Bleach: Weirdly Benevolent Celestial Bureaucracy
While Bleach did eventually lose me in part through problematic worldbuilding, it grabbed me in the early parts quite well for a number of reasons.
One of the most notable ones is that Bleach is the only setting I've seen that has a celestial bureaucracy that really works for me.
Thing is, most settings that incorporate a celestial bureaucracy have two essential assumptions that, when put together alongside other universally-true aspects of the setting, create serious problems;
Assumption 1: The celestial bureaucracy is oriented toward serving humans/'mortals' (As opposed to eg angels, cows, bugs, etc) in an essentially benevolent manner.
Assumption 2: The world works the way it does for no deeper reason than because the the Powers That Be arbitrarily decided they would work this way. In every regard.
Bleach retains Assumption 1, but it does not seem to incorporate Assumption 2. (Admittedly, I didn't follow the series all the way to the end, but I've occasionally stumbled across spoilers and I've yet to see my belief contradicted) Instead, in Bleach the world seems to have fundamental metaphysical rules, and the actual celestial bureaucracy -Soul Society- is intended to head off some of the Bad Ends that just... naturally exist through no fault of Soul Society's.
This is important. In most settings with a celestial bureaucracy, the process of human souls becoming Hollows that consume human souls and potentially start consuming other Hollows? That whole cannibalistic cycle even being able to exist would be 100% the direct, unnecessary fault of the celestial bureaucracy having made it exist. While Assumption 1 is meant to apply. Leaving you with the contradictory scenario that the world is a horrible and awful place because the celestial bureaucracy that is meant to be good for us actually filled the world with awful stuff for... no real reason.
Bleach dodges that issue. Soul Reapers having to swing by to manually purge Hollows and occasionally help non-Hollows move on to the afterlife is just... a product of natural metaphysical forces, with the Soul Reapers bothering to handle those people who don't simply pass on to the afterlife on their own being a public service.
This is fantastic. A typical celestial bureaucracy has to bear the burden of 'so why exactly did you think parasites that burrow out of children's eyes was a good idea?' and similar questions, particularly when it comes to any metaphysical hazards a given story decides to introduce; you can wave off real-life horrors the author didn't know or think about by assuming they don't exist in the setting even if it's meant to be Basically Reality, but you can't do the same for explicitly introduced horrors that are deeply tied into the plot. Bleach instead places Soul Society into a position more equivalent to eg firefighters or policemen; a group of people who are necessary thanks to intrinsic realities. ("Fire is a concept") There's good reasons why such organizations are generally considered good, even if individual police officers or entire police stations might be corrupt. You might want to replace your existing police officers, but you don't really want to abolish the concept of police.
By the same token, while it's very much possible to argue that Soul Society is a horrifying mess that needs massive restructuring (I mean, that's kinda part of the premise of canon itself), you can't really argue that some kind of force for performing Soul Burial and fighting Hollows is unnecessary.
It's a great bit of worldbuilding.
One of the most notable ones is that Bleach is the only setting I've seen that has a celestial bureaucracy that really works for me.
Thing is, most settings that incorporate a celestial bureaucracy have two essential assumptions that, when put together alongside other universally-true aspects of the setting, create serious problems;
Assumption 1: The celestial bureaucracy is oriented toward serving humans/'mortals' (As opposed to eg angels, cows, bugs, etc) in an essentially benevolent manner.
Assumption 2: The world works the way it does for no deeper reason than because the the Powers That Be arbitrarily decided they would work this way. In every regard.
Bleach retains Assumption 1, but it does not seem to incorporate Assumption 2. (Admittedly, I didn't follow the series all the way to the end, but I've occasionally stumbled across spoilers and I've yet to see my belief contradicted) Instead, in Bleach the world seems to have fundamental metaphysical rules, and the actual celestial bureaucracy -Soul Society- is intended to head off some of the Bad Ends that just... naturally exist through no fault of Soul Society's.
This is important. In most settings with a celestial bureaucracy, the process of human souls becoming Hollows that consume human souls and potentially start consuming other Hollows? That whole cannibalistic cycle even being able to exist would be 100% the direct, unnecessary fault of the celestial bureaucracy having made it exist. While Assumption 1 is meant to apply. Leaving you with the contradictory scenario that the world is a horrible and awful place because the celestial bureaucracy that is meant to be good for us actually filled the world with awful stuff for... no real reason.
Bleach dodges that issue. Soul Reapers having to swing by to manually purge Hollows and occasionally help non-Hollows move on to the afterlife is just... a product of natural metaphysical forces, with the Soul Reapers bothering to handle those people who don't simply pass on to the afterlife on their own being a public service.
This is fantastic. A typical celestial bureaucracy has to bear the burden of 'so why exactly did you think parasites that burrow out of children's eyes was a good idea?' and similar questions, particularly when it comes to any metaphysical hazards a given story decides to introduce; you can wave off real-life horrors the author didn't know or think about by assuming they don't exist in the setting even if it's meant to be Basically Reality, but you can't do the same for explicitly introduced horrors that are deeply tied into the plot. Bleach instead places Soul Society into a position more equivalent to eg firefighters or policemen; a group of people who are necessary thanks to intrinsic realities. ("Fire is a concept") There's good reasons why such organizations are generally considered good, even if individual police officers or entire police stations might be corrupt. You might want to replace your existing police officers, but you don't really want to abolish the concept of police.
By the same token, while it's very much possible to argue that Soul Society is a horrifying mess that needs massive restructuring (I mean, that's kinda part of the premise of canon itself), you can't really argue that some kind of force for performing Soul Burial and fighting Hollows is unnecessary.
It's a great bit of worldbuilding.
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