Bleach, Species, and Scifi

[notquiteaphoenix]

 

Sometimes when reading Bleach, I have moments of “Wait, am I reading a supernatural or scifi series?”

Yes, the supernatural element is undeniable but I get stuck on how the messes projects of Urahara, Aizen, and Kurotsuchi all have big, mad scientist implications from the making of Aizen’s arrancar to Nemu to Urahara’s...everything. 

And then there is the whole way all the groups in Kubo’s world building give me alien species and AI/Robotic life forms interacting feels. 

First, a quick look at the species of beings in Bleach. (This was done mostly from memory and a few glances at fan wiki's)

Format is:

Species 

Example

Physical or spiritual bodies

Mortal? Age? Disease?

Reproduction

Food

Degree of Morphism 

Additional

Seemingly “Natural” Species (or at least, well-established existence by the time of Bleach’s story)

Humans 

• Don Kanoji 
• Physical bodies with spiritual bodies that exist after death
• Mortal, age, and can get sick 
• Sexual reproduction
• Eat physical food
• Humans are pretty monomorphic in form as a species. In Bleach, more start differences in spiritual ability (assuming humans with spiritual abilities are purely human and unaltered by contact with other spiritual beings...which I feel is questionable in Bleach)

 

Shinigami

• Rukia, Yoruichi 
• Spiritual bodies
• Quasi-immortal, can age (slowly?), and can get sick
• Human souls crossing over or (less often) being born in Soul Society
• Food is spiritual and available but seems only those with power to become shinigami need it in great amounts; also able to be drawn from environment
• Slightly more color and size forms than humans? And a large differences in power and zanpakuto
• Additional: I’m counting Konamura as a whole different species that I am not going to touch on
• I don’t think Zanpakuto can count as a separate species (though the Zampakuto filler arc leaves me with some interesting thoughts...but filler arc so not exactly canon)

Hollows

• Grand Fisher, Grimmjow (as an adjuchas)
• Spiritual
• Appear immortal, do not seem to age at a noticeable scale (Baraggan implies it is a thing?), unknown if susceptible to disease
• Human souls corrupted; no apparent sexual reproduction (but possible asexual budding if you count Stark and Lilynette in this category)
• Other beings’ souls/life force; cannibalism
• Highly polymorphic in both apparent form and needs (the constant need for an adjuchas to eat to avoid backsliding, initial forms of hollows to menos grande, etc.) and power
• Additional: A fascinating thought I like to play with is when a Hollow has devoured other souls, if it is purified and either goes to Soul Society or reincarnate, does that Hollow go as one being or split into its many souls? (My fave annoying answer is “many souls, but ones that went with some translocations so not quite the original souls devoured)

Quincy

• Masaki, Bazz-B
• Physical bodies
• Mortal, age, and can get sick
• Sexual reproduction 
• Eat physical food but are able to manipulate spiritual energy 
• Slightly more color and size forms than humans? More diverse in powers and strength of power
• Additional: Honestly, I have a lot more questions that Kubo answers about the Quincy
• And Yhwach is...special and not going to be used as an example for his maybe-species

Created Species 

Aizen’s Arrancar

• Harribel, Grimmjow
• Spiritual body
• Probably immortal, unknown if they age, unknown if they face disease
• Formed from Hollows via Hōgyoku or naturally from Hollows (possibly Stark and Lilynette); no apparent sexual reproduction but possible asexual reproduction (Stark and Lilynette)
• Unknown if they need to eat other Hollows or souls (probably though bc shinigami need sustenance)
• Sealed forms fairly monomorphic; released forms increasing diverse. Power levels diverse. 
• Additional: Stark and Lilynette may be technically a separate category or you could have them all with Hollows

Vizards

• Lisa, Shinji
• Spiritual body 
• Probably immortal, unknown if they age, unknown if they face disease
• Formed from shinigami via Hōgyoku; unknown if they can reproduce like shinigami or Hollows
• Unknown if they need to eat and whether it is more like shinigami or Hollows
• Similar low morphism to shinigami
• Additional: Low sample size and may have motives to conform to more shinigami standards

Fullbringers

• Chad, Riruka
• Physical bodies
• Unknown mortality, age from childhood forms, unknown if they face disease
• Children born of parents who survived a Hollow attack (contamination at fetal developmental stages????)
• Probably need to eat, may be able to draw from environment?
• Similar form morphism as humans, more diverse morphism in powers

Mod Soul

• Kon
• No body; must take on physical body
• Unknown mortality, unknown aging, unknown if they face disease
• Made by shinigami
• Unknown if they need to eat
• Degree of morphism unknown
• Additional: For a character introduced so early on, so little is known (also, exceedingly small sample size)

Gikon

• Chappy
• No body
• Unknown mortality, unknown aging, unknown if they face disease
• Made by shinigami
• Unknown if they need to eat
• Seemingly low on morphism as they are made to be certain ways
• Addition: Are they alive? Sentient? Idk, but the Chappy Rukia uses seems to have memory and feelings in the anime at least.

