Bleach

This is my first review, not will give any spoiler, only what you need to know about it.
I decided to do a Bleach's review, because this manga, make me get into the anime/manga world, so I have a special affection to this, even not be one of my favorites anime/manga, this will always have a special space, for my childhood.
Bleach is a tradicional shounen, was started in the "shounens times", is about shinigami and hollows. The shinigamis are like "police offices", and hollows are the "serial killers", so the shinigamis have to take care of the real world, for hollow don't hurt people and stuff like that, and to control the world, for people don't discover this " other world". I like this kind of stuff, that you can't prove 100% sure that is all fantasy, that may can this true in the real world, make you think what is after the death.
I never liked so much fillers, but those from Bleach I find really great, my favorites, because is an whole arc, with plot, one saga story other filler, to balanced, not be random and in the middle of a main arc., this only until the arrancars saga, that they start to put fillers arcs in the middle of the main arc, and this arc is in 4 parts.
The problem with the serie, is that they use to repeated the combat moves a lot, and you become a little bored of combats. The good is that ins't forced moments, like someone bieng so strong only because they said it, forced a scene only to prove the non-useless of someone and the humor to forced. Have funny moments, and action moments, scary ones, all in the right time.
The story is divided in these arcs, I'm considered all, the manga and anime(fillers):

1- Shinigami substitute;
2- Soul Society;
3- Bounts(filler);
4- Arrancars, part 1;
5- Captain Amagai Shuusuke(filler);
6- Arrancars, part 2, Wekomundo;
7- The past(only the two last episodes are fillers);
8- Arrancars, part 3, Karakura;
9- The Zanpakutou tales;
10- Arrancars part 4, the fall;
11- The invasion army of the 13 divisions(filler);
12- Fullbrings;
13- The bloody war of a thousand years(manga, last).

Bleach is well the first manga I ever got.
I loved recieving them XD.
At school i'd read the little poems at the beginings of each volume.
Im the wierd one who waits for the english to be published.
I own volumes 1 to 30. :)

P.S I love the manga more than the anime...

I normally do love supernatural manga, but this story was a bit different. I thought the story line was tolerable, and not SUPER GREAT because you know what to expect will come next, it's almost like an endless cycle with small changes. The art was great, anatomy was very nice except for a few parts. The character development was awful, the creator left out perfectly good characters like Chad and emphasized attention on on the main character. Obviously the creator made the main character the strongest and ALWAYS prevails through a rough patch, making a lot of characters left in the trail of dust. But in the end I did enjoy the manga, I would suggest you dip your pinky toe into this manga to see if it's your taste.

So here's my take on Bleach, before many people start bashing on me. Just note that this is my opinion, hence I'm justified to say what I think about the series, and I'm not inclined to praise a popular series if I don' like it.

Anyway, Bleach has been a staple manga among Shonen demography since it's release. Considered among one of the big 3 mangas along with Naruto and One Piece, Bleach has gained considerable amount of fanbase since it's debut. And I've to say I was one of those fans, but somewhere along the way I just stopped.

Story:

Bleach like almost any Shonen has a arc-arc type of plot structure with one plot overarching the others. Focusing on Ichigo, a teenager who has had the ability to see spirit since he was born. A chance encounter with a soul reaper Rukia, he gets turned into a substitute Soul reaper. The series started out so well, and had consistent development even well into the 3rd major arc i.e the Arrancar arc. But somewhere along the way the quality of the storytelling was starting to decrease. This was very prominent during even during the 1st part of the Arrancar arc, where a lots of new characters got jammed into the manga without any explanation or development whatsoever. Plus the whole first part of Arrancar arc is based on the "let's rescue the princess" notion. So it cannot help but spiral into clichedom. Not to mention, the 2nd part rehashes the DBZ method of "Let's get powered up in a span of day by doing this". But keeping that aside, the ending of Arrancar arc was the perfect moment for the series to come to a close. But Kubo tried to milk more money, and the story got even more brutally worse with inconsistent, mockworthy explanations added in with (SPOILER AHEAD!!!!!!) someone being turned into a hybrid of Hollow, Human, Soul Reaper and Quincy, which totally underhands and contradicts the development featured in the previous arc of the series.

Another thing which brings down the storytelling is, it's just fighting. I mean I get it, it's a Shonen. But it doesn't need to be all about fighting. Kubo seems to focus more on giving us fight scenes than do actual plot development.

As a caveat, I'll say if you want a closure, end the manga when the arrancar arc ends, otherwise you might regret it.

Characters:

Here's another weak point of the series. If you are expecting some kind of grounding and progressive development within a character, Bleach is not for you. Bleach like many Shonen has a very colourful cast. Most of them do fall into shonen stereotype, which is not bad. But what makes them weak is that the character development througout the series has been very inconsistent. Orihime's characters goes back and forth and becomes useless after some point. Not to mention she keeps repeating the cliched line of "I will not drag Kurosaki-kun anymore", it becomes like a motto but she never lives upto it. Rukia's character is almost the same. Chad is even worse. The character development worsens even more during the arrancar arc, when there's a handful of new characters jammed in. Their development is really bad, and even worse they disappear after the end of this arc. So Kubo likes making colourful character, but does not know how to handle them and ends up ruining them in a farcical way.

