I think its more realistic to not know everything about the bleach world. Do we know everything about our own world? Leaving it open to translation is more interesting and makes for better theories, wether they are confirmed or not. Fantastic video!!
What are you talking about this is not real it's a cartoon. Kubo can tell us about anything cause he is the author of the story. He writes the rules lol. What do you mean realistic it is an anime? Did you compare a piece of fiction to not knowing stuff about the real world lol. alright friend you made me smile thank you.
Yeah that's why ichigos guard on his bankai is a Buddhist symbol. I'm surprised people didn't look into it when it first showed since it would look like a nazi symbol if you don't know history
Its really sad when people brush off bleach as having bad world building when it has so much to offer i appreciate putting the pieces togethor and not being spoon fed everything i feel like people expect everything in bleach to spoon fed them and when something flies past them they write off bleach as a bad story for not being like one piece and naruto.
What you said is true but its still Kubo's fault that the average viewer or even fans like me dont actually know much about the world in Bleach even for being longtime fans. Yes naruto and one piece spoonfeeds it but spoonfeeding is spoonfeeding because its the easiest way for fans to know about the world of the show
@@TheSasukefire11 i get what your saying but the problem is Bleach gets dogged on for not following naruto and one piece kubo isn't clean by any means at all with his writing at times but its just annoying when certain individuals try to put down bleach for imo mostly not always mostly double standard reasons. I will admit i haven't watched one piece but I've seen naruto and as much as i love the series near the end it loses its identity and feels the need to over explain and retcon aspects that never really needed explaining or retconning to happen also nice konan pfp she's my fav character wish she got to shine more
@@paradoxwraith5275 thats a pathetic excuse, it is the duty of a writer to convey and show the world he has built, if i cant even remember key things about the story and the world it is set in it doesnt mean i didnt play attention, it means the author failed to show the world he built properly.
DBZimran and Clyde are a freaking blessing in UA-cam form for the Bleach community. I would hope Kubo would somehow find your videos and quote them one day.
The big thing about a lots of critiques of bleach is some people try justifying their dislike for the series, by picking at the flaws that exist in all fiction, some have more, than others, but that's besides the point. One I hear a lot is, Ichigo having no goal like the one piece or becoming the hokage, even though this is a shonen manga, the setting is many realistic, e.g. in the way ichigo lives his life, plus not everyone in real world has a goal. Personally I felt there may have been a little too much world building and characters ( not to say I didn't like it) but I like how the characters interact within the story and adventure and i felt it could sometimes take away from the story for me. But I do like the world he built, which is why i watch lot of videos like this one.
@@jonathanquinlan3811 True, tho I can see why people feel this way because sometimes ichigo has nothing to do with the plot because of his character even tho I do like him as a MC kubo needed to get him involved more in the grand scheme of things (Really shows in tybw).
Wow I love how you explained the concept of bleach perfectly. Having read Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha I really feel like these concepts became more obvious to me. I reccomend it to those interested in the origins of Buddhism. The concept of bleach is hard to understand if you don't have some idea of what reincarnation really is and I feel you did an amazing job explaining it. It doesn't surprise me that people don't like bleach, but that's okay I'll still be here enjoying all the content creators like you create.
This video better reach 1M views. "Sansara" is also referred to as the way of living with desires of a family, rather than "Sanyas" which is the way of living by becoming a monk. Buddhism derives heavily from Hinduism as Lord Buddha was born and raised in India. His birth name was Siddharth.
"Samsara" (with an "m") is the usual spelling and pronunciation for the cycle of rebirth. I have heard of "sangsara" (with an "ng"), and that might be an alternate spelling of "sansara" . . . .
It's funny to me how the same flaws that people like to criticize about bleach almost every other shonen has that same dilemma if not worse... Maybe because the MC not a hyperactive cliche headass and people aren't used to that lol
Yeah that’s part of it, but I’ll be honest I started reading bleach when i was 12 (22 now) and I’d be lying if I said I could pick up %90 of the world building on my first watch of the series because bleach isn’t a generic show that just throws it in your face 24/7 and for young teens bleach was WAYYY more complex than any of the big 3 as result it went over their head, thats where the criticism stems from imo.
@@damarkomoore5236 completely understandable and tbh I used to look at bleach as a senin manga instead of shonen because of how stoic and complex the characters were, it was as if I was supposed to wait until my latter teens to watch this anime so I could understand all the nuances but at the same time the characters were just so relatable that I became immersed in the lore
@@TheSosKille12 yeah bleach is for older people (at least 15 and up)but it looked so cool that the kids like me loved it even tho I couldn’t grasp a lot of the nuances on my reading back then
10:24 it's true when you think about it and gotei 13 is very blinded including aizen they can train soul reapers and make them strong or ask Mayuri or urahara to make something to make soul reaper strong
Yea like I remember his saying soul reapers that use shiki and bankai felt like deus ex machina when it was established that soul reapers can use them like how do u say the wb is weak but miss a simple detail like that
Thank you for collecting such a comprehensive overview of how the various realms and beings in Bleach relate to one another into a single video! I have heard several explanations of how the various realms of Bleach correspond to the realms of Buddhist life and afterlife and the cycle of reincarnation, but you're the first Bleach expert I can recall fitting the Quincy into that framework. You've also done an excellent job of explaining the Balance of Souls between the living world and Soul Society as presented up until the Thousand Year Blood War. Up until that point Kubo's inter-world dynamic made at least some sense. Then Mayuri executes residents of soul society to balance the destruction of Hollow souls in Hueco Mundo. That point still confuses me. It seems to contradict the earlier explanation of why Quincy harm the Balance. If destroying hollowfied souls prevents them from returning to Soul Society and results in more Souls in the Living World ,thus a deficit in the Balance on the Soul Society side. How does Mayuri Kuratsuchi "fix" the imbalance by a mass-slaughter of Rukon residents, which would lead to a greater deficit on the Soul Society's side of the Balance? Which side of the Balance of Souls is Hueco Mundo on? But Kubo's Balance of Souls is even more convoluted than that! Souls that are damned to Hell don't return to Soul Society either. So doesn't that create the same damage to the Soul Society side of the Balance as destruction of Hollow souls by Quincy? And how do Hollows alter the Balance by devouring souls? Since they consume the souls of Plusses in the Living world and souls in Soul Society does it just balance out? What happens to all the souls a Hollow devours when a Hollow is cleansed by a Shinigami? Do they separate out and manifest individually in Soul Society (or get dragged to Hell if they were evil in life). What about Menos Grande that are composed of hundreds of souls? Or Adhuchas composed of numerous Menos (one individual holding thousands of devoured souls) - how do their existence effect the Balance? And that leads to the next big question... How are souls balanced: by numbers or by "weight?" Does a Vasto Lorde composed of thousands of devoured souls still count as one in balancing the worlds, or does it have a value of thousands in the Balance? Does an individual soul of a human Plus entering Soul Society equal the weight of Captain-Commander Yamamoto's soul leaving Soul Society?
Thinking on it and relating to the events of Can't Fear Your Own World novels I believe the not-so-balanced cycle of transmigration in bleach is the result of the sealing and butchering of the soul king. After all, it seems like no other being in Bleach has absolute dominion over souls and reishi than the soul king, and Ywach and Quincy inherited the soul king's power to destroy souls of hollows and have themes of fallen angels/divine beings like the Asura, titans (sometimes referred to as demigods). Maybe this imbalance is the result of the original sin committed by the ancestral shinigami, who kinda tried to usurp their god the soul king.
