thomasjay-52277
Despite not personally topping the likes of Naruto and One Piece, Bleach truly was something unique with a more mature take in story than its perhaps more appealing counterparts (particularly in the west) the style and tone of the story is obvious and set from the first scene in the anime. With such a defined look and a handful of truly compelling arcs the show is a fantastic watch
mtman318
So I had a nice long review written out... naturally that meant I would accidentally close my browser. I even knew this was going to happen too, yet, fool that I am, I continued anyway. I feel like shouting (in Japanese), "Howl, Zabimaru!" or "teh-meh!!" (or however you spell that) as I smash the computer, but I won't. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch Bleach and learn.I guess to sum up what I had before: This is a very versatile anime that will make you both laugh and cry. The character design, music, and animation are excellent. Give the fillers a chance, I liked them a lot. The only consistently bad/annoying thing about the show is the occasional overly drawn-out fight.I'll edit this when I feel like doing a more detailed review.
ritonobono
Now, I'll be honest I can acknowledge flaws in anime and I'm not partial to any particular ones. But I respectfully didn't care for this one. The first problem is the amount of filler, which is on par with Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin. Most of the fillers don't even connect with the story and don't even have the redeeming quality of being all that funny. The second problem is the characters. While some of them are well developed and unique in their own regard, we get others that feel like add ons to keep the story going.The third problem is the plot. It goes in circles. It feels like every time we finish a training arc we get a rescue mission. And the fourth and most notable problem is the pacing: most of the fights last 10 episodes and they are often interrupted by talking about the move they just did. In the middle of war? C'mon.So I can safely say I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who isn't a fan of long running shonen.
residentgrigo
This is my review from mangaupdates and i stopped reading the manga somewhere aroud Vol.50. The anime is identical with at least 1/3 of it devoted to filler:I stumbled upon the anime many moons ago when it was new and i was an older teen. I liked it just fine but switched to the manga later to save time as episodes became too drawn out even without the filler. I then quit the manga just before Vol. 50 entirely and started to hate it now. I am currently 24 and still deem the first two arcs (till Soul Society ended) as decent in retrospect but the word "empty" describes them best. Good art (but never backgrounds), fine choreography and decent ideas were commence but any from of substance was lacking. To quote user strixflash "Bleach was never a plot driven manga" and that was true even then but the narrative utterly stopped when arc 3 began and the unending action scenes turned into the following: Two "awesome" underwear models with mullets of power meet, begin to stand in the air and beat each other up with super moves for no reason till someone wins or they agree to become friends. No one ever dies but the word death / i'll kill you are the most dominant sentences in the entire manga. The female characters are big breasted moral support only too but i will note that their sexualisation isn't as dumb as in most such series. I thus quit the manga after that arc was finally over and never looked back. The series apparently still sucks (500+ chapters and a dead spin-off are the stats now) and it finally started to loose both fans and an anime (!) but i am out for good. As many problems i have with One Piece and Naruto now i still have fun with them so go for the rest of the Jump trinity instead. Claymore (8,5/10), Hunter x Hunter (9/10) or Rurouni Kenshin (10/10) are lastly how modern shounen battle manga need to look like. Don't even get me started how much better the action (or everything else) is in the adult targeted Berserk, Kamui Gaiden or Until Death Do Us Part is but these were done by masters. The only thing of note about Kubo Tite is his glamorous hair and that he created the memetastic Aizen while the "prequel" Zombie Powder is even less interesting than Bleach. I wonder if he will even start a third series as the final arc of Bleach was apparently changed back to not being a finale... Money never sleeps. Even among the dead!