Reports of Ichigo's death...
... have been greatly exaggerated.
At least, that's what I think, and I'm here to throw in my bits of what-not into the roaring kettle of fandom speculation. I don't belong to a lot of Bleach comms nowadays, but among the thoughtful and lively posts I've read have taken for granted that Ichigo is dead, full-stop.
I want to know why everyone's seems so certain about it. Is it because of what Ulquiorra told Orihime, that "your skills aren't enough to bring him back to life"? Well, frankly, I think that line was just thrown in there to cause Orihime the despair that Ulquiorra desperately wants everyone to feel. A character like that would not stoop to lying just to bring about destruction and pain. At the end of the day, Ulquiorra's not a nice guy. In the middle of a battle, if you want to win, you do not play nice. Deception and statecraft seem to be Ulquiorra's strengths. So his words in this context cannot be taken as narrative truth. Besides, it's been shown that Orihime can bring back people from the dead! He's probably just trying to distract her, and of course, he succeeded.
Really, this is not the first time Kubo has drawn a major character punctured and seemingly lifeless. Rukia was presumed dead by her haters for a couple of months, only to be healed back to normalcy. The last time we saw Matsumoto, she was missing her innards but she was still breathing (admittedly, with much difficulty). In real life, someone like Momo would have bled out and died from being gutted at such close range. But these characters haven't expired, mainly due to the amazing physics of the Bleach universe, where it is possible to recover from all life-threatening injuries. So whether your torso is almost sawed in half (Ichigo), your entire body and most of its major arteries are pierced by multiple blades (Renji), or your arm is lacerated and not reattached right away (Grimmjow): if Kubo doesn't want to kill you off, he won't.
So yes, Kubo has made his creations a little bit too resilient. A big ol' gaping hole in Ichigo's chest may be shocking, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's dead.
There are some other reasons why he isn't dead. Ichigo's a shonen hero, and the hero of a title rarely -- if at all -- gets totally killed off, unless I am grossly underestimating Kubo and he's off to pull a Machado de Asis (who was one of the first to use a dead narrator as a literary device.) Since this seems unlikely, I'll go to my final point on this topic.
Yet another reason why isn't Ichigo dead? Easy. The chapter stayed with Orihime's viewpoint. While she's not a narrator, the panels are seen through her eyes -- and hers only. And right now she's rather unreliable. It bothers me that if Kubo really intended for this chapter to show Ichigo's death, then we would have gotten confirmation, through small reaction shots, of some of the other main characters still trapped in Hueco Mundo. When Chad had his fight -- what seems light years ago -- Ichigo reacted to his fading reiatsu. When Rukia was seemingly dead, Ichigo felt that too. In fact, he reacted to that incident rather vehemently. Now, isn't Ichigo the most reiatsu-detecting dunce in the group? I feel it should follow that if Ichigo's reiatsu has gone kaput, everyone else in Hueco Mundo -- Rukia, Chad, Nell, the captains, for Chrissake! -- would have felt it. But they didn't, so I feel it's safe to logically conclude that either 1) Kubo left a loophole for himself in case he wants to retcon this scene several chapters from now, or 2) Ichigo's just not dead, full-stop.
Technically, of course, Ichigo's physical body is dead (he's been using it like a Pez dispenser since SS arc) but his soul is probably intact. I'm leaning towards the idea that Ichigo's injuries made him lose consciousness. Someone on bleachness said that King Ichigo has let go of the horse, so most likely hollow-Ichi, with his new fetching mullet hairdo, will make his appearance in the next chapter.
Let's keep our collective fingers crossed that Kubo doesn't pull a switch on us and focus on some other characters right now.
And since I couldn't help myself -- you know me, I have an immoderate sense of gallows humor -- here's Chapter 349 sung to the tune of "I'm Not Yet Dead" from Monty Python's Spamalot.
With apologies to the Pythons, of course.
Ichigo:
I am not dead yet
I can parry and I can swing!
I am not dead yet
I can do the Getsuga Thing!
I am not dead yet
No need to go to bed!
No need to call Unohana
Cause I'm not yet dead!
Orihime and Ishida:
He is not yet dead
That's what the reaper said
No, he's not yet dead
That man is off his head
He is not yet dead
So cradle Mullet Head!
Keep him in the story because he's not yet dead!
[Ulquiorra wacks Ichigo on the head with a cero]
Orihime:
Well now he's dead
You whacked him on the head!
Sure, now he's dead
It makes me just see red!
You are such a brute
To murder the young coot
You homicidal bastard, now he's really dead!
Ishida:
Who is the knave who cut off my bow hand
He needs to manage his anger!
Ulquiorra:
Ulquiorra is my name
I’m thin and emo a lot.
Occasionally I do
Some things that I should not.
Ishida:
I want to be her knight
But I’m maimed and out of sight
Orihime:
I’m so scared I’d rather say
“Kurosaki!” and run away.
Ulquiorra:
I’ll be true to you
Hime, through and through and trough
So stick with me
And I’ll make you Hollow too!
Orihime:
I am so confused
I’ll “Kurosaki” in distress
I’ll cry and go nuts
Because I’m not yet dead!
Feel free to sing along, sort of, with this blurry clip from the musical
LALALALALALA.
