Bleach

OH. MY. GOODNESS. This is about the most perfect manga you will ever read.

For those fans of the Bleach anime, I know you're like me, waiting around for more stupid fillers about a dumb princess that no one cares about. I invite you to delve into the world that is the Bleach manga. No fillers, SO much more movement and SO much more story. This is where its at.

Story: 10/10

I rarely rate an anime or manga with a story above 8. I hate to say it, but most animes/mangas these days follow too closely after their predecessors, and end up being almost identical clones of the original. Bleach may not be completely original, but it is so throroughly engaging that you won't even give it a second glance. After being a fan of the anime, I found myself gawking at certain frames in the manga, thinking "Why in the world was this NOT in the anime????" and furiously reading on. There is never, and I mean never, a boring section in this manga. Bleach is what all mangakas should look to as an example. It does what a manga should: It truly entertains people. The story is not completely original, but it doesn't seem to matter. I'm always waiting eagerly for the next chapter to come out.

ART: 10/10

Fantastic work from Kubo Tite in this section. It's almost always clear what is happening in battles, clarity that most mangas lack. The characters are defined and unique looking, and each panel is well thought out. The landscapes and buildings also have lots of creativity packed into them

CHARACTER: 10/10

Again, amazing work here. Theres a character for everyone to enjoy, and each person has their own unique traits. There are enough characters to keep the story interesting, and they are almost all developing as the story goes on. It just all makes a whole lot of sense, see?

ENJOYMENT: 10/10

I cannot express how enjoyable this anime has been to read. I started reading where the anime awkwardly broke away, and before I knew it I had read 40 chapters and it was 12:00 AM. Perfect balance between action, comedy, and that sense that you don't know something very important. Tite never leaves you hanging for too long, however, and whenever a secret is unearthed, you will find yourself making astounded noises at your book/computer screen. If you like the action, if you like surprises, definitely, definitely read this manga.

OVERALL: 10/10

Bleach manages to keep a perfect balance between action and story, and it is truly a one-of-a-kind manga. You will always be on the edge of your seat, not knowing what to do while waiting for the next episode to come out. Timing, which is one of the crucial things in an anime/manga, is mastered wonderfully in each chapter. It really doesn't get much better than this, and it deserves the one and only full 10 score I will probably ever give to any manga/anime. Definitely give this a try, no matter what you like.

Bleach. Use it only on your clothes, and not on your eyes or mind. Bleach WAS a good manga/anime until the end of the SS arc. After that, a plethora of sudden and raw characters are introduced - no exposition asked - and they bring with them their "interesting" plot devices. Except they aren't interesting: they're repetitive and confusing. To top it all off, the protagonist becomes emasculated after the end of said arc; all his training and exercise go to waste as these sudden entrants all seem to be Goliath to his David, except that this time, David has no more rocks. Almost in sync with the loss of Ichigo's masculinity is the disappearance of any visible plot and originality. Definitely a must read until the conclusion of the Soul Society Arc.

Bleach. Basically, a show with potential that just became a show on repeat.

I remember back when I was just a mere child when the show first premiered on TV. The first arc was spectacular; the actual fights and plot was extremely consistent and the entire show was enjoyable. Individuals faced a challenge and the dexterity characters faced showed the depth of the story. But, after the first arc, some thing went wrong. It just... collapsed. I have no idea what to call this effect, but for now, I'll call it the "Bleach Effect". This effect is basically when the author literally uses the previous arc as the plot for the new arc with just a rehash of new characters and new powers. Maybe other manga have done this, but the author takes takes this to an entirely new level. So, there will not be any spoilers; I will try to keep the story as vague as possible, and with the ridiculous amounts of reviews, I'll try to be honest about one of the first shounen anime that I watched. Without further ado, BAN - KAI!

Story - Hmmm, where do I begin? Like I said before, the story was consistent and very likable at the start. In the most rudimentary story synopsis; the story concerns a group of high school students who run around the main character and help him succeed. But, the story was heightened by the concept of shinigami (Death God's). This is not something like Death Note, however, it was including the Death God's with sword. Kurosaki Ichigo, our main protagonist, stumbled across a wounded Death God who was hurt by other wordly demons, also known as Hollow's. The Death God, through desperation, transferred powers of a Death God to Ichigo. This starts the story of a long and adventurous anime, filled with action scenes and much more plot development. Ichigo and his group of friends, who all have some sort of special power, go along with his adventures and save their friends from time to time from peril. Sorry, I don't want to spoil much more of the story, so I'll keep the plot vague, but essentially, the story will follow complications that occur with Ichigo inheriting powers from a death god, and a huge story that opens up due to Ichigo's powers. There are power struggles, rescue missions, great plot development, and of course, "revealing of the past" development (more well interpreted as backstory development). This is a very good shounen manga, until we finish the first arc. Then, it's the SAME. DAMN. ARC. alllllllll over again.
This is the part where I break out in hives. The story line never flinches (this is in a bad connotation). It's as if the story is on repeat from arc 1, as arc 2 has the same story line. Sure, there is some development in terms of the immediate story, but from a wholistic standpoint, arc 1 is repeated throughout the manga. Let me emphasize more on this: Imagine if a manga had absolutely no unique plot after the first arc, if the manga just continued with a recurring theme. Moreover, this manga relies heavily on plot armor, as if Ichigo is always in need of some form of power up, transformation, or anything of that nature. But, it is ALWAYS IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT. There is nothing that will take you by surprise in this manga after the first arc, it'll be easy to predict what happens, and only a few times will you be wrong. This is most likely because there is no over-arching reason to commit in this manga. For example, many manga's have an ultimate goal that moves the story forward. Bleach does not; it doesn't have an ultimate goal, but just a general rule of thumb to protect your "nakama" (Sorry for my horrendous japanese, I should be on a stake). That's all good an all, if the plot was different per arc; BUT IT's NOT. IT's the SAME STORY OF SAVING SOMEONE or SOMETHING again and again.
At one point, you just ask yourself why you continue with a manga like this, and the answer is on the next topics.
Story Score- 4

