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Review

by Carlo Santos,

Bleach

DVD - Season 16 Uncut Box Set

Synopsis:
Bleach DVD Set 16
High-schooler Ichigo Kurosaki leads a double life as a Soul Reaper, fighting to protect the balance between the human and spirit worlds. His allies, the warriors of Soul Society, face an unprecedented crisis when their own swords—spirit-powered blades known as Zanpakuto—suddenly go berserk. An intruder named Muramasa has extracted the essence of each Zanpakuto, given them human form, and sparked a mass rebellion. Now Soul Society's fighters must battle each Zanpakuto to regain control ... but how can they win when their swords' greatest powers have taken on minds (and bodies) of their own? Even Ichigo must confront his blade, Zangetsu, but his hidden reserve of dark Hollow powers may be the key. Just as Soul Society is starting to figure things out, though, another crisis emerges when respected Soul Society captain Byakuya turns traitor!
Review:

In the action-adventure genre, few things are as important as the bond of friendship between heroes. But what about the bond between heroes and their weapons? Bleach, with its dozens of characters and their personalized, uniquely powered swords, has all the right tools to explore that idea. And so it does in the "Zanpakuto Rebellion" storyline, where the connection between weapon and wielder is no longer just a metaphor, but the physical cause of all-out war. However, with no source material to guide this filler arc, the animation fails to match the visual flair of Tite Kubo's manga—and the story itself soon turns to Bleach's predictable ways of trotting out one fight after another.

Right from the start, these thirteen episodes suffer from clumsy storytelling. Muramasa makes his declaration of war by summoning all of Soul Society's captains to one place and speaking to them—a very contrived way of handling affairs, because only the dumbest, cheesiest villains proudly announce their evil plans. As the rest of the story arc progresses, most plot advancement only happens when the action comes to a grinding halt. The main characters gather in a room and recap what they've learned, setting up their next strategy, or they stop mid-battle and have an angry debate with the enemy, before figuring out how to win. This stop-and-go pacing breaks up the energy that should be propelling the story forward. Honestly, who's got time to sit down for lectures on spiritual-sword theory?

With exposition handled so poorly, it falls on the fight scenes to carry this story arc and save the day. Some battles do succeed in saying something meaningful, whether it's the heartbreaking sight of Rukia having to confront her sword's "ice maiden" persona, or tough-as-nails Hitsugaya having a flashback to his harsh childhood and summoning the strength to control his Zanpakuto. Naturally, Ichigo also gets one of the more compelling fights as he faces not only Zangetsu, but Muramasa himself—all the while struggling with the dark side of his powers.

However, in an effort to get every Zanpakuto-wielding character involved, this story arc wastes too much time on sideshows and comic relief: nobody really needs to see roly-poly big man Ômaeda fighting for his weapon, or two rival Zanpakuto constantly bickering with each other until their owners beat some sense into them. At least Byakuya's turncoat move sends the story in a new direction later on, but even that pivotal subplot keeps getting pushed aside in favor of minor supporting characters getting far more screen time than they deserve.

The visuals in these episodes are as spotty as the storytelling itself. Some of the battles are masterfully executed—Ichigo's showdown with Zangetsu is full of bold lines and striking angles, while the snowy setting of Hitsugaya's fight is at once beautiful yet forbidding. But other times, viewers have to sit through unimaginative staging that can ruin even the most exciting sword fight: front view, side view, front view, close-up of weapon, and so on. Shoddy animation quality makes it worse, with a sluggish frame rate, off-model characters, and dull, low-detail backgrounds dragging down on certain episodes. In moments like these, the only eye candy factor comes from the Zanpakuto power-ups, but since those moves are already familiar to fans, it's not like the visuals are exactly fresh. At least there's more creativity in the designs of the personified Zanpakuto. This motley crew of characters—some noble, some fearsome, some comical—is a fun exercise in seeing how a sword's "personality" might be represented in reality.

If familiar sword-fighting moves can be recycled, why not the background music that goes with it? That's basically what happens here, as well-known snippets of the Bleach soundtrack pop up again and again in each episode. The music's dark, dramatic edge fits well with the events of this story arc, but all the reused content shows a lack of effort. Meanwhile, the hard-rock theme songs provide a boost of energy to the beginning and ending of each episode, even if they sound too much alike.

