Bleach was very nearly one of the first anime I watched [along with Rurouni Kenshin] but I was persuaded off watching it given the fact that the anime had not adapted everything at the time. However, when I got into my manga phase, I practically binged Bleach and then proceeded to read the Thousand Year Blood War Arc and I can safely say that Kubo did an awesome job with the series.
I know it's not fair to usually point this out but Kurosaki Ichigo, while being a really cool shounen protagonist, wasn't the easiest to follow in the story due to the level of agency the story gave him. I've heard great takes about how much Bleach happens to be his story as much as that of the Gotei 13 but if I'm being honest, the real draw post the middle section of Soul Society is seeing the entire squad move along in the story.
By far, the strongest element to me about Bleach was how well Kubo maintained the flow of information in the story, giving subtle hints about things he wanted to work on later while giving the audience just enough to keep going with certain parts of the story. As a writer myself, I know that the idea of always having planned everything, especially for a Shounen Jump writer who has to worry about popularity and the manga staying on the shelf, is not as strong as we'd always like to believe but Kubo can sometimes make it look easy and I respect that.
The series adopts a very strong Ghost Whisperer vibe that it immediately throws out of the window for a more action based story about the Soul Reapers and the history of maintaining Seireitei as well as the past sins they've had to bear on account of their jobs. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing because even stories like Yu Yu Hakusho slowly morphed into a more action oriented series and again, it's not like he was writing a novel where he had the security of knowing which elements to build up on in time. The idea of making a weekly story appealing every single turn is something I do not envy any mangaka.
While I still prefer Naruto's overall sense of pacing and direction in fights in the Big 3, Bleach does a great amount in communicating scale and impact, really selling the spectacle of a fight in ways that spoilers would rob and it is a skill that gets better and better as Kubo keeps drawing over the years. The tension is never lost and Kubo is on the whole better at doing simultaneous fights when compared to Oda and Kishimoto, with his crowning jewel being the Thousand Year Blood War Arc that really takes every single lesson he's learnt as an author to the next level. The reason I say that, fully aware of arcs like Marine Ford and Pain's Assault is that more than simply switching perspectives in a fight, Kubo is able to better communicate the journeys of several characters at once, bringing the climax of each fight to a satisfaction of character development consistently over time. I can understand that is not a popular sentiment to offer but I offer it anyways.
It cannot be stated enough how much the themes of black and white pushed Kubo to making some of the most creative uniforms a manga series has ever offered to several groups of people consistently with just two primary colors each time. Bleach as a whole makes the best use of the black and whites in a manga both from a visual perspective and from a story perspective.
However, that being said, Bleach does have a system of learning how the world works that does make it one of the harder shounen to invest time in, especially if you're not one to keep track of several numbers. Kubo is really creative but sometimes he ends up with abilities like that of Fullbring and of Bount [strictly anime canon] which are unique but nowhere as memorable as the Zanpakuto system. I would find myself gravitating towards learning each Bankai and Shikai states more than I ever did learn about the Hado system. One might argue that it's a skill issue and I'm alright with that.
Kubo has a good balance on his entire cast and it shows. Most of Bleach's cast is memorable and even death is filled with gravity for a series based on characters that technically could live forever if they wanted to. But even with the balance, it felt way too bloated at times with some characters showing up later and my brain going 'Wow. I totally forgot you were important.' Again, that's not an entire demerit to the system but it's something I personally had to wrestle with.
Bleach has 686 chapters and most of them will be a journey worth taking. I know I personally liked it.
My Anime Rating System 2.0
90-99 [Balanced]
Entertainment, thematic value, worldbuilding, character development, animation, sound value, art style, expert direction, emotional sweeps and logical falls, the story has it all and is well balanced. Rewrites are virtually unnecessary.
70-89 [Compromise]
Small sacrifices to one or more important elements in the interest of upgrading others, elevating a story to more than the sum of its parts. Small rewrites can salvage plenty if not all of the project.
50-69 [Entertaining]
Deep sacrifices to one or more important elements in the interest of upgrading others, ending up with a half-baked project. Rewrites to more than half of the project if it is to get a stamp of approval.
30-49 [Effort]
Entire deletion of components that deserve the respect of being made and nothing more. Entire story rewrite at minimum.
10-29 [Indifference]
Life would have been better if such a project did not exist. Rewrites to the core of the project cannot salvage it.
1-9 [Eldritch Horror]
Project abandons logical pursuits in favor of cursing the very eyeballs that dare to consume it.
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