As much as I love Prince of Tennis and whatever, I genuinely wish they would make Ryoma lose one match. Be it against Sanada or Atobe, hell, if it was against someone on the u-17 too would be great! like why are you giving the kid a teaching moment right before his match? why should he learned about how to defeat a stronger enemy before he even play against the enemy? letting his father whoop his ass every time they played doesn't even count.
Hell, even Tezuka lost in a match against Sanada, and he continued to be the weird God-like player that he is.
Do you have a license for all these hot takes? ▲ Unleash the other meta conversation. Please give use Ichigo.
Or not, apparently I don't know how to read and missed that you already did one for him. Oh well.
Even though I’ve already given my Hot Take about Ichigo (see here), I figured I can take this chance to write that meta I promised re: ichiruki’s double protag status, the meaning of ichigo’s name, and what it means to be a shounen hero. This will also sort of addresses the debacle a few months ago in regard to the Only well-worded, moderately coherent and somewhat valid IH meta I have read, which is also primarily about the meaning of ichigo’s name and how that ties in with the overall theme of protection throughout the manga. (I think the basis for the IH meta – that Ichigo only ever uses the serious form of the word ‘to protect’ for ORIHIME as an individual, and that the other times he uses them are for broader swathes of things—has been debunked in the comments, but since I don’t speak Japanese I really can’t figure out the validity of either side of the argument so I’ll take it as it is. Also, when I say ‘somewhat valid meta’, what I mean is in the context of the narrative I don’t think it’s valid at all, but at least there aren’t major glaring logical fallacies in the meta itself. The bar is so, so low for IH meta. I’m not even sure we can call most of their…. text-vomit… meta at all.
Anyway. Petty and off-topic.)
So, here goes: the meta about ichigo’s name and how it correlates to the theme of protection throughout the manga, what it means to be a shounen hero, and why and how those two things tie in with ichiruki’s double protag status!
Ichigo’s name is comprised of two kanji – one obviously the kanji for the number one, the other a kanji that means ‘to protect’. We all know this. This leads to Ichigo’s name potentially having two interpretations: ‘one protector’ (or as the official eng translation put it, the one who protects), or ‘to protect one thing’ (the translation used in the scanlator’s versions + official kr translation). Both would make sense given the context of the entire story, but I tend to think the latter version is slightly more relevant (not necessarily more accurate— just more relevant), mostly because in chapter 19, straight after hearing the meaning of his name, Ichigo goes on to single out one thing (one person) that he wants to protect—his mom.
(And why does he single out his mom for this honour? Because his mom always protected him. This is relevant a little later.)
He then does go on to say that as his sisters were born and he went to the dojo and got stronger, the list of things he wanted to protect grew, so it’s absolutely valid to read his name as just meaning ‘protector’. But, despite that, it’s very clear in the text that Ichigo always has one thing (person) that he wants to protect above all no matter what. This is the ‘one’ thing that he associates his identity of ‘protector’ to. Initially, it’s his mom—because when she dies, despite the ‘growing list of people he wants to protect’ still existing, Ichigo loses his sense of identity as ‘the protector’. Sure, he still protects his sisters, but it’s duty driving him— he no longer thinks of himself as a protector. How can he, when, in his view, he’s the one who practically killed his mother? His ‘growing list of people to protect’ halts to a stop, and years later, we see him telling Rukia that he’s ‘not a good enough guy to stick his neck out for other people’. This is a lie, as we all know, but it’s important that Ichigo is espousing this rhetoric. He has stopped actively wanting to protect.
So, despite Ichigo having an innate desire to protect, I would argue it’s conditional – 1) dependent on the one person he wants to protect the most (e.g. his mom, and, as I will argue in a moment, Rukia) being alive and well, because otherwise he just falls into despair and rejects his identity as protector, and 2) initially dependent on the subject of protection being someone close to him. Ichigo, despite having progressed to ‘I will definitely protect everybody’ by the tybw arc, did not start there—it was a progression! He starts off very small and quite selfish – first, the person most important to him, his mom. Then his family. Then his friends. Then friends of friends, then acquaintances, then—and so on. This is why I said Ichigo is self-centred: everything he does is dependent first and foremost on the things and people that are most important to him. (Which is fine for a normal person! Maybe not so fine as a shounen protagonist, though that part comes later.) Ichigo doesn’t start off with some lofty ideal to protect the whole world – compare that to Rukia, who lands in the story and immediately demands him to protect everybody, regardless of distance or convenience. As dux put it in his excellent meta, this is an instinct towards protection versus a philosophy of protection. Ichigo has an instinct to protect, like most people do! But Rukia has a philosophy of protection, which most people can’t even begin to fathom or try to emulate. (This will, again, be important for a later point in this post, but for now, back to ichigo’s name.)
So basically, we have established so far that: Ichigo’s name means one who protects or protector of one thing. But whichever interpretation we go by, it’s evident in the text that Ichigo has a… tether person, of sorts, that he ties the meaning of his name and his identity of ‘protector’ to—a person he wants to protect above all. Initially it’s his mom. But after his mom dies?
It’s Rukia.
It’s blatant. Ichigo being unable to save Rukia in ch56 broken coda is DIRECTLY paralleled with him being unable to save Masaki. At the end of the arc, in having saved Rukia, Ichigo regains his identity as protector finally gets some closure re: the Masaki era of his life: ‘the rain’s finally stopped’. It’s very clear that Rukia’s importance to his identity as protector is equivalent to the importance that Masaki had on it. Rukia has now become his ‘tether’; Rukia is now the person he wants to protect above all; Rukia is the one, who, should he fail to protect her, he would fall into despair and reject his protector identity again. He WAS a little down about being unable to protect Tatsuki, Chad, and Orihime in the HM arc, but it was nothing like the abject despair he experienced at Masaki’s death + Rukia being taken away for execution, and as soon as RUKIA comes back and affirms his identity, despite the fact of his failure still existing, Ichigo perks straight back up. Basically, failures to protect people other than Rukia get Ichigo down, but it’s not enough to keep him down as long as Rukia’s still standing.
Ichigo also consistently goes apeshit over Rukia’s safety in particular. He’s not spurred into action re: going to find the Vaizards until Rukia becomes hurt. He thinks of Yammy and Ulquiorra, but his eyes don’t glaze over black until he thinks of Grimmjow, who has hurt Rukia. He refuses to split up and Rukia specifically calls him out that it’s out of concern for HER safety. As soon as he feels Rukia being cut down, he immediately throws away the mission to go save her instead. And most importantly – what’s the main criteria for Ichigo deciding on the one he wants to protect the most? It’s the person who protects HIM. Rukia is one of the only people in the text who consistently protects Ichigo, physically, mentally, and emotionally. (She is also the only person that the text refers to as having ‘saved’ Ichigo. Nobody else gets this distinction.)
