Forum - View topicWhatever Happened to Bleach?
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18210 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I found this to be a very astute and interesting analysis which aligns almost precisely with what I have personally experienced with the anime (seen all) and heard about the manga (read none). For me the series floundered when it tried to get too complicated with the multi-sided battles and it excelled most when it focused on key one-on-one between major characters, whether battles (Ichigo vs. Byakuya round 2 is still to my mind the franchise's defining battle) or interpersonal scenes (Orihime's confession to the sleeping Ichigo before being taken away by Ulquiorra). I also entirely agree that the reveal of Aizen's villainy was the other defining moment and that Orihime was woefully underused for as powerful as she was supposed to be; she seemed like one of those cases where the writer belatedly realized that he had created a secondary character who was too powerful and so had to keep coming up with ways to limit her/keep her from dominating events.
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KH91
Posts: 6176 |
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As long as Ichigo ends up with Orihime, that will satisfy me.
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Keichitsu0305
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It's weird since I loved Bleach because it looked and sounded like nothing I had seen before while growing up. Now, I barely even think about the series and had no clue that it was still ongoing. I even gave my Ichigo plush to my nephew because I stopped caring.
As an old Orihime x Ichigo shipper I was pissed that Orihime never utilized her near God like powers. If Kubo knew that having "bring people from the (dead? But isn't everyone in Soul Society dead??)" would mean that dying was no longer meaningful, then why bring it up in the first place?! Oh well, lets create a hundred Arrancar characters only for them to die easily or Aizen to kill his own teammates because LOL he's evilz. 
What killed Bleach for me was the anime fillers. Before I had internet at home (my middle school had blocked anime content), there was no way to know what episode on Toonami was filler what was canonical until after the fact. Also, joined too late and had to catch up once I got my Crunchyroll account. Still like the earlier seasons, some parts of the Soul Society arc, the music, and the first film. |
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Marajsky06
Posts: 3 |
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They need to bring back the anime!!!
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Punch Drunk Marc
Posts: 1743 |
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I used to love Bleach, and I still sort of do (I was watching right along with Naruto) but I've been past caring about it (also like Naruto). What with Ichigo's ridiculous powerset spoiler[(he's a human/soul reaper/arrancar/quincy)], Orihime's abyssmal character arc, Kubo's thought process of "long battles mean epic stories".
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Divineking
 Posts: 1293 |
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Great article. Perfectly describes just about everything that's ticked me off about Bleach for nearly a decade now. There's way too many characters in the series for it's own good and not nearly enough of them are well developed enough. To make matters worse, Kubo's tendency to use certain characters seems partially revolved around their current popularity and I recall an alost 2-year stint in the Hueco Mundo arc where Ichigo's friends were almost nowhere to be seen in favor of the SS captains who are technically just supposed to be side characters.
Making matters worse is that the manga has what is quite possibly the single worst sense of pacing I've ever seen. Kubo tends to spend at least 6+ chapters on any one fight scene and a lot of the time it isn't even necessairy. I recall a recent fight between spoiler[the main villain Ywatch and one of the SS characters where the latter spent like 5 chapters explaining why Ywatch's powers can't do anything against him only for Ywatch to one-shot him in like 3 panels.] That could have easily been done in a chapter or less and it's downright baffling. A lot of this would be easier to swallow if the characters were developed enough to be interested in the outcome of these fights but a lot of them aren't and I spend half the time wishing Kubo would just get to the dang point. Speaking frankly I feel like in spite of that arc's problems towards the end had Bleach ended with Hueco Mundo, it'd probably have a much stronger chance of being looked back on fondly. Now? It's really hard to say and it's anyone's guess if the ending will do something to crater the series even further. It's a shame because I used to be really into Bleach but now I just read it for completionist's sake and it's really sad to look back and see how far the series has fallen. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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I liked Bleach was it was a horror-action series.
Less than one volume, I think? |
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DmonHiro
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Kubo blew it when he made Orihime's powers into a literal Deus Ex Machina machine. After finding out what her powers DO, the heroes should literally be unstoppable. She can bring people back from the dead. Technically she can bring them back from BEYOND the dead. Why is the 1st squad commander still dead? Why is ANYONE still dead? Because they keep coming up with reasons why they can't just have Orihime bring them back. Hell, after the commander only lost an arm, they still didn't get him healed. In his place, I'd have Orihime on speed-dial.
