Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen

The color design is so dogshit. The attempts to make the lighting and coloring realistic may work on other shows but in Bleach it doesn't. The old charm and colorful vibrant design of Bleach is lost and so is the style. The style was the strong point of Bleach and if that is lost then people will just see it as a generic shonen which it is currently. The color design in the 2021 reveal trailer was perfect. Too bad they changed it to something so dogshit.

Also, the writing is abhorrent. They promised to add more things but the added content (which is barely anything) ... is worthless if you add 1 thing and remove 50 important things. They should re-hire the old Bleach script writers like Mr. Masahiro Okubo. Why are they working on Boruto? No one watches that. Call them back and get them to work on Bleach. Bring back the omake segments like Quincy Encyclopedia, Shinigami Zukan etc. Stuffing 5 chapters/episode and rushing through so much. I could tolerate the horrendous color designs but the writing makes this show unwatchable when you see scene after scene after scene, 400 lines of dialogue per episode, randomly placed ED, 3 min recaps (ep. 4), long post-credits sequences etc. Whoever is currently writing this is not a good writer.

The only positives of this cour were some backgrounds in episode 1 and 13 and the new orchestral OST from Mr. Shiro Sagisu. I thought this would be the definitive way to experience TYBW arc and I thought it would be like Hunter x Hunter 2011 with 100+ episodes and a well paced series but this is so off the mark.

Beautiful art ... bad history ... bad characters and cringe as hell ...

Bleach : Sennen kessen-hen is the last arc of bleach. The main story is about a normal living guy that has contact with ghosts(???) and shinimigamis, he gets powers and the chaos starts.

This time they put some money on this bs, cause everyone that watched bleach must be kinda old nowadays.

History (1/10) : I´m really a fan of shoujo and shounen ́s histories, but they must be good and bleach is not one of those. History wise is a bs with lots of cliches, hey the good boy is losing ? He gets ... power from his ass and beats the bad guy/a random and more powerful dude appears and beats the crap out of the bad guy...

Hey a good guy is losing ? Ok, he didn't die (cause hell yeah ?) and he goes through a training kinda fast training to beat the bad guy.

And that pretty much resumes bleach, bad guys are pretty bad guys, some ppl on the army of the bad guys join up with the good guys ...

But the bad ones just wanna beat the crap of the good guys and seek power. THE END.

Characters (3/10): Nothing original here, This one is the cring..e naruto, not even good naruto, just plain normal shonen characters with cring..e, and most of the time useless. Genius cringe child ? Mommy and sexy cr..inge ? Crazy and crin..ge ? Fighting spirit cringe ? Old but strong cringe ? Cool and deadly crin..ge ? Beauty but crin..ge ? Small child but crin..ge ? You can find everything you want in bleach ...

Music (8/10): At least they got really good music, if you can go through the cringe parts, characters and history the music is pretty good.

Art (7/10): The photo of this anime is pretty nice ... but the fights are just bad .. Choreography is horrible ... The flashy and shiny things are good, but that's all. Sometimes I forget I was watching an anime or a fashion show. Walk and stop and pose and 180 and walk and leave the catwalk.

Overall (4/10): if i was younger and there ́s few options to watch, maybe this one could remain in my memories , but sorry is too cringe for me ...

Bleach is just your typical generic shounen. The beginning wasn't that bad and soul society is the best arc the series had to offer, but after that it becomes a repetitive, boring mess. The author's lack of imagination is astounding. So we have a whole arc about Ichigo and the gang trying to rescue rukia and guess what the next arc is about? Ichigo and the gang trying to rescue Orihime... The power system was interesting at first but then it got boring quickly. Ichigo vs Byakuya, Ichigo pulls out his hollow mask. Okay. Ichigo vs Ulquiorra, this time he transforms full hollow out of ... nowhere. Ichigo vs Aizen. Aizen too strong need to train in the room of spirit and time, a concept which was not a thing at all until it happened. Asspulls are this show's specialty. How does that relate to what we've seen in this new arc you say? Well now it appears that Ichigo is also able to use quincy techniques. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT RIGHT?!?!