Memories on no one spoilers: The Buddhism cycle is why the memories of no one story is such a heartbreaking tale. She exists outside of the cycle after the fusing of all the different people she was an amalgamation of. And when she dies at the end, she either separates back to individuals, or they all cease to exist. So sena as we know he actually never existed.
True. I loved Memories of Nobody and Senna. After the credits we see a Senna look alike and many fans thought that she was Senna reborn and were happy. But Senna never even existed.
@@bleachfade1520 who knows my man? Maybe the memories that were made with ichigo and the other shinigami she interacted with were strong enough because of the connection that the look alike was born into existence as a result of the events of the movie? As kurisu said in steins gate "that would be a beautiful truth"
It's not that there isn't worldbuilding and what there has been done is done well, but that doesn't take the fact that it's still quite ''bad'' worldbuilding and doesn't seem like something it would have.
love that the manga definitely imposes a "structure" to gain a basic understanding of why events are important, but also allows enough freedom to avoid limiting and/or restricting the spiritual realms
Thank you for this video bleach has some good world building that i think is slept on. Overall bleachs spiritual connections seem to be based on buddhism, shintoism, and judeo Christianity which is reflected by the factions and characters within the series such as ichigo, aizen, yhwach, the shinigami, arrancar, and Quincy.
Actually Yamamoto's bankai is the reason he became this old in only 1000 years while squad zero and unohana didn't got old His bankai is too strong and puts a burden on him
i dont think you should really know all the real life background info in order to piece the world building togather, dumping exposition is not always the best but giving more details aside from ''assuming readers know this'' is better, one thing that really bugged me with the Soul Society is how, as you said, ''as if its looked down upon to imitate humans'' and all that human emoution stuff, but later on, this aspact is never brough up again, not even once despite many of the captains showing human emotions, another thing is how, we know there are Districts in the SS, but we only know 1, The Rukonguy, and, thats it, namedropping more things and showing more Districts would have been a nice way to Directly show that there are more things and locations in the SS, these are the main few problems i have with this but aside from that, i think bleachs world building is far from bad, it does the jobe well and it never warranted full phocus, this is a character phocused story at the end of the day.
Id say this definitely a personal preference i mean i love world building that isn't directly in your face your given the basis to put it together and i love kubo uses more implicit information
@@darkousdragon1166 same, honestly ill take only visluals over exposition dumps any day, but i just feel some things really needed more focus, like the pararels between irl Buddism and SS, its just such a big part of the SS it warrants more attention and info, and like the districts, because right now it feels like there is only the criminal full Rukonguy and the contradicting midset of some of the captains and upper SS characters and using the whole ''human emotions being looked down upon'' part as a part of your(dbzimran) argument on why the worldbuilding is good is just a bad example
It's funny because manga like Berserk, it has its world building but the end of the day, the focus is Guts and his journey struggling despair, darkness and revenge. The world is an after thought with heavy emphasis on the central characters, sure we see what each new place brings and how it's affected In their presence but compared to what the character goes through......who gives a shit right?
@@Crunchysopa52 and that's what I'm saing, one character changing is one thing but this belief that was shared among the Shinigami, which from the start was pretty bad since Byakuya had a wife, to be flipped on its head later down the line and never mentioned again is just not the best way to show progress and change, not to matnion how YOU look at it is not really rellevent since what you say is very different from waht the characters say, they dont specify how that works, they only say emoutions in general, sooo
I love your videos man, I wanna add a small bit of info you might have missed when talking about the aging in Soul Society. No Hate tho On the last page of Chapter 24, When Rukia is healing Ichigo after the Grand Fisher fight, She Tells Kon, that "A SOUL REAPER'S LIFE FORCE IS EQUAL TO HIS SPIRITUAL ENERGY" Maybe this can help you explain a bit more about the Aging, and why member's of the Gotei 13 and Zero, can live significantly longer, due to them training and learning much more than those outside of the Seireitei
I don't know why maybe because of all the non cannon movies, but I always assumed that the eighth division was in charge of research, preservation, and protection of Soul Society's History. I feel like Shunsui always goes to look in the archives and such to figure out what it happening, like what he did in the Diamond Dust Rebellion movie and Bount arch of the anime. It would make sense that if they have an entire division devoted to the protection of the arts and culture they would have the same for the History are records.
This videos supports my theory that people who don't think Bleach has good world building are people who don't know much about Japanese history, culture, or religion. I don't profess to be an expert myself but most of this I thought was pretty obvious.
Soul Society on it's own always felt huge to me and I wanted to see more. Just another reason I love the Zanpakuto Spirit Arc. *Also, the curse of one of my favorite content creators living in a different time zone.*
On a second viewing of this video a thought occurs. If the goal is to escape the cycle of suffering, wouldn't dying at the hands of a Quincy be equivalent to nirvana?
Cool video, I would say though that while knowing Buddhism and other ideologies helps to understand some of the concepts in Bleach I'd still say those are more influences. It's cool to see how much of Buddhist beliefs Kubo put into Bleach however I don't want to praise it because of a parallels it makes to Buddhism I want to praise Bleach for what it does for itself. I don't like comparing the big three but looking at One piece it's worldbuilding isn't praised because of the real life influences Oda has implemented but how expansive and creative the world is and how much time is spent on multiple locations. Bleach has a bunch of lore but I think the reason the souls of the Soul Society feel like an after thought is because in the grand scheme of the series it doesn't feel like they matter, maybe that's why the Soul Society arc is my favorite. Not every series needs worldbuilding but the worst kind of worldbuilding are the ones the rely heavily on exposition or even worse feels like knowing that kind of information doesn't effect the plot and Bleach gets to those point at times.
Tbh I kinda find it stupid from Kubo to make a separate Kido crops. In my opinion he should have given this role to a division that didn't had a specific role. Same with Hakuda and Hoho.
Yeah, i mostly agree with you there(i don't think there should be a specific division for Hakuda, nor Shumpo) and hek it was already done with the 2nd Squad(having merged with the punishment/assassination corp and all). Squad 5, 8 or 13 seem to me as the best choices of been merged with the Kido corps if you ask me...
A thing I like about bleach is the fact that everything is grey morality the soul society keeps order but have done some morally questionable things, the hollows kill people but their are good people among them, and the Quincy do want to help but cause more harm and taken a lot of suffering
I think the most confusing thing about SS is why is there poverty in a spiritual realm? Like you mean to tell me, after i die i will be poor forever in SS???
I guess what is also interesting, but never clearly stated to my knowledge about humans in the Soul Society. They all remember their lives in the world of the living, but since they have lived multiple of their own life times they slowly forget their life in the human world. That's why no one really talks about what their life was like before they entered the Soul Society
So i guess we have to find out in the hell arc what happens to shinigami who died outside of soul society? Example Gin and Tousen And what about hollows who died? We know Szazel and Aaroneiro are i hell but what about ulquiorra that he just thanos himself
didnt we learn that karakura town was at the time a place of high spirit activity that changes from place too place over time. so maybe squad ten follow track of that place and sends its squad members too deal with the extra hollows that appear there.
You know? The moment you mentioned Samsara, thinks just made click in my brain and everything suddenly made sense. Why didn't I think of Buddhism before? I'm very familiar with that stuff. I feel dumb now.....
