Bleach Review at ANIME MARK

Bleach

27th of September 2015

Bleach is definitely another favourite of mine, although not without flaws, but you could easily find yourself quite hooked on it also. I would consider it one out of a major three anime (Bleach, Naruto and One Piece) as it also benefits from a similar demographic. The similarities of voice and, action and animation is clearly distinct between these three mainstream 'shonen' anime. That aside, Bleach is a well thought out and fun anime to watch. Although there are many viewers who would argue otherwise, these people may be trapped under a rock of anti-shonen fanboyism. And they are really robbing themselves of a great adventure known as Bleach.

Let's take a look at the plot. The concept is simple, there is the living world of humans, and then there is the world of the shinigami. The shinigami realm is consistent of empowered souls who have entered, what is known as, the Soul Society to maintain a balance between the human world and monsters/ evil spirits. These are known as 'Hollows' and generally shouldn't be in the human world at all. So the story follows a young, headstrong highschool student named 'Ichigo Kurosaki' who has a special ability to see ghosts and spirits. He eventually meets a shinigami named 'Rukia', who was protecting him and his family from a hollow. Rukia was unable to defeat the hollow herself and thus needed to transfer her shinigami powers to Ichigo. And hence the story continues.

There are great fight scenes and the animation quality is quite good, but varying widely at times also. As is standard with shonen anime, there are a fair amount of filler episodes (even a whole arc), but they are also quite enjoyable to watch...even if they play no role in the main story. I must say also, at 366 episodes, this is not something you can watch over a week or so. And there are episodes and acrs that are a bit too slow for my taste. That being said, I feel it does a great job of keeping the viewer entertained. It takes a long time to develop a strong villian, but once it does, the story really gets interesting. With plenty of twists and turns to keep you watching along the way. The characters are well thought out and developed, with plenty of back story to support them. As the shinigami have such a varying array of powers, it really gives a sense of un-expectancy at most times. And I think this is where Bleach's strength lies, along with some awesome sword fights and badass characters.

Conclusion
Although it has its shortcomings, I believe Bleach is well worth the watch. Unless you simply hate 'mainstream' anime or are an 'anti-shonen' viewer, I think you will be sucked in to the story and love the characters.

Pro's
- Great unexpectedness factor
- Keeps you guessing
- Awesome fighting scenes with supernatural swords

Con's
- The last arc (I would actually recommend not watching it)
- Varying animation quality
- Fillers and inconsistent storyline development

Final Rating: 6.5/10

Name: Bleach

Episodes: 366

Air Date: September 9, 2006

Episode Length: 20 minutes

Directed By: Noriyuki Abe

Rating: 13+ (animated violence)