Bleach

[ben0119]

Whoa!  Didn't realize the movie was out already!  I gotta go watch it!

[ben0119]

On 9/17/2018 at 12:32 PM, naraku360 said:

I get the sense you haven't watched it because none of that is true.

It's real bad.

You said that about the Death Note movie, too, but it wasn't that bad.  It could have been way worse.

[naraku360]

26 minutes ago, ben0119 said:

You said that about the Death Note movie, too, but it wasn't that bad.  It could have been way worse.

Bleach LA was pretty subpar. I didn't get super far in, but I did get to some of the action and it wasn't very impressive. Otherwise it was just Bleach... so, not very good.

As for the Death Note movie, that was a trainwreck. A beautiful, hilarious atrocity.

Edited October 11, 2018 by naraku360

[ben0119]

On 10/10/2018 at 9:50 PM, naraku360 said:

Bleach LA was pretty subpar. I didn't get super far in, but I did get to some of the action and it wasn't very impressive. Otherwise it was just Bleach... so, not very good.

As for the Death Note movie, that was a trainwreck. A beautiful, hilarious atrocity.

Well I did notice from the trailer that it seems like the music sucks, when the anime had great music. D: Your opinion of Bleach is moot to me, so that doesn't carry much water for me.

I thought it was pretty good for a what-if scenario if this particular kid had gotten the Death Note.  They should have done that completely and not said this was some version of the original story and characters.  L was good, though, eh?  It wasn't great but like I said it could have been way worse, like, Street Fighter The Movie or Mortal Kombat: Annihilation level.  Or Evil Dead 1.  That movie is so bad it's literally torture to sit through.  I watched it once for completion and that's it.

[ben0119]

     

      

      

      

   

[SloweyJoey46]

I watched through this show again recently. Or rather I stopped after Aizen's defeat. Just didn't seem right to go any further than that. I was wondering if I was the only one that felt this way, but how do you guys feel about the other soul reapers? Particularly the captains and lieutenants (and I guess Yumichika and Ikkaku). I honestly didn't like how they kinda stole the show after the Soul Society arc. Like some of the characters are fine (though a few of them are really underdeveloped) but I always felt they kinda pulled the attention away from Ichigo's relationship with his friends. Like I was fine with Renji being pulled into the regular cast since that just seemed to make sense, but I feel like Chad, Orihime and (albeit to a lesser extent) Uryu just get shafted at some point. Especially Chad. Poor Chad. Dude barely does a thing throughout the entirety of the Arrancar saga. Orihime is probably the more humorous situation though because she's such a big deal to Ichigo and the others in the Hueco Mundo arc, but whenever the filler kicks in, she's always given sidekick status. Especially in that one filler where the female Soul Reapers go to the beach and a lot of the Soul Reapers go to get some R&R and Chad, Uryu and Orihime are just there to serve their whims. Pretty hilarious. Anyway, what do you guys think? Am I kinda alone in thinking all that or are there some that agree? 

[The1gairon]

Indeed. Aizen being defeated felt like the end of the show to me. The season after that had the best animation I seen in Bleach in a long time, but I was like man waht's the point?

Oo!  There's this excellent 12-minute-long fan animation of a fan-written episode!  They even got JYB to return as Ichigo, though I wish I could say the same for the rest of the cast.

 

[ben0119]

That Fullbring Arc is transitional and a warm up to the final arc. Trust me, Aizen is not "the end."  Far from it.  You must have forgotten previous things that were set up and referenced that wasn't all dealt with at the time of Aizen's defeat.  Final Arc has so many great moments and meets and surpasses previous Bleach high points for me.  Go read 1000 Year Blood War Arc right now!

[Winter_Rain]

Kind of hoping the final arc eventually gets animated just for completion's sake tbh

[The1gairon]

Yeah. And I kinda think that waiting until you got a LOOOOONG stretch of Nothing between the anime version of the Fullbringer Arc and the last arc is a GOOD decision.  Because absence makes the heart grow fonder, and they can use that time to build up a huge budget for the last arc so it's done excellently, instead of "sufficiently good enough".

