Tite Kubo has become a prominent name in the anime industry through his manga Bleach. Hailed as one of the Big 3s of anime, Bleach continues to draw new fans around the world even now.
Rightfully so, as the gripping storyline, funky animation, terrific action sequences with emotions and humor to top it off, the series stands apart in the shounen category for its originality.
What many fans don’t know, though, is that unlike other mangakas, Tite Kubo stays hands on the anime series from the start to the end. In fact, his dedication to his masterpiece extends to the point that he doesn’t want to work on any other project but Bleach wholeheartedly.
Tite Kubo wants to dedicate himself completely to Bleach
Tite Kubo and Masakazu Morita, who voices the protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki in the anime, appeared for an interview once about the success of the series years ago. In the interview, compiled with various others from the mangaka, was posted on the r/bleach subreddit.
Regardless, while Kubo expressed his gratitude for the success of the series, he also revealed an interesting fact about himself. That is, he absolutely does not want to work on anything else other than Bleach. The reason behind that, though, seems quite understandable.
According to Kubo, unlike other shounen mangakas, he is extremely involved in his work. As a result, when the interviewer asked him whether he would like to try his hand at other genres of manga, his response was, although surprising, but not unexpected.
I try my best not to. Once you decided, your heart and mind will tend to lean over there as well. And once you concentrated too much, the other work would be discarded. So that’s why I would try my utmost best not to think, and once I think of one, I would use my characters to divert the attention. Thus, I would only [want to be] dedicated to BLEACH.
He amended his statement by saying that the only other thing he would like to work on at the time would be if something popped in his mind about “BLEACH’s side chapters”.
Otherwise, anything that would “distance” him from Bleach would be a no go. His statement makes more sense after he revealed the extent of his dedication to his masterpiece. If anything, fans seem to applaud him more for it.
Tite Kubo was completely hands-on with the Bleach anime series
As stated above, there is one aspect that makes Tite Kubo stand apart in the overpopulated crowd of shounen mangakas.
As he stated himself in the same interview, he is completely responsible for “the character designs” even in the series.
Usually the character designs are done with manga artists just overseeing, but in my case I actually draw what all the characters should look like – I am essentially drawing all of the characters that appear in the anime. It is very rare for the artist to be involved this much.
Being so involved in the series’ crafting also made his anticipation for the show hike up more. He noted that before the episodes went on air, he would be provided a tape of the same, which helped him get a feel of how things turned around in the end.
Especially as, “the animation is a product of a team that requires multitudinous people to understand, to interpret, and then to compile everything together”. Regardless, it is safe to say that he carried that mantle beyond imagination if the fans’ reactions are anything to go by.
Incidentally, he did end up working on Burn the Witch, which takes place in Bleach’s expansive universe after the manga ended. At any rate, his magnum opus returning to the screen after over a decade of wait has without a doubt pleased him to no end.
Bleach is streaming on Hulu.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
