GINJO: GOOD or EVIL? - How Kubo Crafted One of Bleach's BEST Villains | Bleach Discussion

as some of you may know one of my absolute favorite characters in bleach is the leader of the fullbringers and the gang known as execution gingio kugo he's the first substitute shinigami and he also plays the role of the main villain of the lost agent arc now in my opinion reception towards that story arc has actually warmed somewhat over the years particularly after the end of bleach itself however when the series was coming out on a weekly basis it's pretty safe to say that it received its fair share of criticism from the fan base not all of it unwarranted however i have always said this but i really enjoyed my time with the lost agent arc when it first came out and have continued to do so ever since and will continue to be a staunch defender of that part of bleach and in fact one of the things i think that makes it work so well is that pivotal driving character of ginjo kugo outside of ichigo he is clearly the main focus of this story arc and that constant game of tug of war that kubo plays with the reader as to whether gin joe is or isn't an ally whether he's actually a super shadowy villain in kind of pulling the strings is what really makes everything work so well and i think kubo does a phenomenal job with this he plays on his own tropes he comes across as incredibly self-aware when writing gingo in my opinion the only mistake he makes with this character is not including a backstory in the canon manga i think that was a genuine mistake but outside of that i love how kubo handles this guy and so in today's video i wanted to take a look specifically at that journey we go on with genji throughout the lost agent arc up until that moment towards the end of the story arc where his true intentions are revealed and how kubo does such a meticulous and fantastic job of deceiving the reader into thinking maybe we can actually trust this guy when really we should have stuck with our gut before we begin the video however guys if you haven't hit subscribe yet make sure to do that now you're in the perfect place for bleach content like this every single week and i would really appreciate the support and also if you enjoyed the video don't forget to give it a thumbs up as well to show your support for me but also to increase the exposure of the video and help it reach other bleach fans just like yourselves and of course if you want to take that support from me a little step further we do now have a patreon for the channel as well you can support me for as little as a dollar a month and you can gain early access to videos and of course a massive thank you goes out to everyone who has supported me so far we've gone over 70 patrons now and i just couldn't be more grateful so thank you so much so where to begin with the character of ginjo ginjo is intrinsically tied to the lost agent arc without him it all completely falls apart he's working both in the foreground and the background to make the story run and kubo does a phenomenal job of using established plot points to just completely deceive the reader on almost every level and i love it i think it's so good when you sit there and think about it and you think about how this story arc actually works and it's clear that when dealing with a smaller subset of chapters kubo was able to really plan this story out and have things come back from the beginning of the arc that really affect the outcome later on so i think to kind of discuss genjo's shall we say journey with the reader it's best to start at the beginning gingo is introduced in the very first chapter of the lost agent arc and it's important to remember that at this point ginjo is a bad guy he has not yet been cut by book of the end and so he immediately seeks out each ago he sets up this whole elaborate thing where someone steals his bag so he can run into ichigo and make an initial impression immediately kubo makes this guy look suspicious maybe not necessarily evil but suspicious he turns to kind of face the the reader as you will there's shadows all over his face there's shadows on his face here as well he already knows ichigo's name and also this might not have anything to do with it but he does kind of look a bit like eisen as well and i think that's done potentially to make him immediately um someone you can't necessarily trust but so far so nothing new we've already seen this before with characters like shinji when he first appears in the iran car arc you don't really know whether or not you can trust him perhaps he's not as outwardly made to look like a villain as ginjo is but he's definitely very sneaky very suspicious and you're not entirely sure what's going on there particularly when he attacks ichigo in the middle of karakura town gingio's is a lot more slow burn and the lost agent arc begins to very slowly unravel and things start to fall into place ginjo contacts ichigo a couple more times and kubo does his darndest to make this guy appear really really shady and this is what i mean by kubo playing up on his own tropes this is him being very self-aware clearly at this point kubo wants you to not trust