Should you be basing your entire review on the FILLERS? Unlike the Naruto series, they don't take up 1/3 of the total episodes thus far... -_- (Nor were they as painful to watch.) Maybe you should have written this review AFTER you'd seen the following episodes of the Bount Arc... Or BEFORE it. >_>
Bleach tv Review
The series begins in the human world, with the sudden entry of a stranger into Ichigo's bedroom. This stranger is Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper (in the Japanese version, a shinigami, literally God of Death). After an ensuing conversation, Ichigo and Rukia are forced into combat against a hollow (evil spirit). Rukia is disabled, and forced to transfer her power into Ichigo, transforming him into a Soul Reaver. As it turns out, Ichigo is very powerful, and even has a semi-unique zanpukat�? (sword that is his primary weapon, it is much larger than most). Ichigo makes quick work of the hollow, and Rukia leaves.
The next day, she shows up in his classroom, apparently a normal human student. It turns out that Ichigo has completely absorbed her abilities, and she must recover them by using a temporary human form, Gigai. It is later revealed that the Gigai she entered was specially designed by Urahara and given to her. In the mean-time, Ichigo must take over her job, cleansing the hollows in the region.
As Ichigo get involved in a closer friendship level to Rukia, Ichigo got more to know about Shinigami life and its issues.
Credits: niomea
Story & Characters
The anime series is a faithfuly adaptation of the manga by the same name, with the obvious exception of the Bount filler arc. The story progressed from the drama/thriller stage of Ichigo's early years and his attempt to train his "stolen" shinigami powers to the standard shounen battles in the soul society arc(train, beat some powerful guys, a more powerful guy shows up, main character is about to lose when he is saved by a plot device, main character goes on to fight even more powerful opponent but wins DUE TO THE POWER OF LOVE, etc).
At start, soul society is an enigmatic place, shinigami and their powers are even more enigmatic, all we know are that they have zanpakutos that can purify hollow souls and can use "magic spells" called "Kidou", that can be used to heal, attack or immobilise a target. As Ichigo juggles shinigami and schoolwork with sometimes comedic results, Rukia attempts to regain her Shinigami powers. All the drama and thriller aspects are completely gone by the soul society arc however, where it just becomes standard, albeit above average, shounen fare. Its questionable whether that was a good move storyline wise.
As of this review, the anime series has recently finished the bount filler arc. All the way up till then, the storyline has been quite decent, because it was simply an adaptation of the manga series with very minor differences, and the manga series had a storyline written by someone competent. All this goes completely out of the window in the filler arc however, as filler arcs are almost always written by the anime company, and they always seem to be written by someone with simply passable writing skills, at best. I will be focusing on the bount arc in this review.
The bount arc can be broadly described as divided into 2 portions, the "drama/thriller" portion as Ichigo and friends scramble to figure out what the Bounts are up to, and how to deal with them, and the "shounen" portion as the Bounts enter soul society and everything becomes clear cut fighting between matched pairs of opponents.
The first portion is just horrible. All the character development in the previous episodes were just thrown out of the window. All the good characters behave in a non-sensical manner for much of the first portion, its like watching a horror movie where someone says "Hey lets all split up in this seemingly deserted house and explore!" and you cant help but scream "What the HELL? Are you stupid?".
All the fight scences in the first half of the filler arc have two common points : Ichigo and friends have no clue what they are doing, and the numerous plot devices make it impossible to measure any character's power properly. In one instance we have Yoshino completely trashing Ichigo and being seemingly invincible...yet in another fight scence we have Yoshino completley unable to do anything. Renji mysteriously refuses to use bankai until the very end of the first half, and this nearly causes the entire group to die multiple times over, and we have a fantastic plot device where Ichigo cannot use bankai in the real world supposedly because he doesnt have enough "resolve". This was done to prevent Ichigo instantly wiping out every Bount except Kariya instantly.
Plot holes are simply abudant throughout the entire filler arc. For example, it is generally accepted that Sereitei, where the shinigami lived, was only constructed after the shinigami academy was established by General Yamamoto and the Gotei 13 was formed, as there would be no one living there otherwise. Yet we are clearly shown that the 46 chambers, some form of the Gotei 13 were fully active during the time when the Bounts were created and a full sized Sereitei was already built, implying that an army of Shinigami already existed before the creation of the academy and Yamamoto's time, which then brought up the very good question of how all these Shinigami got trained, and how all the administrative and technical support sections came into being.
