Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody

This movie was perfect, the characters were all drawn by professional hand, not one mistake was made.. as if God created it.. Powerful, funny, dramatic, fantasy, all thrown at you in one blow.

I was impressed. Even though most of the supporting (and some main) characters didn't play big parts in the movie or weren't there at all, I must say that I enjoyed it. The story was very thought provoking and very emotion-stirring. I'd only recommend this to people who are fairly familiar with the anime series though, otherwise you'll be completely lost.

I found myself heavily critiquing this movie the whole way through. I enjoyed the plot, even though it was predictable. It kept me hooked enough to want to finish the movie.

My main issue was the fact that the characters involved seemed to be lacking substance. I feel like some of the characters were just thrown in there just because they've been in the series and not because they had any relevance to the chain of events in the story. Other characters just didn't have enough of a role for them to stick out in my mind. Granted the movie is about 01:40ish long, I ... think the characters could have been better portrayed.

The music wasn't bad--although I would leave out that song that talks about being the center of attraction--I just think the vibe clashes with the action going on, it seems too up beat for taking down a hollow in the middle of town--but I also think the same thing when I hear it in the anime...

Over all it was a decent movie. It wasn't the greatest hour and a half of my life, but it did provide me more time with the beloved Bleach characters before starting on the Bount Arc.

In typical Bleach fashion, you wouldn't know that this was on OVA movie and not part of the story line.

Typical Ichigo and friend s meet a girl who has no memories of where she came from other than the fact that she was indeed a Shinigami, and like most things in Bleach, there was a catch.

We find our friends in a situation dealing with yet another dark clan or what have you trying to destroy Soul Society because of a grudge they have been holding for hundreds of years and of course it falls on Kurosaki's lap like most things do in this series. ...

Meeting of a new character to only have it in this movie was sort of disheartening since you like meeting new people especially ones that are so likeable, but beggars cant be choosers and you get what you're given.

Reminds me of a fan-fiction. The characters were all oversimplified, the plot is nothing special and although the fight scenes were decent, I can't really take this movie seriously. Not a fan of this one

In more detail:
- The story was alright, but nothing to ride home about. It also seemed to me like the movie took no risks and played it safe.

- Like I said, the characters are the biggest issue I have with the movie. All the characters were oversimplified and became caricatures of what they are in the original series, but Ichigo's personality in particular was reduced to him screaming "SENNA!" for an ... hour and a half straight. By the way, senna was generally acceptable

-The soundtrack is a good as you would expect from bleach. It's one of the movie's few redeeming qualities.

- The animation is well... mediocre. It's not bad, but most bleach movie's animation is very bland for some reason, which is a shame when considering the fact that Bleach is widely regarded as one of the anime with the best animation of it's time.

- The fight scenes are decent. Though short, I enjoyed most of them and thus, the movie didn't feel like a waste of time.

Review 21: Bleach movie 1, Memories of nobody

Once again one of the worlds favourite heroes is out to give us all a happy ending... Or is he???

We see in the beginning of the film, Ichigo and our side kick Rukia fighting, yet again, another hollow in a public park. with a slightly hilarious twist to say we've only just put the fiilm on it is quite comfortable and gives you the feeling of the earlier episodes of Bleach.

Basically, the beginning of the film ends up with Ichigos body almost being taken away by the local ambulance service due to his stupideness, yet again...

In the film ... we see a new type of departed souls, they go by the name of Blanks. And a new small team of bad guys who shouldn't be messed with. They all go by the name of the "dark ones" Not very inventive, I know but its good enough for the lovers of bleach. Their leader Ganryu, is the most fearless and dangerous of them all.

Everyone in this clan have been forbidded from entering the soul society again, this is due to the fact that they all started to consume innocent human souls. As we all know that this is forbidden they where banished, even though their are a few normal recruits to the team we all know that their just going to be abnormally weird.

The main characters in the film are Ichigo and an unus;ually happy young girl named Senna.

Unfortunetly she has no memory of her family, the soul society and she knows absolutely nothing about herself.

We first see her amoungst the blanks near a train station, she manages to take the majority of them down without any help whatsoever. Ichigo and Rukia, like usual, have no idea who she is, why she's doing this and how its all possible. They have no knowledge of what blanks are or why the have no features or why their even there.

