Bleach (Anime/Manga)

Unknown to the living, monstrous creatures known as Hollows roam the cities praying on the innocent spirits of the dead. To protect them and the living are shinigami (soul reapers) who's job it is to kill the hollows and release the spirits to cross over to the next world. One living human, Ichigo Kurosaki, is able to see spirits and talk with them. One day he meets a shinigami, Rukia Kuchiki and when she is injured, she gives him her powers and he now fights in her place as a substitute Soul Reaper. While fighting he has to contend with numerous other spiritual warriors and dark forces who seek to destroy him and the rest of the living.

(Anime: Multiple Seasons, 366 episodes total, Finished. Manga; 41 volumes, Still running)

When I started watching this series, it was one of my favourites. It was a good story, with lots of amazing fight sequences and super powered effects. With each step the level of the story got deeper and more exciting and it was genuinely good to watch. That was 300 episodes ago. Since then the series fell on a steep downwards slope for numerous reasons.

Firstly the anime was made too soon: the manga wasn't half finished and the result was that the anime had to make up for the lack of main story by making long filler seasons that had nothing to do with the rest of the story. Some of these were good, others not so much but for all of them you find yourself wishing it would get on with the real story. Then the story itself is flawed: it kept introducing many new characters and special powers and most of these are never fully explained or given enough detail. They either get introduced as small characters who get killed off, or they simply don't feel the need to explain it further: well we feel the need, even if you don't writers. As I said before the fight sequences are very entertaining, and this is still true throughout the series. Granted it gets blunted by the fact that the super powers and abilities they use don't get fully explained, but they are still fun to watch.

The manga itself is enjoyable but falls into the same pitfalls as the anime (unsurprising really). The manga was broken into about 4 arks, but it could have ended after the second. The 3rd ark was much too short and the 4th has been made to end the story, hopefully on a better note than the anime which was cancelled after the end of the 3rd ark. All together this isn't a bad series if you skip over the fillers and just watch the 1st two arks of the story.

Rating -

5/10