Bleach

The only reason Bleach is not considered the best of the Big 3 and the greatest Shōnen Anime of all time is the interspersed filler episodes in-between canon episodes and specifically the long stretch of filler episodes right after Soul Society arc between Episodes 64-108 which effectively killed any momentum the series had and put a massive strain on Bleach’s popularity. That’s it. Every time I hear critiques of the series; like the problematic power-scaling, underdeveloped side characters, or repetitive narrative formula, it’s all problems that exist in other Shōnen to FAR greater extent. Naruto has the most criminal waste of potential side characters in all of fiction. One Piece, which I love, has the exact same storyline formula for every single arc except maybe 2 or 3 (and that series goes on for literally thousands of episodes). Bleach has objectively the most well-developed main protagonist and antagonist out of the Big 3. Aizen is possibly the greatest villain in all Anime; Shōnen or Seinen (the only one that even comes close is Johan Liebert — but even then I’d argue Aizen is more compelling and terrifying because of his godlike supernatural abilities). Ichigo is a profoundly refreshing character in a sea of generic Shōnen MCs who all share the same goal: “to be the BEST _insert-title-here_” Ichigo just wants to live out a life where he redeems his most pivotal moment; that of losing his mother due to his supernatural abilities. His drive to rescue Rukia/Orihime originates from that insecurity; to not lose that love anymore, especially when it comes as a consequence of his own actions such as accidentally taking all of Rukia’s Soul Reaper ability which set in motion her planned execution. Bleach also has the best theming of any Anime I’ve ever seen. The whole Spanish ‘Day of the Dead’ aesthetic runs through every aspect of the series; from Shiro Sagisu’s godlike Spanish-inspired soundtrack, to the Hollow designs, to the worldbuilding etc. The soundtrack itself is by far the greatest of any Anime, with some of the best OPs in Anime history. And to top it all off… here’s Bleach’s greatest accomplishment when compared to almost every other long-running Anime: it actually has a good ending. Yes, the manga’s ending was rushed and trashed due to Shōnen Jump executives, but the Studio Pierrot Anime adaptation of the Thousand Year Blood War arc is absolutely GOATED. I don’t need to say any more. Bleach is the greatest Shōnen Anime of all time. The late, great Akira Toriyama didn’t go out of his way to personally give his blessing to Tite Kubo for nothing. 10/10

I've always thought that the big 3 were not so good, don't know why but they all seemed quite ok. Last year I decided to watch one of them, Bleach, and oh boy I'm so glad I did it. It is a battle shonen mainly focused on battles and powers but still manages to have an interesting story with well done characters. In particular what i loved about Bleach are the characters, while yes maybe some of them are kinds of stereotypes, others are really well written and appreciable. There are little to no plot holes and the events are not forced like it sometimes happens in other battle shonen. OSTs and openings are fantastic and the overall quality of the anime is good considering it's age. The only bad thing I have to say is that maybe there are a little bit too much fillers but you can skip them so it's not a big deal. The anime without fillers is around 178 episodes, all the films are not canon. My final consideration is that if you like battle shonen, definitely give a chance to bleach. Studio Pierrot adapted the manga very nicely, some manga panels are really good portrayed.

personally, Bleach was my gateway anime (that sounds a little weird). A major complaint bleach gets is all of the filler, this is due sourly to shonen jump wanting more money. As far as filler goes, its mostly limited in the non-canon seasons, but all you have to do is skip the filler seasons, unless you want to watch a "what if" story of bleach. STORY: "All the arcs are just the same" that is said by people who fvcking nit-pick at everything. Sure bleach's first 2 events involve someone getting kidnapped, going to a new world, and ichigo gains a new power. BUT the story's are unique to each other, due to HOW and WHY they begin and resolve. Kubo (the author) cant help to make multi-worlds, due to bleaech being based off of the Buddhism, which involves multi-worlds, and he cant just show off 2 worlds ( human world and world of the gods) and let everything be "been there done that". Now to deal with ichigo gaining new power every new season....SO DOES ALMOST EVERY OTHER SUPER ACTION CHARACTER DOES, like goku (who is fvcking beloved, and makes powers on the spot) and naruto CHARACTERS: In the very beginning of bleach, you get this small group of characters, whose background you'll never know,BUT that's ok, because no one gives a sh!t about them, and their in there for only a few episodes character development is pretty good, most characters who you'll gonna give a sh!t about have a background. But for some characters you wont see for a while. Some characters backstory have only been shown in the latest chapter of the manga. The main character, ichigo, is your classic "ill protect my friends" guy but hes truly a lovable character due other aspects of his personalty. Such as fighting against any opponent even if he knows that they can kick his @ss, not in a "wanna fight" way, but more of a "i wont give up" way FIGHTING: The action scenes are awesome, high speed sword fights. But don't worry, not all of the fights are just sword fighting, once you get later on in the series, you'll start to see more of the characters unique powers. SOUND/ART: In bleach's early production, the sound/art were not very good, but just hang in there till it becomes better over the following seasons. Its like how DBZ started, bad sound and art, but that was just how things were during its time. ENJOYMENT: I personally enjoyed it very well. its still one the anime where I re-watch fights Some people say this is a rip of Yuyu Hakusho, for no other reason other than it resolves around spirits. But really the plot/story's have very few similar traits. Overall, the anime is pretty great. Miner plot holes. The main protagonist is one of those great role models, like goku and naruto are, like they teach lessons to fight for your friends and never give up, no matter how hard life hits you. NO MATTER WHO SAYS WHAT, YOU MUST WATCH AT LEAST A FEW EPISODES.

