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The Workday Comic.
For more information, contact Dr. Travis Langley (email: langlet at hsu.edu). |
Running Head: COMPLEX HERO COMPLEX
The Complex Hero Complex
Nicholas Ward
Comics and Psychology
Abstract
The story of Bleach is about Ichigo Kurasaki, a fifteen year old boy who can see ghosts. Ichigo was nine his mother was killed protecting him. At fifteen, a woman comes through his window and tells him that he is being hunted by a malevolent spirit called a Hollow. The woman is severely injured saving Ichigo and transfers her powers to him. She tells him that her name is Rukia and that she is a soul reaper. Ichigo is force to take the mantle of a soul reaper and forced to kill Hollows. Rukia is then captured by her brother and childhood best friend, and forced to return to the Soul Society to await execution for transferring her powers to a mortal. Ichigo goes to the Soul Society to rescue Rukia and along the way fights many battles, but in the end he rescues Rukia. While reading Bleach, Ichigo appears to suffer from some mental illness. He seems to have schizophrenia, but his friends can see the ghosts so he is not delusional and therefore cannot have schizophrenia. He walks around depressed. He fits the criteria for major depression, but his depression is brought on by the bereavement of his mother. The only mental disorder that Ichigo fits is dysthymic disorder. Ichigo does suffer from three complexes though. He suffers from Survivor’s Guilt, Savior Complex, and Oedipus Complex. While the shadow is a Jungian archetype, Ichigo’s differs from most people. His shadow actually physically manifests itself and takes over Ichigo’s body. In the end, Ichigo is not that different from other superheroes. He is forced into a situation, is given superpowers, and in the end gets the girl.
The Story
Bleach is written and drawn by Tite Kubo. This was what first drew me to the character of Ichigo Kurosaki. With one author drawing the character, the character never changes personality. This adds a dynamic to the character that Batman, Superman, the X-men, and their villains do not have, because these characters have been drawn by many people and each person adds their own personal touch to each character. With only one author, Ichigo has remained the same throughout each book.
Ichigo has been able to see ghosts as long as he can remember. The story begins with Ichigo telling some skateboarders to apologize to a ghost for knocking the flowers off of her grave. When he returns home his father and he begin to fight because Ichigo has broken curfew, this is a reoccurring theme throughout the comic. As the night progresses, a woman named Rukia breaks into Ichigo’s room and tells him about hollows. She tells Ichigo that she is a Soul Reaper. She tells him that her job is to send souls to the Soul Society, and to cleanse Hollows of their sins so they can pass on to the Soul Society. Hollows are spirits that have become evil and feed on the souls of humans and other spirits. A hollow comes after Ichigo and his family, and begins to take the souls of his family. Ichigo runs to protect his family only to fail. Rukia jumps in at the last moment and saves Ichigo. The only way to kill the hollow is for Rukia to transfer her powers to Ichigo. Ichigo then takes on the mantle of the Soul Reaper and kills the hollow. He now has to perform Rukia’s duty and send souls to the Soul Society. On the sixth anniversary of his mother’s murder, Ichigo has to fight the hollow that killed his mother. After failing to kill the hollow, Ichigo tells Rukia that he has to become stronger and avenge his mother. After some time passes, Rukia’s power is diminishing instead of returning. While walking through the street, Rukia decides that it is time to go home and is found by two Soul Reapers. Renji Abarai, her childhood best friend, and Byakuya Kuchiki her brother inform her that they are taking her back to the Soul Society to be executed. Ichigo tries to intervene and is seriously injured by Byakuya.
His life is saved by Kisuke Urahara, a local shop owner who is more than he appears. He heals Ichigo and tells him that he will help Ichigo to save Rukia. Urahara tells Ichigo that he will help him find his hidden Soul Reaper powers, but he must agree to be trained by him. Training for Ichigo involves going inside his mind to find his zanpakūto. The zanpakūto is a sword made from the Soul Slayers spirit energy, and Ichigo’s swords name is Zangetsu. After training for ten days, Ichigo and his friends go to the soul society to rescue Rukia.
