i rly like bleach :(

 

 

(i am aware that this cat is what i look like right now)

Intro:

There’s an inherent problem with discussing the positive qualities of a divisive work. That Is, people who disagree with you/who have made their minds up will think you’re deflecting or trying to “justify” liking that thing. It happens all the time, especially in the anime fandom. I’m guilty of it myself! I constantly scoff at fans of things I’ve decided aren’t good, like fuckin Darling in the Franxx, which is a bad practice when it comes to enjoying media. I fully admit to that. It’s a problem.

            I say this because I fucking LOVE Tite Kubo’s Bleach. Not just like, “oh I like this thing a lot” which is how I am with most battle series, which is also just how most people are with media. I finished that shit and gave it a tentative like, 7.5/10. I thought it was fun and good and had a lot of cool shit and great characters. It peaks at volume 48, but every series has its clear peak, and some have it earlier.

            But then something happened. Whenever I consume media I really like to find something that will stick with me. I don’t pick what I dive into easily. It’s why I don’t really keep up with serialized art. Because that shit’s not done yet, and I like to see if something from like, say, Spring 2020 will really stick around in the public discourse for a while. And obviously I don’t follow this rule hard and fast, I’m only human and plenty of serialized art does catch my eye enough for me to decide to make the emotional commitment of “this isn’t over and may disappoint hard with my time investment.” And also, when I wait to see what stuff sticks around, it’s usually the stuff that has more meat to chew on, more stuff to think about and analyze and stew on.

Which is why I like to look for finished stuff, older stuff. And when I find something I decide to consume I really, REALLY try to stick it out to the end, even if it’s not like, clicking with me. I’ve had so many times where I’m like “yeah this is fine” but a work really knocks that ending out of the park, or has that turning point that makes the investment feel worth it, way more than those disappointments (so far.) I also just like, LOVE analyzing stuff. I prefer having meat to chew on. Textured relationships, complicated characters, intricate plotting, something to keep me thinking long after I finish it. I want to be sitting a week later and have a thought float across my mind that makes me go “OH FUCK!” about something.

            All this to say that when I finish something I want it to be something that stays with me. I don’t like discarding media when I’m done with it. I finished Neon Genesis Evangelion seven fuckin years ago at this point and not a day goes by where it doesn’t cross my mind. Vinland Saga is my favorite manga ever and I think about the farming arc constantly. The visual novel The House in Fata Morgana is a perfect example of something I wasn’t super hot on at first but as I kept going it kept improving on itself, making smart writing choices only to fucking EXPLODE in quality halfway through where it gives up the goat, pulls back the curtains, and starts smacking you left and right with insanely intelligent and emotionally charged writing decisions. I want media to feel special.
            So when I finished Bleach and I was like “hm people told me this was shitty? But it was good. Great, even” I trawled the internet to find out why people didn’t like it. Most of it boils down to the same like “I dropped off after Soul Society/the filler arc between Soul Society and Arrancar turned me off” discourse, or people going “Kubo clearly gave up after Soul Society, he just wanted to draw cool shit and got roped into writing a plot… so stinky.” “Hueco Mundo is soulless” etc. And then, Bleach stuck. It stuck with me HARD. It lives in my mind rent-free now. I love it.

            That cynicism around the rhetoric of “Kubo gave up” feels so unearned and pessimistic to me. You aren’t Tite Kubo. You don’t know his thought processes. Assuming the author’s mental state is so counterintuitive to thinking about media. Like, when Soul Society ends, Tite Kubo has set up this fucking insane plot hook that had been led up to up ALL ARC. He then goes on to deliver on that plot hook in spades. It fucking owns!

If you don’t like a certain plot beat or aesthetic decision or whatever that’s fine, media is subjective, but you do a disservice to yourself and to like, how art is made when you look at something like the Hueco Mundo invasion and immediately disregard it out of hand because of like, a gut reaction of “oh but didn’t he just save Rukia? Now he’s saving another friend?”

And like, don’t get me wrong, Bleach isn’t perfect but I feel like everything before the Fullbring arc is clearly and obviously intentional if you’re not a cynic. I’d go so far as to say that the first 48 volumes of Bleach, the pre-timeskip arcs, are like, pretty close to a perfect battle series. At least for me.

