Does anybody but me think it's really damn eerie how some parts of the chapter echo with Jedi Boadicea's fanfic Frozen Sky? Specifically, the parts regarding Hitsugaya and his discovery of Hyourinmaru.

I also think it's interesting how Kubo distinctly drew Hitsugaya younger. Not only the bigger eyes in relation to the face, but also a few touches that can be seen easily. The roundness of the cheeks and the less defined nose, in particular.

Matsumoto's huge boobs amused me to no end, of course.

Current Mood: amused

Some of the best writers I know (both personally and otherwise) admit that their writing styles undergo severe changes depending on what they themselves are writing at the time. It's a pretty natural instinct, aye? You see something you like, and you subconsciously - or consciously - change yourself to emulate that thing. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

Just a few moments ago I came to the realization that, however much I may like certain writing styles, I can't write with them worth a damn and attempting it is just going to worsen my writer's block. Maybe someday I'll work my way into them, but trying for a complete 180 is just going to confuse me and make the end result that much crappier.

Current Mood: determined

This week's chapter amused me on many different levels, mainly the ones having to do with Mayuri.

( Zomg Spoiler Cuts? )

Current Mood: ecstatic

The Bleach universe has a buncha characters whose ages vary wildly. We're talking people who're over two thousand years old talking to 16-year-olds. This doesn't mean much until you realize that Yamamoto was teaching shinigami back around when Jesus Christ was born. How the hell a fucker that old is Japanese when Japanese culture as we know it only came to be less than a thousand years ago, I don't know. ANYWAY.

The Gotei 13 honorific system seems to largely hinge on rank. All of the captains, with the exception of Commander Yamamoto (Yamamoto-soutaichou) converse with each other using a very informal way of speech. At meetings, they refer to each other as Captain XXX (XXX-taichou), again using a casual method of talking. Depending on how close they are, they may refer to each other by given names in private, or by family names. Examples of this can be seen between Captains Kyouraku and Ukitake, who I'm fairly sure call each other by their given names. Before Aizen's 'murder' and subsequent betrayal, Aizen and Hitsugaya were also on a first-name basis. Same for Komamura and Tousen. Ukitake has also referred to Soifon with no honorific, although understandably that was under a time of rather noticable stress. edit: After a bit more looking at things, it seems that the captains only rarely refer to each other by surnames when in private. The only instance I can think of off the top of my head would be Hitsugaya referring to Gin as "Ichimaru".

All lower-ranking officers refer to their captains as Captain XXX (XXX being the family name of their captain), or simply Captain. The two exceptions to this rule are Nemu and Yachiru, who call their captains Ken-chan and Mayuri-sama, respectively. All captains, regardless of division, are allowed to talk to officers of vice captain and lower rank in casual Japanese, using the pronoun 'kimi' (polite way of saying you, to someone of lower social status). Gin, for example, refers to Rukia with 'kimi' when conversing with her en route to her execution.

A striking example of this would be Hitsugaya, who made captain less than fifty years ago. He refers informally to everyone he knows with the sole exception of Commander Yamamoto. While this seems to be allowed, it's still very jarring to see a kid talking to adults as if he was their equal (which he is, of course). I imagine this is the effect that Kubo was going for when he did it. Hitsugaya calls Ukitake by his family name with no honorific attached, has on multiple occasions called Aizen by his given name, and of course refers to his much older vice captain by her family name as well. We know that Matsumoto is older than Hitsugaya because she's roughly the same age as Ichimaru is, and he was shown to be an adult when Hitsugaya was still in Rukongai, and far younger even than he appears to be now.

So. Um. Yeah.

Tags: bleach, speculation
Current Mood: curious

While people across the globe are lollerskating at Zommare the Happy African-Hueco Mundian (including me, yes), taking a second look at the chapter, I thought it was fairly touching. Not so much Zommare's accusations against Byakuya, which was something I've seen coming since the arrancar - "human" hollows - were introduced, but his very last moments. Zommare dies while declaring his loyalty to, and admiration of, Aizen to his last breath. It looks pretty damn funny at first glance, but it struck me. How often do you see such complete and utter loyalty?

Grimmjow is a loose cannon, deliberately disobeying orders multiple times in search of a good fight.