Senna; A happy, funny outgoing character thaat Everyone grows to love quickly and easily. She's amazing when it comes to fighting, yet the soul society have no records of her being there. they all soon become suspicous of her and look in to the matter at hand, meanwhile Ichigo and Senna are becoming good friends and have each other for the mean time. No one actually knows anything about this girl or who she is, but shes capable of having people warm up to her very easily.

All in all for the first film that has been released on the Bleach series its a really ggood start, the graphics are up to date, the voice actors are once again excellent nd we see the usual characters that we see in the series.... so no picky fans of Bleach are left out.

An amazing film from start to finish, if you havent seen it yet then go online or to the local movie store, and have a look around.

If you live in England (like me), than the best place to get it is hmv. their still selling the film online if you can't find it in stores.

Wednesday 20th Febuary. 1:05 pm. ~AmyXxx

I liked this movie a lot the music and art are outstanding achievements and the plot line was very good except i felt that the bad guys were under developed. while Senna on the other hand was amazingly developed and her relationship with Ichigo makes u want her to stick around and join the anime series but of course she only appears in this movie. this movie gave me the feeling that Ichigo and senna were falling for each other. but you have to see the movie to wait and see what happens

Way back in the early 00s when I was still in the early stages of getting into anime, three big battle anime started airing that everyone in the community was watching. There was Naruto, which I watched a few episodes of and stopped because I found the main character really annoying. There was One Piece, which I watched a bit of and stopped because the main character was really annoying. Then there was Bleach, which I actually watched all the way through. This was before I'd started doing reviews, mind. But yes, I watched all 366 episodes about Kurosaki Ichigo and his comrades. And whenever ... anyone brought up the old Bleach vs Naruto vs One Piece discussion, I always had to side with Bleach because it was the only one where I found the protagonist decent enough as a character to watch it.

One thing I actually never did was watch the films. Even though I liked watching the anime, it wasn't a franchise I was super into. But, lately I've been feeling a little nostalgic for the franchise and I've seen way too many bad OVAs lately, so it seems an opportune time to watch the first Bleach film. This one came out in '06 when the series was still pretty early on. Since it ran from '04 to '12.

Story:

We open with Ichigo and Rukia dealing with a Hollow that's gotten loose in a park. Rukia criticises Ichigo for not making use of Kon since just leaving his body lying prone could be dangerous. Someone could think he's dead or touch his bum. The pair responds to another situation, this time Ichigo makes proper use of Kon. This time, they encounter a bunch of strange, white things instead of Hollows. They watch an unknown shinigami dispatch them. Rukia goes to report to Soul Society and leaves Ichigo to talk to the girl and figure out what she knows. Little do either of them realise that the fates of both Soul Society and Earth could be tied to this strange girl.

The biggest issue with the film is that the whole plot and its twists are pretty predictable. About the most surprising thing is the Soul Society decision of how to deal with things once they get going. I get it, it's a battle anime and they aren't known for being super original with their story-telling. But it's like how using too much stock footage is a frequent weakness in magical girl anime. Every time I see it become an issue, I'll bring it up. It doesn't help that whenever it brings up something that's meant for foreshadowing, they make it really obvious. Like, to the extent that they might as well throw in a little marching band at the bottom of the screen with a banner that says "this is foreshadowing."

I am also a bit confused by the way Orihime and Chad are told they can't enter the climactic area because "it's a spiritual area like Soul Society. Humans can't go there." I seem to recall both Orihime and Chad going to Soul Society with Ichigo to rescue Rukia but maybe they had to use something special to do it and I just don't remember that part.

That being said, the story is well-paced. It has some comedic moments that work well. I also do think the lore it adds is compelling and, even if the story is predictable it has some decent emotional moments.

Characters:

We get to see a lot of major characters from the franchise proper. It's definitely set up for people who have seen the franchise since there are multiple characters who show up in the background or for very brief moments. If you were to watch the film on its own, you would have no idea who they are or why they're significant. We do see characters like Ichigo, Rukia and Renji showcase their best qualities. I do also appreciate that the antagonists are given proper motivations, though they could have been better extrapolated upon. I do quite like Senna. I think they did a good job of developing her as much as they needed to without making that aspect of the film overpowering.