Another problem I have with this show aside from Kubo spamming deus ex machina, is the fact that characters are used as a plotdevice to keep the story going. There's this Chojiro guy who nobody gives a flying fuck about, who apparently is a very important character with his death causing Yamamoto to go nuts. No buildup, no tension, just a flashback with him talking to Yamamoto and that's it he dies and we're supposed to believe that Yamamoto is mad and sad about that. The problem with chojiro is the fact that up until that point in the story, he had the same role that the trees in the background have. He was just there to fill the screen. There is absolutely no way for me to take his death seriously.

It's seriously a pity that this season is so colorful yet I feel like bleaching my eyes after watching the episodes.

After a long time after the release of the original anime, this final arc is released to be the exact same thing as it's predecessor. A very average Shounen anime full of filers, repetitive and boring.

Only if you liked the previous arcs (a lot) will make sense to you to watch this mess of an anime because you will use the nostalgia factor to react to character outcomes.

Characters: 6/10
Animation: 8/10
Dialogue: 3/10
Art and Style: 7/10
Story: 4/10

Favorite characters won't appear like Yoruichi Shihōin and other beloved characters will have too few time for them like Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck. While other honestly annoying characters such as most antagonists ... as well Gotei captains will be given too many time on screen for them.

The first 8 episodes (at least) of this new saga would have happened the exact same without Ichigo Kurosaki (main character). This makes protagonist existence entirely irrelevant. You will neither watch Ichigo's Hollowification or other forms. He will game lame powers after some time similar to those of one of his friends, making this very boring.

I come from an era where "THE BIG 3" anime were the biggest hype that existed in this community. Back when watching anime was still the top nerd thing one can do. Among these anime, Naruto was easily the best, but it already started declining and the next big thing to break through was Bleach.
Bleach had everything a fighting anime needs. Good action, cohesive enough world building and most importantly a large and interesting cast. The overarching theme - a group of teenagers going up against the unfair society / stuck up adults is one that resonated with me a lot back then. However, after ... the first big arc reached its conclusion something started to happen... something so bad that the whole fandom noticed. Kubo ran out of gas. The "rules" by which the story plays and the actions of the cast started making less and less sense, the new characters were way less interesting and the poor attempts to give them a short backstory made it even more visible. The story had extreme copy-paste moments that were impossible to not see. The final arc was so uninteresting that I don't even remember most of it at this point, besides the swastika memes.
There were many reasons why this happened with the most obvious one being the horrible exploitative conditions that the manga artists have to work under. In any case, this was not something new and a lot of other manga/anime tend to drop in quality as time goes on. Naruto is also a great example of that, but not to this degree. The only long running show that didn't follow this trend is obviously One Piece, since it was shit from the very start.
Sooo... the anime was done, the manga had the rushed final arc out and Bleach died off. Then we get to the present day and the final arc is announced to be animated. And holy shit the trailer is a banger. This thing was so good that even I was getting goosebumps, despite reading the manga till the end and pretty much knowing all of its baggage of problems. The quality of animation looks gorgeous and with a trailer so good it's entirely possible that they might catch some of that cool style stuff that made the Bleach start so good.
The conclusion is sad, but expected. The anime looks very nice, but it did feel like trying to put a bandage over a dead body. Even with great animation quality and really not bad direction, when the source material is garbage it's still hopeless. The fights were good, but nothing made me care about them. It was just a contest of flashy stuff with zero substance. The good stuff was lacking. There is no sense of importance to anything, despite the grandiose presentation. Even worse, when the important stuff is supposed to hit, it's extremely lackluster. Ichigo's emotional journey started and ended in the soul society arc and every new reveal about his identity or dare I say, evolution as a character, has zero impact.
At this point I'll start repeating myself, but every problem I have with Bleach can be summed up into 2 big categories: nothing makes sense and no proper buildup for emotional impacts (or sum them both up as - the plot is shit).
The first part is mostly technical and not that many people seem to care about it, but I will keep stressing how important it is for the viewer to understand what can and cannot happen in a show. There is a point at which things get so ridiculous and/or random that you start to understand that the author can add in any crap at any point, because there are no rules. This is the moment when I stop caring, because any bs can fly, so everything that happens feels cheap. Fiction generally works not because of the magic, but because it resembles reality in some way and the viewers can clearly understand what is happening. This is why characters that are considered good are usually complex ones that resemble real humans as much as possible.
As for the second point... There is a certain rhythm to great plot points (or fights for this genre). First there must be an emotional investment in what's happening - buildup. Then there's a confrontation, a problem that needs to be solved, best if that problem is slightly obvious due to the buildup naturally leading to it and finally there's a resolution/conclusion. Every problem in Bleach completely lacks any buildup, which makes all other parts very cheap... maybe because it's rushed or maybe because nobody cared about writing an actual plot at this point... Especially with gems like Mob Psycho in the same season, the stuff that's happening in Bleach is as whatever as it can get.
One more thing to mention is that many anime focus on one main character. This happens a lot in fighting anime where it starts with a larger cast and then the main character becomes way stronger than everyone and is the only one that matters. Bleach does the same, despite having a very large cast. This in itself is not necessarily a problem, however it's important to keep in mind that it can potentially create two big issues - the rest of the cast becomes way less important and the way you handle the main character will have extra added weight. Where I'm getting at is that Ichigo is a very meh standard character and because there's nothing going for him, it drags the show down even more.
My final conclusion is that nostalgia will wear off and after some time, Bleach will be remembered as the mediocrity it actually is or forgotten (or a good case study for nerds like me). If anyone reading this has at least the feeling that what I say makes some sense, go watch World Trigger instead.

