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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
My first reaction: humans use tools, thus the tool-using is in line with "as we expect from/of a human", while the transformation-internalization of power is not as innate to being human... therefore, the uncontrollable aspect comes from blurring the lines of "what is human" or even blurring the lines of whether one can still call oneself "human".
Hrm, Naruto would continue this line, seeing how the average ninja has a variety of powerful tools but I can't recall any instance of a fighter being overcome. The various... uhm, whatever that ridiculously long Japanese word is that means "body with tailed animal spirit trapped inside"... have either been shown to easily succumb to the internal-power or to have gone through a major struggle/training to keep that from happening. Sasuke would be the crossover in this, I'd say, in that his external (family) tool/power is strong but it's never shown consuming him, while the internalized possession-like power (via the cursed seal) does appear to consume him, and distort him, if in slower or subtler ways than Naruto's flashy possession. I guess that would make Sasuke the... and the word went right out of my head. The version in a clinical trial that everything else gets measured against, for comparison. UGH. It's still too early for my brain.
For that matter, D.Gray-man is otherwise a ridiculously overwrought and needlessly complicated storyline but it does cleave very closely to your premise -- including stating explicitly that excorcists whose power is weapons/equipment-based are distanced or limited as to how much power they can draw, due to the distance between equipment and user (not merging, that is). At the same time, internalized power (err, the manga has a word for it, something like bio-based or, uh, man, I should just go back to bed and RESET or something) is outlined as being significantly more powerful but also of vastly greater danger to the exorcist, draining the user's life-force, literally taking years off the person's life. And, in some cases, even consuming the user, or developing in dangerous, unstable, and unpredictable ways.
(It occurs to me that another quiet but important trope in japanese entertainment is the notion of certain acts or ways taking "years off your life" -- the phrase is known in the West, but I don't know if we're looking at it in the same way. In western stories I can think of, it's usually expressed as wearing down the person's stamina or endurance in some way, such that the person's life ends because they're worn out. In Japanese stories, the person seems to recover quite easily, and the "years off the life" translates into literal reduction of years -- a mindset, I guess, that requires one assume every life has a preset number of years. The contrast of "years" = "amount of energy" in the West, versus "years" = "literal total number fated" in the East.)
no subject
I think it probably does have pretty directly to do with the question of what's human, which makes perfect sense given that /another/ major thread in Japanese literature is the expansion of person-hood into non-human creatures or objects. That and the basic reading of "change" which I think Japan shares in common with Taoist philosophy at the very least: change as danger and conversely as opportunity and necessity. Lots of potential for conflict there.