The voice-acting advantage clearly goes to the Japanese cast in this episode, as the English dub often ends up sounding fake, as if the characters didn't believe in their own emotions. It's not so much of a problem with well-established, serious personalities like Ichigo or Byakuya, but distinctive roles like hot-headed Renji, flighty Rangiku, or even the brooding Muramasa try too hard to live up to a stereotype instead of simply being the character. The translation is correct, the voice casting is about right, but the delivery is where the dub falls short. These discs also come up pretty short on extras: a clean opening and ending, some production art, and the 30-second omake segments that originally came after each episode's TV airing.

In this story arc, Bleach proves to be just as frustrating as it is exciting. Here's a really great idea, one that promises new villains to fight against and a new way to look at the characters ... and then poor story execution ends up running that idea into the ground. Inconsistent animation quality hurts it even further. We could have learned about the unique bonds between weapons and their wielders, but a lot of the time it's just supporting characters yelling "I'm the strongest!" and trying to overpower their Zanpakuto. There could have been some grand visual displays (which does happen in the case of Ichigo and a couple of others), but more often it's a display of third-rate animation and the same old spiritual powers viewers have seen before. What would happen if a hero's weapon came to life? The answer to that open-ended question deserves a better treatment than this one.

Grade:
Overall (dub) : C-
Overall (sub) : C+
Story : D+
Animation : D
Art : B
Music : C

+ The "swords come to life" concept paves the way for unique character designs and thrilling fight scenes, while a twist of betrayal adds intrigue later on.
Shoddy animation, stop-and-go story pacing, and too much time devoted to secondary-character battles end up ruining what could have been a great arc.

