LegendaryDarkKnight wrote:Seriously, thats all it is. I can even make compassions.
Ichigo= Goku
Zaraki= Vegeta
Ishida= Piccolo (Hes not a soul reaper, but still powerful.)
Orohime= Bulma
And you see the pattern. Anyways I was wondering if anyone else saw this. Oh in case you didn't see the pattern it's the main plot and some key characters. See many movies follow a plot line. Where it makes a mountain shape. These animes however don't make the shape. Instead they are mountain after mountain.
(You could say thats why these animes suck, but in my opinion DBZ was epic and you could say thats why these animes are great.)
...Your comparisons of characters are horrible O.o
Did you know anyone can interpret anything in any way they want if they try hard enough? The arguments behind it will end up sucking in most cases, but humans do in any case have this horribly annoying tendency of pointing out connections that aren't there.
Go look up all the ways you can fold an American dollar bill into various terrorist and 9/11 references and you'll see what I mean.
Goku = Ichigo? No way. What's the similarity?
Ok, they're both more or less the strongest characters (or if they aren't, they end up gaining enough power to beat whoever was stronger at the moment)...
Now what was that Shinobee said about different types of series? Ah, yes, it's commonplace for action series to have the main character be strongest or have the most potential for more power.
Now, what else is similar between the two?
Uhh...They're not the same species, Their personalities have notable differences (especially since Goku is way less immature than Ichigo), they don't both use the same type of weapon, their designs are way different and heck, Goku is married while Ichigo is single.
For your comparisons, you've just looked at "supporting male character, supporting female character, powerful enemy character" and so on.
That amounts to nothing because if you look at their entire casts you'll see that the "simplified" roles they all have are different there as well and that's not mentioning their personalities and actions in the series (that obviously are different because they're both in such different settings)
The similarities between Bleach and DBZ lie in the action anime clichés that DBZ has always had and Bleach has adopted more and more as the series progressed into the Soul Society arc and beyond (In fact, I say the Soul Society arc could have been the last one, just like the Cell Saga in DBZ could) and even then, the settings are still different so the cliché-moments are still not the exact same between the two series.
Ok, next point: What are the similarities between their stories? Because you said there is one and I'm getting really curious here.
I see no survivors of an alien race who wants to destroy humanity and sell the planet in Bleach and I see no otherworldly spirits who fight against corrupted human souls in DBZ.
You talked about mountains. I'd call that the rythm or flow of the series.
Comparing different stories by their rythms is pointless, because they often follow the same basic pattern. The reason they do is because a lot of people have taken a lot of time to find out what kind rythm is best to have to keep the viewer excited and still be able to throw in lots of explanations, talking or character development (which one it is depends on what kind of series it is of course) that most people won't appreciate as much as action.
That rythm is specific for different genres and different forms of media (and some producers/writers/developers decide to mess around with it to produce more interesting and/or "artistic" results)
The rythm of the series says nothing about the content of the series itself. It will at best tell you what kind of series it is (but correctly deducting that from just seeing a diagram of the rythm is hard since different genres can have very similar rythm)
Also, a cliché is a cliché because it gets used much. Why do you think it gets used much? My money is on "people tend to like it when those kind of things happen."
I myself am a sucker for the whole "character is getting his ass kicked but unleashes a new power and turns the tables around" cliché because it almost always looks badass. I'm also a sucker for things in the OP happening in the series (gives me kind of a "Yes!!! The epicness finally happens :DD"-moment)
I'm a sucker for lots of cliché things really. I think that's because I don't see the word cliché as something negative which most other people seem to do.
Like several people have already said, you can break down two series into tiny pieces and see similarities. But seriously, don't. It's a waste of time because when you break it down that way, most of the content is ignored.
Heck, how often would you break down the personalities and development of personalities for individual characters while you're doing that? I've yet to hear of a person who actually bothered doing that and didn't just say "supporting female character who is a love interest to the main character and defects to the enemy".
It details the person's actions, but says NOTHING about what matters the most with every person. What essentially makes them different no matter how similar their actions may be :P
Yes, stuff is copied from other sources all the time both consciously and unconsciously. That, however, does NOT mean it ALWAYS is. If you assume that, then you're bound to miss a lot of very interesting and unique series, games or movies out there :3
[/rant?] ^^;;;
that was so much truth I almost cried (not really.. the crying part)