[Winter_Rain]

Bleach was just unlucky to come out before the anime industry started changing their model ("seasons" vs. continuous long-runners).  

Something like half of the final product was filler episodes.  It was ridiculous.

[Top Gun]

I think it was even more than half.  Bleach remains the only shounen adaptation I've seen with filler arcs that were not only non-canon to the manga, but non-canon to the rest of the anime itself.  Thank you, Kubo's godawful pacing.

[Jman]

Can we all agree a 3 minute training montage is infinitely preferable to 3 filler episodes?

[The1gairon]

2 hours ago, Winter_Rain said:

Bleach was just unlucky to come out before the anime industry started changing their model ("seasons" vs. continuous long-runners).  

Something like half of the final product was filler episodes.  It was ridiculous.

43%.

yes. Someone did the math.

[Winter_Rain]

It sure felt like more than 43%.  

Of course, the other problem the Bleach anime had was that even a decent amount of the canon material was just...not very good.  Especially in Hueco Mundo, which was so poorly paced that it made the rampant filler arcs necessary in the first place.  

 

[Top Gun]

I genuinely want the rest to be animated because I want to see what a colossal clusterfuck it becomes with my own two eyes.

[Jman]

I won’t lie, while I could care less about the anime getting a conclsuon since I know it’ll be junk, I genuinely want to see the LA film get a proper sequel.   Mostly because it was clear that in simplyfying the story to such a degree (making it much smoother and less bloated) and getting rid of all the filler, they had the inadvertent effect of making the the film the beginning of a love story.

A love story that doesn’t occur in the manga.  Part of me wants to see if that leaner, faster Bleach creates a more satisfying conclusion than the manga, or if Kubo gonna Kubo and the end result is the same sloppy mess.

[Winter_Rain]

Who is the romantic pairing in the LA movie?

[Jman]

56 minutes ago, Winter_Rain said:

Who is the romantic pairing in the LA movie?

Ichigo and Rukia.  Pretty much every review points out their chemistry and several lines were changed to be more overtly romantic.

[Top Gun]

To be fair they had that chemistry in the anime too, before Kubo shat all over everything.

[ben0119]

On 11/30/2018 at 3:34 PM, Winter_Rain said:

Kind of hoping the final arc eventually gets animated just for completion's sake tbh

If Demarco co-funds the final Bleach season, all sins will be forgiven. Bleach: Bankai, has a nice ring to it. It will a make sense for plot and other reasons, trust me, and well, Bankai means "final release," heh.

Edited December 2, 2018 by ben0119

[ben0119]

1 hour ago, Top Gun said:

To be fair they had that chemistry in the anime too, before Kubo shat all over everything.

There were parts where they completed each other's thoughts.  Not words, BUT THOUGHTS.  Go back to the Substitute Arc.  Also the fact that Rukia snaps Ichigo out of one of his emo funks with a single motivational speech and nothing Orihime did works, and she gets jealous over this.

I believe he said something like if we saw romantic chemistry between any of the characters, can't remember if he was talking about Ichigo and Rukia or not, that it was just in the reader's head.

He also said that Bleach wouldn't have romance and that he felt he could do better and more interesting things with the characters.

But then, in the final arc, and ending -

Spoiler

He starts telegraphing some hints he will be setting up some pairings.  Rukia and Renji, and Ichigo and Orihime.  Now, Orihime had a crush on Ichigo, but I didn't get a ton of clear indications he felt the same way.  Yeah he compiments her and stuff, and there were definitely some Ichigo x Orihime moments, but nothing like the chemistry Ichigo and Rukia had.  They argued like an old married couple!  Hell we even get one of these arguments in the last chapter as a final bone/tease.  That said, while it was debatable whether Renji liked Rukia that way or not, or if Rukia felt the same way, personally to me they came off more as bros, at least you can say that pairing was established and believable. 

Still doesn't change the fact we time-skipped over most romantic development, so we go from not even holding hands, hugging, or kissing, to married with children at the end.  So Kubo trying to have his cake and eat it too. 

