Epic Pulp Fiction Reference in Bleach

I had to post about this. Maybe others noticed it years ago, but whatever. Pages read r-to-l but are positioned l-to-r.

Pages 38 and 39 from Chapter 54 of Bleach, located in volume seven. It’s no surprise to see references to an American film in Bleach because the author is heavily influenced by western works (and he’s mentioned loving Snatch before, which suggests he probably likes pulp-style films.) He’s referenced western musical artists directly before (when Ichigo gives ‘Chad’ his nickname, he asks if he hasn’t heard of ‘Chad Smith’ [drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers] among others), so I feel confident in stating that the above is a reference to this scene from Pulp Fiction. (exact scene begins at 4:15)

Sure, the dialog doesn’t match perfectly, but this is an American film that must have been translated to Japanese, then gone through the filter of Kubo, and then translated back into English by people who might not have gotten the reference, so it’s really almost amazing that I picked up on the reference at all – further strengthening the idea that is is one.