It's alright, you still type english better than how juju used to type.
Oi, Don't make fun of my older self.
It's alright, you still type english better than how juju used to type.
Oi, Don't make fun of my older self.
BARTHOLOMEW KUMA IS JUJU!?
Shock-ing!
I'm wondering if Uryu is gonna play any major role in the current arc since it involves the quinces. I could see him as a wild card in the war, if he and all of ichigos friends weren't yamcha'd so much.
And the poop jokes in the naruto chapter seemed like it was from a bad Eddie Murphy movie.
Naruto: So basically he trains hard like Naruto as he heals, makes friends with Zetsu and flashbacks within the flashback show Obito wasn't exactly right in the head in the first place….I gotta say this is getting interesting.
Bleach: Still slow paced but that was a pretty good curb stomp by Yammamoto. Though I'm sensing some foreshadowing with that "bring back the dead" power of his. So now what, white haired guy takes over now?
Bleach: Still slow paced but that was a pretty good curb stomp by Yammamoto. Though I'm sensing some foreshadowing with that "bring back the dead" power of his. So now what, white haired guy takes over now?
Maybe the white-haired guy IS Juha Bach. :ninja:
Maybe the white-haired guy IS Juha Bach. :ninja:
God I hope not. Cause then you'd have to explain why Yamamoto got two very different looking people confused. Although he'd probably just be wearing a mask somehow if he was the White Haired guy..Aren't people identified by those reiatsu ribbons? Is that bright red streamer easy to conceal? Or is Bach really just a Quincy? If so, why the hell is he so immortal? Is Kubo going to say Bach was the first Quincy? But he was a Shinigami? So he should still have the red ribbon…Maybe?
God I hope not. Cause then you'd have to explain why Yamamoto got two very different looking people confused. Although he'd probably just be wearing a mask somehow if he was the White Haired guy..Aren't people identified by those reiatsu ribbons? Is that bright red streamer easy to conceal? Or is Bach really just a Quincy? If so, why the hell is he so immortal? Is Kubo going to say Bach was the first Quincy? But he was a Shinigami? So he should still have the red ribbon…Maybe?
Yama is over 2000 years old. Cut him some slack, man. It also explains why he fell asleep during the war.
Yama is over 2000 years old. Cut him some slack, man. It also explains why he fell asleep during the war.
NEVER! lol. If he can't tell the difference between a white haired bishie and a scruffy McHobo then he needs to be put in a home instead of being in charge lol.
I'm wondering if Uryu is gonna play any major role in the current arc since it involves the quinces. I could see him as a wild card in the war, if he and all of ichigos friends weren't yamcha'd so much.
And the poop jokes in the naruto chapter seemed like it was from a bad Eddie Murphy movie.
You are totally right,
Uryu is Glasses Yamcha , Chad is Mexican Yamcha, Inoue is BreathtakingBoobs Yamcha Rukia is Puar and Renji is Bishi Yamcha. Still, the chapter was good because Yama made some amazing stuff once in his life
Naruto.. I really want the flashback to end soon
Yama killed a Mod Soul or something to that extent. We know they are up to something, and are experimenting - giving Arrancar like the 1 Ichigo faced, Quincy powers….
I actually kinda felt bad for this 'juha Bach' in the end. He got his ass handed to him badly.
After this Uryu Ishida will be the main villain and his father.
Aren't people identified by those reiatsu ribbons? Is that bright red streamer easy to conceal?
Please, that thing was brought up once and never mentioned again. And even then it was not in reality, but in Ichigo's empty soul. I think it was a reiatsu feel colour, or something like that. I doubt Kubo remembers it, and this time it's not a joke.
I liked Tobi more as an anonymous who took on a fear-imposing name. This is such a rich idea to unravel - how just a name can make people tremble, and they fear not the actual power, but the solid proof and what it will surely bring. Sadly, Kishi buried this gem.
Seriously, why is Bach that old? Quincies are fucking humans with powers, nothing else. They're supposed to age normally.
Please, that thing was brought up once and never mentioned again. And even then it was not in reality, but in Ichigo's empty soul. I think it was a reiatsu feel colour, or something like that. I doubt Kubo remembers it, and this time it's not a joke.
It wasn't his empty soul, Ishida grabbed it while Ichigo was standing there when they had their first real encounter. Without Ichigo being in Shinigami form.
http://www.mangahere.com/manga/bleach/v05/c035/18.html
Bah reading the next 2 pages only makes me hope this was foreshadowing for the current arc and not just back then lol.
Seriously, why is Bach that old? Quincies are fucking humans with powers, nothing else. They're supposed to age normally.
This guy is the Quincy boss, he isn't an ordinary person.
Another example to SS's idiocy, something which we've missed.
The Quincy were slaughtered because they refused to be reasonable to leave the job of dealing with Hollows to the Shinigami, right? They insisted on exterminating Hollows, despite the grave consequences of mutual destruction of both worlds.
But when we find out about Ishida's grandpa's story, we find out that SS refused to Soken's very reasonable idea of letting the Quincy be the first line of defence against Hollows, who will keep them away from humans until Shinigami arrive to purify them.
Both sides were completely unreasonable.
http://www.mangareader.net/94-500-13/bleach/chapter-46.html
And lol at Urahara saying that haven't heard of a Quincy in a long ass time when he has Ryuken running around.
The Quincy were slaughtered because they refused to be reasonable to leave the job of dealing with Hollows to the Shinigami, right? They insisted on exterminating Hollows, despite the grave consequences of mutual destruction of both worlds.
But when we find out about Ishida's grandpa's story, we find out that SS refused to Soken's very reasonable idea of letting the Quincy be the first line of defence against Hollows, who will keep them away from humans until Shinigami arrive to purify them.
Both sides were completely unreasonable.
Wow, I totally missed that.
Wait wait, the whole situation is odd. The Quincy genocide was…...when? Long time ago? It predates the existance of Uryu and Ryuken, so how could Soken, the latter's father, suggest such an idea BEFORE it happened? Aren't Quincies humans and thus.....live for 80 or so years max?
@Fire Fist:
Just a question. I don't want to be "That guy", but how come Oda can make a poop joke when Brook is introduced and it's hilarious, and Kishi uses one when TobiZetsu is introduced, and it's horrible? I know, I know, execution and all, but if you're gonna criticize something, don't pick things that have been done before.
there is a difference. Oda didnt try to force the poop joke it went with the flow and it was funny since it was a skeleton/mermaid. Kishi kind of tried to force the joke to make you laugh mentioning more than once and it didnt even flow well with what were reading
Seriously, why is Bach that old? Quincies are fucking humans with powers, nothing else. They're supposed to age normally.
Plot…...twist...bro
Wow, I totally missed that.
Wait wait, the whole situation is odd. The Quincy genocide was…...when? Long time ago? It predates the existance of Uryu and Ryuken, so how could Soken, the latter's father, suggest such an idea BEFORE it happened? Aren't Quincies humans and thus.....live for 80 or so years max?
The genocide took place over 200 years ago. Apparently Ishida's forefathers survived, and the Shinigami let them live up to the present. Then Ishida's grandpa tried to convince SS that Quincy are necessary (… with only three of them left) but SS refused to listen.
The genocide took place over 200 years ago. Apparently Ishida's forefathers survived, and the Shinigami let them live up to the present. Then Ishida's grandpa tried to convince SS that Quincy are necessary (… with only three of them left) but SS refused to listen.
I think the worse of it is that Soken, a gentle old man that suggested a reasonable situation…...was one of Mayuri's TORTURE victims.
.....I'm telling you, Bleach would be better if Kubo kept the Shinigami as the bad guys.
I think the worse of it is that Soken, a gentle old man that suggested a reasonable situation…...was one of Mayuri's TORTURE victims.
.....I'm telling you, Bleach would be better if Kubo kept the Shinigami as the bad guys.
Didn't Mayuri decapitate his head in the end? Yeah.
Can somebody explain to me what is Zetsu ? from where did "it" came from ?
Can somebody explain to me what is Zetsu ? from where did "it" came from ?
From Hashirama's wood, pretty much.
From Hashirama's wood, pretty much.
Woah… It suddenly makes a lot more sense when put this way :ninja:
Woah… It suddenly makes a lot more sense when put this way :ninja:
Well, yeah. There's a reason why he's white.
So…how Madara got Hashirama's body in the first place ?
I think all this is very convenient..In a point that I can´t trust.
Argh, I just got reminded of something.
People still think that Kakashi is hidding something underneath his mask, which is worth taking the mask off for. Why? It's getting on my nerves. They say crap like, "Kishi is unmasking people now, so do you think he's going to unmask Kakashi as well?"
Unlike Kakashi, Tobi and Haku used their masks to hide their identities. Kakashi's mask, on the other hand, is the center of gag scenes that Kishi used only twice so far (as far as I remember), and he held absolutely zero importance towards the mask outside of such scenes. So why do people keep insisting that there's something under it?
Not to mention that we've already seen all of Kakashi's face, except for his mouth which was concealed by his arm in one of the covers in part 2. So unless they are actually thinking that there's a Sharingan in his mouth or some arbitrary fangs or something, they should shut the fuck up already.
@Fire Fist:
Just a question. I don't want to be "That guy", but how come Oda can make a poop joke when Brook is introduced and it's hilarious, and Kishi uses one when TobiZetsu is introduced, and it's horrible? I know, I know, execution and all, but if you're gonna criticize something, don't pick things that have been done before.
It's different. It's like Brook asking luffy how it feels to poop. That wouldn't be funny either.
Not to mention that we've already seen all of Kakashi's face, except for his mouth which was concealed by his arm in one of the covers in part 2.
Huh ? Where ?
To be honest i really want to see Kakashi's face, just to see how he looks like.
Huh ? Where ?
To be honest i really want to see Kakashi's face, just to see how he looks like.
!
Oh yeah, now i kinda remember seeing it.
Still mouth, nose and chin can change the face a lot.
Thanks.
Oh yeah, now i kinda remember seeing it.
Still mouth, nose and chin can change the face a lot.Thanks.
Yes, if they're deformed, which I doubt they are.
Kakashi has another Sharingan on his tongue, with that he can spam Izanagi or Izanami or whatever it is called
From Hashirama's wood, pretty much.
Of course. Wood jutsu is one of the rarest and most powerfu jutsus, after all.
I don't why, but it is.
Argh, I just got reminded of something.
People still think that Kakashi is hidding something underneath his mask, which is worth taking the mask off for. Why? It's getting on my nerves. They say crap like, "Kishi is unmasking people now, so do you think he's going to unmask Kakashi as well?"
Unlike Kakashi, Tobi and Haku used their masks to hide their identities. Kakashi's mask, on the other hand, is the center of gag scenes that Kishi used only twice so far (as far as I remember), and he held absolutely zero importance towards the mask outside of such scenes. So why do people keep insisting that there's something under it?Not to mention that we've already seen all of Kakashi's face, except for his mouth which was concealed by his arm in one of the covers in part 2. So unless they are actually thinking that there's a Sharingan in his mouth or some arbitrary fangs or something, they should shut the fuck up already.
We already explained that Kakashi took Rin's jaw after his own jaw was crushed during the battle that also took Rin's life.
It's a big reveal that'll probably happen shortly after this flashback.
Of course. Wood jutsu is one of the rarest and most powerfu jutsus, after all.
I don't why, but it is.
We already explained that Kakashi took Rin's jaw after his own jaw was crushed during the battle that also took Rin's life.
It's a big reveal that'll probably happen shortly after this flashback.
