#funny how no one never fault kubo though

[tae-shimura-is-my-wife]

Regarding the "SP pushed the ichiruki agenda" there's an argument that people often misses, because yeah if they brainwashed everyone to ship IR why would this exactly be a problem? "Is because they erased canon ships moments!1!1!!" ok but how did they know? Did Kubo told someone in the studio which couples were going to be canon? The "biggest" IR filler scenes (that Kubo adored mind you) were BEFORE the couples become canon, so it doesn't make sense to blame them for not adding it? Also Kubo never complained about it, neither when it was airing neihter when the manga ended.

Also Kubo talked about IR having matching underwear as merch and did the honeymoon spread drawing, of course the studio wouldn't think that giving more fanservice is a bad thing when the author himself acts like this 😭. They probably thought IR was going to be the endgame.

[nesting-dreams]

Sooo throughout the year since the new anime came out for bleach, there is a lot of revisionism for bleach. Kubo is making changes in the anime because he was clearly not happy with his ending. If his ending was so perfect, why would he need to change things? He still wants the outcome that he made, but he is changing things up to get there.

Anyway, my post is about Orihime. There’s stuff going around that’s she’s supposed to be the damsel in distress and gentle character which is a lie because Kubo had her do martial arts as an advanced belt in martial arts, she actually beat people up before Heuco mundo if she needed too. She understood Ichigo’s whole behaviour and attitude towards fighting. (She suddenly stopped being able to understand Ichigo attitude and behaviour at some point later on for romantic drama). She wanted to be a healer and also be a fighter. She had her unique interests and talents. Then Kubo  himself stripped all that away to make her the wife character. Now there is nothing wrong with a wife in fiction. You can have the husband just be the husband character with no personality and it’s equally as annoying. You can make many unique kind of wives and husbands. She became this perfect yes man to her husband and chucked out all her interests for her man. It’s like that stereotypical nerdy couple you see in fiction where guy meets woman, woman chucks all his things out even though she proclaimed she liked the stuff once they move in together. She never compromises her own interests and never liked nerdy stuff to begin with. The reality is that nerd couples share the space and if they don’t like something they’re usually like ““it’s ok. You go play d and d. I’ll play legend of zelda”. (This doesn’t just apply to nerdy stuff. Men can do this to women they moved in with too. Say a woman has clothes, manga  or plants she likes, he’ll throw all that out). I shall have a prediction about her future if it gets sequel. When her son goes missing, which Kubo clearly plans, she will stay at home and just be like “meh. I trust my husband will do it”. younger Orihime would of been like ““this is OUR SON! I am coming with. I shall pack a boxed lunch for him for when we find him! This is my boy! I want him safe and snuggled in bed”. Most good mothers and fathers will move mountains for their children. Kubo is gonna for sure turn her into the mother who stays in the house, not even for her own son will she leave. That’s how her character went she stopped doing stuff unless it was for Ichigo, even then she didn’t do much for him, she sat there expecting things just to go her way. Her friendship with Tatsuki and Rukia  and those other girls she hung with, thrown out window. She was so funny and such a joy to read about before her kidnapping.

honestly the marriage is basically saying Ichigo is the selfish one in the marriage. Orihime had to change everything about herself for him.

I don’t want to start arguments btw. Need to get my thoughts out there somewhere and also maybe give others time to think about. If this ends up in a bleach or Orihime tag, that’s not my fault. I’ve tried tagging this right. ( Chad and Uryu’s story are talked about a lot, but I don’t see many people focus on Orihime in detail without mentioning Ichiruki. I actually thought bleach was a love triangle in beginning, the story kept joking and playing around with Rukia and Orihime both being Ichigo’s girlfriends. If we had grown up Nell this whole time, this manga could have been classed as a harem lol). (Actually Renji did become the husband character as well like Orihime thinking about it. He just became Rukia simp. Rukia’s basically the selfish one in that relationship) I hope the anime fixes Orihime and Renji with its changes, they can be married to Ichigo and Rukia and still be their own people. (Btw this is not about ships. I do think that if ichiruki was canon, Kubo would somehow butcher that romance. He said he’s not good at writing romance. Ichiruki fans might have had a blessing in disguise because the canon couples weren’t that great (I wanted them to be great. I liked Ichihime in beginning. He never would have written any confession scene or a date or shown the marriage of ichiruki if that was canon).  Ichigo and Rukia are both wonderful characters and very compassionate for others, they just suck as romantic partners since they never even noticed Renji or Orihime. Or took any real interest in anybody romantically for that matter. Both also had to compromise and change everything about themselves just to be with Ichigo and Rukia. Rukia and Ichigo make great friends, but make a lousy date. It happens. Just one of those things. (I personally wouldn’t want to date Rukia or Ichigo. Both are attractive but doesn’t mean I’d marry one of them).

[unohanadaydreams]

More re-read live blog bc I got hit with Mayuri and Kenpachi right after another so how can I leave that for later.

I think Kubo immersed Szayelaporro in the religious motifs right down to this point that he does multiple times. Like a righteous believer of faith, he believes he is beyond having a finger point back at him. Except all of his faith is purely in himself, he suffers not on a physical cross, but on his own faults, and it is pure irony that he must see a sword pointed back at his hand for a hundred years.

Sorry you had to fall on your own righteous sword, king.

Not only does Grimmjow say in the plainest terms without saying it outright that he wants Ichigo dead partly because of his friends being dead, but he also refuses to let Ichigo act as though he DOESNT want to fight Grimmjow. That he doesn’t hold a lot of resentment and anger at the Arrancar for threatening the people he cares about.

Don’t be so holier than thou. You want Ulquiorra dead for tarnishing Orihime’s reputation. You want Grimmjow dead for tarnishing your pride. You’re not above fighting to fight or you’d already be sprinting away to get the fuck out of endless night Dodge.

Also the 1000 years bit makes me SHXHSKJWHDIS because if only we had more of these clues to the next main arc sprinkled in.

