Before I finish with the villain series I wanted to take a look at some amazing characters who are lost in the stories they belong to, which is a shame.
*WARNING: There are spoilers
PS – I don’t watch the English version. Anime voice acting is usually pretty terrible, so if anything sounds off it might just be a difference between the original and the one suited for English audiences
BLEACH
Now I know a lot of people don’t read mangas or watch anime, and that’s their choice. But a good story and good characters are such despite whatever medium they are found in. I’ve been following the story since it came out both in the manga and the anime (minus any filler *) and though I’m disappointed in the story overall, I would have to say that Tite Kubo, the artist and writer for Bleach, has an incredible gift when it comes to character creation.
One of the hardest parts to any story is finding characters that 1) people care about, 2) are interesting, 3) aren’t a tired cliche. The story follow that of Ichigo, who is a teenager who has a very relaxed attitude and doesn’t care about much. He’s not a jerk, he’s just got his mind in other places. Later he gains the ability to become a shinigami which are being that escort people from the afterlife to their respective place. Problem is their are hollows (sort of like demons) that try and eat spirits before they are escorted. Now this really isn’t the interesting part, because like I said earlier, the story has some great high points, but mostly just flounders around not really knowing what to do and milking the series for as long as possible. In other words, money has taken a precedent over storytelling, which is disappointing.
Now lets get to the interesting stuff–the characters. Each character within the series is very distinct and holds a style of their own, something that is often hard to do. For example Ichigo really comprises of at least two people–maybe more.
1) comprising of just his regular self (note: it’s called bleach cuz he has bleached hair)
2) His hollow self which he harnesses to become rather powerful in picture number #3, however the hollow version battles within him every now and then hoping to gain control of Ichigo’s physical body, stating one will always be the master and the other–the horse.
3) the aforementioned ability of Ichigo mixed with his hollow side
4) the spirit of his sword, he was pretty interesting but I think he got eaten by the hollow Ichigo, so we don’t get to see him very often, but he had awesome shades and a ripes up suit jacket. Very suave.
Now that’s just the main character. There’s so many characters to mention there is hardly the time, so I’ll just point out a few more and what really makes them stand out.
Ichimaru
One of my favorite villains by far in any story. He is one of the captains of the shinigami. When there is a murder of another captain many eyes fall on Ichimaru because he is very sly and condescending. He never drops his smile and his eyes are always squinted, giving him a child like but mischievous side to him. He is finally confronted by a woman who loved the murdered captain (who by the way was impaled on the side of a wall so all could see). The big surprise–he didn’t kill anybody. But he’s far from innocent. In fact he helped fake the death of the murdered captain, and when it comes down to it, sides with the enemy, despite all the friends he has made. But the part that really sold me on this character was when some baddies he knows captures one of the people who used to trust him. He goes up to the imprisoned woman and says he’s going to save her, only to build her hopes up and smile as he tells her he was kidding. Like a cat playing with it’s meal, his exterior is cute by his heart is devilishly sinister.
Aizen
The sweet and soft spoken captain that everybody thought Ichimaru killed–turns out he’s not dead and he’s not so sweet. The captain actually turns out to be the head villain of the series and along with his two defecting friends, heads off to Los Noches (basically hell minus all the fire and brimstone) and tries to figure out a way to kill his former friends and use millions of innocent souls in order to reach something–we still aren’t sure what that something is, but if this guy is willing to stab everyone in the back multiple times, it ought to be good. What makes this character great is how he has the whole Keyser Söze thing going for him, and you honestly feel bad that such a decent guy got killed. But then he rubs the whole kind guy act in your face and turns the world upside down. Oh and I almost forgot. His vice captain who would do anything for him, well when he reveals he’s still alive she breaks down and he hugs her–so he can get close enough to run his sword through her. Incredibly well crafted.
Ulquiorra
I can’t even get close to guessing how to say his name but that doesn’t detract from his great characterization. Now we don’t know a whole lot about him other than he’s the number 4 guy under Aizen and he’s an evolved form of a Hollow. He has a literal hole at the top of his chest and never breaks away from his stone cold stoic face. His character if refreshing from the other bad guys and good guys who talk more than they fight and there’s something about his cold face that makes you feel like he doesn’t have feelings. Like a sociopath except unlike most sociopaths, he doesn’t try to hide it. The point that really sold it for me is when he is fighting Ichigo and after downing Ichigo, takes his hand and knocks a hole inside Ichigo right where his hole is–you know, so Ichigo could feel the way he feels. Is that not both awesome and twisted or what?
Urahara
Finally a good guy. A scruffy guy with a bucket hat and sandals who in the real world he owns a small shop but later is revealed to once have been a captain of the shinigami. However he left when some of his experiments got a bit dicey. He hasn’t really fought anyone as of yet but the one or two times he’s stepped in, he has proven he can easily stand up to the very bast the bad guys have to offer with little or no effort at all. Sort of picture him as Yoda from the olds classic Star Wars, easy going and very nonconfrontational. However when he gets heated, picture Yoda’s epic fight with both Dooku and the Emperor. I’m really excited to see where his part in the story of Bleach leads to.
Grimmjow
The exact opposite of Ulquiorra. Loud mouthed, cocky, and tenacious. He’s a lower rank hollow captain but that doesn’t stop him from trying to stop Ichigo time and time again. The best part is despite his cockiness, he demands a clean fight and has several times called off a fight if he thinks things aren’t even. A fun little side note, Tite Kubo based this character after the main character of a manga he wrote that didn’t last for very long called Zombie Powder. So see, you can always save your characters and use them in different stories or give them a twist and a face lift, a new mindset and ta da! you have a new character.
That’s it for now. There are some more characters that I really enjoy and who I will show quick pictures of…now!
Okay there we go. Just from their different looks you can tell personalities soaking through and Tite Kubo does a great job with this. That however doesn’t mean there isn’t three weak characters for every great one. And Tite Kubo’s story is lost in what I call DBZ Madness, which is when a story (usually from Japan) refuses to stop despite no longer being enjoyable. Any of you that have watched Naruto know exactly what I’m talking about.
So there we have it, great characters from a place some of you might not have ever dared nor cared to look. Good characters are all around us, we just need to be open to finding them and than creating them.