this guy as far as you can throw him and that's exactly the way ichigo is portrayed as well ichigo is very much a conduit for the reader in this instance more than he ever is in the rest of the series and i think that helps contribute to the lost agent feeling considerably more personal than the majority of other bleach story arcs but anyway ginjo tracks ichigo down at his place of work and he immediately kind of blows the doors off by having this photo of ishin and wanting information on ichigo's father this all kind of turns out to be a bit of a ruse to get ichigo's uh attention but i think it does the job of again making you question who is this guy what does he actually want what does he really know and kubo really plays this up again by having ginger have these really just shadow filled faces these panels that just make him look like he's a complete villain to be honest these panels are generally reserved for full-on bad guys now of course we can't really talk about gin joe without talking about the general tone of this arc in general it is darker than normal it's very personal very close-knit but it is sinister there is a real sinister heir to the lost agent arc from almost day one uh and this lingers like a thick fog throughout the entire arc many of the arks pivotal scenes including the final battle are all set at night time which is not something kubo traditionally does there are a lot of close-up faces in this arc a lot of close-up mouth shots which kubo traditionally uses to evoke a sense of the eerie and this all really plays into the idea that ginjo is a bad guy you know that's that's basically what i'm getting at that's what you're supposed to think early on who is this guy why is he skulking around how does he know everything about ichigo however ichigo in this arc feels a certain way and it's crucial that he does because if he didn't gin joe's plan wouldn't be quite so effective and ichigo feels very isolated very cut off and increasingly paranoid about the state of the world around him and the fact that he can no longer do anything to protect those he loves and this is something ginjo really plays off of to kind of expose each of those weaknesses essentially um and prey on those so you get a moment where karen ichigo's sister is now starting to take on the role that he did she's become a protector you know she now deals with spirits and so naturally she's going over to urahara's shop to kind of get help from him or you know just buy anything she needs and he's offering to assist her with anything she and her family needs all pretty aboveboard innocuous stuff except gingio makes ichigo think that something really sinister is going on here and gingo tries to turn ichigo against kisuke from day one and it's a feeling that permeates through which you go later on in this arc with the amazing spotlight broken chapter as well ginjo basically says you know you really think you can trust this urahara guy what because he saved us that's why you think you can trust him um you know and basically ginjo's trying to do everything in his power to draw ichigo to him there's a great panel of ginger which i use for the thumbnail of this video where you just get this moment where ichigo is forced to confront this guy to finally just turn around and be like i don't trust you but i'm listening to you but who are you and you get this great panel of gingio just smirking and i remember the shonen jump editors even slapping that kind of you know end of chapter proclamation on there just being like is he your friend or foe because really you have no idea even this far into the story arc gin joe is just being incredibly shifty now it's around this point in time where uryu is attacked by tsukushima and of course we also know from the revelations towards the end of the story arc that this is when ginjo is cut by book of the end so moving forwards gingo now considers himself a genuine ally to ichigo rather than someone who's actually trying to trick him and again i think book of the end while it might be very broken is evidence to the fact that kubo was able to really successfully plan out this whole story arc because it's being used as early as here and it continues to work throughout there's obviously the very nice little details about genjo's character that he calls ichigo kurosaki when he is evil and ichigo when he is not um and i really like that and that starts to come into play here now it's interesting because kubo seems to know at this point that we are on very thin ice with genjo as readers we're like this guy's so obviously evil ichigo's so obviously falling into a trap let's just you know get through this and kubo knows that and so genjo still acts very sinister ichigo arrives meets him outside narayuki city and genjim has another very evil looking shadowy face panel where he's like i'm the only one you could turn to isn't that right and so ichigo's helpless he's completely trapped by this guy except when gingo takes it you go into the uh execution headquarters we actually find out that they're not evil they have seemingly altruistic motives they actually want to help ichigo regain his shinigami powers