What about before the 1000 years? Perhaps, is the endless cycle of shinigami and hollows something Yamamoto helped create to establish Shinigami’s seemingly ageless position as The protectors of balance and souls.

This is SO FUCKING FUNNY. The moments before we find out that Nelliel is not a toddler fucking kill me because this tall ass man is bragging about fucking up a child the size of his face.

And the first time you read this manga you’re left to wonder if she was like the Light Yagami of fucking toddlers for her to make it as an Espada.

He says this, but more accurately, he can’t stand that Nelliel is the only one to give him the time of day and he STILL can’t beat her, despite her casual kindness toward him that is obviously something hollows view as weakness.

I’m not sure when Harribel became an espada, but I don’t think Nnoitra ever tries to fuck her up so idk Nnoitra. Seems like ur pulling the usual bruised ego card and blaming the closest woman you can latch on to for your emotional problems and inability to move upward in a system where stagnation equals fucking death.

You’re closer to him than you are to her. You’re flailing around like an animal and she scolds you in between teaching you new tricks. And you hate her for every looking at you. For staying her hand. For giving you chances and advice and looking you in the eye.

This what happens when you don’t put a rabid animal down miss Nelliel especially when he begs you to do it constantly.

But for real, I think Nelliel just straight up was never going to last as an espada even if Nnoitra hadn’t done this.

Him playing dirty is less about him and more about how Nelliel was brought low by her delusion that the espada were a new, more civilized group of beings under Aizen. She doesn’t anticipate this sort of thing, because she projects her own values of dignity and honor on to even the most unstable of her peers and subordinates—like Nnoitra.

I mean, it for sure illustrates further his massive insecurity and desperation to be SEEN as stronger even if he has to do so by dishonest means. But the main jist of this flashback definitely seems to be that Nelliel was not just prey to Nnoitra and her attitude aided in her downfall.

She just wanted to eat with her lovable oafs 😔

Weird how….how they both…..have huge monster men…..at their beck and call…..

You think they bond over their love of bara monsters but in like the most veiled and insulting way so they can pretend they’re using them for science and willful cruelty instead of lusting after men who could break them in half.

Weird how he cares about Tesla when he’s built like a fucking luxury car stacked on hooves. Make your monster fucking show a little less, Nnoitra.

I’m kidding, I just love how much Kubo is committed to giving us heavily repressed men. Fucking delicious.

[shi-daisy]

I've noticed that you're not very fond of Renji or the Kuchiki characters in general. Can I ask why? (No offense, just curious)

No offense here, anon. I'm more than happy to answer.

I'll start with Rukia since she's the easiest to explain. Rukia was one of my favorite characters up until the Hueco Mundo Arc. You see at first she was a dynamic girl, a little helpless but that was understandable since she had no powers, she was funny, kind and I really felt for her during the first arcs. Then Kubo just replaced her with another character. Rukia got more closed off, agressive, punch happy and tried to make Ichigo apologize about something that wasn't his fault. I didn't hate her, as she still had some of her best traits but this shift made her go from one of my faves to a neutral character. Worst off it's when she marries Renji after he left her for years and almost slashed her to bits, and the novel, oh that damn post canon novel gave me rabies. She's embarrassed by being called Abarai? I could buy this from Orihime, or Momo, hell I'd even buy it from Riruka, but Rukia? No, that's not her. Instead of forgiving Byakuya and Renji in a heartbeat, Rukia's character would've been better off if she told them both to sit on a prickly cactus and stay the hell away from her, then left with Ichigo and Co. to the human world at the end of the Rescue arc. Instead she forgives those two, who have been nothing but shitty to her and takes to hero worshipping Byakuya. No, that's the worst thing she could've done and to top it off she marries one of them and has his kid. That dude hit you once and you not only marry him but have his kid?! Gurl, that literally begging for trouble right there. I just felt disgusted with the way Kubo handled Rukia. I don't hate her but I don't love her as much as everyone else in the fandom does.

Renji And Byakuya though? Those two I absolutely despise.

During the first arc these two come to the human world to arrest Rukia, who need I remind you was completely powerless, and what's the first thing Renji does? Swing a goddamn sword at her. He literally just tried to slash her with his sword. Does Byakuya interfiere? Tells him to maybe tone it down a bit? Nope, he does fucking nothing. Renji keeps trying to hit her, with a grin on his face, and later on even chokes her. It's not until Uryu, who's a freaking Quincy, steps in that the whole aggression stops.

I know people defend this with 'oh Kubo meant for them to seem as villians at the time' but I think you can't come back from trying to slash your bestie/future wife or from letting my sister be slashed to bits.

But ok, if it was just that, I'd be willing to let it slide so as long as the two apologize and Rukia gave em a 'reason you suck speech' or something similar. Well next time we see Renji he's taunting Rukia in prison. He backs out and says it's a joke later but it was still scumy of him to do that. During that same scene Rukia says she knows she'll get killed and pinnapple dumbass tells her Byakuya would intervine, but she shoots him down by saying that he'd likely just kill her himself and has never once cared for her from the moment he adopted her. Like, what? This asshat hasn't even looked her in the eye in 40 years? I know in shinigami time that's like 4 years maybe but it's still a long time to be emotionality neglected.

