Summary
By far,Bleach’s most controversial arc is the Lost Substitute Soul Reaper arc, also known as simply the “Fullbringer arc,” given its focus on the new class of spiritual beings known as Fullbringers. The arc was controversial for its massive changes to Ichigo’s abilities and power set, and for featuring a wildly different group of characters, but at least part of this controversy was intended by Tite Kubo.
The Fullbringer arc ofBleachtakes place after the defeat of Sosuke Aizen, and Ichigo has (seemingly permanently) lost his Soul Reaper abilities. He returns to life as usual on Earth in the world of the living, but is soon swept back up into adventure when he comes in contact witha group of humans wielding spiritual powers, known as XCution. Ichigo turns out to have latent Fullbringer powers as well, prompting the group to train him to master these abilities, although there’s a secret, more nefarious purpose behind bringing Ichigo into this group.
Ichigo’s new powers and look, however, were so radically different that many fans began to reject the arc almost immediately upon seeing them.
Ichigo’s Fullbringer Look Was Inspired By Power Rangers
Ichigo’s Radical Change Was Meant to Unsettle Fans
In an interview from December 2011,as translated and maintained on the Bleach Fandom wiki, Kubo was asked about Ichigo’s Fullbringer look, and how it represented a significant change in design philosophy. Kubo said in response,“Ichigo’s fullbring outfit was based on the image of Tokusatsu heroes that little kids would find it as cool. My goal when designing the fullbring outfit was to give the longtimeBLEACHreaders in certain age groups feel uneasy and worried, so the ‘relieved’ impact when Ichigo is back in his shihakuso (shinigami robes) can be felt more immensely.”
Tokusatsu, for those not familiar, is a term used to describe special effects-heavy live-action series or movies, such asSuper Sentai(Power Rangers) orKamen Rider. Kubo is essentially saying that he designed Ichigo’s fullbringer suit to look like a character from one of these series, rather than aBleachcharacter,and that the intent was specifically to cause a segment of the fandom to angrily reject the design, thus setting them up for extreme relief when Ichigo returned to his standard Soul Reaper look at the arc’s end. Kubo seems to have been right on the money, as that’s more or less what happened.
Ichigo’s Fullbringer look is certainly a massive departure from his normal appearance, and it’s not too hard to imagine him in that outfit as part of one of the aforementioned Tokusatsu series. It’s interesting that Kubo would admit to deliberately “trolling” a certain portion of his fandom, but they reacted exactly as expected. The moment Ichigo regains his Soul Reaper abilities definitely feels like a relief, as ifBleachis finally getting back to what it’s meant to be.The Fullbringer arcstill stands out as a rather bizarre part ofBleach, but it helps to know that this was at least partially intentional on Kubo’s part.
Bleach
Bleach is a multimedia franchise created by Tite Kubo. The franchise started as a Japanese manga series. Ichigo Kurosaki is the main protagonist who is granted the powers of a being called the Soul Reaper. The success of the manga led to two anime TV shows, four feature-length animations, and several video games.
