Bleach

[Outlaw]

You are going to get verbally shit-kicked.

run. run far.

Don't care. People always trash others on this board for the least little thing anyway. I just don't understand getting so pissed over a manga your reading for free.

[Sho]

It's OK Outlaw to see nothing wrong with it. Like I mentioned earlier, I was usually the one to advocate Kubo turning his story in a "cool direction" but doing off the ball things. Hell, even before me Souj advocated for him too.

It just seems that NOW Kubo just... doesn't give a fuck anymore. If Gin actually falls, then you'll have to admit that the story is just too stupid because Aizen is too much hax. We all knew right off that Gin wouldn't win, because that's Ichigo's ultimate victory. However, a vast lot of us actually like Gin, and want to see him put up some sort of fight before Ichigo and Old Man get there.

If Gin pulls some kinda Toushiro/Sasuke shadow "got yew" clone, that would be awesome, however. >.>

[Guitarman]

worst part, is Gin was essentially a good guy, or at least out for his own gains, like we all knew from the beginning.

http://mangastream.com/read/bleach/42115567/11

the plot is about as see-through as plastic wrap.

[Correction]

Last thing. If anything you should like these chapters cause of the exclamation mark it put's on Gin's awsomeness.

psst, people have hated the last 30-40 chapters not because of their content, but because they would have made a much stronger and more satisfying 5-6 chapters in any other book.

[Ragnus]

dot dot fucking dot Bleach.

[Max™]

That panel with Gin saying "This guy's the boss" made me do this:

Pretendin' he was dead...
LIKE A BOSS!
Wasn't actually dead...
LIKE A BOSS!
Stealin' Hougyouku thingies...
LIKE A BOSS!
Raisin' the Espada...
LIKE A BOSS!
Killin' the last Espada...
LIKE A BOSS!
Pretendin' to get killed...
LIKE A BOSS!
Growin' a big gay mullet...
LIKE A BOSS!
Growin' Butterfly wings...
LIKE A BOSS!
Takin' out Gin...
LIKE A BOSS!
Gettin' taken out by plotkai...
LIKE A BOSS!

[saracrow]

did something happen to Gin's wrist? It looks like it's missing meat after he takes the pebble from Aizen.


*nvm.. reread it and it looks like aizen touched / threw him

[Serif]

did something happen to Gin's wrist? It looks like it's missing meat after he takes the pebble from Aizen.

Aizen's raptor claw hands

[arus2001]

Aside from haters continuing to read despite their weekly declarations of hate, probably the only thing that bothers me is the assumption that Kubo's just riding his deadlines, wasting days trolling boards for our invaluable input, then hammering this shit out a couple days before printing and repeating the cycle.

Odds are he's weeks ahead in production, possibly even months. I can't rule out the possibility of WSJ dictating his pacing or even the content, either. The story we see might not be 100% of the story he'd wanted us to see, which I consider a bit of a shame, but such is the corporate machine and part of why I stepped out of the art world years back.

[Souj]

the only thing that bothers me is the assumption that Kubo's just riding his deadlines, wasting days trolling boards for our invaluable input, then hammering this shit out a couple days before printing and repeating the cycle.

who's saying this? I don't think a single person has made this claim. I think we all believe he's just writing a sucky story, despite how much of a deadline he has.

[Lucavi]

^ This. The guy just can't write for shit. It has nothing to do with deadlines. He can draw, but he's no mangaka, because he can't write for shit.

[Stilzkin]

Aside from haters continuing to read despite their weekly declarations of hate, probably the only thing that bothers me is the assumption that Kubo's just riding his deadlines, wasting days trolling boards for our invaluable input, then hammering this shit out a couple days before printing and repeating the cycle.

Odds are he's weeks ahead in production, possibly even months. I can't rule out the possibility of WSJ dictating his pacing or even the content, either. The story we see might not be 100% of the story he'd wanted us to see, which I consider a bit of a shame, but such is the corporate machine and part of why I stepped out of the art world years back.

His writing is going downhill so got to give him something right?

No he is not months ahead of his schedule, a normal writer for jump is always a few weeks ahead of what we are seeing (rough draft though, I doubt the final copy is done more than a week in advance). I doubt the editors are ok with the artist having months worth of rough drafts finished as their ratings continue to drop.

Seeing as other artists can pull out continously good chapters while Kubo's story has crashed I don't think you can blame WSJ for his writing.

Whats wrong with reading Bleach while thinking it sucks? It gives you a good idea of what other artists are doing right in comparison and it can be fun to watch a trainwreck.