Nnoitra is a creepy spoon-headed fucker who commiserated with a mad scientist in order to blindside one of his master's subjects.

Syazel is that mad scientist. Not only that, but he's also been shown to resent Aizen.

Lord above knows what's going on in Gin's head.

You can actually see loyalty similar to Zommare's in the Privaron (and the Sad Clown as well, granted). Seems to me that Aizen might have switched loyalty for power once he got his hands on the Hougyoku.

Tags: bleach, speculation
Current Mood: blank

On the Golden Compass:

I love Iorek, and I also have great respect for Sir Ian McKellen's acting, but... no. I'm afraid he just doesn't work as Iorek's voice. He sounds too old, and too tired.

Current Mood: disappointed

Some conjuncture on the bear's part.

Long Time Ago: Tousen and Komamura enter the academy. Aizen is a VC at this time. At every other flashback since he's been seen as a captain.

Sometime after that: Aizen makes captain.

200 years before Bleach canon: The Quincy are massacred. Tessai was in Soul Society at this point - he states that he remembers the Quincy. Same, most likely, for Yoruichi and Kisuke, though it's more guesswork than anything.

Sometime before the next one, probably after the one up there: Kenpachi beats Ikkaku, then goes on to defeat the 11th Division captain and take his place. Ikkaku then enters the academy with Yumichika in order to serve under Kenpachi. We can safely say this is before 100 years ago because Ikkaku recognized Kisuke's name. Ikkaku is not the type to go about digging through history books and studying up on old captains. He also notes the name with respect, not the contempt one would expect from someone who only knew of the name as that of a criminal.

100 years before Bleach canon: Kisuke, Tessai and Yoruichi make a break for it. Mayuri and Soifon make captain sometime after that.

55 years: Byakuya meets Hisana and marries her, despite the protests of the clan. Shuuhei makes it into academy after two years of failure.

50 years: Hisana passes away.

49 years: Rukia and Renji enroll in the shinigami academy, along with fellow first-years Momo and Kira. Toushirou is still in Rukongai. The advanced first-year's class (including Renji, Momo and Kira, led by Shuuhei and Dehd Gaiz 1 + 2) goes on a routine training mission that's interrupted by the attack of several large hollows. Aizen and his vice captain Gin show up and purify the lot of them.

48 and a half or so years: Byakuya becomes a captain, finds Rukia and adopts her. Gin becomes a captain somewhere around this time. Rukia enters the 13th, while Renji enters the 5th and then transfers shortly after to the 11th. Kira and Momo both enter the 5th.

Sometime after that: Kira transfers under Gin. Kaien makes a big dirt sandwich and eats every bite. Toushirou enrolls in academy, graduates in record time and makes captain.

---

So here's a chronological order of when the captains made captain, excluding the ones that're iffy.

Yama-jii (When dinosaurs roamed the Earth)
Shunsui + Ukitake (Around the birth of Jesus Christ, no rly)
Aizen
Tousen, Komamura
Kenpachi
Mayuri, Soifon
Gin, Byakuya
Toushirou

Does it amuse anyone else that Kenpachi seems to actually be a fairly senior captain?

Tags: bleach, speculation

It's now official. Bleach - the only 'serious' manga in the world where crack is canon and the mangaka is having the time of his life drawing black pumpkin-men who cheer while they die.

Tags: bleach

It's been a while since I dared venture onto LiveJournal - it's a long story, but suffice to say it just involved a truly monumental amount of fanwank in the Harry Potter fandom - but eventually my curiosity got the better of me. This is the journal I'll be using to keep tabs on the LJ portion of the Bleach fandom, which has some really kickass stuff that hasn't been posted on FFnet. In all honesty, I'm far too picky and far too lazy to browse FFnet in the vain hope I'll find something worth reading, so yeah.

And hey, who knows. I might be able to give back to the community a little as well. I think I'll upload some of my previously written stuff to here and see what the LJ peeps think. If I'm lucky I might be able to make someone smile.

This journal might contain random RL stuff along with fandom, but I emphasize that you don't have to look. :P I don't have much interest in friends-only, friending policy and whatnot. If there's something I don't want seen I'd just p-lock it.

To sum things up... Hello, Bleach fandom. I am a bear. *bows*

Current Mood: bored