Bleach Movie 4: Jigoku-hen

Brains versus brawn. Brawn versus brains. Round and around and around they go ...

The most puzzling thing about shounen anime and manga is the distinct lack of heroes with both strength and intelligence, and nowhere is this more prevalent than in the long running franchises. All too often it's the villains who possess this combination of traits, while the hero is nothing more than a super powered idiot with a tendency to rely on guts and brute strength. Risk evaluation, cause and effect, strategy, and other concepts that have more than one syllable seem to be beyond the ken of the typical shounen protagonist, and ... while there are some vague similarities between them and the brutish heroes of yesteryear, at least characters like Conan knew how to plan and make traps.

It seems as though the once great shounen sagas are becoming nothing more than parodies of what might have been, and charging headlong into the fictional wastelands (where all good ideas go to die), is Tite Kubo's Bleach and its latest feature, Jigokuhen (The Hell Verse).

Now some people may remember a chapter of the manga called Imaginary No.1: The Unforgivens, which introduced the character of Shuren and showed him to be far more powerful than at least two of the Arrancar (who somehow ended up in Hell). This side story forms the prelude to Jigokuhen, which picks up the narrative after the whole business with Aizen has been concluded (that is, if the opening scenes of the fight with Ulquiorra are anything to go by). Karakura town is at peace, Ichigo and his friends are back at school, and everything seems right with the world.

Unfortunately, dark forces are stirring once more ...

Continuity has always been an issue for the Bleach franchise and this movie is no exception. The story appears to be set at a time after the current arc in the manga (you know, the whole thing with the Fullbringers), and Ichigo seems to have shaken off the effects of the Final Getsuga Tenshou. Then again, this is Bleach we're talking about, and given the storyline in the other movies it's more likely that the writers for Jigokuhen were more interested in opening up new ways to continue the franchise than they were in creating a viable narrative. That said, the plot is decent enough, but there's always the nagging thought that this feature has been made for reasons that have nothing to do with telling a story, especially when the actual content of the movie is little more than the same storyline regurgitated ad nauseum (i.e. Ichigo powers up and saves the day).

Jigokuhen features some rather nice visuals but there's little in the way of actual innovation because of the inherent franchise limitations on aspects like character design (although one can never rule out genericism caused by a lack of ideas). There are also some glaring irregularities that stand out over the course of the movie, one of which is Rukia's flash of nakedness and subsequent yet familiar white outfit towards the end of the movie (I'll pause for a moment while the fanboys squee).

The viewer is supposed to believe that her shinigami outfit "disintegrated" because of her situation at that point in the narrative, which may not seem like much at first, but when you take into account the fact that both Ishida and Renji have already gone through Rukia's ordeal, one does have to question how they managed to keep their clothes whole and on their bodies while she didn't.

Fortunately Jigokuhen is no slouch where the animation is concerned, especially during the action sequences, but that's not enough to balance the flaws where visuals are concerned.

As for the acting, if you've seen an episode of Bleach then you're in for ... more of the same. The voice actors may be talented and know the characters inside out, but none of that helps when the plot and the script have been written by people with a mental age of seven. The dialogue is exactly what one expects from an episode of Bleach, with lots of angry and/or frustrated shouting and screaming, and so much ham they could start up a new business selling sandwiches.

The ending theme, Save The One, Save The All by T. M. Revolutions, is a rather generic J-rock song that works well with the movie, but given that the franchise is about as generic as they come, maybe that's not such a surprising thing. Jigokuhen also features a variety of dramatic classical and operatic tracks that serve as the background music to a number of the action scenes, but while the usage and implementation is decent for the most part, choreography has never really been a strength of the franchise.

With a mixture of wooden deliveries, frustrated screams, people shouting, and lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth it's pretty obvious that Jigokuhen is little more than an attempt to put a set of characters with textbook shounen reactions into a new situation and set them off to spin around before exploding.

And that's pretty much exactly what happens.

Aspects like character development are virtually non-existent in this movie, while other factors like characterisation are actually dependent on whether one has read or watched the main series (and more importantly, whether you enjoyed it or not). In all honesty there isn't really much one can say about any of the characters other than that they are who we expect them to be. Ichigo is the knight in pyjamas wielding an oversized kitchen knife whose tendency to charge in where angels fear to tread is getting tedious (seriously, it's like nobody in shounen entertainment outside of One Piece is able able to learn from their mistakes). Chad is the reliably stoic sidekick, while Renji and Ishida sometimes offer light comic relief. Rukia, Inoue, Karen, Yuzu, and almost every other female Ichigo's age or younger, are all the princesses waiting for the knight to come and rescue them.

You get the picture.

