Sasuke and his band of idiots in Naruto were driving us nuts so once again, my sister and I took a break. Hannah found this show produced by Shonen Jump (same company which made Naruto) and heard that it had a weak start but fans fell in love with it eventually. The show has gone on for over 20 seasons but we’re tentatively in 6 now. That’s a whole different story, however. For now, lets just focus on our impression of the first part of the show. 

First impressions:

They can be infamously tough and this series was no exception. The concept of the show was interesting, unique and somewhat original. Not the part about the normal (allegedly 15 year old protagonist) Highschooler who gets special abilities and has to keep a double life, that wasn’t really exceptional. But the fact that it has an entire world created for the rules of soul reapers, hollows, and the human world was interesting. Initially the most powerful character in the show is a small feisty female soul reaper and she forces this teenage boy to be her substitute when her powers are drained. It was a decent set up but from the get go I had some issues with this.

• The fact that Ichigo (the main protagonist) initially doesn't have to train or work for any of his abilities was a turn off. He’s not interested in fighting hollows at first or saving humans, but Rukia (the female soul reaper) gives him her powers so he can save his sisters in the first episode. After saving them he doesn’t seem to care about having all those great abilities. Rukia has to literally hit him to get him to help her fight hollows and that makes him kind of look like he’s being dragged into saving lives but has no real desire for it.

• The rest of the characters at the high school for the first portion of season 1 are kind of forgettable. Orihime has no personality other than she’s big chested and not very bright (which is the butt of way too many jokes). She’s interested in Ichigo but it seems like a silly crush. All of her character development seems to be gone in one episode because we establish her brother died and became a hollow, who Ichigo defeats in the very same episode. I feel like this character was supposed to be the Hinata to Naruto, but she falls flat. Orihime’s only character trait seems to be she’s pretty and not very bright. And if we’re supposed to take her seriously as an innocent sweet girl, than the writers need to stop drawing her for pure objectification. 

DISCLAIMER: There will be a tangent on the objectification of female characters alone in this article so you’ve been warned!

• Chad is an okay character, but not extremely compelling. His emotional range is wooden and honestly I don’t feel like he had much of an arc throughout the first couple seasons. I saw it, but it was kind of forgettable. 

When the tables turned slightly:

When Uryu was introduced I thought we were improving our main cast quite a bit. Uryu and Ichigo’s relationship reminds me of a better version of the Naruto Sasuke dynamic. They begin with somewhat legitimate reasons for not liking each other, but realize that hating each other is kind of silly pretty early in the show. Then when Renji comes to the human world to take Rukia back to the soul society to face execution the show really picked up. 

• Prior to Rukia being taken it just felt like Ichigo was fighting random hollows without a lot of purpose or focus. When the soul society comes for her it created intrigue because we’ve been hearing about soul reapers but the only one we’ve met and gotten to know so far is Rukia. We finally see the consequences of Rukia giving Ichigo her powers.

• We’re introduced to new characters: Renji (Rukia’s past friend and potential love interest), and Byakuya Kuchki, (Rukia’s brother who for some reason is completely callous over sending her to an execution). 

• This is the first time in the show we’ve seen Ichigo take complete agency in the heroic role by going against all rhyme and reason to save Rukia. Normally, Ichigo has Rukia pushing him on to fight hollows but now she’s gone and told him not to follow, but he gathers a team and plans to rescue her anyway.

• When we get to the soul society the action is focused and the odds are overwhelming. There are several captain that Ichigo has to fight but so far he’s only faced one Lieutenant (Renji) and he was physically destroyed the first time. We know Ichigo will have to fight Renji again as well as all the captains and the show doesn’t let up while this arc is going on.

What I enjoy about the show:

When the show is at its best, you have well written characters with intricate stories to tell and I genuinely don’t know where they’re going. In most American made shows endings are predictable and its easy to call a spade a spade. In anime, the psychopath who tries to kill a character 20 times probably has a traumatic backstory and a complex reason for doing so. 

Even though, my sister and I totally called that Aizen was evil, just saying–he was way too fake trying to look sensitive with those glasses and his relationship with Momo was creepy.

