Bleach

Bleach is... an interesting case to me.

As your typical Latino kid goes, I grew up watching a bunch of shonen anime that aired on my TV network of choice (namely, Cartoon Network). If you asked me which were my favorite anime, I would, in a heartbeat, respond with Naruto and Dragon Ball Z (Kai, as I'm a zoomer). As I later grew up, my tastes changed, so I would probably answer with something more along the lines of Death Note (which I never watched fully because I thought you could just watch anime like that, out of order), Sword Art Online, Hi-Score Girl, Inazuma Eleven, blah blah blah...

As it shows, I grew out of shonen anime by the time I became deeply entrenched into animanga, interested more by gritty, serious seinen or even more comedic, romantic works. I never got to the extent of hating shonen, but I kind of just lost interest in works of the genre. When Jujutsu Kaisen started getting popular and all my friends were becoming super big fans, I never really started to watch/read it out of sheer disinterest. When I tried reading Jigokuraku, I dropped 20 chapters in out of sheer boredom, as much as I liked Gabimaru and Sagiri's designs and I found the storyline mildly interesting.

The only modern shonen that's managed to peak my interest has been Chainsaw Man, ~~which honestly doesn't feel like one in the slightest lol~~

So, what do you think happened when I read Bleach?
(This is where we get to the meat of the review.)

Bleach is that one series I had always heard but never really saw anything about in depth. I sometimes saw things related to it in anime top 10s or even just reading up on stuff. I knew basic things (Aizen is actually a villain, the protagonist's name is Ichigo Kurosaki, it gets bad after Soul Society...) but genuinely nothing else about it apart from things I had later seen on, of all things, an Epic Rap Battle of Freakism in Spanish which was Luffy vs. Ichigo, heavily stacked against our favorite Soul Reaper if I do say so myself.

I'd always see some Bleach covers on my bookstores of choice, too. I remember I once went with some friends and one of them saw the King of The Kill cover, and just went "you like this shit?".

I tried watching it once in Crunchyroll back in 2018-2019, but dropped it after a few episodes because of how annoying the constant ads were.

As I later grew up more and more, a lot of my friends seemed to be getting into Bleach years after its end, in the year of our lord 2021. I, of course, did not jump in the bandwagon, out of mostly a sheer disinterest in manga during that period.

Fast-forward to around March of this year. Just started school, bored out of my ass, why not read Bleach? It's a good 600 chapters, so I'll either mildly enjoy it or get bored and drop it after Soul Society.

What followed was me becoming engrossed into what would later become my top 1 manga of all time (as my top 1 anime is and will probably forever be Steins;Gate), starting with the majestic first arc that is Substitute Shinigami.

It's a pretty formulaic shonen by then, with monsters of the week and new powers and concepts being introduced every few chapters, but it somehow manages to make it feel fresh and very good, even if it's my second least favorite arc. Goes to show how much I love Bleach if I called it majestic a few lines prior. I think this arc's peak is when Uryu Ishida and the concept of the Quincy (which Kubo did not explore until TYBW, sadly) are introduced. Also, Yasutora Sado's entire arc during this, well, arc. Chad is probably my favorite out of the "secondary-main characters" and seeing some Latino rep waaaaaaay back in the early '00s was refreshing.

I'll say, I'm not a big fan of the more angular art style Kubo had during this arc. There is a specific panel of Kisuke Urahara that I find quite bothersome, but to each their own.

Everything in the story changes when Byakuya Kuchiki and Renji Abarai enter the scene, revealing that "hey, Zanpakutos are not actually that in all cases lol" with Zabimaru, one of my favorite Zanpakutos in the entire series, and taking Rukia Kuchiki back to Soul Society with them, with the purpose of Xcuting (hah) her.

The concept of the Zanpakutos in general is one that interests me greatly, as every single one is varied and has something that makes it different from the rest, be it Haineko's ability to turn into a cutting mist (?) or Zangetsu's Getsuga Tenshos. It makes every character have a distinct fighting style and strategy on fights, rather than simply "fuck everything in front of me!" (except in Kenny's case), but I digress.

