Bleach Semantics

A thread for FunFacts about Kubo's naming schemes in Bleach, most of which get lost in translation. He's actually really meticulous and clever with how he names most of his characters. Please please please hold off on the shipping bullshit for now. Waifu/Husbando faggotry is more than welcome however, we can at least tackle names bearing interest that way.

We can start with the family name, "Kuchiki"[朽木]
It's made up of the kanji [朽:Kuchi] for "Rotten" or "Decayed"
and [木:ki] for "Tree."

More than likely the name choice was meant to reflect Rukia's association with death as a shinigami, and her initially sullen demeanor upon introduction. It carries meaning to Byakuya and the Kuchiki family itself when we find in backstory that the Kuchiki family is dwindling, with Byakuya the last direct heir by blood. In a more literal sense in-world it would most likely have been a toponymic surname, referring to a location identifiable by a particular dead tree.

no one fucking cares anymore

p.s. kubo once wrote her name out in english as "Rukia Rotwood", you didn't dig up anything new

now fuck off narutard

>giving a fuck about Bleach
Why would you do that to yourself?

Speaking of whom, Byakuya's name [白哉] is written with kanji for [白:Byaku] meaning "White" or "Innocent" and [哉:ya] which is a grammatical kanji used to indicate exclamation or in same cases inquisition and finality to the statement. More to come on this as it related to other characters' names...

Rukia's name is written in katakana [ルキア] and is thus wholly phonetic with no inherent meaning. There were rumors for a while that Kubo had taken her name from Lucia for its association with a certain kind of cosmos flower, supposedly the origin of the species and native to south america. There is however no such name for any binomial in the Asteraceae cosmos family, and also no common names for any related plants in south america. The rumors also claimed interviews that could never be cited as their only source. So while an unlikely and deadend theory it's all we've got on her name.

Byakuya's dead wife, and Rukia's older sister, Hisana [緋真] was kind of a non-character, mostly just a prop for Byakuya's backstory, but to that end her name fit the role. The kanji [緋:Hi] can be translated as "scarlet" but generally implied a variety of shades of deep red color, "blood red" being among them. [真:sana] in turn reads as "Truth" or "Reality." The blood red contrasts with Byakuya's pure white, and her reality contrasts his innocence.

similarly, Kuchiki Soujyun's name [蒼純] plays off his son's, likely for lack of any real character of his own since he was just a fleeting cameo. [蒼:Sou] is the somewhat confusing Japanese word meaning "Blue", but also translated as "Green" and plays into the men of the Kuchiki family all having color based names. It specifically refers to a color closer to sea-green or mint in the range of turquoise and blue-greens. It is however not translated "blue-green" but either "Blue" or "Green." Other Japanese words reference actual blue and green color and translate accordingly. Of note is that the Green here is the color of unripe fruit, and as such is also a common colloquial term for "immature" or "naive." [純:jyun] is a different word for "Innocent", mirroring the "Innocent" in Byakuya's [白]. The fact that his name can be interpreted as "naive innocent" is a common redundancy in chinese and japanese used to give emphasis of increase magnitude of the duplicated meaning. This emphasis is similar to Byakuya's name making use of the exclamatory [哉].

Ginrei's name is less interesting. It means [銀:Gin] "Silver" and [嶺:rei]"(Mt.)Peak".

Renji's full name 阿散井 恋次 breaks down as such
阿A: is used her mostly as a phonetic component. between the kanji the phonetic, and the context it doesn't appear to have any particular meaning
散Bara: reads as "scattered (pieces)" or "squander" or "loose (pieces)"
井i: a well, or well crib, but also used (as in this case) to reference the town or community built around it. Not unlike -ton, -ford, or -berg as a toponymic name.
The place name implies a community of people not part of a collected group. In effect a town of strays, which is of course Renji's actual backstory.

恋Ren: "(romantic) love," the same kanji used in koibito to denote a lover, but do note that by itself it's strictly platonic.
次Ji: "next" "secondary" "following (in sequence)"
It could be a number of things depending on the context you want to read it in. At the early phases of Renji's rivalry it seemed to heavily imply his rivalry was romantic as well as combative, describing Renji's role in the story, the secondary love interest for Rukia. Later, after his background was revealed, it seemed to align with his setting aside his feelings for what he felt was a greater good, that his romantic interests came second.