The thing that is surprising is that Jigokuhen does work as part of the overarching Bleach saga, but only from a very narrow and specific perspective. If one is able to ignore the recent storylines in both the anime and the manga, and overlook many of the flaws, then it may be possible to enjoy this movie as no-brain entertainment. That said avid fans will probably like this more for what it heralds in the future which, given how the story ended, will probably result in Ichigo becoming the head of Soul Society, or even the next Soul King.

Jigokuhen is watchable though, but while doing so I found myself thinking of Diamond Dust Rebellion and Memories Of A Nobody, both of which deviated from the typical method of problem solving synonymous with shounen stories (i.e. hit it in a melodramatic way until it stops moving, then give it a few more whacks just in case). Neither of those movies will stand the test of time, but they're a damn sight better than Jigokuhen (which in turn is marginally better than Fade To Black). It's a sad fact that the last two feature length outings have been uninspiring, lacklustre affairs with plot holes so big one could drive a tank through them, and that's just the tip of a very large iceberg.

If nothing else, Bleach: Jigokuhen proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this franchise lives and dies on the only trick it has.

I'll admit, I had a blast watching this movie! It has a lot of cool fights and an interesting plot. The plot isn't all that unique though, that's the only part that is disappointing. If you've seen the anime Bleach, then you know how their 'arcs' go. Bleach tends to do the whole "someone gets kidnapped, Ichigo has to go fight a ton of people and then save them! The end." That's exactly what happens in this movie too.

It starts off with a somewhat of a flashback to when Ichigo fought Ulquiorra back in Hueco Mundo when he turned into a crazed hollow. That caught ... my attention because I honestly loved that fight, it was very exciting! Then after that we go to Karakura Town where Ichigo is living his regular teenage life, and you can all guess what happens after that. Some bad guys from hell show up and kidnap Yuzu, Ichigo's sister.

Now, with the help of Kokuto, a new character that shows up out of the blue, Ichigo and his friends will go down to hell to save Yuzu!


Story: 7

Okay, I love Bleach. Even if it's a repeditive show with random (sometimes pointless) fights, it's still fun to watch! And that's really all this movie is about. So if you like watching the fights in Bleach and don't care a whole lot about a really unique story, then this movie is perfect!

The reason I give story a 7 is because, like I mentioned, it's the exact same as every other Bleach arc or movie. But what I DID love most about this movie is that Ichigo's Hollow has a main part, we don't actually see "Hichigo" (as some people call him), but we do see Ichigo's hollow mask show up often and see him do some of his hollow transformations.

His hollow side shows up quite often in this movie because they are going to hell, and because of that, Ichigo is starting to 'lose control' of his hollow powers in a way. All of his friends are concerned obviously, but Ichigo just wants to save Yuzu, because that's the kind of guy he is.

The downside to this movie really is that everything goes way too fast. Within about the first 10 minutes of the movie, Yuzu has been kidnapped and taken to hell and Kokuto is introduced. The explanations are very short and not very informative, to the point that I was wondering if they just cut out half of whatever the characters said to fit it into a movie.

I would have expected a story like this to have taken up 30 Bleach episodes at least, but it is of course crammed into an hour and 30 minutes.


Art: 9

The art in this movie is actually really nicely done! The battles have a lot of movement, and that along with the beautifully detailed backgrounds is like eye-candy for the audience! Because of the fact that they are fighting in "Hell", the background is quite different than any other place they've been. I mean, we've all seen the Bleach cast fight in Soul Society and Karakura multiple times! So to see them in a very unfamiliar place is quite awesome!

The bad guys might not look that attractive (actually I take that back, they're just ugly as hell), but it does seem like the artists took the time to do all the shading and colours very nicely, which is something I really enjoyed. But seriously, I do think they tried their best to make the ugliest characters we've ever seen. (The minute those guys took off their robes to reveal what they looked like, I think I screamed a bit)


Sound: 9

A new soundtrack was made for this movie specifically. I got this soundtrack long before I watched this movie because the songs are seriously epic! I still love listening to it, all of the songs are dark, and intense, almost in a creepy way. Rather than just music playing, there's some chanting and singing along with it that really sounds like an incantation most of the time. But either way, it really adds to the movie's 'creepiness'.

Anyone who watches Bleach will know what the characters sound like.
Ichigo's voice actor Morita Masakazu is great at what he does! He's the perfect voice for Ichigo, I really don't have anything bad to say about him! He sounds very natural when he talks, and always has the exact emotion that is needed for the scene, which usually involves yelling and shouting.
Rukia and Renji are the same as Ichigo's VA, they know how to sound great and really bring the character to life!

