Tite Kubo facts for kids

Noriaki Kubo (Japanese: 久保 宣章, Hepburn: Kubo Noriaki, born June 26, 1977), known professionally as Tite Kubo (久保 帯人, Kubo Taito), is a famous Japanese manga artist. He also designs characters for different projects. His most well-known manga series is Bleach, which was published from 2001 to 2016. By 2022, over 130 million copies of Bleach manga were sold around the world.

Life and Career of Tite Kubo

Tite Kubo was born on June 26, 1977, in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. His father worked for the local town council. From a young age, Kubo knew he wanted to become a manga artist. He was inspired by reading the manga Saint Seiya.

Early Works and Challenges

Kubo's very first short story, called "Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine," was published in 1996. It appeared in a popular magazine called Weekly Shōnen Jump. In 1999, he started his first full manga series, Zombiepowder.. This series was also published in Weekly Shōnen Jump. However, it only ran for 27 chapters and ended in 2000. Kubo later shared that he was going through a tough time emotionally while writing it. He also mentioned that he was still learning how to create a weekly manga. He focused too much on his editor's advice instead of his own ideas.

The Success of Bleach

Kubo's next big series was Bleach. It started in the same magazine in 2001. Bleach is about a high school student named Ichigo Kurosaki. He becomes a shinigami (a soul reaper) and fights evil creatures called Hollows.

Kubo first thought Bleach would only last about five years. The idea for Bleach was actually rejected by Weekly Shōnen Jump at first. But Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, saw the story and sent Kubo a letter of encouragement. This helped Kubo keep going.

Bleach became a huge hit and ran for 15 years, from 2001 to 2016. It had over 698 chapters. An anime TV show based on the manga also aired for eight years. It had over 366 episodes and was shown on TV Tokyo from 2004 to 2012. In 2004, Bleach won the Shogakukan Manga Award.

Several movies were also made based on Bleach:

• The first movie, Bleach: Memories of Nobody, came out in 2006.
• The second, Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, in 2007.
• The third, Bleach: Fade to Black, in 2008.
• The fourth, Bleach: Hell Verse, in 2010.

Kubo also helped write two Bleach novels with Makoto Matsubara. In 2008, Kubo visited the United States for the first time. He made an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con, a big event for comic fans.

Other Projects and Recent Works

Tite Kubo has also designed characters for other anime series. These include parts of the Aoi Bungaku series, which are anime adaptations of classic Japanese stories.

In 2018, Kubo returned to Weekly Shōnen Jump with a new short story called Burn the Witch. This was to celebrate the magazine's 50th anniversary. In 2020, this one-shot story became a regular series. The first season had four chapters and was published from August to September 2020. A second season of Burn the Witch has been announced.

Tite Kubo's Artistic Style

Both of Kubo's main manga series, Zombiepowder. and Bleach, are shōnen manga. This means they are aimed at a young male audience and often focus on action. His fight scenes are known for quick changes in perspective and dramatic angles. He often uses minimal backgrounds or large, impactful splash pages.

As a character designer, Kubo's early style was very angular and thin. This was seen in Zombiepowder. and the beginning of Bleach. As Bleach continued, his designs became a bit fuller. His characters sometimes include elements that might seem a bit scary or unusual, known as body horror.

Influences on Tite Kubo's Work

Kubo's earliest inspiration came from Shigeru Mizuki's manga Gegege no Kitaro. He remembers trying to draw its characters and found his own drawings to be simpler.

Bleach started because Kubo wanted to draw shinigami (soul reapers) wearing kimono. This idea led to the design of the Shinigami characters, especially Rukia Kuchiki. Kubo has said that many things influenced Bleach. These include other manga, music, foreign languages, buildings, and movies.

He credits GeGeGe no Kitaro for his interest in drawing supernatural beings and monsters. He also says that Saint Seiya by Masami Kurumada influenced Bleach's focus on interesting weapons and battles. Both were manga he loved as a boy.

Kubo learned from Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball that all villains should be "strong, scary, and cool." He said that no fight scene surprised him more than when Trunks first appeared. The action and storytelling in Bleach are also inspired by movies. However, Kubo hasn't named any specific films. He wants Bleach to be an experience that only manga can provide. He has not been interested in making live-action movies of the series.

When creating battle scenes, Kubo imagines them with empty backgrounds first. Then he finds the best angle to draw them. He tries to make injuries look very realistic so readers can feel the characters' pain. Sometimes he gets bored drawing them, so he adds jokes to make it more fun.

When creating characters, Kubo usually draws the design first. Then he decides the character's personality based on how they look. He wants each character to be unique and develop throughout the series. When asked about romantic relationships between characters, Kubo says he doesn't want Bleach to become a love story. He thinks other parts of their personalities are more exciting.

In Bleach, the Soul Reapers' attacks have Japanese names. But other characters use different languages. The Quincy use German words for their powers, and the X-Cution members use English. For the Hollows and Arrancars, Kubo chose Spanish terms for their abilities. He finds the Spanish language "bewitching" and "mellow."

Tite Kubo's Published Works

Many of Tite Kubo's manga have been published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in Japan. They are also available in North America through Viz Media.

Manga Series

• Zombiepowder. (1999–2000, 4 volumes)
• Bleach (2001–2016, 74 volumes)
• Burn the Witch (2020–present, 1 volume so far)

One-Shot Manga Stories

Before his main series, Tite Kubo wrote several short, single-chapter manga stories called one-shots. Some of these were later included in the English collected volumes of Zombiepowder.. These stories show how Kubo's art style changed quickly in the mid-1990s. He also published new one-shots after Bleach ended.

• Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine (1996)
• Rune Master Urara (1996)
• Bad Shield United (1997)
• Burn the Witch (2018)
• Bleach: New Breathes From Hell (2021)

Artbooks

• Bleach All Colour but the Black
• Bleach Official Bootleg
• Bleach JET

Databooks

• Bleach Official Character Book SOULs
• Bleach Official Anime Guide Book VIBEs
• Bleach Official Character Book 2 MASKED
• Bleach Official Character Book 3 UNMASKED
• Bleach 13 BLADEs.

Novels

• 2020: With Ryohgo Narita: Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, Vol. 1
• 2020: With Ryohgo Narita: Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, Vol. 2
• 2021: With Ryohgo Narita: Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, Vol. 3

Video Games

Tite Kubo has also contributed to video games by designing characters and weapons.

• Dragon Quest X (2015) – character and weapon designs
• Sakura Wars (2019) – character designs

See also

In Spanish: Tite Kubo para niños