Manga Pilots: Bleach

This entry will contain some Bleach spoilers.

Having looked at Death Note and Naruto's pilot chapters, I will now examine Bleach's.

Bleach is a shonen series that has changed over time, starting off as an urban fantasy with a "monster of the week" format, and eventually becoming a series with long story arcs. The pilot features a story that's more in line with the early series- in fact, it's strikingly similar to Orihime's introductory arc- but nevertheless shows how Bleach's concept evolved over time.

Synopsis

The pilot begins with Ichigo, as a Soul Reaper, confronting a Hollow and slicing him through the torso. He then gives the "whole" spirit of an old man, whom the Hollow had menaced, bus tickets to Soul Society. These two pages alone demonstrate multiple differences from canon.

1. Ichigo's sword looks like a standard katana, as opposed to the large and thick katana he gets before releasing Zangetsu.
   
   
2. The Hollow looks like an ordinary person with tentacles. The Hollows in Bleach are fully monstrous, with masks that hide their faces.
   
   
3. Ichigo defeats the Hollow by cutting its torso. In the series, one generally must defeat a Hollow by slicing through its mask and head, although it is possible to do so through other means.
   
   
4. Ichigo sends the whole on its way by giving him bus tickets rather than performing the konso by touching its head with the pommel of his sword.

After a bit of exposition on what Soul Reapers do(destroy Hollows and purify wholes), which isn't too different from canon, Ichigo notes that he isn't a Soul Reaper because he wants to be, at which point Rukia comes out of the folds of his shihakusho(Soul Reaper uniform). Why is Rukia, who's canonically petite but otherwise the size of a normal person, so tiny?

The story flashes back to the previous Saturday afternooon, seven days ago, when Ichigo is walking with a friend and being followed by a group of ghosts. He remarks that his family runs a funeral parlor, so he's always been able to see ghosts.

Rukia, who was back then at her normal size, tackles a hollow to the ground, briefly impressing Ichigo for how a woman in a "kimono"(his term for the shihakusho) is so tough. Ichigo shoves Rukia aside before she can perform the coup de grace, saying girls shouldn't fight and people should fight with their bare hands; Rukia is shocked Ichigo can see her, while his friend is oblivious. After Rukia's shock fades, she realizes that the Hollow is about to eat the wholes, and slices off its arm.

Ichigo doesn't remember the rest, but then sees that Rukia has shrunk to the size of a playing card, wearing a Japanese blazer-style uniform. As such, Ichigo is forced to help Rukia with her work.

That concludes the explanation of Rukia's situation. In canon, she transferred her powers to Ichigo, then was forced to inhabit a gigai in order to recover her powers. Unfortunately for Rukia, Urahara used her in an attempt to hide the Hougyoku from Aizen, and if you know canon, the rest is history.

At the Kurosaki Funeral Services, Rukia, who's bathing in a mug, explains that Soul Reapers can't protect several wholes at once, so she had to expend her power to save everyone. Having lost her power, she had to give Ichigo power so he can do her job in her stead. Ichigo protests that he's finished with his work and asks to return to his body, but Rukia, annoyed by his attitude, refuses to do favors for "rude people," and won't fulfill his request until he calls her "Rukia-sama." In canon, she not only is fine with him using her first name without honorifics, but when Hanatarou called her "Rukia-sama" while she was imprisoned in the Squad 6 barracks, she asked him not to be so formal with her.

After a bit of bickering, Ichigo gets another request on Ruka's communicator, and is shocked. Rukia is saddened to see that Orihime Inoue died at the young age of 17(which would make a her a second or third-year in high school, like she is after the timeskip, rather than the first year she is at the start of canon), and Ichigo says she's a classmate.

As Orihime's spirit kneels over her dead body at the foot of the steps to a shrine, with the two connected by a Chain of Fate, Ichigo reveals that Orihime's father died three years ago, the same time her brother died in canon, and his family handled the funeral. As such, Rukia believes that he'll be waiting in the Soul Society for Orihime, since souls transmigrate after 60 years. While Ichigo mentions that he and Orihime only talked once (as opposed to her being a friend of his long-time friend Tatsuki in canon), Rukia suspects that he's "gaga" over her.

Incidentally, in canon, there's no set limit to how long souls stay in Soul Society, and the people who die and come to the Soul Society are sent to various districts in Rukongai. People who are related by blood aren't always reunited, but considering how awful Orihime's biological parents were, this isn't always a bad thing.

Orihime continues to try to get her body to wake up, since if she dies, she'll miss her favorite show and be unable to confess to Ichigo. Ichigo greets her, from behind, leaving Orihime at a loss for what to say. Rukia tries to imitate his voice to act as though Ichigo is confessing to Orihime, but Ichigo strikes his chest with his fist, knocking Rukia unconscious, and tells Orihime to ignore Rukia's voice.

Ichigo introduces himself as a Soul Reaper, and Orihime is surprisingly unfazed by this, saying it's "a part-time job." Ichigo then uses his sword to cut Orihime's Chain of Fate, which, in canon, was the process that nearly turned Ichigo into a Hollow near the start of the Soul Society Arc, but here, is necessary for her to pass on.

As Ichigo insists that Orihime go, Orihime's father offers to take her to Soul Society, having been informed of her passing on the other side, and Orihime is overjoyed to see him. Orihime is about to confess to Ichigo, but Mr. Inoue stops her, saying that confessing now will only cause Ichigo pain. Orihime instead says goodbye to Ichigo, who watches father and daughter float away.

Rukia then regains consciousness, angry at how hard Ichigo hit her. When Ichigo informs her that Orihime left with her father, Rukia demands that he go after  them, since Mr. Inoue is a hollow.