Art- This is one thing that the author knows how to do well. I read only a few shounen manga, and none of them have such great art as this manga. The quality of art in here is very clear; I genuinely like the art as it goes. The fights were also clear, and as long as the manga provides a good setting, I think the art style gets at least a 6 (Sorry, that's just my opinion). But even then, there is not much discrepancy when it comes to the artwork. It is consistent, and apart from the last few chapters, I think it really does work well with the atmosphere Bleach sets up. This is sad, but it is so good, in my opinion, that it makes you want to read the manga more...
Art-8

Characters- Characters a well developed. Not the best, but definitely not the worst. This is because the motive that Ichigo and his friends have stems from how they interact with one another. And, believe it or not, the first arc sets up the characters brilliantly. Ichigo, who may seem as a rough and absent minded individual, is actually very caring, and deep inside, he wants to protect them from harm. He also has this astute sense of justice, which sometimes hurts him, and sometimes helps him. In essence, he is a character that cannot ignore the cries of his friends nor can he watch is something unjust is happening. This sense of justice is, of course, cliched as hell, but the protection of his friends that he wants to continue, is somehow, spread through all his group members, and the actions that take course in because of these characters are the only thing which move the plot in such a cyclical path. So, in essence: it is a good thing that characters are developed so well because it can provide us a good reason for why the people act in the way they do, but it is bad because.... DAMN IT ALL; IT ADDS TO THIS REPETITIVE GODDAMN CYCLE OF REPEATING THE ARCS. Since the plot/story was already scored, I have to give an unbiased score towards the characters. And, all in all, I genuinely think that characters were pretty spot on.
Characters - 4

Enjoyment- Notfound.jpeg . Honestly, I don't know if I found it fun that sometimes I was close to ripping my hair out because of this predictable plot line. Other times, I was just confused as to the "asspull" that was done in the middle of a fight. The fights that happened are so one-sided that you think that there would at least be some sort of change, but there wasn't. It's plot only exists per arc, and doesn't have an ultimate goal story, and thus, the manga is rendered to just be endless. My only rejoice was in the art and the tenacity of characters. However, the endless plot holes that developed is ridiculous. If you think otherwise, then you must be right, as questions that are not answered in a manga is obviously not plot holes (sarcasm). It's a fun manga to dabble into, and I honestly kept up with it because it was a childhood anime that I watched. I was determined that I would finish it, no matter how horrible the ending was.
Also, the ending was horrible. So, yeah. Kubo tried too many things and it backfired on him.
Enjoyment- 2

Bleach is honestly just a well done shounen manga. Don't come in expecting some magnificent plot with ridiculous surprises. It's cliched, but it was very well as a cliched manga. I've enjoyed it enough to follow it for 9 years, so I guess it can't hurt you guys.

Overall : 4

...

Still, its a 5 in my heart. With all it's bullshit, I sure will miss Bleach.

Bleach, a hit manga and anime series, illustrated and written by Tite Kubo, aired from 2001 to 2016. This was one of the Shounen Big three, (the three best selling manga at the time in Shounen Jump Weekley.) Along with Naruto and One Piece.

Story: 7/10 At the start, mainly the first few chapters, the dialogue can seem a bit forced at times, mainly Rukia explaining things. But eventually the plot gets rolling, and it gets better. The way the story is planned out is rather decent, near the end it starts going down hill, but mostly its great. I tried watching the anime first, but soon felt like it was too slow for me, so I switched over the Manga, after that, it was much more enjoyable to enjoy.

Art: 7/10At the start, the art is already great, seeing how Bleach is Tite Kubo's second manga. The art in the earlier chapters is good, the proportions can be odd at times, but once you hit the 50 to 70 mark, the art is detailed, and has its own style, differentiating it from other manga and anime at the time. The proportions, facial expressions, subtlety, fights, and stances are all great.

Characters: 8/10 The characters are also great. The main character, Ichigo Kurosaki, being the protag is obviously going to be fleshed out for a good manga, but not just Ichigo, all the main and supporting characters are fleshed out. Rukia has her own backstory, quirks, and personality that differentiates from the other Tsunderes of the time. Orihime is also well fleshed out, a rather touching fight close to the start of the manga, displays her as a person and how she thinks, this keeps going on. Uryu is also good, being different from the characters he interacts with, along with an interesting backstory and origin. Chad is hands down my favorite character from the bunch, his power is cool, I love his personality and he's an all around nice dude, being different from the usual big muscled bulky anime man.

Almost all the characters will have quality poured into them, making you want to know more about them, which makes you keep going. The main thing that made me like the characters were they didn't fall under clichés. Uryu: A smart guy, but who also is kind, and caring, under his exterior. Chad: A big bulky man with strong and powerful abilities, is kind and caring, along with being a sudo pacifist. Rukia: A tsundere, who doesn't hit the protagonist as much as others, and isn't a cry fest like Sakura from Naruto. Orihime: A shy girl, but also being strong when she needs too, and being quirky in her own ways. Overall, the characters are spectacular.

Enjoyment: 8/10 I enjoyed Bleach a lot, with great characters, good art, and a managable story, great manga.

