bleachness | Volume 42 Doodles and Poem

http://users.livejournal.com/_debbiechan_/ posting in

MzD provided the scans and most of the translations here. For more see the BA thread about Volume 42

The doodles are hilarious. MzD thinks there should be a sexual violence warning for the last two images.

Scans and translations provided by MzD. She writes: I'll explain what I can. The last two may be a bit disturbing for some...just a warning. Going to double spoiler that part.

359: Kon in Ichigo's body has been spotted by the research division. He's trying to play dead so they'll leave him alone.

360: Kon is willing them to go away in his head. They're still staring at him, a bit too close.

361: Now they're really too close, lol eyeball. "What is that?"

362: Now another person has stepped forward. Kon notices it's a lady with a sweet voice.

363: Wow, this lady can rival Rangiku. The most important part is her sparkling cleavange. Truly Kubo is a boob man. (MzD's comments in italics)

364: Kon is taking notice, it's a new cleavage that Kon hasn't embraced. He's forgetting all about his faking death and attempts to jump her.

These next two are not for people with a sensitive constitution.

365 BOOB PWN!! WTF!!

366: It's a claw that's come from her boobs! Again WTF? Kubo has explained it all in Kanji, anyone wants to take a guess, all I can get is Kon's "Uggh!"

Poem translation by Toto:

Shock of the Queen

There is no world without sacrifice
Are you unaware?
We are
In a sea of blood, ashes floating in hell
Crying the name of
A fading world.

Again with the name resonance like in FTB. Kubo's emphasis on names reminds me of my own culture. In my Jewish mystical tradition, there's the idea that naming something creates it or gives it identity--that's why one respects the very word G-d and doesn't write it out because any naming of the subject would belittle that which defies definition. I know Bleach isn't Kabbalah or whatever but I like the poetic care that Kubo-sensei gives to his character's names, even ret-conning Rukia's name to mean "a ray of light" to Ichigo long after he'd come up with it and years of volumes had been written. And how giving a name (as to the twins in the movie) allowed them to pass on as distinct identities after Death. And how calling a name means you cherish that name's holder ( Morita-kun's "Rukiaaaaaarghhhhhhh!") In this poem, all I come away with is that loving the world is what makes it real and keeps it alive. One has to wonder why Hollow let themselves exist. Their very searching to ease their pains, whether those pains are Starrk's loneliness or any one of the sins of the Lust arc unsatiatied--starved gluttony, unreleased rage, beaten down pride--this searching for relief IS their life. And that makes Hollow just like us right? We live in part to just fulfill our desires and ease our pains.

We live for higher things too, though, and that's what separates us from the heartless. But I so love Kubo's Arrancar, each of his Espada with their pretentious assignations and aspects of Death, and all the care Kubo-sensei put into making us love these bad guys who, at the very beginning of the manga, were just monsters in the night.