Wood I guess could be considered more complex because of the components it should take to make it. At least that's how I think of it.
Of course. Wood jutsu is one of the rarest and most powerfu jutsus, after all.
I don't why, but it is.
Because it's a bloodline limit exclusive to the First Hokage. If memory serves right it allows him to use water + earth elements which = the wood element.
Wood I guess could be considered more complex because of the components it should take to make it. At least that's how I think of it.
Because it's a bloodline limit exclusive to the First Hokage. If memory serves right it allows him to use water + earth elements which = the wood element.
My point is, I don't see what makes it so great and powerful (yeah, because when I think great and powerful force, I think wood).
Yes, I get that he's techniclly creating trees so, ergo, he's creating life, but aside from creating edible vegetation and making sure the firewood supply never runs out, I don't see the usefulness of it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the most we've ever seen of its usefulness is creating a big forest, which…..gets in peoples' way, I guess?
My point is, I don't see what makes it so great and powerful (yeah, because when I think great and powerful force, I think wood).
Yes, I get that he's techniclly creating trees so, ergo, he's creating life, but aside from creating edible vegetation and making sure the firewood supply never runs out, I don't see the usefulness of it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the most we've ever seen of its usefulness is creating a big forest, which…..gets in peoples' way, I guess?
He can also use Mokuton for regeneration on himself. And those flowers. That's it, pretty much.
My point is, I don't see what makes it so great and powerful (yeah, because when I think great and powerful force, I think wood).
Yes, I get that he's techniclly creating trees so, ergo, he's creating life, but aside from creating edible vegetation and making sure the firewood supply never runs out, I don't see the usefulness of it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the most we've ever seen of its usefulness is creating a big forest, which…..gets in peoples' way, I guess?
In battle, it is not very notable. But apparently, people have been using this stuff to extend their lifespans, power up giant demonic statues, and create armies of plant people? And to stick a bunch of dead people's eyes to their arm. So yeah, the REALLY notable aspect of Mokuton is that it spreads to other people like a shitty plant disease and gives them arbitrary powers.
Wasn't able to the control trees at will and create them in every shape he wanted ?
That's like more hax than anything (except those eyes).
I've been actually working on a long post as to why Soul Society is bad…...dunno if you Applied Logic guys will write such a piece or want contribution, but it's just something I've cooked up on a whim.
Remember this? Well, after spending a few days on it…..it's done. It's all text, and no pictures, but I figured I'd post it here.
Note: there is anger and minor cussing
[hide]
Hello, everyone, I'm here to discuss the Soul Society in Bleach. And to answer the question, "is it a good afterlife for humans?"
Here's the short answer: No. It's awful. Rukia even has the gall, the GALL, to proclaim it as a paradise back in the early days of Bleach. Now, this requires an explanation on my part. After all, Soul Society has Soul Reapers, which defend the living from corrupt souls called Hollows. Surely it can't be that bad?
The answer is YES, it is. Let me explain.
1. First off, the diversity in Soul Society is….well, it's not there.
Yes, we have giants, dark-skinned people, and people with freakish hair symbolizing every color under the Skittles wrapper. But that's in physical appearance ONLY.
Notice that all SRs have JAPANESE names? Kuchiki Byakuya? Hisagi Shuuhei? Hinamori Momo? The lone exception is Soifon, who is, as well as her clan, obviously Chinese. But aside from that, EVERYONE has a Japanese name. Even regular souls like Shiba Kukaku and her brother Ganju. This is supposed to be the afterlife for all of the human race, right? And Bleach takes place in the real world; Karakura Town is a made-up city within the real Japan, and Chad comes from Mexico, a REAL country here. So what's the deal? Where are the Americans, the French, the Germans, the Indians, etc. in Soul Society? Yes, Quincies and the filler Bounts have a German motif, and the Hollows have a Spanish motif. But guess what? THOSE ARE NOT DECEASED PURE SOULS. Seireitei means "Court of Pure Souls", right? Are only the Japanese pure? Is the rest of the world unable to die or something? I can't understand this. The fact that the 13 heads of the Soul Reapers all conveniently have Japanese names (sans Soifon) is a little suspicious.
I can think of three reasons. One, maybe there's multiple Soul Societies….yeah! Maybe somewhere out there, there's an American Soul Society where the Soul Reapers use pistols and smoke cigarettes? Maybe a British Soul Society where everyone uses a rapier-type sword, rather than a katana or some variation.
One problem. Well, two.
What kind of manga endorses an afterlife where people are segregated based on where they're from?! We all share the same damn planet when we're alive, but when we kick it….everyone parts? That's crazy!
And here's the second problem: Soifon and her clan are Chinese, but are present in the homogenously Japanese Soul Society. If my first reason is correct, then she's out of place. She should be in the CHINESE Soul Society. Maybe her family really fucked up when they were alive, and now they have to spend their afterlives serving the same people that raped and slaughtered within their country back in WWII.
So here's my second reason. Maybe SS is just mostly Japanese…..because! I mean, the world has a feudal Japanese design!
Maybe all the other ethnicies and races of the world are tucked in some shithole in Rukongai, wondering why they can't be as talented as the Japanese Soul Repears. And the problem with THAT is that's just too far-fetched and dumb to accept. Japanese being better than all? Have you SEEN their weird fetishes?
I was able to form the third reason after reading the recent chapter where Yamamoto's Bankai summons an undead army of ten trillion people, all those he's killed. Now, I was told that was a pun, given Earth has only about 7 billion (and Bleach is centered in the real world), maybe we can conclude Yamamoto killed all foreigners to make an homogenously Japanese society. Now, that reason is fucked up beyond belief, because that would imply ETHNIC CLEANSING in the fucking afterlife…...
So there's no reason that makes sense. Kubo just didn't make Soul Society's residents diverse because, that wasn't on his agenda when writing the story. It just sucks because Bleach is based on the REAL WORLD, unlike other shonen like Full Metal Alchemist, One Piece, Naruto, Hunter X Hunter, Toriko, and so on. When you write a story based on our real Earth, you're limited to the zaniness you can make and get away with.
But let's move on, since this point is largely aesthetic and doesn't affect Soul Society and what it's presented as in the manga. Because you know, no one even questions the lack of non-Japanese and they don't even appear!
2. Here's the second point. When you think of an afterlife, you think equality. People that died in real life get placed into the same plane as someone economically superior. The problem with Bleach's Soul Society?
EQUALITY IS NOT IN THE DICTIONARY.
See, Soul Society is set up like this:
There's the Rukon districts (Rukongai) where most normal souls appear when they're sent off by Soul Repears.
But in the middle of the Rukongai lies the Seireitei, that's why you go to become a Shinigami when you show enough reiatsu to qualify for the job. And I can assume the offspring of Shinigami are born here?
But here in lies the problem. The Rukongai residents are defenseless, reiatsu-less souls that are easy prey to hungry Hollows. For god's sake, they live in shantytowns! Their villages (Japanese designed) are run down and pretty much shitty. Granted, this isn't all of the villages, they infact improve in quality the closer to Seireitei.
However-
why are the only available people to protect them all the way in the fucking center of Soul Society! Shouldn't it be spread out? In the real world, cops and soldiers are placed throughout countries, not just one place! Imagine being an American citizen and police officers only exist in the middle of the country, in Kansas or something. You'd be fucked in the other 49 states if oh say you were robbed, raped, or KILLED!
But that's not the worst of it. Seireitei INTENTIONALLY keeps the Rukongai peasants out. Yes, you heard me.
Remember Ichigo and crew's journey to save Rukia? They had to get past a giant wall/gate to get inside the Seireitei? Four giants guarded the four gates to keep out intruders? How fucked up is this?! You Soul Reapers claim to be protecting the innocent, but god forbid. you see a bunch of peasants on your way to get some soul coffee and dick around. This afterlife is elitist!
The ONLY time you see the Shinigami going out to Rukongai is to fight Hollows, and then bam! They rush back home and drink sake. Do you see them checking on the regular souls often? Do you see them interact with the citizens? NO. Seireitei should've composed of various bases of the Soul Reapers spread across Soul Society, so each section of Rukon would have…..AN ACTIVE POLICE FORCE TO PROTECT THEM?
Now there's some characters that grew up in the Rukongai hell like Kenpachi, Rangiku, Hitsugaya, Gin, and so on. So maybe it's understandable they would relish the chance to escape this shitty life and be better off as a Soul Reaper.
And I would accept that-somehow-if there wasn't a HUGE problem with this.
The Nobles. Yes, there's NOBLILITY in an afterlife. How the hell is this possible? Did they die first or something? These "Nobles" were born in the Seireitei without experiencing the fresh hell that is Rukongai. And I can count the active nobles in duty: Byakuya, Soifon, Kyoraku, Omaeda etc.
The latter are lesser nobles, but BYAKUYA, holy cow. This guy is the head of the Kuchiki Clan, one of the FOUR Major noble houses. And every time we've seen him, he's always given off a "I'm better than you" vibe of twisted arrogance. Even after Kubo made him a "hero" after the Soul Society arc, he still acts stuck-up. Yeah, that's not elitist at all, Kubo. His clan is no better, because they were against Byakuya even MARRYING a peasant, the now deceased Hisana.
And these guys get the sweet life? The hell? Mind you, it's not like we see all the nobles in Soul Society around or responding to major events, so we can assume the following: the Nobles are mostly not Shinigami, and spent their days living it up, Ja Rule style, in their mansions and fancy clothes.
While regular Shinigami risk their lives to maintain the city and fight Hollows.
While regular souls suffer in Rukongai.
…..This is a fair afterlife HOW?
Also, this is a minor point, but SS is supposed to composed of deceased HUMANS. What the fuck are Komamura and Hiyosu doing here, then? What's THEIR story? But that reminds me of the next point!
3. The corrupt people in charge.
We all know about the Soul Reapers and what they do, that's the staple of the series.
We know they purify Hollows with their swords and protect (I scoff at this) the innocent.
You got generally nice people in the Gotei 13, like Hanataro, Yachiru, Rangiku, and many more.
The PROBLEM is the Captains, the head henchos of the Seireitei (if all the Nobles died off). They're the true power in this world, they're the best of the best.
Or are they?
You see, most of the dickery comes from the Soul Reaper CAPTAINS being jerks! Not at all of them of course….Unohana and Komamura, for example, they're super nice and honorable. But take at look at some others:
-Byakuya. His first appearances composed of him trying to carrying out the execution of his adopted sister Rukia. Some brother he is, right? And like I said before, Byakuya carries such an "holier than thou" attitude with him. I can chalk that up to the nobility being there, but can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me, "oh Byakuya presented in the Soul Society arc was a likeable guy"?
-Kenpachi. He's a bloodthirsty maniac, plain and simple. He's one of my favorite characters in this manga, but this fact is not up for debate. He lusts for battle, and is obviously a psychopath. I mean, you don't see him hacking away, murdering the good guys, but he did stop Komamura and Tousen from carrying out their mission to intercept the intruder Ichigo by fighting them himself. He's a loose cannon.
