An Open Letter to the Final Issue of BLEACH: It’s Been 2 Years and I’m Still Heated

I’ll be honest: I’ve been trying to write this piece since Bleach issue 686 dropped two years ago. From August 31, 2016, until now I’ve had a Google Doc ready to go, containing only the following: “For Black Girls Who Considered Homicide When a Mangaka Sinks Your Ship” and “First of all, f-you, Bleach.” All this time, I didn’t know what to say. I used to read Bleach faithfully in my studio apartment in Hong Kong. In 2016 it had finally found a resolution to an arc that had been dragging on since February 2012. I was ready for them to stick the ending, for this final shounen circle-jerk to be over. And now that I have some distance, I feel I can finally let the words flow. Fuck you, Bleach. First of all, second of all, last of all; always and forever we beefin’ on sight. Oh, you thought time had tempered my rage? Nah. That shit been aging like a fine port, and Kubo-sensei can still catch these hands.

“But why you mad, tho?” I’ll tell you, my fine reader, exactly why I’m sitting here bubbling like a pot of grits. Hold onto your butts. Demotions Abound When we started with Bleach, we had two main characters: Kurosaki Ichigo (our protagonist) and Kuchiki Rukia (our deuteragonist). Somehow, as the series progressed, Rukia eventually got bumped further and further into the background. Like way back. Like behind folks we hadn’t seen for 400 chapters. Now Bleach was a shounen series, thus aimed towards boys. Rukia, though, was an early fan fave — the polls showed it. Why, then, was…