The reason for this plot hole is simple, much of the filler arc show time was dedicated to the characters of the show running around trying to figure out who the bount were, how they were created, so on and so forth, if Yamamoto and the other captains had been alive during that time, a significant portion of the filler arc would have been eliminated, as they could simply say "The bount are so and so and we need to do this to counter them".
It seems the filler arc was sketched out by the manga series writer, but the anime company filled in the gaps. This is very obvious when you consider the general premise of the filler arc is decent...we have the Bounts trying to take revenge on soul society for the wrongs they did in the past, and emphasised that soul society is not a bunch of angels who can do no wrong. The writer who filled in the gaps clearly did not care for story continuity and was only concerned with making material that could be broadcasted, and not its quality.
The second half of the filler arc, using the standard shounen method of matching up bad guy with corresponding good guy should be very familiar to most anime viewers. For example, we have Ichinose matched up with Zaraki, and predictably, loses. The second half is much better precisely because there is nearly no storyline to speak of, much of it is simply fight scences, usually comprising 2 episodes each, the first episode where the good guy seems to be losing, and the second episode where the good guy manages to get the upper hand and beat the bad guy. Every single fight scence in the second half uses this formulae, except the Rukia and Zaraki fights, and argubably Hitsuguya's fight. There was simply very little room for the anime company to screw up.
But they still did it anyway. Soi Fong's fight stood out because of how badly it was done, the plot device used, and that it should never have happened in the first place. A captain unable to dodge a dart thrown at her at that speed would simply be unable to stop someone using shunpo and trying to stab her with a zanpakuto, and thus would simply not have gotten anywhere near that rank in the first place. All her underlings are shown as complete weaklings, even her high ranking seated officers never even release their zanpakutos, presumably because this required the manga writer to come up with ideas of how these releases would look like, their effects, and who the officers were, so they simply used generic "special forces" shinigami that get taken out instantly. Soi Fong's fight with Mabashi was just nonsense, her idea of "ending it quickly before the poison gets me" was to use shunpo to place her zanpakuto at Mabashi's neck from behind, and instead of slitting his throat instantly, waste at least 5 seconds unleashing her zanpakuto and giving him ample time to counter.
Why she did not use her bankai to instantly take out Mabashi was simply because the manga writer had not came up with an idea for her bankai yet. Also the idea that a captain would be initially unaware that her zanpakuto could neutralise poisons is just ludicrous.
One plot device to make the Bounts stronger during the second half in the filler arc was that they could absorb spirit particles from their surroundings to heal their wounds very quickly, and also increase their power. This usually took at least 5 seconds where the Bount would be completley immobile and open to attack however. Why not a single character in the show tries to take advantage of this opening is never explained, every character that fights the Bount who uses the spirit particles to heal their wounds just stands there and politely lets them heal. This is just absurd, there is no way a viewer can suspend their disbelief for this.
I would also point out that while plot devices are used abudantly throughout the non-filler arces, they were still tolerable, because they fit in. Even the scence where Kommamura activates his bankai and is about to attack Aizen, yet mysteriously stands there for 5+ seconds to let Aizen cast the level 90 blast spell in dramatic fashion isnt anywhere as bad as what happens in the filler arc.
The final, climatic battle with Kariya and Ichigo is a serious let down, Kariya mysteriously refuses to try and blow up soul society, and seems to intentionally lose. The viewer is left scratching his head, what the hell is going on, and going "Thats IT? Thats how Kariya gets defeated?!". I would say this is one of the worst fight scences in the entire series.
The outline for the filler arc was good. The "meat" of it was just garbage however. There were an outrageous amount of plot holes and plot devices used, characters behaved non-sensically, and character development was either nil or a serious step backwards in most cases. The filler arc definately deserves a 1.
Rating:
Art
Some interesting character designs of the new Bount characters, most of whom seem european. Theres some serious stereotyping going on here, Koga is the dark skinned muscle bound with headphones, Yoshino is the sophiscated lady with good intentions, Udagawa is the slimey backstabbing snake and Kariya is the stereotypical white haired, red-eyed evil leader. The mod souls have interesting designs, but unfornately they spend way too much time of it in the really freaky looking dolls. Other than that, most of it isnt anything new, and the new stuff isnt exactly awe inspiring either.