-MAYURI. The creepy clown captain of the 12th Division? He's probably the worst, most ammoral character I've ever seen in Bleach. The man turned his minions into BOMBS just to attack Orihime and Uryu. He constantly hits and abuses his daughter Nemu (I know she's technically a robot, but some father YOU are, pal!), over the smallest of errors and just for sick, twisted pleasure. Remember his fight with Uryu? Well, you should,because he openly ADMITS to torturing Quincies, including Uryu's grandfather. He MADE THEM BURN THEIR OWN CHILDREN. Now see, I can give him credit for being twisted as fuck, but he's presented as a GOOD GUY as the manga flows. You expect me to entrust my soul with a maniac like this guy? Even worse, Kubo hasn't bothered to bring up the plotpoint of Mayuri doing all this bad shit to the attention of the actually moral characters! Uryu, it seems, even forgot Mayuri tortured his grandfather, because you never see him think about it or try to carry out revenge!
-Soi Fon. Now, she's not crazy or a sociopath or anything, and she IS a woman of duty. But I have to question that, even if I like her. In the Soul Society arc, she's shown to be super strict in carrying out orders, but when the ryoka attacked, she was focused on finding her old mentor Yoruichi (and crush) and demanding answers as to why she abandoned her 100+ years ago. Uh what? Shouldn't you be going after Ichigo, Orihime, Uryu, and Chad, the REAL culprits in this? Now, I can kinda forgive it, because a flashback shows she really cherished Yoruichi as a mentor, and was devistated when she left. But take a look at this example:
Soi only agrees to ally with the Vizard Hachi against Barragan if he imprisons Urahara in a barrier for a month.
Why? Well, she obviously doesn't like Urahara (neither does Hiyori, or Ichigo at times), and it can only be assumed because he ran off with the person she cherished the most. She's not as bad as Mayuri or Kenpachi, but I can conclude this:
girl is SUPER petty and lets trivial reasons eclipse her JOB. She needs a therapist.
Holy shit, I've gotten this far and I didn't mention the big bad yet.
-AIZEN, AIZEN, AIZEN. What a supreme prick. Yes, I KNOW he's the villain, but Aizen had this grandiose plan worked out for years under the guise of being seemingly nice and trusted by the Gotei. Plain and simple, his goal was to slaughter innocent souls in a town, to form a key, to go let him kill the God of Bleach - The Spirit King. And don't think this wasn't acted upon. He KILLED the Central 46, stabbed and traumatized Hinamori, framed Urahara, gave the Vizards horrible powers they didn't want, manipulated Ichigo, abducted Orihime, and set up Rukia's execution to get a fucking glass orb. Now, some of you may be saying "he's a good villain", to which I not only disagree (that's another rant), I say, THAT ISN'T THE POINT. I'm not here to argue if Aizen was a compelling villain or not, I'm here to say this MONSTER came from Soul Society. He tricked EVERYONE, so no one couldn't figure out he had this twisted plan in the works. And here's the leader of the "good guys":
-Yamamoto. Since the Soul Society arc, we've gotten a taste of what kind of leader he is, and let me tell you, he's NOT a good one. This man is like Byakuya and Soi Fon; duty-minded, but even MORE SO. Yamamoto throughout the whole SS arc kept trying to carry out Rukia's execution and stop Ichigo and his friends, the second after the order was given by the Aizen-controlled Central 46. Rukia merely gave her powers to Ichigo to defend his family; it's not like he went insane and started to kill humans just for fun. Therefore, where in lies the crime and urgency to have her wiped from the face of existance? If only Yamamoto bothered to consider the facts, and most of the OTHER Captains didn't either! He's supposed to be a good guy? And this is another example: when Orihime was taken by Ulquiorra to Hueco Mundo, Yamamoto IMMEDIATELY suspected Orihime of going with the enemy willingly and branded her a traitor. Yes, an alive 15 year old girl is supposed to have loyalty to centuries old dead people that willingly protect said alive people. Get your head out your asshole, Yamamoto! What, ANYBODY not swearing your loyalty to you and your army is automatically in league with Aizen and Hollows? Jack-off. But wait, there's more! In the Fake Karakura Town battle, Yamamoto solos the beast Ayon…..then, um....disappears? Well, in war, you're not supposed to have your general at the front lines, but what was he doing for all those chapters? When Aizen solos everyone and old Yama comes out to fight him, it is revealed he set up a trap with his zanpakutou to try to fry Aizen in a fiery blaze of hell, which would nuke the whole fake town. You know, the fake town where the members of HIS ARMY WERE FIGHTING? So you're telling me the old man planned to take down Aizen at all costs, even if his subordinates were to die needlessly for it? How is THAT BETTER THAN AIZEN?! What kind of monster would agree to blindly sacrifice his army to take down one threat out of pure hatred? I understand Aizen was dangerous, and defeating him was priority number one, but this is supposed to be a "good" army!
A "good" army's leader focuses on the welfare of his troops AND defeating the enemy, and is more willing to sacrifice himself or a small number of men than a larger count. Now, the fighters in this battle WERE a small number, but here're the problems:
A. some of the victims would be CAPTAINS, you know, the strongest and hardest to obtain members of the army?
and B. the would-be victims didn't even KNOW Yama was planning to nuke the town just to take down Aizen. If they knew, and agreed, then I wouldn't mind, but there was no such scene to indicate that!
A recent chapter has Yamamoto vowing to destroy all of Soul Society with his Bankai just to destroy the Vandereich leader Juha Bach. That's….worse than the Aizen nuke tactic; you'd be killing your soldiers AND messing up the soul balance of the world, you dickhead. And in the recent chapters, Yama summons his deceased victims to attack Bach, some of which are BACH'S FALLEN COMRADES. He basically toys with Bach with this fact, and declares Bach's pain of seeing his allies like this.....is nothing like the pain his forces have caused the Shinigami.
Uh what? You senile hypocrite, YOUR army was the one that killed the Quincies in the first fucking place! Don't you think Bach has enough pain, hence this war going on in Soul Society? This insane man has to retire.
Overall, the Gotei 13 are composed of pretty amoral people.
Too bad that's not all. After all, the Gotei 13 isn't the political leader of Soul Society, they're the military. Remember the Central 46 I mentioned when I talked about Aizen? They're the heads. They make the laws.
Now before I talk more about them, there's a few things I don't get about them. They're 46 lawmakers….do they have experience fighting Hollows? Why that number? It's even, so wouldn't they need an odd number like 47 or 49, just to break ties in debates?
Sigh…...but let's get to the bread and butter about them.
-They are the worst law making body in existance. If the Nobles and structure made Seireitei seem elitist, then these guys show that Seireitei is also an avid opponent of enforcing democracy. First off, they have pretty damn strict laws, like "attacking Captains is treason" and "giving powers to a human is a crime". The latter law always bugged me, because wouldn't the morality of giving powers to a human be based on a case-by-case basis? Take Ichigo and Rukia; the latter gave her powers to help Ichigo defend his family from a Hollow since she was weakened. You would call that a CRIME?
But it's not the laws that stand out to make these guys stand out like assholes. See, back in the Turn Back The Pendlum flashback arc, these guys were the ones to proclaim the Vizards and Urahara as criminals, since the former obtained Hollow powers and latter was framed in giving said powers. I understand the accusations, but they were just decided to be automatic criminals WITHOUT ANY FUCKING EVIDENCE. The defendants didn't even have a chance to defend themselves or hire a lawyer (lol whut). Is that fair AT ALL? I'm sure Khadafy and Assad would've found great use for these guys.
So when you learn of this flashback, you want to hug Aizen for killing these elitist anti-democracy judges. But that reminds me….Aizen is pretty much the worst criminal Soul Society's ever had, since you know....he murdered and gave away Hollow powers and PLOTTED GENOCIDE AND DEICIDE. So it's fair to assume the NEW Central 46 (which weirdly appears at the end of the Arrancar story) would be harsh on this guy, right?
lolno
The Central 46 rules Aizen is guilty and sentences him to rot in the lowest level in Hell for 20,000 years (Aizen can't die because the Hogyoku made him immortal, fuck you Kubo). Now you have to see what's WRONG with this situation. Urahara and the Vizards automatically get death on the weakest suspicion of foul play, and there's no evidence. Not to mention, AFTER Aizen revealed who he really was and thus…..their charges, in theory, drop......they aren't allowed right back in. Three Vizards managed to reclaim captaincy, but I've yet to see Urahara there! And why didn't ALL of the Vizards get their positions back? Maybe it was their choice, or something. Whatever- Aizen, a heartless monster, GUILTY of the things that happened to the Vizards, and judged with actual evidence is…..given a sentence not equal to death. I know he can't be executed, but these dickwads are giving Aizen FINITE time on his sentence. Meaning, 20,000 years pass, and Aizen's a free man. Since he won't age and probably won't reform at all, given what a soulless dick he was, he'll stroll out centuries later probably hungry for revenge on a new generation of Shinigami. Why not just KEEP HIM IN HELL UNTIL THE END OF TIME? Why are you giving this guy a chance to be free?
So Urahara gets a sentence too harsh but Aizen gets a sentence not harsh enough. Fuck.
This just blows my mind as to how completely unfair this is! The Shinigami risked their lives to defeat Aizen. Aizen pretty much gave emotional hell to Orihime and Hinamori. Why aren't these people demanding he be mercilessly tortured forever? I mean, it wouldn't be out of line with the corrupt Soul Society. The Central 46 are about doling out justice…..WHERE IS IT? In fact, if I was them, I would not only imprison Aizen forever, I would issue public apologizes to Orihime, Ichigo, Hinamori, Urahara, and everyone else that got fucked over by this sociopath!
And here's a non-canon example, but still valid. In the second movie, the Central 46 decides that since Hitsugaya and Kusaka share the same zanpakutou (how is this possible?), they must fight to the death to declare the owner of it.
Yeah, that's real fair, guys. They definitely CHOSE to have the same soul sword, yeah that's right. What a stupid punishment.
To sum up, I can't BELIEVE we have amoral characters like Mayuri and Yamamoto as GOOD GUYS, and unfair dickwads like the Central 46 to make laws FOR THE GOOD GUYS.
Are you seeing how bad these people are? Are you seeing how bad this whole afterlife is?!
But wait, I've got a little more to say. Next point-
4. Soul Reapers are terrible at their jobs.
Now hold on, you might be saying that I'm just finding ANYTHING to rant about, right? You might be saying that the Shinigami ARE good at their jobs, right?
Maybe so, but you're not looking in between the scenes.
There's virtually millions of Hollows and only thousands of Shinigami, so it's not like the Shinigami can slaughter them at the drop of a hat….they're outnumbered! But we need to consider a Shinigami's role in the Bleach world, which is:
-Purify Hollows
-Defend Plus souls and humans
Easy, right? Well, this little example of how they fail at the first point was brought to my attention; The Daz calculated a glaring math oversight. You see, it's the Hollows we see in the series. No, not the little Gillian dick monsters we see in the beginning, I'm talking about the Espada, all of which were basically super powered Hollows. You see, Kubo decides to make them ALL Vasto Lordes in an interview, meaning that the 10 Espada came from the strongest class of Hollow.
Technically Kubo is an asshat, because Grimmjow was confirmed be an ADJUACHAS hollow and Aaroniero a Gillian, but that's not the point. To get as soul crushingly powerful as the Espada were, they had to eat souls. LOTS OF THEM. That means plenty of lost souls weren't saved and became Hollows. Not good.
Also, consider this little gem: in Fake Karakura, Yamamoto fries Apache, Mila Rose, and Sun-Sun, three Arrancar that served Tia Harribel. But while it seems he kills them, Kubo declares in a databook that….they survived! And Orihime was allowed (and she did it for some reason) to HEAL them AND Harribel! Now....I'll be honest. I enjoyed the antics of Harribel's fraccion. They were catty, but since other Arrancar were just arrogant violent psychopaths...it was a nice change of pace. But that doesn't excuse the fact that they are HOLLOWS, soul eating monsters.