Overall: I give Bleach a 7/10 for overall, so its good, and go read it or watch it if you have the time.

So Bleach.Or like we fans like to call it; Blah, Plotkai, The Troller's Guide to the Fandom, Rinse.

Story:

Well it's really great.Too bad same things happens 17 times with different characters.Or alternatively with same characters who has new haircut or new costume.The Bold and The Beautiful, if it were anime/manga it name would be Bleach.

Characters:

Yes, there is a lot of those.Really great one, like Inoue Orihime.Lets just say if Yagami Light knew her, her name would be written really quickly.

Art:

At the beginning, there was one.It was messy and reader didn't always get what was happening.So it got fix'd and turned into "lines."No ink is wasted anymore.You can really see how white those manga sides are before they are filled with things..And after that too.

Enjoyment:

Oh yes. If you see a guy who isn't moving anywhere but spinning at his place and says he is going home - that's quality entertainment. How about Bleach. Well, it's like that guy but all he does is say he is going home. After many years it gets little annoying.

My score was 10 for long time after the start.After that it has keep coming down little by little just like the story has improved.It's now 3.I'm looking forward to the future. :)

*THIS REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS*

Like a flutter of a butterfly’s wing, Kubo has created the dynamic of a life after death scenario, twisting people’s minds and imaginations throughout its journey with surprises, questions, and a bold statement of what happens after we leave this world. Invisible forces play into the scenes, grasping a hold of reality and raining out a massive event that not even humans can comprehend. Sparks fly as metal swords clash. Tears fall down pale cheeks. Romances bloom like a soft flower petal in the spring. People think there is nothing after life, but they are wrong. Death is only the beginning.

Story:

Taking place in modern Japan and broken into five major arcs, Bleach is unique between the “Big 3” and Shounen itself. It shaped itself in the first few chapters as a typical run of the mill high school themed manga with the characters having special powers. Over that period, the scenes and chapters just repeat itself. Nothing special happens. However, things change, and it was this that made Bleach become over the top famous.

The next arc is what made Bleach what it is. Surprises and twists make the plot shake. The only way to read this is to think about it being opposite day. The many characters introduced help shape this manga and create the new world it was made to be in. There are no cheats into reading this. Every word, every panel of this arc is crucial. Like the stairway to heaven to introduce what will happen in the coming chapters. Expect the unexpected or nobody will figure out what will happen. Pay attention to detail closely in the words spoken, the plot can be easily lost. Easter eggs are a bonus and can lead to mysteries in future chapters.

Now onto the serious bit. Bleach’s plot isn’t the best plot out there. It’s filled with plot holes and unanswered questions that probably will never get answered. The way it was shaped was anti-climactic and it was very, very unorganized. Seriously, pay attention. I found myself getting lost during the mess of the arcs following after the Soul Society. Although it was suspenseful and I found myself excited about what would happen next, I would often find myself disappointed in the result. The symbolism used, like the Hell Butterfly, weren’t explained as fully as I wanted it to be. Chapters also became a repetitive thing. Unnecessary events slowed the pace exponentially. And when something awesome happened, the pace moved quickly, almost as if someone was embarrassed about a performance and needed to get off the stage.

It wasn’t good.

Art:

One thing Bleach was very famous for was the artwork. Between the first chapter and the last, the improvements of the drawings were incredible. It was surprising how far Kubo has gone since starting out in this manga. The art is what I would like to call adorable, but not too over the top with the crazy, stereotypical eyes or Japanese character design. The character’s designs seem to make their own form of uniqueness never seen before. Kubo had made it his own and has even inspired many new artists around the world. The detail placed into the characters and the way he brought the fight scenes to life is what saved this manga into going into the trash bin at the beginning. With each panel drawn, there is always a story in them. Some panels are left blank or black to create the atmosphere and effect of the scene drawn ahead. Some are simple and build to what is happening in the chapter. Then there are those with great intense detail and quite strange designs that make the reader question what is happening in the Kubo’s mind during the process of drawing it. Plus, the colour pages that sometimes appear, come out simple with pastel-like colours placed into the page, making the tone of the chapter pop more. Take a moment and just admire the work placed into these pages. It’s something totally rare to find.

Characters:

Three words: Too many characters!

First, long-running manga, I get it. But there is a limit to how many should be placed into a story. One rule is that characters that have a role in the story should have a backstory on how they got there. They need a purpose and need to be figured out once it ends. One problem with Bleach is that Kubo created these characters without realizing what he would have to do near the end. Many of these characters don’t seem to have a proper fight scene and when they do, it’s either very rushed or off-screened. Plus, many don’t get a backstory and are left under the rubble. Literally. Don’t be surprised if you wonder where someone is for over one hundred chapters. Chances are they are either lying unconscious somewhere or dead. Remember though, Kubo doesn’t forget characters even though it seems that he does.

Second, not enough character deaths. Oh my word, yes, I said it. I wish there were more deaths than there were. Even though I am deeply upset about the loss of my favourite fictional character, Ukitake-taicho, it made sense for his passing. It made the plot move on. There are characters that were supposed to die, ie. Byakuya, that didn’t end up happen due to popularity issues. No! There needs to be a balance. If a character doesn’t die when they’re supposed to, their role in the rest of the plot becomes useless and also can change the original plot drastically.

Lastly, the main cast wasn’t very good. Yup, I said it too, I disliked the main characters. Why? They were useless, over-powered, and plain annoying. Rukia seemed to be the only one I was content with, but the other’s…honestly, I could really do without Orihime and Chad. They were a waste of time. Orihime’s powers weren’t explained and she landed in the typical damsel in destress, and Chad’s were just not over-powered enough to keep up with the other characters. And Ichigo and Ishida…I got strange Naruto vibes from those two. There needed to be a development in these characters and there wasn’t enough of it.

