Bleach: The Second Cut

by MarchLochnessMarch

This is Bleach: The Second Cut, reimagining of Kubo-sama's Shōnen epic. This is a revisionist project, a sort of "what if?" that remixes the story. It aims to punch up the series' pace, bolster character development, make the plotting more cohesive, and feature some unique, spectacular battle scenes, all from a place of adoration for Kubo's work.

1. Preface

BLEACH: THE SECOND CUT

This is BLEACH: THE SECOND CUT, a thorough reimagining of Tite Kubo's Bleach. The fates of several characters are completely changed, the power-scaling gets dozens of tweaks, and sometimes the order of events are completely reshuffled to produce a new result. I am not scrapping the foundation of the story; what I'm doing is more akin to rearranging the existing furniture to produce a new layout.

I want to make my intentions clear: I do not presume to have a fraction of the talent that Kubo-sama possesses. I have the upmost respect for his artistry and creation.

The aim of this 'reimagining' is to expand upon Bleach's world-building as much as possible while giving its vast ensemble of characters more room to breathe. I am not trying to improve the story – I am trying to decouple it from the pressures of being a Shōnen serial, allowing for more foreshadowing and plot intricacy.

My primary goal is to bring a tighter cohesion to the series with the benefit of hindsight and not needing to meet weekly deadlines. I am also just rewriting the series' events to suit the version of Bleach I wanted to see.

This has been a labor of love. I hope my affection for these characters proves infectious.

I would be remiss if I did not address the evolving nature of this story. To be completely blunt about it, The Second Cut is currently a patchwork. I began with only the ambition of writing a story outline, but during the climax of the Arrancar Arc I found myself writing detailed prose. So this project became novelistic going forward, with The Lost Agent arc especially being written as a full-blown book. I have been going back and rewriting patches of the earlier chapters to meet my new standards and style, but balancing the constraints of producing new content while refurbishing the old has taken time. So some chapters will be written novelistically while others read as an outline – this drop in quality sometimes occurs mid-chapter. The inconsistencies will eventually be fixed, but please pardon my sloppiness in the interim.

With that all out of the way, please enjoy The Second Cut.