Plot Summary: Ichigo Kurosaki is a 15-year-old-boy who has an ability to see ghosts/spirits. Because of his ability, he is able to meet a female soul reaper named Rukia Kuchiki. To save his family and friends from unwanted soul-eating spirits (Hollows), Rukia transfers her soul reaper powers to Ichigo. As Rukia takes on a human shell, together they solve mysteries involving spirits and Hollows until from the spirit world come two other soul reapers, who explain that it is illegal to transfer Shinigami powers to humans and that Rukia exceeded the time limit to stay in the human world. After they sentence her death for breaking the law, Ichigo snaps and swears to everyone he will retrieve Rukia by breaking into the spirit world.
Back on October 5, 2004, when I was 14-years-old and didn’t really know what anime was, the BLEACH anime first aired in Japan. Eight years later, and the BLEACH anime saga has concluded. The manga’s still going, but its ending is in sight as well.
I remember starting to watch this at the behest of one of my friends after I had picked up YuYu Hakusho and Naruto, among a few other typical shonen or “starter” shows. I was pretty stunned at it initially. I mean, up until this point, I had never seen a show so completely mix English and Japanese into their dialogue, which BLEACH does with the names of their zanpakutou. That gives you a little indication of how early on in my anime fandom that I began watching BLEACH. In fact, the Bount arc in English was not yet complete when I started watching BLEACH, which was back in late 2008, early 2009. So, I, in my then-18-year-old wisdom, illegally downloaded the Japanese remainder of BLEACH, which at the time was around Szayel Aporro’s introduction, I think. When I caught up with the Japanese anime, I turned to the scanlations, which was when One Manga was still a thing.
I’ve changed since then, though. I watched the final episode (which puts the total count of BLEACH episodes to 366) through my subscription to Crunchyroll.
Oh, but where to start with a review of a 366-episode series? First, oh god filler. I watched up to the point where Aizen was defeated and just stopped there. I continue to read the manga though (through questionable means). But when I heard that the series was ending, I had to pick it back up. So I did.
What I have no choice but to commend BLEACH on is the music. The music, throughout BLEACH, was always well done. It gave Spanish guitar-themed music to the arrancar since those characters were based off of Spanish things and terms. The point being, each protagonist group and antagonist group was given its own special music which worked really well. The high point through the filler episodes were the beginning (where the concept was still new and the writers didn’t ruin it yet) and the music.
But BLEACH, of course, has its flaws. Its first main conflict is that Rukia needs to be saved from the Soul Society. Its next main conflict is that Orihime needs to be saved from Hueco Mundo. Its next main conflict (which will now only be present in the manga, unless they animate the final arc of the manga into anime form at some point) is that Dondochakka needs to be saved from Hueco Mundo. Tite Kubo seems to only know how to write kidnapping stories when it comes to BLEACH. Kubo isn’t the only shonen manga writer that suffers this drawback, though, as Eiichiro Oda wrote a lot of corrupt leader needs to be defeated stories in One Piece (Axe-Hand Morgan, Arlong, Wapol, Crocodile, Eneru, the entire World Government).
The story itself is pretty meh after Rukia’s initial arc, and even then it’s not the greatest. It has a lot of faults, the most noticeable one being that Ichigo powers up to the point of being able to go toe-to-toe with a Captain-class Soul Reaper after, like, three days. And Kubo clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing with this most recent arc, which saw a very strong character being defeated. This character knew bankai and Ichigo defeated him (along with two other Lieutenant-class Soul Reapers) during his reintroduction after learning his own bankai. That kind of gives it away. It was Chojiro Sasakibe. Spoilers, he learned his bankai before Shunsui Kyoraku and Jushiro Ukitake. Yes, he learned his bankai before two out of the four longest tenured Soul Reapers in the 13 Court Guard Squad, one of the four being the Captain-Commander.
The highlight of the story is the continuing cool abilities of the Soul Reapers throughout the series. Their powers are clearly there just to serve Kubo’s interests at the time (as I’m sure that he had no plans for the people’s powers beyond the first arc, and I’m not sure if he even had that planned out completely). Ichigo’s powers are overall meh, but powers like those of Izuru Kira, Shinji Hirako, and Momo Hinamori fascinate me. I would love for someone to explore the history and mythology behind each of the zanpakutou.
Overall, the series provided typical shonen entertainment, though not on the level of One Piece or Fairy Tail. Reading the manga, I switch between whether I’m more entertained by Naruto or BLEACH at that particular moment in time. They’re equally fascinating, but their stories often leave something to be desired.
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