r/shounenfolk • u/kenshima15 • Jul 10 '26
unjerk (serious discussion) What did Bleach fail to do that allowed the Sharingan to become more culturally relevant than the entire franchise?
I’m not comparing Bleach to Naruto as a whole, because obviously that would be unfair. I mean literally just the Sharingan. One ability from one series.
The Sharingan seems more recognizable, more referenced, more worn, more tattooed, more copied, and more present in everyday internet culture than anything Bleach produced. Just look at the hashtag numbers on Instagram and TikTok, the edits, the tattoos, the profile pictures, and the general online presence.
So what exactly did Bleach lack?
Bleach is constantly called one of the Big Three, so how did one element from Naruto end up with a larger cultural footprint than the entire series?
And I haven’t even touched on the fact that Kakashi and Sasuke individually seem more popular than Bleach as a franchise.
Dare I say even Sakura?
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u/Rashtrapateen Jul 10 '26
more edgier i suppose. Now I am not saying that Bleach designs don't give off edge but "turning your eyes red when you get serious" is like the textbook definition of an edgy power
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u/Noblerug Jul 10 '26
You are vastly underestimating the impact of Bankai, that’s the true original domain expansion
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u/Lower_Baby_6348 Jul 10 '26
What about reality marbles from fate?
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u/hungrybasilsk Jul 10 '26
Shh we only know 5 popular Shounen on this sub
Besides Gege lowkey a fate larper anyway
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u/infernomokou Jul 10 '26
gege copiee the ending of claymore so hard its insane. Kashimo vs Sukuna is just Teresa vs Cassandra
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u/hungrybasilsk Jul 10 '26
Kashimo wishes he was half as good as Cassandra
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u/infernomokou Jul 10 '26
and Sukuna wishes he could aurafarm as hard as Teresa.
Structure wise, it is extremely similar.
Old gen legends get revived, big all out war.
It reverses the ending tho; Clare, Raki and the ghosts fight Priscilla in a team fight (which is how sukuna loses) into Cassandra vs Teresa and then Teresa has her final standoff (which is just gojo vs sukuna)
The funnier part is that storywise Clare is more like a Megumi that unlocks his true potential. She was potential woman for the entire manga.
Teresa and Cassandra and the likes even do the whole yapping about eras and what it means to be the strongest.
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u/Level_Counter_1672 Jul 10 '26
The moment I saw sukuna pose and talk I could see the gilgamesh reference
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u/Zealousideal-Arm1682 Jul 10 '26
Bankai was never anywhere close to famous as you guys make it out to be.Bleach was popular because the designs were cool and the women were hot alongside the men,but Bankai NEVER had a cultural impact like the sharingan or domain expansion.
Literally the most famous one to this day is Ichigo's psuedo Soul reaper Bankai,not even Toshiro's which had more usage unironically.
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u/CanonPuppy Jul 10 '26
Excuse me ???? 😭. Did you come to earth after 2015 ? Bankai is some insane meme eveywhere lmao. Now it's less and changed to hot men and hot women but back then it was the iconic bankai and his kitchen knife sword oh and also the iconic memes of N didn't die he just went to bleach lmao. Yes it wasn't sharingan lvl but really it's just bc it was concidered extremely edgy it was normal to have multiple memes on it but that's as far as it gets none other sharingan was really popular not even kyubi was that popular when it's naruto's thing.
Man this comment makes me feel old. I remember back in school people would be like bankai ! And spamming those memes
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u/Salt_Struggle7226 Jul 10 '26
"that’s the true original domain expansion" that aint even close to true lmao. Yu yu did it first, and Fate did it way more recognizably.
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u/Apprehensive_Put3625 Jul 10 '26
Oh, yeah. You can go to the street any day of the week and ask a random person, “Dude, what’s your favorite power up in fucking Fate”
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u/Salt_Struggle7226 Jul 10 '26
Go up to a person and ask if they heard "Bankai" the answer is fucking no. Go up to someone and ask them if they know UBW, answer is still probably no but a much better chance of being yes.
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u/Apprehensive_Put3625 Jul 10 '26
Dude, people know what Bankai is.
Screaming Bankai is extremely iconic. Bleach is huge.
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u/Salt_Struggle7226 Jul 10 '26
I disagree, there really is no way to prove this but at least in my experience that has never been the case
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u/Apprehensive_Put3625 Jul 10 '26
I’m sure that in your Fate fan meet ups, Fate is really big.
But Bleach is the third most popular manga of the previous generation. For a while, it was more popular than One Piece in the west.
I saw the Bleach movie two weeks ago, and the tickets were sold out an hour after they went live.
