I Have Held Back No Water In Its Season

My response to TRC/Holic is pretty steady these days, and consists of something along the lines of: WTF Clamp?! I mean, the mother named the same thing as the soulmate was bad enough, but now we’re way into the weird spiritual incest and/or masturbation realm. And still no ending in sight. *sighs*

Naruto, on the other hand, is looking interesting, despite the continuing obliteration of the moral and psychological dynamics from the first two-thirds (ie teamwork). It looks like we may be shaping up for a round of “You use that word a lot…”. I am still wondering where the hell Sasuke et al are and how exactly he and/or Madara are going to play into this. I mean, the most emotionally satisfying thing would be for the current trio to break the pattern of the past trios and actually redeem the poor guy, but I’m becoming increasingly unconvinced of Kishimoto’s dedication to satisfying endings.

Bleach… well, now, I have mixed feelings this week. The Ulquiorra-Inoue dynamic got some halfway decent continuation, but little closure. He remains rather a mystery. I don’t actually object to that, but the way that dynamic crossed with the Ulquiorra-Ichigo was… distracting. There’s a lot of development happening, but it all seems to be subterranean. I’m hoping that soon we will get some greater in-action explication.

Back from the holidays, and all I can say about most of these is “well finally!”.

( Naruto )

( Bleach )

( TRC )

So, what I’ve been wondering, as we move through the Hueca Mundo arc in Bleach, is: did Aizen create the current culture we see among the arrancar, or did he just take it over?

(Spoilers ahead, of course.)

The fact that Hollows right up to Menos Grande are instinct and hunger driven has meant that the lower levels don’t have much in the way of organized culture or society.  Even the adjuchas seem to organize or group only in small bands, according to what we’ve seen of Grimmjow’s past.  But the arrancar are shown to have organization.  They are still driven by hunger, but they have regained enough mind and individuality to create as well as consume, at least by the witness of Las Noches.

So, is that something they have generated and constructed themselves, over however many thousands of years?  Or is that construction and organization something Aizen imposed?  The question doesn’t seem to me to have been answered one way or another, yet.  If Aizen has been in contact with them for the whole hundred or so years, then the progression we see among the Espada, the ex-Espada and elaborate ranking and numbering, could have been his instigation.  But perhaps not. It’s Aizen who adopts their manner of dress, and those things generally mean something in KT’s writing.

I’m really hoping we get some kind of indication one way or another, somewhere along the storyline.

Bleach: *fans self* Oh my. Aizen has met his match for top contender in the “badness is hot like fire” sweepstakes. Who knew Urahara could be sexy as hell?

Naruto: *slaps desk* There, now that is a fine issue! Why can’t you write like that more often, Kishimoto? Just the right balance of heart-rending and hopeful, with good, stark shading to complement it. Ditch all these fights with characters who take ten freaking issues to die after being gut-stabbed and write like this more.

Eyeshiled 21: … InaMura, you want to kill us, don’t you? What was that? Three reverses in one issue? My heart won’t take another three months of this!

All in all, a darn good week.

Well, the break seems to have made for some nice turning points.

( Bleach 206 and 7 )

( Eyeshield 21 265 and 6 )

( Prince of Tennis 373 and 4 )

And as for Tsubasa… *makes disgusted hand-waving gestures* Yeah, whatever.

Well, I certainly picked a fine time to catch up on my Bleach manga: just as we’re starting a new round of battles, one of which involves one of my favorite characters.

Now I’m going to be hanging on the edge of my seat for weeks and weeks, wanting to see how it goes, and howling every time there’s an issue that isn’t about him. Not that Kubo hasn’t been quite nice about that so far… after a manner of speaking.

Incidentally, is it just me, or is most of fandom missing the point about why the Soul Society and Hueca Mundo arcs are so closely paralleled?

( It's not like we haven't gotten enough hints. )

So we have this lovely meta-narrative structure building up, facet by facet, sketching out the shape of something big and strange looming at the end of the story, and almost everyone seems to miss it. And then they have the nerve grouse about how boring and unimaginative the story is. Philistines.

But it’s okay, KT. Some of us appreciate you.

It distresses me greatly when people say Rukia is useless or wimpy or any of that. So let us talk about all the ways in which Rukia is amazing.

( There may be spoilers in here for those who do not follow the manga. )

Following the thought around, there is also the very basic point that Sado’s power takes a direct physical form rather than a tool form. This is, and has always been, the hallmark of Hollows, even the arrancar.

Given the poetic uses of “shirayuki” I think this “sode” should probably be read as “encompassing” or “surrounding” (as in sodegaki) rather than literally as “cloth tube that goes around your arm”. In light of the attack that Rukia produces with her shikai, it’s the only thing that makes sense.

Encompassing Whiteness seems like a reasonable rendering, all things considered.

Already noted: Older/stronger family keeping secrets (Byakyua, Ryuuken, Isshin) and trying to keep younger out of it (Byakyua, Ryuuken). Brothers-love-twisted (Orihime’s brother, Byakyua). Captain v childhood friend triangle (AHH and HRI). Hunger (shinigami, hollow). Uniforms w/ inverse colors.

New notes:

Resistance training: Ishida’s glove and the suppressing gigai (which may help explain Isshin).

Traveling to another world on rescue for captured babe: Rukia and Orihime. Anyone who thinks this is not done specifically in order to establish the parallels and differences in the two characters and how they relate to everyone else, and Ichigo in particular, has not been paying any attention at all to KT’s storytelling methods.

*marvels* Wow, the M7 translation for Bleach 223 sucked donkeys.

Through a straw.

I love how fast the issues come out, of course, but taking long enough to translate in comprehensible sentences would be a plus.

But! Now we see exactly why they call themselves Visored, a visor being, among other things, the part of a helmet that can be raised and lowered as they do their masks.

I’m just fascinated by the dynamic between Shinji and Hiyori. Hiyori may well be the strongest of them, but it’s clearly Shinji who’s the responsible leader. Hiyori strikes me as very young–kind of the same way Ichigo does. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that Shinji was older than Byakuya. He watches and thinks all the time.

And, damn it, I’ve got Shinji/Ichigo bunnies nibbling my toes, and I know it wouldn’t work. Any more than I can get the Byakuya/Renji bunnies to work. It just doesn’t. But that doesn’t stop it from feeling like it should! *sulks*

In any case, it looks like I was right about the point Visored and Arrancar converge on, and the parts invovled. In the former, the heart (conscience) rides the instincts/passions; in the latter, instinct rides the intellect. In both cases, just barely.

By the way, does anyone know what the word is that’s getting translated as ‘instinct’?

And, incidentally, I still say that ‘girian’ is ‘guerrean’.

*settles down to wait for the next wodge of issues to build up*

( Spoilers, Bleach 223 )

Well, they’re not, really, it’s just that I can’t bring myself to do what would be necessary.

See, I finally figured out why I can’t write Byakuya and Renji in bed under any circumstances, despite the buckets of chemistry between them and the fact that, scenically, it would be really, really hot.

It’s because I don’t believe that Byakuya is capable of participating in any such relationship unless he’s the one in control. And that wouldn’t happen with Renji unless Renji gave up on the idea of ever matching or surpassing Byakuya. And if that happened it would break Renji’s spirit completely.

And then… he just wouldn’t be him, you know? And all the fun would go out of it.