I mentioned before that there is a new character named Kokuto, who is voiced by Nakai Kazuya, who happens to be one of my favorite voice actors! He has an incredible voice that is perfect for a 'cool' and 'badass' character, which Kokuto definitely fits that description. I'm really glad that they picked him for Kokuto's character because he is perfect for the role!

And lastly we have the new character Shuren, I haven't mentioned him yet, but he sits around for most of the movie and lets the other guys do all the fighting, but does eventually join in for a little while. Shuren is voiced by Furuya Toru who has done several main voice roles, but still isn't a very popular voice actor. He really does Shuren's voice well, he has the sort of 'bad guy voice' that we all can recognize. The only thing about him is that nothing really stands out about his voice among other people. Some voice actors have a way of changing their tone, rolling their tongue, or yelling in a way that makes us know exactly who they are (think if Ikkaku or Kenpachi, you can recognize their voice almost immediately). This guy doesn't really have that, but even so he is still a good voice for Shuren!


Character: 7

Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, Chad, and Ishida are all characters we're familiar with. Nothing about this movie really changes how we see them. You know exactly how they're going to act or fight in a dangerous situation. So I guess that part of the movie was what made everything pretty predictable.

But since there are new characters introduced, why don't we talk about them a bit?

For one, Kokuto. I'll admit, I like him. He shows up and is willing to help Ichigo's group, and has the attitude of "I make my own rules. I don't choose sides, I'm on my own side". Which reminds me a lot of Ichigo's character, maybe that's why they get along pretty quickly...almost too quickly.

I think the writers really forced Kokuto's character in some parts, and made it so that we really don't have time to get to know him. He's just there helping the group, and that's about it for the majority of the movie. What I do like is that he isn't the most predictable guy, sometimes things he does or says will catch you off guard! That makes the plot a bit more interesting than before!

Then we have Shuren again. Unlike Kokuto, I really knew exactly what he was going to do throughout the entire movie. That doesn't make him a lame character, but I think the writers could have done better with him.


Enjoyment: 8

Like I said in the beginning, I had a blast watching this movie! Even though I really should, I never get sick of watching Ichigo kick ass! I would say this is my favorite of the Bleach movies. It had some great character development (even though it was really rushed) and it had some great fights that kept my eyes glued to the screen!

I also just loved having Kokuto in this movie, he was definitely the best addition to this movie, I'm sure you will all like having him in it too!


Overall: 8

If you haven't watched or read Bleach, I'm not sure if this movie will make a ton of sense. There are several things that happen that link to the original story. But even if you haven't seen Bleach, I think you might still enjoy this movie if you like Shounen animes with lots of battles! I enjoyed watching it a lot and would even be willing to watch it again! All in all, it's a great movie!

Actually there is nothing to tell since it is only a repetition of previous themes only in another setting... Someone has been kidnapped, Ichigo comes to the rescue, enemies have a power up, someone good was in fact evil, Ichigo saves the day in a new form - sound familiar, no?
This film has nothing new, just a few fancy explosions and nice soundtrack.

To begin with I've seen only 2 bleach movies (that one and Fade to Black). As for Fade to Black I was a little disappointed, I expected a lot more from it but nevermind thats a review for movie 4 not 3.
So, for those who havn't seen the battle - Ichigo vs Ulquiorra this will be something like a spoiler so you better watch all the series before the movie.For those who have already seen it you will love that movie.Im not saying that the movie is about Ichigo battling Ulquiorra... Anyway it will also be a favourite movie for all Hollow Ichigo fans. ... You will see him in his full form and in action. You will also see a new form of Ichigo. And also there is a new badass character who appears in the beggining.
Almost in the all of the time you will be able to see amazing battles.(Not only Ichigo's) Also you will love the music - its always on time and on the right place. The most memorable things form the movie are the battles... but not only.
You will also be able to see some showing of Orihime's feelings.(Finally but not too much of tham). Most of the characters will act badass so dont be surprised. Yeah if you watched the series you wont but anyway I had to say this.
Ok Im finishing. The ending- it was just epic (as I said you will see Ichigo in his new form but thats not all.) The song and the scenes are amazing.
All in all it is one epic bleach movie, that all bleach fans must see. You will love it.

So the newest Bleach movie, Hell Chapter/Hell Verse/Jigokuhen whatever you want to call it has been recently subbed. Of course since I liked the previous movies, I'd see this one. There are spoilers here, reviewing a movie without spoiling anything while trying to keep it interesting is next to impossible.
So read at your own risk.

Story: 6
The story was.. "bleh". Its not boring but its not creative and the twist is pretty predictable.

So these bad guys appear from hell but are still tied to hell by "chains" and after seeing Ichigo's full hollow form they're all like "oh yeh... he looks strong... lets go ... take his sisters and get him to break our chains" and they do that. So what does Ichigo and his friends do? Well they give chase obviously.