At least, that's what I think, and I'm here to throw in my bits of what-not into the roaring kettle of fandom speculation. I don't belong to a lot of Bleach comms nowadays, but among the thoughtful and lively posts I've read have taken for granted that Ichigo is dead, full-stop.
I want to know why everyone's seems so certain about it. Is it because of what Ulquiorra told Orihime, that "your skills aren't enough to bring him back to life"? Well, frankly, I think that line was just thrown in there to cause Orihime the despair that Ulquiorra desperately wants everyone to feel. A character like that would not stoop to lying just to bring about destruction and pain. At the end of the day, Ulquiorra's not a nice guy. In the middle of a battle, if you want to win, you do not play nice. Deception and statecraft seem to be Ulquiorra's strengths. So his words in this context cannot be taken as narrative truth. Besides, it's been shown that Orihime can bring back people from the dead! He's probably just trying to distract her, and of course, he succeeded.
Really, this is not the first time Kubo has drawn a major character punctured and seemingly lifeless. Rukia was presumed dead by her haters for a couple of months, only to be healed back to normalcy. The last time we saw Matsumoto, she was missing her innards but she was still breathing (admittedly, with much difficulty). In real life, someone like Momo would have bled out and died from being gutted at such close range. But these characters haven't expired, mainly due to the amazing physics of the Bleach universe, where it is possible to recover from all life-threatening injuries. So whether your torso is almost sawed in half (Ichigo), your entire body and most of its major arteries are pierced by multiple blades (Renji), or your arm is lacerated and not reattached right away (Grimmjow): if Kubo doesn't want to kill you off, he won't.
So yes, Kubo has made his creations a little bit too resilient. A big ol' gaping hole in Ichigo's chest may be shocking, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's dead.
There are some other reasons why he isn't dead. Ichigo's a shonen hero, and the hero of a title rarely -- if at all -- gets totally killed off, unless I am grossly underestimating Kubo and he's off to pull a Machado de Asis (who was one of the first to use a dead narrator as a literary device.) Since this seems unlikely, I'll go to my final point on this topic.
Yet another reason why isn't Ichigo dead? Easy. The chapter stayed with Orihime's viewpoint. While she's not a narrator, the panels are seen through her eyes -- and hers only. And right now she's rather unreliable. It bothers me that if Kubo really intended for this chapter to show Ichigo's death, then we would have gotten confirmation, through small reaction shots, of some of the other main characters still trapped in Hueco Mundo. When Chad had his fight -- what seems light years ago -- Ichigo reacted to his fading reiatsu. When Rukia was seemingly dead, Ichigo felt that too. In fact, he reacted to that incident rather vehemently. Now, isn't Ichigo the most reiatsu-detecting dunce in the group? I feel it should follow that if Ichigo's reiatsu has gone kaput, everyone else in Hueco Mundo -- Rukia, Chad, Nell, the captains, for Chrissake! -- would have felt it. But they didn't, so I feel it's safe to logically conclude that either 1) Kubo left a loophole for himself in case he wants to retcon this scene several chapters from now, or 2) Ichigo's just not dead, full-stop.
Technically, of course, Ichigo's physical body is dead (he's been using it like a Pez dispenser since SS arc) but his soul is probably intact. I'm leaning towards the idea that Ichigo's injuries made him lose consciousness. Someone on bleachness said that King Ichigo has let go of the horse, so most likely hollow-Ichi, with his new fetching mullet hairdo, will make his appearance in the next chapter.
Let's keep our collective fingers crossed that Kubo doesn't pull a switch on us and focus on some other characters right now.
And since I couldn't help myself -- you know me, I have an immoderate sense of gallows humor -- here's Chapter 349 sung to the tune of "I'm Not Yet Dead" from Monty Python's Spamalot.
With apologies to the Pythons, of course.
Ichigo:
I am not dead yet
I can parry and I can swing!
I am not dead yet
I can do the Getsuga Thing!
I am not dead yet
No need to go to bed!
No need to call Unohana
Cause I'm not yet dead!
Orihime and Ishida:
He is not yet dead
That's what the reaper said
No, he's not yet dead
That man is off his head
He is not yet dead
So cradle Mullet Head!
Keep him in the story because he's not yet dead!
[Ulquiorra wacks Ichigo on the head with a cero]
Orihime:
Well now he's dead
You whacked him on the head!
Sure, now he's dead
It makes me just see red!
You are such a brute
To murder the young coot
You homicidal bastard, now he's really dead!
Ishida:
Who is the knave who cut off my bow hand
He needs to manage his anger!
Ulquiorra:
Ulquiorra is my name
I’m thin and emo a lot.
Occasionally I do
Some things that I should not.
Ishida:
I want to be her knight
But I’m maimed and out of sight
Orihime:
I’m so scared I’d rather say
“Kurosaki!” and run away.
Ulquiorra:
I’ll be true to you
Hime, through and through and trough
So stick with me
And I’ll make you Hollow too!
Orihime:
I am so confused
I’ll “Kurosaki” in distress
I’ll cry and go nuts
Because I’m not yet dead!
Feel free to sing along, sort of, with this blurry clip from the musical
LALALALALALA.