Also I wish Kubo would have put in the thing about Orihime's wacky terrible cooking and that's what Ichigo and his kid have to eat, haha.  And keep in mind Kubo has "joked" multiple times that he isn't fond of Ichigo as a main character and doesn't like drawing him, wonders why he gets so much screentime, and he "rewards" him with Orihime, who got screwed over in some ways, too.  Not sure what kind of message that sends.  I'll also mention that I have known of exactly ONE person in my entire time in the Bleach fandom that considered Ichigo their favorite character.  

I am at least satisfied with Rukia's development and accomplishments and where she ends up at the end, even if everything didn't turn out as I hoped.  Renji at least isn't a terrible option for her hubby and makes sense.  He does have the childhood best friend thing going for him.

I'm more annoyed at how the ending was so fucked up and rushed, which I am going to blame on Jump rushing Kubo out the door, than how the epilogue turned out.  There's a whole group of characters we don't even know are alive or dead!  All the characters we did catch up with seemed happy at least.

Besides, my headcanon is Ichigo, Orihime, Rukia, Renji, is a 4 person polyamorous relationship and they have 4-ways while Yuzu watches from the Rukia closet, and no one can stop me!

Edited December 2, 2018 by ben0119

[ben0119]

On 11/30/2018 at 4:05 PM, elfie said:

Yeah. And I kinda think that waiting until you got a LOOOOONG stretch of Nothing between the anime version of the Fullbringer Arc and the last arc is a GOOD decision.  Because absence makes the heart grow fonder, and they can use that time to build up a huge budget for the last arc so it's done excellently, instead of "sufficiently good enough".

Yeah.  There are some parts in the manga that get rushed and some things are just plain not even shown, that I hope the anime can also be a "director's cut as Kubo intended" sort of thing, as well.

[ben0119]

On 11/30/2018 at 7:36 PM, Top Gun said:

I think it was even more than half.  Bleach remains the only shounen adaptation I've seen with filler arcs that were not only non-canon to the manga, but non-canon to the rest of the anime itself.  Thank you, Kubo's godawful pacing.

Yep non-canon to the manga and many of them are "what-if" stories almost like long movies that interrupt the middle of arcs. 

Well Kubo also uses large drawings and panels, and is sparse on dialogue, so that doesn't help either.  

And yeah, the seasonal model would have done wonders for Bleach!

[ben0119]

On 11/30/2018 at 7:43 PM, Jman said:

Can we all agree a 3 minute training montage is infinitely preferable to 3 filler episodes?

I dunno, when me and many other people first saw Bleach, and the training consisted of an episode or two, or just a single flashback, compared to other series like DBZ or Yu Yu Hakusho that whole training ARCS, it was like a revelation! 

[ben0119]

On 11/30/2018 at 8:59 PM, elfie said:

43%.

yes. Someone did the math.

There's no way it got that bad.

[Jman]

11 hours ago, Top Gun said:

To be fair they had that chemistry in the anime too, before Kubo shat all over everything.

Yeah, in that shounen BFF kinda way where there is an out for something more overt.  If they make a sequel and decide to go that way, it will make less than zero sense, and probably can only be justified by "Kubo told us to do it."

[Winter_Rain]

On 12/2/2018 at 1:02 AM, Jman said:

Ichigo and Rukia.  Pretty much every review points out their chemistry and several lines were changed to be more overtly romantic.

Ichigo and Rukia had good chemistry in the actual series, Rukia getting downgraded from the main female character to just another Soul Reaper side character that shows up occasionally was just some majorly bad writing.  We spent the beginning of the series developing her and Ichigo's dynamic, and entire (long) arc for him to rescue her, fighting her brother and her friend along the way (which were partly such great fights because, y'know, they had actually meaning against plot-relevant characters instead of just being random fights for the sake of fights), and then in the end is able to accomplish the goal of saving her, but the main villain escapes to fight another day (which by the way, Aizen's whole villain reveal at the very end of the arc was another very good moment, because the Obviously Evil Gin was being set up for that role the whole time).  We spent all that time showing what a corrupt and crappy place Soul Society is, with deeply entrenched inequality where only the privileged (nobles) and lucky (people with spirit energy) get a chance to live anything remotely resembling a decent (after)life, while the millions of other souls get to spent the rest of eternity living in squalor without even the prospect of seeing their relatives again.  At the beginning Rukia makes us that the afterlife is a good place, but when Ichigo and co. actually GO there they see the truth about what a craphole it is, with most of the Soul Reapers being indifferent to these problems at best and downright assholes at worst.  