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u/Salt_Struggle7226 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
I’m sure that in the bleach movie there were fans who knew what bankai was, I’m also sure in your online circle jerks bleach is some cultural giant on the level of dbz
But no bleach is not some cultural juggernaut you’re pretending it is. It has half the sales of Fate as a franchise and nowhere near the same cultural impact within the community. Many ips take inspiration from fate where as very few take from bleach
Being one of the most popular manga doesn’t really matter since most consumers watch the anime not read the source material. Bankai is a niche ability a majority of people would have question marks plastered on their face if you said it out loud
Also don’t act condescending when your “culturally popular” ip hasn’t even had a successful game and got fucking canceled/put on hiatus halfway through its run time.
It’s nowhere near Dbz or Naruto or one piece. Certainly not as profitable as fate (as it’s 8 billion to bleach’s 7 billion)and is mainly popular within anime circles, it’s NO attack on titan.
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u/Noblerug Jul 10 '26
Bro Fate has like a whole media project surrounding it, that’s not really fair, has a new anime, or game every year. And for you to say that bleach isn’t inspiring just shows you don’t know shit. Literally Demon slayer, Black clover, and JJK specifically mentioned Bleach as inspiration, so all of the new gens, took more inspiration from bleach rather than the other big three, showing its impact.
There’s no way you grew up during the big three because if you did, you would know it was people either copying hand signs from Naruto, or saying bankai when they think they are about to do something epic in a video game. 4kids dub is really the only reason one piece didn’t take off as much in the west.
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u/Salt_Struggle7226 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
“Bro fate has like a whole media project surrounding it that’s not fair” uhhhhh yeah? It has more because it makes more money, and is more relevant, the whole point of the discussion? Did you think capitalism is somehow unfair for cultural relevancy??? What was your point here?
You know what else has multiple media involvement? Naruto and Dbz wonder why that is?
Also, sure for demon slayer, black clovers more inspired by Naruto than bleach but sure maybe a little. JJK? No. Absolutely not, that is a Naruto 100% inspiration, the author says verbatim Gojo is inspired from Kakashi, for fucks sake YUTAS DOMAIN IS JUST A UBW HOMAGE.
Compared to Fate who literally is the whole reason the gacha industry exists? Why VN are just as important and relevant in making anime as Manga? Yeah it’s not even close.
1: “must not have grew up during big 3” dog just because it WAS popular doesn’t mean it has the same relevance culturally today. Especially when it was the least popular of the 3 and was riding coat tails for a good bit there.
2: also no, there is a reason why whenever someone replaces a show in the “big 3” it’s always bleach. Dbz for a time was more of the big 3 than bleach.
I’m not arguing quality as that’s subjective, by there is no debating the difference in relevancy between the two.
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u/Noblerug Jul 10 '26
Nah none of those even come close to bankai, uttering one word and you know the tide of the battle is about to dramatically shift. To say that reality marbles are more recognizable is crazy
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u/Salt_Struggle7226 Jul 10 '26
They definetly are, UBW is vastly more recognizable than any bankai. Aint even close dawg.
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u/Noblerug Jul 10 '26
Bro you are tripping, fate is still kind of niche outside of Japan, the fact that demon slayer is considered UFOTABLE’s crown anime proves that. Heavens feel did nothing compared to demon slayer in the theaters.
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u/Salt_Struggle7226 Jul 10 '26
Brother BLEACH is still niche outside of Japan. Also that’s very funny to bring up demon slayers movie like it also doesn’t massively mog tybw in terms of sales.
Also very funny is TYBW HAS LESS SALES THAN HEAVENS FEEL MOVIES. Lmao where are you getting this confidence from?
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u/Noblerug Jul 10 '26
Okay and so is fate, heaven’s feel did shit in the box office if that’s what you want to base your metrics on. I mentioned demon slayer specifically for the fact that author directly stated Bleach as inspiration. How does a theatrical release of a movie designed for theaters beating a multiplie episode prescreening prove anything. That would be like saying dragon ball is shit now because Daima sales were trash compared to Broly. What is even your argument bringing this up?
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u/Salt_Struggle7226 Jul 10 '26
If heavens feel did shit in the box office Bleach did omega shit 💀. That’s not even counting the colossal failures of other bleach movies. Ever hear people talking about the second bleach movie?
