- Mangaka : Kubo, Tite (Art) and Narita, Ryohgo (Story)
- Publisher : VIZ
- Genre : Action, Superpower, Supernatural
- Published : July 2020 - Ongoing
Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World Introduction (No Spoilers)
Now that the Quincies’ Thousand-Year Blood War is over, trouble still lingers in the Soul Society. Tokinada Tsunayashiro has become the next head of his clan after the assassins take out every other candidate for this position. He has a grand plan to start a new war by creating a new Soul King. But not all hope is lost as there is a Soul Reaper to hinder Tokinada’s plan—Shuhei Hisagi, Ninth Company’s assistant captain.
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
Shuhei Hisagi, Ninth Company’s assistant captain is also a reporter of Seireitei Bulletin so, we’re here to conduct an interview with you about the Great Soul King Protection War. Yes, Seireitei Bulletin is making a comeback.
1. Journalism
Shuhei Hisagi is eager to revive Seireitei Bulletin and goes out of his way to gather information from everyone who is involved and witnessed the battle during the war between Soul Reapers and Quincies. The main reason behind this revival is mainly because he was entrusted to maintain and kept the bulletin going from his predecessor and you know that Hisagi’s sense of duty factors into that decision.
Despite working as a journalist, he respects the secrecy to information provided to him and acts on specific situations as a Soul Reaper and a journalist. The novel even describes the proper procedures of a journalist work on the field concerning their sources. From arranging interviews, acquiring permission to enter the aristocrat districts, listening and understanding both sides of the story, and make rational decisions to avoid bias.
It makes a lot of sense, in reality, to do such practices as the informants need to have privacy or their own and also they have other matters to attend to. It teaches us not to just focus on one bit of information, but rather gather enough information from sources and correlate everything and that is where we can make a fair judgment.
2. Context
This is where we will get to know the main reason for Kaname Tosen’s betrayal toward the Soul Society. For those who don’t know who Kaname Tosen is, he is the former captain of Ninth Company and sided with Sosuke Aizen, former captain of the fifth company, a traitor, and engaged in a war against the Thirteen Court Guard Companies.
The story so far as it is in this volume shows Tosen’s hatred began to manifest when his close friend Kakyo was killed. She was a kind-hearted soul reaper who wishes for world peace. Unfortunately, she got killed by her husband when she tried to defuse the right between two soul reapers. Her husband's name is Tokinada Tsunayashiro, which we will get to him later in the next section.
3. Villain
You lovely readers read the synopsis, right? Tokinada Tsunayashiro is the main villain of this series. After reading the entire volume 1 of this series, we can’t help but feel like punching Tokinada, which is a good sign in terms of reading a fictional story, so please don’t hurt anyone in real life both physically and mentally, and be kind to others.
Here are the reasons why Tokinada makes a good villain in its way. He has no remorse for killing his wife. He extremely thirsty for power which led him to hire a group of assassins to eliminate the high echelon of his noble family so that he could take the position as the head of the family He also owns an androgynous child who is capable of using a zanpaku-to and Quincies power which begs to question: where in the world did he get that kid?!
Also, You'd have to wonder what kind of treatment or sadistic training he gave to the kid so that the child could walk normally, with severe wounds all over their body, and not being able to show any hostility or malicious intent?
4. Macro
The story didn’t only focus on Hisagi’s view toward Soul Society and the world of the living. We get to see other Soul Reapers, Quincies, and the Arrancars who were and weren’t part of the war. We also get a good look at what they had been up to during the aftermath of the war in Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the world of the living. Aside from these three groups, Fullbringers and Xcution groups were involved in some of the schemes that might support Tokinada’s plan.
1. The Flow
There were some scenes where the flow of conversation can be confusing. Those moments are when we have to take a few steps back and take it slow from there to understand the characters’ personalities to identify which lines belong to who.
2. Not a Good Place to Know Bleach
But if you do plan to buy this novel as your first step to enter the world of Bleach, we recommend you don't do it. There are so many characters, development, and stories you have to know in understand the situations presented in this novel, so it would be best to start with their manga series.
Final Thoughts
It is nice to see a change of pace for the original author and artist of Bleach to take on the approach of writing a novel and drawing beautiful and classic illustrations. The novel is enjoyable to read and it pushes us to imagine the world what they are trying to convey. It is filled with a lot of behind-the-scenes in the noble families, the reasons behind specific characters’ actions that we don’t get to see in their manga, the aftermath of a devastating war, battles, and journalism. Again, if you never read the manga series and went with this novel as your starting point, you will feel extremely awkward as if you just joined a conversation between groups of strangers without any context. We also wished the authors, manga artists and illustrators to recover from their health issues. Please take care of yourself.
Author: Nobodies17
Recommended Post
6 Manga Like Bleach [Recommendations]
Recommended Post