...
Show More
Rant mode on
I hate this series more than most of anything else. It is clearly undermining the quality of shounens, it’s trolling away like there is no tomorrow, and yet many love its ludicrous plot and retarded characters.
Before you immediately press the dislike button for saying something bad about your religion here, let me at least try to explain why.
First arc: Bleach began as urban fantasy, with teenagers being able to see ghosts and fighting to protect themselves and their friends. It was very good in the first dozen of chapters as the aesthetics were great for this sort of series and in each chapter there was progress and immersion to the characters. I disliked the magical way the lead gained more power in the nick of time and won all the time but I was willing to leave it aside since everything seemed great as far as shounen go. The characters had different goals, the ghosts were mostly presented as people who died with a grudge and there was school romance in the air. Very nice so far.
Second arc: Then the setting shifted to Soul Society, home of the Death Gods who oversee the proper handling of the afterlife. It was quite the epic arc, despite dragging things along at times. It still provided lots of immersion to many characters and the worldview of the series in general, while also having a great plot twist regarding a traitor amongst the captains. The lead still kept getting stronger with the speed of light but I was still willing to leave it aside as the aesthetics and the immersion were great.
Third arc: Then came the introduction of the super ghosts and the Death God hybrids and shit began to hit the fan. The plot draged a lot, battles became repetitive and the story was a repeat of SS arc, only 1500% slower. It is here where the series went so downhill, I lost interest and loath ever since. Characters became caricatures whose only feature is their transforming sword, many seem to be in the story just to drag it with unimportant battles, character development became a joke. Tite Kubo clearly had no idea what he was doing anymore and kept ass-pulling stuff, while forgetting the rules he established himself a few pages before.
Fourth arc: As if that wasn’t lame enough, the third arc ended with the main villain finally beaten and the hero losing his powers. It could have been a fine point to stop the series, as it had completed all its main objectives. But no, Kubo was making so much money he decided to keep going. And to nobody’s surprise, he again makes the story repeat in the exact same way as the first one, only this time the newer enemies are completely pitiful and superpowers degraded from awesome mystical forces that someone gains after years of training, to simple magical devises. Even the protagonist got his powers back in a completely uninspired way. Plain dreadful.
Fifth arc: Same crap as before, a rehash of the SS arc, only this time the bad guys pose a threat for once. Kubo decided to finally kill a few characters instead of keeping them around without doing anything, which was a good move. He also kept asspulling nonsense, such as the very existence of the bad guys. They were supposed to have been killed off before the first arc even begins. At this point there were over a hundred side stories happening at the same time, and the plot was going literally nowhere. The sales became so bad, to the point where the initial plan to make it last for another decade was called off midway. Shonen Jump trminated the show and wrapped up everything in a hurry, and in a way that explained close to nothing. Nobody was satisfied, everybody hated Bleach as a whole, and Kubo is still counting the money he made out of this 15 year scam.
I understand that the action is good and a major magnet (albeit repetitive, random and usually ludicrous in terms of looks). I understand that some characters look cool (and not as close as interesting as when they were offering more than just big explosions). But I also understand that the majority of anime fans don’t care about the finer things in a series, like consistency or pacing, because if they did, this series would have a far lower rating than 8. It is nice brain dead action of cool caricatures but nothing more. And it’s not like this is the best of what modern shounen can offer. Naruto, One Piece, even Full Metal Alchemist, may have less exiting action overall but have bits of strategy in them and the story is definitely going faster and more interesting, with far more character development and immersion, and far less inconsistencies and plot holes.
If I need to get into more technical details, the art is quite good, character figure and action wise. Although the overall character drawings have improved over the years, at the same time the aesthetics in atmosphere-building that made the initial chapters so great have almost disappeared, while the snail-slow plot makes even the battles to feel like mostly aimless blahblah with stiff characters instead of good choreography. You literally get 2 or 3 pictures per page and usually empty backgrounds, where nothing happens at all. You can read 10 chapters in less that 10 minutes and you will think not even a minute passed within the show. And it’s ironic how the main battle song’s lyrics in the anime are “If you want to get some action, you need be the center of attraction.” Because the action is way too slow but since the series has such a fandom behind it, this is almost overlooked.
The characters are mostly cool or funny but not all that interesting as developed personalities. I mean, the main character, an angsty teenager, degraded from a sympathetic youth to an imba warrior that keeps getting his ass kicked yet wins all the time with ass-pulling power-ups. And if the angsty lead is less interesting that a berserker secondary freak with bells glued on his hair and whose sole motivation is to cut things just for the heck of it, you can see how this series has really messed up priorities.
Enjoyment reflects my view on this and it’s pretty low as I prefer story and character immersion to brain dead repetitive action. Overall, it was a good series at first and still is a good series to watch as brain dead action but it is nowhere as good as it began and doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance before more innovating works like One Piece or Full Metal Alchemist.