I’m going to be in the middle. Yes I like the concept of multiple worlds and districts. But the manga didn’t explore enough. It like avatar but instead of going to places to meet the people the people come from places you already knew. For bleach I feel it will be better with some retire captains in certain districts and the hollow realm have landscape like volcano, dark swamp, and old tall buildings( baraggan has a bell so hollow can build structure)
Okay a rant real quick; Most of the fan base doesn’t talk about it but the Soul Society is a terrible place if you aren’t physically and politically powerful. The normal spirits live in terrible conditions, Central 46 has way too much power, gotei 13 blindly listens to is superiors without question. The Nobel clans are either ignored when they have actual worries and complaints or only listened to when bribed (and for bad reasons). The soul society was made to have a king, not an overpowered and greedy council that the people had/have no control over. The system honestly needs to be torn apart and rebuilt from scratch, I don’t even think Ichigo would support any of the bullshit central lets slide and if he was in the soul society during a peaceful for more than a week I am sure he would turn sides very quickly. Most of the villains weren’t 100% wrong in their opinions and statements, just went about them wrong. I always agreed with thwm, I mean have you SEEN that way the normal spirits live? They don’t even have to live like that, they could live in better conditions but they are ignored by those in power. They don’t have food provided yet souls with spiritual pressure need to eat, what happens to children when they need to eat yet can’t find the means to do so? Are they just allowed to starve to death? Did you notice how Rukia and Renji lived? It was terrible!!
You're right about Soul Society. It's no paradise and it's not as Rukia described it to that human Plus way back when (and she knew it from her own experience, but was probably obligated to make that "sales pitch" for konso). And you're right about those with high spirit pressure potentially starving in the outer Rukon. Living in South District 78 Rukia and Renji had the strength to steal food to eat or they would have died (like their friends did). An even more horrible example would be being incarnated into a totally blighted wasteland, like North District 80: Zaraki. Those with average spirit pressure wouldn't have to worry about starving to death, their biggest problem would be one kid with monsterous spirit pressure and nothing else to eat - except them. But I don't see Aizen as being motivated by outrage at the injustice of Soul Society's political hierarchy. He never spoke of bettering the lot of the weak. They were irrelevant to him. I'd say his methods were justifiable if those had been his ends, but he was just indignant that he wasn't at the top of the hierarchy.
No one talks about it because the show revolves around ichigo lol. What do you mean? He's the main character so we get his perspective. We learn about how hard the loss of his mother was to him. Why would we focus on the soul society districts when the main character is in the human world dealing with his problems? And they do talk about it somewhat. Renji and Rukia were legit thieves robbing food to survive in their childhood. Since they had some talent they became soul reapers escaping poverty. Your wrong ichigo indeed let it slide lmao. Did you already forget the ginjo arc? The whole point of it was to show that the soul society was keeping tabs on ichigo and could even here him speak through his "substitute soul reaper badge". They were gonna kill his ass if he turned lol. He forgave them why??? Cause he accepted it.
Squad 4 is the healing squad. Kind of ironic, since in several East Asian nations, the number 4 is unlucky because its character and pronunciation are similar to that of death. You can find buildings that don't have floors ending in number 4 (4, 14, 24 etc.) Ironic, since Squad 4 keep people alive!
'Western entitlement' is the bane of media analysis. So many western critics of Asian media, whether it be from the far, middle or near east, expect that those countries will spoon-feed to them concepts that a western audience wouldn't otherwise understand, despite these concepts and ideas being common place in the country of origin... and these pieces of media not being written for a western audience. Not all are like this, but many Western critics wouldn't expect an American or British production to explain how Christian concepts work, yet they would expect that of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim countries, and when they don't, these critics denegrate and make blatantly xenophobic remarks about the media in question, which they pass off as 'valid criticism' (anyone remember Supereyepatchwolf making fun of and blatantly ignoring Ichigo's Fullbring, without even attempting to analyse it's meaning and purpose within the story?). Ignorance is not valid criticism. We need more videos like this, because it allows people to educate themselves quickly about concepts that might (God forbid) require research, which I understand can be a pain when you just want to enjoy a new story... but if someone's not willing to research concepts that they don't understand, then they should keep criticisms of those concepts to themselves, because frankly they're worth very little.
Exactly dude! This is actually one of the MAIN reasons why Anime Discourse tends to be terrible. Anime/Manga are foreign. Therefore, people here in the West aren't going to fully grasp the style or concepts of what goes on over there in the Eastern World. Hell, people in the West barely understand thier own things sometimes lol. However, I find that a lot of these critics over here tend to be very ignorant or make rapid generalizations that literally miss what these series are about.
@@55thstreet66 the issue is that this can apply to western interpretations of ALL media, not just Japanese cartoons... and worst still, to the perspective that westerners have on Asian countries and cultures in general.
Bleach is the GOAT! For some reason Bleach just goes way over peoples heads. Bleach is basically a Seinen manga. Its my personal fav anime & manga of all time. Bleach definitely has world building but I like the aspect of stuff being mysterious as this is literally a show about afterlife dimensions and structures. Its kind of silly how people criticize Bleach. It all comes down to lack of comprehension. Also Kubo set up such an incredible world. All the factions and so on.
I have a question nobody really asks why the hell didn’t toshiro ever tell ichigo he worked with his dad toshiro KNOWS what isshin looks like he’s been inside of his house
My take on the cycle of death in bleach -human/Quincy/fullbringer -you die and 4 things occur, real death, go to heck, hollow, soul reaper (soul society) -hollow-rise through the ranks or be devoured but once dead you either go to heck or heaven -soul reapers-rise through the ranks and enter heck But what about real death? Well once you go through death and end up in none of the places noted then you just go to a real heaven and heck as the ones in bleach aren’t real and are more like sandboxes for soul reapers to go off in. (You could even think of it like Islamic death if you want to base it on that where you die enter the world of the grave, enter day of judgement, and then enter heck or heaven thus multiple stages of death but only one real death being the transfer from human to land of the grave)
This isn't the 1st time I saw people got Western and Eastern beliefs mixed up when it comes to anime. I remember a decade ago that someone said that Kagome wasn't going to meet with Inuyasha in the afterlife since he's a demon and he end up in hell because of his heritage. 1st off, Inuyasha is written by an Eastern mindset, not Western. Two, Inuyasha actually a half-yokai(fair folk), not a creature from the depths of hell. Inuyasha came from a short period where every term had to translated, which lead to Yokai=Demon. Fast forward a few years after both Naruto and Bleach came to the west with them throwing Rasengans and Getsuga Tenshos, Inuyashas: Final Act came out with had their newest attacks in untranslated.
Bleach's inspiration from Buddhist spirituality could also explain the series' title, which is ambiguous in meaning. What's the realm that ascends everything in Buddhism? Nirvana. You know who else has that name? The band Nirvana. What was their first album called? BLEACH! An abstract reference to Nirvana in Buddhism and/or the band maybe?? That, and Urahara looking suspiciously like Kurt Cobain, makes you wonder if this be the case.