Art:

One of the best point of the series. The Art is great. Better than both of it's big 3 competition. The fights are illustrated very neatly and in details, and trust me there's a lot of fighting (well it's just fighting from start till end).

Overall:

The Bleach is a prime example of how not every popular manga need to be good. But it isn't necessarily bad either. And is totally readable to some extent unless you like to nitpick on details. With a huge cast and intriguing concept, Bleach could've easily been the best out of the big 3 but sadly Kubo's dullard way of writing really drags the manga down. So it ends up as one of those overlong mangas without any quality.

Bleach was one of the very series that I actually went to look for the manga after the anime hit a stopping point. I've been reading the manga for years now, starting at the tail end of the Aizen arc and just as the Fullbring arc had began. Its not a perfect series, not by any means, but if I were to grade it, I'd still say its damn good over all. Fantastic art, a large spread of interesting and varied characters, and a fun series with both action and humor. The plot wasn't always the best, there were plenty of stumbling points, thats something I can't deny. Conclusions were awkward and confusing at points and just seemed like cop-outs overall. Despite that I still enjoyed the series plenty enough over all. Did it have the best ending? No. Did it have everything I wanted to happen actually happen? Not exactly. But given that first chapter with Ichigo first stepping up to fight against a gigantic Hollow to the very end, its a series I'm glad I found and still go back to revisit it from time to time and will likely to do so years after the series has come to a close.

I like to call Bleach one of the founding fathers of my anime/ manga experience, up there with Naruto and One Piece. These 3 classics are what got me into the world of manga in the first place.
Bleach may appear as a cliched shounen manga type that we see today, but you have to remember that it contributed to the standard of shounen manga that we see today.
The characters, both good and bad, are well designed and given enough depth that we can see what both sides are fighting for as justifiable and reasonable from their point of views. While it may be one of the longer series out there, it has good reason to be. The arcs are of a good length and are well structured unlike the fillers we see in the anime.
Even if it may appear as generic and unoriginal on the surface, it established a foundation of what shounen manga is for me, earning it the rating I've given.

Oh Bleach, how I loved you.
My feeling towards Bleach (exactly like for Crash Bandicoot) reminds me of my first love. When I felt in love for the first time it was amazing, I felt happy, I had a reason to live. And then she said no and it was followed by years of pain and suffering that I managed to survive by hoping she would change her opinion of me and we would be happy again. She did not.
How does this apply to Bleach? Well, when I first started reading Bleach it was my favorite manga. Okay sure, it was one of my first mangas, so I didn't had much to chose, but the point maintains, I completely loved it. The art was amazing, the story was awesome and the battles, OH don't get me started on the battles.
The story is good but simple, Ichigo was a boy who could see ghosts and one day he finds a Shinigami (God of Death), Shinigamis in Bleach basically go around the world defeating Hollows, which are essentially corrupted ghosts. By some twist of fate Rukia, the Shinigami, is forced to give her powers to Ichigo and it's now up to him to fight the Hollows.
This is the plot for the first arc, although it will get complicated later on and with various plot holes, it is all you need to know before jumping to the manga.
The first arc is simple enough, it is made to introduce Ichigo and all the main cast. They are mostly interesting, although I don't remember seeing the main cast at all in the last chaps. And I mean at all! Not even Ichigo (Well, to be fair, he finally appeared in the last chap).
Soul Society was next, and it got me hooked, it is when the story actually kicks in, the characters were many, but they were all so amazing, there were few you couldn't like, the battles reached is peak and the art was better. This is the golden arc of Bleach.
Then it was Hueco Mundo, and although I felt it was most of the same, I was okay with that, because it was still the Bleach I knew... and then it came the final battle of that Arc and... it was followed by years of suffering and pain.
The characters became basically peaces of meat that fight, the story got boring, the plot holes started appearing, and it stretched more than it should.
Now when a normal manga gets stretched more than it should, it generally add bad and horrible plots.
Well, Bleach avoids this by stretching the chapters in a way that the advance you get in 18 pages is a guy raising a sword or fall in the ground. That is not bad... it's flat out insulting the fans.
It recovered a bit after the end of the arc, but it felt on the ground again afterwards.
The only things good now are the art, which is actually one of my favorite art styles and sometimes he still gets a good battle.
I'm giving it a 7, because if it was the first arcs I would give it a 10, and I don't really want to rank this lower than I rank Naruto, but if the ending is not at least acceptable, it will probably fall into a 6.
The only reason I still read this is because I still have hope it will recover, but chances are that, just like with my first love, it will not happen.

