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 & Playability
Last time I gave Naruto a 1/10, and some people was offended. So this time I’m giving Bleach a 4.2. Before you guys
call me an idiot again, let me just say that the highest score I’ll ever give to a Shonen work is 5. Therefore, 4.2 is
like a 84%. I also want to say that I feel bad for Kubo the mangaka. This guy has the skills, yet he chose to go for
Shonen and by doing so Bleach lost a lot of its potentials. The last thing I want to mention before getting into the
review is that this might be my last long-a$$ review on Shonen works therefore I’ll use it to explain why I despise
Shonen in general.
Same as last time, this review will focus mainly on the manga since I only watched the first 10 episodes of the anime
but I’m still following the manga. Besides, everyone knows that the manga is better than the anime. I’ll start with
the storyline first. Even though the series is not finished yet, the story itself is nicely divided into two major arcs.
The first arc is the Soul Society arc (the SS arc), and the second arc, which is still ongoing, Hueco Mondo arc (the HM
arc) which will be considered to start right after the SS arc in this review. The SS arc is where Bleach shines the most
because of its originality. Most Shonen stories are about a group of teens either starting a journey for stupid reasons
(like Battle B-Daman…I feel embarrassed even mentioning its name…) or beating endless bad guys to save the world.
Not for the SS arc. The story is straightforward: Rukia was about to get executed by her comrades and Ichigo tried to
save her by going into the society and challenging all the Shinigamis. There is no “growing-up” journey, there is no
world to save, yet to me saving a dear friend is more captivating and realistic than all the other Shonen stories I’ve
encountered. The best part is that Kubo is able to create about 180 chapters for this arc and the word “confusion”
is nowhere to be found. This is what I call a good story planning. A good mangaka knows how to plan ahead and knows,
even before he/she starts the first chapter, where the story should go for the next 179 chapters. Allow me to take you
through what happened in this arc. It started off with Ichigo absorbing Rukia’s Shinigami power due to an accident
which I’m sure you are all familiar with. The subsequent few chapters served as fillers and were mainly revolved
around Ichigo helping Rukia to kill off Hollows since she lost all her power. The purpose of the fillers is clear: to
introduce the world and all the main characters in the hero’s group. The fillers didn’t last very long, which is
very good for a Shonen manga, and the main storyline soon kicked in. Byakuya appeared and Rukia was taken back into the
Soul Society. The real arc started from here. Ichigo decided to go into the Soul Society and to save her. Once he was in
the main city, Kubo prepared four fights for him: first with Ikkaku, then with Renji, then with Kenpachi, last with
Byakuya, each one stronger than the previous. Now I’m not here trying to praise on how great or how complicated this
story is. You have to realize Bleach is still a Shonen, it is no E7, and the story IS pretty simple. What I’m trying
to get here is that the story is laid out in a very organized manner. Instead of dragging the story on and on and on
like Inuyasha, Kubo clearly knows where he wants the story to go and he loyally followed his plan. And the story flows
beautifully accordingly. This is no easy task if one really thinks about it. The story itself is not some typical Shonen
stories you can drag on forever. We are talking about Ichigo challenging the entire SS, that’s it. How to keep the
story going for 180 chapters, at the same time not to bore the readers a bit, requires a lot of creativity and planning
ahead. You have to give credits to Kubo at least for what he did with the SS storyline.
Then comes the HM arc, where the series started going downhills. Seriously, if Bleach ended right after Rukia was saved,
I might have given it a higher score say 4.5. It would be a great saga about friendship packed with not the best but
still very very good actions. Instead Kubo decided to prostitute himself, and we have the HM arc. Now what else can I
say about HM arc except it’s a rip off of the SS arc? Sure, the action is getting more intense, and Ichigo is getting
stronger and stronger. But it is still the same story, with Ichigo trying to save another friend of his—Orihime this
time. The group is also going into another foreign land, this time instead of the Soul Society we have HM which hasn’t
been mentioned at all prior to the arc and I was like “huh…why would hollows have a mansion…?”. What about
Ichigo’s fights? Well, so far it is still pretty similar to what we had in the SS arc. The first fight he had in the
SS was with Ikkaku, the third seat in the 11th division, in other words a weakling. So now in the HM arc he fought with
a loser from the 3-digit division first. The second fight he had in the SS was with Renji, Lieutenant of the 6th
division. The second fight he had in HM is with Grimjow right now, the 6th espada. I bet the next fight is going to be
him Vs. Ulqi, because the third fight he had in the SS arc was with Kenpachi, not the strongest but still very very
strong. Then Ichigo is going to fight with the top espada who corresponds to Byakuya in SS arc and then finally Aizen.
