Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)
Vintage:
October 5, 2004
Status:
Still Airing
Summary:
Kurosaki Ichigo is a 15 year old boy that has an ability to see ghosts/spirits. Because of his ability, he is able to meet a female death god (a.k.a Shinigami) named Kuchiki Rukia. To save his family and friends from unwanted soul-eating spirits (Hollows), Rukia transfers her Shinigami powers to Ichigo. As Rukia takes on a human shell, together they solve mysteries involving spirits and hollows until from the spirit world comes 2 other shinigamis explaining that it is illegal to transfer Shinigami powers to humans and Rukia exceeded the time limit to stay in the human world. After they sentence her death for breaking the laws, Ichigo snaps and swears to everyone he will retrieve Rukia by breaking into the spirit world.
Ok ... early on, Bleach has a lot of potential. Like many series. But that doesnt last for very long. It swiftly becomes "Who has the bigger technique", an arms race among the Shinigami if you will.
The characters are interesting, but the storyline falls apart shortly after his second beat down. Then its just "get beat down, train, beat the person who beat me, move forward toward my final goal, encounter another big bad, get beat down, train/learn some technique, beat the person who beat me, move forward." Ad infinitum until he reaches the goal. At which point, a new goal is set.
The fillers didnt help the anime much either, as you can tell they're filler material. They don't add to any techniques or ability or expand the depth of the characters. They don't grow during the filler, as its just there to slow things down until the manga gets far enough ahead they can resume following the manga.
In short, an interesting concept, but it quickly fell apart and into the realms of the "arms race" anime genre.
