Bleach is one of the famous BIG THREE that consistently got praised by anime fans as successor of Dragon Ball. You can see the inspiration of various great anime like YYH and Saint Seiya.
If you like Saint Seiya, it won't be surprising why you would like Bleach and vice versa since it has similar arc structures and stories. Even some surprise reveals are similar and the Gold Saints are the equivalent to the Captain Class Shinigami (aka. Soul Reapers). And not surprisingly the arc these foes that will become allies are introduced are considered the peak of their respective franchises.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First I watched Bleach subbed so I will refer to Soul Reapers as Shinigami and other things will may conflict if you watch things in dub.

Story
Main character Ichigo Kurosaki is a high schooler who can see ghosts. One day a girl looking about his age appeared in his some weirdly dressed oddly with a Shikashuko, sandals and a sword. The first reaction he had was to kick her away surprising her since she is a Shinigami and human can't normally see them unless they have high spiritual awareness.
Her name is Kuchiki Rukia and her job is to protect Ichigo's town Karakura from demonic creatures named Hollows. They are basically decreased people with grudge and couldn't properly pass on and eat human with high spiritual awareness: Spiritual Pressure aka. Reitsu.
A Hollow starts attacking Ichigo's home injuring his family and Rukia who tried to protect him the last minute. Since she can't fight, the only way for Ichigo to protect everyone was for him to obtain Rukia's Shinigami powers. Thus he becomes a Shinigami with insane power and beats the crap out of Ichigo.

What happens after is Ichigo would take the role over Rukia until she gets her powers back naturally. She would coach him while Ichigo helps her to adapt to the life of a normal human.
Involved in all this will be various later main character in Sado Yastora, Inoue Orihime and lastly a pseudo rival in Ishida, a member of a group of human that have special powers and are enemy of the Shinigami.
After a few days Rukia would disappear with two people arriving to capture her. The weakest of them beat up Uryu with ease and even Ichigo couldn't do anything against him until some hidden force gave him an adrenalin boost, only to lose to the other guy in a blink of an eye. That person is Kuchiki Byakuya and the elder brother of Rukia. His attack broke the link of Ichigo's powers and now he can't use Shinigami power anymore.

In order to save Rukia, Ichigo and his friends train under Urahara. Ichigo gets a new set of powers, his own Shinigami powers. Sado and Inoue who awakened their power hone their skills and Ishida wears a glow that increases his power I guess.
They invade Soul Societly, the stronghold of the Shinigami.
All Shinigami that are seated officers are able to release the true power of their Swords that are called the Zanpakuto. The first state is called Shikai. When a Zanpakuto is released, it gives the user either a new power like element manipulation or it changes its form sometimes even into a completely new weapon. There are 13 Vice Captain which have so much Reitsu that whenever they enter the human world, their powers get limited to 20%. Of these Renji, the weaker one of Rukia's kidnappers.
During Ichigo's rematch he would struggle despite his honed skills but eventually remembering his training helped him to overcome Renji Abarai.
Another group above the Vice Captain are the Captain. They are the strongest Shinigami in the Soul Society and there are also 13 of them. Byakuya was one of them and Ichigo would face Kenpachi. We see several times that Captains are on a completely different level from even the Vice Captains since many characters were unable to win or barely succeed.
Besides Kenpachi, all Captains can release a second stage of their Zanpakuto, the Bankai. It's usually a buffed up version of the Shikai and gives its user a massive Reitsu boost.
In the meantime, there is an internal conflict in Soul Society not related to the Main Characters, a conspiracy. And the youngest Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro and his Vice Captain Matsumoto Rangiku try to solve it which they will do that will lead to one of the most mindblowing plottwists in anime history.

The next arc is anime exclusive content and many don't like it because its sways away from the more interesting plot set up because of the conspiracy in the previous arc. Regardless the weaker characters get a shine in this, especially Ishida who lost his power during the fight against a Captain. It is a decent arc about a new group called the Bounts, which are spirit vampires pretty much. They can summon creatures that obey them called dolls and are super powerful.
While that story can technically be skipped, it hints for a lot of challenges that will awaits our main characters. It is also the last arc where it has the classic animation style. The fights that involved Bankai Ichigo and Byakuya are some of the best in the franchise. And if you like Ishida, you will probably enjoy this arc too.