That's pretty much the basis of how Ichigo ends up in hell. The only thing I like about this story is that its just screaming for "action". Going into enemy territory, you already know you're gonna see a lot of kickass fights.

What I sorta didn't like about this kind of story is rather than pondering about what will happen to Ichigo next, I was more curious of how Ichigo was going to go about doing it. I guess it was because there was always a goal, as in, where Ichigo had to be was already set so there wasn't much room for mystery or drama, just lots of intense fighting.

Art: 9
Visuals are pretty well done. I would have given this a 9 but the way they made hell looked like they could have done more.

There are 4 layers in hell:

The first layer being a bunch of white blocks.
The second layer being water with white platforms blocks.
The third layer being gravel with yellow water holes.
The fourth layer being a very large open area of blankness with some lava touches.

I guess this shows the focus in action over story as these locations acted more like perfect battlegrounds rather than scenery. Though what made up for this and also works with this was the animation.

Fight scenes were amazing as there were no cheesy cuts or effects. For an intense group battle, it was really well done. When it comes to group fights in Bleach, what usually happens is enemies and allies pair up in 1 vs 1's or in some cases 2 vs 1's. Though it still happened in this movie, there were long scenes of all out battles which were planned perfectly and didn't confuse me.

Sound: 10
I don't give 10's to much stuff unless it "moves" me and this moved me. Even though the first 10 minutes is just a relapse of Ichigo vs Ulquiorra using different angles, the music they put with it just made it that much better. I usually don't even remember background music because of focusing on other things, but because I still remember some parts of it means something.

The fact that they went old school and played "Number One" by Hazel Fernandes brought back so much memories and all I could think of was "sh*** gonna go down now!". If you don't know the song then stop reading right now and youtube it. If you refuse to youtube it, then don't even bother watching this movie... stop watching bleach entirely.

Character: 7
There isn't much to say here. When things look bad, Ichigo does what he does best and takes down his problems using power. Everyone is still the same as the episodes, there's no change. The problems I have is with the enemies.

So the idea is that they're weaker in the real world and stronger in the hell world. But after watching scenes play out, I felt like they were stronger in the real world and weaker in the hell world. I think they should have made the main characters struggle harder in the hell world. But as far as bad guys go, these guys were pretty weird and out there. Which is what I found pretty cool.

Enjoyment: 8
I don't watch bleach for the story. I watch bleach for the extremely overpowered Ichigo kicking heaps of ass. I know other people would disagree but I really couldn't care less. I get a kick out of Ichigo struggling then bringing out random power and courage then completely destroying the enemy. I'm sorta glad they took this path and focused on action, it reminded me of why I watch Bleach.

Overall: 8
Though the story is linear and predictable, the art and sound makes up for it. I went through nostalgia as they did a remake of the first episode with the scene of high school Ichigo beating up bullies. This movie is ACTION focused, and it set that aim and delivered it well. It didn't try to be what it's not and fail at it. It went with the simple direct path and came out winning.

*Please note, I’ll be typing this review with the intentions that all who read it are Bleach fans or are people who are very much aware of the events in the anime/manga/movies.

Bleach. The mega-ultra-super-fan-heavy-ultimate-Gurren-Z show that has introduced us into the charming worlds of Soul Reapers, Quincies, Hollows, Arrancars & Fullbringers has been delighting, and equally frustrating it’s fans (or rather Tite Kobe has) since 2001, gradually growing in strength ever so slightly, like a Spirit Bomb. At this moment in time (2013), I think that, as a Bleach fan, the series has never been better; it’s in this sort of “transitional period into maturity” ... place with how it’s presenting itself to fans ever since the anime finished. It feels really focused now, which is such a shame, for the manga at least as it’s in it’s last, most brilliant & most shocking arc the series has ever had. It’s also had some surprisingly (by Bleach’s standards) emotional moments. The series is on it’s first real roll of success in a long while and it really REALLY shows in the most recent feature film, which is what I’m going to be reviewing today. So, Otaku’s, Otakette’s & the Young’ins! Welcome to my review of the fourth movie in the Bleach series, Bleach: Hell Verse.

As usual, the historic stuff. Hell Verse is the fourth movie to release for the Bleach franchise and was released in 2010 in Japan & the U.S. (LUCKY!). In Scotland we only got to see this through DVD/Blu-ray, which was released in February, so technically over here this is a 2013 movie. It is made by Studio Pierrot, who also made the other Bleach movies and was directed by Noriyuki Abe, who, every Bleach fan should know.