Upon gaining entry to the court of the Soul Reapers, the Seireitei, Ichigo and his friends are separated upon gaining entry to the Seireitei. Ichigo goes through a series of battles while trying to save Rukia. First he fights Renji. Renji and he battle almost to the death. Both fighters are severely injured and almost die. After healing, Ichigo fights a captain named Kenpachi Zaraki. Kenpachi feels no pain and loves the thrill of battle. Ichigo is killed by Kenpachi and Zangetsu appears to him. Zangetsu takes Ichigo back into himself and forces him to fight himself. Ichigo has to fight an exact opposite of him, Ichigo wears black and his opposite wears white. Zangetsu is a black sword with a silver blade in Ichigo’s hands, and the opposite’s hand Zangetsu is silver with a black blade. After taking Zangetsu back from himself, Ichigo comes back to life. He and Kenpachi then clash and both are severely injured. After recovering from his injuries, Ichigo learns that Zangetsu is more powerful than he knew. Ichigo receives more training and learns how to unleash his zanpakūto’s next stage called bankai. Learning how to unleash his bankai Ichigo is now ready to save Rukia. On the date of her execution, Ichigo comes to the execution grounds and save Rukia. Ichigo’s final battle is against Byakuya. During this battle, Ichigo learns that he is not powerful enough to defeat Byakuya. Byakuya prepares to deliver the coup de grace Ichigo suddenly changes. His face is half hidden by a hollow mask and his eyes turn yellow. This new Ichigo tells him that he is weak and that he will show him how to use bankai. Hollow Ichigo then begins to beat Byakuya, but in the middle of their fight Ichigo manages to take back control of his body. Ichigo demands to know why Byakuya wants to kill Rukia and Byakuya tells Ichigo that he will tell him if he can beat him. Ichigo manages to beat Byakuya and Byakuya tells him that he must uphold the law. That is where the Soul Society arc ends, Ichigo saving Rukia. The Disorders
Ichigo would seem to suffer from many mental disorders. He sees and talks to ghosts. He walks around with his head down and shoulders slumped. He fights other world beings so that they can pass on to the other side. The first disorder that came to mind while reading Bleach was schizophrenia. If someone came into a psychologist’s office taking about see and taking to ghosts, he would fit the hallucinations aspect of the disorder. He has the avolition aspect of the disorder. He seems to only go through the motions of going to school, he no longer attends the karate class he did when he was younger, and always goes to his room after school instead of going out with his friends. The reason that I can rule this disorder out is because his friends see the hollows so the hollows are not hallucinations. The avolition part of the disorder could be caused by major depression. The DSM-IV-TR (2000) states that mood disorders cannot be present in the diagnosing of schizophrenia. The reason that I say that Ichigo could have major depression is because he fits the diagnostic criteria for the disorder. He meets the five or more symptoms criteria. He is depressed most of the day nearly everyday, he has markedly diminished interest in almost all activities, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness, and the diminished capacity to think or concentrate. So he meets the five symptoms of the criteria, but there are other criteria to be meet for it to be major depression. The symptoms are not mixed, they do cause impairment in social areas of life, they are not directly caused by drugs, but the symptoms are caused by bereavement and do last more than two months. The cause of his mood is the death of his mother when he was nine. He does fit the criteria for early onset dysthymic disorder. He has low energy and low self-esteem. The depressed mood has been noticed by other for at least two years. The symptoms are not caused by drugs, there is no major depression disorder, it is not caused by schizophrenia, and the behavior is onset before the age of twenty-one. This is the only mental disorder that I believe Ichigo suffers from, but he has many complexes.
The Complexes
I believe that Ichigo suffers from four main complexes. The most obvious complex is that of survivor’s guilt. Survivor’s guilt comes from the feeling that you are not worthy to live when others around you have died. This complex was first noticed in holocaust survivors in the 1960s. Ichigo lost his mother when he was nine. She was killed right in front of his eyes while trying to protect him. He never saw what killed his mother, but he knows that it was his fault. While with his father at the grave of his mother, Ichigo demands to know why his family will not blame him for her death. He tells his father that it would just be easier if the whole family would blame and hate him. His father tells him that it is not his fault and he should smile because “You’re too young for the tortured look”. His father also reminds him that his mother gave her life protecting her son so Ichigo should be proud and live to an old age.
