Bleach 390: When you can’t beat ’em, give up
Posted: January 29, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized 18 Comments »
Tite Kubo: Uh oh, I think I made Aizen overpowered.
Editor: No shit, dumbass.
Tite Kubo: Oh whatever, I guess I’ll just overpower him more.
Editor: Fuck this job.
One of the biggest problems mangaka have with mainstream shounen (or shounen in general) is how to make the overpowered boss characters seem reasonable in comparison to previous antagonists. Cell made Frieza look like a pushover. Crocodile was a hell of a lot more powerful than Krieg.
An even bigger problem is how to make the main character powerful enough to take on this succession of powerful enemies.
But in the 390th chapter of Bleach, Tite Kubo managed to do the impossible. Most manga with the “end-boss” character have that character at an impossibly high power level to begin with. But out of the blue, Aizen suddenly is more powerful than all of the protagonists combined, holding lightyears beyond the power necessary to keep the sky from falling and the earth from cracking open.
Sometimes shounen series have a popular villain (either with the fans or with the author) return, either as a stronger antagonist or a reformed protagonist. Shin and Panther of Eyeshield 21 are good examples of this. Heck, any sports manga “rival” fits the bill. But never before have I seen an enemy stay in the series, never go through any “training” period, and suddenly get even more overpowered than he originally was.
People often cite “shortness” as the reason why they keep following Bleach. I never claimed that, but let me change my mind right now. This chapter was so short that when it ended, I thought it was only 6 pages long. I blame the large amount of wasted panels.
Oh, and apparently, this chapter is titled “Beyond the Death Understanding.” Fitting, since I don’t understand how Kubo could think up such a bad 19 pages. Oh God.
And while I’m on the topic of how much Bleach sucks, why is Toushiro Hitsugaya so popular? He is the biggest loser in the series! I don’t think he’s ever won a single battle before! How can anybody like him?
P.S.: I was tearing my hair out trying to write a post titled “Crying Uncontrollably” on the topic of Romance and why I thought Honey and Clover was mediocre, but this one Bleach chapter was so terrible that I just couldn’t resist.
P.P.S.: On the other hand, this week’s One Piece chapter was really great. Whitebeard is so gar.
Yeah, bleach sucked 100 or so chapters back and just stayed there. I can seriously go back 20 chapters and nothing would happen. There is so much nothing that it’s impossible for anyone with a brain to call this a good manga.
At the same time there’s no point in dropping it because they have such short chapters that not much time would have been wasted on reading it.
One Piece and Bakuman were awesome though.
Ah, but cumulatively, we’ve all wasted so much time on this manga!
IMO, Bakuman went through a dip after Trap got canceled, but it’s getting good again.
Shin and Panther <— Wait what?
Also yeah, WTF is this godliness, Aizen has just broken all levels of badass into the legendary. Also Hitsugaga should just die, he got his lifeline extended by Komamura for a few more pages. Tops.
Haha, never noticed that!
I always thought that Komamura’s bankai was stupid, and this proves it. It just gives God (or was his name Aizen?) a bigger target.
Hitsugaya should have died long, long ago. Stupid fangirls…
LOL Kubo thinks we all have short attention spans and just wants to remind us that Aizen is “Unbeatable”.
Like Panther, I also want to see Hitsugaya get slapped around.
First, Aizen was overpowered because he had a unique shikai. Now, it’s because “he’s strong.” Good job, Kubo. ):<
Hitsugaya is the punching bag of the series. His bankai looks so powerful but ends up so useless…
ah but you forget one fact: Aizen is a god and God doesn’t need training 😉
I am waiting to see what Kubo has in store for us now that he has stated that Aizen is practically unbeatable.
Rather than waiting, I’m more fearing. Honestly, I don’t want to read any more of this manga…
All shounen bosses are unbeatable until they’re defeated. It IS the first time for a shounen that a boss is powering up while not doing anything though :p
That’s the problem! Why is he suddenly so powerful?!
Oh, I thought this was just a normal Bleach post, so I skipped over it. orz;; Randomly went back to your blog and saw it. Anyway.
Because Hitsugaya is small, cuter than some [most] of the other characters, and he’s “cool”, I guess. Fangirls will cling to anything they can get!
I’m sure he’ll be defeated…it’s probably a trick for Tite to scam some more money out of people, and then it’ll be some lame ending. <.<;
Hey, that just shows how unpopular Bleach really is! (see http://twitter.com/Mikotoism/status/8430991063)
I wonder why there are fangirls for Hitsugaya? What kind of female would read something so shounen like this?! D:
Ichigo will probably turn into God before defeating Aizen in chapter 870.
Hey, I’ve read a lot of this series…what kind of female are you calling me!?
Naw, Ichigo will die and Hitsugaya will absorb his strength, only to defeat Aizen in the last chapter! So much drama!
The fangirls will rave. ;D
Maybe you’re slowly turning male…!
Ichigo absorbing Hitsugaya… I can just imagine all the fanart…
Aizen was always powerful…so much so that he would brag about how difficult it was for him to step on Captain level Shinigami carefully enough so as not to kill them. The problem comes in that the protagonist, Ichigo, seeks to protect Karakura, and Aizen’s only real competition is in god’s realm which he can’t get to without destroying Karakura…so is Ichigo just supposed to fail at saving his city so the series can move forward?
That may be true (and indeed, that’s the main argument I hear from the other side of the table), but I still feel that Kubo is overpowering Aizen to make him a suitable end-game boss. Aizen could’ve been strong, but he’s not this strong. How can he take on all of the protagonists at once?
Karakura is the thing Ichigo wants to protect the most, so unless Kubo is a huge faggot and wants to make more money to supplement his lack of ideas, Ichigo’s going to win here.
my strategy for reading bleach/naruto was to semi-marathon every 3 months or so. 12 chapters at once is pretty good.
Yeah, I’d think so, but I personally can’t hold out for that long (especially when each chapter takes a minute to read…).