The Bound Arc did indeed have some very interesting fights. I'd also offer Orihime vs possessed Rukia as another example, a fight which really needed to end that way. It was a lovely counterbalance against the usual escalation to climax.
There's another precedent from martial arts movies that Bleach could opt for, the one that ends up sampled on the GZA album: that in the heat of the moment, when the battle becomes personal, techniques vanish and things become a vicious, angry brawl. We've seen scenes that approach this already, and it's certainly the way that Kenpachi seems to like fighting. No flash, no gimmicks, just swords and violence, and it's just as thrilling as when things go totally X-Men.
To an extent I think Kubo has already faced this problem as a writer, in that the fight sequences in Bleach could have already become stale with the power levels at their current level, even to the point of fifty episodes ago. His particular skill is that these external power plays aren't empty spectacle, they're peculiarly intimate displays of character and the relationships between characters. What people fight for, how they fight, what they know of themselves and their opponent, their fears, their internal conflict, is always writ large upon the battlefield. It's this decision that makes each battle fresh and exciting. People we care about are thrown together in different combinations and it's what we learn about them in the process that makes it all so compelling. I agree that if one were to remove this element the show would become stagnant very quickly, but given the vast backdrop of lies, secrets, hidden agendas, grudges and betrayals that has stacked up I'd be surprised if Kubo was even capable of losing his focus on character at this stage in the game. It seems that no matter who he pairs up for ruckus there will be some kind of rich subtext in place.
My concern is that so far he has been resistant to killing his heroes. Maiming them, stripping them of power, yes. Killing them, no. It's not like I want wholesale slaughter. But if you're going to set up a foe like the Arrancar, who are ostensibly Bleach's first major in-canon badder than bad guys, you need to feel as though there's genuine risk involved. We're overflowing with Shinigami to the extent that this is starting to feel a lot like the X-Men universe, an immense soap opera with too many plot and character strands to pursue at once. Unless Kubo is planning something very particular he seems too attached to his creations, and while I can understand him not wishing to lose something precious to him that's exactly the kind of creative decision that needs to happen in order to put us at the edge of our seats. I was gutted in the Bound Arc when Ichinose Maki was trounced by Kenpachi and cheered at his return to face Kariya. We need more of this, I feel.
My personal feelings surrounding the direction that the series is moving in revolve around the death of Soul Society, in that every major enemy and storyline so far has been about how they've become complacent and corrupt, adhering to tradition and in need of organisational shake-ups and reforms. Ichigo's very existence as an individual throws their system into doubt, his virtually single handed (I know his friends were there too, but the lions share of the whup ass was dished out by the Starwberry) assault on them in the SS Arc was quite aptly summed up by Byakuya as a battle against everything he stood for. Aizen's plan also fits this schema in that he is aiming to fuse the two polar extremes that Soul Society aims to keep separate and in balance, and here it's interesting that our hero and our villain both reflect this fusion of opposites.
Where Kubo is going with this and how he can satisfactorily tie up so many dangling character and plot threads remains to be seen. I have a feeling that things are building up to a full scale war and that a lot of material will be tied up in one humungous final battle, after which Bleach will either finish altogether or transform into Bleach 2.0, in which the playing field and allegiances are substantially altered (possibly a Bleach: The Next Generation, in which our cast move on to parent/grandparent status in the manner of Dragonball Z). Or it could go to movies, chorus repeat to fade, an option that I'm not sure I'd even be upset about given that these people all feel like my friends and I'd be more than happy to drop by and see them once in a while. |
