Is this who Isshin is...?
So I could begin this post with a long discussion on this week's chapter of Bleach and why the entirety of the fandom has gone mad, but I am just so sick of it I'm really not going to bother. What is done is done, can't be changed, and I actually like 515 better than the rest of this arc so far, because it has some nice character buildup and it shows Shunsui being pwn. If other people have issues with it or want to fixate on tiny currently unimportant details, I'm gonna just let them. It's their fail, and instead...
I want to talk about Isshin.
So I've been bullied for a bit about watching the Fullbring Arc, or reading it, and since I have a pathological hatred of scanlations (growing greater with every week, as each week produces new and interesting random fails for the community as a whole) I'm opting to watch the anime instead.
I skimmed the manga for this when it was out, but I have never been that bothered about the human contingent, as my favourites are mostly shinigami, so I didn't take a lot of it in. However, based on Ginjou's conversation with Ichigo, I've begun to wonder if Kubo has been dangling Isshin's identity before us all the time. I am certain other people have discussed this already, though in most places Isshin gets discussed, people are convinced he's either an original Captain or a member of the Royal Guard, or both, so if they have, I don't know where they did. Still, if Ginjou was telling the truth, the Fullbringers restored shinigami powers to another like Ichigo "before".
In the Arrancar arc, Isshin regains his powers right before he encounters Gran Fisher.
Ginjou knows about Isshin, Ichigo, and Urahara. Urahara knew that Isshin was a shinigami, had lost his powers, and had regained them. Isshin probably lost his powers through Mugetsu, as he was able to teach it to Ichigo. And once he had lost his powers, he really wasn't dangerous to SS, so they probably left him alone. Probably he's known Ryuuken since this time - it's possible they went to medical school together, and likely that Masaki was an acquaintance and kinsman of Ryuuken's. That's how she met Isshin and they got married. She might have known him before he lost his powers. I think it likely.
It explains how Isshin is a practicing doctor in the real world, for which he would have to have things like birth records and so on. It would explain his biological capability to have a child with a human woman, and age apparently normally. And if he was the child of a shinigami, who may well also have been a shinigami substitute and an acquaintance of Ishida Souken, then we might even track this family link back to more generations, even back to the Shiba (explaining the resemblance between Ichigo and Kaien) and/or the missing Tenth Captain and VC (who can't be Isshin, because his reiatsu is not known to Shinji and the others.) It also explains the slightly non-standard uniform he wears, with a piece of a haori rather than a proper haori, and no apparent divisional monshou. Kubo said that he was known to people in Seireitei, and not the Vaizard, so he couldn't go there during the FKKT business. Was that because they had once utilised him as a substitute and then believed him to have lost his powers, thus no longer being a threat...and he didn't want to give them the heads up as to the truth?
It's also possible that Ukitake didn't see Kaien when he saw Ichigo, but Isshin - we don't know for certain that Byakuya interpreted his reaction correctly, or that we did. Kaien's name never did get mentioned in that exchange.
So this is who I believe Isshin is. A human born son of a previous (substitute?) shinigami and a human, who became a substitute shinigami before Ginjou, married a Quincy, Masaki, and had Ichigo, Karin and Yuzu. Not a member of the Royal Guard, nor the original shinigami squads, nor even an ordinary Captain, but a human who was the child of a shinigami and a human and therefore became a substitute shinigami in his youth. Just like Ichigo.
On the subject of 515, a few people have poked me about Shinji and whether or not he really operated on Renji and Rukia. I don't know what all the scanlation versions say, but I've seen some pretty scary translations for this Chapter (someone linked me earlier to a translation of Shunsui's speech that was barely recogniseable from the raw) and I'm starting to wonder if scanlators are actually working from Japanese raws or Chinese scanlations. I can't imagine they'd make so many mistakes otherwise.
In any case, the question of Shinji the surgeon and other queried translation points from Bleach 515 under the cut.
Shinji: Not a surgeon
The sentence Shinji says is "Rukia-chan to Abarai no shujutsu ga owatta". This literally means "Rukia and Abarai's operation has ended." The verb "owaru" means to end, as in something ends (its an intransitive verb). The subject of the sentence is the operation, and this is indicated by ga. The operation has ended. We have no clue as to who performed the operation. I think it's unlikely Shinji would've used this construction if he had been the one to operate.
To say [someone] has finished the operation, you would say shujutsu o oeta. The "o" implies someone else has done something, it hasn't just happened on its own. Oeru is the verb "to finish" (as in, someone finishes their homework - its a transitive verb). Shinji would probably have used this version if he had been the one to operate.
The next speech bubble does use the "o" particle, talking about someone doing something (using a method of surgery) to operate on Rukia and Renji. The translation made it appear Shinji is still speaking, but the Japanese makes it clear he is not. You can tell this because of the manner of speech. The person speaking here is using formal verb endings. In contrast, Shinji's comment to Ichigo uses informal verb endings. Shinji rarely speaks formally, and usually speaks in Kansai dialect, which he does all through his later tirade at Ichigo for being an idiot. It would be pretty odd for him to suddenly begin talking formally to Ichigo at all, let alone in mid-conversation before reverting back to his dialect. So it is someone else talking.
So when we turn to the next page, we see there is a member of Fourth in the room with Shinji and Ichigo. This person goes on, using formal verb endings, to tell Ichigo that Rukia and Renji are stable, before withdrawing. The operations were carried out by the Fourth, possibly by this person. Not by Shinji.
Although it doesn't entirely explain why Shinji is loitering with intent around Intensive Care, since Momo is presumably fine and dandy this time out, and we haven't seen much happen to Fifth.
Ikkaku's comment:
In the earlier scenes, Ikkaku yells about Kenpachi and that he can't be dead. This is a rather heavy translation of the verb "yarareru" which means "to be defeated." It can be used interchangeably with "killed" and sometimes is used in that context, but the translator ought to have rendered it as "beaten" because of the confirmation later in the same chapter that Kenpachi is still alive.
Byakuya and Kenpachi (for clarity).
>They have both survived (ichimei o toritomeraremashita - literally, "their lives have been checked")
>It will be difficult for them to resume their duties as Captain, and probably also [difficult] to even regain consciousness.
What strikes me about this one is the increasing measures of leeway as the statement goes on. They ARE alive. They WILL find it difficult (but not impossible) to resume their duties, and PROBABLY (but not for sure) will find it hard to wake up. This suggests to me that they will wake up, and will probably be Captains once again...though I am sorely hoping for some proper Renji and Byakuya development and Renji getting to surpass his Captain at long last if this is the case. I am not angry that Byakuya is alive, but I want Kubo's decision to save him to mean he has some good plotwork ahead that, for once, is not fixed around Senbonzakura. Hisana's backstory anyone?
Soi Fon vs Kensei
I think whoever called this about being re: the Vaizard and Yama over their exile might have been right. Soi Fon isn't yelling at Kensei alone. She says "Kisama-ra", which is a plural. (derogatory form of) you, kisama plus the plural "ra" means she's targeting more than one person. Whether she's talking about the individuals present or Kensei and the other Vaizard is not made clear, but it would make sense for her to be judging the Vaizard, considering her view of Hacchi in the FKKT arc and her general trend for not forgiving anyone, anything, ever. That would also be supported by the fact she doesn't actually say "you hated the Sou Taichou" or "You didn't like the Sou Taichou", but rather, "You have a grudge against the Sou Taichou" (Soutaichou ni urami ga aru). Kensei's response is not "Why you..", but rather, "What did you just say?!" (Nan'da to?).
So no Koruda to report on today. Back to torturing them playing with them soon though.