Bleach Bleach: The Reboot

[goldenarms]

The Situation:

Bleach is the latest victim target for a reboot and you're put in charge of the project. What would be key things you'd change, keep, and/or get rid of? From major issues, such as storylines, to minor things like gender swapping, you call the shots, and they have to be done your way.

So, what's your vision of a Bleach reboot looking like?

 

[~NGD OMEGA~]

Several kinda ran through this in the Arrancar Arc Revised thread, when it was expanded to include other arcs. Which isn't to say this thread is without merit, but you could easily see a few cping the responses from there into this.

 

[nintendokid]

I like Bleach, but there are a lot of things I'd personally change.

Starting just with Ichigo, I'd give him a more interesting Zanpakuto. Both of his known relatives that were Shinigami had elemental Zanpakuto. I think his giant sword beam thing is kind of meh. I'd rather see him come up with creative ways to use water or ice or even fire. Imagine how badass he'd be with something like Ryuujin Jakka.

Then second, I'd explore the Quincy blood of his mother much earlier on, like as early as the Hueco Mundo arc or a bit before. Bring Isshin into the loop earlier and let Ichigo really explore his heritage and his abilities. To me, Ichigo unleashing his Hollow and Quincy abilities to defeat Aizen is much more interesting than him getting a one time one shot power up that came out of nowhere. And it would make Ichigo so much more versatile and fun to watch in battle. And as new threats appear, instead of just new power ups, let Ichigo explore more of his abilities, like Bankai, Kido, Blut, Vollstandig, Kirchenlied, Cero, Hollow Regen, maybe even a Resurrecion ability. He has all this amazing blood and spiritual power and Tite resorts to giving him bigger lasers.

I can think of a lot more, but I'll see if anyone else has anything to add before posting a giant wall.

 

[Knyght]

I'll just bullet point this or it'll take ages. Sad to say, my interest in Bleach has hit rock bottom so even rewriting it has lost the appeal it once had.

1. The number of characters would be reduced - Don Kanonji and Kon wouldn't be introduced, the Gotei 13 would be the Gotei 7 at most, the only Vizard would be Shinji, there would be less Fraccion for the Arrancars, the Fullbringers wouldn't exist and the Quincy wouldn't have as many as twenty-six or so Sternritter.

2. Tatsuki, Keigo and Mizuiro would be main characters - They would have their own story arcs in the first arc, awaken their unique powers - I've never settled on what I'd want them to be but there's a whole ability thread for that - and go on adventures with Ichigo and their other classmates.

3. Ichigo would fight the Grand Fisher again - Instead of the Menos Grande, Ichigo defeats the arrancarfied Grand Fisher in their rematch with his unleashes spiritual energy and avenges his mother.

4. The human protagonists would always be important - They would train with Urahara's before and after rescuing Rukia, they would all get into fights with seated officers, lieutenants and captains with varying results and they would form a powerful vanguard against the arrancars. They would become a team not to be fucked with.

5. The Hogyoku does not grant wishes - It controls the barrier between Shinigami and Hollows as stated and Urahara created the only one. Aizen used it to turn his army of Hollows into Arrancar, and to turn himself into the perfect fusion of Shinigami and Hollow.

6. The nature of zanpakuto is not changed - Powerful Shinigami can manifest zanpakuto from their own souls. Rank-and-file shinigami receive asauchi as a substitute to arm themselves until they awaken their zanpakuto. Asauchi are not an absolute requirement for a Shinigami or a type of living being, they are just a convenient tool. Bankai cannot be permanently destroyed but take longer than a shikai to be repaired.

7. The nature Ichigo's zanpakuto? - It would either be Old Man Zangetsu as his Shinigami power and Hollow Ichigo as his Hollow powers as originally stated, or there would be no Old Man Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo would have been his Shinigami/Hollow power and zanpakuto from the start.

8. Ichigo does not lose his powers - There is no Final Getsuga. Aizen dies from being stabbed enough times and being blown to oblivion without Ichigo achieving entire dimensions of power above his.

