‘Bleach’ Creator Shares Surprising Advice to Upcoming Artists

Bleach was one of the most popular manga and anime series when it was running, and it’s still fondly remembered to this day by fans. It’s creator Tite Kubo is just as highly regarded for his work on the series.

Kubo recently had some advice for up and coming artists, and it might surprise those trying to find work in the digital age as he doesn’t believe posting your work to social media is the way to go:

“I can’t really recommend that newcomers post manga to social media before they make their debut. I wouldn’t say it’s entirely wrong, since of course you can get popular on those platforms and it might lead to getting published, but I still don’t think it’s right.”

Elaborating further, Kubo argues, “I don’t think it’s that good to be getting instant reactions from people. If you get positive feedback, you’ll be satisfied and lose your hunger, and if you get negative feedback, you’ll smooth down the edges of your work, and lose what you were trying to go for in the first place. I think that your hunger and your initial motivation are extremely important to you as a manga artist, and if you lose those core things early on, it’s hard to find them again.”

Artists now use social media in order to spread their work, but Kubo warns about handling criticism from these social media posts more so than being seemingly out of touch. Social media is integral in helping artists get work, but there can be a complacency in it if the artist feels like their work is perfected thanks to positive reactions from tweets or shares.

This criticism comes from a place of love for sure as Kubo explains his reasoning behind the argument, “I don’t want newcomers to accept things that can change them in a small world, and instead, I want them to create work that retains its purity. I think I’d like them to understand that if they draw their work in keeping with someone else’s opinions, that also means they’re abandoning everyone else.”

Kubo just doesn’t want young artists to lose their passion for the work and thinks that sharing it to social media could, say, “dull their blades.” But what do you think? Do you think Kubo has the right idea?

Bleach was first created by Tite Kubo for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump, running from 2001 to 2016. The series follows the young delinquent Ichigo Kurosaki, who has the ability to see spirits. He soon obtains the power of a Soul Reaper – one meant to usher lost souls to the afterlife – and now has the duty to defend the living world from monstrous dark spirits known as Hollows.

It has been adapted into English thanks to VIZ Media, and has sold over 900 million copies in Japan. The series was later adapted into an anime by Studio Pierrot from 2004 to 2012, and has four feature-length animations, rock musicals, video games, and a ton of other merchandise. You can currently find the series now streaming on Hulu. A live-action film adaptation of the series is now streaming on Netflix. You can find ComicBook.com’s review of the film here.