Alright! So Ichigo’s instinct towards protection has a self-centred bent to it, and the person at the centre of this instinct has gone from being Masaki to Rukia. So what now from here?
A little bit of a tangent: when I first read the chapter regarding the meaning of Ichigo’s name, I was a little taken aback, because – what a selfish name for a shounen protag, for someone who’s supposed to go on to become a hero of the world. Heroes don’t get to protect just one thing, they have to protect everybody! How is Ichigo going to be a shounen protag saving the whole world, if he’s only going to protect one thing?
To answer this question, we need to have a look at what makes a typical shounen protag. Look at Naruto, whose ‘ninja way’ has rehabilitated countless people, who eventually became Hokage, so that ‘his ninja way’ officially became adopted as the whole Leaf Village’s ‘ninja way’. Look at Luffy and his crew, whose carefree attitudes and ride-or-die comradeship between their crew members is widely admired and emulated. Look at Fairy Tail, where Natsu’s guild is the ideal for what a guild should be, and many guilds have reformed in their image with their values. What makes a typical shounen protagonist, I would argue, are two main things: an indisputable, unshakeable, almost inhumanly good ideal widely recognized within the canon as the way that things should be, and the faith, power, and drive necessary to rehabilitate people to this ideal and change the world so that it becomes closer to this ideal.
Naruto is the ideal of a ninja. Luffy and his crew are the ideal of a pirate crew. Natsu’s Fairy Tail guild is the ideal of a mage guild.
Is Ichigo the ideal of what a Shinigami should be?
Not initially! Initially, he’s just a prickly little kid with a shitload of trauma and depression to boot! Initially, his instinct to protect has a self-centred bent to it! Initially, he’s not even a Shinigami at all!
This is where Rukia comes in. Rukia and her philosophy of protection is the ideal of this series – she is what all Shinigami should be. The text isn’t even subtle about this—Rukia canonically has the most beautiful sword (soul) in all of Soul Society. Realistic or not, Rukia is the ‘absolute good’ of this universe—her ideal is, theoretically, the universal ideal.
But idealism alone doesn’t make Rukia the protagonist-- Rukia lacks the faith, power and drive necessary to turn people to her way of thinking and enact change, which is the other key component of a shounen protag. This is the part that Ichigo supplies—his complete and utterly unshakeable faith in Rukia and her values, the power necessary to back those values, and the ability to spread these values far and wide so that other people start to take up these values as well. I said above that Rukia’s philosophy of protection is so far-fetched that most people can’t even begin to fathom or emulate it—but Ichigo is not ‘most people’. He’s a shounen protag, goddammit! He has the ability to take up an ‘ideal’ that for most people would be impossible, and actually enact change towards that ideal.
This is why Ichigo and Rukia are double protagonists. Not because they were designed to be matchy-matchy or because of their avalanche of matching titles or whatever else. This is why. They are literally two halves of one shounen protagonist. Kubo called them sand and rotator in the side A and B poems, and he could NOT have picked a better analogy for them. Think of a watermill (or a sand mill, as the analogy is given), which is used to grind grain. The mill by itself cannot perform its purpose any more than the water by itself can magically grind the grain. The water needs to be driven by the wheel through the right mechanisms, and the wheel needs the water to actually function. Rukia drives Ichigo, points him in the right direction with her values, and Ichigo supplies the force necessary to enact change. Rotator, and sand. One protagonist, split into two.
(As a completely unrelated aside, I don’t know what it’s like in Japan, but in Korea ‘grinding the grain’ is a euphemism for sex, and watermills are inextricably associated with illicit liaisons. They’re the eastern world’s equivalent to the western world’s stables- any raunchy business conducted outside is usually conducted in a watermill.)
This is also why Ichigo’s name wasn’t something more all-encompassing. He can ‘protect one thing’ and still be a hero – as long as the ‘one thing’ he protects is Rukia. He wants to protect Rukia above all else, to the detriment of others, even (as evidenced by him turning away from rescuing Orihime to rescue Rukia)—but Rukia tells him no, no, I refuse to be protected by you, you have to protect the whole world. This is why it HAS to be Rukia for Ichigo – anyone with less than the absolute selfless ideal that Rukia has could never make Ichigo into the hero. Rukia turns Ichigo’s head to the whole world, opens his eyes to the possibility of protecting more than those in his immediate circle, makes him selfless enough to go through with it. Rukia makes Ichigo the hero. (Big aside: I’m not using ‘hero’ and ‘protag’ interchangeably here. Ichigo is the ‘hero’ of the narrative, but BOTH ichigo and rukia are the ‘protagonists’ of the story.)
But that isn’t the end of it. I have mentioned, in the past, that Bleach is not typical shounen, that it is structured more like YA lit and should be analysed as such. ‘But Sera! You just spent like 2 A4 pages talking about why Ichigo and Rukia are Standard Shounen Protags together!’ Ah but you see, that’s only initially. INITIALLY, Ichigo and Rukia need each other to become One Whole Stock Standard Shounen Protag. Rukia lacks faith and drive, Ichigo lacks ideal. They need the other to support their flaws, initially. To be completely honest, this is an excellent way to start an unhealthy codependent relationship. The most beautiful part about Ichiruki is that they don’t go down this path at all. They start becoming a whole shounen protag individually, by adopting the other person’s strength as their own. Rukia’s ideals inspire Ichigo, and by tybw, he is as avid about protecting everybody as Rukia is. Rukia sees Ichigo’s unrelenting faith in the fact that she is a good person worth saving, and starts believing in it herself and reciprocates in kind in HM and FB arcs. This is where the YA component comes in—YA protags, unlike typical Shounen Protags, don’t start off with an unapproachable ideal and the power+faith+drive necessary to change the world with it. They GROW into it. That is what Ichigo and Rukia are doing—they are both growing throughout the whole story to fit their protagonist roles, so that eventually, they can become One Whole Independent protagonist on their own.
