At this point in time, is a Bleach review necessary among the masses? Well, probably not. But it’s my day off and I feel like writing a Bleach review.
Honesty time. I haven’t followed Tite Kubo’s Bleach for long years like a lot of fans. In fact I’ve probably only been reading the manga and watching the anime since 2014/2015. In any case, I think I’m familiar enough with it for my two cents worth of input.
I like Beach, I do, truthfully. But unfortunately and inevitably, this review will be forced to not ignore the many flaws that the series presented.
If this review had to be titled something: Suitably it would be something like, the Downfall of Bleach. Because this series went on a serious decline like something chronic.
Ain’t no Arrancars and the almighty Aizen sama stopping that sweet decline.

Okay, let’s go back to the year 2001. Bleach began its run in weekly Shonen Jump.
It was like a cool new Yu Yu Hakusho, but with it’s own style, of course.
Ichigo Kurosaki can see ghosts. Simple enough.
Ichigo is given new found powers by Shinigami, Rukia Kuchiki, sure why not? He must now defend humans from evil spirits, and such.
The thing that immediately separated Bleach from the other immensely popular shonen battle manga at the time, such as Naruto and One Piece, is that it was still based in a real world setting. With Ichigo and co. attending school.
Bleach continued a solid 70 something weeks until it soared in popularity because of a genuinely incredible story arc.
The Soul Society arc (let’s rescue Rukia) provided real threatening antagonists. Beforehand, it was basically on a monster of the week type style. Now the stakes were high in a whole new world unfamiliar to our main characters.
This arc presented great new characters and the art was seriously on point. The battles were drawn wonderfully which left no confusion as to the choreography, something that unfortunately would not remain forever, but more on that later.
With the end of the rescue arc, came a great plot twist, introducing the real villain. With this, Kubo set up immediately for the following arc.

Now let’s look at what would come to follow. The Arrancar arc, the dealing with Aizen and his Espada. Let’s outline this arc and by doing so, the first real problem for Bleach can be found.
One of Ichigo’s friends is taken captive to a foreign land in which Ichigo and his friends must break into and fight powerful enemies in order to save her. Sound familiar at all?
This arc simply was too repetitive of the last, which took away some of the spark that it could have perhaps been.
This is where Bleach began to fall from the top of the rankings. The art became a little less focused too, with some fights being hard to follow and backgrounds being entirely left out in panels at times.
At this point, Ichigo’s power ups were seemingly out of control and getting to the plot no jutsu stage.
For many years the Arrancar arc continued and finally an Ichigo vs Aizen showdown happened.
However, many fans agreed that this final battle was lacklustre. Whether it was because it was pretty damn too one sided, or if maybe because at this stage, fans were ready to move on. Kubo isn’t a mangaka that speeds through his story.

Perhaps to a degree, Bleach should have ended after this arc. This is where the most brutalising decline for the series happened in the rankings.
A tiresome arc about Ichigo regaining his powers, and then a long final war arc. Because it wouldn’t be a real shonen battle series without some kind of a war, right?
Bleach resulted in simply always being about good vs bad. There was never any depth to the story after the Soul Society arc. Sure there were moments to get excited about, but the story never really went anywhere unique in particular.
Another issue I would like to point out is directly about our main character, Ichigo himself.
Let’s look at our other big three main characters for a second here in comparison. Luffy dreams of becoming the pirate king and finding the one piece. This goal motivates him throughout the series.
Naruto dreams of becoming the hokage and being respected by his village after years of torment. This goal motivates him throughout the series.
Ichigo dreams of, well…we don’t know. We aren’t sure of his goals, of what he really wants in life. Without this aspect, the character is derived of personality. It’s probably not the greatest credit to know that after being with Ichigo for more than 700 chapters, I still feel like I don’t really know him very well. This is problematic for a main character in a series.
I’m not even going to write about Bleach’s ending because as abysmal as it was, the creator isn’t to blame here. It would be impossible to present a satisfying conclusion when given only three or four chapters to wrap up the series at the very beginning of a final fight. Closure inevitably is left out for many characters, and it’s damn unfortunate.

I’m going to wrap this up on a positive note, because through thick and thin, I’m still a Bleach fan.
And if you’ve read this far, I really appreciate it. It’s been fun.
Feel free to comment on my profile, we can talk about Bleach.
Sure the series had its many problems, especially the third half…but Bleach has some of the most enjoyable battles I have had the pleasure of reading, and essentially that is where it shines.
With a strong start and an incredible first third, Bleach soared through popularity with Naruto and One Piece. But unfortunately due to repetitive story structures and a blank main character, the downfall of the series was more damaging than Orihime’s chest is big.
This was: Let’s Talk About Manga #2 Bleach