Elsewhere, Mr. Inoue asks to see the bus pass Ichigo gave Rukia, then rips it to shreds; it's more than a little strange that such an important item for saving souls can be destroyed so easily, and I wonder how Soul Reapers get more. A hole opens in Mr. Inoue's chest, and he transforms into his Hollow form, announcing that he plans to keep Orihime with him forever.

Ichigo protects Orihime from her Hollowified father, and while he's briefly convinced that a hollow disguised itself as Mr. Inoue, it turns out that he's wrong. Mr. Inoue, like other wholes that Soul Reapers weren't able to protect, became a Hollow and intends to turn Orihime into one, too. Rukia informs Ichigo that the only thing he can do for Mr. Inoue right now is to destroy him, which is the opposite of what happened in canon.

Mr. Inoue rants to Ichigo about how Orihime's prayers for him at the family altar saved him, but as she got into high school, she prayed for him less and less and instead told him about Ichigo. During that time, Ichigo had tried to tell her that the spirit of her father was lonely, but Orihime hadn't understood what he meant. Mr. Inoue, having raised Orihime by himself since her mother died ten years ago, calls her his "treasure," and after seeing her move away from him, decided to kill her by pushing her down the steps, much to Orihime's disbelief.

At this point, I'd like to point out that it's similar to Orihime's introductory arc, with a few exceptions.

1. First and most importantly, Orihime doesn't actually die in canon.
   
   
2. Second, the Hollow from Orihime's family is her much older brother/legal guardian Sora, rather than her father (who's abusive to Orihime in the manga and abandoned her in the anime).
   
   
3. Third, in canon, Sora is not only jealous of Ichigo for having Orihime's attention, but also Tatsuki.
   
   
4. Lastly, instead of Rukia telling Ichigo to destroy Mr. Inoue, in canon, Rukia informs Ichigo that defeating Sora with a zanpakuto will send him on to Soul Society.

Ichigo says that he decided to see Orihime off without tears so Orihime wouldn't be attached and could reunite with her father, but can't believe Mr. Inoue would kill Orhime. Mr. Inoue fires back that since he can't stay in this world or go to the next, Orihime is the only window to his existence, and as she drifts away, that window is closing. Ichigo's rebuttal to Mr. Inoue is the same as what he says to Sora in canon- Orihime is also lonely, and that those who die and those who are left behind suffer the same loneliness.

Mr. Inoue takes Orihime as a human shield, claiming she's coming with him, but Orihime then grabs Ichigo's sword and pulls it through her, impaling herself and her father. She then says that she never forgot her father and merely wanted to tell him about school and the guy she likes. It's similar to Orihime's canonical words to Sora, although in that case, she also mentioned that she acted happy (being a Stepford Smiler is Orihime's M.O.), so she wouldn't worry him. Mr. Inoue is sublimated, and Orihime would have been too if not for Rukia's assistance.

Orihime thanks the "tiny Soul Reaper" for helping her, and Rukia gets offended until she spontaneously returns to her normal size, her powers having been regained, while Ichigo resumes wearing his uniform. Rukia asks Orihime and Ichigo to say their goodbyes, with Orihime clarifying that she likes Ichigo as a friend, and Ichigo offering to talk to Orihime more once he passes over.

Not long afterward, it turns out that Rukia had been refused re-entry to Soul Society, presumably for giving Ichigo her powers. She then decides to return to Ichigo, but not disclose the part about her punishment, and insists that Orihime stay silent as well. As Ichigo walks over, oblivious to their presence, they prepare to greet him.

Now for one final mention of the differences.

1. Rukia's powers do not merely come back in canon; t takes her staying in Soul Society for a time. The fact that Urahara's gigai was special probably inhibited her recovery.
   
   
2. In the pilot, Rukia was only in the human world for a week. In canon, roughly two months passed between her meeting Ichigo and her arrest.
   
   
3. Speaking of Rukia's arrest, Soul Society begins looking for her after realizing she's gone AWOL, and then have her arrested, rather than simply refusing her re-entry. If she's broken their laws, then the last thing they'd want is to have her running around in the human world.

Characters

Now let's briefly look at the characters.

Ichigo comes off as relatively generic, serving as Rukia's substitute because he has to. TV Tropes' page on Pillars of Moral Character has an interesting discussion on Ichigo's canon approach to the job- Rukia insists that if he serve as her substitute, he do it out of a sense of duty(Gimu), whereas Ichigo prefers to see it as an act of compassion(Ninjo). Here, Ichigo seems to be rather reluctant about the whole thing, but not so irresponsible that he'd leave Rukia hanging, so it's unclear which one applies.

Rukia is a bit more of a jerk than in canon, albeit because most of her interactions are with Ichigo(who brings out her more temperamental side).

Orihime is largely the same as canon, since she's in love with Ichigo but hides her pain from others. That said, her eccentric traits come up significantly less than in canon, partly because of her being dead.

As mentioned above, Orihime's father comes off as almost the same as her brother(who, being much older than Orihime and her legal guardian, is practically her father), save for the fact that he actually killed her.

Essentially, three out of four of the named characters shown in the pilot carry over to the final series with the same names, mostly identical designs and largely similar personalities as in the pilot, while the fourth character has an easily identifiable counterpart. Compare Death Note and Naruto's pilots, which each only had one character carry over from the pilot to the final product.

Conclusion

Out of all the manga pilots I've read, Bleach's is probably the most similar to the final product, to the point at which it serves to inspire a canon story arc, albeit with some very significant modifications. It serves as a good counterpoint to Death Note and Naruto's pilots by virtue of its similarity to the final product, albeit with notable differences, and is an interesting look at how pilots can serve as the basis for a final manga.