After his fight with Ichigo we get Renji And Rukia's backstory and instead of growing sympathetic towards him, I hated him more. So he and Rukia grow up together with some friends in the poorest place in Soul Society, and after their friends death they join the academy to get better housing and food. That's good so far, only the two are separate because Renji has more potential and Rukia is average at best. He gets new friends and keeps moving forward. Rukia was alone and stuck. Sad but ok maybe they'll make up after graduation. Nope, because the Kuchiki clan wants to adopt Rukia, remove her from the academy and now she'll live as a Noble. It's clear in that scene that Rukia does not want this, that she'll take any excuse to not accept, does Renji tell her to stay with him, or to choose what she wants? Of course not, the idiot congratulates her, makes a light-hearted joke about it and then sulks when Rukia sadly thanks him and leaves. Then he suddenly decides to stay away from Rukia for... bullshit reasons. Like I get Kubo tried to paint it as a I have to stay away so the Kuchiki won't get mad at her, but Rukia didn't ask for that, she was lonely, even more so without Renji, and he didn't even attempt to communicate with her or just check in? She obviously didn't want that and he didn't either, but no, I'm apparently supposed to be heartbroken that they were speareted. Then when he sees her again, his childhood bestie, the woman he loves, his future wife and mother of his child, what happens? He tried to slash her with a sword when she was depowered. See how his backstory made the previous scene worst. Honestly I was glad he chose to help Ichigo not let Rukia get killed but damn, it shouldn't have taken this long!

After that we get the whole Renji vs Byakuya thing. Renji goes down like a chump, assists in the final battle for a bit and that's it. No apologies for the past, or for what he did when he arrested her, or the things he said to her in prison, zero apologies from Renji Abarai. This doesn't work, especially if Kubo wanted to marry these two off by the end of the series. Renji needed to apologize directly, we needed to see it play out, not just be told he did it offscreen. This left me hating Renji for the reminder of the show. He was now more friendly and even a bit of a comic relief but his first impression muddled that for me. On the Fullbringer Arc he refused to fight Jackie because a man who hits a woman is trash but... didn't you just do that to the chick you're in love with like two years prior? Did he forget? Was that an admission of guilt or something? I dunno. It felt like a last ditch attempt from Kubo to make him more likeable but to me it fell flat. By the end I was fully disinterested in Renji, wheather he lived, died, married Rukia, Byakuya, whoever the hell, I just didn't care for him at all. It did bug me that he took Uryu's spot in the final chapter cover. Uryu deserved better than Mr hypocrite taking his limelight. Renji would've been better as one off villian, Kubo should've given his backstory to another character and have them with Rukia instead. I'll never get over the fact that this dude spent his first appearance being the most unlikeable jerk, physically assaulting the woman he loves, talking shit like a cocky dumbass, almost killing two of the main characters, and taking the girl he loved to her death; only to be married to said girl in the end, with a daughter and on best terms with the people he fucked over. I ain't a fan of him.

Byakuya it's another character who I wanted to smack against the concrete, repeatedly. First appearance? Lets his lieutenant throw his sister around like a ragdoll, almost kills an innocent human, and basically acts like everyone's beneath him? Good, I already hate him. Next time we see him, he shows no emotion towards Rukia's sentence, he's still hell-bent on stopping the human squad from rescuing her, almost lets Renji die after he loses to Ichigo (honestly I was down for Renji bitting it but c'mon this dude is your employee and you don't care if he dies? Big yikes) Keeps messing up every attempt from the others to rescue Rukia. Almost kills Renji in a fight, then goes to fight Ichigo and here's where he became irredeemable for me. During his fight with Ichigo, he says he'll beat Ichigo and then kill Rukia himself. That's when I wanted Ichigo to chop him into sashimi. You can't say something like that and expect anyone to forgive you. He loses against Ichigo and at the very least honors his word to not kill Rukia. Okay then he defends Rukia from the real baddies. Nice, I still hate him. When he's being healed he tells Rukia that he adopted her because his wife was Rukia's actual sister, and he promised he'd keep Rukia safe if he ever found her.

All throughout the flashback I only felt sympathy for Hisana. Being put in the poorest place in Rukon, having to leave your baby sister to survive, marrying a guy who you love only for his family to hate you because you're not Noble, then getting terminally ill and not being able to help your lost sibling, all of that is horrible and broke my heart. More so when you realize that Byakuya didn't keep his promise to protect Rukia because it would break the law. He can stick his laws where the sun don't shine Rukia almost got killed unfairly because of him, Ichigo and his friends would've died unfairly because of him, he doesn't deserve any forgiveness. At least the dude had the spine to apologize on screen but that still just the bare minimum. I wanted to see him make up for all the shit he caused, maybe try and help change the law so a mistake like this dosen't happen again, just something productive. Well no, he's still the same cold and unlikable jerk we first met, only now he seems to treat Rukia better. This should've been a start, not the default. When he almost died in the final arc I thought it was a fitting end, he's humbled down, he apologizes to Rukia and Renji for losing, he leaves everything in Ichigo's hands, which mirrors how he was opposing him on the first arc but it's now fully on his side, it was the best way to salvage this unlikeable prick. But no, he dosen't die. He lives and its back to the grind again. Worst of all it's how he appears during Rukia's big fight and she uses her Bankai, he's there to mansplain and sour the fight and ugh I hated that chapter. Then he says he's proud of Rukia and it's meant to be a heartwarming moment, to me however it was vomit inducing. You're proud now? Two years ago you almost killed her! You ignored her and neglected her for decades and this is supposed to be cute?! No, his pride is worth less than dirt when he treated her this badly before. Heck if he had won back at the beginning Rukia wouldn't even be there. You almost killed her two years before, and now you're proud? Miss me with that nonsense.

The ending was especially jarring for me not just because Renji got with Rukia but also because they, along with Byakuya did nothing to fix the system that almost led to Rukia's unfair death. None of them did anything and if there's one thing I would love to see if Bleach ever got a sequel,would be Ichika yelling at the three of them for their ineptitude. They let the Sokyoku get rebuilt, they didn't do a smidge to change the system even though they're two captains and a lieutenant, and still live in prefect rich peep paradise when Rukon is still as shitty as it was when Renji and Rukia lived there.

Sorry for the long answer, I just wanted to let everything out as in most discussions people are baffled by the fact that I don't like these three characters all that much. Hope this answers your question anon!