I’m also going to be focusing on the first 48 volumes (Substitute Shinigami vols 1-8, Soul Society 9-20, and Aizen 21-48) because I feel that it’s clear that Bleach peaks at volume 48. Everything after the time skip is obviously a dip in quality, but it’s still nowhere near as bad as people say it is. Like, it’s mostly just fanservice for the characters and emotional payoffs that aren’t necessary but hit because of how lovable the cast is. Also, I love the final volume of the series a lot and think the ending is good even if it’s not as bombastic as it could have been. Bleach is genuinely, honestly just misunderstood, and that misunderstanding comes from how it doesn’t hold the reader’s hand.

Storycraft:

            Stories are not, and again this is my opinion, just things to passively consume and go “that made me feel emotion.” That’s a valid way to consume media, of course, but stories are also more than just the text on the page. More than the emotions that it makes you feel. More than just quote-unquote “unique” story ideas or crazy plot gimmicks. Stories are things to be picked apart and thought about on more than a purely textual level of “this is what happens without any inferences or analysis.”

Also, A story doesn’t need to spell everything out for you. It shouldn’t have to. But so many anime series do just that. Anime will sit the viewer down and exposit lore, plot, characterization, etc. at the viewer without any nuance or depth and people will eat that shit up. Hell, if it’s done well, with texture like in Attack on Titan’s basement reveal, I eat that shit up.

            But Bleach really doesn’t do that. Outside of the usage of flashback-no-jutsu, a storytelling tool long derided despite how well it can be used for dramatic effect/heartstring pulling/really concise and efficient characterization, Bleach expects more of the reader. It tells its story and conveys its themes through text, visuals, and even the absence of text. All basic storytelling methods, obviously, no duh. Saying a story “tells its story through text/visuals/whatever” is kiddie shit. But it feels like something that needs to be explained sometimes. Especially to a wider fandom that seemingly doesn’t get what an “inference” is half the time.

            So when I say something like Bleach tells its story/conveys its themes through an absence of text, I mean the things that characters don’t say to each other. How they act. How characters like Gin Ichimaru and Soskue Aizen lie through their teeth, or how a character like Grimmjow expresses himself through his actions, through violence. How Tosen and Shuhei’s relationship deteriorates through their lack of communication. Shinji never opening up to and getting to know Aizen leading to basically EVERYTHING that happens in the series. How Isshin acts around Ichigo before the reveal that he’s a Soul Reaper too.

 

Visual analysis:

            This brings me to the visual storytelling of Bleach. One of my bigger sticking points is the derision of specifically Hueco Mundo itself. Many people (my mind wanders to Super Eyepatch Wolf and his videos on Bleach) will analyze the Soul Society and its denizens to death. How the Soul Society is designed after feudal Japan. How its visuals, to a Japanese reader, will convey a sense of age. The characters all have stories about being trapped in a cycle of toxicity and violence perpetuated by the aristocracy. The architecture in the inner Soul Society, the seireitei, is fucking massive. Buildings tower over the cast. It’s oppressive and claustrophobic. The Soul Society and its customs are clearly archaic – rooted in tradition over logic. Bleach’s worldbuilding follows this through-line, one of thematic visual metaphor over the concrete, “this is a real place” worldbuilding that exists in, say, One Piece.

            So when Ichigo and the Gang roll up into Hueco Mundo and they find a barren wasteland devoid of life, it felt pretty fuckin clear to me what Kubo was going for. For one, the empty wasteland of Hueco Mundo is oppressive as well, but it’s also very alien. Instead of the claustrophobic bureaucracy of the Soul Society there is the suffocatingly vast desert. There is no society here, it is a land ruled by beasts. Coupled with the Espada (and other arrancar) who are like, obvious parallels to the soul reapers, and the animalistic nature of life in Hueco Mundo, shit’s meant to represent raw emotion and instinct. The Soul Society is an ancient, tradition-based culture full of people and civilized (to a point) life, with all of its ups and downs. Hueco Mundo is the opposite. Like Thomas Hobbes-ass fuckin “life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" ass shit. Hobbes, in that quote, is describing the “natural” state of mankind, an animalistic life. The Soul Society is rigid, emotionless tradition. Hueco Mundo is wild, animalistic instinct.
            This is reflected in the ways that the Espada/Arrancar mirror the Gotei 13. In the Soul Society you get the rigid structure of the squads, where outside of petty politics, it’s a system that is ruled by tradition and rules. The Espada, on the other hand, is a chaotic free-for-all to grab the top spot with people undermining and even killing each other constantly in order to gain power.
            I could go through and make a bunch of comparisons between a whole lot of the Arrancar and the heroes, but I’m gonna leave it at specifically Ichigo/Grimmjow and Kenpachi/Nnoitra. If I wanted to keep being pretentious I would bring up the Jungian idea of the shadow self that’s ever-present in the Persona series, where Jung states the shadow to be the unknown dark side of the personality. According to him, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else.