苺Ichi: the kanji for "strawberry" pronounced by itself as "ichigo" and obvious homophone for Kurosaki Ichigo's name but with no shared meaning.
花ka: "flower" both turns the name into a reference to the actually budding part of the strawberry plant and not the fruit, and is a generic feminizing suffix in japanese names. not unlike -ina or -ette it effectively flags it as a female version of what might otherwise be a male or unisex name. It also fits into Kubo's apparent fixation on flower motifs like with the gotei insignia and the aforementioned rumor about Rukia's name.

working off Ichika, Kazui's name [一勇] at first glance sounds like it breaks Ichigo and Isshin's naming shtick but it also starts with the kanji for 1[一:Ichi/Kazu]. The [勇:i] means "courage" "bravery" but also "high spirits" and is the same courage Aizen rambles on about in the final chapter. His excessively cheery demeanor is a reflection of this choice.

Ichigo's [一護] is of course "One" and "Protect" as we all know. It's also Ichigo's primary and arguably only personality trait. It is also a pun on Ichi[一:1] Go[五:5] and [苺:ichigo] Strawberry. His sisters are also fruit based puns based on the Yuzu[柚子], an asian cirtus, and the Chinese quince[花梨] and like Ichigo's name they are phonetic puns, so they aren't all literally named as fruits.

Isshin [一心] is written as "One Heart" and Misaki's [真咲] "Real/True Blossom." You'll notice she shares the same kanji for real/true or reality/truth used in Kuchiki Hisana's name. Alternatively, the kanji [咲] can also be read as "smile" but that's generally a chinese thing more than japanese, definitely unseen in Japanese grammar, but a rare occurrence in naming. This could potentially tie into some early comments on Masaki's smile made in the shinigami substitute arc.

Jumping from Isshin to the Shiba[志波] family... 志:shi = purpose/will/determination/aspiration/ambition, and 波:ba = wave/billow. Given the name was rooted in Kaien's character, it would seem to reference the effect of inspiration. A feeling of ambition or determination or strength of will that billows and swells outwards in a ripple effect. This is given Kaien's early unnamed appearance as part of Rukia's speech to Ichigo during the Grandfisher incident. His influence having passed from him to rukia to ichigo.

Of the 3 siblings, there is also a distinct motif of elements and birds.
Kaien海燕, Kuukaku空鶴 & Ganju岩鷲 are written with海:Sea 空:Sky and 岩:Stone, respectively. And 燕:Swallow, 鶴:Crane, and 鷲:Eagle.

...

While your trivia only further shows that Bleach was initially well thought out and had been planned to a good extent for the first few arcs, it will nevertheless be poorly received due to the fact that the abysmally dismal conclusion of the serialization was seen as a final betrayal from an author for whom most had good if not great expectations.
Your presentation would be accepted with more celebration, pomp and KUBOOO! had you thought of doing this earlier.
In my opinion you would be better off translating some other manga.

tl;dr Too little too late

Okay so I was hoping there'd be at least some small interest in this, but if not I'll just finish what I was doing and let this die. I'll be brief with this one
>ISHIDA: 石田: Stone (rice) Field
It's a euphemism for infertility. You can't plant crops in a field full of stones. It's a direct reference to Uryuu being "the last quincy."
>URYUU: 雨竜: Rain Dragon
from a mythological standpoint Dragons in the east are typically causes of weather and in many cases bringers of rain and thus crop fertility. Given the meaning in Ishida, it implies that Uryuu's the one to revive his dying family.
>RYUUKEN: 竜弦: Dragon String
Dragon is straight forward in its mythical and powerful implications, as well as being shared with Uryuu, and the "string" here is very specifically alluding to a bow string.
>SOUKEN: 宗弦: School String
"religion/sect/denomination" and also "main point/origin/essence" Shares in Ryuuken's string kanji but no dragon. Ties into parts of Ryuuken's brief and vague comments at the start of the Hueco Mundo arc that names Souken, "The First Quincy"

Keep it going, user

I'm not trying to redeem anything. The end was shit, as was most of the final arc. I'd say I was disappointed by the ending too, but it's hard to call that being let down when you see it coming in the first place. Also I've done this before on and off as it comes up all throughout the publication, starting on the old M7 forums, but it never seems to stick with anyone. Still, I find it interesting and I'm not one to deal in weird absolutes where I throw the baby out with the bathwater. Kubo did some compelling work in between the shit and those are the parts that warrant attention. Also I only start this up now of all times because that last Bleach thread just died and I wanted to get the jump on the insufferable shipping war nonsense before it started up again. But I guess it didn't matter, since none of the bleach posters seemed to have stuck around anyhow.