Like --- this is a really good setup for something bigger and Kubo could have explored some really interesting themes with this.  Aizen could have been a really interesting and complex antagonist, as a defector who wanted to dismantle Soul Society's structure itself, from the top, and allied himself with Hollows who regained their humanity.  Instead he was just being some generic God-complex villain.  (And the final arc villains DEFINITELY had a good reason to hate Soul Society, and that arc could have been fantastic under a better writer who was actually interested in an overarching thematic narrative instead of just bullshitting with 10 chapter long fights against nothing characters until he literally got shoved out the door by the Jump editors).  

Bleach was just infuriating because it got me hooked in with a strong beginning and have a lot of potential to be REALLY good and then it's like...during the Arrancar arc he just didn't even know what he was doing with the story anymore and it all went downhill from there.  And I, a glutton for punishment, followed it every week for years until it finished...holding out that tiny glimmer of hope that maybe it would become good again.  Goddammit Kubo.  

The whole final pairings things was just icing on the shit cake and was almost as cringe-worthy as the pair-offs at the end of Naruto.  Sakura and Orihime weren't my favorite characters by any stretch but they certainly deserved way better than getting stuck with their childhood crush for their whole lives, as if a girl is never, ever allowed to emotionally mature and grow as a person. 

Edited December 4, 2018 by Winter_Rain

[Jman]

The Bleach manga and anime was trash at the end and everyone kinda realizes it now, with Kubo more interested in subversion (some might just say trolling) than consistency.

The thing is, the movie goes above and beyond with the chemistry thing because Orihime is little more than a glorified extra (although her and Chad will likely have more of a role in any sequel if Netflix green lights it), superfluous characters like Kon and Don Kanoji (sp?) are cut entirely, and the emotional core of the movie is not Ichigo as a soul reaper in and of himself, but his relationship to Rukia and the responsibility she leads him into, along with their growing friendship.

If a sequel is made, expect Kubo to go “No no no no no.  No.  That was not my artistic intention and we are going to stick with what the manga did because I wrote it and it is therefore irrefutable”.  And a new generation of viewers, many of which would never have given Bleach the time of day if it wasn’t on their Netflix dash, get to be introduced to the joys of Troll Kubo.

[Top Gun]

22 hours ago, Winter_Rain said:

Ichigo and Rukia had good chemistry in the actual series, Rukia getting downgraded from the main female character to just another Soul Reaper side character that shows up occasionally was just some majorly bad writing.  We spent the beginning of the series developing her and Ichigo's dynamic, and entire (long) arc for him to rescue her, fighting her brother and her friend along the way (which were partly such great fights because, y'know, they had actually meaning against plot-relevant characters instead of just being random fights for the sake of fights), and then in the end is able to accomplish the goal of saving her, but the main villain escapes to fight another day (which by the way, Aizen's whole villain reveal at the very end of the arc was another very good moment, because the Obviously Evil Gin was being set up for that role the whole time).  We spent all that time showing what a corrupt and crappy place Soul Society is, with deeply entrenched inequality where only the privileged (nobles) and lucky (people with spirit energy) get a chance to live anything remotely resembling a decent (after)life, while the millions of other souls get to spent the rest of eternity living in squalor without even the prospect of seeing their relatives again.  At the beginning Rukia makes us that the afterlife is a good place, but when Ichigo and co. actually GO there they see the truth about what a craphole it is, with most of the Soul Reapers being indifferent to these problems at best and downright assholes at worst.  

Like --- this is a really good setup for something bigger and Kubo could have explored some really interesting themes with this.  Aizen could have been a really interesting and complex antagonist, as a defector who wanted to dismantle Soul Society's structure itself, from the top, and allied himself with Hollows who regained their humanity.  Instead he was just being some generic God-complex villain.  (And the final arc villains DEFINITELY had a good reason to hate Soul Society, and that arc could have been fantastic under a better writer who was actually interested in an overarching thematic narrative instead of just bullshitting with 10 chapter long fights against nothing characters until he literally got shoved out the door by the Jump editors).  