It’s a beautiful, perfectly balanced, ironic jigsaw puzzle: Rukia had the ideal, but didn’t have the ability to turn others to this ideal. The only person she turned to it was Ichigo, but that was enough—Ichigo turns everyone else to it as well, overcoming centuries of tradition. Ichigo had the faith and drive, but no-one to put it behind. The only person he put it behind was Rukia, and that was enough—she and her values guide his choices and actions, and he becomes heroic. Ichigo and Rukia each failed one criteria for being a shounen protag, except with each other, BUT THAT WAS ENOUGH. Affecting and changing just one person—each other—was enough to set everything in motion.
A couple other points that I couldn’t find a place to fit into the essay cohesively, but think they’re still worth a mention:
Rukia says ‘all souls should be protected’, and she enacts this by protecting Ichigo, who is a hybrid of all the different soul types present in the narrative: human, quincy, hollow, reaper. Ichigo, despite being such a mixed entity, identifies firmly as shinigami, not because the shinigami convinced him with their ironclad, lofty morals but because Rukia did.
If Ichigo’s main flaw is being self-centred and tunnel visioned + a weird sort of superiority/hero complex, then Rukia’s main flaw is probably the exact opposite - despite having this incredible ideal, her lack of faith in herself + her tendency to obey the system in all but the most dire, life-threatening situations. Even their flaws are a perfect balancing act, mitigating each other out. (Rukia’s main flaws I probably want to go into in a bit more detail some other time, since it’s not something the fandom in general has much discussion on.)
So! In summary, the tl,dr version:
Ichigo’s name means ‘protector’ or ‘to protect one thing’ (both versions have been used in official translations). The latter is more relevant, as I have explained above. This ‘one thing’ initially is his mom, but by the end of the SS arc, it has very firmly become Rukia, again evidence listed above.
This had the potential to be problematic, as it’s not very heroic of someone to want to protect just one person, to hell with everyone else. BUT the narrative sidesteps that by making Ichigo and Rukia two halves of one shounen protagonist, and making them work best when they are together.
Shounen protags require two components: an ideal, and the ability+desire to enact that ideal. Rukia had the former, Ichigo had the latter. That’s why it’s not problematic for Ichigo to want to protect just one person most— because that one person is actually the ‘ideal moral standard’ of their entire universe, and she keeps telling him to use his powers for good and not just her.
But that’s not even all. Initially, they need the other to become ‘whole’, so to speak— but they don’t stay that way. Ichigo and Rukia have an immensely positive impact on each other, and help each other grow to adopt the best traits of the other and become a hero in their own right. Again, this is why they are both protagonists— because both of them kept growing and changing, right up to the final arc.
So, even though it’s been said a million times before, it bears repeating: Bleach genuinely is a story about Ichigo and Rukia, both of whom felt a little displaced in their own worlds and had trouble making connections. They connected with each other, and only then could their immense capacity for good could start changing the world. That’s really the crux of it— that it had to be each other for these two, not anybody else. Nobody else could bring out the best in them except for the other. They would never have become this extraordinary had it not been for the other person recognising their inherent value. It absolutely had to be Rukia for Ichigo, and vice versa. It’s always going to be the Ichigo and Rukia show.
Do you have a license for all these hot takes? ▲ Unleash the other meta conversation. Please give use Ichigo.
Or not, apparently I don't know how to read and missed that you already did one for him. Oh well.
Even though I’ve already given my Hot Take about Ichigo (see here), I figured I can take this chance to write that meta I promised re: ichiruki’s double protag status, the meaning of ichigo’s name, and what it means to be a shounen hero. This will also sort of addresses the debacle a few months ago in regard to the Only well-worded, moderately coherent and somewhat valid IH meta I have read, which is also primarily about the meaning of ichigo’s name and how that ties in with the overall theme of protection throughout the manga. (I think the basis for the IH meta – that Ichigo only ever uses the serious form of the word ‘to protect’ for ORIHIME as an individual, and that the other times he uses them are for broader swathes of things—has been debunked in the comments, but since I don’t speak Japanese I really can’t figure out the validity of either side of the argument so I’ll take it as it is. Also, when I say ‘somewhat valid meta’, what I mean is in the context of the narrative I don’t think it’s valid at all, but at least there aren’t major glaring logical fallacies in the meta itself. The bar is so, so low for IH meta. I’m not even sure we can call most of their…. text-vomit… meta at all.
Anyway. Petty and off-topic.)
So, here goes: the meta about ichigo’s name and how it correlates to the theme of protection throughout the manga, what it means to be a shounen hero, and why and how those two things tie in with ichiruki’s double protag status!
Ichigo’s name is comprised of two kanji – one obviously the kanji for the number one, the other a kanji that means ‘to protect’. We all know this. This leads to Ichigo’s name potentially having two interpretations: ‘one protector’ (or as the official eng translation put it, the one who protects), or ‘to protect one thing’ (the translation used in the scanlator’s versions + official kr translation). Both would make sense given the context of the entire story, but I tend to think the latter version is slightly more relevant (not necessarily more accurate— just more relevant), mostly because in chapter 19, straight after hearing the meaning of his name, Ichigo goes on to single out one thing (one person) that he wants to protect—his mom.
(And why does he single out his mom for this honour? Because his mom always protected him. This is relevant a little later.)
He then does go on to say that as his sisters were born and he went to the dojo and got stronger, the list of things he wanted to protect grew, so it’s absolutely valid to read his name as just meaning ‘protector’. But, despite that, it’s very clear in the text that Ichigo always has one thing (person) that he wants to protect above all no matter what. This is the ‘one’ thing that he associates his identity of ‘protector’ to. Initially, it’s his mom—because when she dies, despite the ‘growing list of people he wants to protect’ still existing, Ichigo loses his sense of identity as ‘the protector’. Sure, he still protects his sisters, but it’s duty driving him— he no longer thinks of himself as a protector. How can he, when, in his view, he’s the one who practically killed his mother? His ‘growing list of people to protect’ halts to a stop, and years later, we see him telling Rukia that he’s ‘not a good enough guy to stick his neck out for other people’. This is a lie, as we all know, but it’s important that Ichigo is espousing this rhetoric. He has stopped actively wanting to protect.
