#imagine not knowing that renji puked on kira's parents grave

[recurring-polynya]

Have you ever had an odd moment when rereading/rewatching a story you love and get that feel like you're reading fanfiction?

I'm currently reading Bleach for the first time since watching the anime and, the missing bits from the manga kinda hit different.

It's like the world feels a little more lived in with the way characters emote and goof around. A lot of fun characterization gets lost.

Like Rukia, she wasn't my favorite character, in the anime, she felt like a motherly/older sister type of figure. Sure she does have her silly doodles and her love of bunnies but I got the vibe of action girl with like 2 quirks.

The manga on the other hand, an old man almost scams her, a celebrity absolutely scammed her and she sold out Ichigo. And she's "researching" human culture via horror manga lol.

It just let me see a bit of why the entire bleach fan base is overly protective of her. (It's still a bit scary, but what can you do?) Knowing her backstory already, it's like she's been stressed out over dramatic changing in her life and Rukia finally had a chance to slow down and relax.

And that's something that fanfiction let's readers indulge in. Seeing characters you enjoy goof around and take a breather.

So it's kinda nice to see. 😊

I'm not quite sure I agree with the comparison to fanfic, but it is certainly true that the Bleach anime did a real hack-job on Rukia's character.

I know that it's easy to dismiss the "Studio Pierrot screwed up Bleach!" as a shipper's complaint, because Studio Pierrot absolutely screwed up the minor bits of romance that Bleach actually contains, but the fact is, they screwed up a lot of other stuff, too.

It's really weird, because so much of the time, it's just literally for no reason? @star-snail started to do a really nice analysis of this once, and got exhausted one episode in (I encourage you to read their thoughts on it this sideblog). One example that really sticks with me is that they made Rukia show up earlier in the episode, while Ichigo is interacting with a ghost, whom Rukia ignores. You might say "who cares?" but then that ghost gets eaten by Fishbone, and the end effect is that one of the first things we learn about Rukia is that she's bad at her job.

Another example is this asshat, wholly an invention of the anime:

T(thanks Bleach Wiki for the pic, since I refuse to waste energy on this guy). If you don't remember him, good for you. He shows up in the Memories in the Rain storyline to "help" Rukia and Ichigo fight Grand Fisher. Here is a short list of what's wrong with him:

In the manga, Kubo really slow-plays revealing anything about Soul Society or other Soul Reapers. Take a look at these shots-- the first Rukia thinking about Kaien's death while Ichigo fights Grand Fisher, the second is the first glimpse we see of Byakuya and Renji being sent to apprehend Rukia. Look at the composition, the care Kubo took to make these scenes mysterious and intriguing. Now look up at that guy.

He claims that he was two years ahead of Rukia in school and that she was known as a Kuchiki princess? a) of all, this makes no damn sense because Rukia left school when she was adopted. b) she was only there for 2 months and she was a freshman? Why would this guy even know her? More importantly, though, in the manga, we don't find out that Rukia is Soul Society royalty until Byakuya and Renji show up. Instead, the anime blows all that build-up and dramatic tension by just having this dude... blurt it out? Also, he implies that maybe she was spoiled and stuck up at school? We know nothing about Rukia's life in Soul Society at this point, so as the viewer, we just take this information for granted and... for what? What were they going for?

Memories in the Rain is a story about Rukia allowing Ichigo to fight for his honor, despite Kon begging her to intervene. It's a mysterious fight that is an allusion to her trauma at killing Kaien, and it's a really important character moment, telling you what kind of person Rukia is. Having some other guy there disrupts all of that.

He's gross and makes a bunch of jokes about Rukia and Ichigo being together. Again, for what??

Another bit in the anime that gets re-arranged for absolutely no reason is Prelude for the Straying Stars, the flashback where Renji, Momo, Izuru and Shuuhei are attacked by Hollows during a school training exercise. In the manga, Renji explicitly says they've been at school for 2 months. In the anime, they change it to 6 month. In the manga, the training exercise is to go perform konsou in the Living World, in the anime, it's this elaborate thing with dummy Hollows. In the manga, one person is killed and two are injured, in the anime, there's a slow pan over a group of student corpses, dripping blood. Mostly, I am just mad about this because I tried to write a fanfic about it once and I couldn't figure out any of the details and it made me really mad and I never finished the fanfic. Also, they skipped this for some reason, how dare they.

On the other hand, the anime does include a lot of little character scenes that are great! Ikkaku training Renji! That Academy flashback episode and A Star and Stray Dog, Rukia and Renji's origin story, both contain a lot of extra scenes, which are really nice!

People complain about the anime filler arcs, too, but to be honest, the vast majority of the Karakura kids being pals is from filler. If you have ever enjoyed a story where Rukia is hanging out with Ichigo in Karakuratown after getting her power back, it's not canon!

To be honest, I really like the aspect of Bleach that you can really just pick and choose what you want to be canon. Filler arcs, the movies, the light novels. People on the internet will try to argue that you must accept such-and-such, Kubo approved it, or whatever, but you don't have to accept shit. Zabimaru will only ever be a nue to me, no matter how many people tell me that there was an omake where Kurotsuchi offered to change their gender. I don't care.

Anyway, I'm glad you read the manga, Anon, because, personally, I think it is straight-up better. Rukia is a goddamn dirtbag delight.