Why didn't Yamamoto kill them? Because he was impressed by the fact that they attacked him with one arm each? Oh, you'll order genocide and declare humans as traitors, but when it comes to do YOUR JOB, you're like…."nah".
How inept.
But wait, there's more?! Urahara Kisuke, as shown by the TBTP arc and the early Bleach volumes, was on Soul Society's blacklist. Granted, it was for different reasons…..but the point is, he was a fugitive/exile. Here's the problem. The guy manages to open a store WITH HIS NAME ON IT at the most spiritual dense town, Karakura Town. Rukia acknowledges him when buying the mod-soul pill, but doesn't even bat an eye. How didn't SS notice this guy was out there, free as a bird. And don't give me "he was in an untraceable gigai"....the guy made no attempt to be incognito.
It's not like he hid to some back-water town, shaved his hair, and changed his clothes. He hid in a spirtually aware town WITH A SHOP WITH HIS NAME ON IT. You Shinigami never saw that?
Also, for a afterlife world with a simple existance, you guys have a LOT of problems. Traitors, exiles, and the like.
Why is that Ichigo has to bail you guys out? Even in filler arcs and movies, some big disaster awaits the Shinigami, and it's always ICHIGO that saves the day! I know he's the main character, but it'd be in the same vain as Luffy saving every village from pirates or Naruto fighting every evil ninja. As heroic as they are, they're not supposed to have all this responsibility. Ichigo was an average Japanese teenager who's biggest concern was getting homework done on time, and now he was to risk life and limb to fight evil undead villains?
Taking care of Aizen's forces is the biggest example! ICHIGO takes the incentive to go to rescue Orihime right away from Hueco Mundo, not the Shinigami whose JOB is to protect innocent humans. ICHIGO is the one that gets the snot beaten out of him fighting Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Nnoitra, and Yammy, FOUR espada! Yes, the Captains came in to help, and they did save Ichigo's ragtag group, but it should've been their first priority. And when Aizen solos the Captains, including Yamamoto, it's ICHIGO that has to risk his life again to stop Aizen at the EXPENSE OF HIS OWN POWERS.
All the kid wanted was to protect his family and friends, NOT bail out a bunch of inept ungrateful soliders that can't do their job correctly!
And lord, is there more. In the Fullbringer arc (worse arc in all of manga, but that's a different rant), it was revealed that Ginjou Kugo was the first substitute Shinigami, and we learn the guy abused his job. Why is that Soul Society couldn't track him down until Ichigo had to get involved? He was a human, wasn't he? You know, a human that set a very unique precedent? And Kugo has the gall, the GALL to say Ichigo's combat pass was a monitoring device courtesy of "evil genius" Ukitake. So….Soul Society tracks Ichigo, but not Kugo.
And ICHIGO did only good with his powers, so why does he even have to be fucking monitored in the first place?! AUGH!
Finally, here's one more example. Many years before the storyline in Bleach, the Shinigami ordered the execution of all Quincies….because of the latter's powers. See, the universe is maintained by a balance of souls, where an even number of souls must exist in the Living World and Soul Society must exist. Shinigami only purify souls, but Quincy completely destroy them, tipping the scales and ruining the balance. Now.....calling for genocide is kinda messed up (there was NO other way?!), but at least there's SOME justification to it, as amoral as the task is.
However, this recent arc shows us surprise, surprise! There's Quincies running around! The Vandereich and the sub-group Stern Ritters. Now….it was fine when Ishida and his dad were the only Quincies before, think of them as lone survivors.
Like how in Dragon Ball Freeza had destroyed the Saiyan race, and Goku, Vegeta, Raditz, and Nappa were the only survivors. It's just a small number.
PROBLEM IS, we have this GIANT army of Quincies attacking Soul Society. There's Stern Ritters for each letter of the bloomin' alphabet! Not to mention, this army managed to sneak under Soul Society's nose, and CONQUER HUECO MUNDO. What the fuck?! How did this fly over the head of the Shinigami? They took OVER the dimension where the spiritual threats of the world are born…..and the Shinigami didn't even notice. Not to mention, all the time NOT being hunted down by the Shinigami, these Quincies must've destroyed more souls, considering they're alive right now and they to destroy souls to win against Hollows. Thus…..this cause is now pointless.
You guys can't even get something as straight-forward as GENOCIDE right. Yes, I know it's wrong, but it's not that complex of a topic.
IneptineptineptineptineptINEPT
Well, I've had enough. Rukia, your words have been eaten. Here is your fork. The afterlife is plaqued by poverty, disease, elitism, has only one group of people (the Japanese), and is guarded by ammoral, inept soldiers of fortune.
Kubo had the right idea when he presented the Shinigami and Soul Society as a hostile force that Ichigo had to overcome. But…..it just seems so messed up now that they're "good", and Soul Society is where good people GO.
Think Hell would be better. At least there you know what to expect.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.[/hide]
Another Real Naruto chapter over at mangastream.
All hail the glorious Gaikage.
Holy shit that has to be the best chapter in the series so far.
Metamario, I think you missed a few things and got some stuff wrong
1. It should be pointed out that even AFTER it was revealed that Aizen was the culprit and Urahara was innocent AND Urahara played an extremely major part in defeating Aizen and saving soul society, he still wasn't allowed to return to SS. And it seems this holds true for all the non-captain vizards as well
2. Technically, they didn't know Aizen's power until SS arc because he used it to make them think he had a different power
3. Rukongai also got progressively worse the farther you got from Seireitei, with the outermost districts being full of crime and such
Metamario, I think you missed a few things and got some stuff wrong
1. It should be pointed out that even AFTER it was revealed that Aizen was the culprit and Urahara was innocent AND Urahara played an extremely major part in defeating Aizen and saving soul society, he still wasn't allowed to return to SS. And it seems this holds true for all the non-captain vizards as well
Ah! Forgot about that.
2. Technically, they didn't know Aizen's power until SS arc because he used it to make them think he had a different power
Right, right. I remember that scene with Isane and Unohana at the Central 46 chamber…..
3. Rukongai also got progressively worse the farther you got from Seireitei, with the outermost districts being full of crime and such
Fair enough, but there shouldn't exist crime in the first place, it's the afterlife. You know, Heaven and all that?
Still, thanks for giving my long post a read. I'll fix it.
@Blagtastic88:
Another Real Naruto chapter over at mangastream.
All hail the glorious Gaikage.
Welp, Gai has my vote.
Might Guy 2012
.
Remember this? Well, after spending a few days on it…..it's done. It's all text, and no pictures, but I figured I'd post it here.
Note: there is anger and minor cussing
[hide]
Hello, everyone, I'm here to discuss the Soul Society in Bleach. And to answer the question, "is it a good afterlife for humans?"
Here's the short answer: No. It's awful. Rukia even has the gall, the GALL, to proclaim it as a paradise back in the early days of Bleach. Now, this requires an explanation on my part. After all, Soul Society has Soul Reapers, which defend the living from corrupt souls called Hollows. Surely it can't be that bad?
The answer is YES, it is. Let me explain.
1. First off, the diversity in Soul Society is….well, it's not there.
Yes, we have giants, dark-skinned people, and people with freakish hair symbolizing every color under the Skittles wrapper. But that's in physical appearance ONLY.
Notice that all SRs have JAPANESE names? Kuchiki Byakuya? Hisagi Shuuhei? Hinamori Momo? The lone exception is Soifon, who is, as well as her clan, obviously Chinese. But aside from that, EVERYONE has a Japanese name. Even regular souls like Shiba Kukaku and her brother Ganju. This is supposed to be the afterlife for all of the human race, right? And Bleach takes place in the real world; Karakura Town is a made-up city within the real Japan, and Chad comes from Mexico, a REAL country here. So what's the deal? Where are the Americans, the French, the Germans, the Indians, etc. in Soul Society? Yes, Quincies and the filler Bounts have a German motif, and the Hollows have a Spanish motif. But guess what? THOSE ARE NOT DECEASED PURE SOULS. Seireitei means "Court of Pure Souls", right? Are only the Japanese pure? Is the rest of the world unable to die or something? I can't understand this. The fact that the 13 heads of the Soul Reapers all conveniently have Japanese names (sans Soifon) is a little suspicious.
I can think of three reasons. One, maybe there's multiple Soul Societies….yeah! Maybe somewhere out there, there's an American Soul Society where the Soul Reapers use pistols and smoke cigarettes? Maybe a British Soul Society where everyone uses a rapier-type sword, rather than a katana or some variation.
One problem. Well, two.What kind of manga endorses an afterlife where people are segregated based on where they're from?! We all share the same damn planet when we're alive, but when we kick it….everyone parts? That's crazy!
And here's the second problem: Soifon and her clan are Chinese, but are present in the homogenously Japanese Soul Society. If my first reason is correct, then she's out of place. She should be in the CHINESE Soul Society. Maybe her family really fucked up when they were alive, and now they have to spend their afterlives serving the same people that raped and slaughtered within their country back in WWII.
So here's my second reason. Maybe SS is just mostly Japanese…..because! I mean, the world has a feudal Japanese design!
Maybe all the other ethnicies and races of the world are tucked in some shithole in Rukongai, wondering why they can't be as talented as the Japanese Soul Repears. And the problem with THAT is that's just too far-fetched and dumb to accept. Japanese being better than all? Have you SEEN their weird fetishes?
I was able to form the third reason after reading the recent chapter where Yamamoto's Bankai summons an undead army of ten trillion people, all those he's killed. Now, I was told that was a pun, given Earth has only about 7 billion (and Bleach is centered in the real world), maybe we can conclude Yamamoto killed all foreigners to make an homogenously Japanese society. Now, that reason is fucked up beyond belief, because that would imply ETHNIC CLEANSING in the fucking afterlife…...
So there's no reason that makes sense. Kubo just didn't make Soul Society's residents diverse because, that wasn't on his agenda when writing the story. It just sucks because Bleach is based on the REAL WORLD, unlike other shonen like Full Metal Alchemist, One Piece, Naruto, Hunter X Hunter, Toriko, and so on. When you write a story based on our real Earth, you're limited to the zaniness you can make and get away with.
But let's move on, since this point is largely aesthetic and doesn't affect Soul Society and what it's presented as in the manga. Because you know, no one even questions the lack of non-Japanese and they don't even appear!
2. Here's the second point. When you think of an afterlife, you think equality. People that died in real life get placed into the same plane as someone economically superior. The problem with Bleach's Soul Society?
EQUALITY IS NOT IN THE DICTIONARY.
See, Soul Society is set up like this:
There's the Rukon districts (Rukongai) where most normal souls appear when they're sent off by Soul Repears.
But in the middle of the Rukongai lies the Seireitei, that's why you go to become a Shinigami when you show enough reiatsu to qualify for the job. And I can assume the offspring of Shinigami are born here?
But here in lies the problem. The Rukongai residents are defenseless, reiatsu-less souls that are easy prey to hungry Hollows. For god's sake, they live in shantytowns! Their villages (Japanese designed) are run down and pretty much shitty.
So why are the only available people to protect them all the way in the fucking center of Soul Society! Shouldn't it be spread out? In the real world, cops and soldiers are placed throughout countries, not just one place! Imagine being an American citizen and police officers only exist in the middle of the country, in Kansas or something. You'd be fucked in the other 49 states if oh say you were robbed, raped, or KILLED!