So, despite Ichigo having an innate desire to protect, I would argue it’s conditional – 1) dependent on the one person he wants to protect the most (e.g. his mom, and, as I will argue in a moment, Rukia) being alive and well, because otherwise he just falls into despair and rejects his identity as protector, and 2) initially dependent on the subject of protection being someone close to him. Ichigo, despite having progressed to ‘I will definitely protect everybody’ by the tybw arc, did not start there—it was a progression! He starts off very small and quite selfish – first, the person most important to him, his mom. Then his family. Then his friends. Then friends of friends, then acquaintances, then—and so on. This is why I said Ichigo is self-centred: everything he does is dependent first and foremost on the things and people that are most important to him. (Which is fine for a normal person! Maybe not so fine as a shounen protagonist, though that part comes later.) Ichigo doesn’t start off with some lofty ideal to protect the whole world – compare that to Rukia, who lands in the story and immediately demands him to protect everybody, regardless of distance or convenience. As dux put it in his excellent meta, this is an instinct towards protection versus a philosophy of protection. Ichigo has an instinct to protect, like most people do! But Rukia has a philosophy of protection, which most people can’t even begin to fathom or try to emulate. (This will, again, be important for a later point in this post, but for now, back to ichigo’s name.)
So basically, we have established so far that: Ichigo’s name means one who protects or protector of one thing. But whichever interpretation we go by, it’s evident in the text that Ichigo has a… tether person, of sorts, that he ties the meaning of his name and his identity of ‘protector’ to—a person he wants to protect above all. Initially it’s his mom. But after his mom dies?
It’s Rukia.
It’s blatant. Ichigo being unable to save Rukia in ch56 broken coda is DIRECTLY paralleled with him being unable to save Masaki. At the end of the arc, in having saved Rukia, Ichigo regains his identity as protector finally gets some closure re: the Masaki era of his life: ‘the rain’s finally stopped’. It’s very clear that Rukia’s importance to his identity as protector is equivalent to the importance that Masaki had on it. Rukia has now become his ‘tether’; Rukia is now the person he wants to protect above all; Rukia is the one, who, should he fail to protect her, he would fall into despair and reject his protector identity again. He WAS a little down about being unable to protect Tatsuki, Chad, and Orihime in the HM arc, but it was nothing like the abject despair he experienced at Masaki’s death + Rukia being taken away for execution, and as soon as RUKIA comes back and affirms his identity, despite the fact of his failure still existing, Ichigo perks straight back up. Basically, failures to protect people other than Rukia get Ichigo down, but it’s not enough to keep him down as long as Rukia’s still standing.
Ichigo also consistently goes apeshit over Rukia’s safety in particular. He’s not spurred into action re: going to find the Vaizards until Rukia becomes hurt. He thinks of Yammy and Ulquiorra, but his eyes don’t glaze over black until he thinks of Grimmjow, who has hurt Rukia. He refuses to split up and Rukia specifically calls him out that it’s out of concern for HER safety. As soon as he feels Rukia being cut down, he immediately throws away the mission to go save her instead. And most importantly – what’s the main criteria for Ichigo deciding on the one he wants to protect the most? It’s the person who protects HIM. Rukia is one of the only people in the text who consistently protects Ichigo, physically, mentally, and emotionally. (She is also the only person that the text refers to as having ‘saved’ Ichigo. Nobody else gets this distinction.)
Alright! So Ichigo’s instinct towards protection has a self-centred bent to it, and the person at the centre of this instinct has gone from being Masaki to Rukia. So what now from here?
A little bit of a tangent: when I first read the chapter regarding the meaning of Ichigo’s name, I was a little taken aback, because – what a selfish name for a shounen protag, for someone who’s supposed to go on to become a hero of the world. Heroes don’t get to protect just one thing, they have to protect everybody! How is Ichigo going to be a shounen protag saving the whole world, if he’s only going to protect one thing?
To answer this question, we need to have a look at what makes a typical shounen protag. Look at Naruto, whose ‘ninja way’ has rehabilitated countless people, who eventually became Hokage, so that ‘his ninja way’ officially became adopted as the whole Leaf Village’s ‘ninja way’. Look at Luffy and his crew, whose carefree attitudes and ride-or-die comradeship between their crew members is widely admired and emulated. Look at Fairy Tail, where Natsu’s guild is the ideal for what a guild should be, and many guilds have reformed in their image with their values. What makes a typical shounen protagonist, I would argue, are two main things: an indisputable, unshakeable, almost inhumanly good ideal widely recognized within the canon as the way that things should be, and the faith, power, and drive necessary to rehabilitate people to this ideal and change the world so that it becomes closer to this ideal.
Naruto is the ideal of a ninja. Luffy and his crew are the ideal of a pirate crew. Natsu’s Fairy Tail guild is the ideal of a mage guild.
Is Ichigo the ideal of what a Shinigami should be?
Not initially! Initially, he’s just a prickly little kid with a shitload of trauma and depression to boot! Initially, his instinct to protect has a self-centred bent to it! Initially, he’s not even a Shinigami at all!
This is where Rukia comes in. Rukia and her philosophy of protection is the ideal of this series – she is what all Shinigami should be. The text isn’t even subtle about this—Rukia canonically has the most beautiful sword (soul) in all of Soul Society. Realistic or not, Rukia is the ‘absolute good’ of this universe—her ideal is, theoretically, the universal ideal.
But idealism alone doesn’t make Rukia the protagonist-- Rukia lacks the faith, power and drive necessary to turn people to her way of thinking and enact change, which is the other key component of a shounen protag. This is the part that Ichigo supplies—his complete and utterly unshakeable faith in Rukia and her values, the power necessary to back those values, and the ability to spread these values far and wide so that other people start to take up these values as well. I said above that Rukia’s philosophy of protection is so far-fetched that most people can’t even begin to fathom or emulate it—but Ichigo is not ‘most people’. He’s a shounen protag, goddammit! He has the ability to take up an ‘ideal’ that for most people would be impossible, and actually enact change towards that ideal.
This is why Ichigo and Rukia are double protagonists. Not because they were designed to be matchy-matchy or because of their avalanche of matching titles or whatever else. This is why. They are literally two halves of one shounen protagonist. Kubo called them sand and rotator in the side A and B poems, and he could NOT have picked a better analogy for them. Think of a watermill (or a sand mill, as the analogy is given), which is used to grind grain. The mill by itself cannot perform its purpose any more than the water by itself can magically grind the grain. The water needs to be driven by the wheel through the right mechanisms, and the wheel needs the water to actually function. Rukia drives Ichigo, points him in the right direction with her values, and Ichigo supplies the force necessary to enact change. Rotator, and sand. One protagonist, split into two.
(As a completely unrelated aside, I don’t know what it’s like in Japan, but in Korea ‘grinding the grain’ is a euphemism for sex, and watermills are inextricably associated with illicit liaisons. They’re the eastern world’s equivalent to the western world’s stables- any raunchy business conducted outside is usually conducted in a watermill.)