Art:

The film looks pretty good. Bleach has some strong character designs. And that is on display here. The action sequences also flow pretty well. They have some nice intensity to them. I also do like the backgrounds for Earth, but when they get to the spiritual world where the climax takes place, the backgrounds pretty much become variations of every desolate wasteland ever. Which is a bit boring.

Sound:

The regular Bleach cast is really good. Paku Romi, Orikasa Fumiko and Morita Masakazu stand out in this film since they all have fairly significant roles. In terms of the original film characters, both Saito Chiwa and Ebara Masashi give strong performances as Senna and Ganryu. The music is mostly quite good. I didn't really care for the ending song, but aside from that it was a strong element.

Ho-yay:

I guess I could say it has a little just because it has Soi Fon in a supporting role and she's blatantly not straight in the series proper. However, there's really no indication of that in this film. Yoruichi doesn't show up and she's the character who really brings out that aspect of Soi Fon. So, the film has a not straight character, but no actual ho-yay.

Areas of Improvement:

1. The film could have done a better job using characters like Ishida, Chad and Orihime. There's almost no reason for them to be here, as is.

2. The film could have benefited from being a little longer and showing some of Rukia's interactions when she went to Soul Society. It could have helped establish some of those relationships for people who aren't all that familiar with the series.

3. Be more subtle with the foreshadowing. Yes, it's important to introduce elements that will come into play later, but there's also a point where you draw so much attention to it that it just makes everything that's gonna happen far too obvious.

Final Thoughts:

Bleach: Memories of Nobody is a pretty enjoyable film. For me personally, it's nice to see these characters again and I thought that, in spite of its shortcomings, Pierrot did do a fine job with it. It may not be a masterpiece. It may not be subtle. But it's good fun with some strong pacing, action sequences and well executed emotional parts. So, I'm giving it a solid 7/10.

One of the first animated movies I watched. At the time I was pretty into Bleach by Tite Kubo and watched a couple of movies, but this one was probably my favourite out of all of them. I never really got into the anime, though I did watch quite a bit of it. I was more of a manga reader since I could control the pace that I went through the series. The anime was just too slow for my taste, but the movies are another story.

I just really liked the style and overall mood of the movie, even if it's considered mediocre to other ... viewers. The later movies really lacked the direction of the first one in my opinion.

Actual emotional bleach movie.
I literally cried.
It was so good.
Cinna was actually an interesting character and it was just overall a really good film with some awesome fights.
Like I smiling with my jaw dropped when kenpachi showed up.
You should watch this film during the arrancar arc after you watch rukia's first fight with arrancer 6 (I won't say name to avoid spoilers lol)
The artstyle and quality is always so good looking especially for 2006
Oh and the soundtrack is also lit.
The character's personalities are also at their peak and I loved all the interactions in this film.

You know a series is making it big when you hear about movie releases, it's not easy to get a display on the big screen. The next step is looking at several movies that relate to said series and the first one usually gives off nostalgic vibes, even for the newer audience. Sadly, in Bleach's case, that couldn't be further than the truth.

Story (6/10):
As much as I hate to say it, this felt like a nicely animated filler arc that lacks an interesting plot, characters, and villains.
This self-contained story introduces an interesting concept that deals with memories in the world of Bleach, and pretty much ... anything else felt like an excuse to justify saying; “hey, this thing exists, it can totally happen, and here's how it goes” that could have been easily a line that Urahara drops at some point.
The entire thing plays like your typical Bleach filler arc, some forgettable character named Senna stumbles across Ichigo and gang claiming to be a soul reaper until the tides loosen and the villain group interested in capturing her appear and force her to seek Ichigo's help.
The villain himself couldn't have been less interesting even if they tried so. Pulls up the cliché trope where he stabs Ichigo in his Bankai effortlessly form only for Ichigo to somehow defeat him on their second encounter.

The ending was kind of bittersweet, basically, a puppy-beater plot. Here's a cute and helpless pup, we're gonna kick him around, now start crying.

Art (8/10):
I guess aside from something else that I'll talk about later, this was the only thing that carries the movie.
It simply looking nice and alive. I swear Bleach's animation and art somehow always emit a unique aura that can't be felt anywhere else.
The borderlines are crisp, the colors contrast each other nicely and the animation is fluid enough to make the dull fights epic enough.