People lose it cause souls can have babies.... but the fact that these souls can use flash step getsugas swords that change forms and have souls of their own and all this other stuff... but cause Rukia had a kid they lose it lol go figure Kubo expects his readers to have some intelligence.... thats a big F on Kubo's part lol
There is so much thts unexplained and untouch underlying sub plots in bleach … it should be as long as Naruto but fact is ichigo levels up so fast bc he already has the power to do so.. I think it has something to do with his zanpukuto abilities
“Tite Kubo is a bad writer” this video proves that totally wrong, in fact just by seeing this i came to the conclusion Tite Kubo is an EXCELLENT amazing writer. Just bcuz people dont understand something doesnt mean its bad, if all people who watched Bleach understood the concept of Buddhism and all that than it would be way way way more famous.
You’re wrong my guy…soul society is the asura realm. The fight hollows and quinces and war with each other. They live in servitude to the deva realm/soul palace. They are the semi gods tasked to keep balance doomed to by their duties to not walk the path of enlightenment
With the revelation of "New Breathes from Hell" (SPOILERS), what Aizen did by becoming immortal was avoid the inevitable damnation to Hell his immense power would have otherwise guaranteed him.
It's interesting how Spirits and especially the Shinigami see humans as inferior due to their easy and power filled lives while blind to their own suffering. Yet again they clearly have little knowledge of humanity's technological advances, especially in the realm of military tech. The sharp divisions can be seen as the legacy of the ancestors essentially usurping control of the worlds and making themselves and their descendants the top dogs of their new order.
@@jonathanquinlan3811 True. And their Samurai traditions means they will see human military tech and tactics as laughably weak and cowardly however effective they may be. Still that psycho Tokinada recognized that and wanted chaos/war to envelop the worlds as his main plan.
Don't know mate being reborn as a Hollow seems fun as long as i don't get eaten by other hollows as eventually i could become a arrancar by breaking off my own mask
Then it makes me wonder some things... Enma DaiOu/Yanluo Wang/Yama Maharaja is the god-king of Hell, and handles justice & judgment. So if it's based on the six realms, and it is said the wheel of Samsara is held within the jaws and/hands of Yama/Yan/Enma, then will we meet him?
Out of most anime Bleach especially did an amazing job with his world building, people that nitpick its world building are really dumb and rely on exposition to know anything always want someone to tell it to them so they can understand, they're really nitpicking because of their slowness I loved the world Bleach made and love every moment of it and its especially expounded on by fillers too and idc if the Zanpakutou rebellion arc is filler i love seeing details about other characters and the world for them
I don't think they're dumb per-se, but more or less misguided. Kubo doesn't spoonfeed you like in naruto with big exposition dumps. He's instead much more subtle about things. Of course for most casual readers/viewers this will go over your head without a second read-through or watch.
I see that bleach superfans are actually ridiculous, cause bleach just clearly doesn’t have a properly fleshed out world, you’re just sensitive to a proper critique on your favourite manga
@@StraighTMurkZ "Bleach just clearly doesn't have a properly fleshed out world" What do you not consider fleshed out? A lot of the stuff in the manga is given added context in the CFYOW and SFWY novels anyway. In these books we actually learn how and why world of Bleach is the way it is. You honestly sound like you haven't even watched/read Bleach lol.
But you didn't explain how when the captains die they go straight to hell. they have a service and after the service is over with they are directly put into hell in chains. And after that they don't get put back at least they haven't talked about that yet.
I don’t have dislikes it’s more like I completely miss how certain things are explained - like I can absorb but not actually learn at times like I didn’t realize Ichigos soul reaper uniform ties to his powers in some way cause I honestly can’t remember anything like that being brought up outside from when we went to go get azien in katakura town
@@imbored5951 no no that I remember but I didn’t take it for a so “hey this ties to my actual strength etc “ just like Ichigo having a zenkai style boost was something I thought applied to all shinigami but it doesn’t exactly seem as so
I like listening to content creators talk about the Bleach universe, but have no interest in the story. Mainly due to aforementioned issues with worldbuilding and the story just being a sequence of prolonged fights. My impression of Kubo is that he's a bit like George Lucas - thinks about some things a little, focuses on piecemealing information, and makes up most of the worldbuilding later in interviews or when pressed for information for databooks. But otherwise either doesn't know/care or has a vague idea of how it might work.
I think its more realistic to not know everything about the bleach world. Do we know everything about our own world? Leaving it open to translation is more interesting and makes for better theories, wether they are confirmed or not. Fantastic video!!
Your comment is underrated
Some things are better left unknown as I say
What are you talking about this is not real it's a cartoon. Kubo can tell us about anything cause he is the author of the story. He writes the rules lol. What do you mean realistic it is an anime? Did you compare a piece of fiction to not knowing stuff about the real world lol. alright friend you made me smile thank you.
@@55thstreet66 sit down, have a snickers.
@@Skarnex1337 uh I was having a laugh at how dumb some people can sound trying to be nuanced on a subject. I don't want cavities ;(
I can't wait to see how Kubo is gonna structure Hell, I expect multiple layers.
I hope it's gonna be a long running arc.
💕
Same, it's honestly sad that those screenwriters didn't take his ideas. I can bet that his Hell Arc is going to be something insane
@@scottiecurrie7927 💞
When he feels like it
Wasn't this already done in a movie??? Ichigo had to go to hell fight and stuff.
Never knew that Bleach was loosely based off Buddhism. Always thought it was based off heaven and hell but that makes way more sense. Great video👍
Loosely is an understatement you know!
There many are different forms of Buddhism that have both heaven and hell. Like vaisravana buddhism
Of course. Hell Huecho Mundo is based on Afro Cuban tradition as well
Yeah that's why ichigos guard on his bankai is a Buddhist symbol. I'm surprised people didn't look into it when it first showed since it would look like a nazi symbol if you don't know history
Yeah Aizen's whole struggle to reach transcendence is him essentially trying to reach enlightenment. This is symbolized with the third eye he has.
Its really sad when people brush off bleach as having bad world building when it has so much to offer i appreciate putting the pieces togethor and not being spoon fed everything i feel like people expect everything in bleach to spoon fed them and when something flies past them they write off bleach as a bad story for not being like one piece and naruto.
What you said is true but its still Kubo's fault that the average viewer or even fans like me dont actually know much about the world in Bleach even for being longtime fans. Yes naruto and one piece spoonfeeds it but spoonfeeding is spoonfeeding because its the easiest way for fans to know about the world of the show
@@TheSasukefire11 i get what your saying but the problem is Bleach gets dogged on for not following naruto and one piece kubo isn't clean by any means at all with his writing at times but its just annoying when certain individuals try to put down bleach for imo mostly not always mostly double standard reasons. I will admit i haven't watched one piece but I've seen naruto and as much as i love the series near the end it loses its identity and feels the need to over explain and retcon aspects that never really needed explaining or retconning to happen also nice konan pfp she's my fav character wish she got to shine more
@@nyhtfall1969 thanks for the compliment i too wish konan got more shine
All that and some of them don't even know what world building is and I ain't even joking.
@@paradoxwraith5275 thats a pathetic excuse, it is the duty of a writer to convey and show the world he has built, if i cant even remember key things about the story and the world it is set in it doesnt mean i didnt play attention, it means the author failed to show the world he built properly.
DBZimran and Clyde are a freaking blessing in UA-cam form for the Bleach community. I would hope Kubo would somehow find your videos and quote them one day.