Bleach was just infuriating because it got me hooked in with a strong beginning and have a lot of potential to be REALLY good and then it's like...during the Arrancar arc he just didn't even know what he was doing with the story anymore and it all went downhill from there.  And I, a glutton for punishment, followed it every week for years until it finished...holding out that tiny glimmer of hope that maybe it would become good again.  Goddammit Kubo.  

The whole final pairings things was just icing on the shit cake and was almost as cringe-worthy as the pair-offs at the end of Naruto.  Sakura and Orihime weren't my favorite characters by any stretch but they certainly deserved way better than getting stuck with their childhood crush for their whole lives, as if a girl is never, ever allowed to emotionally mature and grow as a person. 

I read a pretty cogent argument a while back that Bleach essentially supports fascism.  Apparently in the final chapter, there's a shot of the Soul Society, and the giant execution device that Ichigo destroyed, the one that nearly killed Rukia for no reason has been rebuilt.  She has to look at that thing every day.  Nothing has changed in the Soul Society.  The leadership is still incompetent.  Most souls are still treated like shit (which, by the way, Rukia flat-out lied about early in the series).  It's all garbage.  Kubo had so much opportunity in his setting, but just like every other potentially-interesting element he totally squandered it in lieu of shitty fight scenes that went nowhere.

Like, can you even imagine how Luffy would have reacted if he'd been the protagonist instead of Ichigo?  I don't even have to imagine, because he's done it so many times in his own series: he'd punch his way through the entire Soul Society until he got to the asshole in charge, and then he'd punch him hardest of all.  Yet what he sees barely even fazes Ichigo in the long run.  He's one of the most limpdick shounen protagonists I've ever seen.

[Winter_Rain]

On 12/4/2018 at 8:20 AM, Jman said:

The Bleach manga and anime was trash at the end and everyone kinda realizes it now, with Kubo more interested in subversion (some might just say trolling) than consistency.

The thing is, the movie goes above and beyond with the chemistry thing because Orihime is little more than a glorified extra (although her and Chad will likely have more of a role in any sequel if Netflix green lights it), superfluous characters like Kon and Don Kanoji (sp?) are cut entirely, and the emotional core of the movie is not Ichigo as a soul reaper in and of himself, but his relationship to Rukia and the responsibility she leads him into, along with their growing friendship.

If a sequel is made, expect Kubo to go “No no no no no.  No.  That was not my artistic intention and we are going to stick with what the manga did because I wrote it and it is therefore irrefutable”.  And a new generation of viewers, many of which would never have given Bleach the time of day if it wasn’t on their Netflix dash, get to be introduced to the joys of Troll Kubo.

Tbh to this day I'm still not sure if Kubo is a hack writer whose good content was a fluke, or if he was really a troll consciously writing bullshit.  

[Winter_Rain]

On 12/4/2018 at 10:17 PM, Top Gun said:

I read a pretty cogent argument a while back that Bleach essentially supports fascism.  Apparently in the final chapter, there's a shot of the Soul Society, and the giant execution device that Ichigo destroyed, the one that nearly killed Rukia for no reason has been rebuilt.  She has to look at that thing every day.  Nothing has changed in the Soul Society.  The leadership is still incompetent.  Most souls are still treated like shit (which, by the way, Rukia flat-out lied about early in the series).  It's all garbage.  Kubo had so much opportunity in his setting, but just like every other potentially-interesting element he totally squandered it in lieu of shitty fight scenes that went nowhere.

Like, can you even imagine how Luffy would have reacted if he'd been the protagonist instead of Ichigo?  I don't even have to imagine, because he's done it so many times in his own series: he'd punch his way through the entire Soul Society until he got to the asshole in charge, and then he'd punch him hardest of all.  Yet what he sees barely even fazes Ichigo in the long run.  He's one of the most limpdick shounen protagonists I've ever seen.

I mean

You could take it as a massively unsettling BAD END downer ending when you look at it that way.  