Story

Now, I have to say, the story to Hell Verse (besides the current arc in the manga) is the most ambitious and exciting story Bleach has ever done as it sees the usual suspects (you know, Ichigo, Ishida, Rukia & Renji) entering Hell for the first time. And I have to say, when I read that for the first time, I was like, “Dude. Watching. Come on. Fucking. Yes.” Ever since the beginning of the series, after seeing the gates of Hell, I’ve been desperate for them to explore it.

The movie opens up with a re-done & HD’d recap of THE BEST FIGHT EVER (in Bleach) between Vasto Lorde Ichigo & Second Resurrection Ulquiorra which is probably the best opening for a Bleach movie there could ever be and we then have our title flash up and the proper movie begin. We see Johnny Young Kurosaki living at peace in Karakura Town when Rukia (my love) & Renji arrive suddenly and make it out like they’re there for nothing overly important to which I’m like, “Dude, Ruk (said as rook) babe, if you’re not here to be loved then sum’ real big goin’ down ya feel me?” This is obviously the case lol as Ichigo is attacked at school one day by three mask wearing freakazoids (gotta love dem Bleach masks), but those motherfuckers did not know who they were fucking with ‘cause Ichigo, ma man Ishida, big Chad, my love & Renji show up and kick ass, sort of. Anyways, they break one of the guys masks, he gets dragged back to hell, quite spectacularly actually and it ends up that it was all a ruse to keep the usual suspects busy so that one of the Sinners (that’s what the guys are called) could go to the Kurosaki residence and steal Yuzu & Karin to which I was like, “Aw, hell no! You done just signed your death warrant motherfucker!!!”

Ichigo has the same idea, rushes over, tries to save the two sisters, fails like a (Bleach) bitch and…some guy just shows up, his name is Kokuto, he helps a bit and manages to save Karin. Long story short (just so I can wrap up and not tell you guys too much), they, being the usual suspects and Kokuto, go to hell to save Yuzu.

Now for the good:

This is Bleach story, told in a very “un-Bleach” way. No, Aizen sized speeches for example. Absolutely sublime fight scenes and loads of them too. The movie is like 80% fight scenes, 10% powering up & 10% great character developing moments for Ichigo – something I hadn’t seen in a satisfying way since Memories of a Nobody. There was also no “eye-rolling” moments in the movie, there were bits that actually surprised me, even the reasoning behind the “deus-ex machine” transformation at the end had a really good reason in context with the story. Throughout the entire film I kept on thinking, “This is how Bleach should have always been. This is how Bleach stories should be.” I even applauded at the end. That’s how good the story is.

For the bad, or rather, the confusion:

In the Bleach timeline, this story takes place after the Arrancar Downfall Arc, you know, after Aizen gets defeated. When Ichigo GIVES UP and subsequently LOSES his Soul Reaper powers to use Final Getsuga. Yeah? So, how can this take place after this, but not after the Lost Agent Arc and Ichigo still perfectly have his Soul Reaper and Hollow abilities? There is literally no way for that to be possible, unless the Lost Agent Arc (which is canon) doesn’t count? I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense.

Characters

For this movie, I’m only going to talk about Kokuto & how I think they showed current characters in a better light, because come on, who really needs me to explain Ichigo Young Bosch or Rukia Please Marry Me Kuchiki? But I will touch on the great character development Ichigo gets in this movie. Sooooooooooo……..

Kokuto

This guy is great, but not at first. At first for me he was just one of those “characters that you needed to have that was familiar with the new place we were going to so that he could be al cool about it and stuff.” This is what he is though, until he opens up to Ichigo about why he’s in Hell and why he wants out (which I won’t spoil because it’s really good) and then later on starts to show us some of his powers. He ends up being the main villain by the end of the movie, WHICH ISN’T A SPOILER because you can see it a mile away, but compared to everything else in Bleach, it is done really really well and cements Kokuto as one of the great Bleach villains with the way he toys with Ichigo.

On Ishida, Renji & Rukia

I want to talk about these three because I’m so thrilled with how they dealt with these characters. They actually showed them being strong, beating their opponents and genuinely being useful for once.

Ishida has been nothing but a side-dish ever since his badass performance against Mayuri waaaaaaay back in the beginning of Bleach, being put so low that even Orihime has more relevance to the story, so for them to exploit his tactical superiority and how badass cool he is under pressure in this movie was a treat for sure.

Renji is a goddamn revelation in this movie, I was screaming from the rooftops with praise for Renji. This is the very first time Renji has actually beaten someone in Bleach and showed any real sign of power from his Bankai, and…..it was fucking awesome to watch. Seriously watching Renji out-smart, out-power and win is just the best thing that could ever happen.

Now with Rukia, this is the first time she’s ever beaten someone comfortably and with finesse, sure she beat an Espada, but she “died” doing so and she needed help beating Rudobon. It was really great seeing her, in all her beauty, stand tall as a powerful woman and properly show that she can look after herself in a fight, even though can’t do Bankai.