[Souj]

He can draw, but he's no mangaka, because he can't write for shit.

eeeeeh I wouldn't say that either. The beginning to the end of the SS arc was all pretty good story wise, at least for a weekly shonen series. It's just that for some reason, after that, he either stopped caring, or stopped trying, or had some kind of mid-life crisis or some other kind of epiphany that changed the way he came up with stories and put them together.
So I'd say it is correct to say he sucks at writing stories now, but he used to be good at it.
Pacing is his number 1 problem, because honestly, it wouldnt be so bad if Aizen did all this haxing in 3 chapters instead of over a period of 30+ chapters.

[Marcicus]

eeeeeh I wouldn't say that either. The beginning to the end of the SS arc was all pretty good story wise, at least for a weekly shonen series. It's just that for some reason, after that, he either stopped caring, or stopped trying, or had some kind of mid-life crisis or some other kind of epiphany that changed the way he came up with stories and put them together.
So I'd say it is correct to say he sucks at writing stories now, but he used to be good at it.
Pacing is his number 1 problem, because honestly, it wouldnt be so bad if Aizen did all this haxing in 3 chapters instead of over a period of 30+ chapters.

^ this

i always felt like it should have ended at the SS arc, but meh.

[arus2001]

Out of curiosity, how did DBZ fare in popularity even though Toriyama pretty much felt he ended things, but his bosses pretty much wanted more? From there, is it a stretch to not consider they might not have said something to Kubo like, "Hey, stretch this out a bit, k? Your contract's still good." Doesn't so much matter if there's a right way or a wrong to go about it, but we just don't know if this all his doing.

In the long term, this medium doesn't really compliment giant casts well. Especially if you're lucky to break 20 pages a week. Spare me the One Piece or other manga does it bullshit, as intrinsically having more characters ups the chances of said characters being ones people don't care about, no matter how forced their involvement might be in the story later. And while there are ways big casts can be covered, I don't really think there's been any series that's heavily focused on multiple side-characters in OVAs or bonus issues on their own time without halting the main plot.

Regardless, specific to people here, I've been around to see all the BS. Kepachi's shikai, what a VL really is, who the bodies are, blah blah. It's nice to have discussion when there's actually discussion to be had that isn't, "lolbleachsux." "what a fucking trainwreck." or "lol I can write better than Kubo, fuck." Nothing happens this week? Fine, the thread can fall to page 2 or something. Instead, we get the above, or the derailings of a few pages back with DBZ spam. It's like there's no middle ground on this manga, with either people being blindingly zealous like some of those linked forums, or here, with what's feeling like most of the time now the only posts are criticisms, no matter how legit they may be. Wondering if I should just jump to the OP thread and start posting InuYasha videos or something.


tl;dr: imad, sorta.

[Correction]

Unfortunately you'll just have to endure it; this is what happens when the general consensus is "the series is slippin' so hard I've stopped caring what happens to 95% of the characters JUST. END. THE. ARC."

It's not necessarily that Kubo can't write. I actually liked the turn back the pendulum arc, but everything, and I do mean everything, that's happened since Yamamoto sealed Aizen + his top mooks in a wall of impenetrable fire has been a colossal waste of time. We get it. Aizen is unstoppable by anybody but Ichigo. But then again, we've known that ever since Kubo let on that Ichigo is by all accounts the main character of Bleach. This is the crux of the problem this last year of Bleach: he's basically made his entire supporting cast kind of unimportant while those supposedly central to the actions are. doing. nothing.

remember this?

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3...5855291321.jpg

That's a pretty decent metaphor for the fan reaction to what's been happening to major characters and the 'strongest' arrancars over the last 50-ish weeks of Bleach.

[LD]

Looking this shit over, there is a small glimmer of light.
I could analyze the whole chapter, but it sums up to this:

Gin isn't stupid.

Why didn't he do this 200 chapters ago? Just to find the right moment? I imagine Aizen was less powerful and more trusting before he got his plot hole.

Anyway, whatever happens, Gin has to die. The question is when. If Gin turns out to be a good guy, I want him to die now because Ichimaru palling around with the kids is just stupid. If Gin is a bad guy, I want him to out-Aisen Aisen and have a rich, full life as an awesome Machiavelli bastard, ultimately dying to Ichigo or perhaps whoever the king is.

[Souj]

Who's Aisen?
And you're correct, Gin isn't stupid, but Kubo seems to be.

[LD]

He doesn't deserve the z, it's too awesome a letter.

[Ayn]

Fucking LOL, Max.