Rating:
Sound
Nothing much can be said. Its all pretty much average. I seriously cannot think of any real good or bad points here.
Rating:
Presentation
Another classic case of "It could have been so much better!". Unfornately it wasnt. For example Mabashi was originally a good guy who refused to go along with Kariya's plans, however he "went to the dark side" way too easily, thus messing up a good storyline opportunity. The "Bitts" were completely discarded past the first half, and it seemes as if Kariya simply threw them away in the real world. Most of it has been said in the story section already. The series arent enjoyable at all for the first half, as most of it is watching Ichigo and friends act really stupid and get beaten around by the seemingly invulnerable Bounts, while the second half is only "decent" beacuse it is standard shounen fight scences.
Rating:
Final Verdict
3.0000 (poor)
Reviewed by Question, Feb 03, 2007
Comments
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xRedPhoenix Feb 04, 2007
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shoujoboy Feb 04, 2007
Ha ha! You know I don't even have to agree with you (and I can't cause I haven't watched the show) but God I'm gonna get a kick out of watching fanboys light you the hell up. I get slandered because I gave Haruhi a '7', but you gave Bleach a '3'. A show that dominates the forums with questions like "Which shinigami would you be lol?" I will revisit this review just to see the fuming. Oh man oh man. Anyway, I will say this though, what happened in the sound department? You had like 10 paragraphs to open and then 1 line for sound and a 5 to follow? Tsk I say... tsk! Regardless, you entertain me, congrats.
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shoimi Feb 04, 2007
wait are the people from the soul society called soul reapers or is that just the different tranlations on the show for different countries? Also i din't even get anything of an understanding the show for this reveiw infact i am completely confused by this reveiw.
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Chloe Retired Moderator Feb 05, 2007
I'm gonna have to agree with RedPheonix here. I feel you shouldn't have based an entire review on just the Bounto Arc. Is Bleach the best anime ever? Absolutely not, but, personally, I feel 3 is way too low (even for the fillers). Reviews should reflect upon the entire series (so far), not just fillers or certain arcs.
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JusticePro Feb 05, 2007
hahas~now i'm really confuse about the show...lols~
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mr-gentlemen Feb 11, 2007
Why all your reviews are mostly refering to Bount one? Swt =.="
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Chiro-kun Feb 14, 2007
This is probably the most outrageous review I've seen. While I wholeheartedly agree that Bleach can never be 'the best' anime series as the fanboys claim but giving it a 3 is outrageous, even if it were only based on the fillers. If you hated the Bleach fillers so much, you should look at the Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin ones. The only aspect on which I agree in this review is the fact that Bleach is full of plot holes(excluding and including the fillers). You should really watch this show from the beginning.....unless you're a complete anti-shounen fanatic, I don't see how you would give it below a 7 after a re-watch.
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darkangel714 Feb 19, 2007
mmm i dun really agree with you here... bleach should get atleast above 8... it seem to be a very good show... The fighting are pretty good... n the character develop through the series.... even the filler... seem good... like chiro- kun say u should look at Naruto's filler... Bleach's filler are much shorter than Naruto which is a drag... n i got a bit impartient... the graphic is pretty good... n the story is going somewhere... so i gotta say it deserve much better credits than a 3..
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GloriaChan Feb 24, 2007
Hahahaha u made me laugh so much here! OMG! U now seem so stupid! How can u do a review on hust fillers? buhahahahaha
For me bleach is a great anime...maybe the storyline is boring but the anime itself is so enjoyable! i like it very much -
darkblade10 Mar 10, 2007
You shouldn't rate the anime based on the fillers only. You should base it on the manga parts that's made into the Anime series. People like you are the ones that don't understand why fillers are called fillers. Bleach is one of the best animes ever, full of action and comedy. The only reason why Bleach would deserve a low rating is due to the English dubbed voices.
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myalchod Mar 18, 2007
At the risk of being repetitive: reviewing based heavily (or even exclusively) on a certain arc of a series seems somehow off. While I agree with you that the filler arc was atrocious (I couldn't even bring myself to watch it) and some story elements within the show are entirely predictable for a shounen series, it seems unfair to rate a series so badly based on what was arguably its WORST point. You gloss the Soul Society arc at the beginning, which makes me wonder why you only give it that nod and then go on to nothing but filler.
