This Week on Shounen Jump (Mostly Bleach) ft. Some Reflections

It’s quite an eventful week for Shounen Jump manga, I guess?

2 weeks? Reeeeaaalllyyyy????

Remember when Nisekoi was “ending”? If you don’t, you don’t lurk the internet enough… or this blog for that matter. Despite those rumors that Nisekoi was ending “in two weeks”, here it is, still going strong in its quest to finally wrap up the final threads to the series. Well, there’s progress, and I’m fairly sure we won’t be seeing Raku, Chitoge, and Onodera again as 2017 rolls around… Ah, who am I kidding?

There’s always the possibility of spin-offs and other material staying alive till then, given how Nisekoi has garnered success as a franchise and merchandise-mover. So yeah, we’ll still be seeing more of them in the near future.

Next, Hiat- I mean, Hunter X Hunter went on hiatus AGAIN.

No caption needed

Hey, at least Togashi stuck around for 3 months or so, a lot longer than his previous returns. His continuous hiatus sprees and short returns remind me of how Derrick Rose “returned” for a few NBA games a couple of years ago. The guy was out with an injury for a whole season, came back to much fanfare, then promptly hurt and shelved himself for another year or so after a couple of weeks. At this point, the question of which series would finish first between HxH and One Piece is a legitimate curiosity, and not in a good way.

On one hand, poor Togashi is apparently suffering from back pain, which is understandable given the monstrous Shounen Jump mangaka schedule and workload. On the other hand, there’s a new Dragon Quest game (which Togashi is a huge fan of) out for a few months now. I dunno, man. I’m not implying anything big, but… I dunno, you guys are free to throw up your best guesses.

Of course, the biggest announcement this week (for me at least), is the fact that Bleach is finally ending. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it before. It has been said over and over again, but this time, I’m sure there’s no bullshit with this announcement. Why? Err, for one… [SPOILERS AHEAD]…. not that I think many people still care about this manga at this point lel.

I’m serious this time, promise!

Well, it’s blatantly announced in the spoiler pic that the story is headed towards its climax. Every previous announcement was mostly speculation due to Bleach being in its final arc. Now, we heard it all, straight from Jump and Kubo.

You need another reason for us to believe the announcement? Like Nisekoi, the series has been tanking in the WSJ rankings. However, unlike Nisekoi, Bleach doesn’t move merchandise like figures of your waifus in swimsuits or hilariously broken Weiss Schwarz cards that turned Bushiroad into Konami for a moment with the banlist shenanigans. Now, imagine if Konami designed the L3 Marika. The once-per-turn restand will come at a far lower cost and be spammable for as long as you can pay the cost in one go.

That, and the author has placed our heroes in a predicament that’s very similar to a setup to a big boss battle with the latest chapter.

I played enough JRPG to know where this is going

As some people commented, it’s like “That part in JRPGs where you’re at a last chance save point before stepping into the portal that leads to the last boss.” Yeah, I can even imagine a prompt that goes something like “You can no longer save after stepping through. Continue?” choice box popping up as the character approaches that portal.

That, and the person they’re fighting now, Yhwach, is practically a god that only the biggest asspull in Bleach history can possibly stop.

Come to think of it, he even has a name based off the Jewish God. Of course, his race is a group of quincies who certainly gave off German Nazi vibes since day 1, and their leader has a “Conqueror” split-personality. You can’t make this up. I don’t know if Kubo was intentionally trying to be ironic, not that it matters.

Whew. What a load. Now, time to let it sink in, I guess.

mfw

I don’t know, but the knowledge that the series will end within this year (and probably early-mid 2017 tops) leaves a bittersweet taste for me. I mean, it’s the series that launched good old Hime-senpai here into this journey of being an anime fan and basically the geek life. It’s the first anime show that I actively followed (and consequently, taught me a lot of ways to access these stuff through the internet. Before Bleach, my only access to anime was Cartoon Network and local TV.)

Then, thanks to anime, I got more involved with the convention scene, made a couple of friends, which in turn led me to joining community groups, and eventually those people I met during all these years from then got me to where I am right now.

You see this weeb that loves fantasy harem LN, plays anime-esque trading card games, blabbers at this blog that you select few readers read, plays LoL, and writes shitty LN knockoffs in his spare time? I might be getting a bit too dramatic, but yes, Bleach helped big time in transforming this friendless loser who tried too hard to be edgy and hip during high school into the guy writing this blog post right now, sharing his passions such as animanga and trading card games.

Am I any less of a loser now? That depends on which lens you’ll be using to look at the situation, but at least I’m now a lot more confident in what I do, knowing full well where my passions lie and which people in my surroundings to value.

I got carried away… But that’s the beauty of a blog, right? You get to discuss something while sharing a bit of your personal lives and feelings with readers, making an open connection and “bond” of sorts.

I’ve read Bleach from the start of the story, and boy have we come a long way. It was a far, far cry from the glory days which catapulted it to the top of the Shounen Jump rankings. Even at its lowest some 5-6 years ago, I still managed to keep myself updated in some ways. The series had become too dear for me thanks to the personal connection it managed to create in me. I can’t get myself to fully “drop” it despite actually having lost interest once it entered the Fullbringer arc.

Even as a big fan, I would admit that the series had become one huge trainwreck for nearly a decade already. To top it off, Kubo seemed intent on “fixing” such trainwreck by…. dumping more trains onto it. Plot holes, asspulls, convoluted writing, yet Kubo somehow managed to keep his story’s fans interested week after week, if online discussions are an indication. Maybe a lot of them are just trudging on to see it end after investing so much time on it, but it’s still pleasantly surprising that the series is still quite popular online despite being functionally dead in its homeland of Japan.

Nevertheless, it would truly be a bittersweet day for me, and a lot of other fans, when we all finally say goodbye to Ichigo and the gang after 15 years of publication.

As for a more in-depth blog post on what made the series so great and what led to its downfall? Maybe next time. I could spend aaaaaalll day talking about it, so I’d rather put it on a separate post.

Till next time, Hime-senpai checking out!