Image taken from http://www.azquotes.com/quote/761506
Last August I was asked by phenomenal Stark Wyvern to write an article about Tite Kubo, the author of Bleach, as I had told him I would like to write a few pieces about the lives and characteristics of famous authors, cartoonists and mangakas, starting with Hayao Miyazaki, for Skatronixxx. He himself was writing an article devoted to Tite Kubo and Bleach, published here, as his own personal homage to Kubo and his 15 years of success with Bleach, his greatest and longest work, and which ended this year; although, as Stark states, leaving some doors open to the possibility of future sequels.
I was reading Stark’s tribute and I realised to what an extent this series (which include the manga and TV show, OVAs, films…) has accompanied him for 15 full years of his life no less! He says: “It was the anime that started my love for the world of Anime”, and “The characters are so vivid and life like”. He even mentions he cried when it was rumoured to end in 2011. I hadn’t had the chance to watch much Bleach on TV, and I hadn’t read the manga. But from Stark’s words of affection I understood there was something deep going on there, something that was way beyond the mere Shōnen topics, the action, and the fights. He underlines that Bleach has managed to be highly successful even against mighty and apparently similar contemporary competitors, like Naruto or the more hilarious One Piece.
I watched a few films and realised Bleach was (of course, in my personal opinion) somehow much more relatable than these other series, more serious and mature, and indeed there was something special there. Something I couldn’t really pinpoint but which I could sense as well, and which I found enthralling – and I don’t like Shōnen that much! So here’s my reflection, my own contribution to the homage Stark already posted here, paying tribute to Kubo, to Stark, to every otaku that has ever felt this way while enjoying this great story.
The first enigma one encounters when meeting Bleach for the first time is its very title. Why Bleach, what kind of title is this? What do we use bleach for? One of the best substances to ward off infectious germs and viruses and sanitise our kitchens and bathrooms, bleach, mostly sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, is present in most homes around the world. It is also broadly used for its whitening properties, to remove stains and decolorise clothes or even to lighten your hair. But one should not use bleach, or bleaching substances, in a casual manner, for it is also extremely caustic: use too much, leave it unattended, and water becomes undrinkable, the fabric of your clothes break or tear, your skin gets chemically burnt, and let’s not talk about the hair! In sum, bleach is a raw substance, used wisely it can do a lot of good to clean and purify, but spill a little bit more than advised, use a little bit too much… and it spoils everything.
So what might have led Noriaki Kubo, aka Tite Kubo, one of the most prolific and successful mangakas of this century, choose the word ‘bleach’ as the title of his most famous and successful work of 15 years? And in case one thinks it can be dismissed as just a trivial choice – just take a look at the comic’s logo.
Image taken from http://bit.ly/2cwx2bb
Let’s look at him. Tite Kubo was born on the 26th of June, 1977, in the Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. When learning about this author, I found this very significant for an artist or storyteller. Only 32 years after the atomic bombs were dropped during the Second World War, killing more than 140,000 of its 350,000 inhabitants, the future author was born in a city that had been badly brought to its knees yet was bravely flourishing again. As Bill Powell states at a 2005 report for Time titled “How Hiroshima Rose From The Ashes”, “A city wiped off the map had to be rebuilt in every sense – not just physically but emotionally and psychologically as well.”
The survivors’ initial reactions were extreme shock, a sense of having been dishonoured and desire for revenge – which is only logical. But necessity was first, and recovery was only possible taking a humble, peaceful stance, even if that meant clenching fists and teeth. Not doing that meant perpetuating the conflict. Self-control of raw instinctive emotions like rage and a desire for retaliation had to be toughly disciplined and brought under control, for the sake of survival. So that was the setting for the immediate past behind Tite Kubo, just a few years before he was born. The people in Hiroshima deserved to heal, to hope to thrive again, to move on, not more horror and conflict, and that’s what they strived to achieve. “Renewal and redemption, after all, are at the core of what Hiroshima, 60 years on, represents.” (Powell, 2005).
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1087168,00.html
Tite Kubo, the son of a town council member in Hiroshima, already knew he wanted to become a mangaka while still in elementary school, although he only started taking his dreams more seriously after he turned 17 and was inspired by Saint Seiya, by Masami Kurumada. He is also a big fan of Akira Toriyama, known worldwide for his famous Dragon Ball series. Growing up in a city that now shines as a powerful and bright symbol of amazing progress and peace advocacy, he was inspired by these authors’ adventures that spoke of friendship, loyalty, strength and the eternal fight of good vs. evil. His very first work was Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine, written in 1996 for the Weekly Shōnen Jump and added later on to the second volume of Zombiepowder, his second work, left unfinished with 27 chapters.
The cover image for Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine depicted a man showing his bare back and three words roughly carved out of his skin: “LOVE EXPOSED DELETE”. This character, Bäinhardt Rosner, together with his partner Tinatina, are Deleters: they make people and buildings disappear. As for Zombiepowder, set in a futuristic, Western-style type of society in which one may encounter from semi-cyborgs to people with magical abilities, it narrates the story of three bounty hunters who are looking for twelve rings, the “Rings of the Dead”, that together can be used to produce the “Zombie Powder”, a kind of magical substance with such powerful healing properties that it can even revive the dead and grant immortality. Zombiepowder was published in the Weekly Shōnen Jump until its cancellation in the year 2000. Inside the varied yet similar topics that characterise the genre of Shōnen, these works that precede Bleach already portray some of the main great themes that will characterise Kubo’s great 15-year-old success as well: purification, decontamination, cleansing what is evil or harmful, deletion and rebirth leading to a new beginning, returning to the original state of purity… well, basically, bleaching.
