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In the center of the artwork, Ichigo Kurosaki is depicted wielding Zangetsu, his Zanpakuto (“soul-cutting sword”).
Circling around him in an oval configuration are the members of the Espada (the Ten Blades) minus Aaroniero Arruruerie (clockwise from the top: Nnoitra Gilga, Baraggan Louisenbairn, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Coyote Starrk, Yammy Llargo, Ulquiorra Cifer, Zommari Rureaux, Szayelaporro Granz, and Tier Harribel).
The white cloth, which appears only in Shikai (“initial release”) form, zigzags like a lightning bolt across the composition, making Ichigo's Shihakusho appear as if it were caught in the glare of a camera flash.
White radiates. In the original illustration, it is apparent that these areas were not colored in white. Rather, the original white color of the paper was left as is. The dramatic effect of the white is created by its relationship with the surrounding colors.
The contrast between black and white in this artwork is particularly dynamic.
*The work is made up of a set of 2prints
*Signature on prints (seal)
Kubo debuted in 1996 with Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine (published in Weekly Shonen Jump Summer Special). He published BLEACH in Weekly Shonen Jump between 2001 and 2016,. In 2018, he released a new work, Burn the Witch. Recently, in 2021, a new episode titled "BLEACH: New Breaths from Hell" was released.
Kubo won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award for BLEACH in 2005. And in 2008, he received the Comic-Con International Inkpot Award.
BLEACH is essentially a battle action story that follows the life of the protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki, who has suddenly gained Shinigami powers. The story linedepicts the growth of Ichigo and his friends as they battle evil spirits called Hollows and other Shinigami adversaries. The manga was made into an animated television series in 2004. The manga series concluded in 2016. The total worldwide circulation of the 74 BLEACH mangavolumes (tankobon) exceeded 130 million copies as of December 2022. A new episode, "BLEACH: New Breaths from Hell," was published in the 36th and 37th issues of Weekly Shonen Jump in 2021 (it went on sale August 10). In December 2021, an exhibition of the original artwork was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the initial publication of BLEACH.In 2022, The anime "BLEACH :Thousand-Year Blood War" was released.
アーカイヴァル インクジェット プリント
Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage has entered into a business partnership with Epson, entrusting them with color management support and printing. The pigment inks used in the company’s inkjet printers are lightfast, preserving the original colors even under lighting that would cause the dye-based color inks used in the original artwork to fade.
On the other hand, original manga artwork is highly prone to fading, especially when it comes to color illustrations created using dye-based markers. Illustrations created for the covers of manga magazines, frontispieces, and comic book covers were not originally intended to be displayed or appreciated as works of art. They were designed to be printed and viewed by readers in magazines and comic books. Illustrations were often colored over copied line art, and in some cases, the characters and backgrounds were cut out and pasted in separately. To transform such illustrations into manga-art, they need to be retouched, such as by correcting discolored areas.
Since 2008, Shueisha has been working to digitally archive manga. Initially, we captured color originals using the EverSmart Supreme II, a high-precision scanner, and in 2015, we began using the Phase One IQ180, a high-resolution digital camera. Since 2020, we have been using Phase One’s Cultural Heritage series. This has allowed us to capture and preserve colors beyond the reproducible range of commercial printing, while also retaining the texture of the paper on which the illustrations were created.
Using this digitally archived data and imaging equipment, we retouch the artwork, restoring the original colors as they were when the illustrations were created. To produce the final print, color is carefully managed at each stage, from the original artwork to the captured data and printing.
For illustrations that were created digitally, we perform color management and printing in the wider-gamut Adobe RGB color space, instead of the sRGB space typically used in commercial printing, resulting in deeper and more vibrant colors.
