Bleach has a great cast of female characters who are more than capable of holding their own on the battlefield. Among these characters, there’s Orihime Inoue with her mysterious set of powers. Everything we know about her powers comes from how other characters perceive her. Her abilities were never explored fully, which is a shame.
Indeed, there were some situations where we could see her true potential. However, these scenes were altered in the anime, resulting in a more toned-down version of Orihime. The way Naruto anime dealt with Tsunade’s powers and capabilities was the ideal approach that Bleach should have followed with Orihime.
Bleach anime forgot about Orihime’s potential
Orihime was somehow a master of all trades including attack, defense, and healing. This way she could assist her friends in battles, defend them, or even bring them back to life. If you feel that the last one is an exaggeration, there was a particular scene where Orihime healed Ichigo’s life-threatening injury, as highlighted by this Reddit comment.
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This particular scene happened during the Rukia Rescue Arc. After the defeat of many captain-class shinigami, Renji and Ichigo finally caught up with Aizen. However, Aizen overpowered them easily. In the process, he cut down Ichigo’s body almost in half. The manga shows how the attack unfolds, whereas the anime only depicts a splatter of blood.
This was one of the many times the anime censored the gore from Bleach manga. Orihime managed to heal Ichigo in such a dire situation where he clearly lost a lot of blood and was cut open in half. This was a great demonstration of her powers. Only if the anime showed Ichigo’s true condition, Orihime’s contribution would have been more apparent.
There was a scene where we saw a senior member of the 4th division fascinated with Orihime’s ability. This scene conveys exactly how capable she is; however, she should have been treated more like Tsunade from Naruto.
Tsunade is who Orihime should’ve been
Even before her introduction, we heard Tsunade’s legends from different characters. She was the best and most knowledgeable medic shinobi. Her introduction and everything that followed backed up her legends with scenes where we see her exercising her powers.
Whether it was saving Lee from a hopeless situation or healing all of Konoha at the same time, there were countless scenes that justified Tsunade’s popularity. On the other hand, we hardly see Orihime’s process.
Her healing technique is generic, albeit effective and amazing, but a deep dive or explanation of how they work would have been wonderful for her character. Although this flaw originates from Tite Kubo’s manga, the anime further worsens the case by censoring the full blow of situations.
Bleach and Naruto are available to stream on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
