Bleach (Season One) – Agent of the Shinigami
Ichigo has been able to see ghosts for most of his life, however, he’s never seen a Hollow before… until now! When a mysterious girl gets hurt trying to save him, he borrows her powers and changes his world forever!
Bleach (Season One) – Agent of the Shinigami
What did you watch?
Back in 2004, Bleach rolled onto the anime scene. As I wasn’t watching that much anime at that time, due to availability and life, I missed it. I was aware of it but never managed to watch a single episode. Of course, it just got longer and longer since then and the more episodes it has the more daunting it is to start. So, I decided that the time had come for me to finally watch Bleach. After all, it’s only three-hundred and sixty-six episodes long… Well, I’ve conquered the first twenty and here’s what I thought! There will probably be spoilers, but you’ve had eighteen years to watch it…
What happened?
Ichigo can see ghosts and interact with them, but he’s never really thought that much about it. One day, after a particularly weird experience in the city centre, Ichigo is lying in bed when a girl climbs into his room and completely ignores him. He jumps up and demands to be heard, knocking her across the room. She’s surprised to see that he can see and touch her as she’s not exactly human.
Rukia is a Soul Reaper, a warrior who comes to Earth to help lost souls move on to the next phase of their lives. They can be stuck here as ghosts, but when things get really bad, they become Hollows. As it would happen, a Hollow has tracked Ichigo and his family down due to their higher-than-normal spiritual energy. Rukia tries to stop the Hollow, but it’s too strong. Their only chance is for Ichigo to borrow her powers and fight.
What did you think?
I really enjoyed the first season of Bleach even watching it in low definition. How has this not been digitally remastered? Anyhow, I loved the darker elements of the show and was surprised at several moments. I never expected it to get that dark, but I’m glad it did. Bleach also has a fascinating cast of characters and I’m certain that’s just going to grow and grow. There were also funny moments and touching moments. It really managed to grab you and pull you into their world.
What was your favourite moment?
I can’t decide if it was the talking parakeet episodes which was an amazingly dark idea. It followed a Hollow that had been a serial killer and he had removed the soul of the young son of his last victim from his body and put it in a parakeet, killing anyone that got in his way as he chased and tormented the poor child. As I said, dark! When Ichigo won, we got to see what happened to evil souls and it was pretty spectacular.
So, it was that or the episodes that focused on the Grand Fisher as he tried to devour Ichigo’s spiritual energy. It was obvious that he was somehow involved in the death of Ichigo’s mother but that didn’t make it any less impactful. I’m just disappointed that Ichigo didn’t get to land a killer blow!
What was your least favourite moment?
I think my least favourite part of the season was the introduction of Uryu Ishida. I get why he was angry and why he hated Soul Reapers but using bait to draw in Hollows for them to fight was a particularly dumb idea. It definitely helped to show that Ichigo was a far more level-headed character, which we already knew to be fair.
It wasn’t easy watching Rukia go through the emotions as she came to the conclusion that she needed to run away to protect Ichigo. Everything was a constant reminder of how her life had changed and while I think she liked it, it bothered her too.
Who was your favourite character?
I like Ichigo, but Rukia and Chad are far more interesting characters at this stage. Maybe that’s because we get to see everything about Ichigo as we’re mostly following him, whereas Chad is a complete enigma and Rukia is just amazing. I think I liked Rukia more and the moment she cemented it was at the filming of the Ghost Hunter episode with Don Kon’onji. I couldn’t stop grinning when she did the Bohahaha.
Who was your least favourite character?
It would be all too easy to point the finger at any of the Hollows so I won’t. Rukia’s adopted brother, Byakuya Kuchiki certainly earns a mention as he’s quite clearly got some issues, even if he is insanely strong. However, he didn’t really show up until the last four episodes, so I’m going to go with Uryu Ishida. I’m sure he’s going to improve as a character as he’s clearly part of the core team now, but he definitely rubbed me the wrong way, to begin with.
Would you like some more?
This season ended on a massive cliffhanger so you’d have to absolutely hate it to not want to find out what happens next. Luckily, I really enjoyed it and am excited to dive into season two. Right at the end of the season, Ichigo had a bit of a power-up moment when he learnt the name of his Zanpakutō and its new form is pretty amazing. My only gripe was that Tatsuki didn’t get involved. I was certain she would be there when things started to get crazy. Anyhow, give me more!
What have you learned?
It seems obvious, but if you’re going to create a longer series, you’re going to need more characters. That said, you need to be careful how you introduce them. Too many too fast and the audience is going to get lost and it’ll make it harder to connect and therefore care about them. I think Bleach did a really good job of slowly bringing more and more characters into the story.
I can tell how successful it was in that I’m gutted that Tatsuki probably won’t be as involved in the coming season. That’s based on the assumption that the next season will be mostly, if not entirely in Soul Society and that means it will follow our main four characters and any new ones that will no doubt be introduced. I think it was a bold move for them to not rescue Rukia this season. It would have been quite a disappointment had they not got a second season! Reminds me of the ending of Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero where they went through a portal and that was it!
Series Information
Manga
| Author | Tite Kubo | |
| Artist | Tite Kubo | |
| Volumes | 74 | Chapters |
| 1 | Strawberry and the Soul Reapers | 1-7 |
Anime
| Season | Season One |
| Released | Fall 2004 |
| Animation Studios | Pierrot |
| Episodes | 20 |
As much as there are some flawed writing along the way, I think Bleach’s anime adaptation is the best one to me out of the Big 3 (though I don’t know if this rule originated back in Japan in terms of long-running series of the (battle) shonen demographic).
Especially how I like the female characters, especially the magically strong ones, are well-written without some distracting or shallow (sexist) gender stereotypes being placed upon them. It’s unfortunate I’m disappointed with the female characters in Solo Leveling are written said shallow tropes and that lead me liking Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint so much more.
I too am taking notes in how to introduce new characters, especially the villains, in my ongoing series with the soon-to-be-written fourth arc having the most intense tone so far.
I’ve only read the first volume of the manga and watched the first season of the anime so I can’t really say much about it, but I’ve enjoyed both so far and will plan on getting through the rest of them at some point. I’ve been putting off the big Shounen series for the longest time because of how long they all are.
I’m a huge fan of strong female characters so I’ll keep an eye out for more. I loved Rukia and Orihime, and even Tatsuki who didn’t get enough time in my opinion.
There’s always lots to learn from stories that I’m always picking up things and wondering how I might do something similar. Gotta keep learning.
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