Enjoyment:

There are things out there that take me awhile to give my opinion. A dark moment in a life where light just doesn’t shine even after a bottle of wine been finished. After Bleach ended, I really didn’t know what to do. I was like a child after all their Halloween candy was gone. I couldn’t grasp the reality that after fifteen years, this huge manga was over. I was waiting, as if some being would come down and say “HAPPY APRIL FOOLS IN AUGUST!” or something. But no.

No.

It was never meant to be.

Even after all of this, I did enjoy Bleach exponentially and it is considered one of my most favourite enjoyed manga, but I needed more. It was a buzz I got every Thursday morning when I woke up. I would freak out in my room whenever something major occurred. But now…that morning will be empty and will be filled with memories of what it used to. Just kidding…I’ve got other things to read now. But all seriousness, this manga was one of the firsts I picked up and will always be special in my heart.

Bleach is an epic journey. Filled with action, suspense and several possible romances, it a roller coaster ride of emotions and amazing fights. Nothing compares to this manga.

Nothing.

I give this manga 50% on the soul cleansing scale.

First, what Bleach did great: Action. The series really have very good fights and the actions scenes, even for a manga, is great.

Kubo's art is very good, despite being very noticeable he don't have much variety. Mostly of the female characters are too much alike, with just the hair and breast size different.

Now, the worst part: the story. At first, the story start very good. With a lot plot twist, some mysteries during the first arcs and the Arrancar arc ends. To be fair, that was a very good finale to this manga, in my opinion it was perfect, and I would give 6/10 here... but they continued with the FullBright Arc and Quincy arc.
The Fullbright arc looks like a filler. It have no purpose at all, but being used as a McGuffin to the next arc.
The Quincy arc really started very well with a sense of despair and because this was supposed to be the last arc I really was hoping that everything was possible...nah! This arc ends with plot holes, unresolved issues and a lot Deus ex Machina.

And the characters...well, Kubo really like to create a bunch of characters. The problem? They are just that, a bunch of characters. A lot of them have zero characterization, or are definite by a quirky or a gag.
The worst really go to Ichigo's friends who have no power at all. They really like very interesting characters, but because they have no super powers they never have a character development and some are even disappear "mysteriously" like Ikumi or Ryo.
This is a real problem with a story with a lot characters and sadly Kubo didn't knew how to deal with this.

I like to say Bleach is like Transformers, it has cool fight scenes and sexy ladies...and that. The last 2 arcs really damaged the plot and characters.

An EPIC storyline!!
I really cant imagine who would not have heard of Bleach but for those of you out there who havent heres a quick taste of the world of Kurosaki Ichigo, a 15 year old boy who has the abilty to see ghosts. His world is turned upside down when a Shinigami (Death God) Kuchiki Rukia is sent from Soul Sociaty to take care of some Hollows who are causing havoc in the real world.
A mix of martial arts and epic fights and many many laughs creates one of the most famous animes known, right up there with Naruto and One Piece.
This will soon have you glued to the books sceaming out with exitment at Ichigos AWSOMENESS!!! (though he does get owned a lot >.

This anime was the coolest back when I was in middle school. If you are older and enjoy when the story actually goes somewhere, this isn't for you. This anime is draining money as much as it can..and takes 10 chapters for something small to happen. Artwork is cool, story is unique...but I can't enjoy reading for 3 hours only to find out barely anything happened.

Rukia is cute though..

Age group 10-14

Nuff said :(

Well I haven't any reviews yet
So this is the First
Story 5/10 Maybe even Less lol
TBH the story isn't that great first arc was great but same plot every arc
and the last arc was a mess
girl gets kidnapped MC and friends goes rescue and boom every friend gets one villain till mc reaches the big villain
Art 10/10
Kubo's Art is my favorite art the character design the transformations everything is cool
Like every character has different transformation and design most even has 2 or more transformation
Characters 10/10
Basically every Character is interesting in this manga everyone has their moment to shine
Enjoyment 9/10
well other than the cringe story I enjoyed everything in this Manga
Overall 9/10
would've 10/10 if it had a bit of good story

OMGZ ANOTHER BLEACH REVIEW. At least I'm not giving out mostly 10s for some strange reason! *Chapter 355 is the latest chapter, excluding all sidestories such as the Hitsugaya sidestory and the Pendulum Arc*

Bleach is an on-going manga by Kubo Tite. It is part of the holy trinity of never-ending shounen manga (along with Naruto and One Piece). I haven't read One Piece but I believe Bleach is superior to Naruto in many ways. It does not feature orange jumpsuits or straw hats but a black robed GOD OF DEATH AKA a Shinigami.

The anime is mediocre at best but like every other show based on never-ending manga, this show has its fair share of fillers.

Story: The story flows through two main arcs, with several smaller arcs in between. The first arc, called the Soul Society arc, introduces the readers to the world of Bleach and its many supporting characters and lore. It pits our protagonist characters against the denizens of Soul Society in what seems to be a rescue mission with an ulterior motive by some of the other central key figures.

The second main arc (which is still going on) however, seems like a rehash of the first arc but there is yet to be seen if some huge plot twist will occur or not.

The pacing of the story at times can get dragged on but that is to be expected in a shounen manga that has yet to end. There is plenty of dialogue and sometimes there's too much of it. Same can be said of the action. Countless battles one after another gets a bit tiring but it's acceptable once Kubo Tite inserts a twist here and there.

