1500-word proposal

“The creation and animation of Bleach”

For my documentary I want there to be a focus on how the creation of the anime, Bleach effected its
author, Tite Kubo. As well as filling in gaps with relevant information such as; evolution of animation
styles from season to season, improvement of art overtime, author’s personal battles and struggles
with the journey of creating Bleach and a rough background of how it was animated.

How do I want to plan my documentary?

Introduction to Specialism

I plan to do a title screen with crashing down sound effects to make it as if the text hits the screen,
and then as the anime Bleach is heavily related to classic samurai swords (katanas), I will create an
effect as if the intro text was being slashed inside of After Effects. In addition, for the introduction I
plan on speaking about the author of Bleach’s health battles as well as his arguably “perfect” art
style. In the introduction, I also plan on talking about all the other points I wish to address, meaning I
will have a basic plan in my head on how to do the video, essentially writing my script for me.

Points I want to mention in this documentary that aren’t specifically listed:

- Brief description of upbringing including inspiration for drawing

- How he became a manga artist/author
- His first attempts at manga/books
- Tite Kubo’s legendary art style
- Health battles and mental struggles
- Drastically different animation styles before and after parts 1 and 2

Brief History of specialism

For history I want to focus of Tite Kubo’s early life and how he got in becoming a manga artist, I will
make sure to mention how his Father was a council man for the district in Japan (Fuchu) and
supported Kubo’s choice in becoming an artist. Then I will talk about what work influenced him at a
young age to chase this career. As well as focusing on the history of Kubo’s earlier works such as;
“Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine”, “Bad Shield United”, “Rune Master Urara” and “Zombie Powder”
(which was Kubo’s first published manga).

How technology has improved it

For this section I want to talk about the improvement of animation from the first part of Bleach, to
the current final arc of bleach coming out as we speak, which is a time gap from October 5 th 2004 –
October 11th 2022 and on-going. The first part has a sharp almost vibrant style with a triangle style
similar to that of soul eater that came out 5 years later. Whereas the second part coming out
currently, Thousand Year Blood War arc, has a modern, super clean and unique style as it uses colour
so well (using red sky to show of an invasion and death). Another way animation has improved has
been through the use and development of CGI, popular studios such as “MAPPA” who I think use CGI
in anime the best, as they composite it into the anime the best.
Key people in the industry

Some key people in the industry of “Bleach” or in the creation story of Bleach are;

Eiichiro Oda – who was a rival of his, he created the popular manga One Piece, before making their
most popular works they were in a “one shot manga” competition once, where Oda placed 1 spot
above him with the anime titled “romance dawn”, whereas Kubo’s entry was “Ultra Unholy Hearted
Machine”.

Takanori Asada – He was Tite Kubo’s first editor who called him up after the Shonen Jump weekly, as
he thought his manga had potential, he was also a great source of motivation for Tite Kubo as he
always pushed him to do more.

Kazuhiko Torishima – Chief editor at Shonen Jump (1996-2004) scolded Kubo for his early works not
being enough like popular anime at the time like “Dragon Ball” or “Fist of the North star”, therefore
telling Kubo to read these and take notes from them.

Akira Toriyama – The creator of Dragon Ball and Dr Slump; he saw Kubo’s manga that was hated by
Torishima so much and thought it was excellent then contacted Kubo to praise him for his work, this
was a huge part of Kubo’s story as he had been taking a 2-year break from being a manga artist due
to lack of motivation.

Key techniques associate with the subject

In modern Bleach, the current arc Thousand Year Blood War, the animation makes use of smooth
and clean looking style. What’s amazing about the new art style in the anime is intensity it can
portray as well as pain. My favourite part of the new techniques is the use of colouring, i.e., the new
anime adopts a unique colouration of the sky making it red instead of the usual blue, and making use
of Kubo’s amazing minimalistic art form.

Own attempts at the “minimalist” art style

What has my attempt proven?

I think my attempt at drawing this arguably “simple” manga panel proves that not only Tite Kubo is a
legendary artist but so excellent at using colours and brush strokes for impact. I feel like this is
proven by the 5-character books Kubo has with just his free time/practice drawings in them, I own
all of these books and by far the best book is “all colour but the black” which is a full book of each
drawing he’s done in colour. One thing I struggled with whilst trying to replicate the drawing was
pressure of the pencil on the page, I found it super tricky to try and keep the shade and tone of the
pencil the same throughout the drawing. Another issue I had was drawing the character on the right
panel, I found it extremely difficult to match the proportions and anatomy, which is a skill that takes
artists years to master.

What made this specific manga panel so great to me?

These are the images I have drawn myself as they are the prefect encapsulation of the minimalistic
style and a great way to show off emotion through light simple almost monochrome colours, the
pale gradient as the background fades from blue to white evoking the feeling of sorrow verifying and
reinforcing the viewers idea of death. Another thing I really love about these images is the way
strength is shown, as “Byakuya” the character who is dying here grips his story with such ferocity the
blood pours down through the gaps in his fingers.

Interview with person discussing the skills

The person I will be interviewing is a good friend of mine, Neil.

Questions:

1. Why do you like Bleach?

2. Who is your favourite character and why?
3. Do you like the character design, if so, why?
4. Do you like the general Art style, if so, why?
5. What is your opinion the minimalistic manga frames?
6. Do you like the world building of Bleach, if so, why?
7. Do you think Bleach has an almost poetic aspect?
8. What do you think of the animation in the shows?
9. Is there a specific moment in Bleach you really like/stands out to you?
10. Is there anything you don’t like about Bleach, if so, why?

Conclusion that evaluates why Bleach is important to the industry of anime?

Not only does Bleach have a hugely influential origin story that shows off a personal mental and
physical battle of the authors motivation and health, it has influenced so many animes to date such
as; Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Black Clover and My Hero Academia. One greatly well-known bit of
evidence for the inspiration of Bleach is the character “Todo” in Jujutsu Kaisen, he was made from
the image of “Kenpachi” a brutal and fierce yet reckless character in Bleach, the similarities are very
evident when held side by side. (See images below).
Referring back to the conclusion there are many reasons that I and so many have fallen in love with
the story; it shows off an adventure of epic fights, relationships, world building, characters, powers
and so much more. Not only this the sound tracks and quotes make this anime so majestic and
almost poetic, making the story that much more memorable and likable. On a more personal level I
fell in love with Bleach because of the powers behind the swords, they have unique names and are
explained as living souls which speak to the owner, this is how I felt when I’d pick up sticks as a child
and battle my friends.

Resources I will be using for this project/Have used:

A lot of the resources I used for this project were from YouTube video’s which explain the life Tite
Kubo leading up to becoming a mangaka (manga artist), these videos are a great example to set for
my own documentary as they are informative and educational yet have an aspect of interesting,
great editing. Another reason the videos are an excellent source of information is they are
chronological order and include specific detail of events many years ago.

Sources used are below:

The manga artist ruined by his $7,200,000,000 series

Tite Kubo’s $7,200,000,000 BLEACH Empire

Tite Kubo's Illness with Bleach & Emotional Story...

“Apparently, the creator of Bleach, Tite Kubo was never a fan of Oda”