Highlights
- The author explores the similarities between the characters Rukia Kuchiki from BLEACH and Noel Niihashi from BURN THE WITCH, highlighting their shared themes, character archetypes, and refined designs.
- The names of both Rukia and Noel have interesting origins, with Rukia's name symbolizing a "light from the rotting tree" and Noel's name having Latin and Japanese influences, connecting them conceptually.
- Both Rukia and Noel have black hair, blue eyes, stoic appearances, and strong relationships with their otherworldly professions, making them similar entities in their respective universes with some differences in personality and expression.
Something that comes up with various mangaka who have multiple popular works is the reuse of designs or entire characters with some alterations here and there. BLEACH author Tite Kubo does not necessarily have the largest repertoire of work from which we can draw comparisons; however, anyone who has read his first serialization, Zombiepowder, and the BLEACH spin-off BURN THE WITCH will have noticed themes and character archetypes, not to mention designs that have been refined and altered time and time again.
BLEACH main character Rukia Kuchiki and BURN THE WITCH main Noel Niihashi have a number of such similarities, but there are a lot of parallels between the two that aren't so obvious that seem to further deepen the relationship between the two Kubo works. So, what's the striking connection between Rukia Kuchiki and Noel Niihashi?
The Rotting Tree
Nomenclature is very important in BLEACH and a lot of the brilliance of the series lies in the concepts that Kubo brings together through his command of language. The character Rukia is the very first one he ever designed for the series which he originally conceived as "Snipe", due to his desire to portray a narrative where combat is waged primarily with guns, not swords. Rukia also came from Kubo's desire to draw Shinigami dressed in kimono, and she was meant to wield a unique weapon: a scythe. Rukia's name is one of Kubo's best bits of nomenclature, as the last name "Kuchiki" is written 朽木, with the kanji for "rot" and "tree", while "Rukia" is written ルキア, in katakana, because the name is actually a Japanese-translation of the name "Lucia", which means "light", derived from the Latin word "lux". Contextually, Rukia's adoption into the Kuchiki clan was Byakuya's fulfillment of the promise he made to his late wife Hisana, who was Rukia's elder sister. Hisana abandoned Rukia as a baby and spent a lot of time searching for her after marrying into the Kuchiki Clan.
As the last surviving members of the Kuchiki Clan, Byakuya and his grandfather Ginrei became obsessed with maintaining order, image and status, particularly in the wake of the collapse of another of the Five Great Noble Clans of the Soul Society. The name Kuchiki is contextually interesting considering the decay of nobility and the family itself, with Byakuya's marriage to Hisana and subsequent Rukia's adoption being a major catalyst in his growth. As such, Rukia's name and influence make her quite literally "the light from the rotting (family) tree". On the title page of BLEACH chapter 5, "Binda Blinda", the image has three characters dressed in casual clothes as was the norm for BLEACH chapters. Rukia is seated, looking over her shoulder at the reader, while Ichigo is centered in casual clothes and Orihime is seated in the background. The concept is a CD jacket or the cover of a mixtape, and there's what resembles a track list with three names above Orihime's head. They are "Jetcape-15" (Ichigo), Vega Highwell (Orihime Inoue) and "Rukia Rotwood"; with each being an English equivalent or English stage name for the characters pictured. "Rotwood" is a translation of "Kuchiki", where "-ki" is translated to "wood" rather than "tree".
London Bridge
Noel Niihashi from BURN THE WITCH has a similar situation with her name, which her partner Ninny Spangcole has pointed out is just what Noel picked out because of her obsession with Japan and otaku culture. According to Ninny, "Noel" is a popular girl's name in Japan, but the surname "Niihashi" is not accounted for in this conversation at all. "Niihashi" is written in Japanese 新橋, with the kanji for "new" and "bridge". The name "Noel" is not of Japanese origin, but the name actually comes from French, and it means "Christmas". However, if we go even further back, the word itself is derived from the Latin word "natalis", from which we get "natal" and its variations (including "Natalie"), which are all related to birth (see "neonatal").
Both Rukia and Noel have names that can be traced back to Latin, and surnames that are often made up of two parts that also persist when translated to English. "Niihashi" is just Japanese for "Newbridge". So, effectively, Noel and Rukia are connected by the construction of their names; and the fact that one is British-born and English-speaking with a Japanese name, while the other is Japanese with an English name, alludes to their being two-sides of the same coin, at least conceptually. It is also very interesting that their last names are references to a collapse of some kind – a decaying noble family on one hand; and an indirect reference to the replacement of the medieval London Bridge, and therefore, the restoration of an artifact of major cultural and administrative significance on the other.
How Familiar
When it comes to their actual personalities and character designs, both Rukia and Noel are black-haired, blue-eyed women who appear stoic at first and have a particularly strong relationship with their otherworldly profession. Obviously, they are similar entities in their respective universes, down to the harassment they experience specifically from a certain "comedic relief" character, which in the case of Noel is Balgo Parks, who himself greatly resembles what a Kon-possessed Ichigo would look like years after the "Protection of the Soul King Great War". Noel's love for cute things resembles Rukia's love for bunnies in particular, and on some level, the adorable Pomeranian Osushi-chan is what the stuffed animal Kon is most likely a caricature of (rather than a lion, a lion-like dog).
In BURN THE WITCH, Noel Pipers, who are much like Squad 13 particularly in how the majority of new entrants to Wing Bind find themselves stationed there. Overall, Noel and Rukia are similar in appearance, in basic temperament; while there are some major elements of their personalities that differ (like Noel's eternally deadpan expression and Rukia's contrasting expressiveness), they share a kind of conceptual similarity; as if they are deliberately variations of ideas built on shared underlying concepts.