Bleach, WTF?

[liralen]

Uhm. Right. I think that that is my general opinion as I'm catching up with the Bleach Manga as part of my preparation for Twin Souls. It does my heart some good to see a few things that we've done/planned for Winter War are backed up with what happens in canon, but... still... WTF?

I think I'm realizing that part of why I love One Piece so much is that Eiichiro Oda stays true to the characters and to the themes he sets from the very beginning. Every single HUGE REVEAL he's ever done fits into what has happened, characters don't do a 180 without some really solid visceral need/want/wish that stems from exactly what they've been all along. It's integral, it makes sense, and he sets the groundwork (or uses the stuff he DID to make up the new stuff in such a way that it *seems* like he set it all up to start) so early on that I can re-watch every episode AGAIN and go "Oh, wow, he knew THAT from this point HERE!!!"

All of which plays well with Robert McKee's idea of why the big reveal, that closing of the gap between what has happened and what caused it to happen, can be so darned satisfying and is kind of the gold at the end of the rainbow for storytellers. And why the unanchored/unconnected SURPRISE! can be so off-putting.

Comments

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

LOL I've certainly had that response to the Bleach manga a multitude of times, ever since shortly before the Arrancar/Aizen war ended (I remember it starting early on in the final Aizen v. Ichigo showdown, and pretty much went on from then through the end of that storyline. And I had more than my usual share of Kubo-induced WtF-moments in the Fullbring Arc - in fact, I'll have to confess I neither fully understood nor appreciated that one until I saw it animated (and I still think it was far from his best, and primarily a ham-fisted means to an end to solve one rather large problem he'd left himself with by the end of the big Hougyouku arc. (I'm being deliberately vague, since I don't know just how far you've read yet.)

But the arc that has come after the Fullbring, the current one.... I gotta say, the first month or so of that left me seriously concerned that TK had just burned out, flamed out, or something - I'd often be reading it muttering to myself, "what kind of crack has this guy been smoking!?!" But as its gone on, it's slowly gotten better, at least IMO, and he does seem to be weaving all the myriad of loose (and crazy) threads into a semblance of order and reason - even if I don't always like or agree with some of his editorial decisions.

I've found myself ruminating on how relatively young he is,and how much of his adult life has been spent writing the series. I think he's a brilliant young man, with great imagination and some real flashes of insight about human nature. But I also think sometimes his lack of RL experience shows a bit, the fact that he's spent most of his time in a room imagining and capturing these other worlds and people, without enough time out in the world to learn how life (and sometimes, people and relationships) all really work. That's my thoughts on it, at any rate... he frustrates me sometimes, but I still remain fascinated, so he must be doing something right!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

The current one was the one that really had me concerned. I'll also have to watch the Fullbring anime now with BOTH arguments by people.

I'll hope!!

But your observations about his youth and relative inexperience do feel right, too. He is brilliant, but some of that is missing...

Very cool to hear from a true believer, I'll keep the faith.

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

Where are you at in the current one? Have you read up all the way to the one that came out today, or are you not that far?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I read right through the last 20 issues yesterday and then backtracked into the earlier ones to figure out what was going on... *laughs* So that may well feed my sense of disconnection. I will do it all then and say when I have. <3

It was good to see Kisuke. *grins*