A Question

[Narhbos]

It's been bothering me for some time so I'll just ask it.

Does anyone know or heard of any official reason as to why did Kubo made 7th Division Captain, Komamura Sajin an anthropomorph? It's kinda weird he just pops in this furry character right smack into the Bleach Universe right? Anyone got any sensible explaination?

[BillDoors]

It *does* seem pretty arbitrary, doesn't it?

[R4wr]

Probably just to add some variety.

[papasmurfyh]

He likes dogs?

[roguej2]

because of the 83rd amendment to the soul society constitution that says that if any quadruped animal spirit can learn how to stand up on two legs, it would be cool enough to be secretly behind the scenes modified by captain kurotschi to be able to hold a zanpaktou and also be able to talk, once that process is complete it will automatically be made into a captain and then forced to wear a bucket over it's head until Aizen goes crazy and decides to take over soul society teamed up with two other captains and hueco mundo (that part was in fine print followed by the words, look at that psycho star of his, you know it's gonna happen someday.) but of course, that was just a paraphrase.

[Narhbos]

Well true perhaps he likes dogs or Mayuri created a totally successful experiment...
But it just doesn't go in line with Kubo's authoring methods... I mean, you don't see ANY parallels for Komamura (an anthromorph)... I wonder if he randomly created him..

But I did read in Wikipedia once (though I think it was edited) that Komamura was actually a real guy, got into a fire accident or something and had to be grafted with fur?... weird huh? but yea that's what I read...

Edit: I was pondering if this would be one of the mysteries he might reveal to us in the HM Arc since Tousen is also awkwardly and mysteriously siding with Aizen (and Komamura had somewhat a long history with him).

[ChaosRising]

You have to remember that the SS is set up under the pretense of reincarnation, as far as beliefs in reincarnation go souls can incarnate as animals as well as in human forms. It's a progressive idea that a soul would choose to maintain the physical characteristics of an animal in their soul form, but not unreasonable.

[BillDoors]

You have to remember that the SS is set up under the pretense of reincarnation, as far as beliefs in reincarnation go souls can incarnate as animals as well as in human forms. It's a progressive idea that a soul would choose to maintain the physical characteristics of an animal in their soul form, but not unreasonable.

Now that you mention it (and this is a bit off-topic), is reincarnation as a spiritual mechanism ever mentioned in the manga?

To me, at least, Soul Society has more closely resembled the Christian concept of Limbo than it does any given Eastern philosophical/religious idea, except perhaps the Heavenly Bureaucracy (which I'm not sure is an actual historical belief or if it was just made up for Jade Empire ^_^; )

[ChaosRising]

Remember the hourglass analogy given in the SS arc when explaining the war with the Quincy? The fact that souls can also die ie. shinigami (Kaien, former 11th squad capt. etc.) getting sick (Ukitake) they incarnate again either in HM (as hollows) or earth (back in human form). This far from supports any similarity to any Christian/western philosophy and can only be compared to Buddhism.

[BillDoors]

Remember the hourglass analogy given in the SS arc when explaining the war with the Quincy? The fact that souls can also die ie. shinigami (Kaien, former 11th squad capt. etc.) getting sick (Ukitake) they incarnate again either in HM (as hollows) or earth (back in human form). This far from supports any similarity to any Christian/western philosophy and can only be compared to Buddhism.

Oh, right - I forgot about the hourglass. I'm still not convinced that they ever properly "reincarnate" - that is, return to life as another person - though. The hourglass-analogy implies it, but it seems like the Shinigami's only ever bring souls over - we've never seen movement in the opposite direction except by Hollows and Shinigami... I guess that's just not something the series has been particularly concerned with up until now.

Another possibility, I suppose, is that the Quincy's were right and the Shinigami were wrong - except for the fact that Hollowed souls *can* be purified, there might not be any particular reason to not destroy them. I'm guessing the low-level shinigami like Rukia rely on the higher-level SS loremasters to tell them how the universe functions - and relying on higher authority in Soul Society has been a pretty bad bet so far ^_^