and we know full well that this is something ichigo has been wanting now despite his um you know exclamations to the contrary he does actually want this he wants his powers back to help his friends particularly now that they're being attacked in the street by mysterious strangers so suddenly we have a slightly different look on the situation gingio wants to help ichigo apparently but as readers we're still highly reserved this guy is still seemingly very dodgy really we have no reason to trust him otherwise yet just because he's extended an olive branch to ichigo he could very likely have ulterior motives however kubo cooks up this ulterior motive for the full bringers which sounds just strange enough to not be true but enough that ichigo would buy it and that we would temporarily buy it as well this idea that they hate their powers because they're hollow based and they want to give them all to a substitute shinigami because that's the way they can get rid of them gin joe says to ichigo he's like we need your help we want to be rid of these powers will you help us do that and it helps as well of course the rest of execution are buying into this that they're saying like yep you're amazing you go thank you for the help we thought you might say no and so immediately these guys who so far have seemed very um you know very very shady now appear vulnerable like ichigo can actually help someone again and that's crucial now i want to talk briefly about relationships in the lost agent arc i said before already that it was it's a very personal very intimate story arc designed to focus on the main karakura gang um separate them and then eventually bring them back together again the whole arc is about bonds each of those bonds are tested in many ways in this story arc and in more ways than one we see ichigo with the mantle of kind of an adult essentially he is in almost every scene that they are together in this arc he is the kind of patriarch of the household ishin is nowhere to be seen for the vast majority of this story arc and that's clearly done on purpose um it's to make ichigo kind of look like you know the oldest member of the kurasaki household his two little sisters need and look up to him and that's where i think two brand new relationships fit into ichigo's life perfectly being the oldest child you know he's never really had that that other child to kind of look up to it's only ever been his parents that's where ekomi unagir comes in clearly in my opinion supposed to be some kind of surrogate older sister character you could maybe make an argument for a mother character but i don't think kubo was going for that personally i think she's supposed to be something of an even older sister for ichigo something he's never really had before it could be that she's supposed to be a surrogate mother character because obviously ichigo at this age has never had that however i think she's supposed to play off of gingo who in my opinion takes the form of the older brother character to ichigo again someone he has never had before and the absence of ishin makes this relationship way more prevalent than it normally would be ichigo and ginjo's relationship throughout this story arc grows and grows and grows and and they become pretty tight um towards the end of the end of the lost agent and that's something cooper is obviously really playing up so he can pull the rug out from underneath us later on but ichigo begins his training with the fallbringers and everything seems pretty hunky-dory except for that lingering mistrust that air of suspicion that everyone still has the readers included it doesn't help that kubo loves to do these occasional you know very close-up shots of gin joe's eyes looking pretty suspicious but at this point in time ginjo is for all intents and purposes a genuine good guy he has been cut by tsukishima and he feeds ichigo this whole back story about their former leader fukushima he gives ichigo an enemy for them to unite against for the lost agent arc it just so happens this is the same guy who has attacked uryu but the training continues and it continues and ichigo continues to grow further away from his father and urahara we get that spotlight broken chapter where he sort of follows them and suspects them of something wrong and he just grows closer and closer to gingo instead which is exactly what genjo wants but what i absolutely what i truly think is so clever about kuba's approach to this arc is that gingio is not lying everything he's saying he thinks is true that's the nature of book of the end tsukishima has inserted himself into gingo's past as an enemy and so everything ginjo is telling ichigo gingio himself believes and i think that's so clever because that means there's no room for error it means there is no way gin joe can technically slip up and i think it's really really smart to use book of the end in that way to really help reinforce the plot of this arc i would have maybe liked ichigo and ginger to have had perhaps one or two more chances for a one-to-one heart to heart about one another um before all the crazy stuff happens at the end but this arc is moving at a breakneck