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branchandroot) wrote2010-09-20 01:21 pm
branchandroot) wrote2010-09-20 01:21 pm
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Case study, Bleach: tools vs transformation
There's a theory I've had for a while and been collecting examples of: that, in anime and manga that feature both possibilities, power externalized as a tool is generally beneficial, or at least controllable, while power internalized as a transformation will generally get out of hand. Bleach has been my flagship example for a long time now.
I'm waiting to see whether the latest turn will bear out or run against this theory.
We start with the shinigami and the hollows, who bear out the theory very well. Shinigami externalize their power into swords while hollows transform to embody their power. The contrast only became more pointed when we met characters who approached the meeting point of the two. The visored gain the faces of monsters when they release their power while the espada gain the form of humans only until they release their power. Power, Bleach tells us, is two-edged and must be handled with care lest it run away with you.
This being the case, I was, let us say, unsurprised that Aizen has become steadily less human in appearance. He's taking the wrong path, symbolically significant six wings notwithstanding, and it's going to get out of his control; this is already written out for all to see in his body, and we've seen it follow along narratively in his increasing loss of emotional control.
Ichigo is the one I still wonder about. He has already taken a jog down the out-of-control path and nearly killed one of his own companions just to emphasize the fact for us. Now, however, we have something that looks a bit different. He has, apparently, accepted Zangetsu, the personification of his power, into himself completely, and the result is a transformation. This transformation, however, is human, and even having, as he says, become his own attack, he still manifests a sword.
Tool or transformation?
The whole question may be complicated by the approach of apotheosis, which has after all been the trajectory of the story nearly from the start. After humans, asura (shinigami), and hungry ghosts (hollows), with animals implicit and Hell shown at least once, of course we need devas to round the tally out. Will that mean some form of fusion, of internalization of power, that somehow remains under control? Ichigo's current form, and Aizen's response, seem to suggest it. But the very limitation of this to Our Hero (hail the King? or will it be more complicated than that?) really just sustains the theory for general use.
Which means that, even as Naruto and KHR devolve into the uninteresting and the forced, I have at least one series I'm hanging on, week by week.
I'm waiting to see whether the latest turn will bear out or run against this theory.
We start with the shinigami and the hollows, who bear out the theory very well. Shinigami externalize their power into swords while hollows transform to embody their power. The contrast only became more pointed when we met characters who approached the meeting point of the two. The visored gain the faces of monsters when they release their power while the espada gain the form of humans only until they release their power. Power, Bleach tells us, is two-edged and must be handled with care lest it run away with you.
This being the case, I was, let us say, unsurprised that Aizen has become steadily less human in appearance. He's taking the wrong path, symbolically significant six wings notwithstanding, and it's going to get out of his control; this is already written out for all to see in his body, and we've seen it follow along narratively in his increasing loss of emotional control.
Ichigo is the one I still wonder about. He has already taken a jog down the out-of-control path and nearly killed one of his own companions just to emphasize the fact for us. Now, however, we have something that looks a bit different. He has, apparently, accepted Zangetsu, the personification of his power, into himself completely, and the result is a transformation. This transformation, however, is human, and even having, as he says, become his own attack, he still manifests a sword.
Tool or transformation?
The whole question may be complicated by the approach of apotheosis, which has after all been the trajectory of the story nearly from the start. After humans, asura (shinigami), and hungry ghosts (hollows), with animals implicit and Hell shown at least once, of course we need devas to round the tally out. Will that mean some form of fusion, of internalization of power, that somehow remains under control? Ichigo's current form, and Aizen's response, seem to suggest it. But the very limitation of this to Our Hero (hail the King? or will it be more complicated than that?) really just sustains the theory for general use.
Which means that, even as Naruto and KHR devolve into the uninteresting and the forced, I have at least one series I'm hanging on, week by week.
no subject
And thank you for this post, as it gives me some new and interesting things to think about wrt Bleach, which I've been reading on and off with decreasing levels of investment and increasing levels of horrified fascination (how long can a fight scene go on for?! how many times can a female character get sidelined?!?!) for, well, years.
I have a lot of residual fondness for it nonetheless, as it was I think the first manga I ever read - or at least the first crazily-addictive-shonen-manga (I think the actual first might have been Blade of the Immortal, which is obviously an entirely different kettle of fish). And I still remember being blown away by my first exposure to both typical manga visuals (establishing shots of the sky! and telephone poles!), and what I now realise are hilariously archetypal shonen tropes (Ichigo is getting a new power! omg!). Good times.
So I'm interested that Bleach is still holding your attention while Naruto etc have fallen by the wayside - I gave up on Naruto even before the timeskip (for some reason its treatment of female charcters irked me even more than KT's) and the only other shonen I'm still sorta following is Kekkaishi, which gets flagged in my head under 'children's serial that I like and can respect' rather than, as with Bleach, 'baffling and bizarrely compelling cultural artefact'.
And, well, I agree with everything you say here - I too have been wondering what Aizen's final form would be like for a while (at the moment, a crazy moth-seraph! who knew!). And I appreciate the way the power-as-transformation theme runs right through from the insta-costume Ichigo gets as a Shinigami - perhaps the lines have never been as tightly drawn as all that. I suspect though that Ichigo's willingness to [MORE SPOILERS] sacrifice his power will insulate him from any long-term ill effects, and I'm sure that, as you say, ascension of a sort is in the offing. The power that interests me, though, is Orihime's. I guess she's going to get to destroy the mystical ball-bearing at some point, but I hope she's allowed to do something else along the way.
Anyway. As you can probably tell, I have been nursing a need to vent about Bleach. So thanks for the opportunity!
no subject
I hang on mostly for the fascinating-artifact factor. Well, that and the narrative structure. While KT sometimes falls down appallingly in his pacing, I do appreciate a manga that has serious thought put into the narrative structure. I'm just hoping it stays tight in the (probable) endgame, here, and doesn't dissolve into a mess of unanswered questions and dangling dramatic tension.
My current guess is that Ichigo will not really want to ascend, and that Orihime will deny/reverse what he does to himself to win this one and allow him to return to being more or less human. KT has a thing for symmetry, and it would be symmetrical for her to stop him from sacrificing himself just as he (and company) turned up in Hueca Mundo to stop her.
no subject
Exactly this! I mean, Rukia! And Orihime started out as really quite a sly subversion (or, well, at least an interesting iteration) of the innocent-ditzy-smart-girl. Sigh.
And good point re narrative structure: I guess it's true that KT is obviously trying to get somewhere pretty definite (I HOPE, likewise), despite his as you say ahem issues with pacing.
My current guess is that Ichigo will not really want to ascend, and that Orihime will deny/reverse what he does to himself to win this one and allow him to return to being more or less human.
Huh. That does make a lot of sense and would give the presumably endgame (or at least to be hinted at in the finale, oh shonen) Ichigo/Orihime a bit of thematic oomph. Woah. It feels good to be engaging my brain again, however vaguely, when it comes to Bleach, instead of sort of letting it pass before my eyes and boggling weakly. Yay!