User blog comment:Njalm2/Nanja's Point of View: Shinigami Edition/@comment-1493741-20150503073419

I think this is the first time I've disagreed with a lot of what you've said here, Njalm. Shinigami 'are Humans. They are removed from a lot of things that normal people go through, but that's due to the constraints of their unique duties and lifespan, but they remain Human all the same.

One distinction is that on needing to eat. Its got nothing to do with being a Shinigami. The average Plus is akin to the average Human, that being that they have little in the way of Reiryoku. Of course, this is because in 8/10 cases that Human, is that same Plus, only dead and having migrated to Soul Society. I believe the reason for this is that, as a Plus, without a body made of Kishi what little Reiryoku they generate is enough to sustain them all on its own. But those with a large degree of it, like Rukia and Renji, need to eat to provide them with the necessary energy to go about their day to day (Alternatively, the wiki says its because Pluses don't use their Reiryoku for anything else, where-as Shinigami, it fueling most if not all of their abilities, do. Thus food serves as a source of energy freeing them up to use their spiritual power for combat and so on). This fact is even highlighted in the 3rd Phantom.

Aging and Psychology are fine, as, obviously with an increased life span your view on how time moves will differ.

But I disagree with this stuff on marriage. A lot of it seems somewhat half baked. There are very few cases of marriage being portrayed through out the series, and its largely relegated to the background. But what is shown doesn't paint the same picture to me that it apparently does to you.

Isshin's circumstance is far more unique than most, but he's clearly been devoted and dedicated to Misaki for all the time he's spent with her. Hisana is far from a political marriage, she had absolutely no standing but Byakuya was also just as devoted to her, he has never shown any consideration for moving on. Hisana was the woman he loved and that's that. Same again with Kaien and his wife, there's no evidence to suggest a different kind of relationship than what you'd see from Humans.

The mental traits of Shinigami run the same gamut Humans do, and its very unlikely that most of them, or even a load of them run a sexual rap sheet of all kinds. While I agree that a Shinigami would be more likely to engage in sexual promiscuity as time goes on, branching out and experimenting with their limits and tastes, its doubtful that an overt number of them would. Nevermind the fact that, again, there's never any indication of this type of goings on. About the closest we get is Rangiku and she fails at it most of the time.

It also helps that, again, due to a different perception of time, a Shinigami can be a child (Toushiro, Yachiru) despite being hundreds of years old. Going back to Rukia, she is many, many years older than Ichigo and yet... she'd fit in perfectly with his friends and family. Because she is a young adult by those standards, and she is characterized as such.

The way I see it, a Shinigami is more like a court official within an Empire. This has a tendency to warp the views of that person, especially if they've lived this life since their birth. They don't understand the class divide between an official of an imperial court and a common peasant. The peasant's rightful place is in the slums, just as theirs is at court. The terms just become more broad for Shinigami because they mediate the highest of duties. They keep the balance of all life flowing. To be "human" is to be lesser, to be among the sheep that are guided.

I see it as a far more classist scenario, because the Shinigami do consistently act like Humans do through out the series, they just have an occasional tendency to think of themselves as better than Humans, or Hollows, or Quincy. Its far closer to a cultural divide than one of species. You'd see pretty similar things if you left home for a country on the other side of the world and interacted with the people of that culture; they'd seem downright alien at times. But at the end of the day, they'd still be Human, just with a difference in values and culture (Or demon destroying swords in this case).