• But for the most part, characters are well written and not as simple as they seem. Renji enters the show as the jerk soul reaper who’s sending Rukia to her death but as we continue to watch its revealed their relationship is much more complex. He redeems himself by fighting and nearly dying at the hands of Rukia’s half brother (and a captain superior to him in rank) to save her life. Now Renji is one of our favorites from the show. 

• I enjoy the complex characters as well as the fight sequences that are very Naruto in style–they just continue to build until someone pulls out the final super move and obliterates the opponent which is usually very satisfying. 

• During the rescuing Rukia in the soul society arc (just what I’m calling it), characters undergo development:

- Uryu finds the person who’s responsible for the death of his grandfather and battles him. 

-Renji is confronted about coming to peace with he and Rukia’s past, and taking ownership that he was in fact partially to blame for their falling out.
-Rukia has to come to terms with her brother (even though it takes Ichigo nearly killing him to do so), and realize why he was allowing her to be executed.

-The soul society realizes Aizen is evil and a traitor (though I totally saw it coming). 

Complex characters, intense action, emotional stakes and investment in the story–all good stuff I thoroughly enjoyed. However, since then and even during that arc there were some things that pumped the breaks on my enjoying the show. 

WHAT IS WITH ALL THE SMUTTY HUMOR????

I know this is a thing that happens frequently in anime cartoons…but I’m never going to be cool with it so here’s the tangent. It’s primarily with female characters so that’s what were talking about now. It’s difficult to take a character seriously when she’s half dressed and everyone is joking about her cleavage. This isn’t so overwhelming I couldn’t watch the show, but it has been coming up more frequently. If the artists and writers are perverts they should keep it to themselves and not let it affect the show.

• Orihime is supposed to be this sweet innocent high school girl but she always has to be in tops three sizes too small and there have to be tons of jokes about it. But she acts totally oblivious to the whole thing. So…the way she dresses has nothing to do with her character but its in there, why?

• Yoruichi starts out as a cat with a male voice, but apparently she’s not a cat she’s a human who used to be in the soul society. Again, she’s not promiscuous in any way and isn’t portrayed as vain. However, when she becomes a human she’s naked for no reason whatsoever other than to make for a raunchy joke. Yoruichi comes off as a strong confident women who can fight and trains Ichigo. In other words–why would a self-respecting woman be appearing naked to a teenage boy? It makes no sense other than the writers want it to happen. This might come as as a shock, but women typically don’t like being objectified by men–they don’t undress around them at random times.

• Rangiku is always showing excessive cleavage but once again it has nothing to do with her character. We hear people say she’s boy crazy but we never see it. Rangiku doesn’t seem to be in random relationships or pursuing any men. She’s a little bit of a diva and likes to shop but that’s it. It doesn’t account for her always being half dressed. 

I don’t like smut to begin with, but when its obvious the writers are just getting off on drawing women inappropriately dressed its really annoying. They might not be bad characters–aside from the fact all they or anyone else can talk about is their cleavage. When Rangiku isn’t being the butt of risqué jokes she’s not a bad character, and if you removed the strip scenes Yoruichi might not be either. However, these characters are victims of a pervy writer’s fantasy and it does affect my enjoyment of the show. None of the men are the butt of over sexualized jokes, but if they were people would start to notice. However, because its female characters, pop culture is used to them being valued and noticed primarily for their sexuality and appearance. I don’t want the objectification of men or women, but its been most frequent in anime with the latter.

The suppressed development in characters relationships:

The main relationship which feels suppressed in this show is Rukia and Ichigo. Rukia and Ichigo seem to simultaneously drive each other mad but desperately care about one another. They fight the entire first season, and when Rukia is taken to the soul society to face execution, Ichigo is willing to defy all the rules to rescue her. Yes, this relationship could be platonic if he were to love her in a sibling like manner–but the two of them don’t come off that way.

• Rukia cares about Ichigo in a personal degree that seems more than platonic. Rukia wants to leave the human world and face execution so that Ichigo wont face consequences for what she’s done. Rukia lies to her brother and Renji so that they won’t kill Ichigo, she pretends not to care about him so they’ll let him live but is weeping as she does it. 