Bleach is an almost perfect embodiment of the shounen genre in my opinion. The story starts out well and you easily get drawn into it. The reason is really the characters, because they are so unique and interesting. The issue I have, and the reason I won't give it a higher rating is the fact that the story often feels fragmented. It is because of the fact that there are sudden moments of escalation followed by long stretches where it all plateaus. Nevertheless they must have done something right for the series to have such a following. The best way I can describe this anime is as a complete package. Although there are some weaknesses and holes present within the story the fact is this series has everything from comedy to tragedy, and straight up action scenes. It's the type of anime that will keep you coming back even though there doesn't seem to be anything spectacular about it. In terms art there really isn't anything special about it at all, but I don't think that is what the viewer should be worried about. The plethora of interesting characters will keep you far too busy for the art to get in the way of enjoying the show. Really this show is for anyone looking for an anime that combines the shounen, super power and supernatural themes into one interesting plot, but isn't serious in terms of its overall mood. //Spoilers(maybe?)// More like a fair warning, but the anime does end relatively suddenly in what seems like the middle of the story. Well that is because it does, the manga is still ongoing, so if you do feel like you wish to continue the story the manga is the way to do it.

I absolutely love this anime... for its use as MAL fodder to get the days up. I mostly watched this show muted because I would be reading the latest updates to my favorite manga Bleach, it has a similar story and funnily enough have the same dogshit ending. The mc looks the same as well, but one of them is a ginger??? The overall plot for this anime is really confusing, just like in the manga copy, the characters that had the name Ichigo were crazy overpowered!! With the amount of plot armor he has 6235 years would pass before he breaks a fucking nail. Baited shitter, I bet u thought something competent would be behind that read more tab. Cyberpunk edgerunners was dogshit, mobile suit gundam 00 is dogshit, 86 is mega dogshit (the characters sucked), grand blue was dog shit (I was just tryna find the episode that they fucked (they didn’t)), clannad wasn’t even sad, violet evergarden was so stretched, anohana was dogshit the first episode was 1 scene away from being a trending code, and valvrave is meat. W review pls don’t delete MAL admins

Synopsis: Ichigo Kurosaki seems to be a regular  highschool student, except for the fact that he has been able to see and talk to ghosts since he was a kid. One day, his house is attacked by a malevolent spirit, known as a hollow. He’s saved by Rukia Kuchiki a shinigami sent to kill the hollow and protect the living. Rukia fails to defeat the Hollow, and instead places her hopes on Ichigo, to whom she transfers her powers. After defeating the beast, Ichigo is saddled with the responsibility of protecting his town from evil spirits with Rukia as his mentor. Pros: Amazing fight scenes with cool powers and villains. The characters are amazingly well done in terms of character design. There is a variety of powers and abilities. And all around just a badass show. Cons: 1/3 of the 366 episodes are fillers albeit not all were bad. The fact that the anime got cancelled and never decided to animate that last arc of the story.(If you want to check out the manga after the you finish the anime read chapter from 479) Bleach has in my opinion the 2nd highest amount of plot armor in anime, losing 1st to Fairy Tail. There are 3 worlds and yet there is hardly any world building. Ichigo actually only has one move :/ (Getsugaaaaaa Tenshooooo) Weird pacing issues, mainly due to the fact that Shounen Jump was rushing Tite Kubo to finish. And oh God that fucking ending!!!!(Referring to the manga) So I'd still recommend Bleach to anyone who is trying to get into anime or to someone who likes action/shounen battle anime. Bleach does have 336 epsiodes so it is a bit time consuming. But if you skip all the filler it's only 200 episodes. http://www.animefillerlist.com/shows/bleach