Also note that in both arcs Ichigo always had a traitor beside him. In the SS arc was the guy from the 4th division and
now we have the little hollow. Thus basically it’s the SS arc all over again, and at least for me, I’ve lost not all
but most of my interests in Bleach these days. The only thing that still keeps me going is that I like the hollow Ichigo
character and would like to see him fight again. I also like Orihime but for different reasons (see the character
discussion part). Besides that, I don’t really give a sh1t about what’s going to happen next.
Another thing I’d like to comment on is the change in the fighting styles going from the SS arc to the HM arc. It’s
not really included in the storyline but I don’t know which aspect this thing belongs to so I’ll just write it here.
I mean, the best action scenes to date are still those in DBZ. So nowadays what people usually do is to avoid what’s
already been done in DBZ and think about other ways of physical fighting. Sure it’s not going to be as spectacular as
DBZ but what it lacks it makes up with innovation. Kubo did a good job in Bleach, at least in the SS arc. The most
important aspect of the actions in the SS arc is that different people have totally different forms of power, which is
demonstrated in the various Bankai releases. For example, Ichigo can either have superior speed or superior power but
never both at the same time in his Bankai (I’m not talking about HM arc here). Byakuya’s bankai is more focused on
ranged attack and cookie cutters with speed. Sure there might be some overlap but overall each character has his or her
own distinct skills. All these are lost in the HM arc. In this arc, power and speed is everything, which basically
contradicts what had been set up in the first arc. Tell me one thing that is unique about Ichigo’s Vizard state except
it’s faster and has higher raw power. The most ridiculous thing in Bleach was when Ichigo outsped by Grimjow yet
Ichigo was supposed to be the fastest in his Bankai form, at least that’s what I got from reading the SS arc. I mean,
I don’t mind Grimjow beating Ichigo, but surpassing him in speed just doesn’t make any sense to me after Ichigo
spent all that time finally achieved his Bankai state. These days in Bleach, speed and power have become the only
determinant on who is stronger. With the loss of the variety of the skills, the fights themselves are getting more and
more boring because we already have this in DBZ with much better actions. Also speaking of the similarity between HM arc
and DBZ, doesn’t Grimjow’s released form look a lot like SuperSaiyin 3 in DBZ, with the eyes and the long hair and
everything? I was practically laughing when I saw him like that.
One more thing before going into the characters. The power of the arrancars seemed to be a little too strong. The
non-espada arrancars are OK. It makes sense that only the Shinigamis with Bankai are able to kill them since they are
indeed transformed from Menos which are usually handled by captains. I’m talking about Espadas here, especially from
Ichigo’s perspective. During the SS arc, Ichigo defeated Kenpachi in his normal state. When faced with Byakuya, he
still did very well in the beginning, and he only lost that battle (yes he did lose that battle, no question there)
because at that time he couldn’t last his bankai very long. The conclusion is that if Ichigo can manage to increase
his Bankai duration, he should be able to defeat Byakuya, who was portrayed as the final boss of the SS arc and the
strongest Captain. However, Ichigo got his ass kicked by Grimjow even in his Bankai form during their first battle, and
GJ didn’t even release. Later on Ichigo became a Vizard and greatly increased his power, and it’s true that he was
stronger than released GJ in this form, but only a little as shown in Chapter 256. Therefore I wonder if SS even stands
a chance against Espadas. Ichigo can beat Byakuya in his bankai form, yet he barely beat the 6th Espada in his Vizard
form. There seems to be a huge power gap between the captains and the Espadas. I’m sure Byakuya, Kenpachi, and
Hitsugaya will make their appearances later on in the series due to fans’ demand, most likely fighting an Espada as
well, but how is Kubo going to pull it off when the Espadas are already being portrayed this strong?