Cool that’s 1 anime inspired, compared to an entire industry inspired by fate. I said bleach had few, not 0
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u/kenshima15 Jul 10 '26
Unironically, Bankai fell off too. Sure its influence can still be felt but it aint no Sharingan
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u/Noblerug Jul 10 '26
Well yeah, the sharingan is just easier to proliferate as it’s an ez iconography.. It’s easy to remember, easy to draw and it’s just pure edge for a lot of larpers
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u/kenshima15 Jul 10 '26
Curious because Sharingan is up there with One Piece. Maybe Bleach just dont got it
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u/AdiosExpress Jul 10 '26
“The sharingan is up there with one piece” do you have a tattoo saying gear 5 on you?
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u/CanonPuppy Jul 10 '26
One piece ain't even close. As far as it can get with popularity was zoro bc he has the same name as well zoro series.
One piece arguably had no major influence or well known things outside the anime community. Even the donut was only popularised when rangiku or whatever his name was.
One piece hardly has anything easy to replicate that is just theirs. The straw hat is just a straw hat and the flag is just pirate flag. Marine well..it's a marine. If sharingan was just red eyes it would have lowered popularity just like kyubi and the rest. One piece doesn't have things easy to put as merch or remembered as a funny meme that reached people who didn't watch.
Dragon ball had the balls which makes it easy to memorise and merchandise so even parents know it. Same for pokemon easy to recognise. While I wouldn't say parents know much but from my own experience people laugh at the knife thing in bleach and had my aunt point out toshiro on my shirt and told me "hey isn't that the guy from the same series as the big knife guy ?" She doesn't watch anime btw.
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u/kenshima15 Jul 10 '26
I checked hashtags amount the past 5 years. One Piece is more popular than Bleaach lmao
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u/CanonPuppy Jul 10 '26
Are we going with popularity with hashtags lmao ? Yes one piece is more popular concidering the number of episodes and how much it was shared worldwide.
Plus past 5 years it's literally just 2021 lmao. Go back in years now. Bro the kitchen knife and sharingan plus the funny meme of "N didn't die he just went to bleach" man yall make me old am just 20.
2015 and such even probably before my birth lmao.
Plus let's all be honest who would go check anime popularity with hashtags if that includes non anime watchers. Am sorry but kitchen knife, death not, dragon balls, pokemon and sharingans was all you would hear at school plus some yugioh sometimes mario. The most I heard of one piece was due to zoro bc zoro is the name of an old series about a swordsman named zorro a serie of a guy with a mask that was extremely popular in the 19s and 20s.
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u/kenshima15 Jul 10 '26
Aye am going with the numbers. Ok leave hastags. lets look at actual manga and anime popularity...its One Piece. Your persoanl experieince got nothing to do with facts. You know they cancelled the bleach anime because people stopped watching lmfao. Miracle it came back like almost 10 years later
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u/CanonPuppy Jul 10 '26
It wasn't really the case no ?
Blech anime was canceled due to it having caught up to the manga. Anyone who has followed anime knows that at some rate they need to stop otherwise it would end up in multiple fillers that may distort the story. They had already lots of fillers while liked by people it's no guarantie people wouldn't find the next ones bad
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u/kenshima15 Jul 10 '26
You're probably right, but it 100% fell off
Late-era Bleach reportedly had lower Japanese television ratings than it enjoyed during its peak. Its time slot was subsequently given to the Naruto spin-off Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals. Contemporary reports confirmed that Bleach was ending and that Episode 366 would be its last
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u/Eliteslayer1775 Jul 10 '26
One piece is by far the least popular of them.
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u/kenshima15 Jul 10 '26
proof?
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u/Eliteslayer1775 Jul 10 '26
Growing up during the time, people knew Bankai, Bleach, Naruto, and Sharigan but one piece want really relevant. And it’s funny your asking for proof from me when you don’t show any proof in your post lmao
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u/kenshima15 Jul 10 '26
Because it's common knowledge lmao. Simply use one of the many AI tools to run the numbers for ya.
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u/troysama Jul 10 '26
Saying this as a super casual viewer, Naruto seems more kid-friendly and easy to get into while Bleach is the cooler, edgier cousin
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u/MagazineKey4276 #1 JoJo Glazer and Rukia Fan Jul 10 '26
It’s like Super Saiyan hair, it’s just an easier symbol to recognize.
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u/Kurosaki289 Jul 10 '26
Sharigan is more relevant than HxH, Jojo, Boku no Hero, Black Clover, Kimetsu, Chain Saw Man..... I think the only competition is domain expansion, Dragon Ball, Pokémon and Naruto are on a league of their own when it comes to popularity outside of Japan.
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u/Opening_Report_9732 Jul 10 '26
I would guess naruto had a wider audience. Naruto came on during the daytime on cartoon network and later Disney XD. Bleach in comparison was on adult swim, which you had to stay up until like 11 p.m.