As one of the 'big three' I felt I had to watch it eventually, I've watched Naruto, and I've decided I can never watch One Piece for a few reasons. So, Bleach was on the hitlist. Story 9/10 - Some of the arcs in this series were truly epic, yeah the filler arcs were unwanted, but that's how it is with big anime. So I try to focus on the canon arcs and as I said, they are epic. The way it finished at ep366 was bittersweet, but I'm glad to hear the show is coming back! Art 8/10 - The characters and their swords/powers are all unique enough to make them distinguishable, which is always a good thing. The world is a little dull, but I've seen worse. I will admit though, as the years went by, the art style became 10 times better. Sound 10/10 - Easily the stand out part of the anime, the intros are mostly awesome, but where it shines is the battle music, the great orchestral instruments make the fights seem so emotional and brilliant. Yes, definitely the greatest in-show music I’ve witnessed in anime. Character 8/10 - Many of the character, whether protagonists or antagonists are full of style and emotion, they are fun. The only downside is that they are all arrogant and believe far too much in their own power no matter what. There is decent character development throughout. Enjoyment 9/10 - There's plenty of action, comedy, suspense, everything you need really in an anime. If anything it's a little too fast paced. Overall 9/10 - A great anime that has undoubtedly inspired newer anime (such as demon slayer.) Not many anime can go on for so long and keep the viewers interested. Bleach holds a special place with it's viewers where, it isn't anyone's favourite anime, but not many people dislike it.

Bleach is the 2nd anime I have watched. I have no standards when I watched it so I pretty much enjoyed it. But as my anime time pass by I encounter masterpieces like Hunter x Hunter, FMA:B, etc..my standards rise. From a 7/10 due to my standards rise it is now a SOLID 3/10. Story: 3/10 Starts of with a Soul Reaper giving her powers to a powerless man because he needs to save his loved ones. How original. The storyline of Bleach is one of many stereotypical anime or shounen plots. Nothiing new. Not to mention that the Arrancar Arc is just a dragged out, more plot holes and inconsistencies, and more underdeveloped characters version of Soul Society Arc. This anime also introduced us to one of the worst concepts in anime, Fullbring *insert any laughing meme*. The story in this anime is just a repetitive cycle, making it extremely predictable and uninteresting. Characters: 3/10 Wow.....There are a lot. Did they develop? NOT. Bleach, for me, has the worst main casts in any anime I have watched (even Fairy Tail's cast is better IMO). The side characters are worse. Forgettable, bland, boring, uninteresting....The villains overstay their welcome to the point of making me say "I dont want to see you anymore! Give me Aizen!!, especially in the Arrancar Arc. They will end up losing but they will pull a Diablous Ex Machina out of there butt and "HAHAHAHAHA i HAVE BEEN SAVING THIS TRUMP CARD!!". Overall it is a horrible cast but Bleach still has good characters like Yamamoto, Mayuri and Byakuya. Story: 3/10 Characters: 3/10 OVERALL RATING: 3/10 BONUS: Music: 8/10 Art and Animation: 7/10

I wanted to avoid this for some time since this anime is/was very popular and there are many different opinions about it, but....here goes. Story: 7/10 When I first saw Bleach, I thought the story was very interesting, with the Shinigamis and Hollows and all that. It promised to be a nice story. However, the story started slow (really slow). It went something along the lines of "Hey you are a Soul Reaper, here's a Hollow, go and reap it" until episode 20 or so. Then it started to become more interesting with the Soul Society Arc. After that, boy oh boy. The story takes a nose dive. It becomes a mindless shounen with the premise that the main character is the only one who can save the Soul Society blah blah blah (where have I heard this before.) Not to mention this anime has fillers galore. Art: 7/10 Nothing special. The animations are good at best and the bland backgrounds don't help either. Sound: 8/10 Nothing extraordinary, but nothing bad either. The soundtracks fit the fight well and add to it in it's own sense. Some of the OST, especially in the beginning, are bad, but after that they get pretty good. Also never understood the composer's fixation with spanish-inspired music Character: 5/10 Easily the worst flaw in Bleach. Starting from the main character, his personality is next to nonexistent. Just random "I will save everyone" speeches and going to save people that are in danger solely for him to go save them. Ichigo doesn't develop as a character during 350+ episodes and remains the same "energetic guy" who wants to save his friends even though, throughout the series he barely even talks with them. The supporting cast is severely lacking in character development also. Be it Ishida, Chad, Rukia or Orihime (oh god, not her), no one develops as a character and remains the same one since when they were first introduced. Character design is lacking in imagination. All Shinigami have the black robe (Captains have a white vest over it), which makes it feel like the author isn't even trying to make interesting and unique character designs. Also the bad guys (Espadas) are all white. Enjoyment: 8/10 Despite it's major flaws, Bleach managed to entertain me for quite a while. Maybe because I have a soft spot for sword fighting in general. The series also had some humorous parts during the first seasons, which I liked, but then, as the series progressed, it became more and more difficult for me to like it because of the above-mentioned flaws. To summarize: (+) Interesting story (+) Cool fights (-) Mediocre character development (-) "I must save every one" cliche (-) Bad pacing of story and fights. (-) Fillers galore. You actually need a list to know what to watch and what to skip.