Thus starts Soul Society...
my least favorite arc in the entire series.

You might be surprised to hear that, but I am not a particular fan of Soul Society. I think it's, at its worst, an 8.5/10. As many raw moments as it has and as much as some of the fights are spectacular (Uryu vs. Mayuri and Ichigo vs. Kenny come to mind at this precise moment), I couldn't help but feel absolutely lost at the sheer amount of things introduced (the Thirteen Court Guard Squads and every Squad's members mainly) and felt that at least the earlier parts of the actual incursion into Soul Society dragged on a small bit.

However, it REALLY picks up around the time Aizen's revealed to be not-so-dead and Rukia's about to be saved from execution, as Ichigo reaches Bankai and obtains Tensa Zangetsu to fight against Byakuya while Aizen fucks off to Hueco Mundo ~~(which is actually grammatically incorrect if it's an attempted Spanish translation of "Hollow World". it should actually be Mundo Hueco, but Hueco Mundo sounds cooler)~~, taking the Hogyoku implanted into Rukia's gigai with himself to do fuck-knows with it.

Now, I don't know if the Hogyoku is a contentious point in the fandom as the wish-granting invention of one Kisuke Urahara it is, but I personally don't really mind it. Certainly would explain why the rescue went so well until Gin Ichimaru epicly tro||3d Rukia, as at that point, she had lost hope for her to be rescued.

But it's not the only important object during the arc, as Ichigo carries a strange mask throughout the entirety of it, which saves him from certain death in a multitude of occasions, and eerily looks like a Hollow's, which ends up possessing him during his final fight with Byakuya, showing itself to be his Inner Hollow...

And thus, we segue into Bleach's peak, Tite Kubo's magnum opus, my favorite arc, one of my favorite sections of media in general, Arrancar!

Arrancar follows the same basic formula as Soul Society (friend of Ichigo's gets kidnapped by the bad guys ---> we must rescue them! ---> i obtain new powers to attain this goal ---> we defeat the bad guy!) but in my humble opinion, Xcutes (heh) it in a much better way. This time, the kidnappee is Orihime Inoue, basically the group's healer and obvious romantic interest (this does not deter from her, by the way), kidnapped by the Arrancar, a group of weirdly humanlike Hollows lead by the guy himself, Sosuke Aizen.

I found the Arrancar, or more specifically, the Espada, to be a much more interesting antagonistic force than Soul Society, as they're Hollows born in Hueco Mundo ~~(were they? idr)~~ that somehow attained a human appareance AND a Zanpakuto with release/Resurrección included cost free. They're much less than the 13 Squads, if we don't count the Fracciones, and even then, they still feel more threatening. They're only 10 fuckos, for god's sake!

Every single one of the main Espada (except MAYBE Zonmari and Barragán) felt... like really good characters. Because they are. Duh. I'm writing this at 1:15am, bear with me. Point is, every single one of them is unique, has diverse powers, and their backstories are very interesting.

I want to focus on one Espada specifically, the presumably strongest Espada of all. Ulquiorra Cifer.

Ulquiorra is the best Bleach villain there is. None of the other villains come even close, not even Aizen, who is actually my least favorite main villain (yes, I like Yhwach and Tsukishima more than him). The dude just follows orders mindlessly from his master, but manages to spark some sort of... companionship with Orihime, who tells him all about the heart and what not, a thing he does not understand as the semi-emotionless Arrancar he is.

His arc of getting to understand human emotions and how foreign they are to him as a Hollow is just something majestic to behold, and its culmination during the frankly apotheosic confrontation between him in his Segunda Forma, well, form, and Ichigo's Vasto Lorde form is nothing short of melancholic.

"What is this "heart?" If I tear open that chest of yours, will I see it there? If I smash open that skull of yours, will I see it there?"

I could go on and on about how much I love Ulquiorra's arc and his villainy, but there are a lot of people that can do it better than a sleepless teenager that managed to go this far into writing an "in-depth" review without mentioning the main allied force this arc, the Visoreds.

