I consider myself a fan of anime but I got to be honest I haven't watched "Bleach" before which is considered a pretty popular series.
For those unfamiliar with Bleach it's a popular anime series based on a manga by Tite Kubo which follows a boy named Ichigo on his adventure as a substitute Soul Reaper, a type of Japanese grim-reaper or death god that defeat afterlife monsters called Hollows, basically souls of the dead who've lost their hearts -- hence the holes in their chest and their name, Hollows.
There are quite a few main characters but like a good number of other anime, they're all rather well developed. At first, I thought Bleach sounded a little too close to Yu Yu Hakusho which is an old favorite of mine I used to watch in the Philippines with my cousins.
The main character of Bleach is an orange-haired high school kid named Ichigo who lives in Japan with his dad and two sisters. After his family is attacked by a Hollow, an injured Soul Reaper named Rukia gives her powers to Ichigo so he can defend his family and carry out her duty of defeating the Hollow. From that point on, life gets very complicated for the two and everyone around them since Ichigo somehow can't return Rukia's Soul-Reaper powers to her and the Soul Society considers giving away Soul-Reaper powers a crime punishable by true death -- as in the destruction of the offender's soul.
So far, I'm fifty episodes in. I wanted to start watching this series a lot earlier due to the new Bleach series that was coming out but time got away from me. The new Bleach series, The Thousand Year Blood War is already out and I still haven't gotten around to watching all 300+ episodes of Bleach. Without spoiling too much, the first twenty-five episodes weren't bad but halfway through these last fifty episodes the animation, story, and music have risen in huge steps of quality. I'd go so far as to say that Bleach has some of the best music I've in an anime in a while, plus it's got some Spanish overtones that really add a bit of unique flare to the show. I'm watching the episodes in Japanese and English alternately depending on whether or not I have the time to not have it playing in the background in English. So far, Rukia's still dealing with the consequences of giving her Soul Reaper powers away to Ichigo whose trying to rescue her. Don't want to go beyond that, because there's a lot of other characters and other plots going on which are rather interesting. While I'm not sure if it's currently better than Yu Yu Hakusho, the animation and music are probably better and I could see the world-building and story possibly putting it ahead in another fifty episodes.
Recommending anime like these to people who aren't anime fans is tough because I'm not sure if a non-anime fan will stick around twenty-five episodes to find out whether or not an anime is good. Usually it's easier to hook non-anime fans with much shorter but still high-quality series like Attack On Titan , Death Note, Full Metal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, etc. Or more recent gems from of all places Netflix, like Cyber Punk Edgerunners or Devilman Crybaby though as a warning those two series are super violent but very entertaining.
I do think Bleach is surprisingly better than expected. I'm a fan of the characters and world-building and am very interested in where it will go, especially since it's success garnered both a follow-up series, "Thousand Year Blood War," and a spin-off series in "Burn the Witch."
Anyway, that's all I have to say about Bleach so far. See y'all again in another fifty episodes!
Aswr I've got to watch this burn the witch😭😭😭
Legit what I'll watch next. Tbh I was in the same boat as you.
Although I guess my boat was a bit ahead as I just managed to complete Bleach before TYBW started😂.
Happy watching and sorry for the spoilers you'll see online
This series just gives me the nostalgic feels, I haven't started the new season and less likely to anytime soon. The Hueco Mundo Arc (several episodes further) just made me drop the show and forget.