This anime is a great "starter" anime. Yes, it is part of the big three that everyone associates anime with : Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, this may change with Fairy Tail moving up the list :). Put that aside, it's still a really interesting anime. The story itself is outstanding in the beginning. An ordinary teenage boy who can see ghosts runs into, and is run through, by a shinigami who literally jumps into his life and catapults him into the turmoil and hardships of being a shinigami. Ichigo doesn't just get his powers or his upgrades if you would like to call them. He has to go through hell every single time in order to face whatever crazy psycho that is destroying either the Soul Society or Karakura town. Over time, it does get into the whole Shounen rut. Some low level bad guys swoop down, beat up the main character, he has to go on some sort of spirit quest, comes back and single handedly wipes out the whole group. But, give it a break, the anime stopped in the 400s and the manga's in the 800s last time I checked! I say, if you haven't seen it, why not?

Bleach fans, we are witnesses of legend, we lived a moments of high level of epic. Do you want to join? All those people who leave this masterpiece behind were ignorant of its charms, So please take a step. First, I know there is some of people showing off with high amount of completed anime, if they don't like your review they begin to judge, pretending to be judges! I can see them coming!, Where's the jury? What's the offence this time? My review does not match with the laws? Can I defend myself? Can I call the witnesses? Already guilty?! They telling me this anime is ordinary and average, Well.. it's the greatest anime in my hall of fame, I'm the host of my own show and I am one speak on this universe. So I don't care who placed the judge on his chair, My only job is cutting some fingers that do not deserve to move.. OK I'll admit there is some Negative: 1. Boredom in the first episodes, it was so much boring. 2. Kurosaki Ichigo is unstable person. 3. fillers a lot of F***ING fillers... But you will get an amazing story and awesome characters. these steps is the best way to enjoy this anime: 1. Be patient. 2. Be extra patient. 3. Skip fillers, it's nothing but waste of time. (i will put filler episodes at the end). 4. Enjoy. FILLER EPISODES: From-To 064-108 128-137 147-149 168-189 204-205 227-265 287 298-299 303-305 311-341 355

I wasn't going to watch this. I mean, I got into anime not long ago and just the sheer number of episodes scared me off of that one. So I ignored it. It wasn't until recently, maybe a month ago, that Bleach got my attention. Ok, then. I'll try this out, and just stop when it gets boring (estimating 50 episodes or so) - were my thoughts. Yeah, right. Finished now, though I did skip all of the fillers while going through the main story-line. When that was finished, I got back to them, but still only Zanpakutou and Invading army arcs have been interesting enough to see through. With this in mind and also the fact that I haven't even seen the manga until after the episode 363, this is my review. So, the Story. I'd say 7/10 because while it kept my interest till the end, sometimes it felt repetitive. When you start watching you can be constantly surprised by this and that, but as the time goes you mostly can guess what's gonna happen. It didn't turn me off, but made me fast forward some of the scenes. The whole concept is probably nothing new, but the fact doesn't make it less enjoyable. Sure you can say that it's cheesy, but it is a fantasy world, isn't it? It wouldn't be right without romantic heroes and evil overlords. Art. 8/10. I don't know anything about whether the animation was good, or how well the action scenes were executed, but I liked it. The character design was a little awkward in the beginning, but it progressed nicely. Sound. That's purely subjective. The Op's and Ed's were not to my taste. The OST was mostly spot on, but there were some moments that made me want to plug my ears. So, IMO 7/10, but it depend's on taste. Characters. That's probably the best part of the anime. It was probably the first series that didn't have even one character that was really irritating. Well, Orihime, almost got that one, but not entirely. She still had her good points and got annoying mostly closer to the end. Ichigo is Mary Sue (or her male counterpart, whatever), but he's still sweet. Not sure what makes him so, but even him always being the one to save the day, doesn't make Mr. Strawberry any less likable. The great part is how step by step we get a glimpse into the world of every character, getting to know and better understand their actions, to see how they become what they are now. And after that see them develop with every step they take. It did get annoying sometimes, because it really is each and every character, but was interesting anyway. Overall? That was great and I already want to start over (probably gonna read the manga to quench that thirst). It is sad that Bleach has ended, but it's also good to know when is the right time to go and not to drag something out just because. I loved the finale - it was lighthearted and bright, with a little sadness. Just what every story needs.

