Tite Kubo’s Bleach is known for a lot of things, but the most prominent aspect that makes Bleach part of the Big Three is its action sequences. While the series may sometimes lack in terms of the storyline or the characters, it has never failed to portray brilliant action sequences that take the breath away from anime fans.
Kubo’s way of drawing action sequences is completely different from that of any other manga creator. Even legendary mangakas like Eiichiro Oda cannot come close to drawing or even imagining such unique battles. The mangaka once revealed his secret for drawing such great fight scenes for his magnum opus.
He revealed that he imagines the camera angles and plays the fight scenes like a video in his mind, and then later on, he draws them like the way he created them in his head. He also revealed that music helps him a lot in drawing characters and narratives, and it is one of the main reasons why his fight scenes have a rhythm in them.
Tite Kubo Reveals His Secret Behind Bleach’s Fight Scenes
Viz Media conducted an interview with Kubo and Ichigo’s voice actor, Masakazu Morita, where they asked him about the fateful event and the battle sequences from Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. While answering the question, the mangaka revealed that he usually draws a vague image in his head of the camera angles revolving around the fight.
Kubo stated:
When I draw, I have a vague image of it in my head. I visualize stopping the camera at a certain point or moving the camera around at a certain place. I hope that my readers can get a sense of what I see.
He further stated:
As it’s playing, I try to frame scene changes and prominent scenes. That’s how I imagine it. I don’t understand it, but I kind of have a feel for it. This has turned into something completely unrelated to “fate.”
According to Kubo, he creates a video and frames specific scenes in his mind, and although he doesn’t fully understand them, they give him a feel of what and how he has to create the fights and battles.
Bleach’s Fight Sequences Might Be The Best in the Entire Industry
The battles in Bleach have a unique approach that is quite rare. From the characters to their weapons, there are multiple elements that contribute to these fight scenes. However, the biggest advantage that these fights have is the direction in which they are drawn. This is because most of the characters use Bankai in their fights.
These Bankais are varied according to the user. Some offer defense, while others are used for straight attacks. Some form a domain around the user, while others directly target the opponents. Tite Kubo has to keep in mind each and every Bankai and its uses, and then draw the fights accordingly.
Although other anime and manga series also have unique powers and abilities, all of them generally follow a similar pattern for fighting sequences. Be it Oda or Kishimoto, no other mangaka mentally creates a video of the fight scenes in their mind and then draws it just as they imagine. This trait is unique to Kubo and his magnum opus, Bleach.
You can watch Bleach on Hulu.