Bleach

Bleach as a whole was an amazing read. i loved everything from the phenomenal cast, filled with top tier characters like aizen, ulquiorra, nnoitora, Tosen, Urahara, Shunsui, Tokinada, and of course its protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki, to the phenomenal Art which could be considered on of the best in all of shonen Manga. Bleach deals with very profound themes such as death, fear, Despair, self realization and more. Thw arcs each have their own appeal and all have a very different feel to them. Bleach also has one of the best shonen arcs in all of Shonen with the arrancar saga. A lot of the Things hold against Bleach usually come from a place of misunderstanding, as bleach can be very subtle in its Writing an storytelling. This is however not say that it is a story without flaws. In some instances certain events feel as though they could´ve used more foreshadowing or explanaition(like Mugetsu or the Still silver arrow). I do however this aspect is heavily exaggerated by People. My biggest Complaint about Bleach would be The later Part of the TYBW as it felt very rushed and incomplete. This however will most likely be fixed when the anime returns

All things considered i´d say Bleach is comfortably A-S Tier shonen Manga

After re:reading BLEACH for the past 2 week, finished it, and definitely made me rethink about the rating I've given to this manga. it made me increase my rating from a 7.5 to a 9. As you can see, BLEACH is not just some
fictional and action type of a shonen manga. Re-reading it gave me the benefit of trying to assess things that
are very unusual for shonen manga, Specially JUMP manga. KUBOTITE is also trying to send us a message about DEATH and LIFE and some of these may oppose our philosophical views.

From its character development which is rarely seen in the later volumes of the manga as it focus to enter to the philosophies of every battle specially from the HUECO MUNDO arc onwards, the appearance of new characters that brought the story to a different level.

In short, KUBOTITE is giving us the answer to the meaning behind its title BLEACH through its development as we
realize that BLEACH means ; and I quote "To eradicate the soul or, what it means to die."

I have a love-hate relationship with Bleach.

It was my first anime ever, fourth-grade little me watching eyes-wide, the very first episode of the anime. It's what got me hooked onto anime in the first place.

And the world of Bleach is really something spectacular. The creativity behind all the Zanpakutos, the history of the Vizards, the evil behind Aizen--all of these are so well-crafted.

But the plot as a whole? Very one-dimensional.

STORY: It goes, arc after arc, about how Ichigo is weak, then becomes stronger. But by the next arc, he faces a bigger, badder boss, and needs to get stronger again.

ART: Good in still frames, but the action frames are really hard to make out some times. I was spoiled by the anime in its early days (before Arrancar arc), and especially recently I've hardly been able to tell whose sword went where.

CHARACTER: Everyone is the same. "I need to become stronger to protect my friends." Very little character development. There is some humor in the different personalities, though. Some.

ENJOYMENT: Well, this was my first anime/manga, so I can't be too harsh on it. I do admit that I was greatly fascinated by Bleach. It's an enthralling world, and the characters go through some crazy stuff. But it's drawn-out and repetitive towards the later chapters. Especially with the Quincy arc, the bad guys are just seemingly invincible. It's endless. But still interesting.

Its my first review on MAL.

About Ichigo.

Sumary: Bleech is a freakin teenager that doesnt wants to grow up, just like u was in highschool; and thats what makes him so relactable and such a great character. His friends are great too:
Rukia is a freakin death scythe
Orihime is the B00BS girl
PueñoFuerte és uno luchador supinpa, muy guay
GlassesGuy is a fucking nerd, he uses that bow things that nobody rlly strong uses in anime or any other midia.

Anyway he gots a magic sword that can makes him a real emo,
daking his clothes and stuff.

Great metaphore for the darkness into the void of human existence.

This is a fuckin mastapeace;
Great story,
Great Characters,
Great Art.

Its the best manga Yoshihiro Togashi has ever made.

10/10.

Now Im just going to say it, Bleach is my favorite Manga, ever. But Im going to write this review unbiased. I try to look at everything individually, not the Manga as a whole. Tite Kubo is an excellent writer, Im sure if he had gone into writing outside of Manga, he would be excellent. Bleach's story itself is not the greatest, however Kubo's ability in creating characters is great. He has a very large supporting cast, and with large casts characters often get forgotten and are one demensional. All of Kubos charaters are unique and he manages to always keep his back characters in our mind, and each and everyone of them has a backstory that Kubo masterfully works into the storyline without making a big deal about it. As for his art, it starts out as most art in manga does, poor. It gets better, and better, and towards the end of the story, many mangaka have begun drawing their characters oddly, and the art is almost unrecognizable. Kubos remains excellent, and his eyes are soo detailed and each characters eyes are their own. His style is very unique. Yes there is alot of fighting, but its a shounen, thats what shounens focus on. If you dont like it, read shoujos. I would certainly take my time to read this manga, its funny and though the story isnt very well developed, I assure you its worth your time.

At this point in time, is a Bleach review necessary among the masses? Well, probably not. But it’s my day off and I feel like writing a Bleach review.
Honesty time. I haven’t followed Tite Kubo’s Bleach for long years like a lot of fans. In fact I’ve probably only been reading the manga and watching the anime since 2014/2015. In any case, I think I’m familiar enough with it for my two cents worth of input.
I like Beach, I do, truthfully. But unfortunately and inevitably, this review will be forced to not ignore the many flaws that the series presented.
If this review had to be titled something: Suitably it would be something like, the Downfall of Bleach. Because this series went on a serious decline like something chronic.
Ain’t no Arrancars and the almighty Aizen sama stopping that sweet decline.