The story basically stars Kurosaki Ichigo, who at an early age, can see spirits. He gets attacked by a corrupted spirit called a Hollow and is saved by a Shinigami named Kuchiki Rukia. With a little help from Rukia, Ichigo manages to become a Shinigami himself. His Shinigami influence gives birth to unique latent powers to two of his friends, Yasutora Sado (Chad), and Inoue Orihime. Along with the Quincy (a group of humans who possess supernatural powers now nearly extinct) Ishida Uryuu, the four of them enter Soul Society to rescue Rukia after she was questionably imprisoned by the Soul Society government.

Art: The art in this manga is probably some of the best I've seen. They have a unique appearance that is quite recognizable and the characters are very detailed on their own. From huge bulking muscles on the body of the old Shinigami commander to the large chested females running around, each character has their own distinct appeal. Not to mention Kubo Tite really likes to draw large chested women... not that it's THAT bad of a thing.

Character: Like every other never-ending shounen, Bleach has a very large cast of characters. The manga focuses mainly on about 5 or 6 of these characters but the other supporting cast gets a fair amount of screentime when the moment comes. In the more recent chapters, several of the supporting characters are finally getting their 15 minutes of fame in battle.

There is quite an amount of development for many of the characters in Bleach. There's pretty much every character archetype possibly found in Bleach. Whether you like the short tempered guy who always starts the fights, or the arrogant looking guy that doesn't say much, to the flirtatious endowed women, there is enough personality to go around.

Enjoyment/Overall: Bleach is one of those shounen manga that gets the heat for being generic and never ends with crappy plot or ridiculous characters. Even if that may be true to some eyes, Bleach is also a manga that caters to the fans. It's filled with action (although somewhat dragged on sometimes) and it has its fill of dramatic and emotional moments. I enjoy Bleach much more than I do Naruto because it simply catches on for me with its artistic style.

Here I am, finally finished reading Bleach. It's been quite a long journey for me which started with anime series. Just to be clear, I started to read manga once series had ended, following the story. Can't believe all these long series of my childhood are finally coming to their end. Kinda sad.

The story is the main issue for Bleach. It's very vague. Starting from begining, there were dozens of question popping up in my head. The whole setting is rather vague. I was hoping the author would explain all this mess... but instead I was still receiving new and new conundrums . To speak in general it's way too unlogical. Setting was given almost just it is to readers. Well, sure, there were explanations but, once again, they weren't sufficient.
What was good is fights. Well, I mean all of them were done in particular shounen style, almost always ending in a predictable way using deus ex machina. Kubo's scheme never changes. Nonetheless, they were epic. Full of pathos and good speeches. Probably that's why I was caught on in my childhood times.
Unfortunately, the more manga was reaching its prolonged final boss battle... the more it was getting boring. Some of concepts were utterly dumb. I was compelled to make facepalms with a frequency of one facepalm per 5 pages. By the way, they say, there were some earthquakes in Japan caused of Japanese people clasping their hands onto their faces teamwise while reading new chapters...
It was super rushed at the end. Some storylines just vanished without further explanations. I wonder what made Kubo to rush things like that. I can't express how much I'm dissapointed in the ending. It doesn't feel like a decent ending to me at all.

Speaking about art, there was nothing remarkable. It's fine. In some places it was smooth and good, in some other places it was getting worse. But I can't really complain. Maybe I didn't like designs of some foes in the end. I had a slight feeling that Kubo Tito was lazy to draw them... If you were reading final arc you'll know what I mean. Hm, also I should say I liked shinigamis' outfits. They were cool. If I were to cosplay someone from Bleach I'd definitely choose any shinigami.

Characters were good. I liked foes, I liked main(save Ichigo) and support characters. They weren't unique, yet they felt pretty alive to me. I could easily sympathised with them. Every character had its flaws and strenths, own fighting style constantly evolving. Oh, and surely there were some badass characters(especially the particular captain) which I could only admire and couldn't wait for their next appearance in the series. The main antagonist of the first part of Bleach is awesome.
However, approaching the end... new characters were lacking depth, I think It had became little overflowed with new characters. One moment they appear, the next moment they die.
What do you think is the most important part of shounen manga to be succesful? On my opinion, this is the main character. Unfortunately, main character of Bleach is lame. I can't even remember any specific characteristic of him. I've got a feeling that he was just there to beat bosses in every arc. Even episodic characters were better and more interesting than him. Ichigo could be easily replaced with any random overpowered character.

In conclusion, the quality has been relentlessly declining approaching the ending. The way it's ended... it could be done much more better. Even within the confines of shounen predictability. Actually, I think it should have been ended on Aizen arc. That was the time Bleach was the most good.
If you are a fan of shounen genre I wouldn't recommend you Bleach. There are a lot of better series out there. I can recall only one shounen series worse than Bleach: "katekyo hitman reborn".
To end my review with more pleasant note, I should admit I'll miss Bleach. I'm already feeling slight nostalgie for my childhood series. I haven't greatly enjoyed reading Bleach, yet I don't regret the time I've spent for these years.

Bleach is a series that is in a very awkward position in the manga community. It used to hold a large amount of prestige and popularity as one of the pillars of shounen manga, along with Naruto and One Piece. Naruto has since ended and One Piece is still going strong, with Bleach now finished as well. While sales of it in its later years were still quite good for a manga in general, it was a far cry from its original sales and it routinely tanked in the ratings in Shounen Jump until its conclusion.

