The Nazi and German symbolism in Tite Kubo’s BLEACH

 Now today I am going to talk about all of the Nazi symbolism in Tite Kubo’s BLEACH, now this type of symbolism is primarily present in the final arc of the series and to my knowledge it is not seen in any other arc prior to the final one. So we will only be talking about the final arc. Also another thing I should mention is that Kubo takes inspiration from many cultures around the world, and each arc is themed around a different culture. For example the Soul Society arc is based on feudal Japan, and that is obvious because of the way the soul society looks. Soul Reapers are based on the japanese and this is evident because of the way that they look, they have traditional japanese robes. The Hueco Mundo arc with the Hollows and the Arrancars is based on the spanish, all of the names are in spanish and the moves also. The arrancars represent the spanish conquistadors. The fullbring arc is based on the english, but it wasn't as fleshed out as the previous ones. And now the Quincies are based on the German culture and the german language sounds very cold, methotic, and harsh something that matches the behaviors and straightforwardness  of the Quincies, and Kubo also put in a lot of Nazi symbolism, now let's get into it.

The name of the the final arc of Bleach is called the Thousand Year blood war which involves every single group of people in the story, the soul reapers, hollows, fullbringers, and quincies. This war symbolises a world war , and everyone is fighting together against the Quincies. Just like WW2 when the Allies fought the Axis powers. If it is not obvious enough, the Quincies represent the Germans, they even speak German, dress like Nazis, and the name of their army is the Vandenreich. And the Vandereich means “ invisible empire” which draws a similarity to the name of the Nazi army which was the “ third Reich.”  All of the Quincies moves and equipments names are in German. The name of the final castle/base that Yhwach makes out of thin air towards the end of the series  is called Wahrwelt which means true world. The name of the elite force is called the Sternritter which means ‘ Holy or star nights in English.” The main 4 quincies were called Schutzstaffel and if you know about history then the name rings a bell. The Schutzstaffel were a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Nazi Germany. The Quincies also ran Hueco mundo like a concentration camp after they invaded it where they had the hollows in camps and they would torture them. The Quincies also have a move called sklaverie which means slavery. The sternritter in charge there was a quincy sternritter called Quilge Opie, and his appearance and everything about him draws unmistakeable parrallels to Heinrich Himmler. Heinrich Himmler was one of the most powerful Nazis during World War 2 and he was part of the Schuttzstaffel. He was also one of the men responsible for the holocaust, he helped create the concentration/extermination camps. And he was one of the people that managed them, just like Quilge Opie here in BLEACH.

Another thing is that Ichigo’s sword in its Bankai form has a hilt that looks just like a swastica, and it makes sense since Ichigo is a quincy too.

 The whole goal of the Quincies also is to kill all hollows and soul reapers which means they basically want a genocide. And they blamed all soul reapers and hollows for the fall of the quincy a few hundred years ago which is the same thing the actual nazis in germany did when they blamed Judaism for all of Germany’s problems. Out of all the themes in BLEACH I would say the German/Nazi one is by far the most interesting, I hope you all enjoyed the Nazi and German symbolism in Tite Kubo’s BLEACH.