The Visoreds are an interesting bunch too, being presented as basically paradoxical beings, being both Hollows AND Soul Reapers at the same time. Like the Espada, they're all very charismatic and have tons of personality, with Shinji Hirako, their leader, being my favorite character in the entire series. When I read Arrancar for the first time and saw them, I was honestly surprised, as I didn't know anything about them before reading the series. Channeling both Hollow and Shinigami powers sure is a nifty capability to have, eh? If only we added Quincies into the mix...

They admittedly didn't do much until the latter part of Arrancar, also known as Fake Karakura and Deicide, in which they come in full force with the intent of fighting Aizen, the one who turned them into those inshinigami freaks of nature.

Fake Karakura is kind of just a prelude to THE DEICIDE, with the 13 Squads defending the Fake Karakura Town erected by Soul Society to protect its citizens from some of the Espada such as Starrk or Harribel, without realizing it was all part of Aizen's masterplan to tell them "haha i actually fused with the hogyoku lol" and undergoing what could basically be described as an apotheosis, which kicks off Deicide, an arc comprised of the team barely struggling to not even defeat, but hold back the godlike Aizen as Ichigo gets to max power. It holds some admittedly great moments such as Gin's betrayal of Aizen, which, even if I felt like that being Shinso's true power was kind of an asspull and hating Ichimaru previously, made me quite sad when he died seeing the thing he tried to avoid from happening: Rangiku's tears.

Nothing seems to work against Aizen, who gets stronger by the minute and has decided to forgo his usual planning to use his sheer raw power alone, until Isshin decides to teach Ichigo what's possibly THE rawest technique in all of animanga.

Final Getsuga Tensho.

The entire leadup to Ichigo's attainment of this technique is superb, with him fighting Zangetsu's supposed manifestation, now younger and half Hollowed. When he obtains it, he and Isshin leave the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but Bleach Flavored (?) and enter the fray against Aizen, in which Ichigo musters some of the hardest words in the entire series.

"Final Getsuga Tensho is for me to become... Getsuga itself." - semi paraphrased.

With this he defeats Aizen, who's imprisoned in the depths of Soul Society, but at the cost of losing ALL OF his spiritual powers, and I mean all of them. This moment was honestly shocking to me when I first read it, and I wouldn't have minded if it ended in this way.

However, there are still two arcs of questionable quality to go! How will he recover his powers? Worry not, dear reader, as Kubo's got a few tricks up his sleeve in the Lost Agent arc!

Lost Agent is quite possibly THE most divisive part about Bleach. Some people love it, some people despise it, some people have some in between opinion... Personally, I think it's a good arc, smack dab in the middle of my top 5 Bleach arcs.

After the entire battle against Aizen, Ichigo was left powerless due to that being the cost for the Final Getsuga. He leads a normal, if boring life in Karakura along with all his friends... except for Rukia and the Soul Society gang. He has a part-time job for an oddjobs store, so I guess that's something.

But once again, the supernatural enters his life with the apperance of one Kugo Ginjo, who introduces Ichigo and the audience to his organization, Xcution, and a brand new concept known as the Fullbring. Now, the Fullbrings to some people might just be a cheap excuse for Ichigo to gain powers once again, but I personally like them and feel like they're semi-original, as almost anything that holds value to a person can be a Fullbring, as shown with Ichigo's Deputy medal or Ginjo's cross pendant. Also, Chad apparently had a Fullbring this entire time, which is his skin. Honestly, that part was actually pretty raw. I love Chad.

Fullbrings can be generated when one of the parents of the Fullbringer had been attacked by a Hollow previously, which makes it plausible for Ichigo to have one, as Isshin used to be a Shinigami and Masaki... we'd best leave that for later.

But anyways, his friends start getting attacked by some weird, Matthew Mercer voiced dude named Shukuro Tsukishima, whose Fullbring is a bookmark he can turn into what's basically Yamato from DMC, as it can cut through ANYTHING, even memories. (you'll see how important this is).

Thus starts yet another training arc that, I won't lie, I found boring. Kugo and Ichigo's banter was good throughout but I just felt... eh with it. I guess it was a byproduct of having read Arrancar just prior.