Arrancar arc as I would call it is a mixture of 3 or more story arcs. It's basically a Saga. The main villain set up in the Soul Society arc succeeded in his experiments of giving Hollows Shinigami Powers. They look more like human and wear cloth that look similar to the Shinigami. They even have Zanpakuto which instead of a Shikai and Bankai have a different release form. That stage called Resurrecion gives them all their Hollow Abilities and party their form.
To protect Karakura Town which is the town with the highest reiatsu, Soul Society send off reinforcement to protect it. A group led by the Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro.
It's the arc where Ichigo needs to overcome his fear of his power which seemed like originated as a side effect of getting his own Shinigami powers...
There a group of Shinigami that have Hollow Powers are introduced called the Vizards. They help Ichigo out.
The arc ends with Inoue being kidnapped by one of the arrancar.
Ichigo's group decided without the permission of Soul Society to invade the Hollow Realm: Hueco Mundo.

This is the second portion of the arc. Hueco Mundo arc is another rescue mission and has many similarities to Soul Society. Not only the structure but the enemy archtype and patterns. Many fans consider it therefore a discount Soul Society arc.
Like the Soul Society arc, there are a group of powerful warriors. The equivalent of the Captains in Soul Society are the Espada. If you know Spanish, which I don't, you probably guessed that there are 10 of them ranked by strongest to weakest from the smallest to the largest number. There are also Privadon Espada who are former Espada and have insane powers of their own.
While all that was happening, the villain would go to invade Karakura Town with some of his strongest allies.

We are entering the last portion called the Fake Karakura Town which takes place mostly in a Fake Karakura Town. In Hueco Mundo Ichigo would face the person who kidnapped Inoue, Ulquorra Cifer who is the 4th strongest Espada... or something. You will be confused later on but during that fight Ichigo would awaken a new power which fans call Vasto Lorde Form for some reason.
Back in Karakura Town which turns out to be a fake version of Karakura Town, the villain would face the remaining members of Soul Societies strongest warriors.
Before they fight, we see the flashback of the Vizards and their relationship with the villain and Urahara. Regardless there are a bunch of fights.

During all that mess of fights, the anime caught up with the manga several times. Even during the Hueco Mundo portion. This leads to random filler arcs appearing and confusing the viewers. The ones are taking you away from the really engaging story and break the pacing. And probably why many people jumped ship to the manga.

There is the Amagai arc about a man sending assassins to kill some noble who escaped to the human world. I can't spell her name so I will call her Rui. Ichigo and his friends have to protect her which gives some of the secondary cast some shine for once.
Things would lead them to Soul Society where they have to rescue Rin again and clear up some misunderstandings because Soul Society politics are shit. Kinda like in our world sometimes. There is a plottwist of the new Captain Amagai being the main antagonist (the story arc name already spoiled it so...) and Ichigo has to stop him.

The next filler arc is called Zanpakuto Rebellion arc where a Zanpakuto Spirit materialized, because Zanpakuto are living beings with their own personality and independent, and uses his power to brainwash other Zanpakuto spirits turning them into enemies of the Shinigami.
Goal is to stop Muramasa.
Then there is another mini arc about Spirits that went berserk and have Bankai tier powers... It was awful.

Back to FKT, where we will get some interruptions from random side stories and filler, the Arrancar are about to win only for the Vizards to show up and they overwhelm the enemy again. Until the MV had enough and beat up the 3rd strongest himself and flexed his powers.
Ichigo enterered the fray and didn't manage to do jack shit. The MV doesn't even fight him but roasts the hell out of him. After everyone seems to be defeated, the MV decides to mindfuck the MC and Urahara and friends appear to rescue him.
MV would reveal a new power and beat them before going to the real Soul Society. In the meantime Ichigo trains in the not-Hyperbolic Time Champer where 1 hour is several month to learn from his Zanpakuto spirit a hidden technique to defeat the badguy.
Then we get the usual final fight with the MC saving the day.

The next arc is about Ichigo going through the acceptance that he will no longer have Shinigami powers and each use drains them away. A new girl needs to be rescued by the clone wars, I mean Regai. A group of Modified Souls that look like Shinigami we all know and love, and are stronger than the original somehow when the plot demands.
Soul Society has now its members replaced by fakes and the Captains alongside the main characters try to stop the villain Kageroza. Some overpowered Science dude who can manipulate dimensions. Eventually he would get the girl and fuse with her to become another character that used to exist in the past. Was a complete jobber who is now probably the most powerful character now.
Ichigo and friends would fight him together giving a visually really pleasing team battle. It's the first major team battle against the final opponent that involves only the main cast and non of the overpowered Captains.