Okay, let’s go back to the year 2001. Bleach began its run in weekly Shonen Jump.
It was like a cool new Yu Yu Hakusho, but with it’s own style, of course.
Ichigo Kurosaki can see ghosts. Simple enough.
Ichigo is given new found powers by Shinigami, Rukia Kuchiki, sure why not? He must now defend humans from evil spirits, and such.
The thing that immediately separated Bleach from the other immensely popular shonen battle manga at the time, such as Naruto and One Piece, is that it was still based in a real world setting. With Ichigo and co. attending school.
Bleach continued a solid 70 something weeks until it soared in popularity because of a genuinely incredible story arc.
The Soul Society arc (let’s rescue Rukia) provided real threatening antagonists. Beforehand, it was basically on a monster of the week type style. Now the stakes were high in a whole new world unfamiliar to our main characters.
This arc presented great new characters and the art was seriously on point. The battles were drawn wonderfully which left no confusion as to the choreography, something that unfortunately would not remain forever, but more on that later.
With the end of the rescue arc, came a great plot twist, introducing the real villain. With this, Kubo set up immediately for the following arc.

Now let’s look at what would come to follow. The Arrancar arc, the dealing with Aizen and his Espada. Let’s outline this arc and by doing so, the first real problem for Bleach can be found.
One of Ichigo’s friends is taken captive to a foreign land in which Ichigo and his friends must break into and fight powerful enemies in order to save her. Sound familiar at all?
This arc simply was too repetitive of the last, which took away some of the spark that it could have perhaps been.
This is where Bleach began to fall from the top of the rankings. The art became a little less focused too, with some fights being hard to follow and backgrounds being entirely left out in panels at times.
At this point, Ichigo’s power ups were seemingly out of control and getting to the plot no jutsu stage.
For many years the Arrancar arc continued and finally an Ichigo vs Aizen showdown happened.
However, many fans agreed that this final battle was lacklustre. Whether it was because it was pretty damn too one sided, or if maybe because at this stage, fans were ready to move on. Kubo isn’t a mangaka that speeds through his story.

Perhaps to a degree, Bleach should have ended after this arc. This is where the most brutalising decline for the series happened in the rankings.
A tiresome arc about Ichigo regaining his powers, and then a long final war arc. Because it wouldn’t be a real shonen battle series without some kind of a war, right?
Bleach resulted in simply always being about good vs bad. There was never any depth to the story after the Soul Society arc. Sure there were moments to get excited about, but the story never really went anywhere unique in particular.
Another issue I would like to point out is directly about our main character, Ichigo himself.
Let’s look at our other big three main characters for a second here in comparison. Luffy dreams of becoming the pirate king and finding the one piece. This goal motivates him throughout the series.
Naruto dreams of becoming the hokage and being respected by his village after years of torment. This goal motivates him throughout the series.
Ichigo dreams of, well…we don’t know. We aren’t sure of his goals, of what he really wants in life. Without this aspect, the character is derived of personality. It’s probably not the greatest credit to know that after being with Ichigo for more than 700 chapters, I still feel like I don’t really know him very well. This is problematic for a main character in a series.
I’m not even going to write about Bleach’s ending because as abysmal as it was, the creator isn’t to blame here. It would be impossible to present a satisfying conclusion when given only three or four chapters to wrap up the series at the very beginning of a final fight. Closure inevitably is left out for many characters, and it’s damn unfortunate.

I’m going to wrap this up on a positive note, because through thick and thin, I’m still a Bleach fan.
And if you’ve read this far, I really appreciate it. It’s been fun.
Feel free to comment on my profile, we can talk about Bleach.
Sure the series had its many problems, especially the third half…but Bleach has some of the most enjoyable battles I have had the pleasure of reading, and essentially that is where it shines.
With a strong start and an incredible first third, Bleach soared through popularity with Naruto and One Piece. But unfortunately due to repetitive story structures and a blank main character, the downfall of the series was more damaging than Orihime’s chest is big.
This was: Let’s Talk About Manga #2 Bleach

Dubbed as one of Jump's "Unholy Trinity", Bleach epitomizes the typical action shonen manga--fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, and did I say fighting? Brainless power level tripe. To be fair, fighting manga can also be great, if it could be balanced with a well-crafted plot and sublime character development. Too bad Bleach also epitomizes the term "mediocrity" and what's more, wallows in it in an almost deliberate fashion(Despite being my gateway back to being an active fan of manga and anime in general).


Bleach's story is generic shonen tripe. Boy lives a normal high school life, girl pops up out of nowhere, turns out the boy has a special ability(how original), some funny meeting occurs, girl gives boy supernatural powers to defeat some monster that conveniently appears, then aptly gives the boy some new mission in life. There, not so complicated now , is it? People keep comparing Bleach to Yu Yu Hakusho, which is rightfully so, what with the almost carbon copy formula of shinigami and evil monsters(at least YYH was many leagues better than Bleach--even for a power level fighting manga). The story moves too slowly and sometimes loses focus. One time it tries to be a slice-of-life action comedy, and another it gives the illusion of actual depth through snappy one-liners and meaningless monologues. At times it almost feels like it's just going with the motions, delivering the occasional plot twist here and the eye candy fight there.
And now it's like watching a marathon of a pro wrestling show with its never ending choreographed fights. What's worse is, Bleach just doesn't want to end--despite reaching its peak a long long time ago(SS arc, anyone?).