I don’t think I like this show. Yeah, sorry guys. It’s rather disappointing for me because I don’t even think this is a bad show, like I don’t hate it or anything like that, but I’m personally not a fan. I mean after finishing it today I'd say that I feel pretty indifferent towards it, but I actually didn't feel that way when I first started watching it. You see Bleach is a show that I watched at the start of this year for the first time. And I never grew up watching this show, I never even heard of it until I started watching it. The only Bleach I knew was the shit you use to remove stains from white clothes lol. The only reason why I started watching it was because the actual show that I wanted to watch was Thousand-Year Blood War, which at the time was the new highest rated anime on MAL, and I wanted to see why it had such a high rating. I thought that I could just watch TYBW only, but I soon came to learn that you're supposed to watch the original show first before you hop into TYBW. So I was like: "Do I really have to? There's 366 episodes, it's gonna take a long ass time to finish, and I don't even know if I'll still be interested in Bleach when I finally complete the OG series." I was a little skeptical going into it, because I didn't think that a show that was over 100 episodes long was really gonna hold my attention the entire way through. There are obviously exceptions (Ex: Hunter x Hunter) but I didn't think this would be one of those shows. But despite my doubts, I still attempted to go into it with an open mind and when I started the first season, I was pleasantly surprised. Like seriously, I was pretty into it early on. I think it was because it was a new show that I was watching and I knew jack shit going into it, which meant that I was more invested in what was happening story and character wise. And I think the first three seasons of Bleach is the biggest highlight of the whole show. I liked the concept of the Soul Reapers and the Hollows and I also thought the world building in the first three seasons was quite interesting to me. If there’s one huge positive I can give this show as a whole, it’s that it has an undeniable style of its own, from the art direction to the sound design. It’s very hip and cool and I could definitely pull it out of a lineup of other shounen anime. I also like how the first three seasons just look in general. There’s just something so appealing and nostalgic about it for me. I mean yeah, it’s very early 2000’s but since I’m biased towards that decade because I kind of grew up during it I’ll give it praise. I also liked how all the bumpers for each episode were a different visual style. They didn’t have to do that but I thought it helped in giving the show its own identity so I embraced it. Another positive I can give is that I really liked the dynamic between Ichigo and Rukia. Even if the comedy isn’t really my thing, I thought it was still pretty endearing and I found myself adamantly invested in the scenes where they were just interacting with one another or doing things other than killing Hollows. If you ask me, I think this whole show should’ve just revolved around Ichigo and Rukia and them growing together as characters. But unfortunately this doesn’t really happen, but I’ll talk about that later. I also liked the Soul Society arc quite a bit albeit it was pretty long winded at least to me. Maybe it's because I'm not really the biggest fan of long arcs, but I was still interested to see what was gonna happen next, and there were parts of it that I really enjoyed. I also like all the characters in this show, for the most part. The only characters I was the most invested in were of course Ichigo and Rukia, and maybe Renji. I also kinda liked Kenpachi and Kisuke, but I didn’t really get interested in them until later on in the show. This is a side note, but the soundtrack for this show has a song that I really liked. Not that I actually liked it but because it was just so unintentionally hilarious to me. I don’t know what it was called, but the lyrics go something like: “If you wanna see some action, you gotta…” I don’t know the rest unfortunately. When there was an action scene and that song started playing, I honestly couldn’t contain my laughter. It was like I was watching the Disney animated version of Hercules. But overall, watching the first three seasons made me pretty excited to see what was gonna happen next. I was like: “Yeah, this show isn’t so bad. It’s got its own feel that makes it stand out from other shounen anime and I respect that. Some of the characters are pretty cool, and I like the ideas that this show presents. I can see why people like this. You know what, with 366 episodes, maybe I won’t mind that much.” But oh boy I was so wrong. Because right after the Soul Society arc, this show just takes a massive nosedive in quality. The thing is when I first started watching anime as a newfound fan, I wanted to be a completionist. That meant watching every single episode, even the filler episodes. And I used to not mind filler episodes all that much. Yeah most of them were pretty uninteresting, but I think I was just excited that I was tapping into a new medium that I had never really explored before and I wanted to get the most out of the show that I was watching. But I think after watching shows like Naruto and Bleach, I began to realize that most filler episodes aren't very good. And this is totally apparent with the Bount arc that comes right after the Soul Society arc. And the Bount arc is probably the worst filler arc I think I’ve ever seen. It was so boring and uninteresting that halfway through it, I made the executive decision to just skip the rest of the arc entirely. It was really fucking me up and I couldn’t handle it anymore, I felt like I had aged 50 years and all my energy and motivation had been drained by the halfway point. But even after that, I just wasn’t enjoying the show as much, and there were aspects that really began to annoy me. Like for some reason the comedy had gotten much worse. I know comedy is subjective and I didn’t really mind it at first, but I personally could not stand the jokes in this show. Especially from the character Kon. Who I thought was kinda cute at first but Jesus Christ he got irritating really fast. There’s also this one character named Oomaeda who is a Soul Reaper during the Arrancar Era and he is easily without a doubt one of the worst fucking characters in this whole show and I am not exaggerating. Every time he was on screen, I wanted to grab a shotgun and shoot it at his face. He was about as entertaining to watch as Jar Jar Binks and if I talk more about him, I’m gonna have a mental breakdown. Fuck that guy and I’m praying to God that he doesn’t show up in Thousand-Year Blood War, for my own sanity’s sake, please? I even remember the show trying to break the 4th wall at one point and it just didn’t land for me. It was actually really awkward and I felt like it was done at an inappropriate time. Like what is this a Gintama episode? Get out of my face! I’ve also heard some people say that Bleach doesn’t spoon feed you as much as other shounen anime. What are you talking about? This show spoon feeds you to the max! There are multiple times in this show when a character explains how one of their powers work after they just used it on their opponent. If that doesn’t sound like spoon feeding, I don’t know what does. Or sometimes a character that I usually don’t have that much attachment to dies, and then the next episode right after is dedicated to their tragic backstory. It’s just pointless because usually I don’t care about the character who just died and it seems like such a copout. Maybe it’s just me but why not just naturally explain who they are throughout the show instead of cheaply explaining who they really were after they just died? Like that character isn’t relevant to the story anymore so who cares what their back…