• When Rukia is on death row all her memories are of Ichigo. Even him opening a juice box for her sticks with her as a touching sentimental memory. 

• Ichigo literally trains himself into the ground and masters Bankai in order to save Rukia. He goes into the soul society to fight all of the captains and Lieutenants (all stronger than him) in order to rescue her. He thinks of nothing else but Rukia, Rukia, repeatedly in his thoughts the entire time. 

• Rukia thinks of nothing but Ichigo, Ichigo until she sees him again.      

The relationship doesn’t seem platonic, but when the characters are reunited they act like it is. It makes all of the dramatic tension up till that point meaningless. My siblings and I were convinced the reason Renji and Ichigo were continuously at odds was because they both had suppressed feelings for Rukia. With Renji that later becomes obvious and we see he’s interested in her romantically. With Ichigo, however, he has all the thoughts and sentiments of a guy romantically interested in Rukia but his actions make it look forcibly platonic. When Hanatoro speaks of Rukia, Ichigo looks off admiringly and says “Yeah, she’s something else...” 

Yet when he sees her again he’s completely chill and acts as if she’s nothing more than a friend. Writers in anime have the tendency to be severely lacking when it comes to crafting  romance. I think they do many things extremely well but romantic relationships aren’t one of them (there will be an article on this). Similar to how Naruto has every reason to be interested in someone other than Sakura, Ichigo has every reason to be interested in someone other than Orihime–but alas, he’s paired with the girl who he has no chemistry with. 

• Tatsuki we learn has been Ichigo’s friend and defender since childhood. She fought off bullies and befriended him when he didn’t have many other companions. At the start of the show we get the impression Tatsuki is closer with him than Orihime. Orihime barely talks to Ichigo, and Tatsuki is more comfortable with him. 

• Rukia and Ichigo spend the most time together and have the most chemistry. She’s the one with him in all the life or death situations while Orihime is just a girl he goes to school with and barely talks to. It would have made sense for him to have a romantic connection to her.

I assume the excuse of the writers for saying Ichigo’s feelings for Rukia can’t be romantic are that she’s a 150 year old soul reaper, but it doesn’t track. Rukia might be a 150 years old but she passes as a high school girl. And even if logic said she was too old for him, that doesn’t mean Ichigo wouldn’t have feelings for her at all. We all know there’s a common trope of the several hundred year old immortal (typically a male vampire) with a human whose a fraction of their age. The excuse for this is the person who’s older looks young, and doesn’t age the  same way. Meaning, as long as the young  person involved can be attracted to them, the age gap doesn’t matter. Rukia is older than Ichigo, but the same way Buffy is still interested in Angel despite his age, I don’t think that would keep Ichigo from having romantic feelings for Rukia. If he didn’t, that’s one thing. But the character acts as if he does, and then its anticlimactic because we don’t address it at all. The characters just act platonic when push comes to shove. Orihime is literally the girl Ichigo has the least on scream chemistry with but he ends up with her. Uryu spends more time with Orihime than Ichigo does. But, in several anime I feel like many of the pairings we end up with are often the least interesting.      

The lack of focused arcs after we rescue Rukia:

After Ichigo saves Rukia its a little anticlimactic because he just returns home. Apparently, everything he did for her was purely platonic (my siblings and I thought there was a love triangle going on there with the way he and Renji were fighting), and he leaves her in the soul society. When we return to the human world its like the show is making up villains and filler threats. We left the soul society on the note that Aizen and Ichimaru were villains who betrayed the soul reapers, and that Aizen wants a super weapon of sorts to turn humans into hollows and vise versa. But we don’t continue this arc, we just go to the human world where nothing is happening. 

There’s a sub plot with Urahara training Ichigo, an immortal guy voiced by Crispin Freeman trying to get his lover back, Uryu trying to get his powers back, and three stuffed animals. Yes, there are living stuffed animals in this show. But the point is, the show had a plot going on but we leave it for side arcs that don’t accomplish anything and aren’t personally relevant. We basically skimmed two seasons of the show till Hitsugaya and his squad arrived in the human world. Now we’re back to the main arc, but the show took a dangerously long detour. Will it get better? I don’t know how this is going to work out over the course of 26 seasons, but we’ll see.