However, that's not the worst of it. Seireitei INTENTIONALLY keeps the Rukongai peasants out. Yes, you heard me.
Remember Ichigo and crew's journey to save Rukia? They had to get past a giant wall/gate to get inside the Seireitei? Four giants guarded the four gates to keep out intruders? How fucked up is this?! You Soul Reapers claim to be protecting the innocent, but god forbid. you see a bunch of peasants on your way to get some soul coffee and dick around. This afterlife is elitist!
The ONLY time you see the Shinigami going out to Rukongai is to fight Hollows, and then bam! They rush back home and drink sake. Do you see them checking on the regular souls often? Do you see them interact with the citizens? NO. Seireitei should've composed of various bases of the Soul Reapers spread across Soul Society, so each section of Rukon would have…..AN ACTIVE POLICE FORCE TO PROTECT THEM?
Now there's some characters that grew up in the Rukongai hell like Kenpachi, Rangiku, Hitsugaya, Gin, and so on. So maybe it's understandable they would relish the chance to escape this shitty life and be better off as a Soul Reaper.
And I would accept that-somehow-if there wasn't a HUGE problem with this.
The Nobles. Yes, there's NOBLILITY in an afterlife. How the hell is this possible? Did they die first or something? These "Nobles" were born in the Seireitei without experiencing the fresh hell that is Rukongai. And I can count the active nobles in duty: Byakuya, Soifon, Kyoraku, Omaeda etc.
The latter are lesser nobles, but BYAKUYA, holy cow. This guy is the head of the Kuchiki Clan, one of the FOUR Major noble houses. And every time we've seen him, he's always given off a "I'm better than you" vibe of twisted arrogance. Even after Kubo made him a "hero" after the Soul Society arc, he still acts stuck-up. Yeah, that's not elitist at all, Kubo. His clan is no better, because they were against Byakuya even MARRYING a peasant, the now deceased Hisana.
And these guys get the sweet life? The hell? Mind you, it's not like we see all the nobles in Soul Society around or responding to major events, so we can assume the following: the Nobles are mostly not Shinigami, and spent their days living it up, Ja Rule style, in their mansions and fancy clothes.
While regular Shinigami risk their lives to maintain the city and fight Hollows.
While regular souls suffer in Rukongai.
…..This is a fair afterlife HOW?
Also, this is a minor point, but SS is supposed to composed of deceased HUMANS. What the fuck are Komamura and Hiyosu doing here, then? What's THEIR story? But that reminds me of the next point!
3. The corrupt people in charge.
We all know about the Soul Reapers and what they do, that's the staple of the series.
We know they purify Hollows with their swords and protect (I scoff at this) the innocent.
You got generally nice people in the Gotei 13, like Hanataro, Yachiru, Rangiku, and many more.
The PROBLEM is the Captains, the head henchos of the Seireitei (if all the Nobles died off). They're the true power in this world, they're the best of the best.
Or are they?
You see, most of the dickery comes from the Soul Reaper CAPTAINS being jerks! Not at all of them of course….Unohana and Komamura, for example, they're super nice and honorable. But take at look at some others:
-Byakuya. His first appearances composed of him trying to carrying out the execution of his adopted sister Rukia. Some brother he is, right? And like I said before, Byakuya carries such an "holier than thou" attitude with him. I can chalk that up to the nobility being there, but can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me, "oh Byakuya presented in the Soul Society arc was a likeable guy"?
-Kenpachi. He's a bloodthirsty maniac, plain and simple. He's one of my favorite characters in this manga, but this fact is not up for debate. He lusts for battle, and is obviously a psychopath. I mean, you don't see him hacking away, murdering the good guys, but he did stop Komamura and Tousen from carrying out their mission to intercept the intruder Ichigo by fighting them himself. He's a loose cannon.
-MAYURI. The creepy clown captain of the 12th Division? He's probably the worst, most ammoral character I've ever seen in Bleach. The man turned his minions into BOMBS just to attack Orihime and Uryu. He constantly hits and abuses his daughter Nemu (I know she's technically a robot, but some father YOU are, pal!), over the smallest of errors and just for sick, twisted pleasure. Remember his fight with Uryu? Well, you should,because he openly ADMITS to torturing Quincies, including Uryu's grandfather. He MADE THEM BURN THEIR OWN CHILDREN. Now see, I can give him credit for being twisted as fuck, but he's presented as a GOOD GUY as the manga flows. You expect me to entrust my soul with a maniac like this guy? Even worse, Kubo hasn't bothered to bring up the plotpoint of Mayuri doing all this bad shit to the attention of the actually moral characters! Uryu, it seems, even forgot Mayuri tortured his grandfather, because you never see him think about it or try to carry out revenge!
-Soi Fon. Now, she's not crazy or a sociopath or anything, and she IS a woman of duty. But I have to question that, even if I like her. In the Soul Society arc, she's shown to be super strict in carrying out orders, but when the ryoka attacked, she was focused on finding her old mentor Yoruichi (and crush) and demanding answers as to why she abandoned her 100+ years ago. Uh what? Shouldn't you be going after Ichigo, Orihime, Uryu, and Chad, the REAL culprits in this? Now, I can kinda forgive it, because a flashback shows she really cherished Yoruichi as a mentor, and was devistated when she left. But take a look at this example:
Soi only agrees to ally with the Vizard Hachi against Barragan if he imprisons Urahara in a barrier for a month.
Why? Well, she obviously doesn't like Urahara (neither does Hiyori, or Ichigo at times), and it can only be assumed because he ran off with the person she cherished the most. She's not as bad as Mayuri or Kenpachi, but I can conclude this:
girl is SUPER petty and lets trivial reasons eclipse her JOB. She needs a therapist.Holy shit, I've gotten this far and I didn't mention the big bad yet.
-AIZEN, AIZEN, AIZEN. What a supreme prick. Yes, I KNOW he's the villain, but Aizen had this grandiose plan worked out for years under the guise of being seemingly nice and trusted by the Gotei. Plain and simple, his goal was to slaughter innocent souls in a town, to form a key, to go let him kill the God of Bleach - The Spirit King. And don't think this wasn't acted upon. He KILLED the Central 46, stabbed and traumatized Hinamori, framed Urahara, gave the Vizards horrible powers they didn't want, manipulated Ichigo, abducted Orihime, and set up Rukia's execution to get a fucking glass orb. Now, some of you may be saying "he's a good villain", to which I not only disagree (that's another rant), I say, THAT ISN'T THE POINT. I'm not here to argue if Aizen was a compelling villain or not, I'm here to say this MONSTER came from Soul Society. He tricked EVERYONE, so no one couldn't figure out he had this twisted plan in the works? No one didn't suspect him of any remote foul play, given that I don't know…...HIS SWORD CAN HYPNOTIZE PEOPLE?!
And here's the leader of the "good guys":
-Yamamoto. Since the Soul Society arc, we've gotten a taste of what kind of leader he is, and let me tell you, he's NOT a good one. This man is like Byakuya and Soi Fon; duty-minded, but even MORE SO. Yamamoto throughout the whole SS arc kept trying to carry out Rukia's execution and stop Ichigo and his friends, the second after the order was given by the Aizen-controlled Central 46. Rukia merely gave her powers to Ichigo to defend his family; it's not like he went insane and started to kill humans just for fun. Therefore, where in lies the crime and urgency to have her wiped from the face of existance? If only Yamamoto bothered to consider the facts, and most of the OTHER Captains didn't either! He's supposed to be a good guy? And this is another example: when Orihime was taken by Ulquiorra to Hueco Mundo, Yamamoto IMMEDIATELY suspected Orihime of going with the enemy willingly and branded her a traitor. Yes, an alive 15 year old girl is supposed to have loyalty to centuries old dead people that willingly protect said alive people. Get your head out your asshole, Yamamoto! What, ANYBODY not swearing your loyalty to you and your army is automatically in league with Aizen and Hollows? Jack-off. But wait, there's more! In the Fake Karakura Town battle, Yamamoto solos the beast Ayon…..then, um....disappears? Well, in war, you're not supposed to have your general at the front lines, but what was he doing for all those chapters? When Aizen solos everyone and old Yama comes out to fight him, it is revealed he set up a trap with his zanpakutou to try to fry Aizen in a fiery blaze of hell, which would nuke the whole fake town. You know, the fake town where the members of HIS ARMY WERE FIGHTING? So you're telling me the old man planned to take down Aizen at all costs, even if his subordinates were to die needlessly for it? How is THAT BETTER THAN AIZEN?! What kind of monster would agree to blindly sacrifice his army to take down one threat out of pure hatred? I understand Aizen was dangerous, and defeating him was priority number one, but this is supposed to be a "good" army!
A "good" army's leader focuses on the welfare of his troops AND defeating the enemy, and is more willing to sacrifice himself or a small number of men than a larger count. Now, the fighters in this battle WERE a small number, but here're the problems:
A. some of the victims would be CAPTAINS, you know, the strongest and hardest to obtain members of the army?
and B. the would-be victims didn't even KNOW Yama was planning to nuke the town just to take down Aizen. If they knew, and agreed, then I wouldn't mind, but there was no such scene to indicate that!
A recent chapter has Yamamoto vowing to destroy all of Soul Society with his Bankai just to destroy the Vandereich leader Juha Bach. That's….worse than the Aizen nuke tactic; you'd be killing your soldiers AND messing up the soul balance of the world, you dickhead. And in the recent chapters, Yama summons his deceased victims to attack Bach, some of which are BACH'S FALLEN COMRADES. He basically toys with Bach with this fact, and declares Bach's pain of seeing his allies like this.....is nothing like the pain his forces have caused the Shinigami.
Uh what? You senile hypocrite, YOUR army was the one that killed the Quincies in the first fucking place! Don't you think Bach has enough pain, hence this war going on in Soul Society? This insane man has to retire.
Overall, the Gotei 13 are composed of pretty amoral people.Too bad that's not all. After all, the Gotei 13 isn't the political leader of Soul Society, they're the military. Remember the Central 46 I mentioned when I talked about Aizen? They're the heads. They make the laws.
Now before I talk more about them, there's a few things I don't get about them. They're 46 lawmakers….do they have experience fighting Hollows? Why that number? It's even, so wouldn't they need an odd number like 47 or 49, just to break ties in debates?
Sigh…...but let's get to the bread and butter about them.
-They are the worst law making body in existance. If the Nobles and structure made Seireitei seem elitist, then these guys show that Seireitei is also an avid opponent of enforcing democracy. First off, they have pretty damn strict laws, like "attacking Captains is treason" and "giving powers to a human is a crime". The latter law always bugged me, because wouldn't the morality of giving powers to a human be based on a case-by-case basis? Take Ichigo and Rukia; the latter gave her powers to help Ichigo defend his family from a Hollow since she was weakened. You would call that a CRIME?
But it's not the laws that stand out to make these guys stand out like assholes. See, back in the Turn Back The Pendlum flashback arc, these guys were the ones to proclaim the Vizards and Urahara as criminals, since the former obtained Hollow powers and latter was framed in giving said powers. I understand the accusations, but they were just decided to be automatic criminals WITHOUT ANY FUCKING EVIDENCE. The defendants didn't even have a chance to defend themselves or hire a lawyer (lol whut). Is that fair AT ALL? I'm sure Khadafy and Assad would've found great use for these guys.