            Ichigo is a a hotheaded, kind man driven by a “morally good” purpose so to speak. He wants to help people. He was molded this way by his upbringing and society. Duh, obviously, no shit. “A person is molded by their upbringing” is character writing 101. But then you look at Grimmjow. Grimmjow is, intentionally, a mirror of Ichigo. His personality is  also hotheaded and he’s driven by a purpose that had Ichigo, a delinquent, been brought up in a more toxic environment he very clearly could have had. That is, Grimmjow is motivated by anger and the lust to be validated. He wants to be strong, and he wants people to know he is strong.

Also, and this is another obvious one, Ichigo and Grimmjow are Orange and Blue respectively. Complimentary colors. Their personalities are really one in the same, Ichigo was simply allowed to be nice, taught to care, whereas Grimmjow, through his instinct and existence as a hollow in Hueco Mundo, became an angry, competitive person. Grimmjow, having no other course of life ahead of him, became the way he is because in Hueco Mundo life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Had he not become strong, had he not become selfish, he would have perished. He had to be the king.

            Then you have Kenpachi and Nnoitra. Kenpachi is presented in the Soul Society as someone who lives for the fight. Combat is the air he breathes and it’s so ingrained in his personality that a fight should be fair and honorable that he intentionally dampens his power level so it’s fairer. When he finally learns his bankai, it’s literally to make a fight perfectly even. Then you have his arrancar mirror, Nnoitra. Nnoitra is a physical embodiment of a fighter’s id. He lives for the bloodlust. To crush his enemies underfoot. He does not care about the power imbalance, he just wishes to win. He’s also, design wise, not just completely opposite of Kenpachi’s bulky man muscle, being a skinny twig boy, but also reminiscent of Unohana, the previous kenpachi, with his long straight black hair. There’s also the whole “mirrored eyepatch thing” This tracks for so many of the arrancar and soul reapers.

 

“Hueco Mundo is just soul society again”

            No it’s not, the Orihime rescue is like not even a third of the Aizen arc, content wise. Rescuing Orihime is also given different narrative weight because we, the reader, know she was coerced, but the characters do not. For all they know, she defected. Alongside this, who gives a shit if a similar plot beat occurs in a story. Shit happens all the time and the Aizen arc is literally way more than just the Orihime rescue. This whole “Bleach repeats arc structure” is a bad faith criticism that ignores the visoreds, Turn Back the Pendulum, and the fake Karakura town stretch. This brings my point back around to “think about shit a bit more and stop being so cynical.” Art is deliberate. People who make art for a living don’t fucking half-ass it. Especially not someone working on a clear passion project. Like, Tite Kubo went on record to say that, had he not been pressured into starting TYBW early, he would have had more arcs between fullbring and TYBW. Stop being silly.

 

Emotional throughline:

 

            Bleach has an emotional maturity and depth to it that I feel is rare in battle series. Much like how its worldbuilding is designed to invoke strong visual metaphor over being concrete, “real” worlds, the way it handles its characters and their emotions is on a similar wavelength. Many battle series have characters just fuckin, scream their feelings, or be super blunt, or never lie or whatever. Bleach doesn’t do that. On top of that, Bleach’s cast, despite being so young overall, feels so much more mature than other battle series. The way they carry themselves, how they look, how they emote, it’s a far cry from the Narutos and One Pieces and My Heroes of the genre, works where characters are very emotionally charged and vocal.

            Characters in Bleach lie. They internalize things. Characters like Gin keep their heart so close to their chest that they’ll be lying through their teeth, but their face is rendered so that you see the pain they’re keeping inside. They don’t just fly off the handle and go on speeches about friendship, they show how they care through action and dialogue that shows that friendship, not just tells it. People act like humans, not characters. Their relationships are intimate and complicated and painful and real.

            And like, again, Bleach doesn’t tell you this. It shows you this. Sometimes through flashbacks but mostly through dialogue and interactions that are subtle. Bleach expects the reader to intuit things. To make inferences. To read between lines and understand the characters as people in a way that other battle series don’t do nearly as well.

 

Ok I don’t really know where I’m going with this anymore:

 

            I dunno Bleach fuckin owns dude ok? I went into it last year with zero to negative expectations and I came out of it with one of the most emotionally mature examples of a battle series I’ve ever gone through. The art owns, the cast owns, the themes own, the scenarios own, the powers own, the metaphors own, it’s just like, Fuck.