This is also why Ichigo’s name wasn’t something more all-encompassing. He can ‘protect one thing’ and still be a hero – as long as the ‘one thing’ he protects is Rukia. He wants to protect Rukia above all else, to the detriment of others, even (as evidenced by him turning away from rescuing Orihime to rescue Rukia)—but Rukia tells him no, no, I refuse to be protected by you, you have to protect the whole world. This is why it HAS to be Rukia for Ichigo – anyone with less than the absolute selfless ideal that Rukia has could never make Ichigo into the hero. Rukia turns Ichigo’s head to the whole world, opens his eyes to the possibility of protecting more than those in his immediate circle, makes him selfless enough to go through with it. Rukia makes Ichigo the hero. (Big aside: I’m not using ‘hero’ and ‘protag’ interchangeably here. Ichigo is the ‘hero’ of the narrative, but BOTH ichigo and rukia are the ‘protagonists’ of the story.)
But that isn’t the end of it. I have mentioned, in the past, that Bleach is not typical shounen, that it is structured more like YA lit and should be analysed as such. ‘But Sera! You just spent like 2 A4 pages talking about why Ichigo and Rukia are Standard Shounen Protags together!’ Ah but you see, that’s only initially. INITIALLY, Ichigo and Rukia need each other to become One Whole Stock Standard Shounen Protag. Rukia lacks faith and drive, Ichigo lacks ideal. They need the other to support their flaws, initially. To be completely honest, this is an excellent way to start an unhealthy codependent relationship. The most beautiful part about Ichiruki is that they don’t go down this path at all. They start becoming a whole shounen protag individually, by adopting the other person’s strength as their own. Rukia’s ideals inspire Ichigo, and by tybw, he is as avid about protecting everybody as Rukia is. Rukia sees Ichigo’s unrelenting faith in the fact that she is a good person worth saving, and starts believing in it herself and reciprocates in kind in HM and FB arcs. This is where the YA component comes in—YA protags, unlike typical Shounen Protags, don’t start off with an unapproachable ideal and the power+faith+drive necessary to change the world with it. They GROW into it. That is what Ichigo and Rukia are doing—they are both growing throughout the whole story to fit their protagonist roles, so that eventually, they can become One Whole Independent protagonist on their own.
It’s a beautiful, perfectly balanced, ironic jigsaw puzzle: Rukia had the ideal, but didn’t have the ability to turn others to this ideal. The only person she turned to it was Ichigo, but that was enough—Ichigo turns everyone else to it as well, overcoming centuries of tradition. Ichigo had the faith and drive, but no-one to put it behind. The only person he put it behind was Rukia, and that was enough—she and her values guide his choices and actions, and he becomes heroic. Ichigo and Rukia each failed one criteria for being a shounen protag, except with each other, BUT THAT WAS ENOUGH. Affecting and changing just one person—each other—was enough to set everything in motion.
A couple other points that I couldn’t find a place to fit into the essay cohesively, but think they’re still worth a mention:
Rukia says ‘all souls should be protected’, and she enacts this by protecting Ichigo, who is a hybrid of all the different soul types present in the narrative: human, quincy, hollow, reaper. Ichigo, despite being such a mixed entity, identifies firmly as shinigami, not because the shinigami convinced him with their ironclad, lofty morals but because Rukia did.
If Ichigo’s main flaw is being self-centred and tunnel visioned + a weird sort of superiority/hero complex, then Rukia’s main flaw is probably the exact opposite - despite having this incredible ideal, her lack of faith in herself + her tendency to obey the system in all but the most dire, life-threatening situations. Even their flaws are a perfect balancing act, mitigating each other out. (Rukia’s main flaws I probably want to go into in a bit more detail some other time, since it’s not something the fandom in general has much discussion on.)
So! In summary, the tl,dr version:
Ichigo’s name means ‘protector’ or ‘to protect one thing’ (both versions have been used in official translations). The latter is more relevant, as I have explained above. This ‘one thing’ initially is his mom, but by the end of the SS arc, it has very firmly become Rukia, again evidence listed above.
This had the potential to be problematic, as it’s not very heroic of someone to want to protect just one person, to hell with everyone else. BUT the narrative sidesteps that by making Ichigo and Rukia two halves of one shounen protagonist, and making them work best when they are together.
Shounen protags require two components: an ideal, and the ability+desire to enact that ideal. Rukia had the former, Ichigo had the latter. That’s why it’s not problematic for Ichigo to want to protect just one person most— because that one person is actually the ‘ideal moral standard’ of their entire universe, and she keeps telling him to use his powers for good and not just her.
But that’s not even all. Initially, they need the other to become ‘whole’, so to speak— but they don’t stay that way. Ichigo and Rukia have an immensely positive impact on each other, and help each other grow to adopt the best traits of the other and become a hero in their own right. Again, this is why they are both protagonists— because both of them kept growing and changing, right up to the final arc.
So, even though it’s been said a million times before, it bears repeating: Bleach genuinely is a story about Ichigo and Rukia, both of whom felt a little displaced in their own worlds and had trouble making connections. They connected with each other, and only then could their immense capacity for good could start changing the world. That’s really the crux of it— that it had to be each other for these two, not anybody else. Nobody else could bring out the best in them except for the other. They would never have become this extraordinary had it not been for the other person recognising their inherent value. It absolutely had to be Rukia for Ichigo, and vice versa. It’s always going to be the Ichigo and Rukia show.
one of my favorite things about michael and lisa marie is that being with her really gave michael a new air of confidence. there was just something in him that changed after that point. it’s like his license on his “fuck you, i do what i want” attitude was renewed.
Hey! I know this is old but I have this question: what do you think the chapter 436 means? I'm talking about the scene where Ichigo is thinking about his moments of "pride" and then he thinks about Rukia. I know that there's a lot of essays about this, but I really like the way you analize things, so I wanted to know what do you think about this scene.
As far as I’m concerned, this is the definitive analysis of that moment. I really have nothing to add to it, because it covers it all relatively clearly.
I guess I can try, although I’m mostly reiterating and condensing: Rukia embodies Ichigo’s ideal of the Shinigami. She gave him the power to protect in Chapter 1, and she gave him the values to use that power with in Chapter 2 (it’s no coincidence it was called “Starter”). The post points out in exacting detail that she’s been the one to motivate him every time he’s strayed from the course, and he’s always been adamant that he considers himself to be, or is trying to be, a Shinigami.