9. The return of the Quincy is foreshadowed - It would be implied from the start that the Quincy aren't as gone as they seem, particularly by foreshadowing the heritage of Ichigo and his sisters.

10. Renji and Rukia's zanpakuto wouldn't be changed unexpectedly - Zabimaru would warn Renji that it was too soon to reach bankai and that he wouldn't be able to achieve it's full power. Renji learns it anyway but is stuck with a half-formed bankai until after Aizen's defeat. Sode no Shirayuki would only ever have the ability to lower Rukia's body temperature whilst preserving her life. Since Kaien's death, the sole technique she would learn is to extend the blade's edge - or repair the blade itself - with ice.

11. The Sternritter's abilities are optimized Quincy techniques - They don't have random powers given to them by Yhwach, they are given Epitaphs in response to them perfecting Quincy techniques through their creativity and hard work. e.g. Cang Du is The Invulnerable because his Blut Vene had reached a point where no weapon could pierce him, Meninas is The Power because her Blut Arterie had reached a level of physical strength that none could match, Gremmy is The Visionary because he can make any kind of weapon from reishi etc.

12. The Arrancar would consist mainly of Espada and Privaron Espada - There would be ten Espada with Privaron Espada as their direct subordinates and the Numeros as their footsoldiers. That instead of the odd mix of powerful Espada, weak Fraccion and ignored Numeros.

13. Zaraki couldn't defeat Unohana - Zaraki managed to give Unohana a run for his money once upon a time and she left him alone after their battle so that he would mature, though he lost some of his memory of her. When they battle again, it is only be awakening his shikai that he defeats.

14. The Arrancar Arc wouldn't involve rescuing Orihime - It would be about invading Hueco Mundo to stop his plans early and to try and destroy the Hogyoku once and for all. The war at Karakura Town would be more like a war instead of a series of skirmishes.

15. Aizen's motivations - He would actually have some instead of being a (lonely) blank slate. They would probably relate to the shitty afterlife and his belief that he could make it all better by becoming god.

Well, I'll be here all day if I don't stop there.

 

[lord geryon]

I agree with most of your list, knight, but not cutting the ranks of the Gotei 13.

 

[Knyght]

I wouldn't know how to cut it down, to be fair. It feels like too many Shinigami and they often steal the show but many of those characters have a role and are generally likable or interesting. I suppose the diversity of characters can be one of Bleach's more appealing traits.

 

[lord geryon]

I wouldn't know how to cut it down, to be fair. It feels like too many Shinigami and they often steal the show but many of those characters have a role and are generally likable or interesting. I suppose the diversity of characters can be one of Bleach's more appealing traits.

I don't think you really can without pissing off most of the fandom. All the Captains have fans, and given that most are fans of multiple Captains, there is a lot of overlap between fans on who their favorites are.

 

[Knyght]

Forgot about the fans. I'd be crucified. h43r:

 

[grant]

Easiest one would be: have each plotting character make moves that actually further their goals. I don't know if it's true that Kubo didn't decide on Aizen as the traitor until he'd already killed Aizen, but from what we see it would not surprise me in the least.
So Urahara doesn't randomly send in a couple of kids barely capable of handling a lieutenant to stop three renegade captains (without telling any of them this), but rather they sneaked in and he has to send Yoruichi to get them out.
Likewise, Aizen doesn't send a few people at a time for dramatic fights, once he's trapped behind the flame wall he sends everyone out to just kill their enemies*.

After that, definitely cut down on some of the characters. Unless I'm guaranteed in writing a publishing length of at least 2/3 what Kubo got, a lot of those characters need to be cut back and out.

No Orihime gets kidnapped by Aizen plot. Two Rescue Damsel in Distress who has MacGuffin plots so close to each other was not a good idea.

*And he doesn't trick Hitsugaya into stabbing Hinamori, he just stabs Hitsugaya and backhands Hinamori since a lieutenant without even a bankai isn't worth wasting time on. Seriously that was just stupid.

 

[goldenarms]

Forgot about the fans. I'd be crucified. h43r:

Well, that's the thing about reboots -- you don't have to necessarily stick with the same storyline as the original.