pace even if it didn't feel like it on a weekly basis so tsukushima attacks the execution hideout and battles ginjo ginjo fights him ginjo stops ichigo from getting involved and does seem to genuinely sort of care about ichigo's progress but there is still that lingering sense that he wants something else but let's recant where are we now with the ichigo ginger relationship well they're bonding genji is there for ichigo like i said where he feels no one else is he has no real father figure currently position just doesn't seem to be around anywhere urohara was as well ichigo is very suspect of and genji has wormed his way in and they seem to be wholeheartedly getting on they share a couple of jokes every now and then kubo puts ginjo into some comedic scenes which he doesn't really do with the major major villains of the story eisen and yuhabak are never really seen a comedic light certainly not with ichigo and that is done to really tell you that gin joe and ichigo are on the level you know ginger is on the level you might have suspected him at first but he's your man he's actually here to help you out because as we've already established the full bringers of victims you know they're victims of circumstance and they need ichigo to get them out of this predicament not only that but ginger is very convincing in his battle against fukushima something he has also managed to turn ichigo onto by having uryu attacked and so we get to the final stage of ichigo's fulbright training which is where he must fight gingo himself and this is where kubo pulls off a genuine master stroke an actual like triple bluff in my opinion while ginjo's eventual actual reveal later on is perhaps not as good as eisens i genuinely think the run-up to ginjo's reveal is smarter i think it's better written perhaps that's not to say the eisen one is bad and i'm i'm comparing it to eisen because intrinsically it's the same kind of deal someone you thought was good is actually bad but there are so many layers so many layers to the gingo one that it's just crazy to think about but anyway moving on we get to this battle scene where ichigo is fighting gingo inside of yukio's game world the final stage of his fulbright training and yet something is really amiss something is something is off like ginjo is pressuring ichigo and ichigo's still not sure where he stands with this guy and this is what i mean by ichigo being the voice of the reader he internalizes this mistrust of genji he actually says at one point you know i a lot i lock blades with all of my enemies and it allows me a glimpse into who they really are but i can't see anything when i look at this guy you know i don't know who he is um and and he says you know is it because my shinigami powers aren't properly back yet or is it because i don't fully trust genjo yet i haven't quite got to that stage yet and i remember reading that i remember reading that and thinking yeah he's right he's right we've completely allowed ginjo in but we still know next to nothing about him outside of his own story we're taking his word for everything um and sure he puts on a good display he seems to hate fukushima but there's something not quite right and i love that kubo actually highlights that it's genius because what he does next is incredible so gin joe seems to cotton on to the fact that ichigo maybe still doesn't trust him and he takes the pretty drastic step of blinding ichigo with a pretty brutal cut to his eyes ichigo is you know now completely helpless and he's like why on earth would you do that sort of thing and ginjo reveals his supposed true colors ginger reveals that actually he's evil they've been using each ago all this time and now he's got ichigo exactly where he wants him alone and helpless in this training room and he's just going to finish him off and then he's going to move on and kill chad and orihime and it's wonderful because ginjo is like maniacal he punches ichigo in the face and he's like you lost the moment you stepped in this room with me you idiot you know you've done exactly what i wanted you to do and he hits him again and i remember i remember i remember kubo got me hook line and sinker you know i did everything he wanted me to do as a reader i didn't trust ginger the moment he showed up then i saw i was lulled into a false sense of security and when this chapter happened i was like i knew it i was like i knew it he's evil i can't believe it he's he's he's a bad guy this is absolutely crazy and then he's not kubo pulls another fast one on us as readers right at the end of this battle when ginjo threatens to kill orohime and chad ichigo suddenly sees him his body outlined by white light ichigo's ability to see rayatsu is returning and he just attacks skinjo out of rage and suddenly ginjo leaps on ichigo and takes the brunt of a massive explosion for him it's only after this that we discover that when someone completes their full bring they unleash an immense burst of energy that destroys the area around them and damages themselves and ginjo has just jumped on the proverbial grenade for ichigo here he's locked him down taken the hit for him we see ginjo bloodied and bruised