In Bleach Sennen Kessen-hen, at the end of each episode, an old poetic-style
line or two is read to invoke the next episode. But I wonder whether it's
actually some old poetic style of speech, or if it's just some ultra-chuuni
thing.

At the end of S1E5, an old man speaks:

魂{こころ} 燃{も}え立{た}つ

天{あめ}の降{ふ}るとも

In particular, 魂 (tamashii) and 天 (ten) are given completely non-standard
readings. I can see how the words relate (tamashii is more spirit, kokoro is
more soul. ten is more heavens, ame is more of the rain).

My question is: is this legitimate old-style japanese poetry, or is this a
case of being chuuni and assigning furigana/alternative readings because
you're feeling extra cool/deep?

Fwiw, both readings absolutely make sense in context, whether it's the soul or
spirit burning, or whether it's rain (i.e. tribulations) falling, or the
heavens falling.
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2023-08-02T16:51:55.883
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kanji readings anime interpretation furigana
"魂 燃え立つ 天の降るとも" having "魂" read as "こころ" and "天" read as ”雨"? (Bleach)
魂【こころ】 is a reading that is neither standard nor traditional, and it does give
off a chuni vibe. However, when you only look at the second line, it appears
like a normal piece of a traditional Japanese poem. 天【あめ】 is a real ancient
reading that has been in use for over 1000 years (cf
[天叢雲剣](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusanagi_no_Tsurugi)). The play on words
between 天【あめ】 and 雨【あめ】 is a traditional
[_kakekotoba_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakekotoba). (Does "heavenfall"
have any meaning in this part of the work?) とも is a conjunctive in classical
Japanese. Of course, these two lines correctly follows the (5-7-5-)7-7 rhythm
of a traditional Japanese _waka_. So I'd describe these lines as "mostly in
the style of traditional _waka_ , but with a bit of modern element that
_might_ be called chuni-ish".

[Here is the list of poems in
Bleach](https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/poem%20collections%20of%20bleach), and I
can see very few are written in the style of traditional _waka_. While they
are still poems, they basically belong to contemporary Japanese poetry written
in contemporary Japanese. And most of these poems are quite serious as
contemporary poetry, and must not be labeled as chunibyo. If I were told that
they were written by a famous poet 70 years ago, I would readily believe it.
(That does not mean they look "old".)
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answer