My Dream Interview with Tite Kubo

Deb Aoki and IGN have offered up the results of their brief interviews with rock star manga-ka Tite Kubo, which led me to consider what questions I would have asked if I'd had the opportunity to sit down with him.

After opening with a couple questions about Zombie Powder (to show that I'm not just some johnny-come-lately fan who only knows about him from watching random episodes of Bleach on Adult Swim or seeing cool Bleach merchandise at Hot Topic), I'd quickly turn to hard-hitting, specific questions designed to elicit the greatest amount of info from Kubo-san:

1. How do you respond to critics who complained that the Soul Society arc ended much too soon and should have run at least another half-dozen volumes in order to fully showcase every possible character match-up?


2. How do you feel about the fujoshi phenomenon? Did you intend for Byakuya and Renji to be totally gay for each other?


3. Any chance you could add a little fanservice to Bleach?


4. Who would win? Yoruichi or Elektra?


5. I was inspired by what you said about believing in yourself in order to become a successful manga artist like you. With that in mind, would you mind looking at my proposal for a completely original manga series called "Whiten"? It focuses on a rough but lovable high school student named Kuroichigo "Blackberry" Kurosawa who, after a chance encounter with Spirit Harvester Karuki Kuchikiki, discovers his own latent incorporeal energies have increased exponentially.

Finally, having learned that Kubo "would love to come back to America again to meet more of [his] fans and maybe see them where they live next time," I would invite Kubo to a sleepover at my house. Impressed with my passion for his manga, he'd accept, of course, and his visit would blossom into a lifelong friendship. So strong would our bond become, we wouldn't even need translators to understand each other, just like Daigo and Banjaru. In an effort to surprise me, Kubo would create a new character for Bleach modeled after me and that character would immediately shoot to the top of all fan popularity polls. And we would live happily ever after, drawing Bleach dōjinshi for each other and watching random Sgt. Frog anime bootlegs. The End.

Labels: Bleach, Delusional Fantasies, Interviews (Imaginary), Manga, Tite Kubo

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