Have you noticed just how many anime feature ghosts or death gods? There’s loads. Why? This is an important part of Japanese culture and I recommend checking out the Kuro RPG if you want to learn more over a tabletop game.
Which anime come to mind once we start talking about ghosts and death gods? Death Note? Bleach? In Bleach we’ve Shinigami against the Hollows. Shinigami translates to “death gods” but if you wanted in English you’d hear the phrase “Soul Reapers” instead.
Last year, Geek Native had a copy of Bleach Series 15 Part 2 to giveaway. To enter the competition readers had a to pick how they’d like to spend their afterlife.
- Among the living; pranking, haunting and otherwise trying to interact
- As a soul reaper; helping protect mankind from angry ghosts
- In despair; unable to come to terms with my fate
- In luxury; spending my time having fun
Which do you think the most popular option was? It was a tie! “Among the living” droppped into third place as “Soul Reaper” and “In luxury” took and equal share of the votes.
Very few people would spend their afterlife being upset – just 9.09% – and this is good news. In Bleach lore that sort of behaviour is a quick fire way to turn into a murderous Hollow. There’s a catch, though, as 27.3% of people said they’d try and stay among the living. That’s not so good either as those ghosts would either succumb and become a Hollow or get caught by them.
In Bleach the Soul Society defends the afterlife. It’s not quite a life of luxury for those outside the city walls but they’re comfortable. In this poll nearly a third of all responses came from people willing to step up, become a soul reaper and spend their afterlife defending humanity from angry ghosts.
Of course, in the world of Bleach there’s that small matter of years of training needed in the afterlife before making it into any Shinigami squad and then the tricky challenge of making sure your captain isn’t annoyed at you.
What would you choose?
Did you miss the original poll? Here it is again with a chance to compare your answers to everyone else in the new survey. Are you going to be a good ghost, wind up as a dangerous Hollow or perhaps start on the road to becoming a soul reaper?
Image credit: Jake Rossne.
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