(Really, it's the art that hurts the most, anyway. At least, outside of the filler.)
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killer44 Mar 28, 2007
"YO! whats with this "review?!" to be frank i don't really agree with this review because for me it's one of the best anime ever
i mean "HOLY SH**" they give BLEACH A #3" are you guys out of your "MINDS!" -
RatKiller Mar 30, 2007
Maaan...this review is not even a piece of review. You shouldn't be so subjective...
Though I know that Kubo is fan of Toriyama, so Bleach has taken many ideas from DBZ series, but that doesn't make it look that bad. But stop...you haven't mentioned it, instead you gave your own opinion on Bleach's fillers, leaving many thngs behind. I agree with people, who say that fillers in Bleach are shrot and good, compared to the ones in Naruto. Yes, they have ended quite messy and quick and brought some confusion, but HEY, wait a minute! Bleach consist not only of fillers! it has manga-following story. Why write about one filler-bount-useless arc? And BTW, where's opinion on Music?
Final Verdict:
You haven't written a review at all. This cannot be the review of the whole Bleach series, neither it counts for bounto arc, cause even fillers are evil by default, "3" for this ones doesn't make any sense! -
Reki84 Apr 08, 2007
I don't know if I should repeat everyone, but you should focus on Bleach as a whole. The fillers are usually inferior to canon material. Naruto filler is a good example of it. Bleach has never been a great anime for me, but I actually quite enjoyed the Bount Arc. It's not too far from what the original Bleach is like, at least in my opinion. Also a 3 is too harsh for a filler. Next time if you focus on both aspects of Bleach (ie. canon and filler), your review would be more complete.
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Joseph21 May 05, 2007
its much better than naruto and thats a fact
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skyflower Jun 20, 2007
Strangely, I found your review entertaining. Maybe because I haven't watched Bleach in a while because of the fillers and this brought back many memories. True, I agree that the fillers were below average. But the rest of the series is awesome. ^^
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beyondmeasure Jul 11, 2007
Awesome Bleach?
I watched this anime way back,
and my feeling was I just ate water.
I totally agree with you, Question.
I just wish you made the score... like, 2 perhaps. -
shinshinovi Aug 17, 2007
I could have agreed on the Bount matter, however, a company would actually prefer to see the majority's opinions. Even in Crunchyroll, a lot of viewers says it's boring. Yes, even I would say that, but at the same time, why did we watched it? Entertainment? Of course. And we say we are not entertained. Oh? Maybe true, but that would be ONLY for the critical eye. The rest would be saying "ooohhh", "aaahhhh", and "YEAH BAN KAI! KICK HIS ASS ICHIGO!" or somethin`.
Genre of Action such as Bleach, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, and any other similiar anime shows aims majority viewers, not critical ones, and that, is what the Company aimed. IMO, it's a good tactic, since it increased their viewers.
What you missed about the Bount arc is the attempt to balance 'right or wrong', 'good or bad', and vice versa. Not. You missed one thing that made the company do that arc filler: A Filler to fill the majority (and themselves, yeah.)
I then remember something that happened to me some time ago. It involved me and a friend fighting over my art style since I was always saying 'it's not perfect' blah blah blah. He then told me:
"Don't be a critic. You won't enjoy it."
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beryl0402 Mar 16, 2009
the bounto arc is a filler dude. the manga is awesome. bleach is great idea!
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Sanisa Sep 21, 2009
Thanks for the review!
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Kakuseisha666 Oct 09, 2009
I dont' like Bleach at all too,but this review almost only talks about the bount arc -_-'
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blaze18553 Dec 28, 2009
I really do. I REALLY LIKE BLEACH!
Although, the fights are taking sooo long! Each character in each fight versus to takes to like 2-3 episodes.
I WATCH IT ON ADULTSWIM ON TV. Sometimes I felt like wasting time on some long fights. Watching 2 episodes at night on saturdays.
Sometimes, new stuff keeps bumping between the episodes that are not even NEEDED! Like about that some GIRL IN THE 200 SOMETHING. Except bonus or extra or funny episodes. I would definitely watch it.
I DON'T LIKE WATCHING ANIME ON THE PC. Only the time I feel comfortable.
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SchRita Jan 15, 2010
Thanks for the review!
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Sanisa Feb 24, 2010
Thanks for the review! Nice ^__^
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