Bleach
The Story:
Bleach is about a boy named Ichigo who can see spirits. One day, there is an explosion in the center of the city. Everybody panics because nobody can see what caused the explosion, only Ichigo saw it: A huge monster appeared and now he goes straight at Ichigo. But just when Ichigo thinks he is going to die, some girl in black appears and she saves the day by making sure the monster never appears again. Ichigo wants to ask her for her name, but without success since she already ran away. Back home, he sees the girl that saved him stepping through the window and because she ignores him, he kicks her. She is very surprised that Ichigo can see her, but then she starts her explanation:
Her name is Rukia and she comes from a place called soul society. There, she is a so called soul reaper, someone who literally hunts souls. As a soul reaper, she has 2 tasks to do: Her first task is to make sure that the good spirits (called pluses) pass on to the afterlife, and her second task is to destroy all of the evil spirits (Hollows). But right after she explained all of this, another Hollow appears and this time, next to Ichigo’s own house. He runs outside and tries to attack the hollow, but he gets knocked away with great ease. Rukia, however, jumps in to save him, but she gets hurt in the process. Now, the only way for Ichigo to save himself, Rukia and his own family is to beat the wounded Hollow one-on-one. But……Is he up to the task?
Extra information:
The series of Bleach have 74 episodes so far, but each week, 1 or 2 new episodes are released, and it seems it isn’t going end soon.
• Number of episodes: 74 and still increasing.
• Genre: Action
Most important characters:
Ichigo: a 15 year old boy who, by accident, becomes a replacement Soul Reaper in order to save his family and friends. Even though he doesn’t say it, he cares a lot about Rukia, and he is determent to save her from any tread, even at the cost of his own life.
Rukia: the soul reaper who, for some reason, lost some of her powers and now is inside an artificial body. Rukia is THE factor in Bleach for both humor and drama, but for some reason, almost nobody agrees with me, and so, I’m one of the few who can really see the truth, and that is that Rukia owns all (Ok, I’ll admit, I’m a huge fan of Rukia). She is mainly famous for her, *uhum*, drawing skills.
Urahara: Some man on Earth who runs a shop for Soul Reapers. Not much is known about his man, but he definitely hiding something. He also seems to know more than you would think he knows……..
Ishida: The last remaining Quincy in the whole world. For some reason, he holds a grudge against all of he soul reapers, and he wants nothing more than ‘’payback’’. His attack-style is bringing out a bow, made of energy and then shoot arrows of energy to completely destroy anything standing in its path.
Own Opinion:
I started watching Bleach when Naruto became somewhat boring, and everyone was saying that Bleach was so much better than Naruto. So hopefully I downloaded the the first episode and it was exactly what I hoped it to be: some grown-up kick-ass anime, where you have both humor and action. So, from the first episode I knew I wanted to see more, and in 2 days time, I catched up with everybody else who had been watching from the beginning. Which means (for the people who aren’t able to count that fast) that I watched about 16 hours in just 2 days time. What followed were a headache, a shortage of sleep, healthy food and drinks, a huge pile of homework and mad parents because I was too long behind the computer. Was it worth it? Well, if I had the chance, I would do it again in no time.
The main story isn’t that special: some boy swinging with a sword and killing all of his enemies. Most people will react by saying: ‘’ow, so this another one of those fighting animes?’’. Well, they are right about 1 thing: it IS a fighting-anime, but not just any fighting-anime, it’s in a class of his own: the Bleach class. But the originality, which is actually pretty high, isn’t the only good part of Bleach. It also has a big selection of different characters. Whether you like a sweet girl, a silent killing machine, a revengeful archer, or maybe some fighting teddy bear, Bleach has them all…...
Going on with the animation: you shouldn’t expect bright colours in Bleach, expect in the parts where everyone fights with each other (think of special attacks and things like that). But that isn’t a problem since Bleach is a more mature anime, which means that bright colours wouldn’t match with this type of anime. The many movements and actions are quick and flashy, which means a big plus for Bleach in this area.
The subbing at Bleach is also a good point. We had a few big subbers like Lunar and Dattebayo (Lunar stopped because Bleach was licensed, but Dattebayo still goes on) and a few minor subbing-groups like Bleach society and Hell Fan subs. The variety of subbers (most of the time, there are only 2 or 3 subbers) is an implication that Bleach is very popular among many people.
Besides the animation and the subbing, also the music in Bleach is very good. I remember myself singing along with the first opening song of Bleach, which resulted in my neighbours saying I had to take singing-lessons. That night, I sang twice as hard, as an honour to them. Although you would expect only hard songs (like Ichirin no Hana), you also have some less hard songs (for example: life and Asterisk). But it doesn’t stop there: we shouldn’t forget the background music, for example during the fights. A few animes will actually be able to have this much good music. And I promise you, when you’ve heard the first opening song, you just want to sing along, just like I did.
Judgment:
With bleach, I immediately have the cause of my anime addiction. Each week, I’m looking forward to another episode of bleach, as well as another view of my favourite Rukia. Although the story isn’t that original at first glance, the humour, drama, fast action, ánd the great music, make this anime as a ‘’must see’’. But, I have to admit there are a few downsides as well: At a certain point, you’ll get 26 new names, which makes it a lot harder to understand the story (wasn’t she the healing captain? nope, she was information captain. No Way, she definitely was a vice captain). Another point is the huge popularity of Bleach: A lot of businessmen know Bleach is popular, so they are going to squeeze every little penny out of this success, which is a bad development for the anime itself. The last problem is a personal one: as the anime continues, you’ll see and less of Rukia, which of course is a total waste. Even though all of this, I would still recommend it to everyone, unless you don’t want to be as addicted as the rest of Japan…………
Audio: 8,4
Drama: 7,4
Dub: 8,2
Humour: 8,7
Originality: 6,4
Visual: 7,2
Overall: 8,4
[Made by Feniks]