Without further ado, the synopsis: Bleach opens with the Soul Reaper Rukia Kuchiki dropping into teenager Ichigo Kurosaki bedroom. (She also spends the night in his closet throughout the series. Sounds a little like a teenage boy’s fantasy eh?) A Hollow, a soul eater, appears and over the course of the battle Rukia is injured. In an act of desperation, she transfers her spiritual abilities to Ichigo, a severe crime from the spiritual world she is from. What was just supposed to be a temporary act forever changes the course of Ichigo’s life.
Pretty standard stuff for anime really. It is how Bleach does it that makes it a blast to watch. Bleach’s action scenes are where it is at. Although, admittedly, many of the fights border on the outlandish. Some powers characters have are just useless. Tite Kubo: if you have to spend more than a half page , or 10 minutes explaining a villain’s attack, you need to rethink some things.
Bleach has a few sexually oriented jokes but these are pretty rare compared to most other anime. Mostly Bleach is full of badassery. What could be better when Ichigo shows up just at a critical moment with just a “What’s up?” Of course he is busy looking epic too. Just about every character has a one of these bad-ass moments.
Bleach isn’t all rosy and fun though. Many of the so-called comedy reliefs are just freakin’ irritating. Some have Star War’s Jar-Jar matched for annoyance. They are not funny and not worth watching. They just serve to slow the pace down…Speaking of that, Bleach can be glacial with how its story develops. Fights can last WAY too long. Yeah, the show suffers from Dragon Ball Z yapping. When characters fight, they should fight and not talk each other to death. Bleach also has a lot of filler, such as the Bount arc, that really kills the main story telling. Filler is okay if it is somewhat related to the timeline. At least there are some redeemable moments; the filler episodes are not all bad.
There are a LOT of characters in Bleach. Tite is good at making interesting characters, but c’mon. We need a spreadsheet just to keep track of them all. It wouldn’t hurt for you to actually, you know, let someone DIE in a fight to the death. It really hurts the suspense after awhile.
Bleach’s anime is crisp. Rarely are there action lines. Although the quality does decrease during the filler arcs.
Bleach has a lot going for it. If you are one of the few who hasn’t see it yet; you won’t be disappointed. Next to Naruto, Bleach is one of the most popular anime series in the United States.
It is just a fun watch.
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