Well, that's just one of the current problems. Nobody cares about the backstory of random quincy nu.201, Kubo. Also, Ichigo has shinigami powers, hollow powers, full bring powers and quincy powers. That's just bullshit. |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4379 Location: New York |
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Kubo thought that interesting and compelling stories were for dorks and that trolling was a higher artistic expression than well, not sucking on toast. Show got cancelled and manga sales plummeted.
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Яeverse
 Posts: 1140 Location: Indianapolis |
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Confused where Bleach sales have dwindled? If one looked at the top manga sales by volume for 2014 they would clearly see that bleach manga volumes are still selling over 630K a volume. Secondly when was it stated the anime was cancelled? Is any series that ends at its latest arc considered a cancelled series? Speculation isnt fact article writer.
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Hyperdrve
 Posts: 276 |
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I can't express how much I agree with this article. For me personally, the first 50 episodes of Bleach are the best out of any other anime, excluding YYH. I can't decide between YYH and Bleach because they're similar in too many ways. I can watch those first 50 episodes a hundred times and never get tired of it, while I usually get bored of an anime after its first run. And Kubo's art is so great that I've collected several of his artbooks.
Although I skipped past Grimmjow and almost everything involving Aizen, I recognize that the last battles between Aizen and the Espadas, and the Division Captains were of very high technical merit and therefore really got my blood pumping. What I want to tell these mangaka is that they should make both good fast paced plots and interesting characters. The villain should be killed after a certain period of time to keep the plot fresh. I hate how these mangaka have made a habit on relying on their main characters and villains for manga sales. 1. Kill off the villain after he overstayed his welcome and you don't know what you're doing anymore. 2. Don't pander to character fanboy and fangirls. Unless it's for characters like Byakuya and Kenpachi. 3. Keep the plot fresh and competent. If they would follow these simple rules then they would have atleast 10x the manga sales than they currently have. But at least the Bleach anime ended in a dignified manner and before things got too ridiculous, unlike Naruto. This is one of the many reasons why Bleach beats Naruto. Last edited by Hyperdrve on Fri Nov 06, 2015 1:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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I lost interest in Bleach all the way back in that first long plot arc. It already felt like things are getting stupidly drawn out. Generally when shounen starts getting numbered characters, it's getting too unwieldy and drawn out. Bleach did that way near the beginning, which was a bad sign for me already. Then the fact that they totally ruined Rukia's character at the same time. She didn't have any powers, but she still was able to act, and be her own person. Then during that arc, all of a sudden she was sitting there moping and useless, feeling sorry for herself rather than trying to do anything to save herself. Straw that broke the camel's back. Good to know past me's judgement was proven 100 percent correct, and I saved myself years of disappointment.
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Tensai GinAce
 Posts: 119 |
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Gin's death was anticlimactic ?? get the hell out of here !
I'm not saying Bleach is a perfect series, but most of your points don't make sense at all. I can see how butt-hurt you are, but I can't understand why you would be stupid enough to read 300+ chapters after your "interest has waned". Also, the sales decreased ? Bleach is selling 400 thousand on the first three or two weeks and the volumes are selling out at about 750 thousand to 850 thousand after that. Which is a little less than before mainly because of the canceled anime. I normally love most of the articles here, but I don't think a site as big as ANN should post a butthurt-influenced article like this. I mean you could have stated that this is how you feel about the series, but you can't just go and talk about "facts" when they are only backed by your opinion. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I stopped reading the manga and should have stopped watching the anime after Rukia spoiler[was rescued] at the end of the Soul Society arc. I enjoyed that enough that I have watched the anime twice and plan to read the manga again.
Unfortunately I also watched the Bount filler arc of the anime, all of it, and that really killed the whole franchise for me. After reading this article and thread I am thinking that I should probably try the Arrancar (Hueco Mundo?) arc of both the manga and anime. I think that I might enjoy those. I also think that if I do that I should probably stop there.
Isn't that stopping in the middle of a story? For me the good part lasted until episode 63. Last edited by Touma on Fri Nov 06, 2015 1:19 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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MajorZero
Posts: 359 |
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Sorry, what? Kubo lost interest in the manga long time ago, I swear I read somewhere that he only draws explosions these days. The only reason why Bleach still going is that both Jump editorial and Kubo are happy with tankobon sales. |
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