And, curiously enough, taking into account its past and the history of its recovery, we can ascertain that these themes could very well define the gist, the essence that distinguishes the spirit of the new and cleansed Hiroshima, as well.
Bleach tells the story of Ichigo Kurosaki, a strawberry-blonde, hazel-eyed young man who lost his mother when he was nine because of his ability to see lost souls, or ‘Pluses’, and ‘Hollows’: lost souls who have corrupted to the point of becoming dangerous for both the spiritual and earthly beings. Although during his childhood Ichigo was a very cheerful kid, he became broody and brusque after the death of his mother, unable to overcome his feelings of guilt and to control his temper. Albeit kind-hearted and determined to protect his friends and family until his very last breath, he is frequently engaged in quarrels with thugs and troublemakers, who frequently tease him about the colour of his hair.
Then, at the age of 15 he becomes a substitute shinigami (God of Death). The shinigamis in Bleach are not akin to the grim, sarcastic monsters portrayed in other series like Death Note, written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata: they are a sort of spiritual police corps that fight against evil to preserve the order both on Earth and in Soul Society – a Heaven-like realm populated by the people that have already transitioned to the spiritual plane. Shinigamis also rescue lost souls from Hollows and guide them safely to their due destination in the afterlife, be it the Soul Society or Hell depending on the number and gravity of sins they committed while still alive.
When I watched the movies and learned about the plot in Bleach, the way Kubo portrays the Hollows, the lost souls, and the selected people who are able to care about these harmful energies be it on Earth or in another dimension, it immediately reminded me of the Kannushi, the Shintō priests. The Kannushi are dressed in a similar way to Bleach’s main characters, although most of them are fully dressed in black while the Kannushi traditional dress is basically white. The functions of the Kannushi and Bleach’s characters is similar: mediating between human beings and gods and demons, holding purificatory rites, mediumship. Like in Bleach, where Rukia Kushiki and many other female characters are also powerful shinigamis as well, women can also be Shintō priestesses, called Miko, dressed in white and red. The Kannushi also have the authority to conduct weddings. We can say that they are basically Japanese shamans. In fact, the Hollow concept reminded me of the “mud shadows” Don Juan describes to his pupil Carlos Castaneda in his last work The Active Side of Infinity. In it, Don Juan teaches Castaneda about the supernatural shadows that purportedly surround us feed off our ‘good vibe’, consuming our spirit and filling our head with dire thoughts. Curiously enough, the only way to reject this kind of supernatural parasites is mind discipline – bringing your primary passions under control before they lead you to commit violent, destructive actions. It’s basically the same message as in meditation, and also in many other religious-spiritual practices.
But, significatively, and going through many shamanic stages of transformation, this is also the great lesson that Ichigo needs to learn all along the 15 years during which Kubo narrates this great story: moderation, self-control, power applied in its just measure. When your attitude is disciplined, the power of your presence, your actions render purification; when you lose your grip on yourself, somehow damage ensues.
It would seem as if Tite Kubo indulges in playing to resemble his main character as much as possible. His hair is not actually the typical pitch-black Japanese shade, looking a little bit like Ichigo’s in fact, even his haircut. With his expensive shades on and his classy, casual look, the now 39-year-old author looks strikingly young. He pays great attention to his characters’ attire, and even started a clothing line in 1998 based on his designs for Ichigo and his friends. He discreetely got married in 2012.
The Bleach squad is classy. Image taken from http://bit.ly/2bZDzc2
Trying to solve the enigma once and for all, Tite Kubo stated in several interviews that he meant to give this name to the manga, Bleach, precisely because it represents this sharp, caustic transition from darkness to purification and clarity, and that must be handled with care. Nevertheless, he has said too that Bleach is his favourite Nirvana album, and perhaps he was also influenced by this as well. His drawings feature expressive, jagged, broken lines, mostly in pure black and white, with little screentoning. He focuses on the characters, their wounds, their pain, their anguish, their struggle. Ichigo will endure several rites of passage after being initiated as a shinigami: he’ll acquire Hollow powers, even Hellish powers. It’s the shamanic equivalent of discovering and acknowledging your dark side.
The Hollows or evil spirits he encounters use his guilt, his sorrow for his mother’s death against him, and he needs to raise above his past to keep a clear mind and win the fight. The real achievement in Bleach, for Ichigo, will be to master this type of knowledge and discipline. Thus, he becomes able to take proper care about his family and friends, both on Earth and the Spiritual Realms. As a hero, what strikes most about Ichigo is that he loses very often in the battlefield, particularly when he gives in to his short temper, visceral nature and lack of self-control. But he recovers and rises again. That’s what makes Ichigo Kurosaki special as a character: he is not all-perfect, invincible: he may fall, and he may hurt and feel defeated and shamed, but he raises again, stronger than before, cleansed, transformed. Ready to fight anew.
A little bit perhaps like beautiful Hiroshima.
Sources:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/tite-kubo
https://prezi.com/qoh7s1qb1pf7/tite-kubo/
https://short-biography.com/tite-kubo.htm
http://bleach.wikia.com/wiki/Tite_Kubo
http://www.japandreamtours.com/culture/shinto/kannushi.html
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1087168,00.html
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