Its art though is what's keeping it afloat. Kubo designs some good monsters--not too grotesque and not too cartoon y. While swords can look bland after a while, Kubo's design of their special abilities help prevent that. Clothing design is also good although it can only be found in color pages, calendars and posters. Character design is unique, his style is distinctly different from many shonen mangaka--although many characters look alike. One major flaw, however, is the background art. There is such a thing as too much white and too much black. Many panels follow the same structure. Character posing in the middle or in the corner with either a black background or none at all. Even if it's a black and white manga, those spots of laziness is just plain inexcusable.


What Kubo lacks in backgrounds he makes up in characters. And not in a good way. There's just too many characters that anyone could write a spin-off series with any one of them--and it would still be better than the main story. It would have been fine if most of them have a purpose in the main plot, but sadly they don't. They're just there to make the other, more popular characters shine while they themselves rot into obscurity. Almost all of them are one-dimensional, too. It's like Kubo just took different shonen archetypes then copy-pasted them to different characters. Character development in Bleach consists of looking cool one moment, getting beaten the next, then winning through some ridiculous plot device. Rinse and repeat. Also, Kubo's characters seem to have some magic armor protecting them from certain death, like getting cut in half. "No one dies in Bleach", indeed.


Bleach, as terrible as it is, works great as a gateway for people who want to get into the manga and anime fandom. Simple characters, easy-to-digest plot lines and good-looking action sequences should be fine for a newbie. Just because it takes itself too seriously doesn't mean you should, too. Soak in all the eye-candy, turn off your brain and revel in its mediocrity for a quick dose of mindless entertainment--that is, if you CAN be entertained. With mediocrity as its middle name, Bleach is only good for 2 minutes of pretty pictures, snappy one-liners, Kubo-styled plot twists, and ridiculous amounts of plot devices. And coming from a once avid Bleach fan, that's already saying something.

If you like a mix of mystery, death, and action, Bleach is for you! Tite Kubo’s manga, Bleach follows young 15 year old Ichigo Kurosaki as he bumps into Rukia Kuchiki, who claims to be a Soul Reaper- she says she sends Hollows, evil spirits, back to Hell, and lost spirits to the Soul Society, where you go after death; and Ichigo discovers what it’s really like after death!

The storyline itself is mind-blowing in some cases, like at the end of the manga itself, when we find out what had really happened to Ichigo’s mother, Masaki Kurosaki. At other points, we need a good explanation on what’s going on, like in the Soul Society arc, at first, I didn’t really understand the concept of Captains and found it overwhelming with so many characters.

I hate fillers. I’m even linient about it and will watch a filler arc if it has even the slightest bit of something related to the plot- the Fullbringer arc, unfortunately just wasn’t good enough for me. I found myself skipping the arc and knowing everything that was the same before the arc with the exception of Ichigo’s age, and he’d gotten his Soul Reaper abilities back- correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the Fullbringer arc came up to my expectations.

The art is amazing, and I’ve personally tried to draw in Tite’s style a few times (and miserably failed!). He changes the art style as the characters grow, putting an end to the ‘anime characters never change’ myth. You can also tell when the arc has changed because the art style will change a little bit- in the Fullbringer arc, we can tell that Ichigo and the others have grown since we last saw them, Ecuador’s they look a little different. Iwillnever get over how cool some of the characters outfits look- they’re really fun to try to draw,and I really like the art style.

The characters! Let me say right now that Bleach has some of the traditional ‘we see these characters reincarnated in every anime’ characters, and some that just aren’t. For one, Tite actually focuses on his side characters instead of leaving mild plot holes as to where they came from and why they want to help-the side characters are as useful as the main characters, which I definitely like. Take Kisuke Urahara, for example; while they explain everything about Qizwn, they also explain about Kisuke, Yoruichi, and why Kisuke was never directly in contact with the Soul Society.

The overall rating I’ve given it is a 9, because I really enjoyed it! I loved following the characters and learning more about the plots if you like long, confusing, and enjoyable storylines, then Bleach is the way to go!

Bleach is known to be the weakest of the Big Three Shonen Jump Titles (One Piece, Naruto, Bleach). But due to my liking, it is my favourite out of them.
It starts off as a gag with a bit of fighting demons kind of story then spread out to explore a different type of organisations or places and builds a bigger story. The increase in the artwork's quality is very noticeable and nice (with the exception of lesser and lesser background artworks). Its fight choreography is great but kind of flawed in its power systems because of too many Deus Ex Machinas.

Substitute Soul Reaper Arc-
8 volumes in length, it is all you'd expect from an early 2000s battle Shonen. Best comedy of the entire series. The most 13+ part of the Manga.