The conclusion is pretty obvious: he’s always striving to match the example Rukia set for him, because she’s his savior. (Rukia, meanwhile, considers him to be hers, as can be seen when she considers Hitsugaya’s speech about how he changed things and elsewhere.) And this is really their dynamic: they provide one another with an upward spiral that continuously lifts each of them up, which they both believe in with absolute certainty.
To digress, this doesn’t overtly exist anywhere else in the series. We’re given plenty of examples of romantic love (Isshin and Masaki, Ryuuken and Kanae, Kaien and Miyako, and Byakuya and Hisana) but the important thing to note is these were all relationships of comfort. None of them inspired any of the participants to grow significantly stronger.
Renji gets stronger to surpass Byakuya, out of a desire to make Rukia happy, but that desire had no real origin in Rukia herself. (And, frankly, he fails, even in the end.)
Chad and Orihime both resolve to get stronger to stand beside Ichigo, but those desires have no real origin in Ichigo himself. (And frankly, they repeatedly fail, particularly within the Lost Substitute Shinigami arc, as the article points out.) The strongest moment that Orihime has in this capacity stems from seeing Tatsuki get hurt by Numb Chandelier, and gaining her powers and finding the resolve to use lethal force—the only time she does so.
Other examples exist, like Gin embarking upon revenge for Rangiku, which she never truly wanted anyway.
Ichigo and Rukia are the only characters who share this mutual-savior dynamic, which as is pointed out, is not really about saving but honoring and reciprocating what’s already been done. (I feel it prudent at this point to yet again point out that Ichigo and Rukia were, if not suicidal, then absolutely fatalistic when they met one another, and Renji, Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki, etc., had no impact upon that whatsoever.)
Ichigo and Rukia lift one another up from the very bottom to the very top, from the equivalent of depressed foot soldiers to the equivalent of among the strongest of the Captains.
No other set of characters achieves anything even remotely similar and the next greatest advance (Renji’s) is achieved through direct exposure to seeing the dynamic in action, i.e., watching Ichigo do what he himself could not.
This completely unique dynamic was, in my opinion, going to be instrumental in changing the status quo.
To digress a little farther, this is why IH and RR do, respectively, nothing and very little for me, personally. Orihime and Renji don’t really develop much in response to Ichigo and Rukia, and Ichigo and Rukia don’t develop at all in response to Orihime and Renji. I can see there being some comfort in RR, but not really in IH, for reasons I won’t go into here, but there is certainly nothing of drawing out the best in one another. It simply isn’t there.
To return to the point, Ichigo has modeled himself upon Rukia, which is why he’s so adrift without her, and why the notion of her—yes, his love for her—activates his Fullbring, which is merely a step on the way back to becoming a Shinigami again to him, so he might continue on her path, which is what he’s been craving during the time skip (and indeed, throughout the series).
Meanwhile, you might say that what Hitsugaya is later articulating to Rukia about how Ichigo changed Soul Society, is proof that he had begun to reform it in her image, with the values she had herself professed to him.
This is in large part why later events were such a travesty. We were supposed to see this vision, this ideal of what Shinigami could be, as embodied in Rukia and then Ichigo as well, become the standard reality. The old guard of the Gotei 13 with all their failings (e.g., Mayuri, Yamamoto, Kenpachi, yes, even Shunsui, Ukitake, etc.) were distortions of this ideal. (Don’t forget, to pick just one example, how quick Nanao was to suggest killing Chad.)
Anyway, I don’t know that I really answered the question that well other than to point at the essay, or that this is well-organized, but those are some of my thoughts on the matter.
Rukia is a Shinigami and Ichigo identifies himself as a Shinigami
This post was originally going to be a reply to @heravenueexpert to her responses on a theory on the possibility of Rukia being a Quincy hybrid by @blackunicorn999 but since it’s too long I decided to create a separate post.
I agree with paradoxia. I also want Rukia to remain a pure Shinigami and not anything else. Aside from being a beautiful contrast to Ichigo’s mixed hybrid self. She is also what Ichigo identify himself the most and is what he is happiest at being one, a Shinigami, despite the fact that he is almost all kinds of being in the bleach universe. And I like to think that Rukia is part of the reason for this and I think it’s more romantic than her being a Quincy hybrid like Ichigo. She is who is, she doesn’t need to be anything else to be special to Ichigo, she is already replaceable in Ichigo’s life just as she is.
Ichigo is a human – But he isn’t happy nor satisfied at being one. This is shown on both at the beginning of bleach and Fullbring arc. Mostly this is due to being powerless and inability to protect.
Ichigo is a Visored – But during the time it was revealed he kept on rejecting his hollow side and denies being Visored while he keep saying he is a Shinigami.
Ichigo is a Fullbring – He was able to gain power which should have solve his dis-satisfaction at being powerless and unable to protect. Yet to Ichigo Fullbring is only a stepping stone to get his Shinigami powers back.
Ichigo is a Quincy – Yet on the war of Quincy vs Shinigami who’s side is he on?
Ichigo is a Shinigami – What’s so special about being a Shinigami? Why does Ichigo seem to have an obvious preference to this power despite all other powers he has? cough Because Rukia is Shinigami cough
Anti’s like to downgrade this scene by saying it’s only because Rukia represents his lost Shinigami power.
Well even if it is true it doesn’t take away that it’s still a very romantic thing. It’s romantic aside from the obvious heart in his shirt but because it shows an image of how beautiful Rukia looks in Ichigo’s mind (reminding all that this isn’t a flashback and this is just how Ichigo sees Rukia). It’s romantic because Rukia is the main catalyst for triggering his Fullbring (drawn from pride according to Ginjou and an ability of LOVE according to Riruka). It’s still romantic that Ichigo desperately wants his Shinigami power, and just look at who he represent that power with. No matter how they twist this scene it will always come out as romantic for ichiruki.
Bottom line is he want’s and love to be a Shinigami!
IchiOri’s keep on repeating that it’s not fair for Ichigo to remain in Soul Society at the End of the series because he won’t be able to live out his life as a human, this is in a pretext of being “concern” for Ichigo yet they just disregard Ichigo’s desire of being a Shinigami and ignore how miserable he has been just being a normal human being in favor of their ship to have a chance.
They blatantly ignore all the hint’s that Ichigo will be staying in soul society after the series is ended. And anti’s doesn’t like this because there’s no reason for Ori to stay in Soul Society, she has dreams in the real world unlike Ichigo. Yet her fans would rather want her to die just for their ship.
