So. Bleach. Tite Kubo's manga. The manga started in August 2001, and the anime in October 2004. 40 volumes and 235 episodes so far. 3 full-length movies and a bunch of video games. A pretty successful franchise overall.
The story follows Ichigo Kurosaki, a human, who can see spirits. He meets Rukia Kuchiki, a shinigami, and "borrows" her shinigami powers in order to fend off a Hollow (Evil spirit) that's attacking his family. He agrees to kill hollows for Rukia while she's recovering her powers, and while doing that we're introduced to Chad, Orihime, Ishida and Urahara. Eventually Rukia gets taken back to Soul Society (the shinigami home) accused of a crime. Ichigo and co travel to Namek to rescue her. Along the way Ichigo's power level increases to over 180,000, and when fighting against Byakuya, he finally ascends to Super Saiyan. He rescues Rukia, but then they're all attacked by Mexicans. Ichigo and co go to Mexico to beat the Mexicans and Ichigo's strength increases yet again, to Super Saiyan 2. More recently, Ichigo has beaten one of the chief Mexicans by transforming into a Super Saiyan 3.
Oh wait. That's Dragonball Z.
What I'm trying to say is that as Bleach has continued on, it has become very much like Dragonball Z... with swords. Hell, even the swords are DBZ-esque. Getsuga Tenshou? More like Kamehameha! The fights these days consist of:
Char1: Trash talk.
Char2: Trash talk
FIGHTING FOR A SECOND OR TWO
Char2: Trash talk
Char1: Trash talk
BEAM STRUGGLE!
TRANSFORMATION!
"Char1: Trash talk
ETC.
If I wanted to watch stuff like that, Id watch Dragonball Z. Now, dont get me wrong, EARLY Bleach is fantastic! Killing all the different kinds of hollows, Chad and Orihime being useful, Ishida and Ichigo's rivalry, Urahara being Urahara, all of that made for a very entertaining and different series. The Soul Society arc was also fantastic. The introduction of all the different Captains and Vice-Captains from the Gotei squads, all the different fighting styles, Ichigo's own powers (RESOLVE!!! XD), even the Aizen sub-plot was interesting. In my opinion, Kubo should've ended it at the end of the SS arc and started a new series. Recently the manga's devolved into ungodly long fights (longer than DBZ), crappy attempts at philosophy, and a distinct lack of any form of background. TITE KUBO! WHITE IS NOT A BACKGROUND!
A typical recent Manga page.
(I'm serious. This is an actual full page)
A much earlier page. Ch 10.
(Woo! Intense Chad and Rukia!
The franchise does have one redeeming factor at the moment. The anime. The anime is a great rendition of the manga. Episodes 1 to 64 are all brilliant. The major fights, early, middle and end. Kenpachi, Byakuya, Grimmjow (All three rounds), all the Captain vs Espada fights, all brilliantly animated. The filler sections of the anime arent that great though. The Bount arc (read "Bullshit arc") and that filler arc right after the Grimmjow fight are both HORRIFIC examples of anime. Skip them. There is absolutely no point in subjecting one's self to that kind of torture. Recent filler hasnt been that bad though. A few oneshot episodes (including an interesting "prequel" episode set the day before episode 1), the Karakuri Rangers mini-arc, and the current filler arc are vast improvements on previous filler attempts. But enough about the story.
Characters
Ichigo - Masakazu Morita, Johnny! Yong! Bosh!
Zanpakuto: Zangetsu
Bankai: Tensa Zangetsu
Abilities: Getsuga Tenshou, Vizard transformation.
Ichigo is the main character, and tends to be the strongest. He's arrogant, stubborn, and determined. Not really... interesting though.
Rukia Kuchiki - Fumiko Orikasa, Michelle Ruff (Yay!!!!)
Zanpakuto: Sode no Shirayuki
Bankai: None, yet. (Even though she's stronger than Renji)
Abilities: Those three dances. (Hakuren FTW), Kido Master
Rukia is the deuteragonist. She gives Ichigo her powers in the first episode, and serves as a mentor to him through the whole series.
Renji Abarai - Kentarō Itō, Wally Wingert
Zanpakuto: Zabimaru
Bankai: Hihiō Zabimaru
Abilities: Baboon Bone Cannon, Some kido
Renji, at the beginning, is AWESOME. Those sunglasses... Later on though, he (unfortunately) becomes one of the weaker characters, not really winning often. Having said that, he has quite a few moments of pure awesome throughout the show.
Orihime Inoue - Yuki Matsuoka, Stephanie Sheh
Zanpakuto: None
Abilities: God-hax powers. "Kurosaki-kun"
"Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun!"
Yes. That's Orihime in a nutshell. *groan*
Also: Breasts.
Uryu Ishida - Noriaki Sugiyama, Derek Stephen Prince
Abilities: Quincy powers. God-Tier ranged attacks.
Ishida is a Quincy, and hates shinigami. He's intelligent, cool, and collected and uses a variety of gadgets combined with his powers to be effective in a fight.
Hollow Ichigo - Same people as Ichigo
Same Abilites and Zanpakuto as Ichigo
Now this guy is a motherfucking BADASS. Sassy and insane, he is the REAL source of Ichigo's powers. He's also the most entertaining bit of the show.
Well, that's Bleach in a nutshell. Now, despite anything I may have said in this review, I DO like Bleach quite a bit, It's entertaining and something to look forward to each week. I DO recommend it to anyone looking to get into anime, or someone looking for something to read. Whilst Tite Kubo does need to be slapped around the head a bit, he isnt as bad as SOME writers... *Cough*Kishimoto*Cough*.
Score: 8/10
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