The perfect shonen DOES exist. We all love bleach. It is a well thought out plot, great character development, and is whole and complete. You will almost never feel like you are bored or that an episode is there for "fluff". It has a little bit of everything for everyone. To me this series exemplifies the perfect shonen: it is male-centered, action dense, has great plot and character development, has some dark themes added in , but really overall maintains this sort of innocence theme of bettering yourself for the future. It can be silly at times and serious at others. It ends on a positive note and leaves you feeling that youthful tingly happiness.

This was the first anime that I ever watched so speaking without bias gets a bit tough here. I really enjoyed bleach, the OSTs , sound, concept were really good especially in the first 2-3 arcs. I liked ichigo as the MC and rukia was good as the FMC, I did find a few of the captains of the soul society annoying tbh. Now speaking about the bad parts-it could have been better at some parts, people think the character development could have been better, which is understandable, although I might disagree with that. If anything I feel the final arcs could have been done better and there was this one time where they showed a cool fight and then immediately showed an alt. arc which bewildered me tbh. It was sad that kubo's relationship with the higher-ups kinda spoiled it at the end, and somewhat similar case with the manga, where his health worsened, Do i reecd this series? surely, but be ready to face the consequences of what I told above

Anime has OP MC so be prepared for that. The anime starts off really nice and calm, then the story develops to a point where this shit HITS. Like the fights make me want to jump up and down like i just got asked out on a date god damn. DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE HYPE ASS MUSIC. The characters are all good except ahem ahem... orihime (sakura stand in). This is a good FIGHTING ANIME, its not meant to be too emotional but it definitely gets the blood pumping. I REALLY enjoyed this show so i would recommend checking it out regardless of the large number of episodes.

I have never seen an anime drop so low in quality in my life. The first two arcs were amazing. From a great story to compelling characters to amazing fight scenes, it was easy to see why the series became one of top three most popular ongoing manga in the Shonen Jump magazine. However, after that point the story Tite Kubo set up seemed to come crumbling down and Kubo didn't know how to put it back together. Character development is now basically showing their back story instead of any actual development and many plot points that are meant to set up character development never come to fruition and are never addressed again. The Arrancar Arc gets interrupted in the middle by two filler arcs back to back, the filler is so bad that there are almost as many filler episodes as there are canon episodes and it just seems to drag on forever, and honestly I wish it had just stopped there. The Fullbringer Arc is uninteresting and completely devoid of all the things that made Bleach great in the first place. The action and music is still there but it just isn't the same.

