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Bleach has always struck me as a rather Freudian show, what with Ichigo's ENORMOUS sword and all the "My zanpaku-to is bigger than yours!" and "Yeah, well, I'm more skilled with mine!" And the possibly unintended subtext of the "Menos Grande" episode did not escape my notice when I read the manga. But it's all so much more in-your-face when it's in color and motion.
I watched that episode last night, and... wow... could they possibly have laid on any more penis symbolism? It was like Our Spirit Weapons, Ourselves: A Book for Boys.
The whole thing is about Ichigo and Ishida wielding their whacking big weapons in a classic male pissing contest. (Amusingly subverted by the appearance of Urahara's strange little freaky-bangs girl with a bazooka-- a great moment. By the way, I love Urahara, and I love his voice actor too.)
Then this sort of stupid-looking but ENORMOUS Hollow shows up: Menos Grande (The Big One?), whose distinguishing feature, apart from his ENORMOUS size, is acarrot phallic symbol for a nose.
The guys are unable to defeat him, because he's just too big. (I adored Ichigo's lunatic plan to cut him down piece by piece until his head came into range.) But then Ishida touches Ichigo's sword, and his bow suddenly grows much bigger and more powerful!
Ishida realizes that Ichigo is a font of spiritual energy, flowing like a tap that never turns off. At that point there is a helpful cut to a tap turning on and off and water spraying all over the place. Despite the generally serious nature of the story at that point, that put me into hysterics, which is pretty much where I stayed for the rest of the episode. Because I am twelve.
Ishida yells, "Touch me with your sword!" And his bow gets reeeeally big, and can now shoot reeeeally far.
Menos Grande shoots a really powerful force-bolt, which Ichigo is (barely) able to withstand. However, that scares Menos Grande enough that it flees. But then Ichigo collapseson top of Ishida to the ground. Having shot his wad given it his all, he has taken on more energy than he can control, and it's overwhelming him.
So Ishida stands next to him and drains off the excess energy by forming it into arrows and firing them into the air. Which saves the day!
I am going to try really hard not to look for more penis symbolism in the Soul Society arc, even though a whole lot of it consists of "Look! My great big zanpaku-to can get even bigger!"
I watched that episode last night, and... wow... could they possibly have laid on any more penis symbolism? It was like Our Spirit Weapons, Ourselves: A Book for Boys.
The whole thing is about Ichigo and Ishida wielding their whacking big weapons in a classic male pissing contest. (Amusingly subverted by the appearance of Urahara's strange little freaky-bangs girl with a bazooka-- a great moment. By the way, I love Urahara, and I love his voice actor too.)
Then this sort of stupid-looking but ENORMOUS Hollow shows up: Menos Grande (The Big One?), whose distinguishing feature, apart from his ENORMOUS size, is a
The guys are unable to defeat him, because he's just too big. (I adored Ichigo's lunatic plan to cut him down piece by piece until his head came into range.) But then Ishida touches Ichigo's sword, and his bow suddenly grows much bigger and more powerful!
Ishida realizes that Ichigo is a font of spiritual energy, flowing like a tap that never turns off. At that point there is a helpful cut to a tap turning on and off and water spraying all over the place. Despite the generally serious nature of the story at that point, that put me into hysterics, which is pretty much where I stayed for the rest of the episode. Because I am twelve.
Ishida yells, "Touch me with your sword!" And his bow gets reeeeally big, and can now shoot reeeeally far.
Menos Grande shoots a really powerful force-bolt, which Ichigo is (barely) able to withstand. However, that scares Menos Grande enough that it flees. But then Ichigo collapses
So Ishida stands next to him and drains off the excess energy by forming it into arrows and firing them into the air. Which saves the day!
I am going to try really hard not to look for more penis symbolism in the Soul Society arc, even though a whole lot of it consists of "Look! My great big zanpaku-to can get even bigger!"
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I didn't realize that Urahara's voice actor was also Tsuzuki until I looked him up.
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I think I have to admit to liking kick-ass little girls. I like the little girl with the upside-down-Y bangs (and Rukia's bang is huge and I keep wondering how she keeps it out of her eyes, and then I realize it must use the same magic tech as capes, and now I want the analogue of Spike narrating Angel's actions and appearance from a rooftop, only I don't know who the two Bleach analogues should be), and I like Gunslinger Girl.
I like how this is used near the conclusion of the Soul Society arc.
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On a side note, what the heck are those things Byakuya has in his hair? Ornamental curlers?
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P.S. Are we agreed that Ichigo is almost certainly going to discover yet a further level of
orgasmrelease, past shikai and bankai?From:
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In a similar vein:
Renji: "My God, you have the biggest zanpaku-to I've ever seen!"
Ichigo: "Oh, really, so it's unusually big, then? I just thought mine was bigger than Rukia's."
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For one thing, it's much sexier when he sticks to the deeper ranges.
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Urahara's voice actor is Tsuzuki? God, I have to watch this in Japanese.
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Rukia's Japanese voice actress does one of the best and funniest vocal performances I've heard in any anime ever.
Of the rest, there's no one I dislike-- the annoying characters are supposed to be annoying, so it's not, for instance, Doctor Kurosaki's voice actor who particularly bugs me-- but in addition to the two above, I am very fond of Ichigo's actor. (I haven't met most of the Soul Society yet, so I can't speak for them; though I did a bit of a double-take at Yoruichi's voice.
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I need to catch up on the manga, I'm still not caught up with the English releases.
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Also, for you and Oyce: Parakeet of Doom! (http://pics.livejournal.com/rilina/pic/0003qrbe/g15)
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...Now, why is that only saving as a non-uploadable internet file, when I easily downloaded the Ichigo icon from the same folder?
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