The premise of Bleach is quite similar to Yu Yu Hakusho, to the point where I've heard the pitch for it was rejected by WSJ initially for that exact reason, and kubo had retool to it to make it more original. A kid who is unusually spiritually aware gets thrust into a whirlwind series of events thanks to a mess-up by a shinigami, a spirit who helps govern affairs in the afterlife. The series starts off as an episodic monster-of-the-week-esque affair, where Ichigo and Rukia solve various problems. particularly the extermination of Hollows, creatures created from the souls of humans who are consumed by anguish. Eventually the series begins having a more traditional battle shounen structure with defined arcs, beginning with Soul Society.

Soul Society is widely considered the high point of the series; it upped the stakes, introduced us to the larger Bleach mythology, and presented a decent narrative for the main character.

Up until this point, I would say that Bleach was a decent but not great series. It wasn't really anything more than a standard battle shounen, but this wasn't really a problem because the overall writing was competent; the manga knew that in order for the action to have weight you had to have a solid emotional backbone, so it gave us enough information and focus on the characters to make us invested in the manga. It wasn't breaking any new ground with shounen storytelling but was good at doing what it was trying to do, and had at least a couple of interesting things going on like a main character who wasn't a copy of Goku from Dragon Ball, and a mexican-american supporting character.

This was also helped by the fact that Kubo, whatever other problems he may have, is legitimately a talented illustrator, who can come up with numerous unique designs for characters on a weekly basis and keep them consistent, which is an impressive feat in and of itself. His art also demonstrably changed and improved throughout the series, going from a rough style where most people were square-jawed to a graceful and more delicate style with some cool brushwork in the later chapters. Reportedly Kubo actually doesn't use reference much, if at all, so the fact that he can rotate all these different characters in his head and just draw them is a sign of strong draftsmanship on his part.

However, upon peaking with soul society, Bleach has only really gone downhill. The next arc started off at relatively the same level of quality, but gradually devolved into a horrific slog that took YEARS to resolve and failed to give a satisfying payoff, to the point a lot of people stopped caring. It was at that point that Bleach took its nosedive in popularity and quit being a super popular manga.

The main issue with Bleach overall, and something that actually began in Soul Society, is that the cast of the series is horrendously bloated. It is common for shounen series to have excessively large casts, but I think Bleach is probably the worst manga I've read in the number of superfluous characters who are completely forgettable and have no good reason to exist. Tite Kubo has admitted that when he runs into writer's block he usually solves it by creating like a dozen new characters, and it shows. Instead of working with the cast he already has and giving a few select ones get the lion's share of development and screentime over several years, Kubo just creates more and more of them and just shuffles them around giving focus to everyone equally.

This creates two problems. Firstly, a lot of the characters end up being very shallow because Kubo can't afford to give that much depth and focus to all of them. Some characters start off important and interesting, like Chad and Kon, but ultimately are sidelined because Kubo seemingly doesn't know what to do with them. Some of the characters you even forget exist really, like Ichigo's school friends who barely appear in the series anymore.

Secondly, it creates extremely bad pacing often because the manga devotes a number of chapters to fights between minor characters which we know don't matter in the grand scheme of things and which we know very little about to begin with, and which thusly we have no investment in.

As if this wasn't enough there is just some plain bad writing in terms of how some of the character arcs are resolved and how certain characters end up defeating opponents. Orihime's character arc seems to be building up to something important in the Arrancar arc but eventually has no meaningful payoff, and the last time she gets any real focus in it it just ends up being a horrible note to leave her on that makes the reader feel as if she's regressed in her development. Ichigo's fight against Ulquiorra feels like a complete copout that only receives a somewhat adequate explanation in a completely different arc, which still does nothing to dampen how much of an anti-climactic asspull it really felt like. Elite enemies that have been built up for hundreds of chapters are defeated by bit players and other characters besides the people who were supposed to be the main characters (and unlike HunterxHunter where this happened and felt subversive and interesting, here it was boring and unsatisfying).

The Fullbringer and Thousand Year Blood War Arcs are in my opinion actually an improvement compared to the Arrancar arc in multiple ways, the former because it brought back the focus to the people who were supposed to be main characters, and the latter for tying the series together somewhat cohesively and answering a lot of hanging questions that have been around for years.

However, for the small amount of good it did, it has culminated in what is by all accounts a pretty lackluster finale that feels like it was meant to close off the series in a hurry because god knows why it lasted this long. To say that it was anticlimactic and unsatisfying would be a big understatement. I hear this is because Kubo was pressured to end the series by Jump management. I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is, it certainly explains a lot. It's a reflection of one of Bleach's worst problems, editorial decisions that led to extremely lackluster storytelling and a bunch of unsatisfied fans.

Bleach was actually the first manga I ever read online. I was very young and impressionable, and at the time considered it amazing and gripping. However I eventually stopped reading it due to laziness, and by the time I would have liked to pick it back up, my tastes and preferences had changed a lot as I had grown up and been exposed to more media, and most people seemed to agree that it had jumped the shark, so I was content to just leave it unfinished.

Upon getting caught up with it on a whim, and now finishing it, I would say that the manga is honestly probably not worth picking up for new readers, the main reason I continue to read it myself is mostly out of curiosity. It started off on a relatively high note, and then just drifted into mediocrity with a really terrible ending. There are much better manga even within its own genre, and when compared to some of the really impressive output in the manga industry, even Bleach at its peak was just ok.

I started watching Bleach last month and it really got me hooked.The battles,characters and storyline are all outstanding.I watched about 50 episodes a day and finished all 366 of it in about a week.Really addictive and the best anime I ever watched in my life.Now I'm keeping up with the manga and I hope the anime will return.My childhood was dbz and naruto but since i entered highschool i stopped watching cartoons and anime maybe because of my maturity but I returned to my childhood days because of Bleach.Its violence and fights far exceeds the level of naruto and dbz which suits my current age which is 15.I'm really glad and thankful that I watched Bleach.It makes my life more meaningful and happier.

