#reverse london

[bb-bluearcher]

Bleach Headcanons: Branch Jurisdictions

Since it is official that the Soul Society is divided into two Branches (East and West), I've wanted to come up with what parts of the world are the Branches in charge of.

I have read fics where the Gotei 13 is the Japanese Branch, and then you have the European Branch and the American Branch.

First, the East Branch:

Asia (because duh. Japan)

Australia/Oceania (funnily enough, I have read a fic where the writer referred to Renji as an Aboriginal, which refers to the indigenous people of Australia)

Africa

Now, the West Branch.

Keep in mind, I do believe that the West Branch, Reverse London, does contain Shinigami. Burn the Witch is more or less focused on a specialized division in their version of the Gotei 13, a division focused on dragons.

Europe

North America

South America

Interesting geographical fact: Russia is part of Asia. It's also part of Europe. I decided to place Russia under the jurisdiction of the West Branch for narrative sake. I mean, the East Branch has jurisdiction over Oceania (which is considered a continent, even though we have the core seven(?). Although...it is associated with Australia) in this headcanon.

What about Antarctica?

It's more of a neutral territory, since there is hardly anything living there (ie, barely any Hollows and souls). Shinigami only go here if their mission calls for it.

[missb0at]

One of the three things that instantly grab my attention are witch focused stories. I love magic and witches even more.

Anyway I remembered a random Google doc where I was trying to scrape info together from BURN THE WITCH (manga and anime movie) and speculation using info from BLEACH and you're gonna listen to me yap about it

Soul Society and Reverse London

The Soul Society in BLEACH is obviously just the literal afterlife. Maybe only the Japanese specific one considering that hell is apparently an actual thing in that universe.

BLEACH had humans with spiritual abilities. So RL is probably just a mirror dimension that has all of the humans with spiritual abilities. Bruno did make a comment about how since Macy is a watcher, she would've ended up in RL sooner or later. On that topic: Ninny and Noel appear to be humans who used to be watchers and then became witches. I don't think that either of them actually live in RL but rather in Front London

It's known that the Eastern and Western Branch exists. With BLEACH taking place in the Eastern one and having a lot of Japanese influence while the Western one is in Reverse London. Military wise the Eastern one has the Gotei 13 and the Western one has Wing Bind.

Dragons and Hollows

Pretty sure that all of the Dragons are just spirit life forms. They can absorb human emotions and become Dark Dragons. The Märchen are their progenitors.

Hollows seem to be human souls that were basically consumed by their own negative emotions.

They seem similar, especially with all that negative human emotions stuff, but are distinct from each other. Dragons are their own life forms - hence my guess that they're like spiritual animals or something - while hollows are just murderous human souls.

Gotei 13 and Wing Bind

No dragons in BLEACH

No hollows in BURN THE WITCH

Assumption: it's a local problem. Basically there are different branches based on what kind of negative spiritual life form you are dealing with.

Kidō = magic

Shinigami's Zanpakutō = Witch's Witch Kit

Balgo somehow made that trumpet into a sword I'm assuming that they're the same

Not sure if Wing Bind has an equivalent for Hakuda or Hohō since they seem to be more magic users (what a surprise since they call themselves witches and wizards) so it's possible that this stuff is included in their magic

BURN THE WITCH also has the release code that Bruno used. It looks like they're something like summoning magic

While the Gotei 13 has their divisions and seated officers, Wing Bind seems to have 8 different units with set squads and the squad being led by a chief and being made up of two people teams.

I think it's possible that there are 3 more units since Wing Bind uses one of the zodiacs for each unit.

I'm also assuming that Wing Bind's equivalent of seated officers is the umbrella thing since Ninny and Noel are second and first umbrella respectively. Also Ninny's comment about being the strongest Pipers. That might just be exaggeration but I think Noel would've commented about that and Ninny doesn't seem to be the type to lie about that considering she does want to be a Sabre.