Soul Society Arc-
12 volumes in length, considered to be the best part of the series (a shame as it is not even half of the entire story)
This is where shit gets real. A really strong cast of characters introduced who are excellent tools to show the power-ups of our heroes. Ends with one of the greatest manga betrayals and also the beginning of one of the greatest villains too. VERY VERY enjoyable.

Arrancar Arc-
28 volumes in length, this is where many consider the slow downfall of Bleach begins. Some battles and character arcs might be extremely stretched out. Introduces one of the most iconic Villain groups with some really impressive character designs. It begins good, then drops a bit in quality, fluctuates and ends quickly with a bang. Not as good as the previous arc, but is still an enjoyable arc.

The Lost Agent Arc-
6 volumes in length, a lot of people consider this to be the least enjoyable in the series, as it lacks the large world-destroying super battles that the other arcs have. First, two volumes might bore you but it picks up soon enough if you have some patience. It is this arc in which the character development shines, with very realistic depiction and reactions of our main cast to many chaotic situations. This too ends with a betrayal/plot twist and we also get to see some old characters that will surely bring a smile.

Thousand-Year Blood War Arc-
20 volumes in length, but it almost feels like the size of the Arrancar arc(which was huge). This arc has the most fluctuation ou of all the arcs. It has some of the greatest moments in Bleach, which made me jump in my chair and stare with awe, and also some of the least hype fight conclusions that make you want to rush read it. This arc definitely starts off with the biggest bang. Being really enjoyable. But because of Kubo's (at that time) deteriorating health, and the SJ editors being assholes the big fall in story writing is imminent. You can clearly see that he was forced to end this manga quick, because of many character's conclusion being straight up left out. I really hope the things that Kubo was not able to show in the manga will be explored in the Anime that is soon to come. Nevertheless, I really did enjoy the majority of this arc.

My fav arcs in order-
Arrancar Arc
Thousand-Year Blood War Arc
Soul Society Arc
Lost-Agent Arc
Substitute Shinigami Arc

Thank you Bleach for entertaining me so much!
Love you!

I want to preface my review with the following: I really enjoyed the ride that Bleach took me on, for the most part. From the very beginning up until the end of Fake Karakura Town, I found great enjoyment, hype, and an engaging manga through Bleach. After the end of Fake Karakura Town, I believe the manga should have ended and if it did I would have given the review a solid 9/10 and would recommend it to anyone as a fantastic read. However, that is not the reality and as such I must assess the story, characters, and experience after that, which has left me feeling with a sense of emptiness and disappointment. Regardless, even though I feel this, I would not hesitate to recommend this manga. The experience you get from it is almost unparalleled, very few works can really pull you in like Bleach does. Even though it does fall flat on its face towards the end, everything before is completely worth reading.

*slight spoilers below*

Alright, so onto the review. For the story, I'll rate the individual arcs and why I rated them that way in a short description. Overall, I rate it a 6/10 for the story.

Soul Society Arc - 9/10. Fantastic character development, the power creep isn't too insane, the story is thrilling and gets you riled up to continue reading. I don't really think I can all it perfect, the beginning has slight pacing issues in my opinion and some characters are a bit wishy washy, but I feel how good the arc is makes up for those slight issues.

Arrancar Arc- 8/10. This arc has less of a focus on character development, although it definitely is still there and is noticeable with several characters. I don't think it's super well paced, mainly in the Hueco Mundo arc and parts of the Fake Karakura Town, but I found the rest of it to be engaging and enjoyable. I'd like to point out I thought any time Orihime was mentioned it was not a pleasant experience for me, as I think the story didn't really progress much when she was involved, nor do I think she as a character really grew more than what we knew about her, so I think that's one of this arc's bigger flaws. It felt like to me Ichigo didn't really progress much as a character either and the power creep could get a bit out of hand at times. I didn't like how the Vizards had their potential squandered, they did literally nothing but train Ichigo and that was it. Not only that, but Ichigo also got a lot of asspulls thanks to Kubo. I don't think this arc is perfect, heck I might have rated it a bit too highly, but I think the action fights in this arc just completely blow Soul Society's out of the water. Most of the fights felt like they were the classic ones from the first, i.e. Renji/Byakuya/Kenpachi versus Ichigo, and to do that on such a large scale is not only impressive but just awesome to watch. That is why I rated it a 8/10 instead of a 6/10 or 7/10.

Fullbring Arc - 5/10. I'll be honest here, I don't remember much from the Fullbring Arc besides a few key things, but I think it was bullshit that Ichigo was allowed to get his powers back and that's why I knocked several points off. This arc and the next are the reason why I wouldn't completely recommend this series to anyone, and the Fullbring Arc is the beginning of why I think that. I don't recall the fights being too interesting, especially compared to the Arrancar Arc ones, nor do I feel the story had any real impact on anything with the exception of the fact that Ichigo got his powers back. I didn't like any of the new characters much, I don't think anyone grew as a character in this arc, and so it felt pretty useless to me. That being said, I'm going to be generous and not rate it as garbage because I don't remember it entirely, and so maybe it's better than I remember. I certainly don't recall thinking it was /that/ bad and as such I feel it was at best mediocre, or else I would remember it as being good.