Final arc which some consider the worst "canon" arc is the Fullbring arc. It feels honestly like filler after everything we went through. So 17 month past since the last fight against the villains who's name we shall not mention. Ichigo doesn't know what he wants and no longer has his Shinigami powers. Eventually we would get approached by Ginjo, a fullbring. These fullbring are another group that gained spiritual powers similar to Sado and Orihime. Sado is apparently a member of said group. Their goal is to give Ichigo his powers back to make themselves stronger. So Ichigo would get a fullbring of his own.
A fullbring who suppose to be the enemy of the others appears and has a broken power to brainwash people with his bookmark that can turn into a sword.
Then we see a plottwist at the end, everybody honestly should see coming, and mindfuck Ichigo while taking his powers he worked for... only for him to get new powers in a few seconds making the entire shit pointless.
We get a final fight with some Captains coming to steal the show.

Characters
I think when it comes to characters, Bleach will probably have one you will definitively like. Be it in personality, design or powers.There is lots of creativity. But most liked characters usually are the Captains, Vice Captains and the Espada. There is a good reason for that. The main cast is really getting neglected by the author or they get overshadowed by these powerful foes.

Ichigo had a strong start. He doesn't like people picking fights with him, his friends or family. He has a sense of justice because of the death of his mother. But he has fears and don't go endangering his life for anyone's sake but his own personal reason. One of the reasons he didn't want to help Rukia despite getting powers from her. His reasoning for saving Rukia also makes the Soul Society are so interesting. He doesn't consider Rukia a lover nor a close friend. He doesn't know much about her, but he owes her his and his families life. Getting confidence over the course of the arc and pushing his life on the line to stop Soul Society's system made him really shine. But from here it goes downhill. Ichigo would always be in despair or mindfucked ending up losing fights he should win. It worked at the start, but it happening over and over again gets repetitive.

Inoue is one of the characters people hate the most. She started strong as a happy to go lucky side character. Eventually she gets powers and goes to Soul Society where he doesn't stand out like all the other members. She is basically comic relief and has a crush on the MC.
In the Arrancar Saga she has an inner conflict about whether she deserves Ichigo or not as a lover and gets kidnapped. She was pretty much forced to go with mental manipulation in a way some actually believe she went on her own will. What ruined her character is how she was in the Hueco Mundo arc. He was being victimized to a degree it felt uncomfortable and annoying. The supposed pay off suppose to be that she would use her power either to stop or speed up the MV's secret plot device. It suppose to be the reason she was kidnapped after all. But turns out despite her powers that suppose to be godly, neither happened. The villain just used her as bait to get some Captains to Hueco Mundo and trap them. She ended up turning into a damsel in distress for the rest of the arc. She went to Hueco Mundo to protect her friends and then begged her love interest to protect her in a scene many hated. That scene ruined her entire character forever in the eyes of many. While she would have important roles in the arcs after, they are so minor nobody acknowledges them and can be done by other character. In the manga that is. In the anime she has a few, still minor scenes, where she does only she can do. Like rescuing Rukia from a brainwashing flowerfox.

Sado had a strong character arc in Substitute Shinigami. We learn not to much but his relationship with his grandpa and Ichigo. The reason he fights and why he fights. He left a stong expression that lead to the Soul Society arc. After losing to a Captain, Sado never recovered from the humiliation. He would beat some minor opponents but end up as a jobber in the rest of the series. He is by far the most useless character that tries to do something. Not even in the Fullbring arc, where the power level of the characters scaled down, did he do shit.

Uryu Ishida seemed like a very important character and rival. He has some unique techniques but non of his fights really end up mattering much. In the final manga arc he suppose to get an important role... wonder how that will turn out. Unlike Sado, Uryu is actually competent and only losing to hax and Renji. He is still very forgettable.

Rukia Kuchiki is one if not the strongest female lead in the story. We learn about her upbringing, her relationship with her brother, the expectation people have on her and how she adapts to the human world. She is very funny but can be badass when the situation calls for it. Even without her power she fights Hollows. Despite her cute look, she has a lot of cool moments.
In the Soul Society arc, despite being in prison to be executed, she has some of the best moments. She reflects on her past, her regrets and comes to terms accepting her death. She also learns about valuing her life from Ichigo. She is very supportive of her allies and does her best to helps them if she can. If Ichigo is down, she knows how to make him confident again. If Orihime is worried, she offers to talk and even train her.

Renji Abarai is somewhat a pseudo rival. He and Ishida kinda have similar roles, but Renji isn't analyticly skilled. He gets some victories but they aren't notable. For being a Vice Captain with a Bankai he is very underwhelming since his loss against Ichigo.

Byakuya Kuchiki has to be one of the strongest written characters. He is from one of the highest ranked Nobles of which we know 3 of the 4. He is very skilled in Shinigami abilities and has a very strong Bankai. He started off as a character who follows the system because of past events. Even if it means to execute his own sister. He would be one of Ichigo's biggest allies. His decisions may seem to work against Ichigo, but he does most of it with good intentions.