So when you learn of this flashback, you want to hug Aizen for killing these elitist anti-democracy judges. But that reminds me….Aizen is pretty much the worst criminal Soul Society's ever had, since you know....he murdered and gave away Hollow powers and PLOTTED GENOCIDE AND DEICIDE. So it's fair to assume the NEW Central 46 (which weirdly appears at the end of the Arrancar story) would be harsh on this guy, right?
lolno
The Central 46 rules Aizen is guilty and sentences him to rot in the lowest level in Hell for 20,000 years (Aizen can't die because the Hogyoku made him immortal, fuck you Kubo). Now you have to see what's WRONG with this situation. Urahara and the Vizards automatically get death on the weakest suspicion of foul play, and there's no evidence. Aizen, a heartless monster, GUILTY of the things that happened to the Vizards, and judged with actual evidence is…..given a sentence not equal to death. I know he can't be executed, but these dickwads are giving Aizen FINITE time on his sentence. Meaning, 20,000 years pass, and Aizen's a free man. Since he won't age and probably won't reform at all, given what a soulless dick he was, he'll stroll out centuries later probably hungry for revenge on a new generation of Shinigami. Why not just KEEP HIM IN HELL UNTIL THE END OF TIME? Why are you giving this guy a chance to be free?
So Urahara gets a sentence too harsh but Aizen gets a sentence not harsh enough. Fuck.
This just blows my mind as to how completely unfair this is! The Shinigami risked their lives to defeat Aizen. Aizen pretty much gave emotional hell to Orihime and Hinamori. Why aren't these people demanding he be mercilessly tortured forever? I mean, it wouldn't be out of line with the corrupt Soul Society. The Central 46 are about doling out justice…..WHERE IS IT? In fact, if I was them, I would not only imprison Aizen forever, I would issue public apologizes to Orihime, Ichigo, Hinamori, Urahara, and everyone else that got fucked over by this sociopath!
And here's a non-canon example, but still valid. In the second movie, the Central 46 decides that since Hitsugaya and Kusaka share the same zanpakutou (how is this possible?), they must fight to the death to declare the owner of it.
Yeah, that's real fair, guys. They definitely CHOSE to have the same soul sword, yeah that's right. What a stupid punishment.
To sum up, I can't BELIEVE we have amoral characters like Mayuri and Yamamoto as GOOD GUYS, and unfair dickwads like the Central 46 to make laws FOR THE GOOD GUYS.
Are you seeing how bad these people are? Are you seeing how bad this whole afterlife is?!
But wait, I've got a little more to say. Next point-
4. Soul Reapers are terrible at their jobs.
Now hold on, you might be saying that I'm just finding ANYTHING to rant about, right? You might be saying that the Shinigami ARE good at their jobs, right?Maybe so, but you're not looking in between the scenes.
There's virtually millions of Hollows and only thousands of Shinigami, so it's not like the Shinigami can slaughter them at the drop of a hat….they're outnumbered! But we need to consider a Shinigami's role in the Bleach world, which is:-Purify Hollows
-Defend Plus souls and humans
Easy, right? Well, this little example of how they fail at the first point was brought to my attention; The Daz calculated a glaring math oversight. You see, it's the Hollows we see in the series. No, not the little Gillian dick monsters we see in the beginning, I'm talking about the Espada, all of which were basically super powered Hollows. You see, Kubo decides to make them ALL Vasto Lordes in an interview, meaning that the 10 Espada came from the strongest class of Hollow.Technically Kubo is an asshat, because Grimmjow was confirmed be an ADJUACHAS hollow and Aaroniero a Gillian, but that's not the point. To get as soul crushingly powerful as the Espada were, they had to eat souls. LOTS OF THEM. That means plenty of lost souls weren't saved and became Hollows. Not good.
Also, consider this little gem: in Fake Karakura, Yamamoto fries Apache, Mila Rose, and Sun-Sun, three Arrancar that served Tia Harribel. But while it seems he kills them, Kubo declares in a databook that….they survived! And Orihime was allowed (and she did it for some reason) to HEAL them AND Harribel! Now....I'll be honest. I enjoyed the antics of Harribel's fraccion. They were catty, but since other Arrancar were just arrogant violent psychopaths...it was a nice change of pace. But that doesn't excuse the fact that they are HOLLOWS, soul eating monsters.
Why didn't Yamamoto kill them? Because he was impressed by the fact that they attacked him with one arm each? Oh, you'll order genocide and declare humans as traitors, but when it comes to do YOUR JOB, you're like…."nah".
How inept.
But wait, there's more?! Urahara Kisuke, as shown by the TBTP arc and the early Bleach volumes, was on Soul Society's blacklist. Granted, it was for different reasons…..but the point is, he was a fugitive/exile. Here's the problem. The guy manages to open a store WITH HIS NAME ON IT at the most spiritual dense town, Karakura Town. Rukia acknowledges him when buying the mod-soul pill, but doesn't even bat an eye. How didn't SS notice this guy was out there, free as a bird. And don't give me "he was in an untraceable gigai"....the guy made no attempt to be incognito.
It's not like he hid to some back-water town, shaved his hair, and changed his clothes. He hid in a spirtually aware town WITH A SHOP WITH HIS NAME ON IT. You Shinigami never saw that?
Also, for a afterlife world with a simple existance, you guys have a LOT of problems. Traitors, exiles, and the like.
Why is that Ichigo has to bail you guys out? Even in filler arcs and movies, some big disaster awaits the Shinigami, and it's always ICHIGO that saves the day! I know he's the main character, but it'd be in the same vain as Luffy saving every village from pirates or Naruto fighting every evil ninja. As heroic as they are, they're not supposed to have all this responsibility. Ichigo was an average Japanese teenager who's biggest concern was getting homework done on time, and now he was to risk life and limb to fight evil undead villains?
Taking care of Aizen's forces is the biggest example! ICHIGO takes the incentive to go to rescue Orihime right away from Hueco Mundo, not the Shinigami whose JOB is to protect innocent humans. ICHIGO is the one that gets the snot beaten out of him fighting Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Nnoitra, and Yammy, FOUR espada! Yes, the Captains came in to help, and they did save Ichigo's ragtag group, but it should've been their first priority. And when Aizen solos the Captains, including Yamamoto, it's ICHIGO that has to risk his life again to stop Aizen at the EXPENSE OF HIS OWN POWERS.
All the kid wanted was to protect his family and friends, NOT bail out a bunch of inept ungrateful soliders that can't do their job correctly!
And lord, is there more. In the Fullbringer arc (worse arc in all of manga, but that's a different rant), it was revealed that Ginjou Kugo was the first substitute Shinigami, and we learn the guy abused his job. Why is that Soul Society couldn't track him down until Ichigo had to get involved? He was a human, wasn't he? You know, a human that set a very unique precedent? And Kugo has the gall, the GALL to say Ichigo's combat pass was a monitoring device courtesy of "evil genius" Ukitake. So….Soul Society tracks Ichigo, but not Kugo.
And ICHIGO did only good with his powers, so why does he even have to be fucking monitored in the first place?! AUGH!
Going back to Aizen again, here's some more food for thought. Aizen managed to decieve EVERYBODY by maintaining a facade of niceness for over 100 years. Now, I'll give him credit for being a flawless actor, but it's…his zanpakutou.
Kyoka Suigeitsu's Shikai causes manipulation of the senses; Aizen can basically make you see, hear, smell, taste, etc. what he WANTS you to see, hear, smell, taste, etc. How come nobody took the motive to investigate him, to see if he was at the up and up? Nice or not, if somebody had a power like THAT, I'd be a little suspicious.
Finally, here's one more example. Many years before the storyline in Bleach, the Shinigami ordered the execution of all Quincies….because of the latter's powers. See, the universe is maintained by a balance of souls, where an even number of souls must exist in the Living World and Soul Society must exist. Shinigami only purify souls, but Quincy completely destroy them, tipping the scales and ruining the balance. Now.....calling for genocide is kinda messed up (there was NO other way?!), but at least there's SOME justification to it, as amoral as the task is.
However, this recent arc shows us surprise, surprise! There's Quincies running around! The Vandereich and the sub-group Stern Ritters. Now….it was fine when Ishida and his dad were the only Quincies before, think of them as lone survivors.
Like how in Dragon Ball Freeza had destroyed the Saiyan race, and Goku, Vegeta, Raditz, and Nappa were the only survivors. It's just a small number.
PROBLEM IS, we have this GIANT army of Quincies attacking Soul Society. There's Stern Ritters for each letter of the bloomin' alphabet! Not to mention, this army managed to sneak under Soul Society's nose, and CONQUER HUECO MUNDO. What the fuck?! How did this fly over the head of the Shinigami? They took OVER the dimension where the spiritual threats of the world are born…..and the Shinigami didn't even notice.
IneptineptineptineptineptINEPT
Well, I've had enough. Rukia, your words have been eaten. Here is your fork. The afterlife is plaqued by poverty, disease, elitism, has only one group of people (the Japanese), and is guarded by ammoral, inept soldiers of fortune.
Kubo had the right idea when he presented the Shinigami and Soul Society as a hostile force that Ichigo had to overcome. But…..it just seems so messed up now that they're "good", and Soul Society is where good people GO.
Think Hell would be better. At least there you know what to expect.Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.[/hide]
Great rant, the only thing I would say is that no one knew that Aizen had illusion powers, he used them to make people think he had a water sword.
Remember this? Well, after spending a few days on it…..it's done. It's all text, and no pictures, but I figured I'd post it here.
Note: there is anger and minor cussing
[hide]
Hello, everyone, I'm here to discuss the Soul Society in Bleach. And to answer the question, "is it a good afterlife for humans?"
Here's the short answer: No. It's awful. Rukia even has the gall, the GALL, to proclaim it as a paradise back in the early days of Bleach. Now, this requires an explanation on my part. After all, Soul Society has Soul Reapers, which defend the living from corrupt souls called Hollows. Surely it can't be that bad?
The answer is YES, it is. Let me explain.
1. First off, the diversity in Soul Society is….well, it's not there.
Yes, we have giants, dark-skinned people, and people with freakish hair symbolizing every color under the Skittles wrapper. But that's in physical appearance ONLY.
Notice that all SRs have JAPANESE names? Kuchiki Byakuya? Hisagi Shuuhei? Hinamori Momo? The lone exception is Soifon, who is, as well as her clan, obviously Chinese. But aside from that, EVERYONE has a Japanese name. Even regular souls like Shiba Kukaku and her brother Ganju. This is supposed to be the afterlife for all of the human race, right? And Bleach takes place in the real world; Karakura Town is a made-up city within the real Japan, and Chad comes from Mexico, a REAL country here. So what's the deal? Where are the Americans, the French, the Germans, the Indians, etc. in Soul Society? Yes, Quincies and the filler Bounts have a German motif, and the Hollows have a Spanish motif. But guess what? THOSE ARE NOT DECEASED PURE SOULS. Seireitei means "Court of Pure Souls", right? Are only the Japanese pure? Is the rest of the world unable to die or something? I can't understand this. The fact that the 13 heads of the Soul Reapers all conveniently have Japanese names (sans Soifon) is a little suspicious.
I can think of three reasons. One, maybe there's multiple Soul Societies….yeah! Maybe somewhere out there, there's an American Soul Society where the Soul Reapers use pistols and smoke cigarettes? Maybe a British Soul Society where everyone uses a rapier-type sword, rather than a katana or some variation.
One problem. Well, two.What kind of manga endorses an afterlife where people are segregated based on where they're from?! We all share the same damn planet when we're alive, but when we kick it….everyone parts? That's crazy!