Quincy Arc - 3/10. And so we come to the arc that completed just a few hours ago. I have to say, very little can be said that is good about this arc, but what can be said is significant. The fight scenes are great for the most part, although towards the end they get much worse with asspulls and general unenjoyment attached to them. Still, I felt like I was watching the Arrancar Arc fights, and that sort of hype is always fun. Seeing Yamamoto's Bankai, all the different Quincy effects, etc. That's all I can think of for the good parts of this arc. First off, I think the story for this part was pretty badly implemented. We never find out why Ywach survives (apparently Yamamoto spared him or something? Kubo never goes into detail about it) and he's literally the reason this entire arc starts. Ywach himself is just a bad character, he has no substance and he's literally the asspull king. I mean, the fact that his power is literally the ability to go between futures and change reality using other futures is retarded, and leads to retarded situations like even though Ywach can supposedly see all futures like tiny grains of sand, he mistakes the future where he fucking dies as a dream. Like what the hell? As I said earlier, towards the end the fights get really bad and we see that with stuff like Gremmy, Ywach (fucking breaks Ichigo's new bankai we get to never see, TWICE, thanks Kubo), that big ass dude with the sword and shield. Lots of plot stuff in general not talked about, Urahara/Grimmjow/Nel, what happened in the fight between Hitsugaya/Byakuya and the big dude among other things. Speaking of those two, I honestly think they should have died and not come back, as it really makes the story look worse in the long run. Another thing that happened was Aizen, seeing him come back was another cool thing in the story but jesus christ at the end he is like the most powerful being alive but they still somehow restrain him back into the prison where we see him in the final chapter. The ending was really bad, very little closure was done and it didn't really end as it looks like it will continue as a sequel for the son and daughter (?) of Ichigo/Orihime and Renji/Rukia, respectively. Very disappointing ending that left me unsatisfied.

Art - 9/10. I mean, I don't really have to explain myself much here do I? The art early on was solid and had really neat fashion designs and just all the designs and ability visuals and everything was done so well. Only issue I have is that Kubo got lazy towards the end and stopped drawing backgrounds and somewhat adapted his style to be a bit less... appealing, at least in my opinion. Still, the art is definitely on point in this manga.

Character - 7/10. I think there was a lot of character development and just really solid and interesting characters in this manga. Mayuri, Aizen (one of my favorite Villains of all time), Gin, Ulquiorra, Byakuya, etc., are all just some examples of these characters. There are tons of these in the Gotei 13, in the Arrancars, and the Quincies even. I'd say the weakest characters lie with the main cast (Ichigo's pals) and the Quincies (due to what I presume is a rushed story), which there are also plenty of in this story as well. There are at times flaws within many characters, as an example Orihime, Ywach, and Haschwalth, so I definitely don't think it's too amazing, but early on the character development very on point, in the middle the characters get a huge ramp up in creativity and interest, and towards the end they stop being as interesting for the most part. While some of the Quincies do catch your eye with designs, personalities, and abilities, they generally fall flat with how rushed the last arc was.

Enjoyment - 7/10. I did not follow Bleach along with most of everyone else. I watched parts of the beginning of the Soul Society arc and then parts of the Arrancar Arc, and then read the entire two arcs back to back. Then I finished the Fullbring Arc, read a little into the Quincy Arc, and then stopped for a while. Came back and read some more chapters later on, and then I was off/on for reading it every few weeks or so. I didn't really hate reading it that way, but I'm certain I didn't get the full experience as most other people did. Maybe it was worse, maybe it was better, but I really enjoyed it regardless.

I have a special rating system of my own that I follow, and generally what a 6 means is that I don't really recommend it but it could be worth a read if you're into it. I wholeheartedly recommend the first two arcs, but the last two arcs are really not too great and really bring the series down. The overall rating is done because I think very few people would actually feel satisfied reading the entire thing, and most would end up disappointed like I was. However, the first two arcs are without a doubt amazing, and I think everyone who likes Shonen would give them a chance.

Thanks for the ride, Kubo, shame you had to rush the last arc and have your stuff cancelled, I hope your next series will be as great as Bleach and end as it should have.

A pretty normal storyline, but characters felt really disappointing except for the villains, the series is still really enjoyable and deserves to be read, the quality overall falls at the end of the series feeling a bit rushed, and the main character is just too overpowered and everything he gets is gifted, I prefer another types of power scaling, this is just like having more level power means winning or use a overpowered ability, the art is really good and it doesn't drop too much in the entire series, the story starts really simple, but when it starts to getting boring, the villains saves the day, it is a rollercoaster, very good arcs and another ones that are horrible.

