私の娘だヨ
Between the DVD (for which I hear you still haven't collected your recompensation, arifyn), the amazon order, and other things I've encountered, I have an oodle (not a word you see often in the singular) of kansō to type. So, let's start with BLEACH. With 10 books (10-17 and 19-20), I have plenty of comments, and since my two best readers are familiar with the series, it's on a comparatively high priority. So, here goes:
※As you may have guessed by its ridiculously long story, BLEACH is serialized in Shūkan Shōnen Jump, as were things like Rurōni Kenshin and Love Hina. One of the upshots of this is the fact that there's ruby text for all printed Chinese characters (except numerals, in most cases), which means it's really easy to read. This also means that KUBO can use Chinese characters for words that are usually written phonetically, such as "hazu" and "made."
※I noticed someone on daily_yuri mentioning regret that KUBO's distinctive style was genericized in the animation. To tell the truth, I didn't really notice the difference. It's not all that unusual, other than sometimes in the mouths and chins. He also has the often-seen element of making really weird-looking people as supporting and enemy characters. (I was surprised to see that Mayuri looks just like a regular person-other than the missing ear and other scars-without his mask.) I was also struck by the fact that Ayasegawa is quite good-looking, although the fact that one of his blond locks is apparently attached to his upper eyelid-That looks a bit heavy. The only real problem I have with the style is the excessively thin characters with excessively large breasts. In his previous serial, KUBO only had one (as it only ran to four volumes), but, here, he has at least three.
※The Shiba family's given names' rubies are given in katakana, although the surname's is not. Admittedly, they are the Chinese readings, but I've never seen anything like that before. Of course, the Soi family appears to be Chinese, which is rather odd, considering that Soul Society appears to be Japanese otherwise-although they do use English and Spanish for some names, including that of the place itself.
※Unlike the Shinigami Daikō-hen (which I discussed here), Soul Society Kyūshutsu-hen looks like it was copied almost exactly to the animation (to the best of my memory), even to the point of keeping those things that he doesn't tell you until after the fact, such as throwing away the hollow mask in the sewer, and stealing shinigami's hakama. I don't particularly mind the loss of pop-culture references, but I missed some of Ms. Honshō's antics, as well as the part where Kon saved the ants. No doubt the makers of the show expected that watchers would be unable to relate to a belief that nonsentient[sapient] beings deserve to live.
※Anyway, one part where the two diverge is in the side-stories. They still have the one about Ms. Hinamori's (and Kira's and Abarai's) first meeting with Aizen and Ichimaru, as well as the "meanwhile, in the real world" parts about the Karakuri Super Heroes and the soccer game, but there are other bits as well, including an entire short story centering on Kojima, of all people. At least one volume has between-chapters bits about the Kurosaki sisters' best friend, who, as it turns out, has a thing for Asano (eww). The diary of the 4-Ban-Tai dai-3-seki was entertaining, too. What do you expect from someone who has to be polite all the time, including to members of 11-Ban-Tai?
※Speaking of shinigami, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed a striking similarity in organization and character between them and the Shinsengumi. For those who don't already know, the latter was a company of badass swordsmen who fought for the shōgun during the Bakumatsu (the civil war in the 1860s that resulted in the emperor returning to being the main power in Japan), as seen in such series as RuroKen and PEACE MAKER Kurogane, as well as numerous TV dramas. The individual section leaders were famous for [being] highly skilled warriors. Interestingly enough, in RuroKen, 3-Ban-Tai kumi-chō Saitō Hajime first appears as an impeccably polite guy with narrow eyes and a creepy grin-although he admittedly doesn't speak Kyōto dialect (had a hell of a time finding the bloody link, because that damned arifyn refuses to use tags or let people search his journal).
※During interims in the fight between Iba and Madarame (which, like the one on the other side, is not shown), we find that the reason Madarame can't make fuku-tai-chō (other than the fact that Ms. Kusajishi could kick his ass with both hands tied behind her back) is that he's no good at kidō. Iba, on the other hand, trained in all four shinigami special arts just to get promoted. Two of the criteria (swordsmanship and kidō) are pretty obvious, and one of the others appears to be something related to movement (most obviously illustrated by the shumpo used by Byakuya and others), but don't remember them using anything else. Unfortunately, I failed to find the place where the four skills are listed verbatim, so I don't remember what it was called. If anyone else happens to be reading through the series, watch out for that.
