Stuff I Liked in 2013: Bleach Back
December 27th, 2013 by david brothers | Tags: tite kuboTite Kubo’s Bleach always had one thing over its peers: it was cooler than anything else out. It had a swagger, a style, that couldn’t be beat. From the title pages to the fashion, Bleach was cool, even when it was bad. After a point, the bad started to outweigh the good, so I bailed.
After a break earlier this year, Kubo is back at it and Bleach is in its final arc. Bleach was soft for a long while. Now that we’re in the home stretch, though, Kubo’s clicking again, and the proof is in scenes like this, from a recent chapter in Weekly Shonen Jump:
A little cool goes a long way. Turning aside the blast at the last minute, the fur, a timely one-liner, a cool gimmick, impeccable title placement, and an unavoidable sense that it’s about to go down: Bleach is cool again.
I was just thinking along these lines these past few weeks, particularly as to this luchadore/superhero fight. Kubo picked a handful of decent characters(mostly just to destroy, mind), and took a real opportunity to show off the creativity and effortless cool that he can generate with the right set-up. Renji’s just the peak of this, being that one character who, occasional mis-step aside, is Kubo’s strongest creation. More so for that wicked closing line.
I dunno, I’ve been down on Bleach for what must be years now, but this last month has been pure joy for me. Cool write-up on a cool thing!
by Maxy B December 29th, 2013 at 04:26 --reply