Exactly kubo doesn't just spoon feed everything u have to pay attention to how things are with nuances
The big thing about a lots of critiques of bleach is some people try justifying their dislike for the series, by picking at the flaws that exist in all fiction, some have more, than others, but that's besides the point. One I hear a lot is, Ichigo having no goal like the one piece or becoming the hokage, even though this is a shonen manga, the setting is many realistic, e.g. in the way ichigo lives his life, plus not everyone in real world has a goal. Personally I felt there may have been a little too much world building and characters ( not to say I didn't like it) but I like how the characters interact within the story and adventure and i felt it could sometimes take away from the story for me. But I do like the world he built, which is why i watch lot of videos like this one.
Well said.
I honestly don't think ichigo not having grand quest was that big of a deal, to be fair that's such an over used plot device anyways
Check his character analysis video on Ichigo. He addresses things like this, and even shows other fans comments on the matter.
@@jonathanquinlan3811 True, tho I can see why people feel this way because sometimes ichigo has nothing to do with the plot because of his character even tho I do like him as a MC kubo needed to get him involved more in the grand scheme of things (Really shows in tybw).
Right? Like the people who say it's just all fighting, if there was less fighting they would whine that there isn't enough action.
Wow I love how you explained the concept of bleach perfectly. Having read Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha I really feel like these concepts became more obvious to me. I reccomend it to those interested in the origins of Buddhism. The concept of bleach is hard to understand if you don't have some idea of what reincarnation really is and I feel you did an amazing job explaining it. It doesn't surprise me that people don't like bleach, but that's okay I'll still be here enjoying all the content creators like you create.
This video better reach 1M views. "Sansara" is also referred to as the way of living with desires of a family, rather than "Sanyas" which is the way of living by becoming a monk. Buddhism derives heavily from Hinduism as Lord Buddha was born and raised in India. His birth name was Siddharth.
Buddha was born in Nepal. Get your facts checked up.
@@ishiokitetsu4107 My bad, Buddha was a hindu by birth anyway. He is considered to be the ninth avatar of God Vishnu.
@@SABNISTANMAY yea you splitting facts
@@SABNISTANMAY Only by certain Vaishnavas.
"Samsara" (with an "m") is the usual spelling and pronunciation for the cycle of rebirth.
I have heard of "sangsara" (with an "ng"), and that might be an alternate spelling of "sansara" . . . .
It's funny to me how the same flaws that people like to criticize about bleach almost every other shonen has that same dilemma if not worse... Maybe because the MC not a hyperactive cliche headass and people aren't used to that lol
Yeah that’s part of it, but I’ll be honest I started reading bleach when i was 12 (22 now) and I’d be lying if I said I could pick up %90 of the world building on my first watch of the series because bleach isn’t a generic show that just throws it in your face 24/7 and for young teens bleach was WAYYY more complex than any of the big 3 as result it went over their head, thats where the criticism stems from imo.
@@damarkomoore5236 true
@@damarkomoore5236 completely understandable and tbh I used to look at bleach as a senin manga instead of shonen because of how stoic and complex the characters were, it was as if I was supposed to wait until my latter teens to watch this anime so I could understand all the nuances but at the same time the characters were just so relatable that I became immersed in the lore
@@TheSosKille12 yeah bleach is for older people (at least 15 and up)but it looked so cool that the kids like me loved it even tho I couldn’t grasp a lot of the nuances on my reading back then
I think part of it is because people like to compare it to One Piece who has tons of worldbuilding
The editing on this is so good! Keep it up!!!
I needed this video specifically
What app did you use to create your profile picture?
10:24 it's true when you think about it and gotei 13 is very blinded including aizen they can train soul reapers and make them strong or ask Mayuri or urahara to make something to make soul reaper strong
Thanks dude. I think supereyewolf really made people think the bleach world is dull.
Yea like I remember his saying soul reapers that use shiki and bankai felt like deus ex machina when it was established that soul reapers can use them like how do u say the wb is weak but miss a simple detail like that
I remember him saying that hueco Mundo is boring. When I got to the arc it turns out that the point. I mean characters flat out say it.
@@jobsidian4219 yeah actually
This is why I love bleach so much
Thank you so much for making this video. You've answered questions i've had for like 10 years lol
Thank you for collecting such a comprehensive overview of how the various realms and beings in Bleach relate to one another into a single video! I have heard several explanations of how the various realms of Bleach correspond to the realms of Buddhist life and afterlife and the cycle of reincarnation, but you're the first Bleach expert I can recall fitting the Quincy into that framework.
You've also done an excellent job of explaining the Balance of Souls between the living world and Soul Society as presented up until the Thousand Year Blood War. Up until that point Kubo's inter-world dynamic made at least some sense. Then Mayuri executes residents of soul society to balance the destruction of Hollow souls in Hueco Mundo. That point still confuses me. It seems to contradict the earlier explanation of why Quincy harm the Balance. If destroying hollowfied souls prevents them from returning to Soul Society and results in more Souls in the Living World ,thus a deficit in the Balance on the Soul Society side. How does Mayuri Kuratsuchi "fix" the imbalance by a mass-slaughter of Rukon residents, which would lead to a greater deficit on the Soul Society's side of the Balance? Which side of the Balance of Souls is Hueco Mundo on?
But Kubo's Balance of Souls is even more convoluted than that! Souls that are damned to Hell don't return to Soul Society either. So doesn't that create the same damage to the Soul Society side of the Balance as destruction of Hollow souls by Quincy? And how do Hollows alter the Balance by devouring souls? Since they consume the souls of Plusses in the Living world and souls in Soul Society does it just balance out? What happens to all the souls a Hollow devours when a Hollow is cleansed by a Shinigami? Do they separate out and manifest individually in Soul Society (or get dragged to Hell if they were evil in life). What about Menos Grande that are composed of hundreds of souls? Or Adhuchas composed of numerous Menos (one individual holding thousands of devoured souls) - how do their existence effect the Balance? And that leads to the next big question...
How are souls balanced: by numbers or by "weight?" Does a Vasto Lorde composed of thousands of devoured souls still count as one in balancing the worlds, or does it have a value of thousands in the Balance? Does an individual soul of a human Plus entering Soul Society equal the weight of Captain-Commander Yamamoto's soul leaving Soul Society?
Thinking on it and relating to the events of Can't Fear Your Own World novels I believe the not-so-balanced cycle of transmigration in bleach is the result of the sealing and butchering of the soul king. After all, it seems like no other being in Bleach has absolute dominion over souls and reishi than the soul king, and Ywach and Quincy inherited the soul king's power to destroy souls of hollows and have themes of fallen angels/divine beings like the Asura, titans (sometimes referred to as demigods). Maybe this imbalance is the result of the original sin committed by the ancestral shinigami, who kinda tried to usurp their god the soul king.
Memories on no one spoilers:
The Buddhism cycle is why the memories of no one story is such a heartbreaking tale. She exists outside of the cycle after the fusing of all the different people she was an amalgamation of. And when she dies at the end, she either separates back to individuals, or they all cease to exist. So sena as we know he actually never existed.
True. I loved Memories of Nobody and Senna. After the credits we see a Senna look alike and many fans thought that she was Senna reborn and were happy.
But Senna never even existed.
@@bleachfade1520 who knows my man? Maybe the memories that were made with ichigo and the other shinigami she interacted with were strong enough because of the connection that the look alike was born into existence as a result of the events of the movie? As kurisu said in steins gate "that would be a beautiful truth"
@@iamlordapollo That's how I chose to look at it, the alternative was just way too sad.