Bleach is a like a roller coaster ride. It has its dull moments but also has its exciting moments. If you are an avid reader, you will know what i am talking about, If this is your first time reading Bleach then i hope you give it a chance and see what this wonderful manga is about.

Sure it has the typical Shounen components, but it is more original than you would think. Bleach has many mysteries that have yet to be revealed, keeping you always wondering and wanting more. Give it a try if you have not already and see for yourself since everyone has different perspectives and tastes.

Bleach starts with an interesting story

The female protagonist is Rukia that is a character who tells good jokes and earns the reader's empathy quickly. That's why the first arc works relatively well.

However the decent story ends in the first arc

Thereafter the good thing are the fights. There are some fights that hit me at the time like ichigo-ulquiorra ichigo-grimmjow and in the last arc the one between the fat one against the Quincy's boss

The History however is very shallow because the author put many characters, the only thing they had was different appearance. But they were the same thing

And many characters that one would expect to be important in the whole story were relegated because there simply was not time to place them

As well as there were good fights there were very boring fights between characters that one did not care about and those fights were solved by a simple powerup, in fact, almost all the fights were resolved with an asspull powerup.

The plot has too many holes and the end is unsatisfactory

At first I must say that the series created by Kubo Tite, which something around year ago really impressed me now became one of the biggest dissapointments in my life.
Well, the beginnings of the Bleach were nothing really great, but I still enjoyed it (know when I remember those Karakura School times I feel really nostalgic) and when the Soul Society Arc I was like "OMFG". There were great fights, I enjoyed even the trainings and especially Ichigo's power-ups and his hollofication. Enemies were great, the plot was also interesting. And in anime we could've heard the 'Number One' song many times during the most exciting scenes. Overall, it was freakin' awesome art. But who could though back then that the ending of Soul Society Arc is actually the ending of Bleach's greatness. One of the biggest minuses was that there were too many characters introduced, but it didn't spoil that Arc.
After that the Arrancar arc has started. The moment that the two arrancars arrived on the earth was almost like a total rip-off of the moment in Dragon Ball Z when Vegeta and Nappa landed on earth. And after that we meet the Vizards. Once again, the author presents more characters not giving them enough air time, so again we have more needless characters. But it wasn't so bad at all. Actually, the fall of Bleach started with the Hueco Mundo Arc. Since then, Bleach became completely mindless fighting manga. It was only about fighting. New characters - the Arrancars look completetly idiotic (well, we have some emo-guy here and the Grimmjow's transformation is like WTF? o_O and there are much more worse things). And what's going on in the Bleach at the moment? For few monts already we have a series of 2-3 chapter long fights that seems to never end. What's worse it seems that Kubo has completely forgotten about main characters like Icihgo or Rukia. I don't even remember when was the last time that I've seen them in manga. Well, the whole Hueco Mundo Arc seems like the worst shounen story ever written. The reason that I still read and watch it is that 30 minutes per week is not too much and I still hope to finally see my dear Rukia in action (damn, I so miss her).
To all people that plan to start reading or watching Bleach - read/watch it only 'till the ending of Soul Society Arc (you can also see the 1st movie but that's all). If you're looking for a really good shounen manga go pick up Kateikyoushi Hitman REBORN!, D.Gray-man, Busou Renkin or One Piece. You won't be dissapointed with them.

For those who think like me, the path of Bleach was just like Samurai Jack's flawless path to a horrible finale. I was so angry for the poor ending almost made me threw all my Bleach volumes through the window, but in the last moment, I realized that life isn't always fair, and the one who you trust your time to may disappoint you in so many ways ike no human beign shouldn't ever be. Thank you, Tite Kubo,for ruining my favorite manga/anime/heroine in one simple chapter. Goodbye World, it was a pleasure and worth living while Bleach still made sense.

Bleach started out as a very promising character-driven manga with several great arcs. It’s a massive shame it didn’t keep up. The story starts with a bang, builds and builds, wraps up the first few arcs in a satisfying manner and then trips over itself, rolls down a hill, into the ocean and sinks into the abyss. I can say I was thoroughly disappointed with the way it ended after the potential it showed at first.

I've been reading this manga since I was 13. The story was never really anything special, but it was fun. Initially, the characters were interesting and dynamic, they felt important and the threats felt like something they needed to overcome, to grow and to protect each other and their family. I loved seeing the way everything was depicted - supernatural or not - and the absolute creativity of some of the designs hypnotized me.

The plot, simple at first, evolves and escalates, jumping through several arcs and then begins to degrade after a specific point rather rapidly. More characters ended up introduced than it felt was needed, and often there was so much focus on the new characters that there was no room for anyone else. Ichigo (our main character) in particular was a black hole for focus, and the side characters may as well have not existed. Their motivations were paper thin, felt reused or just plain didn’t go anywhere. After a while it felt like I'd seen the same characters come along several times and not really add anything, and just questioned why they were even included in the story.

Boring, throwaway villains, silly misunderstandings, pointless trips, unclear motivations. The last arc has been particularly shameless with making the final big bad just… the worst the manga has ever seen even amongst the minor henchmen. He had little to no personality, nothing relatable, charming or fascinating about him and more or less just felt like a silly plot device to try to prove how strong Ichigo was and /try/ to reinforce that he has an amazing relationship with the people he's met on his journey.