MV, the person who's name shall not be mentioned, is a very crafty villain. But most of his craftyness comes from his abilities to manipulate anyone how he likes with his Zanpakuto. His goal is to find powers that surpass that of a Shinigami which made many victim of his experiments. His charisma even allowed him to make the enemy of the Shinigami, the hollows, his underlings. He brought a lot of hype to the series but honestly didn't live up to what he generated. Some of his plans are utterly stupid or wasted. The ally main fraction didn't suffer any major casualty. Considering the amount of story arcs passed, it really left a sour taste in my mouth.

There are many others far more deep characters, but I think these were pretty much key. You still have Hitsugaya, a child prodigy. Kenpachi Zaraki that loves fighting a lot. Gin Ichimaru who seems to be mysterious. Grimmjow, one of Ichigo's major challenges in the fight against the main villain. Ulquorra Cifer who seems like a mindless underling who slowly shows signs of humanity inside him.

Enjoyment
Bleach is really enjoyable and has some really good arcs. Even a simple story like a rescue mission is shown to blow a lot of things out of the water.

The characters are lovable and the comedy really helped going through the first arc. Kubo has really a great sense of humor. Also the characters and setting is visually pleasing. Kubo has a great sense for fashion too and we would see characters like Captains in casual cloth in the human world sometimes. Like in Saint Seiya, the characters look pretty. You will definitively find one waifu or husbando or two in case you are into these things.

And the music is what I really like about Bleach. Number One is iconic. Quincy Craft and Hollowfied are really good OST too. The openings are compared to it on the weaker side, but there are some really good ones. Personal favourite is Opening 5.

But some criticism, I feel the Arrancar Saga crumbled in its complexity. There were way too many things set up in motion and hard to keep consistent.
You have also way too many plotwist. Bleach has great plottwist, but there are so many of them, you can see them coming at some points. One of which like Orihime Inoue's powers being wasted. There is also few wasted ones like how the Espada ranking really works.
The main cast really gets shafted. Ichigo obviously does the most. Sado, Ishida, Orihime and even Renji are almost useless outside of filler. The human world cast could be taken out of the story and nothing much would have been missed. Nothing would have changed in Ishida, Orihime or Sado lost, died or won. Ganju and Hanataro did more for Ichigo to succeed in his battles in Soul Society. After that the Captains keep stealing the show.
Lastly, the hollows became generic monsters. At the start of the series, they were human that past away and became corrupted. They try to fill the emptiness where they heart used to be by consuming human and spirits with high reiatsu. It also makes the Arrancar stand in a weird position. While Hollows seem they are reasoned with, they are driven my their desire. Arrancar seem to act like Shinigami with different skills than Hollows. And some of the highest ranked ones are very concerned with things not related to consuming souls anymore. Some even have actual honour in fighting their opponent's at their best and being respectful in certain cases, despite being assholes. But as hollows were portrayed in the past, they were playful but not there for a fair fight. It begs the question if the shinigamification has something to do with it, but even hollowfied Shinigami don't act like hollows. Unless they are consumed by their inner Hollow.

There are also way too many characters. Unlike in Dragon Ball, they aren't all useless. The power gab in Bleach between characters is relatively small and even they weren't, they can use abilities to compensate. Captains and Vice Captains usually do a lot of the heavy lifting. Urahara creates a lot of things that help out in a major battle.
But you also have Vizards which are former Vice Captain and Captain class Shinigami, but they only exist to job or pad out the runtime. Similarly to some other Vice Captains. One of them did manage to get a victory against a major threat, but there are so many of them capable to do something, they get shafted easy to keep the story moving.
Kensei for instants used his Bankai the first time in the story and was beaten off screen before we could see him do shit. The Top Espada didn't really live up to Ulquorra. Two of them lost rather easily despite showing some competence. And the other had just hax powers that just destroy anything he touches.

The last arc felt like a waste of time. This is like the 2nd time Ichigo lost his power, only to get new ones that he lost again. And to overcome that, he immediately gets new powers. So you are wondering, what was the deal about him losing his powers to begin with if he can get it so easily. And what was all the nonsense of him training when he could have gotten the powers at any point without training. It renders the Final Getsuga Tensho meaningless.

Filler arcs are a pain and the reason people jumped ship to the manga. Bleach is one of few examples that made people believe that manga is better than anime since filler can ruin the perception of a series. While a story doesn't need to be adapted faithfully to be good, in Bleach's case the anime staff responsible doesn't seem to be capable to adapt to Kubo's writing style and pacing. The random filler arcs really take you out of the story. No matter how good these arcs would be, it would make you dislike them usually.
The final fights are good.

Overall Bleach is a fine series. It has really high highs but insanely low lows. Lots of lovable characters. Looks great and has great soundtrack.