I'll just throw one more in, and go to bed
>SHIHOUIN 四楓院 Four+Maple (tree)+Temple
You can see the 4 maple leaves on the family sigil. Yoruichi's orange wardrobe plays into this.
>YORUICHI 夜一 Night+One
There's not a whole lot to this by itself, but...
>YUUSHIROU 夕四郎 Night+4(th)+Son
Again no inherent meaning by itself, but it does seem to imply two more Shihouin siblings, whether dead or alive.

>Urahara Kisuke浦原 喜助
riverbank+meadow
rejoice+assist (although that -suke is also just a generic masc. suffix so it might not be meant to be read literally)
On the one hand it plays on Kisuke's outwardly goofy cheery demeanor, but if we read the -suke literally it also seems to imply his role as the facilitator of other people's happiness.

>Tsukabishi Tessai :握菱 鉄裁
Grasp+Water Chestnut, and Iron+Judge
Iron Judge is kind of a common moniker and implies immovability, in the case of a judge morally and rationally so. "Grasp Waterchestnut" is a euphemism for a strong hand/grip, a high tolerance for pain, or general toughness, given that waterchestnuts have a sharp spiky shell and grabbing one into a balled fist as "grasp" here implies would usually not be a great idea. Tessai did in fact have bigass hands and during the first Menos appearance beat down hollows with his bare fists.

I would have been interested to read this had you posted this while we waited for the spoilers for the last chapter; while I still had hope that Kubo might pull something interesting out of his ass as some final stand of sorts.
Doing so may have generated some worthy discussion and kept the shipping wars at bay for some time.
Now I have nothing but resentment for bleach and cannot bring myself to do anything but skim through your posts and dismiss them as wasted potential.
I always liked Kubo's art and great character designs even though he introduced too many of them through the various arcs.
Like some people said I would have liked a Souls society focused SoL story as Kubo excelled at interactions within the various shinigami factions.
I hope his next manga is not weekly and not targeted towards the shounen demographic. I look forward to reading your analysis for his next work in some future thread.

The way this manga ended was pretty insulting to all the people who stuck with it for so long.You could tel that no thought had gone into it all. You cant blame Jump, Kubo had plenty of time to wind it up but he dragged it out for no reason. I genuinely don't think Kubo cared about Bleach by the end and I doubt he'll do another series.

Now that's nice and all OP but let's talk about what really matters and that's IchiHime

This is actually interesting. Good stuff

Very well. If you're so smart then explain Kubo.

We get it
You know moonrunes

>M7 forums
what?

Chapter 692 when?

>Given the meaning in Ishida, it implies that Uryuu's the one to revive his dying family.
>doesn't get the Hime
>doesn't get a wife at all
Fucking Kubo

I've always liked how Kubo names his characters. Or at least, the ones with Japanese names. Most of what you wrote, I already know because people have made this kind of analysis before (perhaps you're even the same person who made the analysis I first came across, except now you're user) however I appreciate the newer additions like Ginrei, Soujun and Yuushirou.

It can't be helped.

>Now that's nice and all OP but let's talk about what really matters and that's IchiHime
IchiHime only matters to finally shut the cancerous IchiRuki shipper fandom up.

That's the only reason why Bleach should be talked about now,who cares about other shit?
Praise Kubo for letting Orihime win the IchiBowl!

maximum 7 was the group that did the bleach scanlations during the early hueco mundo arc in the early 200Xs before mangapanda or mangastream were things. Onemanga was still a thing back then, and a relatively unchallenged one.

I didn't think this thread would make it through the night. We're sort of out of big families but here are some others.
>浮竹Ukitake
the meaning is "Floating Bamboo" is is yet another place name. I think the metaphoric usage here has to do with poetic imagery of bamboo leaves floating down a river. Bamboo is one of several common icons in japanese poetry, it's evocative of summer, as we all know Kubo loves his poetry. Bamboo leaves floating down a river is indicative of coming autumn.
>十四郎Juushirou
Literally just reads as "14(th) son" given his initially vague backstory and only clear characteristic being his sickness, this was likely referencing that his family, being poor, lost several children to similar untreated sickness. However Kubo's notes have said he has 4 brothers 2 sisters, all younger.

He's basically been a walking deathflag since the moment he was introduced. Still mad we never saw a bankai.