Artificial Souls with Gigai (idk if there is a name for this)

• Nemu, maybe Ururu
• Unknown mortality, ages out of childhood form (at least from Nemu), unknown if they face disease
• Spiritual and/or physical bodies
• Made by shinigami
• Unknown if they need to eat
• Unknown but likely similar morphism to shinigami 
• Additional: So many questions 

Others

• Konomura’s people
• The Kurosaki siblings (seriously, they can’t be human when you have a Quincy, a shinigami in a gigai, and a Hollow in the mix)
• Orihime, Keigo, Tatsuki (I’m pretty sure some of their abilities are affecting by Ichigo and Rukia-with-Hōgyoku)
• A number of beings from the filler arcs 

With the way that a) the evolution process of Hollows has with seeming different levels of sentience, b) Aizen’s and Urahara’s mad scientist style experiments, and c) having watched a lot of Transformers and other media that does a lot of anthropomorphizing sentient robots/inorganic life forms, Hollows lean in that category for me. Which would make the Vizards and maybe the Kurosaki siblings cyborgs and the Arrancar humanoid androids...metaphorically speaking. (Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that this is one of the lenses I read Bleach through?)

And while created races don’t not exist in fantasy, something about the way the story is told (plus my own forays into scifi) makes me lean into themes I generally consider to be scifi.

Like, the concepts of personhood and transhumanism. 

Or, as a mainly Western scifi reader, the Frankenstein’s Monster arc. 

And I don’t think I’ll go deep into this in the fics I have been daydreaming about, but I think there will be a hint of it. Because the various species interactions and what that means identity-wise has a lot of potential. I'm in particularly interested on exploring what it means to be Shinigami-ified Hollows to the Arrancar, the Hollow side of the Vizards, and the...everything for the Kurosaki siblings.

Comments

[lydamorehouse]

I find it interesting that you include Yoruichi as as a representative of Seireitei/Soul Society born souls, and not, say, Byakuya or Ukitake or any of the other captians we know are both noble and Seireitei born (heck, that would include Isshin!)... given that her ability to turn into a cat and also weld a zanpakuto (maybe) makes her seems something more akin to Komammura, IMHO. I have actually often assumed she was just straight-up a bakeneko, or some other yokai type spirit... I mean, her eyes are even golden.

And, it's not like Kubo doesn't play around with the existence of yokai. He drew Gin holding a fox mask and literally everything about Gin says fox/kitsune (which, I would argue doesn't negate him being a shinigami with a snake's soul any more than it does Renji's ability to be a shinigami with a nue demon's soul...)

As for your larger question, there is definitely an argument to be made that what Kubo wrote was science fiction. It's just science fiction that takes place in a fantasy setting. If you ask me, Bleach has one of the classic science fiction tropes going on in the background, which is: people who think they live in a utopia which is actually, very clearly, a dystopia.

On an unrelated note, are you excited or terrified (or both) about the return of the anime?

[notquiteaphoenix]

Hmm, you are right about Yoruichi; she (and her brother for that matter) are pretty distinct from others in Soul Society. My first thought was to grab someone born in nobility as a contrast to Rukia and my brain was blanking on Byakuya’s name when I was jotting my thoughts down. Ukitake’s situation and everything to do with the Soul King leaves me with a bunch of questions and “okay species shift? Biological/spiritual cyborg equivalent????”

I have only a passing familiarity with the yokai folklore and may have to dig deeper to appreciate that aspect. Once I finish this month’s worth of books the too read pile never stays conquered for long.

There is so much to say of utopian vs dystopian within Bleach, especially of Soul Society. I did a massive rewatch of the anime this spring after not having touched Bleach since high school a decade ago, when I think I was in the beginning of the Arrancar arc. I wouldn't call the dystopian element subtle, but at the same time the dystopian elements seem so much more blatant with knowledge of both real world political situations and literature I have now. Exploring that makes many of the shinigami like Rukia and Urahara (especially after Turn Back the Pendulum) such interesting characters as parts of the dystopian structure that get punished/exiled...and then still come back to the main structures (or to the rescue of the main structures) of their dystopian system. Like, yes, a lot is on the line, but how do they feel about it personally? Indebted from their initial circumstances? Hoping to change it from the inside? Bound to the relationships they have within it?

I’m not sure how to feel about the upcoming anime final arc. I still feel a bit…underwhelmed (?) with the manga version. Like I appreciated that the whole “not killing all your enemies and instead making friends with them” pays off thematically except fuck you Tsukishima* but there are so many characters I wanted more of.

The scenes I am most interested in seeing animated are Yoruichi interacting with her brother, the whole set of scenes with Ichigo reforming Zangetsu, and all the scenes with Grimmjow and Nel.

I’m hoping with the new anime episodes there may be more fan work creators playing around with the characters and world building. There are so many cool fanworks already and I’m nowhere near the end of my fandom to read list but I’m greedy hah.

(*And when I say fuck Tsukishima I mean “wow, I was really impressed and disturbed by his and Ginjo's actions and I’ll totally rewatch that arc.” I want like a million fics on the fallout for Ichigo and everyone Tshukishima altered.)