I hate this series more than most of anything else. It is clearly undermining the quality of shounens, it’s trolling away like there is no tomorrow, and yet many love its ludicrous plot and retarded characters.
Before you immediately press the dislike button for saying something bad about your religion here, let me at least try to explain why.
First arc: Bleach began as urban fantasy, with teenagers being able to see ghosts and fighting to protect themselves and their friends. It was very good in the first dozen of chapters as the aesthetics were great for this sort of series and in each chapter there was progress and immersion to the characters. I disliked the magical way the lead gained more power in the nick of time and won all the time but I was willing to leave it aside since everything seemed great as far as shounen go. The characters had different goals, the ghosts were mostly presented as people who died with a grudge and there was school romance in the air. Very nice so far.
Second arc: Then the setting shifted to Soul Society, home of the Death Gods who oversee the proper handling of the afterlife. It was quite the epic arc, despite dragging things along at times. It still provided lots of immersion to many characters and the worldview of the series in general, while also having a great plot twist regarding a traitor amongst the captains. The lead still kept getting stronger with the speed of light but I was still willing to leave it aside as the aesthetics and the immersion were great.
Third arc: Then came the introduction of the super ghosts and the Death God hybrids and shit began to hit the fan. The plot draged a lot, battles became repetitive and the story was a repeat of SS arc, only 1500% slower. It is here where the series went so downhill, I lost interest and loath ever since. Characters became caricatures whose only feature is their transforming sword, many seem to be in the story just to drag it with unimportant battles, character development became a joke. Tite Kubo clearly had no idea what he was doing anymore and kept ass-pulling stuff, while forgetting the rules he established himself a few pages before.
Fourth arc: As if that wasn’t lame enough, the third arc ended with the main villain finally beaten and the hero losing his powers. It could have been a fine point to stop the series, as it had completed all its main objectives. But no, Kubo was making so much money he decided to keep going. And to nobody’s surprise, he again makes the story repeat in the exact same way as the first one, only this time the newer enemies are completely pitiful and superpowers degraded from awesome mystical forces that someone gains after years of training, to simple magical devises. Even the protagonist got his powers back in a completely uninspired way. Plain dreadful.
Fifth arc: Same crap as before, a rehash of the SS arc, only this time the bad guys pose a threat for once. Kubo decided to finally kill a few characters instead of keeping them around without doing anything, which was a good move. He also kept asspulling nonsense, such as the very existence of the bad guys. They were supposed to have been killed off before the first arc even begins. At this point there were over a hundred side stories happening at the same time, and the plot was going literally nowhere. The sales became so bad, to the point where the initial plan to make it last for another decade was called off midway. Shonen Jump trminated the show and wrapped up everything in a hurry, and in a way that explained close to nothing. Nobody was satisfied, everybody hated Bleach as a whole, and Kubo is still counting the money he made out of this 15 year scam.
I understand that the action is good and a major magnet (albeit repetitive, random and usually ludicrous in terms of looks). I understand that some characters look cool (and not as close as interesting as when they were offering more than just big explosions). But I also understand that the majority of anime fans don’t care about the finer things in a series, like consistency or pacing, because if they did, this series would have a far lower rating than 8. It is nice brain dead action of cool caricatures but nothing more. And it’s not like this is the best of what modern shounen can offer. Naruto, One Piece, even Full Metal Alchemist, may have less exiting action overall but have bits of strategy in them and the story is definitely going faster and more interesting, with far more character development and immersion, and far less inconsistencies and plot holes.
If I need to get into more technical details, the art is quite good, character figure and action wise. Although the overall character drawings have improved over the years, at the same time the aesthetics in atmosphere-building that made the initial chapters so great have almost disappeared, while the snail-slow plot makes even the battles to feel like mostly aimless blahblah with stiff characters instead of good choreography. You literally get 2 or 3 pictures per page and usually empty backgrounds, where nothing happens at all. You can read 10 chapters in less that 10 minutes and you will think not even a minute passed within the show. And it’s ironic how the main battle song’s lyrics in the anime are “If you want to get some action, you need be the center of attraction.” Because the action is way too slow but since the series has such a fandom behind it, this is almost overlooked.
The characters are mostly cool or funny but not all that interesting as developed personalities. I mean, the main character, an angsty teenager, degraded from a sympathetic youth to an imba warrior that keeps getting his ass kicked yet wins all the time with ass-pulling power-ups. And if the angsty lead is less interesting that a berserker secondary freak with bells glued on his hair and whose sole motivation is to cut things just for the heck of it, you can see how this series has really messed up priorities.
Enjoyment reflects my view on this and it’s pretty low as I prefer story and character immersion to brain dead repetitive action. Overall, it was a good series at first and still is a good series to watch as brain dead action but it is nowhere as good as it began and doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance before more innovating works like One Piece or Full Metal Alchemist.