Because otherwise the entire series was pretty much pointless.  Essentially nobody and nothing changed.

[The1gairon]

https://comicbook.com/anime/2018/12/11/bleach-ichigo-rukia-kids-kazui-ichika-art-anime/?fbclid=IwAR0BeSCDJdCEwTNcT-7zxGu3SoSfszhCvDgLfoMwLm-XTulomkUYRJRL0Rk

Seems like Kubo wants to pull a Boruto and is conceiving how a continuing storyline focusing on the next generation of the Bleach characters would be like.  Because you gotta pay for your lifestyle somehow.

Edited December 13, 2018 by elfie

[The1gairon]

https://sta.sh/01a6sprou177

Hope you all had a great New Years!

[Juice McKenzie]

On 3/21/2017 at 7:50 PM, BUU8800 said:

Best-girl won the ship wars, which combined with Naruto made me 2 for 2.

Ichigo you lucky bastard!

I believe Renji to be the real winner

[Phillies]

I don't personally use it. I just use liquid laundry detergent and warm water. When I use the "clean machine" function every month then I used it only for that. 

[The1gairon]

 

Holy hot damn

[The1gairon]

This week's Pre-Flight discusses Bleach as its main topic, something I am shocked they didn't get to until today!

[The1gairon]

After playing Ichigo in a fan-run animated project, JYB is trying to get the Bleach anime revived.

 

[HardcoreHunter]

Something about the guy in that video is hitting uncanny valley for me. I assume he has some sort of disorder, but my god it is triggering something in my brain that is telling me that he could be an alien on his first day of pretending being human or reanimated corpse that was just reanimated and it's taking time for the soul to figure out how to work it's body again. 

As for the when it comes to Japan continuing a series primarily for the western market; it goes less than optimal. At least with Bleach there is a manga, but it was so haphazardly put together that you would need a lot of filler to make sense of it for anime. Really the final arc could use some filler to fix pacing issues. Though in most cases when a show is being brought back mainly for the west they'll put the smallest level of effort into it, ie FLCL sequels, and people are hit and miss over season 2 of Big O because of the tomato ending, either you love or hate it. 

[The1gairon]

8 hours ago, HardcoreHunter said:

Something about the guy in that video is hitting uncanny valley for me. I assume he has some sort of disorder, but my god it is triggering something in my brain that is telling me that he could be an alien on his first day of pretending being human or reanimated corpse that was just reanimated and it's taking time for the soul to figure out how to work it's body again. 

As for the when it comes to Japan continuing a series primarily for the western market; it goes less than optimal. At least with Bleach there is a manga, but it was so haphazardly put together that you would need a lot of filler to make sense of it for anime. Really the final arc could use some filler to fix pacing issues. Though in most cases when a show is being brought back mainly for the west they'll put the smallest level of effort into it, ie FLCL sequels, and people are hit and miss over season 2 of Big O because of the tomato ending, either you love or hate it. 

I dont gel with Youtubers who are clearly not acting natural. Either they're very poor at making their performance convincing, or there really is something odd.

I was on FB and ran across some people discussing the possibility of JYB approaching Adult Swim to co-fund a Bleach continuation instead, but that sounds even less likely that the FLCL sequels. They would never have the funds for a LONG series.

Edited August 31, 2019 by elfie

[HardcoreHunter]

If they wanted to fix a lot of the issues with the Manga, I'd say minimum would be 50 episodes or 2 seasons, so yes a lot more money is involved. 

As for the scope though I don't really know how much of FLCL was really meant to be FLCL and how much of it was another scrapped anime project that they just inserted Haruko into and called it a day. Alt I'm for sure all of it was just an entirely separate sol series that got scrapped and repurposed. I know you liked the new seasons, but all I could see in them were how they skimped and half assed their way through to fulfill the minimum obligations of their contract. I really find it hard to believe that someone from williams street went over there and saw this and said anything other than "well fuck", then just tried to make the best of a bad situation because they pissed away a years funds for toonami on that project.  

[The1gairon]

This is one arc where i think filler would benefit the viewing experience, and I mean the RIGHT filler, like explaining unanswered questions in the epilogue for example.