Ichibei removing a text bubble from chapter 20 That would spoil so much of the story with a paint brush? A series defining moment for me.
A "nice place" like the Soul Society
>When you reach Soul Society, and it's basically worse than reality.
The Hell part of Buddhism is explained by Tekking when he talks about Hitsugaya and Hyorinmaru. That one is a good thing to mention.
It's not that there isn't worldbuilding and what there has been done is done well, but that doesn't take the fact that it's still quite ''bad'' worldbuilding and doesn't seem like something it would have.
love that the manga definitely imposes a "structure" to gain a basic understanding of why events are important, but also allows enough freedom to avoid limiting and/or restricting the spiritual realms
Thank you for this video bleach has some good world building that i think is slept on. Overall bleachs spiritual connections seem to be based on buddhism, shintoism, and judeo Christianity which is reflected by the factions and characters within the series such as ichigo, aizen, yhwach, the shinigami, arrancar, and Quincy.
To me, it always made more sense that the soul society was the realm of Ashura and the Soulking and zero division were the devas
Actually Yamamoto's bankai is the reason he became this old in only 1000 years while squad zero and unohana didn't got old
His bankai is too strong and puts a burden on him
Imran just managed to give his viewers a free neophyte crash course in Tibetan Buddhism 101! Well done, old boy! Keep up the good work 👍. . . .
😀 . . . .
You explanation videos is firing me up to write fanfictions.
You do NOT wanna be in hueco mundo at all cost when ressurected 🤣
i dont think you should really know all the real life background info in order to piece the world building togather, dumping exposition is not always the best but giving more details aside from ''assuming readers know this'' is better, one thing that really bugged me with the Soul Society is how, as you said, ''as if its looked down upon to imitate humans'' and all that human emoution stuff, but later on, this aspact is never brough up again, not even once despite many of the captains showing human emotions, another thing is how, we know there are Districts in the SS, but we only know 1, The Rukonguy, and, thats it, namedropping more things and showing more Districts would have been a nice way to Directly show that there are more things and locations in the SS, these are the main few problems i have with this but aside from that, i think bleachs world building is far from bad, it does the jobe well and it never warranted full phocus, this is a character phocused story at the end of the day.
Id say this definitely a personal preference i mean i love world building that isn't directly in your face your given the basis to put it together and i love kubo uses more implicit information
@@darkousdragon1166 same, honestly ill take only visluals over exposition dumps any day, but i just feel some things really needed more focus, like the pararels between irl Buddism and SS, its just such a big part of the SS it warrants more attention and info, and like the districts, because right now it feels like there is only the criminal full Rukonguy and the contradicting midset of some of the captains and upper SS characters and using the whole ''human emotions being looked down upon'' part as a part of your(dbzimran) argument on why the worldbuilding is good is just a bad example
It's funny because manga like Berserk, it has its world building but the end of the day, the focus is Guts and his journey struggling despair, darkness and revenge. The world is an after thought with heavy emphasis on the central characters, sure we see what each new place brings and how it's affected In their presence but compared to what the character goes through......who gives a shit right?
@@Crunchysopa52 and yet, she got merried and had a child
@@Crunchysopa52 and that's what I'm saing, one character changing is one thing but this belief that was shared among the Shinigami, which from the start was pretty bad since Byakuya had a wife, to be flipped on its head later down the line and never mentioned again is just not the best way to show progress and change, not to matnion how YOU look at it is not really rellevent since what you say is very different from waht the characters say, they dont specify how that works, they only say emoutions in general, sooo
Thank you so much for making this video; I feel like I learned something.
13:27 is that Yama's zanpakuto behind him? It's so huge!
Naw. He's just happy to see you!
I love your videos man, I wanna add a small bit of info you might have missed when talking about the aging in Soul Society. No Hate tho
On the last page of Chapter 24, When Rukia is healing Ichigo after the Grand Fisher fight, She Tells Kon, that
"A SOUL REAPER'S LIFE FORCE IS EQUAL TO HIS SPIRITUAL ENERGY"
Maybe this can help you explain a bit more about the Aging, and why member's of the Gotei 13 and Zero, can live significantly longer, due to them training and learning much more than those outside of the Seireitei
I don't know why maybe because of all the non cannon movies, but I always assumed that the eighth division was in charge of research, preservation, and protection of Soul Society's History. I feel like Shunsui always goes to look in the archives and such to figure out what it happening, like what he did in the Diamond Dust Rebellion movie and Bount arch of the anime. It would make sense that if they have an entire division devoted to the protection of the arts and culture they would have the same for the History are records.
This videos supports my theory that people who don't think Bleach has good world building are people who don't know much about Japanese history, culture, or religion. I don't profess to be an expert myself but most of this I thought was pretty obvious.
Soul Society on it's own always felt huge to me and I wanted to see more. Just another reason I love the Zanpakuto Spirit Arc.
*Also, the curse of one of my favorite content creators living in a different time zone.*
Great breakdown, sir.
Hmm, good question.
The structure reminded me of ancient times in Asia
Great video bleach definitely my second favorite world out of the big three number is one piece for me
Cool, answered most of the questions I had. Though clearly they need a new squad....Exposition squad who specialize in explaining things.
On a second viewing of this video a thought occurs. If the goal is to escape the cycle of suffering, wouldn't dying at the hands of a Quincy be equivalent to nirvana?
I love the mystery of the places around the soul society
Cool video, I would say though that while knowing Buddhism and other ideologies helps to understand some of the concepts in Bleach I'd still say those are more influences. It's cool to see how much of Buddhist beliefs Kubo put into Bleach however I don't want to praise it because of a parallels it makes to Buddhism I want to praise Bleach for what it does for itself. I don't like comparing the big three but looking at One piece it's worldbuilding isn't praised because of the real life influences Oda has implemented but how expansive and creative the world is and how much time is spent on multiple locations. Bleach has a bunch of lore but I think the reason the souls of the Soul Society feel like an after thought is because in the grand scheme of the series it doesn't feel like they matter, maybe that's why the Soul Society arc is my favorite. Not every series needs worldbuilding but the worst kind of worldbuilding are the ones the rely heavily on exposition or even worse feels like knowing that kind of information doesn't effect the plot and Bleach gets to those point at times.
Very good Video i learned a lot. great explanation. Next time if someone says "Bleach has no worldbuilding" im gonna send him this Video
Wow love it! So informative 👏 thank you
Another amazing like always !!! Thank you for the deep dive !
My man
Should read Can't Fear Your Own World. Would have helped with this video.
Man best explanation.... 💓💓💗🔥🔥
Glad to see your aiding in the elimination of bleach slander. Keep up the fantastic work!
Tbh I kinda find it stupid from Kubo to make a separate Kido crops. In my opinion he should have given this role to a division that didn't had a specific role. Same with Hakuda and Hoho.
Yeah, i mostly agree with you there(i don't think there should be a specific division for Hakuda, nor Shumpo) and hek it was already done with the 2nd Squad(having merged with the punishment/assassination corp and all).
Squad 5, 8 or 13 seem to me as the best choices of been merged with the Kido corps if you ask me...
A thing I like about bleach is the fact that everything is grey morality the soul society keeps order but have done some morally questionable things, the hollows kill people but their are good people among them, and the Quincy do want to help but cause more harm and taken a lot of suffering
I think the most confusing thing about SS is why is there poverty in a spiritual realm?