[hashtagartistlife]

Thoughts TM on the Live Action (hard spoilers ahead. Also, warning: it’s long.):

- Firstly, the casting. The absolute Best casting decision in this whole movie, visuals-and-acting-wise, is Isshin hands down. He LOOKS like Isshin, he ACTS like Isshin-- actually, Movie!Isshin > Manga!Isshin. They toned down the goof a tiny bit, played up his love and concern for the kids, and put him in an APRON for 90% of his screentime and made him the homemaker. (A++++ MOVE, WHY THE HELL WAS YUZU COOKING FOR EVERYBODY AT THE AGE OF NINE. BAD DECISION KUBO).

- Second best casting decision is Kuchiki Rukia. I remember when her stills first came out I wasn’t 100% on this casting because sure she was gorgeous but she looked????? SO YOUNG????? but guys, she nailed it. NAILED IT. Hana Sugisaki based goddess and if u aren’t her fan now you will be by the time the movie ends.

- Sota Fukushi as Ichigo.... hm. Given that my only criteria when drawing Ichigo is to make him as hot as humanly possible, it was 100% guaranteed that any actor they put up for the role would fall short of my visual expectations from an Ichigo. NGL there are more good looking men out there than Sota Fukushi but to quote both Ro and I from our rabb.it chat during the movie...... sota fukushi hard smash 

(- ok but a serious dilemma: are we attracted to him because he’s attractive, or because he’s playing ichigo and ichigo’s attractive????

-also, chad’s actor hard smash as well)

- SPEAKING of Chad.... he had. Minimal role in the movie but I love that they showed a bit of his bromance with Ichigo. It was always such a cute friendship and they did it justice with what little they showed! Anyway, I like his casting and Orihime’s too, visually speaking. 

- The other casts were fine. Not !!!! worthy but like not terrible casting either. Honestly I feel like Miyavi as Byakuya could have really worked if they hadn’t given him that... AWFUL hair. The hair is even more awful in the movie than it is in the still cuts. Believe it. 

- A final note on the casting... I really hated noticing this but Orihime’s actress? Erina Mano? Looks a LOT like the actress they cast for Masaki and i hate noticing it but I did. But it’s not time for the ir tea/ih salt yet that comes later

- Secondly: Characterisation. Overall decent, but you can really tell that like... they spent the most amount of care on getting the central IR dynamic right and sorta just went ‘lol that’s good enough’ for the others. It’s almost like they spent all of their characterisation budget on IR and had minimal left over to spare for minor characters (e.g: Orihime). You’ll see what I mean.

- Once again, hands down best characterisation in the whole movie is Isshin and Rukia. Isshin’s bodily comedy with Ichigo was done SO realistically, in a way that’s funny and not too over-the-top. The way they kept playing off each other as slightly overbearing father and moody teenage son was FANTASTIC. And one of the moments that had me MOST emotional in this movie was when Isshin was shown by Ichigo’s bedside, taking care of him while he’s recovering from injuries. Ichigo, upon waking from a dream of his mum, asks Isshin if he ever dreams of her. Isshin’s answer? ‘Every night’. EVERY NIGHT, MOTHERFUCKER. GOD I was never a hard isshimassa stan but this movie got me FEELING things for them 

- Hana’s interpretation of Rukia is FANTASTIC. Unbelievably spot on. The emotional unavailability, her rigid initial adherence to what she believes is the shinigami code, the adorable naivete re: human world customs, the way she steamrollers over Ichigo, the way that, no matter how hard she tries to be aloof, she can’t hide the fact that she cares. She cares so much. And honestly, if there’s one thing this movie does well, it’s how they managed to get those manga-panel comic violence situations to translate so well to reality. Isshin-on-Ichigo violence translated well, and the Rukia-on-Ichigo violence translates excellently as well. Their little bickering scenes play out EXACTLY how I, at least, imagined them to go, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Also, I honestly think her looking really young works to her advantage, because it really gives you a sense of like… how bemused Ichigo must be by this whole situation. My predominant thought every time hana is on screen is SHE’S SO CUTE AND LOVELY I CAN’T DEAL WITH IT, except this tiny girl who you can only think of as ‘cute’ is like…. Bossing you around and beating your ass with a sword and instilling fucking philosophy lessons in you. It’s so surreal? And if it’s surreal for US then just imagine how surreal it must be for Ichigo.

- Sota’s Ichigo.... once again, hmm. His ‘trying to be cool’ acting (i.e. during the fight scenes) was cringey, but I can’t tell if that’s his acting skill or just the fact that what looks ‘cool’ on manga panels inVARIABLY look cringey in real life. Probably the latter. And I think he’s a LITTLE too growly for my taste, but then again, I’m used to post-timeskip Ichigo who’s a bit more... low-key cynical rather than prickly. Initial Ichigo was pretty abrasive, so I guess that’s in-character. Also, his most-said line of dialogue in this movie is ‘HAH??’ which is hilarious and very in-character. Honestly, Hana as Rukia is straight up excellent for the whole duration of the movie but I definitely think Sota shone MOST when he was acting in combination with Isshin or Rukia. Whatever I think about his individual acting skills, he definitely had chemistry with those actors in terms of dynamics.

- Guys, the IR in this is fantastic. Brilliant. Like I said, their bickering plays out to a TEE how I imagined things to go. Literally cannot fault their bickering. Their soft heartfelt moments are SO GOOD too. And they were all shot so…. Intimately? Their softer scenes were shot with such heartbreaking tenderness and I just….. ugh. Hana Sugisaki REALLY brought her acting A-game. ALSO THE WAY LITERALLY EVERYONE THINKS THEY’RE DATING??? RENJI SHOWS UP AND IS LIKE ‘OOPS I THINK I KILLED YOUR BOYFRIEND’ TO RUKIA. RENJI SAYS THAT. BYAKUYA THINKS SHE’S TOO ‘EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED’. Not to even mention Keigo and Tatsuki and Orihime……. God. Absolutely unbelievable.

