Anime 53998 Bleach Sennen Kessen-hen - Ketsubetsu-tan Reviews Filter Check 2

BLEACH-Complete Review

Thousand-Year Blood War Arc - Review part 1 and 2 (contains spoilers from part 1)

Prologue

I can't be the only one who have shed tears though out all of these early episodes.. It only took about ten minutes when I first heard Orihime and Chad, then saw them to ACTUALLY FIGHT.. Of course ICHIGO came in with a Bankai. I can't even imagine what fans of the series must have felt after they’ve waited 10 years to finally see and hear them again. It's crazy emotional, even for me who only knows them for like a year now. I have to ... tell you, I fell in love. Im in LOVE with the cast and the vibe of this series. As a Naruto fan myself, I'm thankful that there is a Shounen out there like Bleach. However ..

Bleach is an epic shounen with ultimately legendary goated cast of characters. Namely one of my favorite Rukia, but she is "just" one out of the countless amazing characters created by Tite Kubo.

Bleach has a unique storyline as well, in which we follows the adventures of a teenager, Ichigo Kurosaki who at one night became a Shinigami. The Shinigami's, also know as (Soul Reaper's) are the guardians of souls and they're fighting to protect the (Soul Society) and by doing that they're also maintain the circle of transmigration in order to prevent the collapse of the worlds.

Now, as we are in the Thousand Year Blood War Arc, which includes the Quincy's, the polar opposite of Shinigami. Whose motives are to kill all souls (Hollow's). They are also incredibly powerful individuals, thus our task in TYBW are much more bloodier then ever before.

Story 5/10

In reality, what happens is that one side stirs up the other side by name calling them < the other side answers with a Bankai = fight. In short. This is a Battle Shounen. They fight, because... they have to fight. (That's basically sums up all characters reason to fight and the story core motives as well.) The weak character uses his bankai 24/7 while the strong character refuse to use anything and instead of fighting start a chat with their enemy, but they can't get along in the end.

The problem here is it is as repetitive as it gets. There is no high points in any action or unexpected turn of events in the majority of times. Therefore the overall enjoyment comes of flat and the excitement is really nothing, but illusion. Illusion, because the feels is there. What I mean by this is we have the most epic characters ever, we have a scene, but most of the times it fails to pull of guard the viewer.

Ichigo vs Renji = what we gained and what the characters gained? where the story moved as a result of that fight? No where.

Ichigo vs Ulquiorra = Same thing. Also, the reveal of Ulquiorra number should have done in a much more epic way.

So the fights in Bleach the main thing of what this show does, is a lackluster. (Atleast for me)

“One’s reality, might be another’s Illusion”
- Itachi Uchiha

Although, as I said there are some memorable moments that with your great skills of "illusion" or imagination skills makes it even more perfect. Like the first Bankai, or Ulquiorra.. or Aizen.., but in reality the execution of these moments are not slightly above filler qualities.

Writing 2/10

My main concern with the series was the writing and the execution of the events. Especially the fights.

Each fight outcome was predictable and there were no layers of them at all. They just hitting each other brainlessly.

The level of convenience in the script is also pathetic. Especially in this new season. Not to mention, or lets put this way, it’s needles to mention the level of plot armour this show possesses towards their main cast. Ichigo died like four times, Rukia and Byakuya at least one times.. It’s comical, but just as all of the training Ichigo had to do to gain powers and to be able to defeat his enemies.

In the first season his training wasn’t that laughable, but still stupid because he just fought non-stop with swords and childrens, however since this arc his training sessions is dumbed down even more so than this:

- You need 10 years to learn, but we only have 3 days so you can actually do it in 3 days.

- Ichigo dies - You have to train, we are in the middle of the fight, but that’s alright, you only need 2 years, what is actually hours in our lifetime.

- How convenient.

- Ichigo dies - you have to.. stop

In general his training sessions looks like this now in TYBW:

First, He takes a bath.

Second, He eats food.

Third, he watches blacksmith making swords.

Fourth, walks and stare “strong” people.

Fifth, jumps down of stairs.

Now, lets talk about how the fights in Bleach looks like:

Good character looks weak against the “bad” character. - The bad character kills the good character. - After a few seconds the good character levels up and defeats the bad character that is now weak as hell.

Repeat over and over again.

