Bleach is a story with a lot of potential. It falls short almost every time it has a chance to impress the viewer/reader. Almost every fight goes the same way, a new move/form is either discovered or they get reinforcements, the character depth doesn’t get explored very much throughout the series for well over half of the cast, everyone is often times fairly one dimensional as well, one can also argue the lore feels very strung together at times and serves the plot at complete randomness, arcs drag on a bit too long and overstay their welcome, arcs repeat similar patterns as previous ones, the
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power scaling is very linear and this leaves for not many surprises in battle, every interaction is plot armored heavily leaving it to feel like characters have minimal agency over their own story, while ichigo is cool, he as a character is ironically pretty….hollow ( lmao ), the art is good, but backgrounds are often neglected detail ( not necessarily a negative, maybe a stylistic choice ), too many filler if you’re anime only ( this problem was huge back when bleach was being made, not necessarily going to hold that against it, that was much more of an industry problem, however if you don’t skip them it still greatly hurts the experience besides a few arcs ), no character goal or motivation seems to have much nuance in this story ( with a few exceptions ), I listed most of what I think the negatives of bleach are. I could make the same list of things that I think are F***ING AWESOME, about bleach as well.
Bleach has a soundtrack and it’s absolutely amazing, they have a new style for almost every encounter and it’s beautiful. I find myself listening to this OST while playing video games, working out, or doing anything where I want to feel energy from music, it’s legitimately brilliant. Bleach also has a very cool character design. Most parts of this anime are simply and entirely infused with swagger. There’s no better way to put it, bleach in many aspects is just f***ing cool. Even if something doesn’t make sense, they make it seems like the coolest thing you might ever witness. It definitely helps bleach and its shortcomings to at the very least have it appear bad ass even when on its low points. The characters while fairly simple, are extremely charismatic. It’s easy to be charmed by the cast relatively quickly. Bleach can get very brutal and is themed in a really dark manner. There are many instances that bleach feels lifeless and hopeless and it does this theme well. It makes it all the more tense and much more gut wrenching when seeing the afterlife’s only protectors in a crisis. All the more triumphant when they win as well. The bleakness of bleach can be its strength, but also a weakness. It plays back into everyone feeling relatively one dimensional along with there seemingly being no goals or purpose beyond the threats that arise ( which you know, fair enough that’s their purpose in a sense ).
All in all, I like bleach. It’s a time investment so that’s something to consider, but I personally enjoyed this anime enough for what it is. By no means is it perfect or even near my favorites, but I will always remember it. Many things that commence in this show are absolutely iconic. It will have its ups and downs if you do choose to watch it, that’s something to be fully prepared for. I would say that there are better shonen out there, however bleach has a specific flavor that I’ve never seen replicated. For that and that alone, I appreciate it as an anime very much.
I think how you feel about this series solely depends on a few things. 1. How much or how important are the things I just mentioned to you? 2. What do you value out of bleach or in other words, what did you come in expecting to get out of the series. 3. Were the spectacular parts of bleach enough to have you thoroughly enjoying the manga/anime through to the end? 4. ( this is an important one ) How much do you like shonen as a genre to begin with? I can tell you right now, someone who hates shonen will hate this show. While watching and reading, it began to feel like to me, many shonen traits and popular tropes I’ve seen mimicked throughout the years must’ve came partially from bleach. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it was kind of funny to realize during my time consuming it. Either way, love or hate the series, bleach seems to be a show and manga that is polarizing to an extent. Some people may love it, some may hate it, some may think it’s meh. All have perfectly valid reasons for feeling each way, I truly believe it all depends on your own personal value system with this anime.
Thank you for reading. I tried to be fair, concise and straightforward, nothing too complex to write about. Hopefully I accomplished that and also gave new and old viewers alike a broader perspective of bleach as a whole. I would encourage new readers/viewers to take what I said to heart and really consider if they want to continue with watching it. At least for me, when I have a large time investment in an anime or really anything, I want to feel like it’ll be worth it as I’m sure most others do as well. The “ worth it “ aspect of bleach will spend on how you feel about everything I mentioned. BUT hey…at least if you watch it you can say you’ve seen one of the big three :) . It’s a huge foundation of the industry, so it’s cool to at least try out. Maybe give it a chance and see if it’s for you.
Apr 7, 2024
Bleach is a story with a lot of potential. It falls short almost every time it has a chance to impress the viewer/reader. Almost every fight goes the same way, a new move/form is either discovered or they get reinforcements, the character depth doesn’t get explored very much throughout the series for well over half of the cast, everyone is often times fairly one dimensional as well, one can also argue the lore feels very strung together at times and serves the plot at complete randomness, arcs drag on a bit too long and overstay their welcome, arcs repeat similar patterns as previous ones, the
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