On Ichigo’s Character Development

I can’t believe how they managed to pull something like this off with Ichigo. He had real personal drive, determination and even anger and helplessness. It felt so real and it was emotional. Something, or rather two things, happen to Ichigo as a result of him going to Hell the first time (he goes twice in the movie) and long story short it meant he had to leave Rukia, Ishida & Renji behind to save Yuzu who was already on the brink of death to begin with (I’ll not say anymore because it goes a lot deeper than that) and Ichigo really becomes depressed and desperate because of what happened. He really breaks down, in such a human way that it feels like I’m not watching a Bleach character. Really great characterization for a character who is so typically Shōnen to be made so human and so vulnerable. It damn near brought me to tears.

Art

As far as Bleach the anime & the previous three films go, this is an absolute marvel to the eyes especially in HD (I’ve also seen Memories in HD). Of course with this being made released in 2010 it’s going to be better than everything before it, but the other can’t hold a candle to this. This animation in the fight scenes is the best animation work the series has ever seen. It’s 90% still camera shots with full animations of sword swings and techinques being used with virtually no still characters shots with rolling backgrounds. The fights and scenery were grand, crisp in detail and colour and packed a real punch. It’s the best that Bleach has ever looked and the best animated it’s ever been.

Sound

Standard fare really as it’s the same voice actors for the anime, but special recognitions go out to Dan Woren, voice of Byakuya Kuchiki for a surprisingly motivational performance, Johnny Young Bosch for conveying a more emotional side of Ichigo & Travis Willingham for his portrayal of Kokuto providing a great sense of sombreness and insanity.

The soundtrack is actually fantastic, with the best song coming from the battle theme with THE best being a metal version of “Number One” which really gets you pumped for the upcoming fight.

Enjoyment

Enjoyment from start to finish with this one. Spectacular fights, great characterization, fitting music, fantastic story, genuine emotional moments & killer animation. Everything Bleach ever needed and should have been.

So friends, I loved it, like really loved it. But I have to say, in a perverted fan-boy sense, my favourite part was the brief naked shot of Rukia, I was like “SAY WHAAAA”. Also, another absolute favourite thing for me in this is that Ichigo’s Vasto Lorde form gets loads of screen-time in this movie which is a complaint I had about the one episode it appeared in in the anime. All in all, this THE Bleach movie for THE Bleach fans and I can’t imagine any true Bleach fan not enjoying this. So, until next time, thanks for reading and I’ll write again when I write again.

“Potatoes are much more delicious when they're hot.”

Bleach: Jigokuhen or also known as "Hell Verse" is the 4th Bleach movie to be realeased to date, since the anime was cancelled back in 2012, this could be the last one for a while...which is somewhat dissapointing to not leave off on a higher note. Not to say movie 4 was bad, but in truth it didn't quite forfill my expectations. That said, it still was a decent watch and i'll explain why.

Hell Verse is the latest movie to be released, and you can clearly tell from its crisp and beautifully refined animation. Everything looked very smooth and detailed down to the bone, especially ... the environment. More toward the beginning of the film which takes place in Karakura Town, the artwork is fantastic. The sky backdrop looks beautiful at sunset, and the town itself is fleshed out best as it has ever been. Then the main setting exclusive to this movie, (if you don't count the prequel episode from the anime 299) looks even better. I love how the Bleach version of hell wasn't the cliché biblical version that we all depict it in our heads to be...it had different levels to it which all looked unique. The first level looking like a map in some kind of retro video game, and one of the lower levels having geysers of some yellow acidic goo with a dark blue sky almost looking underwater. The overall lure of "Hell" was made very interesting, there were giant guardians and some other nice details that I'll let you find out for yourself. The action scenes also looked great, aside from the fact that there was a little too much smoke during the battles, the animations of each Bankai, and everything else looked great. There were some moments were things where moving too fast for me to follow what was going on but that's a small nitpick when the presentation was as gorgeous as it was. I just mentioned presentation...the movie was presented beautifully. The story flowed well and didn't feel rushed, and the intro to the movie was actually one of my favorite parts, showing a remastered version of Ichigo's fight with Ulquiorra which surprisingly has a sort of tie in with the plot. Now the sad thing is about Hell Verse is that the plot was underwealming. I wasn't really sucked into the story, it felt a bit on the average side in all honesty. They had a "plot twist" more toward the end that didn't really pull a reaction from me. There was a nice subtle moment between Ichigo and Oriheme that I liked but emotionally I was never really affected because I knew all the characters were going to survive. The movie also suffers from not having enough characters in it. Usually the best parts of both the show AND the movies involve the Captains. Sadly they were amost non existent aside from some dialogue and a very brief action scene involving one measly attack. We were given the crew of Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, and Uryu which we have already seen before in the Hueco Mundo arc of the anime...It gets kind of boring seeing Renji and Rukia just constantly using the same attacks, so I never really got to see anything new. The best part was probably Ichigo's fight, and for a simple reason that you'd figure out if you watch the movie. The villians were pretty weak too character wise. The "henchmen" looked kinda cool, but were so weak I didn't care at all about them...and thought they were just pointless being there. The only thing they really had going for them was that they had interesting character designs with somewhat unique attacks. Luckily enough, while i may have alot of complaints about the film, I was never bored and entertained throughout the 2 hours give or take.