His family is not poor, he's just a lower ranking noble is all. As is Shunsui. You have to keep in mind that he was afflicted by tubercolosis more than 1000 years in the past. Also illnesses and fetal mortality rates were sky high during those times. Imagine it wasn't just him, but several others of his siblings that were afflicted as well, he was just the one they managed to save. Just 200 years ago it was common for more than half of all the children in a family to die while growing up. There have also been numerous civil wars and the war against Yhwach 1000 years ago since he was young. Ukitake is a man who has seen his fair share of misery.

>Yamada Hanatarou
>山田 花太郎
>Mountain+Field Flower+Great+Son
this one is a different kind of wordplay. Rather than having any kind of meaningful reading, Kubo made a super generic sounding name. You might notice that certain naming conventions a fairly common in Japanese, sometimes to the point of rendering segments almost meaningless in their use: -suke, and -maru are used more as indicators of masc. names than as literal meanings. Yama[山] and Da[田] are probably the two most commonly used kanji in family names, as most lower caste families that took names after the formality of the rigid samurai class system loosened took obvious locational names. so, named after their own farms, or the recognizable landmarks near them.

Similarly the Oumaeda family that has served the lt. of the 2nd division is written [大前田:Big Front Field] a lower class family but one with wealth, a kind of gaudy and tacky nouveau riche family, is just literally named "Big Property."

Anyway Hanatarou [花太郎] is similarly made up of common kanji, and all relatively non descript. The issue is that when trying to remember that name it would be easily to mistake the kanji in it for other common ones, or to mix up their order in his name. Like if someone was named John Peter Jackson and was commonly called Peter John Jackson, or Jack Peter Johnson.

>given his initially vague backstory and only clear characteristic being his sickness
is not there to fill space, it's there to clarify context. At the time, there was no indication of his family history, the implication of a man with a terminal illness named The 14th Son is as stated.

>YUUSHIROU 夕四郎 Night+4(th)+Son
>十四郎Juushirou 14(th) son
on the subject of -rou names, they're pretty common anyway, and Kubo uses a lot of them.
>Chou jirou 長次郎 Chief+Secondary+Son
Sasakibe was pretty deliberately designed to be 2nd in command.
>Genshirou 源志郎 Origin+Will+Son
I don't know that there was any real intention in naming Okikiba this way, it may have just sounded like a good old man name to him
>Rojuurou 楼十郎 Watchtower/Floor(of a building)+Ten(th)+Son
suggests pretty literally that he was born to a family living on the 10th floor of a building, likely a tower. His surname, Otoroubashi 鳳橋
means "Phoenix+Bridge" which could be a literal bridge with a phoenix motif, but could also be a poetic turn of phrase for a rainbow. His name being "Tall Boy" and "Rainbow" is likely a reference to his initial appearance as a tall flambouyant european man. His name also conveniently shoe horns in the phoentic "Rojuu" for "Rose."
>Toushirou 冬獅郎 WinterLionSon
The name is of course a reference to the cold, snow white color, and his hair. The Shirou bit is phonetically shared with Juushirou, though they have different meanings. There is also the loose pun of "shiro" being a pronunciation of "white" and both have white hair.
>Sen tarou 仙太郎 Hermit+Big/Fat+Son
I don't actually know what this is supposed to imply other than maybe something to aspire to? Sentarou is fairly thin, and his dad is too.

If you recall the weird little 2 week shitstorm over people thinking Yuushirou was a girl and everyone with any loose grasp of Japanese said that was retarded, this all is why.

I'm so glad Bleach is dead. Rukia lives forever though.

Can anyone explain whats Aizen's name means?
He's the only character that i've enjoyed as of late

Rukia best girl

Aizen
藍染
Indigo+Dye

Sousuke
惣右介
Overall+Right*+Mediate
*as in opposite Left, not as in Righteous

It's kind of a weirdly unimposing name.

What does Shunsui's name mean?

While we're at it...
Ichimaru's is [市丸] Market+m.suffix, so basically "Market Boy(s)" and the name Gin is written in katakana, so no meaning. It's presumably the Gin for Silver though, given his hair.

Tousen
東仙
East(ern)+Hermit

Kaname
要
Corner Stone

>Kyouraku Shunsui
>京楽 春水
>Captial(City)+Comfort, Springtime+Water
both tie in to his easy going personality

This is a widely-accepted fact, yes.