The truth of Bleach revealed!!

[flemmings]

Somehow I missed reading 2/3 of Bleach 6. I was grumpily trying to get through it some time this weekend with no interest in the action or characters at all, and a nonstop head yammer of Why do people like this thing? It's so random, so loose end- they'll go blah blah blah and then Byakuya will appear and he'll fight for pages blah blah blah and then he'll be gone and there'll be more blah blah blah unfunny jokes (Kill Kon, someone- please) nerdy but sooper seeerius hero, his sooper seerious and lovable! pals, the pretty but sketchily delineated puppets of the Soul Society, and where's the story, the deeper shades of character? And just then I had a blinding revelation. Is there a certain lack of stagetime to these guys, a certain brief introduction and then disappearance, a tendency to shortchange these shounen characters badly? Yes.

Because they're not characters in a manga, they're playable roles in a big RPG. Basic info is given about a person's character (as in psychology) and abilities, usually illustrated by a fight; the short Cliff's Notes on who they most often interact with, who will be their 'party'; and then with the vaguest outline of a plot you're left to play them whatever way you please. No wonder half my FL is mad about this series: mangaka rarely give you a set of characters to play with and let you just get on with it. Usually they're in there plotting at you like mad, which gets you Joshed before you can turn round. But Kubo Tite stays away most of the time.

This also explains all those Bleach based RPGs. It's a gamer's manga. Naturally people congregate together to play it.

Good, glad I got that settled. Back to Weird Tales for Sleepless Nights for me.

Comments

[incandescens]

And as a RPG writer, no wonder I was drawn to it like moth to candle. ;)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

It was the thing you said about 'Not since Amber.' And what do they have in common? Honking big cast dropped on your head pretty much all at once (in book 1, worse, not books 8-10 or whatever: though wordcount-wise, Nine Princes in Amber probably beats all of Bleach even now) and not nearly enough time devoted to them. And then the next generation/ arc. A cast of thousands. The author can't deal with them all- that's for the fans.

I was also struck by the way that fanfic for Bleach actually makes it solider and provides real stories and interaction. Fanfic usually doesn't /add/ substantially to a series: it writes 'ByakuyaxRenji OTP!' in white icing on top of the frosting and puts some sprinkles around it, but the best of the eating is the series itself. (That wasn't supposed to sound the way it did.) Weiss aside (and look where Weiss came from) fannnish stuff is usually a pleasant adjunct to the story, not the story itself.

But then, this sketchiness may be common to all fight manga. You don't need to spend time on coherent plot and stage time for characters' expression because Hello! people are here for the *fights*! My in-depth experience has been confined pretty much to YYH, hardly the most rivetting of story lines either. But IME most fight manga don't present you with two dozen attractive characters and then not use them for very much. Pretty is not fight manga's forte.

[incandescens]

There are some series which provide interesting _hints_ but never go into the full background or interaction, which make me twitch to write for them far more than others do. It's like -- what was it you once said? -- warm spots, areas where there's something to be explored. The half-glimpsed detail in a painting where you can't quite see what's going on but are sure there's something interesting.

These days I feel as if I've almost written myself out of Saiyuki; there's nothing I can think of to say that the author hasn't already said better, unless I go completely into AU territory or do quick drabbly sketch-type things. (Is that why people were so keen on Hazel? Not so much because of who he was, but just because he was Something New?) But there's still a lot of space for me to write in Bleach.

[summer-queen.livejournal.com]

This also explains all those Bleach based RPGs. It's a gamer's manga. Naturally people congregate together to play it.

I'd say that's it in a nutshell. The desire to play -- or play with -- these characters is a serious jonsing, yes indeed. Even for one like me, who'd like to think her RPG days are far behind her.