After watching the first 4 ep's, i can honestly say that I'm having very mixed feelings. so to keep it short and sweet with no spoiler's.

Art: for the most part the art has been good and fitting to the mood, this being said it also feel inconsistent with some parts looking much better than others that can break immersion slightly, notable some "special effects" aka attacks look much more detailed than the world and this can give an odd vibe.

Audio: once again for the most part it's good, but once again inconsistent. there are times the music is just pure messy and should never of ... passed quality checks. but when its good its great.

Story: here lies my biggest issue, it feels extremely rushed. there is little to no explanation, or character building. if you have ever watched Terraformers it has the same vibes of just throwing the viewers into a bunch of high octane fight scenes with little regard for actually bringing its viewers into the world and immersing us in the characters. so if you thought the original Bleach was short on story and explanation then this continuation will likely not be for you going off its current episodes

Conclusion: id like to note, i have not read the manga and its possible that this is simply how the Arc is started, in which case we could very well be in for a rich and fulfilling story plus the production kinks may be worked out so i would be upping my rating, but going purely off what i have saw so far its a far cry from the original release, but still worth a watch if you do like the anime. Currently a solid 6, 7 for those who watched bleach previously, total potential of a high 9 if they book their ideas up in terms of story and quality control.

update at ep 6: downward trend so far, story is rushed to the point its legitimately boring and has nothing to follow. its just a random fight scene with a few words that carry no weight as there is nothing past the original release to actually attach you to the characters or story plus the fight scenes are even rushed and mediocre at best. to make it even worse it blatantly obvious important scenes and information is completely left out. lowered score to a 5 and not recommended as i feel im only watching at this point in hopes of something improving and not out of enjoyment.

The ratings really had my hopes up.

Visuals and designs are cool. Animation is great. And we have some hype moment and interesting backstories. But that's all about it.
The story follows the exact same formula as classic Bleach, or just any typical shonen. There is really nothing novel or refreshing.
The characters' judgement so far has been a huge mess. The whole plot is driven by forced, unnatural dumb decisions made by the cast and it's touching my nerves. I am literally losing braincells watching the show.

Expect nothing more than typical Bleach experience and you should have a good time, but this show definitely does ... not qualify as one of the top Animes of all time. Not even close.