            And obviously I don’t expect any opinions to be changed after this, I just wanted to get these words out of my head in some coherent way. Bleach means so much to me and I know to people who dislike it this just seems like “n..nonlnon .no I  it’s G o OO GOOD I p-p-p-rpomise” but like. It is good. It’s fucking great.

            If you have zero opinion on Bleach still, great! Give it a shot. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. Obviously tastes are different. I just love this series a lot. Too much probably. And I wanted to just fuckin get why, to some degree out on the page. Bleach is a series that I’m going to be thinking about and digesting and picking apart forever because of how hard the characters and themes resonated with me. That’s so subjective it hurts.

But you never know, even if you don’t do it with Bleach specifically, go into the next piece of media you consume with a positive mindset. Sometimes you’ll get burned and it’ll just be bad, but if something makes you go “why?” don’t just leave it at that. Continue. Ask “why” and then look at the text and figure it out. It’s fulfilling and engaging and fun!!!!!

Worm's Delve into Lupin 2/?

(first post here: https://info-worms.blogspot.com/2020/01/worms-delve-into-lupin-1.html )
     

    So here I am, almost one year later, with a couple new Lupin things to talk about, and one thing I've already seen making a comeback as my thoughts have matured on it. Lupin's a franchise I've been really into, even though I'm taking things slow. It's not perfect, but I just really enjoy every time I dip my toes in. The three things I'll be touching on this post are the 2015 season of the anime (Part IV), the 3dcg movie Lupin the IIIrd the First, and a retouch on Castle of Cagliostro!

Lupin the IIIrd Part IV

(myanimelist)

    This was my first TV Lupin series. I had a lot of fun with it! It's also a huge mixed bag. Part 4 tries to juggle two things here, basically. The episodic nature Lupin as a franchise lends itself to, and a grand overarching plot about some goofy nonsense that kept interrupting the good episodic content. First I'll shower the praises on the parts that deserve it.

    Music's good, but a Lupin property having good music isn't a surprise.

    The visuals are top-notch. The production is insane. The character designs are clean as hell, they animate even better, and the color work is really FUCKING good. Part 4 probably has my favorite Goemon design, even. The pink haori really pops.

    The episodic content is really good. Single episode heists or focus episodes for different members of the gang or really touching emotional episodes abound. It's where the season really shines. Especially when Rebecca, the anime-original character - Lupin's brand new wife no-less! - is not around to drag things down.

    And this is where the cracks show for me. For every good episode, there's an annoying one, or dare I say even a bad one. The overarching plot that Part 4 is centered on, titled "The Dream of Italy", is so bonkers that it almost hurts, but it's played super seriously. That's not normally a bad thing, but I just could not find myself enjoying what was on screen because I had just watched some really good episodic content. Especially because Rebecca takes center stage for these episodes.

    And here's the kicker - if this Dream of Italy plot was its own OVA series or whatever, if it wasn't detracting from some killer time with the Lupin gang, I'd have probably liked it! Scrub Rebecca, cut the episodes out of part 4 and slap them into their own DVD, and bam you have a 7/10 on your hands. But unfortunately we don't live in that timeline.

 

    So as it stands, Lupin Part 4 gets a 7/10 for me. In an alternate universe I like it more, and it's still worth your time, just temper your expectations. 

Lupin the IIIrd the First

 (myanimelist)

    This movie is the highly advertised leap into the world of 3dcg for the Lupin gang. And I gotta say, this shit kinda owned. I don't have much to really delve into, either. The visuals are gorgeous, the character designs are perfect, the music owns, and the plot is so fucking insane in a way that's engaging and fun. Also, the story-original character, Laetitia, is really good. 8/10, give it a watch.  

 

Castle of Cagliostro TAKE TWO! 

    When I first watched Castle of Cagliostro last year it's safe to say I wasn't blown away. But the more I stew on the JP script and the film in general the more I've come to love it. It's really fun and though not as initially really good as, say, Bloodspray of Goemon, or other films helmed by Miyazaki, it's had staying power in my brain to rival that of Princess Mononoke. Give it a watch and then digest it. Just don't watch either of the dubs, they suck real bad.

I said last year that I'd be watching The Woman Called Fujiko Mine soon, and that's not a lie, I just haven't had time to really sit down with it alone, what with 2020 being what it is. I'm loving Lupin, though, and I'm glad it's a franchise I can always go back to and find more stuff to like.