Sadly, the message of friendship and being together as humans is undermined constantly and almost the entirety of the manga makes it a pointless aesop. Ichigo is impossibly strong and unfailingly virtuous, with just enough flaws to add a bit of depth to his character, but he is the main character who rises so far above his friends that he doesn't ever truly seem to connect with them. His friends who began as interesting become quickly underpowered compared to him and to the enemies he faces.

Having a character who is miles above the rest in terms of power can be pulled off successfully, provided that he shares a deep enough emotional connection with at least some of the cast and that doesn’t lower the stakes of the story. Unfortunately, Bleach does not succeed in this and most of the initial friends Ichigo made get the same treatment as much of the side characters from Dragon Ball Z, becoming completely unable to compete on any level, or even keep up, with our main character.

It was a true shame to once again have a shounen series fall victim to this. It left a terrible aftertaste.

For anyone willing to read things before the downfall, up to chapter 182 was a great exciting adventure with plenty of characters to enjoy (but not too many), and a fairly well balanced character driven story. Or up to chapter 423 where it was still...complicated and interesting but beginning to feel a little bit samey.

For those willing to continue reading past that point, I would advise that you prepare yourselves for disappointment. I don't know what Kubo was thinking with the majority of the later plot, but much of it felt flat or just plain not impactful. A common and well-deserved complaint was how cheap many of the plot devices were and how little things seemed to actually matter in the long run. Another complaint was the over build up for many a lacklustre reveal.

As for the art - it was clean and fairly well executed. Later on a lot of the scenes become hard to follow, with too many effects and cluttered panels, but the character designs and environments were overall of an acceptable level. You could however argue that, barring a few, Kubo falls into same face syndrome much like many manga authors, reusing the same general faces for specific types of characters with marginal alterations. It wasn’t the most amazing art ever but it was definitely above average.

In summary, Bleach started its run as a pleasant experience with more ambition than it knew what to do with, and it eventually caved in under the weight of its enormous but underdeveloped cast, disproportionate focus on a single character whose importance was poorly justified with increasingly contrived plot twists, and an overabundance of questionable creative decisions.

Sorry if this is kind of all over the place, it's my first review and I wanted people to know this manga started well, but still ended terribly. I mostly want to save anyone else from reading the next 200-300 chapters because it isn't worth it.

Bleach is a joke of a manga with absolutely no redeeming qualities besides the fact that it is mindlessly "entertaining"

The manga is flawed in just about every way possible and its actually getting kind of pathetic to read right now.
I mean, I can't name think of a positive thing about it(the whole mindlessly "entertaining" is another way of calling it stupid).

The characters are generally one dimensional and receive little to no actual growth or development. There are a few characters with some depth(Byakuya for instance) but most characters are shallow and their entire character analysis can be summed up with in just a few short sentences(and some a single sentence). I'm not talking about minor characters btw, I'm talking about major ones. Occasionally Kubo will attempt to give a few characters some "development" but that all resets by the beginning of the next arc.

Another problem with the characters is that Kubo has no idea how to use them. The main cast is pretty much thrown away every arc so the captains can shine. Its sad the people like Chad, Ishida, and Orihime are thrown away so quickly each and every arc. Its hard to call them "main" characters at this point. I guess this all stems from Kubo introducing WAY too many characters and not really knowing how to write a real story.

Pacing is also another gigantic problem for Bleach as well. Every chapter is filled with reaction faces and posing with very little dialogue. While almost every manga does this occasionally, Bleach does this every chapter on almost every page. In most chapters only one or two scenes occur. EVERY chapter can be fully read and comprehended in less than a minute.

Another reason that Bleach has bad pacing is due to the fact that Kubo introduces too many villains who don't matter in the end. The Espada is the prime example of this. People who kept up with Bleach for the entirety of the arrancar arc watched the heroes of Bleach fight against these guys for around 4 years or so. But in the end they really had no lasting impact on the manga at all. They didn't really cause any real story development nor did they actually have any lasting impact on the characters. If the manga took out the Hueco Mundo arc and just skipped to the war, the exact same result would occur and nothing in the manga right now would be any different. Hell even the manga indirectly tells you at one point that the Espada have no point.

And for anyone who thinks that this isn't typical for Bleach, look at the Fullbringers(most of them were pointless), and for anyone reading the current chapters, how many enemies did Kubo introduce again? They even had Ichigo fighting against this loser for 3 or so chapters and we're nowhere near close to finishing that fight. We're going to go through another 300 or so chapter arc with only 70-80 chapters that isn't pointless padding.

People complement the art, but its really not that good either. I guess the character designs aren't too bad, but that's not where the problem is. My complaint is the lack of background art. Instead of actually drawing out backgrounds, in many panels Kubo will just color in some shading or just leave it blank. The only backgrounds that exist that seem to be consistent are the sky and the clouds. It just doesn't make the manga look good.

Fights are also kind of bad. They generally consist of beamspams that do little damage and then the characters go back and forth between powerups. After that, the fights end in a single hit once character A(the victor) reaches his max power level. its a pretty predictable setup.

The plot is also fairly laughable as well. The plot is shallow and just...
lmao

The plot for Bleach completely fell apart after the Soul Society arc. At this point, all Kubo has done is introduce random enemies and make them seem important in order to make make an illusion that things happen. But everything just kind of goes back to status quo after each arc is finished and it just doesn't feel like Bleach has really accomplished anything significant.

That's just how I see this manga. The saddest part? I didn't even list all of my complaints about it.

I basically see it as SJ's version of Inuyasha, seeing as how both of them are uselessly padded for hundreds of chapters longer than they should be.