The second complex that I believe Ichigo suffers from is the savior complex. He feels that it is his duty to protect his friends and family. The name Ichigo means “one who protects” and he holds this meaning close to his heart. In the first chapter of the manga, Ichigo goes to fight the Hollow without a weapon. The Hollow has attacked his family because Ichigo has enormous spiritual pressure. That is how Rukia and the Hollow both find him. The Hollow almost kills his family so Ichigo confronts it. In the process, Rukia is severely injured and forced to give Ichigo her power. Ichigo kills the Hollow and avenges his family. In the next chapter, a Hollow attacks his friend Orihime Inoue. Ichigo once again rushes to save his friend and does so. Rukia then tells him that he will have to fill in for her as a substitute soul reaper until her power returns. When Ichigo refuses, Rukia takes him to a park where a child ghost is being attacked by a Hollow. She tells him not to help the boy if he does not want to help everybody. Ichigo agrees and begins his duties as a soul reaper. When Rukia is captured and returned to the Soul Society, the first thought on Ichigo’s mind is how to get stronger and free her. He constantly puts himself in danger to save others. He believes that he can continually become stronger and help those that cannot help themselves.
The third complex Ichigo suffers from Freud’s Oedipus complex. Freud suggested that the creators of works of fiction entice us to read about their creations by letting us live fantasies without feeling shame or without self-reproach (Noel-Smith, 2001).At the age of four, Ichigo will quit crying when his mother arrives. He always holds her hand, will no let her near danger, and he continually fights with his father. While there is no overt sexuality between them, just the way that it is described in the manga leads me to believe that Ichigo suffers from this complex. I believe that his severe survivor’s guilt stems from this. He is more impacted by the death of his mother because he loved her.
The last complex is not really a complex. Carl Jung had a theory of archetypes. One of these archetypes is the archetype of the shadow. The shadow aspect of us is the aspect that is instinctual. The shadow is the opposite part of the ego image. It often contains parts that the ego does not identify with, those parts that are weak or show our shortcomings. The shadow is the “other”, it is everything the conscious is not (Hurwitz, 2002). The shadow can manifest itself physically, like when we get heated in an argument, but in Ichigo’s case it literally manifests itself. While traveling in the Soul Society, Ichigo is constantly in fights and is being severely hurt. A mask keeps appearing in just the right spots to save his life. No matter how many times Ichigo discards the mask it always comes back. In the last battle of the Soul Society arc Ichigo fights Byakuya Kuchiki. After releasing his bankai, Ichigo is still not able to beat Byakuya. As Byakuya prepares to deliver the death blow, Ichigo suddenly grabs Byakuya’s sword and has a very different look to him. His face is half covered by a Hollow’s mask and his eyes are yellow. Hollow Ichigo tells non-Hollow Ichigo that he is weak and that he will show him how to use bankai. Hollow Ichigo then precedes to fight Byakuya. When Byakuya asks Hollow Ichigo his name he tells him that he has no name. Ichigo and Hollow Ichigo then begin to fight for control of his body. Ichigo wins the fight and regains control of his body, and he and Byakuya both deliver one last simultaneous strike.
Conclusion
Bleach is not unlike any other comic book. There is the main character that falls into a situation. He then is given superpowers to protect those around him. He suffers from complexes just like Spiderman, Superman, Batman, etc. He goes through trials and tribulations. The one thing that sets this comic apart, other than being a manga, is that it is relatively new. There is only one writer and artist, Tite Kubo. The character has only developed in one time from one man, so there is not any other person bringing his or her ideas into the character. Ichigo suffers the way a fifteen year old boy who lost his mother would. The only difference is he can see ghosts.
References
American Psychiatric Associations. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (text revision).
Hurwitz, G. (2002). A tempest, a birth, and death: Freud, Jung, and Shakespeare’s Pericles. Sexuality & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 6, 3-73.
Kubo, T. (2001). Bleach v1 #1-19 (August 2001-November 2007)
Noel-Smith, K. (2001). Harry Potter’s Oedipal Issues. Psychoanalytical Studies, 3, 199-207.