- Now, if I was being picky and HAD to talk about a few gripes…. Let’s see. It takes Ichigo more time to warm up to Rukia than in canon, and he’s more of an asshole to her in this time period too. But y’know, that’s a very minor gripe. The other teeny tiny gripe I have about the IR is like…. A gripe but also not a gripe at the same time lmfao. OK so at the end when Renji and Byakuya are trying to take Rukia away, Ichigo plants himself in front of Rukia and says ‘I’m going to protect you’ and he repeats this multiple times in the fight, which, yes, extremely shippy, I’m going to die on the pavement et al, but also… this might be a weird gripe for some, because the ir dynamic has always been them protecting and saving each other. But not in so many words? It’s always been a very equal protection dynamic, partly because Rukia won’t LET him be her protector. I subscribe to the meta that this is precisely why she’s good for Ichigo. It’s also what drives him up the wall, because WHY WON’T SHE LET HIM KEEP HER SAFE, but it’s the fact that Rukia REFUSES to be one of his ‘protected people’, the fact that Rukia DEMANDS equal footing to him, that quashes down the more destructive aspects of his will to protect. But yeah, I feel like that line – ‘I’m going to protect you/her’, repeated multiple times—sort of erases the inherent equality in their dynamic and puts Rukia in the ‘protected’ pile. But that’s just because the movie didn’t have enough time for the rest of the arc. Look honestly the ir in the movie is FINE. The only reason I’m even bringing this up is because I have the manga version to compare it to, and it’s an unfair comparison to begin with because obviously the manga has so much more to work with. Overall, if you’re worried about the IR characterisation in this movie—don’t be. They hard carried the whole thing. Sota and Hana are an absolute DELIGHT to watch playing off each other. They have GREAT chemistry supported by well-shot scenes and good dialogue. 11/10 worth watching just for these two alone.

- Yuzu and Karin. Even though they changed their designs to look identical in the movie (I’m guessing for the instant visual cue of ‘oh they’re twins!’), I’m glad they kept their personalities the same. Karin is snarky as ever, Yuzu is sweet. So +1 for that. But then they made Yuzu (Karin?) say ‘Onii-chan, I’m scared’ during the fishbone D attack, rather than the canonical ‘get away, you’ll get hurt’. Which… look, fair, she’s eleven, I think that’s more realistic, but ALSO YOU JUST???? CHANGED HER WHOLE CHARACTERISATION. CAN WE PUT SOME RESPECT ON HER NAME PLEASE

- Uryuu……hmm. They made him a LITTLE more chill than he was in the manga, but he was such a dramatic character in canon already that he still comes off pretty darn dramatic in the movie. I did really like his characterisation, but he had such little screentime that I’m finding it difficult to like… do any substantial comparisons to his manga character. I’m thinking I might need a rewatch to solidify my opinions on Uryuu. But his little scene at the very end with Ichigo after they all lose their memories of Rukia is very sweet and makes me wonder about their dynamic if they hadn’t had all this quincy-shinigami bs to sort through.

- Chad was in the movie even less than Uryuu, but I have no complaints about his characterisation. Pretty accurate to manga canon.

- Guys I LOVE Keigo in this movie. ‘He died on the spot’ Iconic roast. LET KEIGO ROAST ICHIGO 2K18

- Tatsuki was eh. She wasn’t in the movie long enough for me to really have an opinion on her characterisation, and it’s unfortunate that the only part of her character they brought from manga canon was the ‘give Orihime bad advice on how to date Ichigo’ part, but whatever. It’s not technically WRONG characterisation, just not the FULL characterisation.

- Orihime…………… god, Orihime. Look you guys know that even though I have my ‘and NONE FOR ORIHIME BYE’ days, they’re mostly in jest, and I actually do appreciate her as a character. I like her, mostly! I think she’s fascinating to write about and explore! I think she deserved good things, better things than what the ending set her up for!

- But I’d strangle movie Orihime without hesitation. Bye bitch

- OK, you know how you thought anime Orihime with her constant ‘Kurosaki-kun’s was annoying??? Movie orihime was WORSE. Movie Orihime? Straight up yandere. She literally doesn’t have a single appearance where she’s not talking about Ichigo or being weirdly jealous of Ichigo and Rukia’s friendship or worrying about Ichigo in an overbearing, over-the-top way. And I’m actually really frustrated and disappointed about this, because early Karakura Orihime was ACTUALLY A GOOD CHARACTER!!!!!! Orihime, imo, is the most egregious OOC in this movie. Which is a shame, because the rest of the characterisation was actually… ok and decent

- Renji and Byakuya….. ohhhh boy. Renji and Byakuya are characterised as straight up villains for the whole movie with no redemption. There’s no nuance of them being possibly friendly and/or having concern for Rukia at all throughout the whole movie, which could be OOC depending on how you look at it, but honestly it makes sense considering this movie only covers up to chapter 56 Broken Coda and does NONE of the SS arc. Basically, their characterisations are how we would characterise them based on the one time they came to collect Rukia. They’re cold, uncaring, think humans aren’t worth anything, and that emotions are a human weakness. RENJI STRAIGHT UP SWINGS A SWORD AT AN UNARMED CIVILIAN CLOTHED RUKIA (yes I know it happened in the manga too but. It’s a lot more shocking watching it happen real-time) and also STABBED!!!! URYUU!!!!!! IN THE BACK!!! WHILE HE WASN’T DOING ANYTHING THREATENING!!! So, uh, this movie really said ‘fuck renji rights’. God I’m imagining like… if ur introduction to Bleach was through this movie, and you decided to look up how the manga ends and it’s RENRUKI and you’re like ?????????????? THE DUDE SWUNG A SWORD AT HER????? Like FORGET IH, this movie really fucking hated rr. Which… im not mad about lmfao

- Final note on characterisation: as usual, IR fucking hard carries, but what ELSE is new for this franchise. Isshin was a surprising dark horse. Overall, characterisation FINE, not OOC with one glaring exception, but sometimes because of time constraints certain characters didn’t get their FULL RANGE of characterisation.