I have been associated with bleach for over a decade now and have witnessed its fall over the time. Like many bleach fans I tried to defend it for the longest time but I think it's time to be honest. Bleach came with a wave of freshness, a youth driven shounen with beautiful artwork and refreshing style. This can be witnessed up to soul society arc. If I had to rate only up to SS arc, I would give it a solid 9. But the problem begins afterwards. Story: The most unoriginal story you can ever find in a shounen. I can understand why bleach became a hit in SS arc, but I don't understand why anyone would like it afterwards. The story literally repeats itself in HM arc right down to the gags. It is so blatant that for the longest time people kept searching for any symbolism in repeating the same story like some kind of parallel opposite, but there is none. It is just a really bad story telling. At least in SS arc Rukia was taken away by force for reasons beyond her control. HM arc is so stupid because instead of asking for help, Orihime basically walks into enemy's palms by herself and not only that she acts surprised when these guys come to save her. I kid you not. The girl is that stupid, and it doesn't help she is one of the main characters with so much focus given to her considering she is practically useless and impossible to bear. Kubo's obsession with this poorly developed Character and a really bad characterization of female over all has been one of the major sore points about bleach. I don't see how any anime can recover from the stupidity of practically repeating same story it already told for years so bleach never really does get better after SS arc. It's pointless fight after fight which are so boring because people stand around explaining their powers while the enemy just listens. Wtf? I recommend watch it till SS arc then drop it. If you're interested in HM arc just look for episodes where there is Grimmjow vs Ichigo and Ulquiorra vs Ichigo specifically, these are the only two fights worth even noting. The ultimate boss battle was hyped so much but fell flat on its face, it wasn't entertaining at all. They turned Aizen into a joke. Be warned, there will be random asspull power ups in every fight. Characters There are some interesting characters like Rukia, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Unohana, Byakuya, Tatsuki but over all its just so many characters with such littler development it is almost a crime why this anime is even popular. The MC Ichigo kurosaki is the blandest protagonist I have ever come across. He can hardly do anything by himself yet he is so full of himself for no reason. He has no life goals besides going from point a to b due to whatever is happening right now and be swept in random fights. SS arc started with Ichigo's wish to protect Rukia who gave him a new life and powers, and in turn protect his friends as well who went with him to SS. This was fine for one arc but as Ichigo grows in age and physically, he mentally doesn't grow at all. There is no maturity of thought process, no character development nothing. Even till the end of anime he still has no goals besides "protect friends", the same friends he very conveniently puts down often whenever it suits him. Protecting friends (which is just 3 people in human world so to say since he has lost touch with everyone else) is something that can be byproduct of achieving your goal, it's not something that can make an interesting narrative for a hero's journey. Among the mains Byakuya and Rukia seem to be the only somewhat loveable characters but they, specially Rukia, have been shafted so bad it's not even worth talking about. After a while the characters also all start to look the same. The arrangers were made to be such huge deals but in the end turned out total sissies. Also the villain, god modding Aizen is the blandest character ever too. He is constantly shown as the super powered ultimate opponent but very little exploration is done into his life, his goals and what drives him. His powers, his past, his childhood, his bonds, family, his motivators..m none of that is revealed. Which just makes him a card board cutout with no personality to be honest. In SS arc he made very solid debut tbh and I thought Kubo will create something amazing out of him, but alas wasted potential. In fact poor character development and wasted potential is the very theme of bleach. Fights Since bleach is so famous for fights, let's talk about them shall we? The fights are utterly lame. They lack logic and come across as stupid most of the times. Like how the enemy just stands there doing nothing while the good guys interact with each other and make a plan. Or how everyone spends half of the episode explaining all of their power instead of fighting which is utterly stupid, why would you help your enemy in figuring out your powers? Or like how everyone starts the fight with just smashing their unreleased swords together and keeps going on and on like that when both parties know neither will win unless their unleash their full power. Or like how ex captain class attack final boss without bankai or shikai and get their butt kicked in 0.2 seconds despite knowing enemy strength. Or how the hero can never get anything done at all without a last minute power up which becomes useless by next fight so he needs another power up. Or how no one ever dies in this manga except the bad guys and they get resurrected over and over so the whole concept of death is completely useless in bleach universe. I could go on for days to be honest but I think the other reviews summed up the other points I left. I can't believe there was a time I actually believed bleach will continue to be awesome forever. I tried to keep my hope during HM arc but it never really did get better after SS arc. full bringer arc wasn't even worth talking about because it was just a filler ass pull arc centred around having an excuse to give Ichigo his powers back, which makes all the drama over him losing powers kind of pointless. Final verdict: I would recommend bleach up to soul society arc. After that don't bother if you value your time and intelligence.