If you're a fan of Bleach i'd definitely recommend checking this out, but if you don't like or have never watched Bleach this is not for you at all, you'll most likely not really enjoy it.

Thank you for reading my review and if you found it helpful please give it a thumbs up (:

Hell Verse is one of the few non-canon shounen movies that I can unreservedly say is good and worth watching.

My experience with the overwhelming majority of shounen movies is that none of them really have an engaging story. As kids, we would watch them strictly because they held the promise of better animation than their afferent TV shows. But at no point did we ever think, oh, man, what an amazingly engaging story Naruto’s Legend of the Stone of Gelel had! Wow, the plot of One Piece’s Clockwork Island Adventure really kept me on the edge of my seat.

Besides, filler movies typically are put in ... the position of having to cover a lot of ground early on, since they have to introduce completely new characters and concepts in order to tell a, so to speak, fresh story. Consequently, the first and second acts usually end up feeling like boring, meandering bullshit in the overwhelming majority of them. I dare you to tell me what happened for the first 60 fucking minutes of Memories of Nobody – before Ichigo and the main cast went to the Valley of Screams. I dare you, I double-dog dare you. The first and second acts took up a whole hour of runtime, and literally nothing of note happened.

Hell Verse, on the other hand, has 3 clearly defined acts and not a single one of them is boring. It wastes no time at all igniting the spark of its intrigue within the first 10 minutes, and from there on, it really offers nothing in the way of dull moments, with the exception of the 2 mercifully short scenes that separate the 1st and 2nd acts, and 2nd and 3rd acts respectively from each other. It is a story with a clear purpose that is always moving forwards. It comes as no surprise that it is the highest rated Bleach movie.

The opening scene is a flashback once more depicting the finale of the Ulquiorra vs. Ichigo fight from the Hueco Mundo arc, but with animation an order of magnitude better. To this day, it honestly holds up as some of the best battle animation I’ve ever seen outside of the Heaven’s Feel movies.

Granted, that scene is massive bait. It announces itself as self-evident that the movie will not maintain that level of godlike animation throughout its run. The production value does, however, remain consistently fantastic for the entirety of the film.

During the previous movies, while I could tell that studio Pierrot went the extra mile for the significant action scenes – the money shots, as it were – the films were otherwise chock-full of rough frames in their more mundane moments. Facial proportions would often make no sense, and in some cases, characters were unrecognizable as themselves. Let's call a spade a spade. The preceding movies had a penchant to look like garbage at times. All of that led me to draw the conclusion that significant parts of the material was being submitted under the mantra of “good enough”. Why? Why would you do that? Why try to get away with “good enough”? This is your theatrical release, isn’t it? Can't you dial in for once and put your best foot forward for this one 90-minute production?

Hell Verse does not share this problem. Make no mistake, I'm not suggesting that every scene and shot is prefect. I did, however get the distinct impression that the effort was put forth to make every single scene and shot look as good as reasonably possible. There are countless sakuga scenes that have made me come back to this movie again and again over the years. To this day, it holds up as one of the best-looking action anime movies ever made.

The cast of Hell Verse is also an order of magnitude better than that of any of its predecessors. Be it because Kubo played a role in designing them, however minor, or because of the performances of the voice actors, or just pure luck this time around, say, a stroke of inspiration, they are the most Bleach-feeling non-canon characters in the entire franchise, with the possible exception of Amagai from the new captain arc and Kusaka from DiamondDust Rebellion. Shuren and his cronies are not as good as those 2, but even the worst of them is still better than any of the bounts put together, or the nimrod clan from Memories of Nobody, or those 2 cretins from Fade to Black.

I would, nonetheless, put Kokuto, Hell Verse’s deuteragonist, above even Amagai. I fucking loved this dude. I would probably even go so far as to call him one of my top 10 favorite Bleach characters of all time. Everything about him, from his design, to his attitude, to his backstory, to his voice actor, all the way down to the look of his weapon and fighting style, it all came together to create a fantastic original character. He is voiced by Kazuya Nakai, the VA of Zoro from One Piece, so you know this motherfucker is a fucking G.

