“Bleach” Review

By Donnell Solomon

TV-14

Among all anime series, “Bleach” contains a significant amount of buildup throughout the plot.

“Bleach” starts off with a simple teenager named Ichigo Kurosaki, who can also see and speak to the dead. Ichigo uses his powers to help the dead move on from Earth, where they’re not supposed to dwell for long.

Spoiler Alert!

Show summary:

As the show progresses, Kurosaki meets Rukia Kuchiki, a soul reaper. Rukia meets Ichigo as he tries to protect an individual’s soul from a hollow (monster that only soul reapers and people with a certain gift can see). While hunting the hollow, Rukia steps in to help. Because of this, Rukia sacrifices herself to save Ichigo and ends up being injured.

As a result, Rukia transfers her soul reaper abilities to Ichigo. After a while, Ichigo is able to develop his own soul reaper powers by embarking on a journey to either become a hollow or a soul reaper. This journey ends up leaving Ichigo with a dark side where the hollow can take control when he needs more power.

Despite this, Ichigo uses his darker power often when traveling to Soul Society.

Soul Society is where souls go after death. Soul reapers and upper level soul reapers live. Ichigo travels here to rescue Rukia, who is imprisoned for helping Ichigo. On their journey, it is discovered that Soul Society has traitors.

The majority of the show leaves the audience trying to guess who the traitors could be. In the end, the traitor is a complete surprise.

“Bleach” incorporates intense fight scenes that push characters to the limit, all while creating plot twists at every turn. The fight scenes are made more intense with the soundtrack that utilizes many rock songs.

The characters who fight quite often end up having a mutual respect for their opponent because of the intensity of the battles. Kurosaki becomes stronger with each of his battles as he prepares to fight even more powerful characters as he advances through Soul Society. Despite the power that Kurosaki has, the show makes him a fairly positive character through comedy.

Kurosaki has friends and family back home that offer a contrast to his serious soul reaper duties. He often gets into fist fights with his immature father and has friends who say some unintelligible things that cause the classic anime surprise.

Overall, “Bleach” has a very good balance of comedy, excitement, intensity, and plot that make it a very successful show.