As one of the legendaryShо̄nen Jump Big Three, theBLEACHfranchise is one of the most popular anime and manga works of all time. It has spawned a large universe consisting of the original manga by Tite Kubo, the original anime and its associated feature films and OVAs, a live-action film, a number of video games and all kinds of other media and merchandise. Among them, a number of associated novels written by other talented authors that take the originalBLEACHstory in interesting directions.
There have been sevenBLEACHnovel titles released since the first, titledBLEACH: Letters From The Other Side;however, sincethe end of the original manga’s serialization, theBLEACH: Can’t Fear Your Own Worldnovel has granted even greater insight into the events in theBLEACHtimeline. So, how do the variousBLEACHnovels actually fit into the story?
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Novelizations
Some fans are completely unaware of theBLEACHnovelizations or their purpose. Many of them fit in between the events of the original series, or in small parts of the original series. The firstBLEACHnovel, “Letters From The Other Side”, is the only one that is a retelling of the events in the original series, and is the result of collaboration between Tite Kubo and novelist Makoto Matsubara, who also wrote the followingBLEACHnovel titled “The Honey Dish Rhapsody” and various others.
The other novels are all produced from similar collaborations between Kubo and other authors, includingDurarara!!andBaccano!author Ryohgo Narita. Thecontents of theBLEACHnovelsvary from slice of life to mystery, but the canonicity of the novels is generally debated unless specified by Kubo himself. Events that took place in the bounds of theWE DO knot ALWAYS LOVE YOUandCan’t Fear Your Own Worldnovels are considered to be canon, the latter particularly due to the fact that Kubo himself has used information from the novels to answer questions addressed to him via the Q&A on his website, Klub Outside, which only features information regarding the originalBLEACHmain series.
Titles in Order of Release
Recommended
For major fans of the franchise who want a different perspective and look at theBLEACHuniverse, the novels grant a kind of access to the series that is vastly different from the main media of anime and manga. From that perspective, the novels come highly recommended, especially for fans of literature in general. While they do have varying degrees of canonical significance, theBLEACHnovels do have an undeniable influence over the story in general, particularly due to the author’s own co-signing of various elements within them, and the fact that they grant a huge amount of context tothe aftermath of the storyprior to the events taking place during the Hell one-shot chapter.
Can’t Fear Your Own Worldgrants a lot of interesting weight to various concepts, and develops certain aspects beyond the scope of the original series, such as the revelation that Hell in theBLEACHverse predates the creation of Soul Society, and it was part of the admitted objective of Narita to add even more context to the various intricate aspects of the series and explorefresh perspectives within the narrative, rather than leave it to the reader’s imagination as Kubo would have done so. Overall, it is worthwhile to give the variousBLEACHnovels a read, and while many of them aren’t exactly canonical, the impact of some of them isn’t particularly plot-shattering, while others are specifically meant to be taken as part of the canonical aspects of the series.