 (How I rate things:
10 (Incredible): an absolute fucking favorite of mine. I probably cried a lot, and I revisit it a lot. Makes me big think often.
9 (Fantastic): Probably made me cry or think a lot. Enjoyed very much.
8 (Great): A series I liked a lot.
7 (Good): A series I liked a fair bit.
6 (Fine): A series that was fine and that I enjoyed enough.
5 (Okay): A series that was a-ok in my books. Probably fell short of my expectations.
4 (Eh): A series that fell very short.
3 (Ehh): Ehhhhh
2 (Bad): Self explanatory.
1 (Terrible): Terrible.)

quick post about how Katana Zero is good.

My good buddy bought me Katana Zero to play recently, and it rules. It rules hard. It's like all the things I liked about Hotline Miami but with a better aesthetic and more quality of life. It's a pulse-pounding techno-samurai simulator where you can deflect bullets and slow down time, and the frame narrative is cool as shit. Good game. Didn't love it.

Didn't love it almost entirely because I want MORE. Katana Zero is a game that could be INCREDIBLE, it just isn't there yet for me. Some of the mechanics were frustrating, and while the cast of characters, story, world, themes, etc all rule but there's just not enough. Some games do a ton with less, of course. Space Funeral is a perfect length. Katana Zero isn't.

So, I'm giving it a tentative 7. A tentative 7 entirely because it feels like the first four episodes to a twelve episode anime (lol.) So, when the dlc comes out that is longer than the base game, this score will go up. But until I get to spend more time with Zero, Fifteen, Snow, V, etc, it's gonna be there. But god do I want more. 

If you haven't played it though, do so. It's short as hell, I did it in two short sittings but you could easily do it in one.

that netflix shera fanfiction

 

 So I just wrapped up watching the reboot of that goofy bad 80's cartoon She-ra on Netflix with my fiance. Her fifth time watching it, my first. Western cartoons are good, actually.

(not this one)

First, the bad. Well, "bad." This cartoon is really good. Most of my problems with it are mostly just weaknesses in the show's pacing and visuals. The first season is pretty weak in comparison to everything after it, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Like, the back half steals the show. It rules hard! It just means the first half is comparatively weak. Also, the visuals range from serviceable to really good, but there's a lot of really wonky shots. Also, like any show with a 50+ episode count it has some dud episodes.

Now onto the good!

The characters rule hard. This show really understands not only how to instantly characterize someone but then reinforce that characterization. Every single important character is easily understandable and when they do dumb shit or act "illogically" it makes real tangible sense in the writing. Catra is EASILY the best example of this. She's the best character in the show by far, actually. Every action she takes is so understandable even when she's doing dumb/awful shit. She's a Zuko type. You want to see her redeem herself and grow as her bad choices spiral her down an awful path.

Catra RULES

The show manages to have a TON of thematic depth as well. It goes places I REALLY didn't expect. A lot of themes in the latter half reminded me of some really cool things I like, like Attack on Titan with its discussions of the morality of war and the ethics of overwhelming force. Another REALLY STRONG theme it has revolves around destiny and inheritance. Also it has power of friendship done really well, granted I'm an incredible sucker for that to begin with. So much thematic depth in this Netflix cartoon for kids.

The art style also grew on me a lot. All of the redesigns of the classic cartoon characters are wonderful and are so full of imagination and creativity. The standouts for me are probably Entrapta and Catra for sure. I will say that the show has some pretty flat coloring which doesn't lend itself to detail, but it still manages to look good, and when things get more detailed with the shading/coloring the designs hit HARD.

Entrapta is the purple one on the bottom right :)

Netflix She-ra gets compared a lot to magical girl anime shows. I want to say that that comparison, while not unfounded, doesn't feel quite right to me. It reminded me more of really good battle shonen series. Stuff like Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragonball come to mind. It has a large focus on combat and teamwork and interesting powers and their applications. Like, it manages to make "can create magic nets and throw them" into a badass, unique power that looks sick in action. Shit rules.

Also, obviously, I can't talk about She-ra as an LGBT+ person without mentioning how fucking queer this show is. From season one you have a married WLW couple with Spinerella and Nettossa, season 2 introduces Bow's dads, Perfuma is a trans woman, Double Trouble is NB, one of the endgame couples is the GAYEST, and all the women simp for She-ra herself. To steal this next line from two people I know, one of which being my lovely fiance, Legend of Korra barely made it through the elevator doors with Korrasami so Netflix She-ra could earn the gold medal at the relay race SOLO. It's great.

The only characters to kiss onscreen are queer couples!