his clothes in tatters and it's wonderful because ginjo afterwards he's like clinging on to ichigo and he's like i'm i'm sorry i had to play the villain but i i needed you to get that power i needed you to feel like your friends were in danger because that is what pushes you forwards despair pushes you forwards which is something gingio realizes earlier on in the arc and you know ichigo is looking on with this like just bewildered look on his face and ginjo is just covered like i said again in blood and smoke having jumped on the on the grenade for ichigo and taken this hit for him they are now firmly bonded as friends and there is no doubt in our mind anymore gingio is clearly a good guy he even says you know i'm really sorry for the cheesy bad guy act it's just not something i can do um but i i just needed you to to act i needed you to think your friends were in danger i'm sorry um i'm sorry for playing such a hokey villain but congratulations you've finished your full bring you've done it it's a wonderful moment because it is the moment you're supposed to be like yeah okay maybe i was wrong uh maybe ginger actually is a good guy after all because even after all of that even after cutting each of those eyes open it was all just part of a test it was all part of something bigger and what's always been so crazy to me about this arc is that it is it's technically all true ginjo is still under the influence of book of the end which means he does still consider ichigo to be a genuine ally in the battle against fukushima so genji faking this whole bad guy routine and then taking the blast for ichigo it's real their bond at the moment is real in so much as it can be when under the influence of book of the end and that's what makes the the reveal later on all more devastating for ichigo and i just think the way kubo wrote it was phenomenal you also have to bear in mind as well that at this point in the story we don't quite know what tsukushima's power is we have an idea but we're not certain um so we just think this is this is who ginjo is and it's so well done and then once again what does kubo do he follows up this dramatic moment with a comedic one again trying to hammer home but this is the same kind of relationship ichigo has with any of his friends renji shinji people like that in the past ichigo's like being forced to do all these press-ups it's a funny cute moment orihime's in her pajamas in some little house eating donuts and hot dogs with ryuruka nothing could be better right now these guys are clearly lovely except ruruka has a look on her face at one point where she think where she might give the game away and she sort of says you're an idiot to orihime when she leaves very quietly under her breath it's not a malicious you're an idiot it's like a why can't you why can't you just get out you know why can't you see what's going on here and so we move into the final act of this arc everything's gone crazy fukushima has revealed his grand plan to essentially brainwash all of ichigo's friends turn the whole town against him ichigo loses that older sister in ikumi she has now been brainwashed by tsukishima and he can only turn to you guessed it gingo who comes running out of the darkness at almost a scheduled moment of opportunity to tell ichigo that all of execution have been brainwashed by tsukushima and so now it's just ichigo and gingo against the world exactly how ginjo wanted it to be now bear in mind he is still at this point a genuine ally of ichigos and they eventually go to this little abandoned warehouse this final this final meeting place that only ginjo knows of and we get one of the best moments of the arc which i believe is chapter 464 sheath breaker and ichigo and ginger just have this really candid conversation between the two of them ichigo has seen his whole world turned upside down he grabs skin johnny's like this would never have happened if you hadn't come into my life you know you've done this to me and ginger is like yeah i'm sorry you know you're right um you know we just wanted to help but yeah i've dragged you into this and it goes like no it's not your fault it's not your fault you're only trying to help me and at this point you we know as readers how ichigo feels about gin joe that sense of mistrust he had in the training room is gone he actually he actively says you are only trying to help me i know this is none of your fault but of course it is um and ichigo and gingio are then taken gingio is now revealed that he thinks tsukushima's true ability is to alter the past which is effectively true um essentially for the purposes of the story and they go to fukushima's manner for the final showdown um and we all know what happens from here this is essentially the end of our journey with gingo during the big fight ginger is struck by fukushima's book of the end ichigo thinks that ginjo may now be turned against him however the truth is technically that but not in the way ichigo thinks ginjo awakens from his slash and he's like look out don't worry about me kurosaki look out for the guy behind you and again another one of those lovely little details that really tells you