And here's the second problem: Soifon and her clan are Chinese, but are present in the homogenously Japanese Soul Society. If my first reason is correct, then she's out of place. She should be in the CHINESE Soul Society. Maybe her family really fucked up when they were alive, and now they have to spend their afterlives serving the same people that raped and slaughtered within their country back in WWII.
So here's my second reason. Maybe SS is just mostly Japanese…..because! I mean, the world has a feudal Japanese design!
Maybe all the other ethnicies and races of the world are tucked in some shithole in Rukongai, wondering why they can't be as talented as the Japanese Soul Repears. And the problem with THAT is that's just too far-fetched and dumb to accept. Japanese being better than all? Have you SEEN their weird fetishes?
I was able to form the third reason after reading the recent chapter where Yamamoto's Bankai summons an undead army of ten trillion people, all those he's killed. Now, I was told that was a pun, given Earth has only about 7 billion (and Bleach is centered in the real world), maybe we can conclude Yamamoto killed all foreigners to make an homogenously Japanese society. Now, that reason is fucked up beyond belief, because that would imply ETHNIC CLEANSING in the fucking afterlife…...
So there's no reason that makes sense. Kubo just didn't make Soul Society's residents diverse because, that wasn't on his agenda when writing the story. It just sucks because Bleach is based on the REAL WORLD, unlike other shonen like Full Metal Alchemist, One Piece, Naruto, Hunter X Hunter, Toriko, and so on. When you write a story based on our real Earth, you're limited to the zaniness you can make and get away with.
But let's move on, since this point is largely aesthetic and doesn't affect Soul Society and what it's presented as in the manga. Because you know, no one even questions the lack of non-Japanese and they don't even appear!
2. Here's the second point. When you think of an afterlife, you think equality. People that died in real life get placed into the same plane as someone economically superior. The problem with Bleach's Soul Society?
EQUALITY IS NOT IN THE DICTIONARY.
See, Soul Society is set up like this:
There's the Rukon districts (Rukongai) where most normal souls appear when they're sent off by Soul Repears.
But in the middle of the Rukongai lies the Seireitei, that's why you go to become a Shinigami when you show enough reiatsu to qualify for the job. And I can assume the offspring of Shinigami are born here?
But here in lies the problem. The Rukongai residents are defenseless, reiatsu-less souls that are easy prey to hungry Hollows. For god's sake, they live in shantytowns! Their villages (Japanese designed) are run down and pretty much shitty. Granted, this isn't all of the villages, they infact improve in quality the closer to Seireitei.
So why are the only available people to protect them all the way in the fucking center of Soul Society! Shouldn't it be spread out? In the real world, cops and soldiers are placed throughout countries, not just one place! Imagine being an American citizen and police officers only exist in the middle of the country, in Kansas or something. You'd be fucked in the other 49 states if oh say you were robbed, raped, or KILLED!
However, that's not the worst of it. Seireitei INTENTIONALLY keeps the Rukongai peasants out. Yes, you heard me.
Remember Ichigo and crew's journey to save Rukia? They had to get past a giant wall/gate to get inside the Seireitei? Four giants guarded the four gates to keep out intruders? How fucked up is this?! You Soul Reapers claim to be protecting the innocent, but god forbid. you see a bunch of peasants on your way to get some soul coffee and dick around. This afterlife is elitist!
The ONLY time you see the Shinigami going out to Rukongai is to fight Hollows, and then bam! They rush back home and drink sake. Do you see them checking on the regular souls often? Do you see them interact with the citizens? NO. Seireitei should've composed of various bases of the Soul Reapers spread across Soul Society, so each section of Rukon would have…..AN ACTIVE POLICE FORCE TO PROTECT THEM?
Now there's some characters that grew up in the Rukongai hell like Kenpachi, Rangiku, Hitsugaya, Gin, and so on. So maybe it's understandable they would relish the chance to escape this shitty life and be better off as a Soul Reaper.
And I would accept that-somehow-if there wasn't a HUGE problem with this.
The Nobles. Yes, there's NOBLILITY in an afterlife. How the hell is this possible? Did they die first or something? These "Nobles" were born in the Seireitei without experiencing the fresh hell that is Rukongai. And I can count the active nobles in duty: Byakuya, Soifon, Kyoraku, Omaeda etc.
The latter are lesser nobles, but BYAKUYA, holy cow. This guy is the head of the Kuchiki Clan, one of the FOUR Major noble houses. And every time we've seen him, he's always given off a "I'm better than you" vibe of twisted arrogance. Even after Kubo made him a "hero" after the Soul Society arc, he still acts stuck-up. Yeah, that's not elitist at all, Kubo. His clan is no better, because they were against Byakuya even MARRYING a peasant, the now deceased Hisana.
And these guys get the sweet life? The hell? Mind you, it's not like we see all the nobles in Soul Society around or responding to major events, so we can assume the following: the Nobles are mostly not Shinigami, and spent their days living it up, Ja Rule style, in their mansions and fancy clothes.
While regular Shinigami risk their lives to maintain the city and fight Hollows.
While regular souls suffer in Rukongai.
…..This is a fair afterlife HOW?
Also, this is a minor point, but SS is supposed to composed of deceased HUMANS. What the fuck are Komamura and Hiyosu doing here, then? What's THEIR story? But that reminds me of the next point!
3. The corrupt people in charge.
We all know about the Soul Reapers and what they do, that's the staple of the series.
We know they purify Hollows with their swords and protect (I scoff at this) the innocent.
You got generally nice people in the Gotei 13, like Hanataro, Yachiru, Rangiku, and many more.
The PROBLEM is the Captains, the head henchos of the Seireitei (if all the Nobles died off). They're the true power in this world, they're the best of the best.
Or are they?
You see, most of the dickery comes from the Soul Reaper CAPTAINS being jerks! Not at all of them of course….Unohana and Komamura, for example, they're super nice and honorable. But take at look at some others:
-Byakuya. His first appearances composed of him trying to carrying out the execution of his adopted sister Rukia. Some brother he is, right? And like I said before, Byakuya carries such an "holier than thou" attitude with him. I can chalk that up to the nobility being there, but can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me, "oh Byakuya presented in the Soul Society arc was a likeable guy"?
-Kenpachi. He's a bloodthirsty maniac, plain and simple. He's one of my favorite characters in this manga, but this fact is not up for debate. He lusts for battle, and is obviously a psychopath. I mean, you don't see him hacking away, murdering the good guys, but he did stop Komamura and Tousen from carrying out their mission to intercept the intruder Ichigo by fighting them himself. He's a loose cannon.
-MAYURI. The creepy clown captain of the 12th Division? He's probably the worst, most ammoral character I've ever seen in Bleach. The man turned his minions into BOMBS just to attack Orihime and Uryu. He constantly hits and abuses his daughter Nemu (I know she's technically a robot, but some father YOU are, pal!), over the smallest of errors and just for sick, twisted pleasure. Remember his fight with Uryu? Well, you should,because he openly ADMITS to torturing Quincies, including Uryu's grandfather. He MADE THEM BURN THEIR OWN CHILDREN. Now see, I can give him credit for being twisted as fuck, but he's presented as a GOOD GUY as the manga flows. You expect me to entrust my soul with a maniac like this guy? Even worse, Kubo hasn't bothered to bring up the plotpoint of Mayuri doing all this bad shit to the attention of the actually moral characters! Uryu, it seems, even forgot Mayuri tortured his grandfather, because you never see him think about it or try to carry out revenge!
-Soi Fon. Now, she's not crazy or a sociopath or anything, and she IS a woman of duty. But I have to question that, even if I like her. In the Soul Society arc, she's shown to be super strict in carrying out orders, but when the ryoka attacked, she was focused on finding her old mentor Yoruichi (and crush) and demanding answers as to why she abandoned her 100+ years ago. Uh what? Shouldn't you be going after Ichigo, Orihime, Uryu, and Chad, the REAL culprits in this? Now, I can kinda forgive it, because a flashback shows she really cherished Yoruichi as a mentor, and was devistated when she left. But take a look at this example:
Soi only agrees to ally with the Vizard Hachi against Barragan if he imprisons Urahara in a barrier for a month.
Why? Well, she obviously doesn't like Urahara (neither does Hiyori, or Ichigo at times), and it can only be assumed because he ran off with the person she cherished the most. She's not as bad as Mayuri or Kenpachi, but I can conclude this:
girl is SUPER petty and lets trivial reasons eclipse her JOB. She needs a therapist.Holy shit, I've gotten this far and I didn't mention the big bad yet.
-AIZEN, AIZEN, AIZEN. What a supreme prick. Yes, I KNOW he's the villain, but Aizen had this grandiose plan worked out for years under the guise of being seemingly nice and trusted by the Gotei. Plain and simple, his goal was to slaughter innocent souls in a town, to form a key, to go let him kill the God of Bleach - The Spirit King. And don't think this wasn't acted upon. He KILLED the Central 46, stabbed and traumatized Hinamori, framed Urahara, gave the Vizards horrible powers they didn't want, manipulated Ichigo, abducted Orihime, and set up Rukia's execution to get a fucking glass orb. Now, some of you may be saying "he's a good villain", to which I not only disagree (that's another rant), I say, THAT ISN'T THE POINT. I'm not here to argue if Aizen was a compelling villain or not, I'm here to say this MONSTER came from Soul Society. He tricked EVERYONE, so no one couldn't figure out he had this twisted plan in the works. And here's the leader of the "good guys":
-Yamamoto. Since the Soul Society arc, we've gotten a taste of what kind of leader he is, and let me tell you, he's NOT a good one. This man is like Byakuya and Soi Fon; duty-minded, but even MORE SO. Yamamoto throughout the whole SS arc kept trying to carry out Rukia's execution and stop Ichigo and his friends, the second after the order was given by the Aizen-controlled Central 46. Rukia merely gave her powers to Ichigo to defend his family; it's not like he went insane and started to kill humans just for fun. Therefore, where in lies the crime and urgency to have her wiped from the face of existance? If only Yamamoto bothered to consider the facts, and most of the OTHER Captains didn't either! He's supposed to be a good guy? And this is another example: when Orihime was taken by Ulquiorra to Hueco Mundo, Yamamoto IMMEDIATELY suspected Orihime of going with the enemy willingly and branded her a traitor. Yes, an alive 15 year old girl is supposed to have loyalty to centuries old dead people that willingly protect said alive people. Get your head out your asshole, Yamamoto! What, ANYBODY not swearing your loyalty to you and your army is automatically in league with Aizen and Hollows? Jack-off. But wait, there's more! In the Fake Karakura Town battle, Yamamoto solos the beast Ayon…..then, um....disappears? Well, in war, you're not supposed to have your general at the front lines, but what was he doing for all those chapters? When Aizen solos everyone and old Yama comes out to fight him, it is revealed he set up a trap with his zanpakutou to try to fry Aizen in a fiery blaze of hell, which would nuke the whole fake town. You know, the fake town where the members of HIS ARMY WERE FIGHTING? So you're telling me the old man planned to take down Aizen at all costs, even if his subordinates were to die needlessly for it? How is THAT BETTER THAN AIZEN?! What kind of monster would agree to blindly sacrifice his army to take down one threat out of pure hatred? I understand Aizen was dangerous, and defeating him was priority number one, but this is supposed to be a "good" army!
A "good" army's leader focuses on the welfare of his troops AND defeating the enemy, and is more willing to sacrifice himself or a small number of men than a larger count. Now, the fighters in this battle WERE a small number, but here're the problems:
A. some of the victims would be CAPTAINS, you know, the strongest and hardest to obtain members of the army?
and B. the would-be victims didn't even KNOW Yama was planning to nuke the town just to take down Aizen. If they knew, and agreed, then I wouldn't mind, but there was no such scene to indicate that!