So yeah. Cartoon good. Really good. What started with a 7/10, solid season 1 gave way to a truly wonderful experience that I can honestly recommend to anyone who likes either cartoons, battle shonen anime, queer shit, or just good art.

STRONG 8 to a light 9, leaning more towards a 9/10 on this one. Go watch it.

Bleach - Stories of the Brave

(I apologize for the lack of images in this blog post. I didn't feel like going out to my computer to grab any pages off of my files and I wanted to get my thoughts out while they were fresh.)

So after a cool month and a half I have finished reading Tite Kubo's Bleach. Huh. Weird. This is a series that has had the reputation of having two good arcs and just declining and declining until a wet fart of an ending. I was also told the same thing about Yu Yu Hakusho. Also, people told me that the art declines in quality as the series goes on and that every arc after Soul Society is just Soul Society again. Why does the internet lie like this?

What I got, as I got with Yu Yu Hakusho, is a series I found myself getting increasingly more and more invested in, especially when the supposed "dip" in quality happened. My favorite arc is easily the Arrancar arc. Alongside that, the final volume of Bleach has hands down some of the best pages in the series, especially the spreads. Now, Bleach is nowhere near as good or consistent as Yu Yu Hakusho, that's for sure, but it's absolutely also nowhere near the level of bad that so many people say it is.

What I got, as I got with Yu Yu Hakusho is a core cast of lovable characters that all get their times to shine, with an ever-expanding cast of side-characters that are all interesting and unique in their own ways and they all have really interesting and fun designs. Like, wow, Tite Kubo can design the shit out of a character.

But yeah, I just want to touch briefly on the three BIGGEST critiques I always hear about Bleach and why I think they aren't really like, correct? Correct isn't the right word, since opinions are opinions, but that they're just not that rock-solid.

First, that the art declines in quality. Art styles evolve. The art at the end of Bleach, including the paneling and fight choreography, is just as good if not better than early Bleach. The tone is different, but that's because the tone of the story is different by that point. It's like Dragonball vs Dragonball Z. Or looking at Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1 vs Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 8. Well, the Jojo's one is a little drastic, but that's kinda the point. The art in Bleach is consistently great, with a sense of style and cool-itude that persists throughout. Also, Kubo from the start of the series was always super fond of using the "no background" trick, it's not overused in the final arc.

Second, that Kubo repeats arc structure. Which is like, wrong as far as the manga is concerned. Supereyepatchwolf, in his "The Fall of Bleach" video, describes the Soul Society arc as "Ichigo and his friends [entering] a world they don't understand [and] face down an ancient and patriarchal society in a desperate battle to save their friend." Which describes Soul Society, yes, but then he goes on to ascribe that exact same description to Arrancar/Hueco Mundo. Yes the arc includes Ichigo and some friends busting into Hueco Mundo to save Orihime, but the actual themes of the arc are different.

Soul Society has those themes of rebelling against society, coming of age, etc etc. Hueco Mundo is about the consequences of being a revolutionary so blinded by idealism that you lose yourself in the pursuit of power. Characters like Aizen and Grimmjow are so blinded by the want to be stronger that they'll do anything to get there. Tosen is blinded, literally, by his thirst for revenge against the Soul Society. Alongside that, the arcs set up in Soul Society for characters like Gin and Tosen get expanded upon and wrapped up. Aizen is cool as fuck.

Fullbring is just OBJECTIVELY not that at all, as it's basically a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure plot, coupled with a really cool explanation for Chad and Orihime's powers. Hell, the Thousand Year Blood War is basically a reverse Soul Society, while also doubling as this clear love letter to the series it's capping off.

A sub-critique I hear about Bleach is that Kubo's cast is fucking giant. Which is valid. There's a lot of Bleach characters. But like, not to be pedantic, but almost every fucking battle shonen has a huge cast. There's almost no repeats in characterization outside of a handful of mad scientists. They all also look cool. (My favorites are Shinji, Chad, and Grimmjow.)

Finally, people claim that the characters in Bleach, especially Ichigo, are static. Which is pretty Not Correct. Outside of typical things like powerups and whatnot, which in a battle shonen are used to physically represent emotional/spiritual growth alongside general strength, a vast majority of the characters introduced at the start and in Soul Society, those who make up the largest portion of the reoccurring cast, are different. Byakuya changes a lot. Orihime grows stronger and more independent. The end to Kenpachi's arc in The Thousand Year Blood War fucking rules. Uryu grows so much by the end. Ichigo, while not as full of attitude as he once was, is changed for, I think, the better.

