Bleach by Tite Kubo is one of those manga that everyone's heard of. It holds a lot of value as a series because of it's fame and infamy, but also because it is a good example of what to do as well as what not to do for a long running battle shonen series. It really is one of the most conflicting manga out there.
Bleach starts out strong by introducing Ichigo, a high schooler who can see ghosts. One night he is attacked by a Hollow, a malicious type of ghost. He is saved by a soul reaper (or shinigami going by the fan translations) named Rukia who is then injured. She has to give her powers to Ichigo in order for him to defeat the Hollow, and has Ichigo perform the duties of a soul reaper while her powers are returning.
Initially the story is a fun Hollow of the week type of story with some school comedy mixed in. The stories introduce and flesh out a fun characters. This doesn't last long (compared to the rest of the story) and eventually things change to more complex conflicts (that can't really be delved into without going into spoilers) with more characters, more fights, and more nonsense.
The story has some odd contradictions in it as things get more fleshed out and there are quite a few retcons and deus ex machinas. It's a shame because the story is very compelling and complex, the later parts just make less and less sense. Most of the story is also taken up with one on one battles that on a technical level all play out the same. Every character hides a powerup until the last possible moment and then wins. On a thematic and character level the fights are different enough, and they are drawn differently enough to mostly excuse how many there are. There also is a lot more sexual fanservice later on that gets in the way occasionally. It's not ever too bad though, since more often than not, the panels don't focus on it.
Finally, the ending of Bleach is just bad. Everything ends with a rushed, anticlimactic final battle and a ton of unanswered questions. The ending was rushed as well, and showed a lot of stuff that didn't matter.
The characters don't fare a whole lot better. The main character, Ichigo is one of the biggest Gary Stew characters out there. He gains pretty much every type of power imaginable and never has any trouble mastering them. He has the standard qualities of most shonen protagonists, rushing into battle and wanting to protect his friends, but he doesn't really have a goal for himself. He does feel a bit more mature than most protagonists, and does develop subtly, but he is overall not that great of a protagonist.
Rukia is probably the best character in the series since she has a unique personality (teasing but also serious), and goes through a lot of character development. She is constantly rewarded within the story for her development as well, making her character very satisfying. The final character to go in depth on is Orihime, Ichigo's friend. She is useless. She has a decent enough personality (aloof and naive), but never does anything substantial in the story and doesn't have any completed character arc.
Bleach has an enormous cast of characters, and the three previously mentioned are the only major ones introduced in the beginning, so no more will be talked about in depth to avoid spoilers. The rest can be talked about pretty easily together. Characters have strong personalities and flaws, but few get the spotlight and development they deserve. As more and more characters are introduced every arc, they get more silly (which doesn't fit the with the tone initially established) and one note, and more useless to the overall story. There are always exceptions to this general rule, but for the most part the characters in this series are all very likable, but don't have enough focus. Fake character deaths are also more frequent as the series goes on, which reduces the impact of many scenes.
The character designs, however are very great. As the series goes on, the designs get more silly and weaker overall. There are so many good character designs though, that the few bad ones later on don't affect this area too much. Every design feels unique and well though out. They are very striking and immediately give a sense of what the character is like. Most designs are memorable as well. The good designs (which are most of them) are some of the best character designs out there. Overall, the characters look sleek, cool, and powerful, all fitting traits for the type of series Bleach is.
When a series is published for 15 years, the art is of course going to go through some changes. Initially the art had a lot unique flair to it, with a lot of passion behind it, but it had lower detail and more inconsistencies. Later parts of the series feel less unique, and more white space is used for backgrounds (sometimes for good effect, sometimes because Kubo was lazy), but the detail goes up. The art in Bleach never goes bad, and there is always a lot of style in it, but it does change, which will always spark debates. Both art styles are strong in their own right, and both feel right for the part of the series they are in though.
The flow and paneling does change as well, though not as significantly. The action is almost always communicated well, and panels flow well into each other. No matter what, it's easy to feel the motion in the pages, and the path of each page is well designed for easy reading. Just glancing through a few pages shows how great this aspect is. As the series goes on, moments are dragged out more with larger panels and more empty space.
This trend hurts the backgrounds which were initially detailed enough to give the setting a lot of weight. In the second major arc of the series, the setting is meant to be empty and lifeless, so they style actually helps there, but after that, there is a lot of white space backgrounds. Most of the time, the panels are either too full, or a moment is being emphasized so the settings are not nearly as defined later on, even though they were supposed to be more interesting than previous settings.
This trend follows in the writing of the setting as well. There are a lot of retcons and deus ex machinas that make the setting feel random and disjointed. Things contradict each other and rather than feeling like a real world with its own rules, the setting of Bleach (which is an expanded version of the real world with an afterlife) feels more like a random pile of stuff rather than anything that could actually exist. This applies to the character's backgrounds as well, since they don't line up in the timeline well.
Rukia should have been able to defeat the Hollow in the very beginning of the story (this maybe could've been Aizen, but it was never explicitly stated). Yachiru (the one with pink hair), Yoruichi, Ginjo, and the Soul King were never fully explored (they are mentioned specifically because there were all aspects about their character that were never explained, rather than just unfulfilled like many others). While not showing a character's power is not usually something to complain about, this is a battle shonen, so it is very disappointing to not see Ichigo's final Bankai.
The final two arcs make very little sense. The Lost agent arc was just a big retcon to get Ichigo his powers back, and the Thousand Year Blood War introduced a ton of Quincies even though they were supposed to all be dead. The final getsuga tenshou and the silver arrow were both massive deus ex machinas that hurt the plot more than they helped. Finally, Yhwach and Aizen have very vague motivations, particularly Yhwach.
Bleach is a very conflicting series since there is a lot of good to be found here. The first arc is very good, the second is decent overall, the third is terrible, and the fourth is bad. Overall, if you are a big fan of battle shonen, then give Bleach a try. There are a lot of cool battles and characters to be found here. Otherwise, stay away from this series.
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