I agree about Toshiro & Matsumoto -- theirs is a dynamic I liked (and in some ways it's a mirror/echo of the original Rukia/Ichigo dynamic). But it's not worth putting up with the rest of the crap just for a few minutes of them.
I wouldn't mind an entire filler arc (like the Blount arc, which always makes me think of, erm, those cheap-ass Philly cigars that kids buy for 45 cents, gut, and fill with pot, and that's just such a bizarre connection to Bleach, thanks) -- because at least with an entire arc, I could just skip it! But to insert random filler episodes here and there -- especially when the overall arc is supposedly ramping up to high pitch -- it's just annoying. It's like build, build, build, then abrupt free-fall into sillyness like cake-baking, and then I'm supposed to jump to building tension again?
It seems like Kubo does well with M/F dynamics that are somewhat teasing & competitive while supportive. Somewhere in there, too, he knows/knows-how to make women-characters strong. The problem, from what I can see, is that he doesn't seem comfortable with and/or isn't sure of whether in making the female characters strong that he's somehow weakened the male characters. (He needs to take a few lessons from Whedon, I think.) So instead, he gives us women characters with such great potential, like Orehime and Tatsuki, and then has to pretzel them into helplessness so the male characters (which, granted, are the focus in a shonen series like this, but still!) can then shine as the bestest, at whatever.
Hell, even the most diehard Bleach fan I know (Hayashi) commented after seeing the OVA -- okay, first she commented she was damn glad she didn't pay to see it while in Japan, because it would've been a huge waste of yen -- that at some point, please, could Byakuya not rescue Rukia?
(Hrm, more to say but I'll just post a new comment -- look for it on this channel! -- since it's comparing several series.)
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Date: 25 Oct 2007 04:36 pm (UTC)I wouldn't mind an entire filler arc (like the Blount arc, which always makes me think of, erm, those cheap-ass Philly cigars that kids buy for 45 cents, gut, and fill with pot, and that's just such a bizarre connection to Bleach, thanks) -- because at least with an entire arc, I could just skip it! But to insert random filler episodes here and there -- especially when the overall arc is supposedly ramping up to high pitch -- it's just annoying. It's like build, build, build, then abrupt free-fall into sillyness like cake-baking, and then I'm supposed to jump to building tension again?
It seems like Kubo does well with M/F dynamics that are somewhat teasing & competitive while supportive. Somewhere in there, too, he knows/knows-how to make women-characters strong. The problem, from what I can see, is that he doesn't seem comfortable with and/or isn't sure of whether in making the female characters strong that he's somehow weakened the male characters. (He needs to take a few lessons from Whedon, I think.) So instead, he gives us women characters with such great potential, like Orehime and Tatsuki, and then has to pretzel them into helplessness so the male characters (which, granted, are the focus in a shonen series like this, but still!) can then shine as the bestest, at whatever.
Hell, even the most diehard Bleach fan I know (Hayashi) commented after seeing the OVA -- okay, first she commented she was damn glad she didn't pay to see it while in Japan, because it would've been a huge waste of yen -- that at some point, please, could Byakuya not rescue Rukia?
(Hrm, more to say but I'll just post a new comment -- look for it on this channel! -- since it's comparing several series.)