However, shit really hits the fan when Tsukishima cuts through EVERYONE's memories of Ichigo, and I mean through EVERYONE, inserting himself into their memories, as if he was the main hero of the story, which was actually a pretty scary moment, and I think one of the few times Ichigo gets almost murderously angry.

So, Xcution and him go to defeat Tsukishima to free everyone from his control but SURPRISE! GINJO WAS EVIL ALL ALONG using a Death Note-ass memory gambit that gets revealed by Uryu, who was cut by Ginjo but not Tsukishima.
Thus starts a battle between most of Ichigo's group (as Orihime and Chad are down for the count due to mind control), including some Soul Society fellers that were called by either Urahara or Isshin, I don't remember.

And then Ginjo steals Ichigo's fully developed Fullbring, which was some sort of mechanical suit, to take revenge on Soul Society, as he was a Deputy Soul Reaper before Ichigo, and approached him for that reason. Ichigo gets his powers back after getting stabbed by a sword containing the reiatsu of some important 13 Squads members, defeats Ginjo, and everything seems happy... or is it?

Lost Agent was an arc I didn't like much on my first read, but after marinating on it for a bit, I found myself really liking it! It's also when Kubo's style begins to morph into his more recognizable current style, which I think is frankly beautiful. Tsukishima is my second favorite Bleach villain behind Ulquiorra too, being a genuinely scary villain that I believe came CLOSER to defeating Ichigo than Aizen ever did. However, this arc also feels like a prelude to something else... a prelude...

...to the Thousand Year Blood War arc.

When I said that Lost Agent was the most divisive part about Bleach, I was only joking. This is a divisive arc to an unfathomable degree. And honestly, as much as I love TYBW, it's fully understandable.

TYBW's state was a product of waning popularity and sales, Shonen Jump rushing, and Kubo suffering from slashed tendons, as can be seen in the later parts of the arc. Fights and characters feel underutilized (Kira, anybody?), the Sternritters are simply not as interesting as the Espada, maybe a bit more than Xcution, Yhwach may feel like a worse villain then the previous ones... ~~(he looks like he came out of One Piece i'm sorry)~~

And yet, despite all its flaws, I can't help but love this arc just because of how... epic... it is.

Ichigo's semi calm life as a human with spiritual powers (again) gets suddenly cut short by the appearance of... the Quincy. Yes, that sort of clan that was wiped out by Soul Society a thousand years ago? Turns out, a fraction of it, known as the Vandenreich, lead by none other than the Quincy King himself, YHV- I mean, Yhwach, was hidden, biding its time for Yhwach's power to come back to lead a full scale INVASION of Soul Society, with a lot of Soul Reapers dying during this invasion and it turning Seireitei into a barren, icy wasteland. If you couldn't gather, this arc had the highest stakes in the entire series, with a bunch of Soul Reapers we KNOW dying here, including but not limited to

Ichigo spends the first part of the arc trapped in Hueco Mundo by Kirge Opie's hand, a man part of the Schrift wielders, the Sternritters, but manages to escape, which was supposedly going to be impossible for him. Alas, he arrives too late as Yhwach had already claimed the life of someone quintessential to Soul Society's defense. Enraged, he attacks the Quincy King, unknowingly awakening... his Quincy powers?

Honestly, this probably feels like some sort of asspull when you first read it. "oh so the mf is a shinigamihollowquincy eh." But then it's revealed that Zangetsu (the Old Man, not the White Ichigo) is... not actually Zangetsu! He is the manifestation of Ichigo's latent Quincy powers, being represented by Yhwach's appearance 100 years prior. HE limited Ichigo's power and granted him just enough to keep him alive, this justifying his fluctuating power levels. The REAL Zangetsu was actually revealed to us WAAAAAY BACK in Arrancar, with White Ichigo (or rather, White) being the real Zanpakuto spirit.

A lot of shit happens, people die yadda yadda yadda you've already read Bleach. TYBW is comprised of mostly fights that involve 13 Squads members fighting against the Sternritters, whose powers are given by a Schrift given to them by Yhwach itself. Their powers are basically the letters of the alphabet like A - The Almighty and stuff of the sort. It's not really that interesting, to be quite honest, and they're part of the reason why people dislike this arc so much. There are a few notable ones, such as Jugram, Bazz-B or As Nodt (who manages to give Byakuya of all people a run for his money) but the rest are mostly very forgettable.