Now characters. This is what sets Bleach below 5/10 and is the main reason why I despise Shonen in general. To create
characters with a certain depth, one must have a lot of life experience in order to understand the meaning of life, at
least to some extent, otherwise you end up with Naruto. As I said many times already in this review, Kubo is no
20-year-old amateur mangaka. This guy has the skills to portrait realistic characters. You can tell that he really
wanted to add real souls into his characters, yet these characters don’t fit in the Shonen genre so he basically gave
up. Same as the storylines, I’ll discuss the two arcs separately because there are some changes in the characters
between the two arcs. For the SS arc, all of the characters are still very close to the stereotypical Shonen characters
that are not even worth discussing because there is nothing to talk about. We have a male lead who always makes rash
decisions. We also have a cutie who has a good heart but kinda slow (Orihime in case you don’t know). The male lead
has a rival too, who competed with him for cheesy reasons. The problem with all these characters, and this is also what
I meant by characters with no depth, is that they often have less than five personal traits. The excessive appearance of
this type of characters in Shonen works is because the mankaga wants to make their characters more heroic and more
appealing to younger readers. What’s lost in doing so is the human touch which is what connects the characters with
readers like me. I hate to reiterate this again and again, but if we can’t see ourselves in the characters and the
things he/she does, then we won’t be able to make that connection. What makes us human is that we have a full range of
emotions, and by having a character with only a few personalities, the connection is lost. Now the characters in Bleach
are not the worst I’ve seen, but it’s nowhere near good. For example Ichigo, he makes rash decisions and sometimes
behaves irrationally, he cares a lot about his friends and family, he is also arrogant, and that’s probably all there
is to this guy. See what I meant by “nothing to talk about”? I would love to go deep into the characters and talk
about their personalities but I just can’t do it with Shonen. Kubo did try to make him more realistic using all the
fillers, you have to give him credits for at least trying. But he failed. The personalities that are supposed to come
out of those fillers don’t have anything to do with the Ichigo later in the series, and I feel really sorry for Kubo
because some of the fillers actually have some great potentials. For example, one filler chapter introduced Ichigo’s
past and how he lost him mom. This one actually touched me a little considering it is a Shonen work. Ichigo’s fear of
facing his past and him blaming himself for his mom’s death is well portrayed. Yet Kubo decided to drop this, along
with other traits in those filler chapters. Indeed, we never see his connection with his mom ever again, and it’s such
a good story to explore. I’ll tell you why Kubo did this though. He wanted to add depth into his characters, but he is
afraid that by going too deep the readers won’t be able to understand what’s going on (thanks to the general
stupidity of todays’ anime fans btw). So he hesitated, and ended up with these half-a$$-developed characters.
However, there is one person in Bleach who does seem to have a soul and who started to shine right after the SS arc. I
was really surprised by this, considering her role in the SS arc was her big breasts and her stupidity, and I already
stated that I don’t really like the whole HM arc. I guess you readers have already figured out who I am talking about
here. That’s right, this special person is Orihime. In the HM arc, Kubo did a very good job in portraying Orihime’s
feelings towarda Ichigo yet not begging for sympathy. And this time, he didn’t hesitate on adding depth. Orihime
clearly loves Ichigo, yet she is too shy to confess. More importantly, Ichigo obviously cares about Rukia a lot, and
Orihime is afraid that she might ruin the relationship between Ichigo and Rukia by revealing her feelings, which again
illustrates how much she cares about Ichigo. Yearning for love yet afraid to love, this is her role in HM arc, and a
great personal conflict this is. From the look on her face when she was healing Rukia and seeing how worried Ichigo was,
to her confession to the unconscious Ichigo on the night before she went to HM (perhaps the most touching moment in
Bleach, I almost cried when she didn’t kiss Ichigo), Kubo has certainly shown that he does have the skills to develop
realistic characters. The reason why she appears so real is that Kubo used a completely different approach to develop
her character compared to all the others. No flashback, no inner world, but all from her facial expressions, her