A recent chapter has Yamamoto vowing to destroy all of Soul Society with his Bankai just to destroy the Vandereich leader Juha Bach. That's….worse than the Aizen nuke tactic; you'd be killing your soldiers AND messing up the soul balance of the world, you dickhead. And in the recent chapters, Yama summons his deceased victims to attack Bach, some of which are BACH'S FALLEN COMRADES. He basically toys with Bach with this fact, and declares Bach's pain of seeing his allies like this.....is nothing like the pain his forces have caused the Shinigami.
Uh what? You senile hypocrite, YOUR army was the one that killed the Quincies in the first fucking place! Don't you think Bach has enough pain, hence this war going on in Soul Society? This insane man has to retire.
Overall, the Gotei 13 are composed of pretty amoral people.Too bad that's not all. After all, the Gotei 13 isn't the political leader of Soul Society, they're the military. Remember the Central 46 I mentioned when I talked about Aizen? They're the heads. They make the laws.
Now before I talk more about them, there's a few things I don't get about them. They're 46 lawmakers….do they have experience fighting Hollows? Why that number? It's even, so wouldn't they need an odd number like 47 or 49, just to break ties in debates?
Sigh…...but let's get to the bread and butter about them.
-They are the worst law making body in existance. If the Nobles and structure made Seireitei seem elitist, then these guys show that Seireitei is also an avid opponent of enforcing democracy. First off, they have pretty damn strict laws, like "attacking Captains is treason" and "giving powers to a human is a crime". The latter law always bugged me, because wouldn't the morality of giving powers to a human be based on a case-by-case basis? Take Ichigo and Rukia; the latter gave her powers to help Ichigo defend his family from a Hollow since she was weakened. You would call that a CRIME?
But it's not the laws that stand out to make these guys stand out like assholes. See, back in the Turn Back The Pendlum flashback arc, these guys were the ones to proclaim the Vizards and Urahara as criminals, since the former obtained Hollow powers and latter was framed in giving said powers. I understand the accusations, but they were just decided to be automatic criminals WITHOUT ANY FUCKING EVIDENCE. The defendants didn't even have a chance to defend themselves or hire a lawyer (lol whut). Is that fair AT ALL? I'm sure Khadafy and Assad would've found great use for these guys.
So when you learn of this flashback, you want to hug Aizen for killing these elitist anti-democracy judges. But that reminds me….Aizen is pretty much the worst criminal Soul Society's ever had, since you know....he murdered and gave away Hollow powers and PLOTTED GENOCIDE AND DEICIDE. So it's fair to assume the NEW Central 46 (which weirdly appears at the end of the Arrancar story) would be harsh on this guy, right?
lolno
The Central 46 rules Aizen is guilty and sentences him to rot in the lowest level in Hell for 20,000 years (Aizen can't die because the Hogyoku made him immortal, fuck you Kubo). Now you have to see what's WRONG with this situation. Urahara and the Vizards automatically get death on the weakest suspicion of foul play, and there's no evidence. Not to mention, AFTER Aizen revealed who he really was and thus…..their charges, in theory, drop......they aren't allowed right back in. Three Vizards managed to reclaim captaincy, but I've yet to see Urahara there! And why didn't ALL of the Vizards get their positions back? Maybe it was their choice, or something. Whatever- Aizen, a heartless monster, GUILTY of the things that happened to the Vizards, and judged with actual evidence is…..given a sentence not equal to death. I know he can't be executed, but these dickwads are giving Aizen FINITE time on his sentence. Meaning, 20,000 years pass, and Aizen's a free man. Since he won't age and probably won't reform at all, given what a soulless dick he was, he'll stroll out centuries later probably hungry for revenge on a new generation of Shinigami. Why not just KEEP HIM IN HELL UNTIL THE END OF TIME? Why are you giving this guy a chance to be free?
So Urahara gets a sentence too harsh but Aizen gets a sentence not harsh enough. Fuck.
This just blows my mind as to how completely unfair this is! The Shinigami risked their lives to defeat Aizen. Aizen pretty much gave emotional hell to Orihime and Hinamori. Why aren't these people demanding he be mercilessly tortured forever? I mean, it wouldn't be out of line with the corrupt Soul Society. The Central 46 are about doling out justice…..WHERE IS IT? In fact, if I was them, I would not only imprison Aizen forever, I would issue public apologizes to Orihime, Ichigo, Hinamori, Urahara, and everyone else that got fucked over by this sociopath!
And here's a non-canon example, but still valid. In the second movie, the Central 46 decides that since Hitsugaya and Kusaka share the same zanpakutou (how is this possible?), they must fight to the death to declare the owner of it.
Yeah, that's real fair, guys. They definitely CHOSE to have the same soul sword, yeah that's right. What a stupid punishment.
To sum up, I can't BELIEVE we have amoral characters like Mayuri and Yamamoto as GOOD GUYS, and unfair dickwads like the Central 46 to make laws FOR THE GOOD GUYS.
Are you seeing how bad these people are? Are you seeing how bad this whole afterlife is?!
But wait, I've got a little more to say. Next point-
4. Soul Reapers are terrible at their jobs.
Now hold on, you might be saying that I'm just finding ANYTHING to rant about, right? You might be saying that the Shinigami ARE good at their jobs, right?Maybe so, but you're not looking in between the scenes.
There's virtually millions of Hollows and only thousands of Shinigami, so it's not like the Shinigami can slaughter them at the drop of a hat….they're outnumbered! But we need to consider a Shinigami's role in the Bleach world, which is:-Purify Hollows
-Defend Plus souls and humans
Easy, right? Well, this little example of how they fail at the first point was brought to my attention; The Daz calculated a glaring math oversight. You see, it's the Hollows we see in the series. No, not the little Gillian dick monsters we see in the beginning, I'm talking about the Espada, all of which were basically super powered Hollows. You see, Kubo decides to make them ALL Vasto Lordes in an interview, meaning that the 10 Espada came from the strongest class of Hollow.Technically Kubo is an asshat, because Grimmjow was confirmed be an ADJUACHAS hollow and Aaroniero a Gillian, but that's not the point. To get as soul crushingly powerful as the Espada were, they had to eat souls. LOTS OF THEM. That means plenty of lost souls weren't saved and became Hollows. Not good.
Also, consider this little gem: in Fake Karakura, Yamamoto fries Apache, Mila Rose, and Sun-Sun, three Arrancar that served Tia Harribel. But while it seems he kills them, Kubo declares in a databook that….they survived! And Orihime was allowed (and she did it for some reason) to HEAL them AND Harribel! Now....I'll be honest. I enjoyed the antics of Harribel's fraccion. They were catty, but since other Arrancar were just arrogant violent psychopaths...it was a nice change of pace. But that doesn't excuse the fact that they are HOLLOWS, soul eating monsters.
Why didn't Yamamoto kill them? Because he was impressed by the fact that they attacked him with one arm each? Oh, you'll order genocide and declare humans as traitors, but when it comes to do YOUR JOB, you're like…."nah".
How inept.
But wait, there's more?! Urahara Kisuke, as shown by the TBTP arc and the early Bleach volumes, was on Soul Society's blacklist. Granted, it was for different reasons…..but the point is, he was a fugitive/exile. Here's the problem. The guy manages to open a store WITH HIS NAME ON IT at the most spiritual dense town, Karakura Town. Rukia acknowledges him when buying the mod-soul pill, but doesn't even bat an eye. How didn't SS notice this guy was out there, free as a bird. And don't give me "he was in an untraceable gigai"....the guy made no attempt to be incognito.
It's not like he hid to some back-water town, shaved his hair, and changed his clothes. He hid in a spirtually aware town WITH A SHOP WITH HIS NAME ON IT. You Shinigami never saw that?
Also, for a afterlife world with a simple existance, you guys have a LOT of problems. Traitors, exiles, and the like.
Why is that Ichigo has to bail you guys out? Even in filler arcs and movies, some big disaster awaits the Shinigami, and it's always ICHIGO that saves the day! I know he's the main character, but it'd be in the same vain as Luffy saving every village from pirates or Naruto fighting every evil ninja. As heroic as they are, they're not supposed to have all this responsibility. Ichigo was an average Japanese teenager who's biggest concern was getting homework done on time, and now he was to risk life and limb to fight evil undead villains?
Taking care of Aizen's forces is the biggest example! ICHIGO takes the incentive to go to rescue Orihime right away from Hueco Mundo, not the Shinigami whose JOB is to protect innocent humans. ICHIGO is the one that gets the snot beaten out of him fighting Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Nnoitra, and Yammy, FOUR espada! Yes, the Captains came in to help, and they did save Ichigo's ragtag group, but it should've been their first priority. And when Aizen solos the Captains, including Yamamoto, it's ICHIGO that has to risk his life again to stop Aizen at the EXPENSE OF HIS OWN POWERS.
All the kid wanted was to protect his family and friends, NOT bail out a bunch of inept ungrateful soliders that can't do their job correctly!
And lord, is there more. In the Fullbringer arc (worse arc in all of manga, but that's a different rant), it was revealed that Ginjou Kugo was the first substitute Shinigami, and we learn the guy abused his job. Why is that Soul Society couldn't track him down until Ichigo had to get involved? He was a human, wasn't he? You know, a human that set a very unique precedent? And Kugo has the gall, the GALL to say Ichigo's combat pass was a monitoring device courtesy of "evil genius" Ukitake. So….Soul Society tracks Ichigo, but not Kugo.
And ICHIGO did only good with his powers, so why does he even have to be fucking monitored in the first place?! AUGH!
Finally, here's one more example. Many years before the storyline in Bleach, the Shinigami ordered the execution of all Quincies….because of the latter's powers. See, the universe is maintained by a balance of souls, where an even number of souls must exist in the Living World and Soul Society must exist. Shinigami only purify souls, but Quincy completely destroy them, tipping the scales and ruining the balance. Now.....calling for genocide is kinda messed up (there was NO other way?!), but at least there's SOME justification to it, as amoral as the task is.
However, this recent arc shows us surprise, surprise! There's Quincies running around! The Vandereich and the sub-group Stern Ritters. Now….it was fine when Ishida and his dad were the only Quincies before, think of them as lone survivors.
Like how in Dragon Ball Freeza had destroyed the Saiyan race, and Goku, Vegeta, Raditz, and Nappa were the only survivors. It's just a small number.
PROBLEM IS, we have this GIANT army of Quincies attacking Soul Society. There's Stern Ritters for each letter of the bloomin' alphabet! Not to mention, this army managed to sneak under Soul Society's nose, and CONQUER HUECO MUNDO. What the fuck?! How did this fly over the head of the Shinigami? They took OVER the dimension where the spiritual threats of the world are born…..and the Shinigami didn't even notice.
IneptineptineptineptineptINEPT
Well, I've had enough. Rukia, your words have been eaten. Here is your fork. The afterlife is plaqued by poverty, disease, elitism, has only one group of people (the Japanese), and is guarded by ammoral, inept soldiers of fortune.
Kubo had the right idea when he presented the Shinigami and Soul Society as a hostile force that Ichigo had to overcome. But…..it just seems so messed up now that they're "good", and Soul Society is where good people GO.
Think Hell would be better. At least there you know what to expect.Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.[/hide]
Good analysis, if only Kubo could read this.