What pops up in your mind when you think of the word "shinigami"? If you have watch Death Note, maybe you will remember Ryuk the black shinigami. However, this is a whole lot different shinigami story.
Bleach ブリーチ is a well-known manga series created by Tite Kubo since 2001, which serializes in the famous Weekly Shonen Jump. Tite Kubo chooses the word "bleach" instead of the black outfit for all his shinigami characters. He related the term "bleaching" to the shinigami's work is to cleanse and purify Hollows and also send spirits to Soul Society (in general term, heaven). Bleach has been adapted into an anime series, 2 OVA, and 3 movies, also numerous games.
The story is about Kurosaki Ichigo, a 15-years-old teenager. He is able to see spirits. One day, he sees a girl wearing black kimono in his room. She introduces herself as Kuchiki Rukia, a shinigami. Because of an accident of a big Hollow attacking his family, Ichigo wants to fight and instead, injured Rukia badly. Rukia lents Ichigo her shinigami power in order to purify the Hollow and let it goes to Soul Society. However, Ichigo absorbs all her powers and Rukia becomes powerless. So, Ichigo has to learn and subtitute Rukia in her shinigami duties.
Rukia who lost her powers, takes gigai form of a teenage girl and studies at Ichigo's school. They interacts with other students like Inoue Orihime a girl that loves Ichigo but has lost her brother who becomes a Hollow, Sado Yasutora a big guy who is actually gentle and kind friend, also Uryuu Ishida a genius Quincy. Three of them later have great powers who help Ichigo a lot during stressful time.
They also meet up and often discuss with a shop owner who is actually a former shinigami, Urahara Kisuke. Rukia starts to enjoy her life as a human. However, Kuchiki Byakuya, Rukia's brother and 6th Division captain alongside Abarai Renji, Rukia's childhood friend and also 6th Division lieutenant, comes to Karakura Town and takes Rukia back to Soul Society. The leaders in Soul Society have decided to execute Rukia for her big mistakes, staying in human's world for too long and lent her powers to human. Ichigo can't accept this and fight Byakuya and Renji. However, he lost and his shinigami powers are taken back.
How is the continuation of the story? Can Ichigo save Rukia? Read the manga here and watch the episode here
Overall, Bleach is a very interesting anime. It explores shinigami in a unique way whereas each shinigami has attractive appearance despite their black kimono uniform, interesting characteristic, and cool battle techniques (shikai and bankai). Bleach also features exciting and wow-ing fights with lots of blood, which makes fans love Bleach even more to wait and watch their characters fight will all might and techniques.
(+) Great fighting and battle scenes
(+) Well-made techniques for shinigami (the shikai and bankai)
(+) Good character design
(-) Dragging storyline
(-) Too many characters and filler episodes
Story = 3/5
Artwork = 4.5/5
Animation and color = 4/5
Character development = 3.5/5
Soundtrack = 3/5
Overall rating = 3.5/5
Genre = action, adventure, fighting, fantasy, supernatural, school life, comedy, drama
Demographic = shonen
Original creator = Tite Kubo
Director = Noriyuki Abe
Seiyuu = Masakazu Morita (Ichigo), Fumiko Orikasa (Rukia), Yuki Matsuoka (Orihime), Noriaki Sugiyama (Ishida), Kentarou Itou (Renji), etc.. full credits is here
Bleach ブリーチ is a well-known manga series created by Tite Kubo since 2001, which serializes in the famous Weekly Shonen Jump. Tite Kubo chooses the word "bleach" instead of the black outfit for all his shinigami characters. He related the term "bleaching" to the shinigami's work is to cleanse and purify Hollows and also send spirits to Soul Society (in general term, heaven). Bleach has been adapted into an anime series, 2 OVA, and 3 movies, also numerous games.The story is about Kurosaki Ichigo, a 15-years-old teenager. He is able to see spirits. One day, he sees a girl wearing black kimono in his room. She introduces herself as Kuchiki Rukia, a shinigami. Because of an accident of a big Hollow attacking his family, Ichigo wants to fight and instead, injured Rukia badly. Rukia lents Ichigo her shinigami power in order to purify the Hollow and let it goes to Soul Society. However, Ichigo absorbs all her powers and Rukia becomes powerless. So, Ichigo has to learn and subtitute Rukia in her shinigami duties.
Rukia who lost her powers, takes gigai form of a teenage girl and studies at Ichigo's school. They interacts with other students like Inoue Orihime a girl that loves Ichigo but has lost her brother who becomes a Hollow, Sado Yasutora a big guy who is actually gentle and kind friend, also Uryuu Ishida a genius Quincy. Three of them later have great powers who help Ichigo a lot during stressful time.
They also meet up and often discuss with a shop owner who is actually a former shinigami, Urahara Kisuke. Rukia starts to enjoy her life as a human. However, Kuchiki Byakuya, Rukia's brother and 6th Division captain alongside Abarai Renji, Rukia's childhood friend and also 6th Division lieutenant, comes to Karakura Town and takes Rukia back to Soul Society. The leaders in Soul Society have decided to execute Rukia for her big mistakes, staying in human's world for too long and lent her powers to human. Ichigo can't accept this and fight Byakuya and Renji. However, he lost and his shinigami powers are taken back.
How is the continuation of the story? Can Ichigo save Rukia? Read the manga here and watch the episode here
Overall, Bleach is a very interesting anime. It explores shinigami in a unique way whereas each shinigami has attractive appearance despite their black kimono uniform, interesting characteristic, and cool battle techniques (shikai and bankai). Bleach also features exciting and wow-ing fights with lots of blood, which makes fans love Bleach even more to wait and watch their characters fight will all might and techniques.
(+) Great fighting and battle scenes
(+) Well-made techniques for shinigami (the shikai and bankai)
(+) Good character design
(-) Dragging storyline
(-) Too many characters and filler episodes
Story = 3/5
Artwork = 4.5/5
Animation and color = 4/5
Character development = 3.5/5
Soundtrack = 3/5
Overall rating = 3.5/5
Genre = action, adventure, fighting, fantasy, supernatural, school life, comedy, drama
Demographic = shonen
Original creator = Tite Kubo
Director = Noriyuki Abe
Seiyuu = Masakazu Morita (Ichigo), Fumiko Orikasa (Rukia), Yuki Matsuoka (Orihime), Noriaki Sugiyama (Ishida), Kentarou Itou (Renji), etc.. full credits is here