Only Alternative seemed like that. Progressive seemed like a story that had Haruka in mind from the beginning.

[3ngag3]

Michael Lindsay, the voice of Urahara, has passed away at the age of 56.

 

[The1gairon]

Ugh. I posted this news in the DB Super thread. That's horrible to hear. THough I think he was replaced in the later part of the dub?

[renjifan]

I never actually finished the anime. I think I got to the mid 200's before I stopped watching. I may just start the whole show over and start from the beginning...

Sad to hear of Urahara's VA passing, though... 😔 

[High Ground]

29 minutes ago, renjifan said:

I never actually finished the anime. I think I got to the mid 200's before I stopped watching. I may just start the whole show over and start from the beginning...

Sad to hear of Urahara's VA passing, though... 😔 

for better or worse I liked the series.....

 

then Kubo took a massive dump on Rukia's character, her being very much so under utilized after the SS arc, she came back strong in the HM arc but after her fight with that one Espada it legit felt like Kubo almost entirely forgot about her.

There's also the last arc in the manga where it was so rushed, so many characters and story lines felt either under utilized or rushed or just forgotten about entirely. Like with all the stuff going on with the quincies in HM, them eluding to Grimmjow being back but we don't see him (or Nel) for over a hundred chapters I believe, and when we do see them they didn't really contribute much at all. There was also the whole thing with Hallibel being taken by the quincies that was completely forgotten about. The fullbringers he kept bringing up every so often, and that didn't really pan out much, Tsukishima (was that his name?) just showing up in the last couple chapters to use his deus ex fullbringer to repair Ichigo's bankai. There was a whole lot more going on that were just dropped or felt unsatisfying when they did pan out. Hell, I remember at the beginning of the last arc when Kubo made it seem like he was gonna shift the story to follow new characters with those one kids from the SS, in the spread for one of the first chapters with the boy, there was a spread of him standing back to back with Ichigo, there being some kind of text that made it sound like perhaps Ichigo was gonna pass on the torch or something.... and then those kids disappeared almost entirely, I guess that being Kubo's editor or whoever not allowing Kubo to go that route.

[High Ground]

And I will never forgive him for not going with Rukia and Ichigo. The first couple arcs built them up incredibly strong. Everything with Orihime just felt so forced, hell at some point Orihime acknowledges that Rukia has an effect on Ichigo that she could never match. Everything with it was so one sided, and then for some reason Kubo took a dump on her character by making her run off to HM. I'd rather have seen Orihime be set up with Ulquiorra, or even Grimmjow than what we got. I never personally cared about Uryu x Orihime but that one made more sense. There was nothing between Ichigo and Orihime in that way, then in the last arc Kubo started forcefully drawing Ichigo's attention to her (when I say forcefully, I'm referring to using Yoruichi to make him look at Orihime's sex appeal).

And for anyone that wants to bring up the whole "Rukia's dead, Ichigo's alive" argument, so was Isshin and Masaki.

[The1gairon]

3 hours ago, renjifan said:

I never actually finished the anime. I think I got to the mid 200's before I stopped watching. I may just start the whole show over and start from the beginning...

Sad to hear of Urahara's VA passing, though... 😔 

You can see it for free on Tubi.tv. But it may be sub only.

[High Ground]

9 minutes ago, elfie said:

You can see it for free on Tubi.tv. But it may be sub only.

bleach is one of those series where as much as I like it, at times I feel embarrassed about still supporting it, or when I have artwork for Bleach OCs of mine done. Mainly because it seems the bleach fandom has died for the most part, nobody talks about it anymore or does anything with the fandom.

also if the anime was to ever return, honestly I'd think it'd be better if the studio went about doing the last arc their own way. The overall story would still be the same, but retelling things in ways to make the story feel more coherent and not rushed out, to do something with all the branches Kubo started but forgot about. Shuhei getting a bankai is another example of something that was talked about but was never shown, that could be something they could have happen, him fighting against someone and using it. Also making Grimmjow's return more than what we got. I'd be willing to accept Ichigo and Orihime if it was built up properly, having Ichigo start paying more attention to the way Orihime feels about him, which didn't happen at all really.