Like you mean to tell me, after i die i will be poor forever in SS???
This video is required watching for all the youngins that are going to be baptized in the TYBW
I guess what is also interesting, but never clearly stated to my knowledge about humans in the Soul Society. They all remember their lives in the world of the living, but since they have lived multiple of their own life times they slowly forget their life in the human world. That's why no one really talks about what their life was like before they entered the Soul Society
2:35 you just made me realize how damn big the soul society actually is
So i guess we have to find out in the hell arc what happens to shinigami who died outside of soul society?
Example Gin and Tousen
And what about hollows who died? We know Szazel and Aaroneiro are i hell but what about ulquiorra that he just thanos himself
didnt we learn that karakura town was at the time a place of high spirit activity that changes from place too place over time. so maybe squad ten follow track of that place and sends its squad members too deal with the extra hollows that appear there.
You know? The moment you mentioned Samsara, thinks just made click in my brain and everything suddenly made sense.
Why didn't I think of Buddhism before? I'm very familiar with that stuff.
I feel dumb now.....
I’m going to be in the middle. Yes I like the concept of multiple worlds and districts. But the manga didn’t explore enough. It like avatar but instead of going to places to meet the people the people come from places you already knew. For bleach I feel it will be better with some retire captains in certain districts and the hollow realm have landscape like volcano, dark swamp, and old tall buildings( baraggan has a bell so hollow can build structure)
Okay a rant real quick; Most of the fan base doesn’t talk about it but the Soul Society is a terrible place if you aren’t physically and politically powerful.
The normal spirits live in terrible conditions, Central 46 has way too much power, gotei 13 blindly listens to is superiors without question. The Nobel clans are either ignored when they have actual worries and complaints or only listened to when bribed (and for bad reasons). The soul society was made to have a king, not an overpowered and greedy council that the people had/have no control over.
The system honestly needs to be torn apart and rebuilt from scratch, I don’t even think Ichigo would support any of the bullshit central lets slide and if he was in the soul society during a peaceful for more than a week I am sure he would turn sides very quickly.
Most of the villains weren’t 100% wrong in their opinions and statements, just went about them wrong. I always agreed with thwm, I mean have you SEEN that way the normal spirits live? They don’t even have to live like that, they could live in better conditions but they are ignored by those in power. They don’t have food provided yet souls with spiritual pressure need to eat, what happens to children when they need to eat yet can’t find the means to do so? Are they just allowed to starve to death?
Did you notice how Rukia and Renji lived? It was terrible!!
You're right about Soul Society. It's no paradise and it's not as Rukia described it to that human Plus way back when (and she knew it from her own experience, but was probably obligated to make that "sales pitch" for konso).
And you're right about those with high spirit pressure potentially starving in the outer Rukon. Living in South District 78 Rukia and Renji had the strength to steal food to eat or they would have died (like their friends did). An even more horrible example would be being incarnated into a totally blighted wasteland, like North District 80: Zaraki. Those with average spirit pressure wouldn't have to worry about starving to death, their biggest problem would be one kid with monsterous spirit pressure and nothing else to eat - except them.
But I don't see Aizen as being motivated by outrage at the injustice of Soul Society's political hierarchy. He never spoke of bettering the lot of the weak. They were irrelevant to him. I'd say his methods were justifiable if those had been his ends, but he was just indignant that he wasn't at the top of the hierarchy.
No one talks about it because the show revolves around ichigo lol. What do you mean? He's the main character so we get his perspective. We learn about how hard the loss of his mother was to him. Why would we focus on the soul society districts when the main character is in the human world dealing with his problems? And they do talk about it somewhat. Renji and Rukia were legit thieves robbing food to survive in their childhood. Since they had some talent they became soul reapers escaping poverty. Your wrong ichigo indeed let it slide lmao. Did you already forget the ginjo arc? The whole point of it was to show that the soul society was keeping tabs on ichigo and could even here him speak through his "substitute soul reaper badge". They were gonna kill his ass if he turned lol. He forgave them why??? Cause he accepted it.
Kubo's world-building is pretty good, information isn't shoved to your mouth but if you want to dig deep you'll learn a thing or two
Squad 4 is the healing squad. Kind of ironic, since in several East Asian nations, the number 4 is unlucky because its character and pronunciation are similar to that of death. You can find buildings that don't have floors ending in number 4 (4, 14, 24 etc.)
Ironic, since Squad 4 keep people alive!
'Western entitlement' is the bane of media analysis. So many western critics of Asian media, whether it be from the far, middle or near east, expect that those countries will spoon-feed to them concepts that a western audience wouldn't otherwise understand, despite these concepts and ideas being common place in the country of origin... and these pieces of media not being written for a western audience.
Not all are like this, but many Western critics wouldn't expect an American or British production to explain how Christian concepts work, yet they would expect that of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim countries, and when they don't, these critics denegrate and make blatantly xenophobic remarks about the media in question, which they pass off as 'valid criticism' (anyone remember Supereyepatchwolf making fun of and blatantly ignoring Ichigo's Fullbring, without even attempting to analyse it's meaning and purpose within the story?).
Ignorance is not valid criticism.
We need more videos like this, because it allows people to educate themselves quickly about concepts that might (God forbid) require research, which I understand can be a pain when you just want to enjoy a new story... but if someone's not willing to research concepts that they don't understand, then they should keep criticisms of those concepts to themselves, because frankly they're worth very little.
Well said bro and unique outlook on the situation!
I think you need to breathe it's a cartoon at the end of the day bud.
Exactly dude! This is actually one of the MAIN reasons why Anime Discourse tends to be terrible. Anime/Manga are foreign. Therefore, people here in the West aren't going to fully grasp the style or concepts of what goes on over there in the Eastern World. Hell, people in the West barely understand thier own things sometimes lol.
However, I find that a lot of these critics over here tend to be very ignorant or make rapid generalizations that literally miss what these series are about.
@@55thstreet66 the issue is that this can apply to western interpretations of ALL media, not just Japanese cartoons... and worst still, to the perspective that westerners have on Asian countries and cultures in general.
@@MC-up7rl wait why reply to me lol
Poor world building or not, still the most relatable anime I've watched. (Though I only watch shounen anime, with the exception of Angel Beats)
Wish u reach 100k subs soon💪🔥
DMZimran basically writing a Rap Genius Lyric’s explained page for all of Bleach lol
Bleach is the GOAT! For some reason Bleach just goes way over peoples heads. Bleach is basically a Seinen manga. Its my personal fav anime & manga of all time. Bleach definitely has world building but I like the aspect of stuff being mysterious as this is literally a show about afterlife dimensions and structures. Its kind of silly how people criticize Bleach. It all comes down to lack of comprehension. Also Kubo set up such an incredible world. All the factions and so on.
We know the Soul Society is more than the Sereitei from Burn The Witch. I'd like to see it expanded upon.
did you ever do a character analasys on Tsukishima ?
I have a question nobody really asks why the hell didn’t toshiro ever tell ichigo he worked with his dad toshiro KNOWS what isshin looks like he’s been inside of his house
This means Bleach has best World Building in anime history 🗿.....