Every single time, they introduce themselves to each other. For example, it was the cherry on top in this arc when Shunsui Kyōraku introduced himself to Jugram Haschwalth. As they introduced their names, titles, their favourite food and drinks, there was no time left to their fight to even begin…postponed to a tea party after.

But when they do begin to fight, it goes like the bad side is super strong, but stupid or arrogant so they don’t kill their opponents. When the good side is super strong they also fail to kill their opponents..

Or good side is stronger than the bad side then the bad side levels up. They playing with the now weakened good side like they are the strongest for five literally seconds, then a super strong good side character defeats the bad side with one move..

Also, the reasons behind things like how they so conveniently recovered their bankais by just eating some beens.. every time.. big brain rocks.

I would preferred to see more of Ururu, Ririn and Nel over these predictable and over convenient fights.

What I absolutely hated in this show was how poorly some of these goated characters were written. Tōshirō Hitsugaya character for an example. Poor guy was beaten up by literally everyone.. still alive and act like he is the coolest.

The waste of Unohana is baffeling me to the ground. In reality she is still the Kenpachi, but she literally threw away her life and title just to make Zaraki stronger.. (?) but even with that he still got triumph over by ywatch one episode later.

The other thing is the ability’s and power system. Some Bankais are actually cool and meaningful, but since everyone using it 24/7 it losed its weight of exclusivity. They are also way too unbalanced and most of them can’t lived up to the hype at all.

Or what about Bambietta characteristics? She takes a guy to her room and slices him up just because she is bored? what the hell is going on? Some parts of this series is funny and cute, but there are things that not just disturbing, but disturbingly idiotic and dumb. Just as the entirety of Aizen character and his super intelligence slash manipulation is a complete joke made up by the fans. He didn’t planned shit. He let out that hollow to do “things”, but he never imagined the outcome of the events, he just went with the flow and fans calls it as “his plan”.
Also, I don’t understand how his sword work because he clearly not used ~ Kyokai Suigetsu ~ on Ichigo at the final of season one. Or Aizen should have won, but clearly it was “his plan” to lose. Otherwise the show would have been ended.

How convenient.

Madness, madness going on in the story.. completely uninspired, bland, random stuff happening without any real induction.

Ichigo family for example or Zaraki’s zanpakuto’s was interesting and quite well written for the most part. As of the few things that comes to my mind at the moment as applause-worthy in the whole story.

Although there are some “memorable” moments and a few really good “vibe” moments that you can feel what Bleach is supposed to be, is not justify how badly they were written and how bland and boring the rest of the story were executed.

Characters 8/10

The concept of Bleach is surely amazing, the Shinigamis and Quincy’s were an interesting concept. Top notch character design and overall aesthetic of the narrative. Also it holds one of the most unique and goated characters in all of anime. For me Rukia character is easily one of the best character ever created in anime. But we can also mention Yoruichi and Urahara as well.

Ost 9/10

Bleach ost's are beautiful. They are truly amazing scores and they made me love every single episodes, because of the vibe they've created. The voice actors… I just can't find the right words to fully describe how incredibly goated all voice actors are, but I have to say thank you for Rukia's VA, Orikasa Fumiko. Thank you so much!

Art 8/10

Compered to the previous seasons I gave the same rating for this entry as well as by how the adaptation goes. Pierrot is a great studio, they made an amazing work on Bleach. The characters, the fighting effects and some landscapes were made close to perfection. This season were a little shy at using colors, but overall I can't say any bad word to the animation.

Enjoyment 3/10

I honestly like Bleach and its atmospheric hype it creates, but I can count on my one hand how many memorable, well-thought-out moments were there that I’ve been able to actually enjoy.

It is all about fighting and it’s nothing groundbreaking even in that category, there are better and more interesting battle anime out there.

Conclusion,

Overall, although of its flawed writing and luck of suspense, it makes up for it in atmosphere where it creates the feels in music, themes and in its characters aesthetic. Which in some cases are enough for someone to cherish, experience and to behold.

I am genuinely happy for the Bleach fans, but if you are looking for an anime that has more to offer than bunch of epic characters non-stop fighting each other for the sake of fighting, Bleach is not your anime.

⭐️ 4/10

Thank you for taking the time to read my review!