This is one anime I started and finished a long time ago. I spent a lot of time keeping up with the upcoming episodes since the series was ongoing for such a long time. I don't remember every detail of it, but I do remember enjoying it a lot, and it is one of those series where yo could watch 30 episodes in one day and still want more. you see the main character and his friends grow stronger, and mature together as the story goes, and there is always a cliff hanger after every episode that keeps you hungry for the next one. Overall this series is among my favorites, the story is divided in arcs or seasons if you want to call it that, and they're all a different story yet its all connected making it a huge 366 episode story. the music was among my favorite things in this series, it was catchy and engaging and felt very good, the art its its own, very well done. The characters all develop differently and some more than others. there are so many important characters in the series that makes it even more impressive at how they all are developed, I read a review saying they didn't do a good job on the characters but I would have to disagree. The amount of characters this series have. They're are all important and every single one haves a background and a reason to do what they do. on characters I would have to say they did a very good job. and now I will explain why this series is an 8 for me and not the perfect 10. and my 1 and only reason would be filler episodes. Filler episodes took so much from the main story. my recommendation to someone who has not yet started the series, and is looking for a series full of action, is to skip the filler episodes as they come up. some fillers take several episodes and some of those are actually not bad, but some of them can be completely stupid and really take away from the exciting moments of the main story. Pros: Long story to keep you entertained for a very long time, full of action that gets better as the story progresses, many characters with very individual personalities that can appeal to any watcher, amazing action music, and not to mention the opening and closing songs used are Extremely appealing, and some you will most likely love to download them. great art and animation of powers. an overall action packed series that will excite you every episode (non filler) Cons: series took a long time to finish but since it finally finished it is no longer a con. and the real con, Filler episodes that thew off the main story and character development. know that these fillers can be skipped, making this one of the best series out there! Recommend: YES, I recommend this series to anyone and everyone, as long as they like action and a good overall plot.

2016 has to be one of the worst starts to the year; Terry Wogan, Lemmy, David Bowie and even Alan Rickman have bit the dust. But where are they now? If you have watched Tite Kubo's excellent anime Bleach, based on the manga of the same name, they will be somewhere in the Rukon district of Soul Society, all doing there thing, whilst many unknown things to them happen in the Seratai district. In the Seratai district, beings known as Shinagami (or Soul Reapers if you watch the English version of the show.) go down to earth and harvest dead souls to bring up to the Soul Society, and send evil souls to hell. This is to protect the 'balance of the universe', and what happens if a soul has been staying on Earth too long? They turn into demented creatures called Hollows, who must be killed to protect the universe. The very first episode sees one of these Soul Reapers (yes, I used the English term. Kill me now!) known as Rukia Kuchiki goes down to earth to defeat some hollows, but ends up destroying the house of Ichigo Kurosaki, who can see the usually invisible Soul Reapers. Rukia is wounded, and desperately gives all of her power to Ichigo. He saves Rukia but she committed a crime against the Soul Society, and is taken back by her brother Byakuya to be executed, setting up the first major arc. In terms of characters, Bleach has a whole host of great characters. My personal favourite is Kon; take Seth McFarlane's Ted and put in the mind and soul of Master Roshi and you pretty much have Kon...a perverted bear obssessed with boobies. Speaking of boobies, another cool character is Rangiku Matsumoto, a women obssessed with her looks. But seriously, there are so many great characters, so go and make your mind up yourself! What makes this anime so special for me though, is the Zanpaktou. A sword that can change into a weapon of unyielding power just by saying it's name. Rukia Kuchiki has a Zanpaktou called Sode No Shiryuiki, and Byakuya has one called Senbonzakura which can split into a billion blades. These alone give the anime a unique, awesome twist on a Shonen anime. Bleach has ended since 2012, but the manga is now in it's final arc. Please...PLEASE come back for that final arc! Pros: -A unique, compelling, funny and somewhat dark Shonen anime that is not afraid to show a bit of blood and gore here and there. -Memorable characters who will make you laugh and cry. -Very few plotholes are left in the anime, due to most of them being covered by the fillers (the fillers are not all that good though...see the cons) -A great soundtrack by Shiro Sagisu, also known for the soundtrack of Neo Genisis Evangelion -ZANPAKTOU MAN!!! Cons: -CAN'T STOP THIS FILLERRRRR! FILLER ALL NIGHT! Seriously, the fillers don't end... -The characters Jinta and Ururu are abandoned completely...it seemed like they were important...especially during the Arrancar arc, but now are just useless. -Art style is very basic. It brings nothing new to the table, other then perhaps cool monsters/demons Certification: Based on the story, art, sound, character and overall enjoyment, I give Bleach a Certified ++ rating for only the best anime. I really enjoyed this anime, and I am forever hoping it returns to our TV at some point or another. Reccomendations: Akame Ga Kill! - if your after the very style of action Bleach brings, this dark tale involving Assassins and a corrupt government is for you! Shigruri Death Frenzy - a very dark, very brutal, very adult twist on a samurai tale. Don't watch if your faint hearted!