However, someone actually joins the Quincy, and it's none other than one of two Quincy on the good guys' side, Uryu! Uryu joins Yhwach and receives another A Schrift - The Antithesis. This is just a Fun Tidbit To Mention In This "Brief" Summary.

More shit happens, the arc starts to get rushed by the Jump, Bankai get shown, raw moments galore blah blah blah. You can tell I'm getting tired of writing this. It's 2:30am.

Some more interesting plot reveals happen as it's shown that Ichigo is actually basically Bayonetta from, well, Bayonetta, just being the son of a Quincy (Masaki) and a Shinigami (Isshin) instead of a Lumen Sage and an Umbra Witch, with this showing why Isshin lost his powers and why exactly Ichigo seems so attuned to the Hollows.

However, it's not all fun as Zangetsu breaks yet again, as it's not Ichigo's real Zanpakuto. Why, you may ask? Go back. Go waaaaaay back to Substitute Shinigami? Do you remember how Ichigo obtained his Zanpakuto? Exactly. By taking Rukia's unreleased one and stabbing himself with it to gain Shinigami powers. Turns out, Ichigo must go to the process every Soul Reaper goes through to obtain one for himself, this time forging a new Zangetsu from the Asauchi, forming a Zanpakuto that embraces all three of his heritages, Shinigami, Quincy and Hollow.

This moment was one of my favorites in the entire series because it feels like a great culmination to Ichigo's arc, but there is another future moment that upstages it.

Now, it's time to fight Yhwach, who activates the Almighty powers and forces Ichigo to kill the Soul King, which was a real shocker, even if Yhwach had said before that Ichigo himself would be the one to bring the Soul King's downfall. (did he?) He breaks the reforged Zangetsu and fucks off to the Soul King's palace, which he makes his. Ichigo goes along with Orihime to fight him again, and this time, he becomes some sort of Hollow-Shinigami hybrid, with even having one of his horns from back when he used his Vasto Lorde form.

With Orihime, Ryuken and Uryu's help he manages to defeat Yhwach, left defenseless for a second after being shot at with an arrow made of the metal found inside the hearts of the Quincy he killed to sustain himself, all those years ago, the same day Masaki died...

The reforged Zangetsu breaks with the force of the impact, revealing that the original Zangetsu, not the Fullbringed one, was under it all along, becoming Ichigo's Zanpakuto once more. This moment in particular is my second favorite in the entire series, just behind Final Getsuga.

This time there are no buts. There are no more threats to Soul Society or Ichigo, who, ten years later, marries Orihime and fathers a child named Kazui. Rukia doesn't fall far behind, mothering Ichika along with Renji. Chad becomes a professional boxer, Uryu leads a hospital...

All is well.

EXCEPT NO IT ISN'T BECAUSE WE GOT THE HELL ARC COMING WOOOOOOOO

Okay, real talk and conclusion about TYBW now.

Is TYBW a heavily flawed arc? Yes.

Do I love it despite them? Also yes.

TYBW is a heavily flawed arc that could've gone on for much longer than it did, feature more things than it did, and overall, it could've been more. Here's to hoping the TYBW anime improves over this flaws and makes this arc the work of art it could've been.

Let's wrap this whole thing up. What I think about Bleach is that it's a genuinely monumental piece of manga that should be the guideline for what a GOOD shonen should be like. It's a lot better than what a lot of people give it credit for, and I'm inclined to believe people just parrot the narrative that Bleach is bad blindly because of how much it's been said. Hell, I used to believe it for a time.

If you noticed a dip in quality during the latter part of the review, 1. you didn't :) 2. It's almost 2:50am in my timezone and I genuinely did not expect to make this long of a review. It's almost 4000 words of me just going off about how much I love Bleach and summing it up for review purposes.

This is my first review here, I might make a few more, but let's hope I do them at respectable hours of the day.

Read Bleach. It's a work of art.

10/10