I really really REALLY wanted to give it a 10, but after finishing this part , I just get the feeling that things were left out. I read the manga like a decade ago, and while I don't remember the details, I KNOW that we should've seen some particular fights and new reveals back in Seireitei before they went to the King's Palace...... am I remembering wrong, what's going on? Did they cut the content? Some reveals are really huge so I can't believe they done this. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, or maybe they will rearrange the events timeline tho that makes no sense because ... some people that are now in the king's palace should be down in seireitei, will they just force them down again for no good reason? It's just a complicated mess....

Anyway, besides cutting content, everything else is a 10/10.

Judging exclusively the anime, it's awesome. Animation, visuals, sound, coloring, etc. Everything is awesome. The big shame is that all of this is spent in probably the worst arc I've ever seen in a major shonen. Villains appear out of nowhere with only a brief appearance on screen with their name, absolute zero buildup, stupid powers, most of them get dealt with in literally two minutes, and almost all of them are extremely unlikeable.
The big bads and the badass Zero squad are also dumb as hell. Things happen just because, with no sense to it whatsoever. The structure of how events happen is awful. And ... I say this as someone who enjoyed Bleach all the way through the Battle for Karakura arc. This story was a disappointment when I read it in the manga and it's an even bigger one now that it's getting a great chance that, imo, it didn't deserve.

The next adaptation of the Bleach thousand year blood war was ofcourse one of the most anticipated animes. But the question is that do we really want to watch this anime? I would say ofcourse you need to try it. But this second part was not really convincing. The anime just goes on and on and on with battles between the Quincy and the shinigami but there is no story in it. Its packed with full of battles. The first part was was really good with the battles and the story going side by side but this part was a let down. So no high ... opinion its just average.

Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen - Ketsubetsu-tan


I can hardly decide which of the two new seasons was better or worse. Like the first, this season got off to a pretty dynamic start and delivered more Bleach lore to fans of the series. Among other things, this season also included one of the most popular Zaraki fights from the manga, which was well represented.

The real problem with this season is not whether it's good or bad, but how generic it is. Absolutely nothing happens in this season that hasn't already been done several times by other shounen, one cliché follows the other, offering no variety whatsoever.
The first ... season had already given a good start for this arc, in the sense of setting the stage for the theater act. Kubo introduced so many new characters [Sternritters] into the story, only to give them no depth or relevance and remove them from the show like cannon fodder. A lot of the fights weren't even necessary because they had no relevance to the plot.

A purely spontaneously introduced new group attacks the Soul Society, winning one-sidedly so that the main characters can finally train again. A couple of Kubo's favorites are given the biggest asspull ever so they can come back to one-sidedly beat the crap out of their previous opponents. While Ichigo makes his tenth "Number One" appearance and shocks everyone again. I get it's cool when the protagonist shows up like this, but Kubo tries it again every arc, this idea is already completely stale.

Although the Sternritters were given such interesting abilities, practically nothing was done with them except for 2-3 Quincy who actually made a notable appearance. As expected, Yhwach continued to sit on his chair-sama and talk about how smart and wise his mustache was.

This season had relatively mediocre pacing, combined with a lot of monotonous fights and a lengthy training arc. As a whole, it's not particularly noticeable, but for a single season, it's a major drawback.


The animations were about on par with the first and were of a satisfactory quality. However, the animations are far from earth-shattering, and nothing that hasn't been done is far better.

It's less relevant, but as a German, I'm always impressed by how much Japanese authors love German words. And although only 1-2 German words are used per episode, such as "Vollständig" or "Auswählen", not even these can be pronounced correctly.

[Conclusion 5]

Despite its appearance, Bleach is a more profound manga/anime, even if the author often doesn't focus on it. The concept around the Soul Society is very creatively done and for me, Bleach is a relatively healthy mix of a shounen with a more sinister approach.
Unfortunately, Bleach has the problem that the author often puts more emphasis on action than on anything else. As a result, his own world-building and the story have to suffer.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed both seasons, I can see why Bleach is simply too tough a meal for many people. A shounen that chews through the arcs again and again in a similar pattern becomes very monotonous in the long run.

[Enjoyment 7]

If you're not familiar with Bleach and you're wondering if this show is actually good: it's not.
"Why is it ranked so high then?" I hear you ask, quite simply because the Bleach fandom is hyped that the show is back and are massively hypevoting it.