People seems to forget that Kubo created bleach because he wants to tell a story about Shinigami. I believe that Bleach is a story of Ichigo’s journey to becoming a full pledge Shinigami (Shonen trope coming of age) and that’s how the story will end with Ichigo finally becoming what he is most happy and proud at being and where he feels he belongs the most. It won’t be because he is force to give up being human but it will be his choice to stay in Soul Society because he knows what he wants to be and what he can’t live without being a Shinigami that includes Rukia in his life.
Rukia Kuchiki is the purest goddamn character in the entire fucking world.
I will fIGHT you on this. ‘The most beautiful zanpakutou in all of Soul Society’? There’s a reason Sode no Shirayuki is called such. It’s because of her owner.
The first time she meets Ichigo, the first time she tries to get him to help with her Shinigami duties, she drags him to a nearby park and tells him this:
Honestly? This is a ridiculous statement. Shinigami they may be, but they’re not omniscient. Of course the only people that they can save are the ones they can see, the ones they can reach. But that’s not the focus here– the focus is on the mindstate that causes her to say something like this.
Don’t save that kid if you’re not going to commit, she says. This is not a hobby. This is not even a job. This is a promise, a vow to protect and save. A hobby you stop when it becomes inconvenient, even a job you can shirk if you don’t like it that much. But this? This is not either. You are not allowed to do it to the limits of your convenience.
You do it to the ends of your life. You do it to the limits of your soul. This is what being a shinigami means to Kuchiki Rukia– what it SHOULD mean to every other shinigami as well.
And she is so pure that she believes in what she says wholeheartedly and has no compunction acting on it. That’s how she can throw herself in front of Ichigo, a human boy she’s just met, without any hesitation. That’s why, when she has her powers stripped from her and is pretty much stranded in the world of the living, the first thing she does is not bemoan her circumstances but find her replacement. She’s pledged her life’s purpose as protecting and saving other souls, and by god, she stands by it 200%.
This is even more incredible considering the rest of the Gotei-13′s attitudes towards their job. Some are downright assholes who look down upon souls that need to be saved. Some experiment on them and murder them in masses when they’re not useful. Her conviction, her compassion, is not something that was drilled into her by her surroundings. She has them despite her surroundings, because she is a fundamentally good person.
Give your life for them, she says, like it’s nothing, like it should be obvious. Because that’s the kind of person she is, and that’s the choice she’s made.
Is it any wonder, with a mentor like her, that this asshole
became someone like this?
Protect and save is Ichigo’s motto. But it’s not just his.
Something difficult, but can you tell me your favorite IR scene? Or the scene that makes you think "sh*t, they're soulmates". Thanks for your beautifuls fanarts.
SDFJDSFHJLKLHJAKDHLJKSALJHKHLJKFDLHJFAD OK JESUS CHRIST YES. YES I CAN DO THIS FOR YOU. Well firstly my favourite ir scene is – *plunks down the entirety of Bleach from chapters 1 to 685*
…. in all seriousness, thank you for giving me the chance to wax lyrical about a scene which I’ve talked about before, but I MISSED SOMETHING CRUCIAL LAST TIME, so I’m going to talk about it again. I’ve already answered that this moment
is my favourite IR moment, for various reasons that can be condensed down to: 1) Rukia is the trigger for his power once again, 2) her importance to ichigo is very obviously and clearly shown as being at a much greater, different level than that of the other nakama, and 3) Rukia in ichigo’s memory is, imo, the most GORGEOUS we’ve seen her throughout this entire manga.
BUT THEN! You appended ‘what makes you think sh*t, they;re soulmates’ to your ask and I immediately jumped to this scene only to realise:
This scene comes straight afterwards.
Initially, I didn’t think much of it. Just ‘oh, that’s interesting. I wonder why he hears Rukia’s voice? Eh, I expect it’ll be explained sometime later’. But then…. when I was rereading this scene after the conclusion of the FB arc, the significance of this scene hit me straight in the face.
Let’s start with the way that Ichigo instinctively reacts to Rukia’s voice. With ONE WORD. One word, one word that was probably broken and static-y to boot, and he’s already reacting so instantaneously– so desperately. He recognises Rukia’s voice with just a few words, blurred and distorted by static, and he’s visibly shaken by this.
But honestly, that’s just my shipping goggles talking. Let’s get into the real meat of this scene:
Why the hell do we hear Rukia’s voice, of all people, coming through that substitute badge?
There’s a bit of talk going around in the IR fandom about how Rukia taught Ichigo how to be a hero, or how he had no desire to protect anyone besides his family or the people it was “convenient” to guard before Rukia showed up. A point of contention: (WARNING: It’s a long point)
Since I am the person who recently said, “At first, he wants to protect only when it is convenient to him (and tells Rukia as much),” in this post, I feel this is essentially a response to me, and so I feel compelled to respond back.
Let me say first of all that I agree with almost all of this!
When I write meta, although I attempt to sprinkle in links to previous commentary in order to elucidate and enlighten my thought process, this is rarely comprehensive. The reasons for that are varied but mostly boil down to brevity, laziness, and Tumblr’s search function being absolute garbage. (Always search with Google instead, kids.) So, when I was using the word “convenient” there to describe Ichigo’s historical desire to protect, I meant it in a very particular way.
I agree with you that it was always in Ichigo’s nature to protect. I would agree that it was his desire, and even his instinct to do so. But that is precisely why I used the word “convenient” to describe what he does.
Before the series really begins, Ichigo, as you point out, saves Chad. He also saves Keigo and Mizuiro (with Chad’s help). And he saves his sisters. And he presumably does lots of other saving that we don’t see.
Yet that is exactly the point I am making: he saves people that he can see. He saves people that he is near. He saves people on the basis of locality. When he sees a problem, he instinctually tries to solve it. But that kind of problem-solving is exactly a kind of problem-solving of convenience. Because problems exist that cannot be immediately seen, whether it is because they are concealed, they are far away, or they are not immediately recognizable as problems.
And that is where Rukia comes in. I have a post on what I call Rukian Ethics. The short version is that what Rukia espouses is not an instinct of protection, but a philosophy of it. Her position is very similar to that of the philosophers Singer and Unger, but taken a step farther: that not only is distance (i.e., being close or even aware of a problem) not a factor in having a duty to intervene, not only is comfort not a factor in having a duty to intervene, but even risk of personal harm or death is not a factor in having a duty to intervene.