decisions, her thoughts, her behaviors, and her dialogues. And really, that’s how we get to know another person in
real life. Rarely do we know a person’s past or his/her inner world, yet by observing the person’s appearance we
start to make connections. However, this is why I hate HM arc. We have such a beautiful and well-developed character
here, yet the story is not even focused on her. I mean, if I were Kubo, the relationship between Ichigo and Orihime
would be the central theme of HM arc. Then Bleach would probably become the greatest Shonen work in history, or maybe
even go beyond the Shonen genre. I’m not saying to turn Bleach into a romance story, fights should be retained, but
more importantly the emphasis should be place on the characters’ emotion and interactions. Yet besides these shining
scenes reserved for Orihime, the entire arc so far seems to be irrelevant to her at all. The focus of the HM arc is
still about Ichigo’s group and all these mindless fightings. What I can’t accept even more is that we still don’t
know how Ichigo feels about Orihime. Just exactly why is he going through all these troubles to save her, and don’t
tell me it’s for the same reason when he tried to save Rukia. I can tell you guys right now there is absolutely
nothing going on between Ichigo and Rukia, they are just good friends, even a blind guy can tell this. Yet Kubo still
hasn’t revealed any of Ichigo’s feelings or thoughts toward Orihime. It would suck major a$$ if it turned out to be
a one-sided love as a conclusion because not only all the effort on developing Orihime but also the only potential of HM
arc will be ruined.
Rating: 4
Graphics
The art style is pretty decent in the manga. True, it’s not the best one I’ve seen. It also lacks some details in
terms of shadows and textures. What it lacks in details it makes up by offering a very crisp style which I find
enjoyable. For anyone wishing to go into the anime/manga business, the art style in Bleach is certainly a good place to
start imitating. The anime somewhat lost this crispness. The graphics isn’t that good either. Some details in the
background are missing. The characters sometimes seemed to be moving on a still hand-drawn background too. It also seems
that they tried to integrate some 3D cells into the background design but the thing with 3D is that it can look
amazingly good in a pro’s hand, but it can also look awkwardly uncomfortable if the person is not a pro. And whoever
doing the background design for the anime is certainly not a pro. However, I only watched the part before they entered
the soul society and I did hear the graphics was getting really good later on. Therefore I won’t judge this work in
terms of its anime graphics.
Rating: 7
Sound
No comment, same reason as for graphics.
Rating: 4
Fun
Other technical stuff about Bleach. First the humours. I don’t find the ones in Bleach as annoying and disgusting as
that in Naruto. However, they are still not very funny to me. I can tell that Kubo does try to make the humours more
mature, but since he chose to create a Shonen work, inevitably they still belong to those traditional Shonen gags.
Examples include Orihime sometimes talking like a 2-year-old, Hiyori’s beating on Shinji, Ichigo’s spontaneous and
rash decisions in the beginning of the series, etc. The good thing about these gags in Bleach is that they are not as
exaggerated as in other Shonen works such as Slam Dunk or Dragon Ball, which helped to keep the characters more
realistic and which also shows Kubo is doing his best to keep Bleach as mature as possible even in Shonen genre. The
dialogues are definitely another shining spot. Some of the lines are really beautiful and actually have a certain depth
in them, which are rarely found in this genre. The one I liked the most is the one about how people are similar yet
dissimilar, and he used the analogy of magnets and water. Orihime’s confession in front of the unconscious Ichigo is
also touching too. The problem with these lines is that they don’t really fit in with the characters because the
characters still belong to those stereotypical Shonen types. Sometimes it feels a little fake seeing these lines coming
out of those characters’ mouths. However that’s the problem with the characters. The lines themselves are perfectly
fine.
Overall, Bleach is a good Shonen work. The SS arc is certainly very intereting and even though it is getting more and
more boring , also more and more repetitive these days, it still beats other Shonen works out there. Some depth can also
be associated with this work thanks to Kubo. I will follow Bleach to the end, and if you are into this genre, Bleach is
definitely something you should check out.
Rating: 3
Final Verdict
4.17 (below average)
Reviewed by az0k, Sep 27, 2007