- THIRDLY: overall technical excellence of the movie in terms of script, camera angles, choreography, CGI, etc etc

- My one line summary for this is…. It’s an anime live action adaptation. I hope ur not expecting much from this department at all

- Like, in terms of is it a GOOD movie? Lmfao. I enjoyed the hell out of it, sure, but I don’t think someone who has no idea what bleach is would a) understand what the heck is going on OR b) find the story to be well-paced and well-told. Like, I KNEW what was coming and what was going on, and even I found the movie to be a bit disjointed, kind of like old metal machinery that needs oiling to get going.

- Honestly this movie is similar to the manga in that… technically speaking it’s not great, but its strengths lie in the character arcs and the overall poetic parallels it tries to pull. It may not have been the most artistically executed, but I could tell that they really tried to put the parallel in between IR protecting each other and Masaki dying to protect Ichigo. Like, an attempt was noted! It was appreciated! Obviously they don’t do it with as much grace as the manga did but y’know, they tried!

- The script was actually really great in this movie. Bleach is a very snarky manga and the script really showcases that. Everyone shows a lot of sass. I like that. The one exception to the script being good was whenever a hollow opened its mouth to speak. They really gave the hollows dialogue like ‘I WANT YOUR SOUL’ and ‘GIVE ME YOUR SOUL’…. Like. Someone got paid for that dialogue and they really shouldn’t have.

- I honestly don’t have an opinion on the CGI. Ro kept saying that the cgi was BAD and like I guess it was, but I’m pretty lenient about CGI in general. I already know it’s going to be CGI so unless it’s BLATANTLY fake I overlook it.

- But there is this ONE SCENE of Renji going into shikai that looks so awfully fake that even I was like ‘ok no that was BAD’ so I guess CGI bad

- The choreo in the fight scenes is messy and disjointed and very cringey. I can’t believe they managed to pull manga-style comical violence in REAL LIFE and make it look believable and funny, but couldn’t choreography a decent fight scene……. Man idk. I guess they really DID spend all their budget on making IR as excellent as possible.

- Overall: technically speaking it’s a terrible movie, but will that hinder your enjoyment of it? Probably not. Watch it just for the excellent banter.

- FINALLY: Miscellaneous yelling about various scenes through 120% Ichiruki-filtered glasses.

- Guys, this movie. This movie. They really sat down and said ‘ok give them literally every single early-karakura ichiruki fanfic trope situation ever’ and that’s it, that’s the movie

- ICHIGO KEEPS LEANING DOWN RIGHT INTO RUKIA’S FACE!!!! THEY HAVE NOOOOO CONCEPT OF PERSONAL SPACE!!!! Which I guess is canon but THEY KEEP!!!!! LEANING!!!!! INTO EACH OTHER!!!! I will DIE

- The sPARRING????????? THE SPARRING?????

- Ichigo smirks while sparring her. She’s kicking his ass and goddammit, he LIKES it

- They legit made Rukia tackle Ichigo and pin him to the ground and then they made Ichigo flip them around

- And then they made ORIHIME WALK IN ON THAT

- UN!!!! BELIEVABLE!!!!!!!

- (Sidenote: they made Orihime act so weirdly jealous of that?? Like… wtf orihime. You’re not his girlfriend like she has no rights to be acting like this…. Look the Orihime characterisation in this movie is A Mess)

- They have conversations through shut closet doors while ichigo’s lying on his bed THIS APPEARS IN EVERY. SINGLE. IR EARLY KARAKURA FIC EVER IM

- Ichigo: CAN YOU GET OUT OF MY CLOSET. NO YOU CAN’T LIVE IN MY HOUSE

- Also Ichigo, the INSTANT he can’t find Rukia in his closet: WHERE IS SHE. LET ME JUST RUN AROUND IN THE DARK OUTSIDE TO FIND HER. HEY URYUU HOW DO I GET TO THE AFTERLIFE. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN’T BRING HER BACK. SO WHAT IF I DO, HUH? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT. FIGHT ME

- Also ichigo becomes so much SOFTER towards Rukia after a certain point in this movie and…. God…… I love that you can see that switch in Sota’s acting. I’m going to CRY

- OK THIS IS A VERY SHORT SCENE BUT AT ONE POINT RUKIA LANDS ON A ROOFTOP WITH AN INJURED ICHIGO AND SHE LIT. RUBS HER HANDS ALL OVER THE BARE SKIN ON HIS CHEST BC SHE’S RUBBING MEDICINE INTO HIM!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!! WHERE’S THE M-15 RATING ON THIS MOVIE BC SHE LEGIT!!! HAD HER HANDS!!!! ALL OVER HIM!!!!! Ro and I shouted abt this so much God

- The final fight is RIDICULOUS in terms of HOW MUCH ICHIGO WON’T STAY DOWN and it’s framed SO dramatically lmfao but y’know, it’s shot in a very IR light, I’ll take it

- Ro and I literally were just like IT’S THE POWER OF LOVE BITCH bc he legit just KEPT getting up it was ridiculous

- Also rukia’s final speech to ichigo after she does her whole broken coda ‘don’t touch my brother lowly human’ spiel is…. Beautiful. Fucking excellent

- ‘you’re rude and brash and I’m sick of all humans especially you’ but like. Why is this literally kate’s ’10 things I hate about you’ speech at the end of that movie

- ICHIGO DOESN’T TAKE HIS EYES OFF RUKIA THE WHOLE TIME SHE’S ERASING HIS MEMORIES. DOESN’T EVEN BLINK. THIS IS SOME EP 342 TEAS ALL OVER AGAIN. FUCK. I’M GOING TO!!!! DIE!!!

