Board Thread:New on Bleach Wiki/@comment-17226400-20150106192908/@comment-44061-20160412172901

Is it at all possible to point out that this is reminiscent of the typical arrogance of our western society. We cant fathom a concept that is not all about our common culture and world view. I dont recall a point where Kubo stated what his religious beliefs are but given that the bases of Bleach was him wanting to "draw a shinigami in a kimono" and thus his creation of Rukia. There is a huge possibility that like most Japanese he is Shinto and Buddhist. This is seen throughout all of Bleach and not just simply in the last 2 arcs like the Fullbrings are the Quincy. Having a reigning god is not unheard of nor is the concept of Shinigami. Angels are about as old as the various abrahamic religions that believe in them and just as different as the religions. Shinigami have existed as a concept far before Christianity or Judism. Also point of fact Yhwach or (YHVH) is a jewish concept of god.

So to say anything of Kubo's beliefs if anything he adheres to what he knows from his culture as he heavily uses from the Eastern Thought to create many of the concepts we see in Bleach. Besides Yhwach and the Sternritter motiff of angelic concepts. If we were to look that deep into it one could say that Kubo is pitting Eastern religious philosophies vs the western religious philosophies but even then thats only in this most recent arc, you would also have to overlook the lack of actual god or gods as one may assume they would exists (omnipotent, omniscience, omnipresent), lack of any religious dogma.

If anything according to Hachi, Shinigami dont worship any gods. The entire concept is based on a practical viewpoint of reincarnation given form by a scientific/specialist model. Shinigami exist to keep balance of souls, the soul king ultimately regulates the balance of existence. Hollows exist simply as a negative opposite to a conventional soul. The unnatural enigma apparently would be Fullbring in certain humans and possibly Quincy that serve no purpose in reincarnation and seek to subvert it entirely bringing upon devastation to the balance of existence. With heavy existence on the eastern philosophical concepts and entities that basically shape the japanese history, culture and worldview as well as Tite Kubo himself. Anything else is reaching.