lack of imagination. I would never have thought up the idea of shinigami and arrancar sharing an enemy.

By this chapter, though, I was expecting this revelation and looking forward to it. I mean, if we'd already been shown that the Tres Bestia, Loly Aivirrne and Tier Harribel were still alive, when they had looked pretty dead last time we saw them, it was a bit of a given that Grimmjow would also return. (Oh, while I'm mentioning Tier Harribel, I have to register my outrage at the torture-porn-style full page picture she was given in Chpter 485. It's seriously disgusting.) Though, by now, Bleach is beginning to remind me of a short reading exercise-type piece I once came across, when I was about eight-years-old. I think it was Victorian. Anyway, it was called 'The Chinese Theatre', and it described it as customary in China for actors playing characters who had died to get up and walk off as soon as attention was diverted from them by the action on stage. I can just imagine Sun Sun, Mila Rose and Apache sidling off back to Hueco Mundo while we were all distracted watching Ichigo fight Gin or Aizen.

And I suppose it was simplistic of me to assume that the end of Aizen's part in the story would also be the end of the arrancar. Part of what had always made the arrancar so interesting was the fact that none of them ever seemed to act out of a sense of unified ideology. Each one was a law unto themselves, with only Aizen's powerful influence keeping them in check. And, I suppose it would be a massive dangling plot thread to not show us how the arrancar act without Aizen's influence. Therefore, it makes it not only possible, but even likely that, under the right circumstances a truce could be made between shinigami and arrancar - even though the operative phrase there is 'under the right circumstances'. This is with Grimmjow being a different kettle of chips to say, Renji.

But, I'm optimistic about this development overall - especially if it means I can see my favourite character again. And do I care that this was probably done only for fan-service? Of course not! My fandom now knows no shame! Who am I kidding? I missed that character and Heaven knows I’m looking forward to this. I can’t wait to see his happy little face as he attacks Quincies. Kinda reminds me of this video actually, something else which makes my day every time I look it up …

As I said in my mission statement/profile bio, the intended aim of this blog is to psychoanalyse the reiatsu out of my love of Bleach and various other Bleach/Japan-related things. I thought a good place to start with this would be to talk about my recent re-reading of Bleach Vol. 40, titled 'The Lust'.


Now, I think it would also be useful to talk about the circumstances which led to this re-reading. I had bought this volume while visiting the London Forbidden Planet for this very purpose. I went in for the one book and left with four (Bleach volumes 25, 32 and 40, along with the second Scott Pilgrim volume - darn you sales!). The emotions that I went through while browsing and buying and in the aftermath, though, were intriguing. For one thing, I got the feeling I always get in Forbidden Planet - a slight feeling of fear and being out of one's depth. However, unlike when I've gone in there before to buy Hellsing volumes or Umbrella Academy comics, I was satisfied that my purchases were to be mainstream enough to be unobjectionable to the staff, whom I am always, always, always sure judge my taste. Yet I felt different when deciding which one to buy. I was talking in what I hoped was a knowledgeable manner to my friend next to me in a bid to look like I belonged there, but inside I felt like ... You know that one bit in Kill Bill Vol. 1? The bit where Uma Thurman's character goes to see Hattori Hanzo and he shows her his collection of swords, and there's that lovely, almost holy music playing in the background and she goes up to the wall of katana in wonderment, yet she hesitates before touching one of them, silently asking the creator's permission?



That is exactly how I felt when looking at those Bleach volumes. It was something else. But then, having chosen and bought the books, I found that I was sweating and felt slightly sick. I was simultaneously feeling overwhelmed by my positive emotions and feeling the same guilty thrill as if I had stolen the stuff.

However, the guilt I felt was explained later when I showed my purchases to my mother, she pronounced it to be 'trash' which wouldn't get me a degree (more on why she's wrong another time, perhaps). I must say I found her choice of word ironic, considering the word to be Ulquiorra Cifer's main catchphrase early in his Bleach appearances.

But, when actually reading the books - just before I fell asleep at night - my feelings were more akin to the Hattori Hanzo scene. It felt like my soul was being fed by something lovely. Strangely, Bleach is one of the few books which I would definitely say I consume as I read - it has that sort of feeling - but it isn't like fast food, tasty but bad for me. Reading Bleach when I'm in the mood makes me feel like all is right with the world. I think the feeling comes from both the beauty of the art (I have never seen a better aesthetic in any other manga) and just that release of watching an honourable fight. Violence in itself is never beautiful - movies like The Expendables show us this - but the idealised violence of Bleach, which can never truly exist in this world, acts as a sort of antidote to my soul's ills, to be taken, not frequently, lest its effects wear thin, but certainly in times of need.