Wing Bind Units

Inks - magic circle - ♉ taurus - blue? - Bruno Bangnyfe

Anthems - music? - ♑ Capricorn - blue purple? - Roy B. Dipper

Sacreds - ritualistic stuff? - ♒ aquarius - yellow - Cquntnire Milieve

Pipers - gun/pipe thing - ♈ aries - red - Tronbone Takkinen

Sabres - swords? Just combat specialists? - ♏ scorpio - black - Sullivan Squire

Patchworks - Research?? - - Saka Rynn

Billionaires - taxes. - ♌ leo - green - Harry Shayk

Gallows - jail/execution? - ♎ Libra - grey brown - Wolfgang Slashhaut

Missing zodiacs are ♋ cancer, ♐ Sagittarius, ♓ pisces, ♊ Gemini, ♍ virgo

[macchiato-dreaming22]

Bridging the Worldbuilding Gap between Bleach and Burn the Witch

Because Tite Kubo-sensei has been kind enough to confirm that the two take place in the same universe, but also chose not to give us anything more than crumbs about the 'how' while throwing a lot of kinda contradictory information at our faces. Gotta do this myself if I want it done, I guess.

Most of the fanbase seems to agree that the whole concept of there being different worlds/realms seems to be a borrowed concept from buddhism, so let's start from there. The Spirit Realm has a variety of names depending on who’s referring to it; e.g., the Eastern Branch calls it the Soul Society and the Western Branch calls it the Reverse World. Similarly, the Eastern Branch calls its counterpart the World of the Living, whereas the Western Branch calls it the Front World.

The Soul Society is divided into the Seireitei, which is the capital and also the base of operations for all military matters, and the Rukongai, which is the main residential area for souls comprising 320 districts separated into groups of eighty in each of the four cardinal directions. The balance/separation between the eastern hemisphere of the realms is kept stable in part by the presence of a "Soul King", although the actual governing is performed by a legislative and judicial body called the Central Forty-Six, made up of forty “wise-men” and six judges. In contrast, there are three executive bodies: the Gotei Thirteen, the Kido Corps, and the Onmitsukido. 

The Reverse World has a variety of major population centers each named after their Front World counterpart, of which Reverse London is the capital (bets on Kubo making a governing body called the Cabinet with a Grand Minister or smthn lmao). A major aspect of life in the Western Branch revolves around the defense against and conservation of beings that the Western Branch calls “Dragons” (and that I'd bet more good money the Eastern Branch would call yokai). A regulatory force called “Wing Bind” contains eight divisions with specific responsibilities pertaining to these “Dragons”.

Since the space/barrier(?) between the Front and Reverse Worlds in the western hemisphere is so much thinner but also more stable than that of the eastern hemisphere, souls rarely have the opportunity to linger for long before the laws of the universe naturally relocate them to the Reverse World, which means Hollows are almost non-existent in the western hemisphere. In comparison, there is usually a large stretch of void that separates the World of the Living and the Soul Society in the eastern hemisphere which the Eastern Branch calls the Dangai, meaning it’s commonplace for souls of deceased humans to linger and subsequently turn into Hollows if a shinigami from the Gotei Thirteen doesn’t find and guide them to the Soul Society in time. However, “Dragons” (istg they're yokai goddamnit) basically no longer exist in the eastern hemisphere due to the shinigami’s efforts at exterminating them, as mentioned by Noelle.

There, things make sense now! Kinda. Ish. (Watch season two come out and immediately invalidate all of this lmao.)

[elreyrata]

Okay so here’s my dumb bleach headcanon:

So the four soul societies are based off the old world because the western branch is based off of England and the eastern branch is based off Japan, so that leaves the northern and the southern branch, and my guess for those two would be:

The Northern branch would be based off Russia and the Southern branch would be based off of Africa, specifically Egypt.

I’ll probably talk about the things they would be responsible for later

[benvivasart]

All my portfolio projects are on hold since my computer fried itself. So I’ve been catching up on Anime and reading Manga.

