Clashes between anime fanbases are neither uncommon nor surprising. The latest fandoms to wage a fictional war between themselves are Boruto and Bleach admirers.
If you are an active social media user and an otaku, you are bound to have received a post discussing plagiarism issues in Bleach. And apparently Tite Kubo is being blamed for picking up elements from Boruto for the Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War anime. Aside from the fact that both anime are created by the same studio, there are many more ironic sides to this story.
The Issue That Divided Bleach and Boruto Fans
The second cour of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War ended airing in Summer 2023 and now it’s time for the third cour to debut. The next part is scheduled to be released in October 2024. And like always, a new trailer was released in order to increase the hype over the upcoming episodes.
The third cour did receive hype but not in a way that the staff and producers must have estimated. While Bleach fans were busy celebrating the intense trailer and its beautiful animation, in another dark side of the Internet, a fandom was sharpening its claws.
In one specific part of the trailer, Ichigo uses his Quincy powers to defeat Yhwach. Activating the Quincy powers creates blue lines on Ichigo’s face, which run down his neck, shoulder and arms. In fact, many anime characters possess marks on their body to signify they are undergoing change. The problem arose when Boruto fans began demanding that it is exclusive to Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
The marks that appeared on Ichigo’s face are extremely similar to the marks on Boruto which appeared when Momoshiki embedded his Karma in Boruto. When activated, the blue glittery marks spreads throughout the right side of Boruto’s body, forming geometric patterns.
Who Did it First? Tite Kubo or Masashi Kishimoto?
Boruto fans claims that the Quincy power activation marks on Ichigo’s face are inspired by Karma marks that were introduced in Boruto. The Boruto episodes were aired way before the Thousand Year Blood War arc, and it might be an issue of copying the same element. Given that both series are animated by Studio Pierrot, the same effect could have been re-used.
But what Boruto fans completely forgot to consider is that the Thousand Year Blood War arc was conceptualized and published long before the advent of Boruto. Tite Kubo wrapped up Bleach in August 2016 and Boruto began its publication in May 2016. There was no time for Tite Kubo to pick up any influences from Boruto because the conclusion for Bleach was already decided by the time the Boruto manga debuted.
What possibly happened is that Studio Pierrot used the same type of effect in both Bleach and Boruto, causing fans to have a sense of deja-vu. But this does not mean any of the authors copied the others’ works. Power-up marks on anime characters are one of the most common effects to exist and attacking another series for it is not worthwhile.
You can read Boruto and Bleach on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
