Quote:
Originally Posted by itachi-san314
i'm very disappointed overall in the story. its a great example of why risky story-telling is best. bleach has taken almost no risks in its long run
|
After revisiting this post and thinking about it a bit, I'm gonna disagree to a point. Because if you really stop to think about it, you can kind of make the argument that the series is in the state its currently in precisely because of the risks Kubo's taken. Its just that he's taken the wrong risks.
To start, I'd argue that certain decisions we usually wouldn't consider "risks" could be considered as such under the proper circumstances. Case in point, we knew Kubo had a bad track record for (not) killing off the good guys for the longest time. And while it may be common to regard such decisions as the safe choice, it can still be considered risky to repeatedly follow such a repetitive and predictable pattern. Afterall, if fans think you're the type of author who's not going to kill off the good guys periodically, it leaves very little room for suspense. Kubo's only just recently started to turn this around.
I guess to make a long story short, there comes a point where deciding to take no risks ultimately becomes a risky decision in-and-of-itself (if that makes any sense). And that's partially where Kubo's at fault.
On the other hand, I'd argue that Kubo's also attempted some genuinely risky moves that just plain fell flat on their face. The decision to make the fullbring saga in particular was a very risky move. Because while I'm sure some fans are capable of acknowledging the fact that our main protagonist essentially reached godhood and had no where to go, the fact of the matter is restart arcs are dangerous. Because many people who are used to the typical generic shonen formula don't want to see their main hero lose his powers. On the contrary, they want to see him get forever stronger. Because the strength of the main good guys in a shounen sort of serves as a testament to just how far the series has come. This makes the act of going to back to square one feel like a major buzzkill for many.
So if for whatever reason the time comes for the main hero to have to lose it all, it either better coincide with the end of the series, or the journey to get back to greatness better be damn compelling to witness right from the get-go. And if in the worst case scenario it can't even achieve that, it better be brief to endure at the very least. The fullbring saga represented none of this. It was a restart saga with what many considered to have ended with another anti-climactic finish leaving fans feeling rather unrewarded.
And while I'm sure most rational fans expected it to a certain degree, the main hero couldn't even close out the arc by returning to the same level he was at before losing his powers in the first place. This means, even after enduring that hellish fullbring saga, fans looking forward to seeing the return of SSJ3 Ichigo still couldn't get what they wanted. To make matters worse, I can't even come up with a plausible reason to explain why within the context of the plot. All we can conclude is that Ichigo couldn't return to being that strong because it would be inconvenient for the author and the next batch of bad guys he's coming up with.
So yeah...this is just one example of a risk that went horribly wrong. I could also go into Kubo's risky decisions to hold off for years on providing answers to important mysteries. Or I could discuss the risks involved with deciding to rush through the finale of the arrancar saga by making Ichigo god-tier in one training session. Or I could also discuss the risky practice of figuring out a sizable portion of the plot out on the fly, but there are certain dead horses that I don't feel like beating anymore.