
Bleach
a review by RDSprinkle

a review by RDSprinkle
Disclaimer- This review is entirely my opinion. I am also not an expert when it comes to Bleach so if some of the specific information I list here is wrong I apologize. Lastly this review will contain spoilers so read at your own risk.
I'll put it bluntly, this is by far my favorite manga I've ever read. This may be biased due to the fact that the anime is what got me into anime and manga in general but still. I'll go over a few key things that make this manga so great in my eyes in the following order: character diversity, excellent story arcs, and art style.
As far as character diversity goes, I don't feel its a stretch to say Bleach has one of the most diverse cast of characters seen in any manga. You have pretty much anything you think of. Giant beast men, crazy scientists, nihilistic antagonists, skeleton kings, energy bow wielding archers, and battle hungry maniacs are to name a few. I of course paraphrased some of them save my self from doing an in depth review of each character. Kubo has done a great job of creating a vast world with an equally vast amount of characters. However due to the amount of characters that we see, Kubo has the tendency to drop characters and not show them to the reader for long periods of time or at all in some cases. Some prime examples would be Nelliel, Yoruichi (fullbring arc), Ryuuken Ishida, Harribel (1000 year blood war arc), and Mashiro. While some of these I know are further shown in the light novels Can't Fear Your Own World, it doesn't change the fact that they are at times forgotten in the manga. I don't hold this against Kubo too much though considering the characters we do get to see are phenomenal.
Next the story arcs of bleach are amazing. You pick out any arc from the manga and I could tell you I love it, and yes that includes the fullbring arc. Soul society arc gave a new cast of characters and our first real complete taste of bleach as a series. The hueco mundo arc was great way of showing Ichigo's internal struggle when facing Aizen and the arrancars. The fake karakura town arc has some of my favorite battles in the series. The fullbring arc shows a new powerless and struggling side of Ichigo we had never seen before. Finally the thousand year blood war arc introduced more great characters while also giving us closure on a lot of subjects. This is not all that I enjoyed from these arcs, but they are the main reasons.
Lastly and in my opinion the strongest point of bleach is its art style. Tite Kubo has the best drawing skill I've ever seen. In every panel of every page I can feel the emotion from the characters, as well as the movements in every fight. This is definitely a more mature art style than some manga, but it is undoubtedly my favorite. From the first time I saw the anime on adult swim I became entranced with the series, and this only multiplied when reading the manga. Honestly this art style is the main reason I got into anime and manga in the first place.
In summary I love Bleach. Its my favorite manga ever and I don't that changing anytime soon. I am incredibly excited to see the anime returning and am also interested in a possible new hell arc for the manga.
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