Tite Kubo has seemingly not developed his character writing since 2005. It's the same pony show that disappointed everyone back in Bleach's original anime run - Extremely weak dialogue, lifeless world with no interactivity, laser beam sword fights that pause for 90% of their runtime so characters can exposit their all-too-serious feelings. The plot moves wherever the writer wants with no pacing and no setup, we just need to get to the next baddy of the week.

In the only fight of note in three episodes of this battle shounen, the upper hand is traded back and forth between protag-kun and evil-kun seemingly at random just ... so the fight continues to drag on, making no sense the entire time.

"I was hiding my power"
"No, I was hiding my power"
"Nuh uh, I hid it more"

Yeah, this is the opposite of compelling.

There are so many good shounens out there, save yourself the time and skip this one.

"Bleach has finally made its way into the midstream"*

Out of all popular shounens, Bleach is perhaps the one that checks off all the stereotypes anti-shounen anime fans like to throw at shounen fans. It's a mindless battle-shounen, has badly written females (Yes, it's controversial to say Bleach has badly written females as it's often hailed as one of the series with the best female cast. That notion comes from the sheer number of females in the story, and their level of power in the action portion of the story, not from the fact that their writing is any good. Good designs and fights don't make ... good females.) mindless main character, terrible comedy, repetitive action, and whatever else one can think of about any basic shounen. Bleach is THE basic shounen. Just because it has a bit of blood here and there doesn't make it any less childish and brainless. It started off as a promising story with a unique power system and worldbuilding, and it delved into the realm of repetitiveness and unoriginality that people should really open their eyes towards.

Dozens of arcs ago, Ichigo was going bankai and using getsuga tenshou to destroy his enemies... and now, he's going bankai and using getsuga tenshou to destroy his enemies. It gets old. This season is living off of nostalgia. This is a problem Bleach has had throughout its entire run. Bleach is a battle-shounen, yet it takes itself WAY too seriously with the corny ass dialogue, villains and drama, which is why I say it's also trying to be something it's not. If Kubo wrote Bleach as the battle manga it is, it might've been better. But anyway, even though it's a battle shounen, the fights are just meh. It's just beams and sword slashes copy and pasted across different characters and colorful bankais. And it's no different this season. A good example of a battle manga that knows it's a battle manga and acts like it, and excels at it, is a certain new gen that is directly inspired by Bleach with about 200 chapters out currently. Bleach simply lacks creativity. The character designs for the bankais are pretty decent, but they barely ever appear so you're mostly treated to some ugly arrancars or another "badass" middle aged male with a small forehead and bored looking eyes.

The dialogue this season is somehow even worse than what it used to be. That lame villain of the week in ep3 was doing the classic shounen "explaining his powers and saying how strong he is" gig, and doing it in a rather serious manner, something that would make even diehard classic shounen fans cringe. There was that one exchange between him and Ichigo where Ichigo went "it's just like Uryu's powers!" and the guy said "Uryu? Are you talking about Ishida Uryu?" and Ichigo replied "Yes, you know him?", like why name drop him like that if you assume the guy you're speaking to doesn't even know who he is. It's just a lazy way to advance the dialogue progression and check off some marks without actually having anything make sense. Call it nitpicking, but this is bad dialogue.

I'll admit, this season has great direction. Although it's definitely wasted on this subpar source material. At the end of the day, Bleach is just a story for anyone looking for mindless repetitive action. You'll get no interesting dialogue or characters worth investing in. Although I like Urahara, he is a good character. This season offers no more than interesting scenery and animation. There's nothing at stake in the story, zero tension. Just another bad guy coming to take the soul society or whatever, as if the viewer is meant to care.

The music is also not good. Shiro Sagisu is an amazing composer, but he missed with the soundtracks for this and the earlier installment. I know people praise Bleach's music, but that's just because "cold" edits and AMVs on TikTok tell them to. No one actually likes this music.

tldr: it's a battle shounen but pretends to be something else, and has boring fights with no creativity. Bad dialogue. Bad music. Good direction.