- Ok so my opinion on how they changed the end: it was necessary to tie things all up in one movie but that doesn’t mean I don’t hate the fact that ichigo ostensibly forgot rukia when in canon HE’S THE ONLY ONE THAT REMEMBERED

- I guess the final scene where he looks at her writing on his textbook and smiles could be a sort of clue that he’s starting to remember. Man idk I think I’d just feel really cheated as a viewer who isn’t coming from a bleach manga/anime background, that everyone just conveniently ‘forgot’. It’s equivalent to an ‘it was all a dream!’ kind of ending imo. It’s a copout. But at the same time I can see why it was necessary :’/

- Also, this exchange with uryuu at the end where they exchange hellos before pulling up short and going ‘wait- do I know you?’ ‘no. but good to know you’ was SO HEARTBREAKING BUT SO GOOD I REALLY DID LOVE THAT

- Whoo ok I’m SURE I’ve forgotten some details but this is already EXCESSIVELY long so. Final FINAL thoughts:

- The quality of the movie is, obviously, not great, but if you were worried about weird chara interpretations and relationships, don’t be. Unless you’re an IH/RRstan or an Orihime fan. This will not be a fun movie for you. But then again, you managed to work through 686 chapters of a manga that clearly wasn’t fun for you and seemed to be ok with it, so maybe this movie won’t bother you either.

- The script is surprisingly solid and has genuinely good, occasionally touching, snarky, sassy dialogue. Good attempts at poeticism and various parallels and callbacks.

- Ichiruki fucking hard carries, and so does isshin. I love uryuu but that may just be my uryuu bias talking.

- Objectively, maybe a 4, 5/10. Ichiruki-wise? 8/10. Obviously this was written in a high straight after the movie and like, maybe after a few days or like a rewatch or w/e my opinions may change. But rn? God I love stanning legends, viva la ichiruki fuck you

[themightyrancho]

god. the reason stories about family (gf, steven universe, kubo, tbol) get me so hard is because i just wish i had a family that. liked each other. and that i didn’t feel isolated from

my parents can’t stand each other. everything’s a chore and i cant talk with them about something without the threat of it becoming A Thing. And they’re both good people but they are horrible to each other and can’t get out of it. most of everything is my dad’s fault; he has a terrible anger problem and is the most stubborn guy ever and can be straight-up emtionally abusive to my mom. and it just makes me so bitter bc like theyre both psychologists. hes a family marriage therapist. why did you fuck me up so bad

i love my brother but. i havent felt... close to him in the slightest since we were in like. 5th grade. his autism just made him start to distance, bury himself in video games and shows and not want to play with me anymore. and as i grew up his interests still stayed the same age level and even tho he’s older than me i have to take care of him and. i know i can;t blame him for it but i just hate thinking what could have been if my parents hadnt let him withdraw so much and pushed him more.

i have no family that’s closer than an 8 hour drive. and even then, those are my mom’s family, raised 7th day adventist whom i cant relate to at all. my cousins hardly open up to people. they all love construction work, dirt bikes, and cars and camping and it’s all they talk about. and they’re good people too but it’s just. kind of exhausting and i still feel so awkward with them sometimes. and i don’t see them for years at a time. i havent been up  to northern california to visit them since i was like, 8.

the other half of my family lives in the heart of mexico since my dad moved here to be with my mom. i had only been to mexico when i was very young, again like 7 or something. and my dad didn’t teach me spanish bc he tried w my brother but since my mom doesnt speak it and they didnt even know if my bro COULD talk for a while it became too hard. and i’m so light skinned, i cant handle spicy food. so in elementary, all the brown latinx kids had very distinct chicano culture that i loved but didn’t share in my own home and didnt experience so i just thought that i had no option to be a part of it. i always felt like a disgrace to that side of my family that i hardly knew. i would get jokes about being a��“half-breed” or “hybrid” and id laugh bc like i mean, I am i guess right? i’d be a fraud

but the most devistating thing is that i absolutely adore that side of my family. i’ve only been able to visit them twice since the trip i made when i was 8. they are the greatest people. they’re fun and funny, loving, always welcoming and accepting of me. they’re all brilliant and talented and i relate more with my older mexican cousins than i ever did with my white ones.

but since i live here, ive missed out on all the family bonding that happens when youre growing up together. all the cousins see eachother all the time and have all these memories but i only have a handful. everyone’s grown up! my niece who i remember holding as a baby when i was a kid is now taller than me and 13. and she’s the sweetest but i feel like absolute shit because she doesnt speak english and i just wish more than anything i could talk to my fucking family. most of them speak english but some of them dont and i wish i could visit and not have to have everything repeated in english for me or be fucking clueless to what’s going on. my abuela is such an amazing woman. she’s so sweet and kind but she’s so old now and her alseimers is rly bad so i wont ever get to know her like i wish i could have.

both my grandpas died when i was like?? 10. they were both very good and fun people but i didnt know them well bc i didnt see them often.

and my aunt, mom’s sister, was the most loving person in the world, who loved life and family and was the most generous being. and the person whose company i enjoyed most in this house when she lived with us. but then she died suddenly and it’s just the worst fucking punch in the gut to my mom and i. we dont even speak her name because it hurts my mom so much and she hasnt properly grieved. and now my grandma, is just waiting to die and i have to take care of her in the meantime even though she’d rather just waste away.

so it always just.still stupidly surprises me sometimes when people say that they’re haning with their cousins because like oh shit, some people see their family all the time.

and it just. makes me so happy and jealous when my friends talk about their parents loving each other, or how annoying their little sibling is but they still love them, of course. because ive never had that and i never will and it makes me so sad. so seeing shows where families reconcile or platonic love endures, or remembering the death of loved ones it just. gets me right there, not because i can relate, but because i wish more than anything i could.

and i guess that’s why i cling to my friends so hard? and when im hanging out with them i just. dont want to leave lmao. and because my closest friends are the ones i made in middle school and had thru high school, i havent made new friends that are more than aquaintances even tho ive been going to college for 3 years. so most of the time i just. really feel alone and trapped thru everything since everyone’s moving on and busy at their own schools and jobs and lives and i cant blame them for that.