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Production Info:
Director: Noriyuki Abe
Series Composition:
Tsuyoshi Kida
Kento Shimoyama
Masashi Sogo
Script:
Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Miho Imamura
Mio Imamura
Rika Nakase
Masahiro Okubo
Masao Ōkubo
Kento Shimoyama
Masashi Sogo
Natsuko Takahashi
Michiko Yokote
Genki Yoshimura
Storyboard:
Noriyuki Abe
Masami Anno
Koji Aritomi
Tetsuya Endō
Manabu Fukazawa
Kiyomu Fukuda
Shigeki Hatakeyama
Yasuyuki Honda
Masashi Ishihama
Satoshi Ishino
Shigenori Kageyama
Jun Kamiya
Rei Kaneko
Akio Kawamura
Masahiko Komino
Chiaki Kon
Junya Koshiba
Masashi Kudo
Hodaka Kuramoto
Toshihiko Masuda
Tadahito Matsubayashi
Hitoyuki Matsui
Yasuhiro Matsumura
Yukihiro Matsushita
Yuzuru Mitsui
Shigeyuki Miya
Kazunori Mizuno
Yūji Moriyama
Minoru Murao
Takehiro Nakayama
Yasuto Nishikata
Hiroaki Nishimura
Satoshi Nishimura
Mitsutaka Noshitani
Tetsuhito Saito
Masami Shimoda
Ogura Shirakawa
Yoshifumi Sueda
Natsuko Suzuki
Hideki Tachibana
Yuzuru Tachikawa
Jun Takada
Hiroki Takagi
Motosuke Takahashi
Takahiro Takamizawa
Shinichi Tōkairin
Sanzou Tsuyukida
Shigeru Ueda
Atsushi Wakabayashi
Shinichi Watanabe
Hideyo Yamamoto
Minoru Yamaoka
Episode Director:
Noriyuki Abe
Eitarō Ano
Koji Aritomi
Matsuo Asami
Kiyomu Fukuda
Shigeki Hatakeyama
Tomoko Hiramuki
Tetsuo Ichimura
Akane Inoue
Yasuo Iwamoto
Akira Iwanaga
Taiji Kawanishi
Takushi Kimura
Chiaki Kon
Harume Kosaka
Junya Koshiba
Masashi Kudo
Hodaka Kuramoto
Yasuhiro Kuroda
Keizou Kusakawa
Tadahito Matsubayashi
Nobufumi Matsuda
Yasuhiro Matsumura
Yuzuru Mitsui
Ryo Miyata
Kazunori Mizuno
Geisei Morita
Eiko Nishi
Yasuto Nishikata
Hiroaki Nishimura
Kazuo Nogami
Mitsutaka Noshitani
Yoshinori Odaka
Rokou Ogiwara
Yukio Okazaki
Masaya Sasaki
Kazuma Satō
Yuji Sekimoto
Akira Shimizu
Kazunobu Shimizu
Ogura Shirakawa
Yoshifumi Sueda
Yuzuru Tachikawa
Hiroki Takagi
Takeshi Tomita
Shigeru Ueda
Takeshi Yamaguchi
Minoru Yamaoka
Mitsue Yamazaki
Unit Director:
Noriyuki Abe
Masashi Kudo
Shingo Ogiso
Yuzuru Tachikawa
Music: Shirō Sagisu
Original creator: Tite Kubo
Character Design: Masashi Kudo
Art Director:
Natsuko Suzuki
Sawako Takagi
Art:
Tsuyoshi Fukumoto
Masaya Hamaguchi
Yuki Kasahara
Hideaki Kudo
Katsusuke Okamura
Mayu Shirai
Sawako Takagi
Shinobu Takahashi
Mayu Usui
Norihiko Yokomatsu
Animation Director:
MANASITA
Chiaki Abe
Yoshie Anzai
Shigemi Aoyagi
Eiki Arasato
Eri Baba
Bum-Chul Chang
Manabu Fukazawa
Akihiro Fukui
Yeong-Hun Han
Daiki Handa
Kenji Hattori
Yūri Ichinose
Shin Jae Ick
Hidenori Igari
Hiroaki Imaki
Keiichi Ishida
Masashi Ishihama
Tomomi Ishikawa
Nobuyuki Iwai
Gil Soo Joo
Akio Kawamura
Toshihiro Kikuchi
Gi Nam Kim
Hyon Ok Kim
Hyun Ok Kim
Il Bae Kim
Sang-Yeob Kim
Seong Beom Kim
Yong Sik Kim
Yoon-Joung Kim
Seiji Kishimoto
Akemi Kobayashi
Ryo Kobayashi
Yukari Kobayashi
Ryou Kodama
Makoto Koga
Masahiko Komino
Atsushi Komori
Mitsuki Kosaka
Fumiaki Kouta
Tsuguyuki Kubo
Masashi Kudo
Manabu Kurihara
Shinichi Kurita
Boo Hee Lee
Sung Jin Lee
Shuji Maruyama
Ippei Masui
Tamami Miura
Shuuji Miyazaki
Kazuya Miyoshi
Joo Yeon Moon
Minoru Morita
Yūji Moriyama
Tsutomu Murakami
Keiya Nakano
Shingo Ogiso
Masaya Ōnishi
Shigetsune Ōsawa
Chang Hwan Park
Hye-Ran Park
In-Hee Park
Jong Jun Park
Tomoko Satō
Yang Kwang Seock
Sanae Shimada
Makoto Shimojima
Jae-Ik Shin
Kim-Young Sik
Sayuri Sugitou
Natsuko Suzuki
Shin'ichi Suzuki
Shinichi Suzuki
Yoko Suzuki
Hiroki Takagi
Motosuke Takahashi
Akira Takeuchi
Yukari Takeuchi
Masaya Tanaka
Seiki Tanaka
Takashi Uchida
Miyuki Ueda
Tomomi Umemura
Masaru Yamada
Asuka Yamaguchi
Keiko Yamamoto
Osamu Yamamoto
Yoshimitsu Yamashita
Naoki Yamauchi
Teruhiko Yamazaki
Takeshi Yoshioka
Director of Photography:
Toshiyuki Fukushima
Katsufumi Sato
Producer:
Shunji Aoki
Ken Hagino
Kyoko Kobayashi
Mai Nagai
Yutaka Sugiyama
Jun Takibuchi
Yukio Yoshimura
Licensed by: Viz Media

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Bleach (TV)

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