Ichigo is no Yusuke Urameshi, sure, but he's still cool. The somewhat selfish delinquent-but-not boy is, by the end, a man with conviction to help those he cares about. Cliche, yes, but personally I like that. I really, really like the "power of friendship" stuff. Our world is full of horrible shit, and stories about camaraderie and the importance of bonds between people are such a necessity in my eyes. It helps that he's cool. Did I mention he's cool?

But also, characters "not changing much" isn't that great of a critique in my eyes, especially in a battle shonen. The appeal of battle shonen, to me, is not the overarching story arc. A satisfying overarching story is a bonus, yes, but for me I care more about the different ways that the genre iterates on itself. How a series tackles different arc structures. The "endless shonen" formula of "this arc ends -> Short cool down period and then the new big bad shows up -> rinse and repeat" makes for a cozy, fast, easy read. Especially as you learn the shorthand of the genre. However I also love Goku and the Piccolo Jr. arc so hey, maybe I'm just dumb.

I will never experience the weekly read of Bleach, which I could imagine being slow. Lots Of Shit Goes Down At The Same Time in the final arc. However, on the binge, I was enraptured. I love the characters, and the fact that almost literally everyone gets their final moment is just something I love so much. I love how fucking off-the-wall the powers get by the end. The powers for the Quincies are all so fucking weird and unique, even by Bleach standards. (Like really, a dude dressed like a wrestler with a familar that cheers for him to buff him and heal him? Sick! A dude who can control the toxicity of different substances?? SICK!!!)

I can safely say I was never bored the entire time I was reading, and the vast majority of the time I was actively having a great time reading. I even teared up a bit at the last chapter. While not the best battle shonen I've ever read, it's one I'm damn glad I went through. I'm flip-flopping between a 7 and an 8, but it's closer to an 8 than a 7 for me, so I guess I'll say its a cool 8/10 for me.

(How I rate things:
10 (Incredible): an absolute fucking favorite of mine. I probably cried a lot, and I revisit it a lot. Makes me big think often.
9 (Fantastic): Probably made me cry or think a lot. Enjoyed very much.
8 (Great): A series I liked a lot.
7 (Good): A series I liked a fair bit.
6 (Fine): A series that was fine and that I enjoyed enough.
5 (Okay): A series that was a-ok in my books. Probably fell short of my expectations.
4 (Eh): A series that fell very short.
3 (Ehh): Ehhhhh
2 (Bad): Self explanatory.
1 (Terrible): Terrible.)

Golden Kamuy’s author makes me feel good :)

I’d like to think it’s a pretty safe opinion that a vast majority of male characters are designed with the appeal of a “power fantasy” or adjacent concept. Attractive male characters in pop culture all frequently pretty buff, toned dudes with physically unhealthy builds (looking at you, Wolverine in the movies. Hugh Jackman deserved better). 

Outside of specific genres, the male body is not “objectified” in the same ways as the female body. Captain America may inadvertently appeal to the female gaze, but he is first and foremost an “ideal” for boys to strive for, unlike Black Widow, a character designed first and foremost to titillate.

I also probably don’t just speak for myself here when I say I think it’s nice when an author decides to create a role model for boys or even, for lack of a better word, celebrate the masculine body in a way that isn’t “this is what a man should be!” but instead “I want to celebrate men.” I think that sentence makes sense.

Anyway, the author of Golden Kamuy, a manga that is pretty homoerotic in both subtext and visuals, had this to say when asked about the appeal of his series:

What point in Golden Kamuy that you want readers to pay attention to?

“The beautiful nudity of men. I want to keep drawing the naked bodies of men, be they pot-bellied or with thick chest hair.” (https://www.google.com/amp/s/kamuycentral.wordpress.com/2017/09/20/translation-interview-with-noda-satoru-after-winning-the-manga-taisho-award-2016/amp/)

Seriously, shit is GAY.
Reading that quote made me feel kind of emotional I guess? It’s not often that, especially in an award winning comic series that is pretty popular over the pond, men are allowed to be described as “beautiful.”
Like, I’m a fat guy. In pop culture, fat guys are funny and ugly. Fat guys aren’t handsome or beautiful or role models. Fat guys even when they get the girl are still funny and ugly. So I find myself getting emotional when an author like Satoru Noda describes pot-bellies as “beautiful.”
It’s a similar feeling I got when I first watched Steven Universe. I was in high school at the time, but seeing the hero of a cartoon for kids be this weird, fat little soft boy who isn’t ridiculed for his appearance and is allowed to be weird and fat and soft and it be treated as a good thing made me so happy.
Or even reading some Superman comics! Superman is usually seen as this built, jacked guy. Henry Cavill is one of the hottest dudes in Hollywood for fuck’s sake. So when in a comic like All-Star Superman or Superman for All Seasons, Clark Kent has a nontraditional build, one where he’s more linebacker than bodybuilder, I thought it was nice.