Sound (8.8/10):
Finally, the real star of the show, the OST.
No one can deny that Bleach bundles and always has. There are a lot of very iconic and fire soundtracks that put most others to shame.
The sound effects are also very good and crisp, more believable than most shounen shows too. The voice acting is spot on, both the Sub and the Dub were great, I found myself alternating between the two the entire run of the movie.

Characters (6/10):
Rating the same cast of character that we see each episode of the TV series would be kinda unfair, so I'm gonna focus on the new faces instead. Senna, I guess I've stressed enough how dull and uncompelling she was. Her role as a main character in this movie gives her more opportunity to shine and show off, but she, instead, ended off acting more like a hostage that drives the plot forward than a contributor to cleansing the evil.
The villain group was just another failed attempt of an evil organization, all fodder with nothing more to them, and their head can't decide when to be a snowflake or an Aizen level threat for once and for all.

Enjoyment (7.5/10):
To me, Movies are another escape from the show, in the show to enjoy the same show. Does that make any sense? If I'm watching 900 episodes of One Piece, at times I would want to break away from Luffy's constant screaming at the same villain for multiple episodes and rather watch a movie that diverts from the every-day quest and explores other adventures of the crew. This was not my experience with this movie.
It felt like escaping the epic canon to watch an average condensed filler arc, it did have its moments, yes, but by no means did I feel like visiting it anytime soon. It was okay.

Overall (7.26/10):
As big of a fan as I like to imagine myself, that was hella underwhelming. I dove in with full-on excitement and big expectations, but I ended up discarding all of that in the first 20 minutes of the movie because I know I recognize that tone and pacing, I've been through any filler arcs across multiple series and that feeling was not strange to me.
It's very hard to recommend something like this related to a series you like, especially to newcomers, fearing that they might get the wrong idea about the show, because Bleach can be so much better, so much more, and Memories of Nobody was so far away from being any of that.

Bleach Movie 1 Memories of Nobody is a movie that you can watch immediately after the Soul Society arc in the Bleach manga and right after the Bount arc in the Bleach anime, being the first exposer to Rukia's Zanpakuto. It is the only Bleach movie that can fit into the main continuity without much trouble.
The story is about the worlds about to be destroyed by the enemies called the DARK ONES. Some of the blandest antagonists you will see in Bleach and can be a total turn off for people that are interested in a well written antagonist with a deep backstory. However, they ... do have justification for what they do even if not the smallest effort was put for use to care about them.

On the contrary we have Senna and the story is focusing on who she really is as she has Shinigami powers and a named Zanpakuto. That is the only remotely interesting part of the movie and there is no surprise that non of the DARK ONES made it into video games but Senna did.

Ichigo in this movie takes the role as her guard protecting her from the DARK ONES and Soul Society because that is Ichigo for you. In the movies he is always the character who does and says the right thing while the other characters are just following orders or their selfish desires.

Senna is a playful self-centered girl but cares about finding the truth about herself. Not because she has amnesia, thank god. The movie takes a lot of time exploring her personality, her desires and fears. It will make you believe she needs to be protected.

As for other characters, Urahara does the usual helping out thing. The other main cast members are usually shafted with Orihime only healing once after the battle. Like most Bleach movies it focuses on the Shinigami doing the fighting. And let me tell you there are a bunch of Shinigami eating up screentime with their Zanpakuto releases and BANKAI.
Speaking of fights, they were rather mediocre. Soifon got the best treatment of all Bleach movies in this one by not making her look like an amateur. Some enemies used their energy sources they intend to destroy the worlds with in a clever way in some fight, for example the guy who fights Toshiro Hitsugaya. But that is as far as the compliment goes simply because like in all Bleach movies the Captains just slaughter the opposition with almost no effort.
Some of the enemies weapons are also uber lame and aren't used in an interesting way to make up for the lack of interesting powers.

Overall this movie is the weakest Bleach movie. Senna is the only thing that is interesting but the antagonist don't feel as dangerous as they should since the high tier shinigami are around. If you want to see where the truth about Senna lies, you may enjoy this story and the ending will be hitting you hard emotionally. If you looking for an action packed Bleach movie with interesting antagonists and killer visuals you might want to skip that. Especially if you aren't a fan of Bleach filler since this movie feels like an extended filler episode than a movie.