Both seasons of this new Bleach have great animation, and that's about it. If you're familiar with Bleach you might get some enjoyment from seeing all your favourite characters again. However in terms of story or dialogue this show is atrocious. In truth this show is really just an excuse to animate some cool fight scenes.

Sadly almost all fights in this ... show follow the exact same pattern: a good guy uses a power, the opponent goes "nani?!", the good guy then explains the entire extend of their power (which is incredibly dumb), which the opponents then completely counters with their own power after understanding the ability. The opponent powers up and uses a new ability, the good guy goes "nani?!" and then the opponent explains their power, which the good guy then counters with their new power (or they get help from a friend). That's basically every fight in this show. It's laughably terrible how after literally every attack a character is compelled to explain what they just did.

Some of the characters and character interactions are quite funny. I think Quetsu Nimaiya and Mask De Masculine (and James) carry the personality of this show quite hard.

Surprisingly the main cast does almost nothing this entire season.

if you're not a Bleach fan, and you actually care about story this show is a hard skip.
If you either like Bleach or cool action scenes give it a try I suppose.

Plot: 4/25
Pacing: 5/5
Character Integration: 7/10
Character Development: 5/15
Animation: 18/25
Genre Integrity (Action, Fantasy): 14/20
Total: 53

This feels like the awkward middle child between the prequel and the sequel. Nothing really happens that can't be summarized in a few words. They could've waited before they released this season; I'd prefer to watch the following arc as well instead of leaving this on a dumb cliffhanger. The action scenes were quite nice, and because this is the middle arc between the two more important ones, they did a good job moving the pace along. All in all, its a decent watch if you are in the mood for some action ... and fantasy...

This is a big let down coming off of the amazing first season we had. While its just as flashy, the fights fail to have any substance and its just back to back of new bad guy vs good guy. Some of the fights are interesting but none of them are really memorable. We get some cool bankai moments, enough to keep discussion alive each week but its wholly empty. Ichigo is only in a fraction of the episodes and does mostly nothing. This season feels like more of a filler buildup to what will hopefully be an amazing season 3 so that I ... am looking forward to.

After how much of an absolute slam dunk the first TYBW cour was, it's hard not to feel like this one is low on steam in comparison. Compositing is still as strong as ever and animation is solid at minimum, but I can name very few cuts in this I was really impressed by compared to how much I was blown away by the ones in The Battle, Born in the Dark, or especially The Fire. The pacing is also really kicked into overdrive, with fights like Mask de Masculine's and Gremmy's being compressed into single episodes, which is kind of insane considering their chapter ... counts. While it blazing through things keeps its fights from feeling as bloated as the old anime's could at times, I think it winds up looping around to feeling too fast, not really letting things sit or have a lasting impact. This also often results in a bunch of cool smaller moments which have a lot of meaning to them being cut for time, and some things they choose to keep instead are baffling. (Looking at you, Marching of the Zombies) This time around things feel very "monster of the week"-ish in a not-so-good way. Granted, this is definitely a symptom of the story segment this cour is covering being on the more "fight fight fight" side of things, and the vast majority of the Sternritter being woefully underwritten compared to the past antagonist groups. I feel like there's so much more that they could've done to give them more depth, rather than just speeding along like they have been. And given the likely stopping point of this cour, it's not an issue I see likely being solved in this segment.

Do I think that this noticeable step down from the first cour is a bad omen or a sign that this whole revival was a big fluke? No, definitely not. There's still two whole 13 episode cours left in this arc and, judging the pace they're going at by volumes covered, they have very little material left in the manga to cover. That last third is also definitely the stretch of the story that was the most harmed by Kubo having to rush the whole conclusion. I have a good feeling that the coming cours are where all-new additions and changes are going to really add up and matter a lot. What having this in mind tells me is that this cour was comparatively low-priority for Pierott. While I am very optimistic for what's to come in this adaptation, and still think is fun and has a lot of great qualities despite all my complaints, it feels unfortunate that this sticks out as a very standard adaptation when cour 1 went really above and beyond to enhance the material. As far as the segments of Bleach's grand four-part return go, it feels like quality-wise this one will undergo a severe case of separation anxiety.

Also Giselle Gewelle if you're reading this my DMs are open, I love you even if Kubo and Pierrot don't. <3