For real, Supes in All Seasons is a LARGE BOY.
So basically this is just a short shout out for Golden Kamuy. That offbeat little series with a lot of passion and heart that makes me feel good about myself and my body in ways that no other media really does.
Side note: I know that, in the grand scheme of things, the way the female form is treated in pop culture is way more problematic. I’m not trying to downplay that, I’m just talking about my own experiences as a fat guy.

Feelin' a Little Fooly Cooly

The other day my buddy, in a group chat we share dedicated to posting music, posted the song "Crazy Sunshine" by The Pillows, otherwise known as the FLCL band. FLCL, for those not in the know, is one of my absolute favorite pieces of media. Anyway, it hasn't been that long since I re-watched it, but listening to Crazy Sunshine almost always throws me back. The guitar riff, the lyrics, everything gives me a Ratatouille-ass flashback to when I first experienced FLCL as a kid. That night, I drove down the road to pick the love of my life up from work and blasted The Pillows as loud as I could, and I cried a bit.

I feel like most kids who watch FLCL don't get FLCL at all. We just saw the pretty colors and frenetic animation and heard the incredible soundtrack and just got sucked in on that alone, but as I revisit it throughout the years it hits me just how much shit there is in it. Like, for a six episode OVA it crams in so much style and passion and substance that it's almost suffocating. Many people hate FLCL after an initial watch, even, due to how much it is. Which I totally get. When something is this frenetic, this jam-packed with imagery and with a whip-fast script and visuals that are so detailed and fast-paced, it becomes a lot to take in. But it's a show that, I feel, is so worthy of analysis and dissection.

There's this reoccurring "theme" in FLCL (original). Characters are constantly asking "what is FLCL?" And I feel that FLCL is at the same time undefinable, since there's no clear answer, and also that FLCL is FLCL. It's this idea that life is always going to be crazy and unpredictable. One day you will feel like everything is going a mile a minute, some zany or intense shit will be going on and you cannot catch a breath. But the next day you'll have a quiet moment to yourself. One where you can reflect on things, catch up with a friend, etc. Also, obviously FLCL means that you're never not going to be, at least to some degree, "childish."

Every character in FLCL is clearly reaching for some concrete form of "maturity." And the whole damn point is that true "maturity" is dumb bullshit for idiots and that you're always going to be a kid inside, even if you feel like you aren't. You're always going to have your "childish" preferences, how you don't like sour drinks or spicy foods or have a soft spot for a cartoon you loved as a kid. And that that's OK. It's OK to feel like a kid, that you're not fully "grown up" because life is about "growing up." And sure, yeah, lots of media has that theme, don't get me wrong. But how many pieces of media deftly weave its theme into basically every facet of production?

Like, how the frenetic animation style mimics cartoons that I'm sure much of the production staff watched as a kid, or how the music sounds like music that a high-schooler would blast loud on his headphones late at night in bed. Or how everyone and everything in the show pushes the thematic through-line to the end. How there's constant allusions and references to media from the (relative) past, or how the kids in the show all try and mimic adults, but all the adults act like kids.

And sure, people will pull the "it doesn't mean anything" card because of how "zany" the show is, but I feel that betrays the artistry of the piece as a whole. Something can be wacky and zany and still, on the same hand, be poignant and thought-provoking. Subtext isn't just for slow, contemplative literature. Subtext can also exist in a show about a lil' boy and his goofy robot friend and hot alien roommate. But anyway I'm just repeating the same shit every other person talks about. If you want some good-ass FLCL analysis go watch the copious amount of Digibro videos, or Goat Jesus' video on FLCL and Bildungsroman. What I think I'm here to haphazardly gush about is how FLCL makes me feel in my soul. To gush about what I think FLCL means.

How the music of FLCL, the visuals of FLCL, the quotes and characters and themes of FLCL all make my heart warm. FLCL, much like many of my other favorite pieces of media, is this comforting thing to me. This wonderful piece of media that resonates me on like, a cellular level. Even if I didn't quite understand what my brain was processing as a kid, I felt I was experiencing something special. Even if I didn't have the cultural and authorial contexts in mind, how it's some of Gainax's best and brightest pouring their hearts and souls into their dream project, I felt its energy radiate from my shitty iPod touch screen and into my life.