I still can't, to this day, pinpoint the exact reason the manga went downhill for me, as I remember finishing it and feeling absolute disdain and thinking that all these years of loyally following the manga were a complete waste of time. But I will still try to list a couple of possible causes:

(Spoilers ahead)

1. Lousy, poorly executed fights. Bleach is a shonen manga, a BATTLE manga, but the fights were never its strongest suit. I understand, as neither is One Piece (my favorite shounen manga) that phenomenal with its fights, but having to achieve a new transformation/unlock a secret power EVERY SINGLE TIME Ichigo is struggling with an opponent got pretty dull. Fights could be interesting when the protagonist ends up winning from sheer will, determination, or tactics, or when their opponents are generally on equal footing with them, making the fights more logical. With Bleach it was never like that. Every time Ichigo was defeated we had to brace ourselves for a new transformation that more often than not felt like an asspull or it was poorly executed. There are just so many new forms Ichigo could unlock before we all got sick of it and the hype had died down. Ichigo had a baffling identity crisis by the end of the series because no one knew what he was anymore and it no longer mattered. We were so desensitized to him constantly unlocking a new transformation that made less and less sense as the series went on.

2. Horrible plot points and mustache-twirling villains. The motivations of the main villains were shallow at best, and laughable at worst. (I say main villains because Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, and Kenpachi as side villains, were done well). Aizen's 'I planned this all along' still irks me to this day when I think about it. I still can't fathom the existence of that plotline. It did nothing but totally disregarded every single development that Ichigo went through and made it all seem meaningless, like the suspense we felt throughout the journey was for nothing. Yhwach's true identity came completely out of left field, as every single interaction that Ichigo had with Zangetsu made little sense and again, disregarded everything that the two went through together. Building a better relationship with his Zanpakto. The rain. Zangetsu's fusion with Ichigo's hollow form. It all meant nothing because OH, IT WASN'T HIS TRUE ZANPAKUTO ALL ALONG. As for Byakuya, I still don't understand how smoothly he became a 'good guy' just because it was revealed his true intentions weren't to kill Rukia all along. He's still the one who hunted her down, brought her to Soul Society, and was overseeing her execution himself. Getting his full backstory served to only make his motivations more and more senseless. I like Byakuya, but the reveal was so poorly done I still wonder how the hell his relationship with Rukia improved so much. And Kugo? I don't remember a single thing about him. The whole arc felt like a blur of nonsensical events.

3. As a main character from a shonen manga, Ichigo lacks individuality. Thing is, "protecting the people I love" isn't a concrete goal. Let's compare him to the MCs from the other big three, now granted, Luffy and Naruto have their own selfish goals, but that is 100% ALONGSIDE their motivation to keep their friends safe. Protecting their friends, saving innocent people, and overall making the world a better place is a given to them. Luffy literally goes around different islands cleansing them of evil, tyranny, and injustice just because it's the right thing to do. Naruto is a ninja, whose sole purpose is to help the world become a better place and keep it in order. Their goal of becoming the Pirate King/Hokage is a desire they selfishly have because it gives them more depth as characters. Having a character who simply wants to 'protect their loved ones' or 'do the right thing' is shallow, as there must be a driving force that gives them individuality when there isn't any danger to said loved ones. The truth of the matter is, if presented with the choice to protect their loved ones or achieve their goals, both Luffy and Naruto will choose to protect their friends, which is literally the reason it takes them so long to reach said goals. Doing the right thing comes first to them. THAT'S what makes these characters relatable. Having their quirky personalities and unique goals is what gives them individuality. Ichigo lacks the latter.

4. Various characters, various factions/organizations, multiple dimensions, but all with no proper world-building. Kubo absolutely excels at designing characters. Out of the big three, Bleach had the most intricately drawn and awe-inspiring character designs with unique abilities, however, it doesn't help that he constantly liked to create a faction of characters, make them all beautiful and badass looking, hype them up, then completely neglect them when their story is over. Think of One Piece, with the Shichibukai, the Yonkou, the Supernovas, and how each of their introductions were grand events in the series and their role continued to be important even decades after their first appearances. Bleach doesn't have that, unfortunately, as the backstories of these side characters are often vague and the source of their powers is left unexplored, which is a shame. The reason I got into Bleach was the unique (and definitely not stupid looking) characters.

5. The anticlimactic ending. I don't even need to expand on this point. Yhwach got increasingly overpowered as the story reached its climax, to a point where everyone was sure there was absolutely no way to defeat him. Yhwach being defeated the way he did made everyone feel cheated, and we must admit that this was the main source of the community's dissatisfaction and hatred toward the series, which I can't, logically, claim it's undeserved.

Bleach has it's pros and cons just like every other manga. It was the first manga I read so I grew attached to it and as the story progressed I picked up a few things:
Pros: It has it's unique art style, the characters don't are well designed and don't have a generic look like some other mangas I've read. Their personalities are also great and almost seem real.
It's not a dull series, it has a wide, well organised universe with a lot of content.
- The author didn't develop any deep romantic relationships in the series, thank God he didn't because that would have totally ruined it, there's just enough to leave people guessing.

Cons- I feel Ichigo's abilities were over hyped especially at the beginning when he defeated Byakya and Kenpachi, and also he keeps in getting new abilities out of nowhere, like the author thought Ichigo was too weak to survive in the world so he threw in a bunch of abilities e.g Ichigo is part human, quincy, hollow and shinigami. Sometimes it feels like the plot want properly planned.

Overall it's a great manga and I'd advise anyone to try it first and not get put off by the negative reviews/comments about it.