#noh

[owlgoose636]

me when my hunger’s a problem

[void-ishere]

Noh's ending

wdym this is the second fan art of this game on Tumblr................... (I'm starved. please. need. human construction site content..)

shit posts under cut

[shiftythrifting]

A diy mug with a teen wolf quote that probably confuses a lot of people who don't know it

And a statue of a baby that, according to the scale, is 6 kilos.

that's one healthy baby

[dickgraysonfr]

I love my girlfriend.

[voiceofthebroken]

day 36

you know it's serious when a slay the princess blog isn't posting slay the princess stuff and today's doodle is actually a rough colored sketch and it isn't the usual art style AND it's early

GUYS WHERE'S THE FANDOM AT HELLO?? anyways go play human construction site

[bleachplease]

Bleach reading: Aizen as an Noh Play actor.

If you look closely, or perhaps from a slightly different angle, Aizen's character development during the Soul Society Arc in Bleach is structured the same way as a classic Noh play.

Hear me out:

We meet Captain Aizen as one of the Gotei 13 many captain. He doesn't stand out much visually, no bells in his hair, no face-paint and ridiculous headwear, no fancy pink kimono. Just glasses. A mask of an average, educated, trustworthy man.

This man dies, mid-arc, and disappears out of manga panels, presumably to be seen never again.

But surprise, he is found in the depths of Central 46 privet living space, isolated from the outside world. He is revealing himself to Hinamori, and to the audience, not only to be alive but to be the villain of the series. His gentle mask is gone, and a devious smile is plastered to his face.

When Renji says: You don't act like Captain Aizen I knew, he answers: Captain Aizen you thought you knew never existed in the first place - confirming that his gentle identity was fake, a mask he wore all these years for the Gotei as his audience.

Then in the beam of yellow Negatione, Aizen and the two followers of his get carried up by the Menos Grande to the sky - apotheosis.

End of the play.

So what is considered one of the biggest plot twist in the history of anime (Aizen's villain reveal) when read through the lens of a Noh play structure becomes expected outcome. But to see this, let me tell you more about Noh.

Noh (能, Nō) is a traditional theater form born in Japan (Muromachi Era, 1333-1573).

There are 2 actors in Noh: main actor, main protagonist (shite) + supporting actor (waki). The shite plays a double role: appearing first as a common human, and then as a ghost, demon, or god (kami) - the first role is known as the mae-shite and the later as the nochi-shite.

Only shite wears a mask.

The play has 2 parts, in first act waki meets shite but doesn't know their 'true' identity yet. Then shite returns off-stage through the bridge (hashigakari). And at the start of the second act the reveal takes place. The shite returns wearing a new mask, crossing the bridge again, which is a symbolic connection between the world of spirits and the world of the living (liminal space). And the new mask is a mask representing a true identity of the character: oh, this old lady was a kitsune demon - the waki finds out.

So as you can see, there is no real twist - the change of the identity is expected from the start by the audience that knows that structure, it is only the play character who is surprised, or who learns the secret.

And symbolically the very similar thing happens with Aizen. He is pretending, wearing a mask of the every-man, just to reveal himself to be something more than an average shinigami. He goes into hiding into his liminal space, the world of the spirits, and returns as a mastermind who has planned that all. Wearing a new mask - a mask of a god, who wants to stand above the heavens.

This is the art of incorporating traditional themes into a modern manga.

[starffis]

Few of my favorite classical theatre pieces that I think suits the spooky season 👀:

- The Rite of Spring (1913)

- Hanjo + Aoinoue (14-15th century)