My take on the cycle of death in bleach
-human/Quincy/fullbringer
-you die and 4 things occur, real death, go to heck, hollow, soul reaper (soul society)
-hollow-rise through the ranks or be devoured but once dead you either go to heck or heaven
-soul reapers-rise through the ranks and enter heck
But what about real death? Well once you go through death and end up in none of the places noted then you just go to a real heaven and heck as the ones in bleach aren’t real and are more like sandboxes for soul reapers to go off in.
(You could even think of it like Islamic death if you want to base it on that where you die enter the world of the grave, enter day of judgement, and then enter heck or heaven thus multiple stages of death but only one real death being the transfer from human to land of the grave)
Real death?
This isn't the 1st time I saw people got Western and Eastern beliefs mixed up when it comes to anime. I remember a decade ago that someone said that Kagome wasn't going to meet with Inuyasha in the afterlife since he's a demon and he end up in hell because of his heritage. 1st off, Inuyasha is written by an Eastern mindset, not Western. Two, Inuyasha actually a half-yokai(fair folk), not a creature from the depths of hell.
Inuyasha came from a short period where every term had to translated, which lead to Yokai=Demon. Fast forward a few years after both Naruto and Bleach came to the west with them throwing Rasengans and Getsuga Tenshos, Inuyashas: Final Act came out with had their newest attacks in untranslated.
Bleach's inspiration from Buddhist spirituality could also explain the series' title, which is ambiguous in meaning.
What's the realm that ascends everything in Buddhism? Nirvana. You know who else has that name? The band Nirvana. What was their first album called? BLEACH! An abstract reference to Nirvana in Buddhism and/or the band maybe??
That, and Urahara looking suspiciously like Kurt Cobain, makes you wonder if this be the case.
I like Bleach's world building!
People lose it cause souls can have babies.... but the fact that these souls can use flash step getsugas swords that change forms and have souls of their own and all this other stuff... but cause Rukia had a kid they lose it lol go figure
Kubo expects his readers to have some intelligence.... thats a big F on Kubo's part lol
There is so much thts unexplained and untouch underlying sub plots in bleach … it should be as long as Naruto but fact is ichigo levels up so fast bc he already has the power to do so.. I think it has something to do with his zanpukuto abilities
“Tite Kubo is a bad writer” this video proves that totally wrong, in fact just by seeing this i came to the conclusion Tite Kubo is an EXCELLENT amazing writer. Just bcuz people dont understand something doesnt mean its bad, if all people who watched Bleach understood the concept of Buddhism and all that than it would be way way way more famous.
You’re wrong my guy…soul society is the asura realm. The fight hollows and quinces and war with each other. They live in servitude to the deva realm/soul palace. They are the semi gods tasked to keep balance doomed to by their duties to not walk the path of enlightenment
In the end Aizen won by escaping this cycle and becoming an immortal god-tier being.
With the revelation of "New Breathes from Hell" (SPOILERS), what Aizen did by becoming immortal was avoid the inevitable damnation to Hell his immense power would have otherwise guaranteed him.
@@megalictis9002
YHWACH might have actually had a point in the end.
It's interesting how Spirits and especially the Shinigami see humans as inferior due to their easy and power filled lives while blind to their own suffering. Yet again they clearly have little knowledge of humanity's technological advances, especially in the realm of military tech. The sharp divisions can be seen as the legacy of the ancestors essentially usurping control of the worlds and making themselves and their descendants the top dogs of their new order.
Na they would still look down even if they knew. They would still look at humans like omnimam from invincible
@@jonathanquinlan3811 True. And their Samurai traditions means they will see human military tech and tactics as laughably weak and cowardly however effective they may be. Still that psycho Tokinada recognized that and wanted chaos/war to envelop the worlds as his main plan.
I hope in the future Soul Society is drastically improved. But they're probably cursed because of the original sin.
Helpful video tho, didn't understand a lot of this before, but doesn't that mean there is a heaven like realm beyond the SS?
It's not just Buddhism..it draws lot of things from Hinduism too
Don't know mate being reborn as a Hollow seems fun as long as i don't get eaten by other hollows as eventually i could become a arrancar by breaking off my own mask
Then it makes me wonder some things...
Enma DaiOu/Yanluo Wang/Yama Maharaja is the god-king of Hell, and handles justice & judgment. So if it's based on the six realms, and it is said the wheel of Samsara is held within the jaws and/hands of Yama/Yan/Enma, then will we meet him?
Based on riatsu, is that why aizen is immortal due to his capacity?
What if the son of ichigo become teen ager, is toshiro still a child after many years has passed?
Out of most anime Bleach especially did an amazing job with his world building, people that nitpick its world building are really dumb and rely on exposition to know anything always want someone to tell it to them so they can understand, they're really nitpicking because of their slowness
I loved the world Bleach made and love every moment of it and its especially expounded on by fillers too and idc if the Zanpakutou rebellion arc is filler i love seeing details about other characters and the world for them
I don't think they're dumb per-se, but more or less misguided. Kubo doesn't spoonfeed you like in naruto with big exposition dumps. He's instead much more subtle about things. Of course for most casual readers/viewers this will go over your head without a second read-through or watch.
I see that bleach superfans are actually ridiculous, cause bleach just clearly doesn’t have a properly fleshed out world, you’re just sensitive to a proper critique on your favourite manga
@@justinpachi3707 there isn’t a lot of shit that goes over your head, simply put, there are a lot of things that are just never explained
@@StraighTMurkZ
"Bleach just clearly doesn't have a properly fleshed out world"
What do you not consider fleshed out? A lot of the stuff in the manga is given added context in the CFYOW and SFWY novels anyway. In these books we actually learn how and why world of Bleach is the way it is.
You honestly sound like you haven't even watched/read Bleach lol.
@@StraighTMurkZ
Okay and do you mind citing any examples or are you just going to spout baseless assertions without anything to back you up?
Hah, I was just asking Tommo to do a world building video. Thanks so much!!
But you didn't explain how when the captains die they go straight to hell. they have a service and after the service is over with they are directly put into hell in chains. And after that they don't get put back at least they haven't talked about that yet.
We still need more info on that before he can do a vid on it
Upcoming hell arc? Is there a confirmation?
yes
Please explain why the are rich and poor people in the soul society.
How do hollows from the world of the living go to hueca mundo?
Can't wait for you to do One Piece characters if you watch the anime
I don’t have dislikes it’s more like I completely miss how certain things are explained - like I can absorb but not actually learn at times like I didn’t realize Ichigos soul reaper uniform ties to his powers in some way cause I honestly can’t remember anything like that being brought up outside from when we went to go get azien in katakura town
Ichigo mentions it when traveling through the garganta with Unohana because he got self conscious about the spirit energy bridge he was making.
@@imbored5951 no no that I remember but I didn’t take it for a so “hey this ties to my actual strength etc “ just like Ichigo having a zenkai style boost was something I thought applied to all shinigami but it doesn’t exactly seem as so
I like listening to content creators talk about the Bleach universe, but have no interest in the story. Mainly due to aforementioned issues with worldbuilding and the story just being a sequence of prolonged fights. My impression of Kubo is that he's a bit like George Lucas - thinks about some things a little, focuses on piecemealing information, and makes up most of the worldbuilding later in interviews or when pressed for information for databooks. But otherwise either doesn't know/care or has a vague idea of how it might work.
Question what happens to people that murder in the soul society? Are they reborn when they die or go to hell?