Even years after its conclusion, Tite Kubo's shonen manga, BLEACH, continues to boast impressive popularity. The third season of its final arc, "BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Conflict," wrapped up late last year, with more sequels already announced for production.
However, a recent debate on Japan's X (formerly Twitter) has ignited a fiery discussion about the character fashion in BLEACH. Many netizens have jumped to defend designs that some have labeled "tacky," arguing that these styles evolved with the times and still look incredibly sharp today, even being hailed as "Heisei era trendsetters."
This whole fashion brouhaha kicked off following a report yesterday about "official" character merchandise art being deemed "too lame." In that discussion, some users specifically pointed to BLEACH's outfits as quintessential Heisei-era style (and yes, some people genuinely dressed like that back then!). They found the overall coordination, color schemes, and compositions to be super stylish. So, seeing it slammed online as "tacky" felt a bit over the top, especially since it genuinely reflected the fashion trends of its serialization era.
Another netizen chimed in, saying, "BLEACH still keeps up with trends even now. Don't Kubo Tite's recent character illustrations look amazing?" It's clear that Kubo Tite takes character fashion very seriously, with his current artwork showcasing a distinct, modern flair compared to his past designs.
Many users highlighted that original creator Tite Kubo is incredibly knowledgeable about fashion, even personally supervising character outfits. "Kubo-sensei himself is a huge fashion enthusiast; the apparel he releases as merchandise is the kind he'd genuinely want to wear." Some even joked that Kubo-sensei could make a living just by drawing fashion illustrations.
In fact, just last year, Tite Kubo collaborated with the renowned fashion brand Margiela. When the fashion world itself gives its stamp of approval, there's really no need to doubt his design sense.
However, some netizens pointed out that the problem isn't with the original manga, but rather with the anime adaptation's missteps leading to fashion faux pas: "What everyone calls ugly are actually the anime's designs. The original manga is clearly so stylish, what on earth happened with the anime...?" This sentiment was echoed by multiple commenters.
It seems that while BLEACH's original fashion designs were once mocked as "too stylish" (オサレ) due to their chuunibyou-esque flair and special move names, they are now increasingly seen as classics when viewed through the lens of Kubo's exquisite artwork and evolving aesthetic tastes. But it looks like any perception of being "outdated" might just be the fault of the anime team and merchandise illustrations. QQ
via： /togetter