Dumb Poll and many other little Bleach thingies

[http://users.livejournal.com/_debbiechan_/]

[Poll #1753768]


And something else sort of interesting from Sensei's twitter that I was reluctant to post because he was rather vague and I thought there might be over-interpretation. What I gathered from the tweets was that Sensei was having ... uh .. a kinda artistic late night pondering and state of defiance over something. When questioned by fans "you're not talking about Bleach are you?" he claimed to be talking about music, lol, but said that his opinions about manga were the same. And he said that he's just trying to sort out his thoughts on Twitter and to read his thoughts with that in mind.




translation by mezzo_marinaio :

受け手としては、自分の価値観を疑えなくなったら終わり。作り手としては、自分の価値観を信じられなくなったら終わり。でも、逆の方が多分楽にやっていける。

As a listener, if I can't call into question my own values it's the end. As a creator, if I can't believe in my own values it's the end. But maybe doing the opposite would work as well.

俺が言ってるのは「嫌いだ」って感覚を疑わなきゃいけない、ってこと。自分の所属してる社会や、自分が社会だと信じてるコミュニティの多数意見に擦り寄って、外から見える自分の価値を上げようとしていないか。その否定は本当に自分の中から出た否定なのかを自身で精査しなければいけない、ってこと。

What I’m saying is that I must call into question my feelings of “I hate this”. Snuggling up to the majority opinion of a community that believes society to be comprised only of themselves and their associations, and not even trying to make my worth as seen by others increase in value … what I mean is that I must do a careful examination, to find out whether this denial is really a denial that comes from inside myself.

See, told you it was vague. But I think it's important to know that Sensei is thinking about art a lot. I came across a quote of his just today that reminded me that Kubo Tite is a real artist. I know I'm often accused of overthinking Bleach, "just a comic book" but Sensei wrote on the inside flap of the first volume of Zombie Powder:

"The theme is fighting. Sitting there and just reading it without thinking is fine. But if you ever feel like it please try to use your mind as you read."

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_debbiechan_/]

It's a fist punching through the drawing. You can see Ichigo there but whether he's just an onlooker or whether the fist is punching through something inside HIM or is PART of him I can't really tell. It's really disturbing--like it's part of his FB maybe but it seems like a big FU from the art to the audience. It seems so scribbly--like something an emo kid would do in a notebook and nothing at all like what a traditional manga-ka would do at all. It's so freaking weird.

[sleepwalkerrrr.livejournal.com]

but it seems like a big FU from the art to the audience

Hahaha, while I admit that's the first thing I thought when I saw what you meant (I got the fist later but I still didn't quite get it) I doubt that he has had such frustrations for so long :D I like it though, it's different and there's something dark and raging in it certainly, joining traditional manga art and this type of... more "artistic" approach.

[bonefield.livejournal.com]

It's a hard pose to do with that much foreshortening. I think it's most likely that he decided to try something adventurous and it just didn't gel (dohohoho I know that feel); I like it myself although it's definitely not one of his better pieces from a technical perspective.