Ichigo Taichou 🧡@IchigoTaicho9
Best part of what was discussed between the two:
Q: What are your feelings when you saw the promotional trailer for the Bleach manga exhibition?
Kitani: The trailer was incredibly exciting!
"I felt like my wish to see the Hell Arc in Bleach was coming true" (laughs).
I saw the fans' reactions on Twitter.
Everyone was saying, "Complete the arc soon! Come on, Kubo Tite-sensei!"
Kubo: My name ended up trending on Twitter’s “Trends” section (laughs).
Kitani: Does Kubo-sensei feel “pressured”?
Kubo: No, I’m happy to see the public wanting me to complete the Hell Arc.
But I’ve already been told, “Draw the continuation of the Hell Arc,” so I feel like I don’t want people saying it too much (laughs).
Ketani: Sorry, but let me tell you, please draw the continuation of the arc (laughs)!
I think everyone will say that, so there's nothing that can be done about it.
Kubo: The people I've met and even my friends tell me that—"tell him to complete the arc."
Ketani: (laughs)!
Q: What kind of thoughts crossed your mind regarding the song "Thanatophobia/Fear Of Death" after reading the Hell one-shot arc?
Kitani: I thought I would make its title "Crying of Hell" in reference to the scream of Hell's mouth.
The characters who appeared hadn't noticed that hell was around them until that moment, and perhaps they were close to it in some way, but this kind of thing appeared suddenly in front of us, and made us realize its presence clearly.
I wanted to be aware of death, and that was the theme of the song.
Q: When did Kubo-sensei listen to the second song?
Kubo: On that day, I listened to a demo clip that already had lyrics.
Kitani: I sent you the second demo.
Kubo: It was just an audio demo clip, but it was insanely good!
Kitani: Thanks! I’m still working on improving it (laughs).
Kubo: I’m looking forward to it!
In fact, the lyrics almost felt like they were telling me to keep drawing the Hell Arc forever (laughs).
Kitani: As a Bleach fan, I wanted to put those feelings into the song (laughs).
Kubo: This song plays in the section of the exhibition where the Hell Arc cover illustration is displayed.
When I draw manga, I usually think it’s important not to draw only what I personally want to draw, so I listened to Kitani-kun’s song, read the lyrics, and listened to the story behind it.
Originally, I’ve always loved works that don’t feel the need to explain every single detail to the reader.
Even after a story ends, it continues within me.
Q: Are you saying that you intentionally divide the reader’s level of understanding?
Kubo: There are parts that everyone should understand, but then there are accompanying details that maybe only around 10% of readers will pick up on.
And beyond that, there are even smaller details where it would be enough if even just one person in the world noticed them.
For every part that’s directly explained, there’s also another complementary or hidden layer behind it.
So yes, seeing people notice things like that genuinely makes me happy.
It’s fun imagining that somewhere out there, someone is saying, “I’m so glad I noticed that!”
Kitani: I see.
“The level of understanding should be divided” really feels like a phrase every creator should live by.
By the way, speaking of scenes you wanted to draw… where’s the rest of the final Bleach chapter?!! (laughs)
The highest gate of Hell wasn’t even that huge in size, but I still remember looking at it and thinking, “This is amazing!!” (laughs)
Even Yayahara, with her bear powers, made me stop and wonder, ‘What the hell is this?’” (laughs)
Kubo: I loved the battle scene where the new vice-captains were brought together.
I was able to give each of them their own standout moments.
Especially Yayahara, since I wanted to really bring out her “sexy gyaru” character.