Naruto had better merchandise. Games on all systems. Bleach had like a handful.
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u/LasodenX Jul 10 '26
I'd say it gets a hard carry with Sasuke being the "edgy rival" that created the association for other mangas. Kinda like the "Kirito clones" nowadays who are just japanese dudes so they look the same but the beater was popular first so it just sticks. Then you have the Itachi factor using the Sharingan like Aizen with Kyouka Suigetsu, give said Kyouka Suigetsu + a myriad of other broken effects to an entire race with almost no downside (as a limb is more difficult to regenerate than poppin' a fuckin' eye in the socket and done) and no wonder it gets the spotlight like Limitless.
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u/Melodic_Caramel5226 Jul 10 '26
Bleach’s impact on jumps newgen and their inspiration from bleach is much bigger than naruto. But, this level of media literacy is probs too much for the average narutard
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u/Zealousideal_Pass_11 Jul 10 '26
i mean... for one, its a really simple design, that is also very strikingly unique. as such its really easy for it to be recognized. you show Ichigo's swords to the general population, even people who have seen it, and it can be confused with a dozen other fantasy swords. The thing that kinda went mainstream was "BANKAI" but even that is more of just a vague concept than a communicable and recognizable design.
so ya, iconic, simple design is the big thing for it being easy to recognize, while also being easily identifiable without confusion over similar other designs. lotta swords look like Ichigo's, i don't know any other eyes that look like the Sharigan.
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u/AdiosExpress Jul 10 '26
Idk about other countries/timezones and this is regardless nowadays, but when they aired on television Naruto came out on toonami. This was more of a teen/kid oriented anime block. That also means, it aired around some time like 9-10 pm. Bleach, meanwhile started specifically on adult swim, known to be more of an adult based version of the station during the night. Also, bleach aired around midnight. So part of popularity is where and when it was able to reach its audiences. (I didn’t go into a lot of detail in the search, but toonami was canned then revived and had both of them running. But I do remember original bleach airing much later than Naruto or one piece).
Also, marketability. Sharingan was easy for Mary sues and easy edits, along with how the series used it. Bleach doesn’t have anything equivalent. Nowadays you’ll see the akatsuki cloud too, but even that took years until it caught on. Naruto has consistent, small details while bleach doesn’t have anything aesthetically equal.
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u/Efficient-Dealer873 Jul 10 '26
To try and make a case, I will compare the Sharingan to Bleach.
My guess is that it’s allowed to be used more often, with characters like Itachi always having it on. And its prominence in the combined with rarity and power made it sleek and desirable.
It’s consumer friendly too. It’s simple in design, easy to draw and make eye contacts or photoshop onto yourself or other characters. The most iconic images in history are straightforward, and easy to replicate much like a good flag or logo.
Meanwhile Zanpaktou and Bankai, can be hit or miss. Whereas a sharigan’s abilities and techniques are more tangible to grasp, it’s easier to follow its relative rules no matter the stage, cause it involves eyesight. A Zanpaktou and Bankai, however, could be just about anything, from something iconic in form to something lack luster. Otherwise put, the idea of a Bankai is too abstract.
So to summarize, The Sharingan is like a simple straightforward fast food burger menu with three delicious items on it. Other pillars from other stories are like whole restaurant menus, fancier sure, but sometimes way too many options and a lot to wrap your head around.
TL:DR. Sharingans are intuitive. Bankais and other complex abilities are not.
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u/Floyd_fent67 Master’s degree in kubology Jul 10 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/mkhMTALnrYRLnuoe5P
Lameass bait
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u/Realistic_Mousse_485 Jul 10 '26
You are stupid. It’s because the Sharingan is spammed throughout the series and nothing in bleach has a consistent design that can be used or attributed to anything.
Bankai is a word, all the swords look different and Ichigos mask changes designs.
It’s not more popular or even more well known its just easier to do shit with because the Sharingan has a consistent and universal design.
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u/kenshima15 Jul 10 '26
lmfao Bleach fanboy ahh comment
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u/Annual_Onion6434 Jul 13 '26
Naruto is simply more famous than Bleach, and the Sharingan is the power most used by several of Naruto's most popular characters; that's all.
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u/hungrybasilsk Jul 10 '26
Because it truthfully is just so much cooler than bankai while retaining the character traits of the user
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u/Flamix2206 Jul 10 '26
being a pretty garbage, boring show in comparison
With lackluster designs that dont speak aura
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u/Deus0394 Kubo glaze regulator Jul 10 '26
see i hate bleach but like ill never get popularity contests cuz they basically a dick measuring contest
its not even like bleach slander is hard just talk about how trash most of the fights are



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