A new supernatural series, Fades, started on BBC3 yesterday and yes, it was good but I was only about 10 minutes into the episode when I started to notice a few similarity’s to an anime called Bleach.
First off let’s start off with an over view of the shows.
Fades follows Paul a young man who starts to see ‘Fades’, these are the ghosts who have not gone above (to the afterlife) but have remained on earth. When Paul starts to see the Fades he is in a rundown shopping centre where he meets Neil and the badly injured Sarah who are fighting ‘something’ (when asked if it is a fade the reply is ‘no he is something else’).
As well as the ability to see Fades Paul is also having dreams about the end of the world, a talent he shared with Sarah.
Paul meets up with Neil again who starts to help him use his abilities.
Bleach is a Japanese anime that follows the adventures of Ichigo, a 17 year old High school student who has the ability to see ghosts. Ichigo finds that there is something attacking the ghost’s and ends up helping woman named Rukia when the creature (called a Hollow) attacks her. Rukia turns out to be from soul society (the afterlife) and, due to being injured she passes on her power to Ichigo who she then trains in fighting the Hollows.
So, both shows follow a main character that have the ability to see ghosts when most people are not even aware of their existence.
Both shows have one afterlife as a pose the normal (western) 2 (Heaven & Hell)
Both main characters have a trainer who is slightly outside the law, Rukia from Bleach passed her powers onto the mortal Itchigo which is a major crime in soul society. Neil, in Fades uses guns (illegal in the UK) and is always on the move, as we have only had one episode of Fades we don’t know much about Neil’s past but it is likely that he is living outside of the law.
Both shows have spirits that have stayed on earth instead of going to the afterlife. In Bleach this either because they have a reason to stay or they are scared to cross over.
In Fades we are first told that it is because many of the paths to the afterlife have been blocked by concert but, at the end of the first episode a spirit does not cross over seemingly by choice (I’m trying not give too much away)
Both shows have a secondary type of undead which is the main enemy of the show (I know Bleach has more than one type of undead antagonist but it also has over 400 episodes, as Fades only has one episode at the time of righting so I’m using the first series of Bleach)
The Hollows in Bleach are formed from an angry ghost who cannot Passover to the afterlife because they are attached to the world for an reason, normally, greed or another selfish reason, this eats away at them leaving them empty or hollow, once they pass the point of no return they become a Hollow.
Although we don’t yet know what ‘He’ is in Fades we know that he is a form of undead and that He has only recently been able to touch/harm the living and if He makes it across then others will follow. We are also told that the ghosts who remain on earth cannot touch any living matter because it will burn them; this leaves a lot of them feeling angry and empty.
Ichigo has supernatural help in the form of Rukia and it is hinted that there will be a ghost helping Paul at the end of episode 1.
There are also supporting cast members who have different but useful powers to the main charter. Ichigo has a number of friends with powers the main 3 are:
Orihime who can heal
Yasutora (Chad) who has extra strength
Ishida who has wepons of faith
Again I know there are a lot more characters in Bleach but you tend to pick up a big supporting cast in 400 episodes.
In the first episode of fades we have been introduced to Helen who has the ability to heal, like Orihime it takes a lot to use this power, unlike Orihime Helen can heal with the power of touch and not with the help of fairy’s but we did see a moth come out of her mouth after the healing.
As well as the characters and plot the two shows have a similar feel, true Fades is played a bit more for jumps but both shows follow a hero who is different but who needs the help of his friends. The settings and camera angles in both shows are very similar as well as the look and feel of the ghosts.
I am aware that, as a species we share many myths and significant archetypes but Fades breaks with at least one current western myth by only having one realm in the afterlife instead of the generally know two (Heaven & Hell). To get so many similarities into a show which has had only one episode and a show like Bleach strikes me as a bit odd especially as Bleach is from Japan, a country which, in many ways is culturally different from our own to the extent that their cultural archetypes can be seen to be different.
In saying all that there has only been one episode of Fades so it could easily take a different turn. If not expect possessed stuffed toys, creepy shop owners who know what’s going on, women turning into cats and a visit from whoever lives in the afterlife. Even if Fades does take a different turn I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one of those to turn up and if it’s the cat women let’s hope she has the same sense of humour as Yoruichi