I’ve been wanting to watch #BURNTHEWITCH since it was announced a few years back. I finally saw it this week and I wasn’t disappointed!

The Anglophile in me loved Reverse London and dragon hunting. I’m hoping for a British Dub since Noel and Ninny would sound great as Cockneys. I’m sad there’s only 3 episodes but the Animation is amazing.

I think Tite Kubo should keep the manga series as its own thing and not make it part of Bleach. The premise is too bloody good for that. I also think he should do more cultural research for better story ideas. London is such an old city it can provide so much the series.

So here’s Noel and Ninny on Fleet Street by the Temple Bar Memorial in Front London! I still have Procreate and good Anime inspires me to make art. 🇬🇧 🐉

[kursed-arcana]

[sterling-silvers]

BURN THE WITCH, LIMITED SERIES: CHAPTER 2 - Then Along Came Bruno!!!!

Burn Witch – Chapter 2: Ghillie Suit, improved upon that last chapter by providing consistent story progression, strong promise and execution of forward momentum, and distinct yet welcomed world building; for that it has garnered an 8 out of 10.

Narrative-wise, Kubo did a smart thing of having two storylines seemingly converge and operate at the same time. Even if it still seems like he’s still using the training wheels of Bleach by essentially retooling the “Rescue Rukia” arc at least he’s having that past narrative happen concurrently with this new one between Ninny and her ex- bandmate Macy Baljure. 

In addition, it seems like Macy might have been more than just a bandmate to Ninny; time will tell if the feelings were mutually requited. 

Moreover, Bruno Bangnyfe seems like he’s going to be a welcomed addition to the story (he’s basically an amalgam of Renji Abarai and Bazz B); I just hope he doesn’t get shafted like Renji and Bazz B. Nonetheless, he knows how to make a bombastic entrance and captivate the scenery. Don’t let me down Kubo; give him some good character development and a decent win-loss ratio - you OWE me that!

In terms of the realm, I like the fact that Kubo is still building the world that is Reverse London. At first, I was under the impression that the citizens of Reverse London were completely forbidden with interacting with dragons of any kind but, this chapter refutes and cleans up that sentiment rather nicely. If anything, it seems as if dragons, “humans”, and witches/wizards share a symbiotic relationship with one another; the depiction of this was like the Flinstones except replace dinosaurs with dragons. 

I like the fact that they going into detail between light dragons and dark dragons. I also would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that Macy – a human (at least so far, that’s what we know her as) – is able to control a dragon; I don’t recall a human being able to control hollows in Bleach so, there’s another distinction to give to the West Branch.

Moreover, there has been a new hard rule introduced to the world; any damage that happens in Reverse London will be reflected and felt in Front London. This actually works both in story and in the meta-sense as I was a bit perplexed why Reverse London and Front London looked so similar. Likewise, this is a staunch differentiation from the Soul Society as it was clear when we were in the material world and when we happened upon Soul Society based on the fact that one domain was modern looking and the other looked more rural/feudal Japan in terms of architecture and aesthetic. Here, the Londons look the same because they are more connected and there are grave consequences if one gets detrimentally damaged.

What I’m hoping they’ll dive more into is how exactly the ranking system of the Wind Bind works. As stated in the chapter, the Pipers are in charge of rearing and conversing the dragons and as so illegal rearing falls into their jurisdiction and responsibilities as well; hence why Ninny, Noel, and Balgo were on that particular mission. However, from the one shot it seemed as if the Pipers were below the Sabres; yet, Billy Banx Jr. was/is the commanding officer of Noel and Ninny and last chapter established that there are at least eight divisions, with a man named Tronbone Takkinen being the overall head of the Pipers. Based on that, my best guess would be that Billy is basically the lieutenant of the Pipers but, still based on the promotion there still some speculation as to the actual inner workings.

Nonetheless, the narrative momentum, emergence of appealing story threads and defining distinctions, along with a and gripping cliffhanger is why this week’s Burn the Witch earned an 8 out of 10.

[smokiebomb]