 

[da_fox2279]

7. The nature Ichigo's zanpakuto? - It would either be Old Man Zangetsu as his Shinigami power and Hollow Ichigo as his Hollow powers as originally stated, or there would be no Old Man Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo would have been his Shinigami/Hollow power and zanpakuto from the start.

I'd like to alter this slightly, in that Old Man Zangetsu and HIchigo are essentially one and the same - his merged Hollow/Shinigami powers constantly fighting for dominance. Zangetsu at the beginning, up until the big fight with Byakuya - HIchigo starts to take over, and Ichigo's sword starts to warp, parts of it flaking off... that sort of thing.

Ichigo never sees OMZ/H-I together, never has to deal with both of them at the same time - he occasionally hears one in his head, and sometimes the voice changes mid-speech to the others'.

This would be the true origin of the Vaizard (and maybe the Arrancar, given the '2 sides of the same coin' motif) - the Hyogokyu breaks down the barriers between the two sides (just like your #5, Knight), and now everybody affected has to fight in order to balance the two separate power-sets. Ichigo eventually figures out how to get the two sides to merge fully, resulting in the Hollow/Zangetsu hybrid we see during the training for Mugetsu.

 

[nuclear death frog]

I would imagine I missed this thread because, well, I wasn't looking.
Copying ...

The number of characters would be reduced
The human protagonists would always be important
The Hogyoku does not grant wishes - It controls the barrier between Shinigami and Hollows
The nature of zanpakuto is not changed

I agree with all of those concepts. The details can be debated, but as concepts I like all of those.
I have come to hate everything from beyond Chapter 423 and do not want to acknowledge any of it, so for my money on this topic, the manga ends there. And that would be how it ends ... c423 was perfect and does not need a single change.
I don't know how much filler I'd have in the series or how much I'd need but I imagine the series could be compacted to the mid-300's as far as chapter count goes and lose nothing that I like.
I can imagine this post not being well-received.

 

[burnerx7]

Ichigo's power ups dependent in his determination and protagonist power, instead of his pedigree. Each time he stumps against a wall of centuries of experience, abilities and power, he trumps it because he's still human and his soul is in developtment, each time that he should be snuffed he gets again and again demanding more from his power and his soul giving him more.

That battles were decided by cunning and ability instead of who has the biggest stick, that Aizen could LOL NO your powers not because he was ubber powerfull, instead had him planning for centuries for each way their enemies could kill him, no bullshit immunity to Zanpakuto powers or spells, that kind of thing only works in plot armor for Ywach, Ichigo and maybe Yamamoto, not for every villain, being stabbed even for a weak Shinigami should be dangerous, have battles of rock-paper-scissors of the Nasuverse variety, not battles of measuring power levels.

Hollows actually becoming dangerous not jobbers, a HOLLOW SOULD'VE infinite potential, even more a Vasto Lorde who is an amalgam of billions of souls (kind like akumas level 4 in D. Gray-man) even a captain shouldn't just stomp hollows, at this point Soul Society are just bullies instead of an outnumbered army who can varely survive protecting the human souls.

Kill characters, make me bleed with each death, make them tragic, painful to watch make the characters matter instead of walking fanservice, make the villains menacing, anyone can die, obviously not anyone but make me believe.

Give humans characters more important parts, don't sugar coat the Shinigamis are assholes (except a core group associated with Ichigo) and Soul Society is a terrible place to be.

And last Make Ichigo the hearth, the soul, the determination of a rag tag team, make him charismtic enough to have Quincies, humans, shinigamis and hollow being one percent loyal to him, give him ideals beyond protect his friends, make him Shinigami/hollow/Quincy Jesus

 

[point09micron_process]

I wouldn't know how to cut it down, to be fair. It feels like too many Shinigami and they often steal the show but many of those characters have a role and are generally likable or interesting. I suppose the diversity of characters can be one of Bleach's more appealing traits.

The easiest way IMO would be to lose most of the vice-captains. Other than Renji they're entirely useless and wholly uninteresting. Shuffle some of the captains around and rename them vice-captains (i.e. Toshiro, Dog, Blind, Gin, etc.)