You talked about the second chapter, but then didn’t show what I consider to be the most important page in it:
Ichigo’s face here is not a coincidence. I would absolutely agree that he was lying earlier about what he wanted with his, “I’m not gonna fight those things for total strangers! I’m not that self-sacrificing!” But what his face here in the bottom-left reveals is either that he had never considered the problem from this angle before, or that he had never realized that was his desire. It is the look of a sudden epiphany!
And this is the critical moment. This is when Ichigo takes up the idea that he can operate on more than an instinct to protect, and instead operate on a philosophy to protect. That, I would argue, is why the chapter is called “Starter,” because it is the start of this process. This is when Ichigo begins to move beyond the convenience of saving only those he can immediately see, to trying to save everyone.
As I pointed out in another post linked in the Rukian Ethics one, he immediately takes up the cause (even if he is once again lying about it):
The fact he was lying, and his growing determination to uphold this philosophy, is articulated again later:
This is what I mean when I say that Ichigo’s initial form of protection, what we are now mutually calling his instinct to protect, is a convenient one. It was one limited to his immediate proximity. After encountering Rukia, it is modified into one that is unlimited in range and scope. It goes from an ad hoc, case-by-case, take-it-as-it-comes sort of thing, to a mission with defined parameters: to seek out and save.
(He will then, of course, attempt to save everyone, even his enemies, to both his gain and detriment. This is what I meant by doing so “on his terms.” He will only later recognize that sometimes sacrifices have to be made and that not everyone can be saved, by killing Ginjou [although Kubo will immediately undercut the significance of this by having Ginjou alive and “redeemed” in Soul Society in TYBW, making Ichigo’s killing of him and demanding his body from Yamamoto & Co. completely pointless thematically].)
There are only two other points I sort of dispute. The first is this:
Ichigo didn’t even need Rukia to give him the power to overcome his depression and shatter the lies he told himself about who he was - that was inside him all along.
Ichigo routinely demonstrates a learned helplessness and lack of confidence. He loses the first fairly quickly, but retains the second for the entire series. I don’t think it’s fair to say that he “didn’t even need Rukia to give him the power to overcome” this, given that he routinely falls back into it when she is not present (e.g., after his initial defeat by Byakuya and losing her powers, at the start of the Arrancar arc, almost the whole of the Xcution arc, against Yhwach). He is essentially always in the process of learning that he can do more and be better, and that process is facilitated largely (although not entirely) by Rukia. I would not agree with the notion that Ichigo ever becomes a self-contained, self-confident protagonist unto himself.
The second thing I sort of dispute is this:
Ichigo always had the desire in him to protect “everyone.” It was there in him from the beginning. When that desire is beaten and trampled into the dirt by despair, Rukia comes along and helps Ichigo restore it.
I think it’s debatable whether Ichigo’s ambitions were ever so high as to protect “everyone.” They might or might not have been. I would generally say they probably were. But I don’t think he was aware of it even if they were, to be honest. And I don’t believe he ever would have become aware of it without Rukia’s appearance in his life. Ichigo would not have become some sort of humanitarian and sought to lead the UN in order to end global poverty and hunger or something. He simply would not have ever moved much beyond helping people as and when he saw them in distress.
This isn’t the story of one girl coming into a boy’s life and changing everything about him to create a newer, better, more whole and rounded person. This is the story of two people who desperately, wantonly need each other in their lives to continue being all the things they can be and are finding one another and making it work.
This, though, I absolutely agree with. And while I would argue strenuously that Rukia expanded Ichigo’s vision of what he could do, Ichigo likewise tempered Rukia’s desire to sacrifice herself in the name of that philosophy. Together they are much more than the sum of their parts alone.
I would also say that neither of them ever actually fully lived up to this philosophy of protecting everyone, which was, you know, presumably the entire point of the manga: getting to the stage where they could do exactly that. And, as you imply, they never got to, because the idea was completely thrown away by the “ending.”
This is like... one of the gayest paneling I have ever seen in shounen, IT LOOKS SO INTENTIONAL ISTG. Fujimoto you can't keep get away from this.
The romantic/platonic subtlety isn't very visible in English, in the original Japanese ver HOWEVER—
*open my eyes wide to make sure I'm not insane and hallucinating*
I don't have such knowledge on Japanese language but I could read it for a bit. In this exact scene where their expression is shown face to face, when they talk, they didn't use any specific plural pronoun (they/you all) except for context giver in the middle.
When we exclude the middle frame and directly translate other lines, up and below, we will have something like this.
"Ore tte ii ko na no ni nande?" (But I am a good boy, why?)
"Kimi o kirai dakara sa." (Because you are hated)
*VERY DRAMATIC zoom in*
"Nande demo-tai to tatakatte nda?" (Why fighting the protesters?)
"Kimi o suki dakara." (Because you are adored/liked)
*gritting my teeth and punching the air* If we take a look at it again, that sounds like some sort of a VERY deliberate double meaning words right?
Since "Kimi o suki dakara" could mean "Because I like you" and it sounds like as if Yoshida also fighting for Denji versus people who hates him (the protester).
After that, it cut shorts to the next panel where Denji say this-
Then they had a brief moment of silence where Denji looked up at Yoshida and Yoshida's eyes remain hidden.
It's so??? Skskskskskk. Fujimoto, what kind of yoai are you sniffing when writing these two.
Losing my mind at kny season 4 episode 2 cause I just see the same situations between Tanjirou/Giyuu and Kanao/Shinobu's interactions.
Big siblings figure with their little siblings moment >>>>
Giyuu thinking he's rather off dead and Tanjirou managed to successfully help him realise that his life is worth it,
and Shinobu about to tell Kanao of her suicidal plan with Kanao unable to convince her otherwise.
Two Hashiras; one overwhelmed with survivor guilt and another stop caring about anything else but revenge.
One realises he needs to live because that's what his late sister and Sabito would've wanted, and another ignores her late sister's will to keep on living and decides to soothe her anger by avenging the late sister.
Also I love how Giyuu asked about Shinobu's training, seeing that he doesn't 'hear' anything from her; implying that, possibly, in times he went to shut himself off like this, she would've written to him about what's going on and keeps in touch with him.
Oh my god he doesn't know about her plan. This hits harder now :((
Off topic, but look at how beautiful they are;
Woah it's like a reverse role. Now that I added the pics side by side, I adore the switch between them -- like how we see another side of them.
It's a bit odd to see the usually cheerful Shinobu looking so serious, and the sombre looking Giyuu seems relaxed now, isn't it?