[saotome-michi]

I don't mind fans calling Yoi revolutionary since shows that hit big get called revolutionary by their fans, but it bothers me when people call it fujobait. Madoka is called a magical girl anime for males tho the author said he didn't have a target audience, it was a show for everyone. Yoi has all the usuals of a Yamamoto anime: the eros story, nudity, sexiness, pole dancing, etc. IMO, Yoi is for female figure skating fans rather than fujoshi since they focus more on skating than anything else.

Does it though anon? Personally, I don’t think it does. I’m a female figure skating fan and YOI’s coverage of skating has been disappointing. The animation budget seems to have gone to Viktor/Yuuri scenes rather than the skating scenes, meaning the competitions have been tedious to watch what with their mediocre animation making all the routines seem the same. Other sports animes like Haikyuu, Cross Game, Kuroko no Basket, Slam Dunk, Hajime no Ippon spend their budget making sure the sports scenes look good so as to engage the viewers. The only skating scenes that look nice in yoi are the viktor/yuuri stay with me in the first and last episodes and again, the reason for that seems to be more for viktor/yuuri than for skating. You can argue about budget but in that case the staff should’ve been smart about it instead of biting off more than they could chew.

(warning: long reply ahoy)

The story also suffers narratively, because although Kubo/Yamamoto have tried to fit in 4 min backstories for the other competitors, they’re not really integral to the story and don’t do anything to raise the tension of the competition. YOI never makes it quite clear why skaters get the scores they do, you’re just supposed to accept it because “technicals? Yuuri skated with more love?? So and so skated with more artistry??” But like how are we supposed to know when their routines all seem the same and we never go into the details? Most of the time the results just seem to be whatever the creators need to move the story along. As a figure skating fan I was looking forward to them explaining the technical elements (the differences between jumps, spins, step sequences, program requirements, etc) but they never really did. Were they required? No, but again it would’ve helped viewers to follow along with the competition if they had some couch figure internally commenting on the different programs (like other sports animes do).

Of course, I’m only one person with only my own opinion, and you’re entitled to your own but I just wanted to explain why I find the figure skating in this anime disappointing. In addition, certain things the staff have done, such as incorporate choreography from Virtue/Moir into the ice dance routine in ep 12 without giving credit, and Kubo’s inappropriate tweets regarding male skaters, have turned me off yoi overall. it’s possible to enjoy a piece of work on its own while acknowledging the creator’s faults, but so much of yoi fandom behavior is worshipping the creators and I’m just not about that…

Pushing that aside for now, I’d say that the anime was targeted towards fujoshis and female skating fans. Because why only aim for one? But yoi definitely derives a lot from BL works (http://saotome-michi.tumblr.com/post/155242878489/is-yoi-bl-though-like-what-is-bl-even-and-when)and women who enjoy BL works definitely make up most of the fandom so… saying YOI is for fujoshis really isn’t wrong? I can understand why ppl get bothered by “fujobait” since it’s usually used as a derogatory term but to me it’s more of a marketing thing. Like, do you think the sparkling pretty men and shiny lip gloss moments are intended for the enjoyment of gay/bi Japanese men? Hell no, it’s for the women who enjoy seeing that kind of stuff.

As for this being a Yamamoto Sayo anime, you’re right that Michiko to Hatchin and The Woman known as Mine Fujiko both featured sexual elements, nudity, etc. and tbh I’ll have to do some more analyzing to get to the heart of why YOI’s sexual elements bother me and those two show’s don’t. But I think it has to do with the sexual/seductive elements in MtoH and Fujiko not coming across as fanservice. Because those elements fit their setting - Michiko to Hatchin takes place in the seedy parts of a fictional country based on brazil. Mine Fujiko hops around the world as a criminal who uses her attractiveness to achieve her goals. Their sexual elements had a purpose in establishing setting or character, and weren’t heavily focused on in a way that made it clear they were for the audience’s enjoyment. On the other hand, the sexual elements in YOI aren’t necessary and are clearly intended to stir the target audience up.

Also if we’re going to talk about Yamamoto then we also have to talk about Kubo. Most ppl only know about her manga Moteki, but she drew several doujinshi in the late 90s involving RL Japanese soccer players (http://www.mandarake.co.jp/information/2009/01/23/21sby05/index.html). There’s nothing wrong about that in itself, but it suggests Kubo is familiar with the BL audience and knows what she’s doing when she writes Viktor/Yuuri enacting traditionally romantic gestures.

Finally it’s funny that you mention Madoka. I don’t know if you’re aware of this anon, but this is something that happened maybe two years ago. The blog fandomsandfeminism posted a presentation they’d made called “Anime and Feminism 101”, which went into what was feminist and not in anime. Because of course a non-Japanese person unfamiliar with Japanese culture thought that they could be an authority on this. Tumblr user hisanakagami, a Japanese trans woman, commented on this post and basically tore it apart. You can read her arguments here (http://cancerously.tumblr.com/post/77750279190/hisanakagami-hisanakagami). hisanakagami later got so much hate for her comments that she ended up leaving tumblr. (A downright shame and an example of how western fandom trying to use anime in their ideas of social justice can turn out fucked up).

One of the things hisanakagami stated was how the magical girl trope was a major contributing factor to the popularization of moe. She touches a bit on how Madoka can hardly be considered a “feminist” series when you look at the historical context and it’s position within the market.

I understand anon that you are not calling Madoka feminist. I am not trying to put words into your mouth. What I’m trying to get at is that your disagreement on Madoka being an anime for males disregards the things hisanakagami talks about and it’s a similar situation with your stance on yoi. Can Madoka and YOI appeal to wider audiences? Yes, but the cultural history behind their tropes/etc and the markets they tap into, are what make this whole “___ is progressive” argument over-simplistic and frankly baffling.

One last note before I sign off on this ridiculously long reply - all popular shows might get called revolutionary, but yoi is probably the one where we get bashed on the head with that word over and over again. Just try googling “yuri on ice revolutionary”.