Everyone has their own creative process with which they best thrive with Tite Kubo and Bleach being no exception to this rule. Rarely anyone would have the same creative process and the environment they surround themselves with is a bigger variable than the ups and downs of their stories. When writing, some need pin-drop silence while others thrive in chaos.
There is no in-between and the way someone works rarely ever determines how much progress they would make. Just because somebody works in a messy environment with ample distractions doesn’t necessarily mean they lack dedication or conviction. At the same time, silence doesn’t always mean serenity. For a manga like Bleach, the creative process was one that found its wake in chaos and that, perhaps, makes it even better.
Tite Kubo’s Trick Up His Sleeve for Bleach
While speaking at the San Diego Comic-Con (via Bleach Fandom), Tite Kubo expressed his creative process and how at times it can be rather unconventional. Noise is often correlated with a chaotic mind. However, sometimes silence can be just as deafening. When the Bleach author finds himself writing action sequences, he uses exactly that to his advantage.
I just have rock music going in my head and just imagine the action scenes. I pause the action and rotate the characters and find the best angle, and then I draw it.
It is human nature to lock oneself into music and drift away in one’s own imagination. Creating scenes that would never be of an imaginary world full of yearning and dreams. Tite Kubo has the upper hand for such an imaginative montage by using this for his chef d’oeuvre. By putting on some rock music and then letting himself drift away, Bleach’s best battle sequences are born.
He switches between characters and scenes to see what tune fits best and coordinates his actions accordingly to add a sort of musical flow. This helps him in finding better angles for his characters, envisioning the adrenaline-filled situation they may be in and then enacting those through pen and paper.
Spice Up the Fight
Tite Kubo most certainly has a unique and immersive method of drawing action scene but things can get repetitive. No matter how interesting something is, after a point, it is just a cycle and then routine. To mix things up, Kubo takes into account the scenes that bore him and add humor to balance it out.
I don’t really plan on it, but when I get bored drawing battle scenes, then I throw in a joke or two to make it more fun for me.
It is but obvious that if Kubo is getting bored with a battle scene then it is more than likely for the readers to find it slow as well. Humor acts as both a pallet cleanser and a balancer between these heavy and serious scenes.
Jokes change the pace, add more to what was already there and make it more than just a battle scene. They bring out the personality of the character because a battle alone can’t take their humor away but it can certainly darken it.