kubo has been pla has planned this whole thing out because genji is a bad guy again now and he says kurosaki rather than ichigo which is lovely lovely little detail i guess brought up later and so now we get the reveal that gin joe has been a villain all along and this persona that he has had with ichigo this whole time has been fake essentially he's never really been his ally he's always been against him and that was really the crux of what i wanted to talk about with you in today's video it's just this incredible journey that kubo takes us on with ginjokugo that in my opinion leads to him easily being one of the best written villains in the series i truly lament that he doesn't get a backstory because i think it makes it difficult to sympathize with his motivation which is also lacking which is pretty bad news for a main villain of an arc however i think everything else is handled beautifully it genuinely is like a triple bluff you're supposed to think ginjo is evil being it you're clearly supposed to kubo then kind of works on you a bit to come around to ginjo and execution and think maybe these guys are actually on our side however that feeling of mistrust never goes away kubo plays on that feeling of mistrust by have ginjo actually acknowledge it in the story and pretend to be a villain only to to basically come out and say yeah i was faking being a bad guy i'm so sorry i'm actually on your side well and proper and at this point we as readers are like maybe this guy's all right after all like how many times can we go through this rigmarole he's clearly on each ago so no he's not itching to go side he's actually a bad guy he's actually genuinely a bad guy um it's just it's just so well done i love it and there are there are some clues dropped throughout as well uru in particular his plot line as small as it is is all about him thinking maybe i wasn't attacked by the same person who you know is attacked or he may because at this point you're supposed to think tsukishima attacked uryu but actually it was ginjo again showing kubo's planning uryu actually looks over his shoulder as opposed to looking at who's in front of him implying he was attacked from behind not from in front as it looks like in the story um and yeah so i just can't i can't really gush enough about how well i think ginjo is written how well i think kubo uses established plot points like book of the end to really truly deceive your his readers into thinking that genji might actually be a good guy i love how self aware kuvo is how he quite obviously plays on his own tropes at the whole shadowy face making ginjo clearly look evil at the start but then taking us for a ride um making us think he's actually a good guy by making a mage major sacrifice for ichigo later on but only to reveal of course that everything up until now was a lie and i commend kubo for it as well because i think clearly he personally felt that he was going to do something similar to eisen but wanted to differentiate it as well and that's where i think you get the very personal connection between ichigo and ginjo that idea that ginjo could be a surrogate older brother for ichigo under some circumstance um i just think it's wonderfully handled and i think that's why the twist still really worked for me i was still shocked and that's what i think is the ultimate way to sum this video up when the lost agent arc began chapter 424 and i saw ginjokugo i saw him turn to the camera and be like you're an interesting one kurosaki ichigo shadows on his face i was like bad guy bad guy and then later on when you see him being like you know um i'm the only one you can turn to shadows on his face i was like bad guy i was like this guy is so obviously evil and yet when he actually betrays ichigo when he stands up behind him with that absolutely terrifying look on his face that crazy page that has never been replicated which is completely unique looking ichigo's expression of utter horror on his face i felt the same way i was like oh my god he's actually evil like i was like i can't believe he's actually a bad guy and and that's that's how kubo did it so well in my eyes anyway i went from being so certain he was evil to being shocked when he was and that's why i think ginjo kugo is one of bleach's best written villains all right but i really hope you enjoyed that video guys let me know in the comments below if you agree with me did you like how kubo handled ginjo kugo throughout the lost agent arc did you like the way kubo seemed to be very self-aware and the way it just really felt like everything was tied together quite nicely that the ark had quite clearly been planned in advance let me know in the comments below i'd love to hear your thoughts but until next time guys i'll catch you later and i'll see you then

Channel: MrTommo2304

Views: 37,283

Keywords: bleach, bleach manga, bleach anime, bleach discussion, bleach review, bleach chapter, ginjo, ichigo vs ginjo, bleach tybw, bleach new arc, bleach hell arc, bankai, aizen, bleach 20th anniversary, MrTommo2304, MrTommo2304 Bleach

Id: EOPEE_GUySo

Length: 32min 50sec (1970 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021