※Speaking of promotion in the ranks of the shinigami, I counted that there is a total of two female tai-chō (~15%) and six female fuku-tai-chō (50%). Double standard, anyone? Perhaps this is related to the problem among the heroes, where it appears that females just don't have sufficient "will to kill." Ms. Soi-Fong of course had special motivation to become stronger, and Ms. Unohana happens to be in charge of the one tai that doesn't require such activities-although she still had to meet the (very weird) bankai requirement. That's better than in RuroKen, where there is no reason given why female characters can't have significant combat ability (in the context of the series). Compare also to my reasoning about why there are more female than male major characters in Project Homuncupunk. Similarly, the sexes of the Troubleshooters have been influenced by such. Dr. Mikazuki started with mostly men as they were more bloodthirsty and thus better-suited to the job, until Kazuyoshi's rebellion, after which she made mostly females because they were more loyal. Jūzaburō himself is a new attempt to combine the best aspects of both.
※I should have noticed it earlier, but the Ikkanzaka brothers use completely different speech patterns. Jidambō talks like a country bumpkin, and Jirōbō always uses standard polite forms (in contrast to his actual demeanor). Combine this with the fact that the former is over five meters tall and the latter only three, and one might imagine that at least one of them is adopted. Incidentally, we only know the names of two of the four great noble houses, and we haven't seen anyone wearing the noble headgear except Byakuya, so that's a possibility. . . .
※Also, Jirōbō claims to have the title "Kamaitachi" because he's the best user of ranged weapons, but he can't compare to the likes of Byakuya. Is the title only for 7-Ban-Tai?
※Upon inspection, the first character of "Zabimaru" is "snake." The bankai is also called "Baboon King." It is interesting that Zabimaru's appearance includes two different heads, each with its own speech patterns and personality. There have only been two zampakutō whose personifications have appeared so far, so it's hard to say whether one of them is unusual or whether they all have such variety. On a related note, it's noted in the comics that Abarai has already completed most of his bankai training (after all, he had the same motivation as Ms. Soi-Fong), so that explains why he was able to finish so quickly-but not why they didn't show any of his training. . . .
※A character popularity contest's results were displayed in one of these volumes. Unsurprisingly, Kurosaki and Ms. Kuchiki took the top two spots, but there were some surprises, such as Yamada knocking Kon out of the top 10, and characters who had had almost no "screen" time by that point (such as Ichimaru and Hitsugaya) ranking as well. It also showed everyone who got even one vote, so there were some interesting people. Oddly enough, imaginary things (such as people's expectations of how someone would look) were allowed, and were counted separately from the real people. Also, John Travolta, Ewan McGregor, and Keanu Reeves were at least mentioned in the series, but there were also votes for characters from ZOMBIEPOWDER, for some reason.
※It's also interesting to note that both Byakuya and Ms. Rukia have important relationships with people who look almost exactly like previous important people in their lives.
※Also, I noticed that Byakuya's speech patterns are less standard than I thought. He refers to people he respects (such as Ukitake) with the second-person pronoun "kei," which I don't remember ever seeing elsewhere, even after reading Hōshin Engi three times through. Even Ichigo graduated from "kisama" in the end.
※Unfortunately, the comics I've gotten so far only go just to the point of divergence, so I can't see what happens after Soul Society Kyūshutsu-hen. Of course, I did happen to read it in the magazine at the store once, but all that I saw was Sado training with Urahara and a teleconference between Ms. Hinamori and Hitsugaya. Of course, there are cover illustrations on later volumes that look suspiciously like shinigami/hollow hybrids, so one can imagine that they continue with the flow of the plot rather than breaking off to hunt bounts. There are only two things that I liked about Bount-hen (up to the point where I stopped bothering to watch): the ending theme and the extra for the Valentine's Day episode.
Edit (2008/06/20): Fixed a couple of typos, noted a broken link (not related to the ones in the comments)