Often, the special ingredient behind a successful villain is a tera-jerker backstory. You can see it in My Hero Academia (Shigaraki), Naruto (Itachi Uchiha), and many other hit anime. Yet, Tite Kubo managed to create one of the biggest anime villains with absolutely no backstory.
Aizen, the slimy (and handsome) antagonist of Bleach, has conquered innumerable hearts. But how? Tite Kubo never gave him a proper backstory. No one knows why he has an evil mentality. Worst of all! You can’t even tell if you should sympathize with him or not. Turns out Kubo never gave much of an explanation for his intentions on purpose.
Tite Kubo Explains Why He Did Not Reveal Aizen’s Origin in Bleach
Villains become popular for two reasons: killer looks and heartbreaking backstory. While Bleach‘s Aizen definitely has the first, a backstory is nowhere to be found. Surely, Tite Kubo knows the importance of a great background that will make the audience relate to the villain?
Tite Kubo feels the complete opposite. Revealing a villain’s past is done to wring out empathy from readers/watchers. It is to create a bond with the villain despite their evilness. However, Kubo claims that he is not a fan of the trope.
“All characters possess different values, but I believe that the harder it is to accept the gap between them, the greater the villain becomes.”
People like reading villain backstories to find an element to relate with them, and this is exactly what Kubo hates. He believes in characters being different from each other, without having to explain their origin every two steps.
This is probably what made Aizen’s character stand out from other villains as he could truly personify evil without any setbacks. There was no question that things could have turned out to be different had he been loved in his childhood or not suffered a loss.
How is Aizen Different From Other Anime Villains?
Aizen belongs to a separate genre of anime villains who are calm, collected and execute a plan with perfect finesse. He does not like being flashy, or to attract attention to himself until he is backed into a corner. You will not find him cackling loudly, barking at others, or underestimating anyone.
You might think that this type of villains are commonplace, but are they really? Especially in the Shonen genre? Shonen villains are often loud and vicious, eager to show their power. Villains like Aizen belong to the psychological or thriller genres more.
Another difference is the lack of backstory which Tite Kubo intentionally omitted. He believed it would make Aizen a greater villain and it did. It is in sharp contrast with Masashi Kishimoto, who believes in fleshing out each and every character so that fans can relate to them. Madara Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha and others from Naruto prove that Kishimoto’s planning works, but it does not have to be the only way.
Unlike the characters from Dragon Ball, One Piece and other mainstream anime, Aizen is not raw power, he is simply cunning. Yes, he is extremely powerful as well, but every Bleach fan will agree that it’s his devastating plans which played a vital role in the anime.
You can read Bleach on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll. The Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War anime is available on Disney+.