Broadly speaking, other than the extremely strong visual presentation, I believe that the success of Hell Verse can largely be credited to 2 fundamental factors.

Number one, no new cosmology or apocryphal backstory needed to be invented. The movie made use of cosmology that had already been established in the canon as early as episode 5, but then never expanded on. Bleach’s realm of Hell had captivated the fandom’s imagination for years. There was no better choice to stir curiosity and hype.

Number two, everybody and their mothers had a weebgasm when they saw Ichigo transform into the iconic Vasto Lorde form during his fight with Ulquiorra. We were all clamoring to see it happen again. It is precisely that desire that Hell Verse satisfies. No MacGuffin is needed, because Ichigo’s Vasto Lorde form in and of itself is the central plot device of the film. Will it be the answer to all of your prayers? Will it be as cool as in your fantasies? Will he perhaps learn how to control it and become godlike? These were all questions that obsessed the fandom at the time. Watch to find out!

I only have minor complaints about the movie.

For instance, Hell really doesn’t look all that sinister. You are served plenty of exposition assuring you that it is indeed a dreadful place, and – make no mistake – if you really think it through, it would truly be dismal experience to spend eternity there. Now, that's all fine and dandy, but what I take exception to isn’t the tell. It’s the show. All I'm saying is that the aesthetic of the place is nowhere near as dark or horrifying as I would have imagined- or wished it to be. At the very least, One Piece’s Impel Down was an order of magnitude more hellish than Bleach’s actual Hell. For what it’s worth, I did find it hilarious that the first level of Hell is basically an infinite expanse of Jewish brutalist architecture. Never change, Japan. Never change.

My one other complaint is that I would have simply liked the movie to be longer. Compared the rest of the motion picture, the third act is regrettably short. Some very cool shit happens at the end and I would have liked to see more of it.

To whom it may concern, Kubo released a one shot manga that acts as a prologue to the movie called Imaginary Number 01: The Unforgivens. In a nutshell, the chapter tells the story of Espada Aaroniero (#9) and Szayelaporro (#8), who end up in Hell following the events of the Hueco Mundo arc. The pair have a brief encounter with the movie’s antagonists. Still, neither the movie, nor The Unforgivens are to be considered canon, for Kubo has released a new one shot chapter teasing a new Bleach arc or sequel known as the echoing jaws of Hell arc. This shows us an entirely different concept of Hell, which will obviously be the canonical version going forward. Assuming the upcoming Hell arc will eventually get animated – and given the massive success of the TYBW sequel, I don’t see why it wouldn’t – it would mean that the anime’s continuity being broken in an obscene way.

This is effectively unprecedented. Filler arcs and movies have always existed as separate from the canonical content, but never outright contradicted it. You may have had the odd anachronism here and there, but nothing to this meaningful of a degree. While unfortunate, there is a reason for this departure from the norm. Let’s talk about it.

I mentioned earlier that Tite Kubo may have played a minor role in the making of the 4th Bleach movie. Beginning with 2009’s Strong World, Eiichiro Oda started a tradition of mangaka being more closely involved in the productions of movies based on their franchises. Following this trend, Kubo-sensei had been announced as overseeing production for Hell Verse. Point in case, he is credited as an executive director in the film. The Japanese DVD release of the movie, however, included a message from the man himself. In it, he claims that, well before the movie came out, he met with the scriptwriter and they had an incandescent exchange of great ideas about the possible directions in which they could take Bleach’s 4th theatrical installment. Alas, the final product revealed that pretty much none of the ideas they had discussed had been passed on to the director, and as such, were woefully missing from the movie. It is for this reason that Kubo-sensei has been very vocal about his desire to have his name be removed from the credits, but here we are. Whether this is evidence of Japanese humility, not wanting to get credit for something he doesn't believe he was involved with enough in order to deserve it, or whether he is honest-to-God resentful about the way the movie turned out, that's up to your own interpretation.

All of this is to say that we potentially missed out on an even better version of the film, but I am perfectly satisfied with the version we got. I've long said that the people pretending that Bleach is anything more than Dragon Ball Z with swords are delusional. That's exactly what it is. Bleach lives and dies with its flashy fights and cool character designs.

Hell Verse is just about the best that the original Bleach anime has ever looked, and if you're a fan, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

i cant resist to put ten on everything maybe just because i am a fan for life no addict type way but fun movie i would state yea the begining of the movie might be a little misleading

(spoiler) the fight shown at the bigning was not so much about the fight but ichigo's form that will later on in the movie will come into play.

and yes this movie has some moments that make you think i've seen this before in a bunch of other episodes have in them them i guess to but the bottom point is that if you like an action anime ... movie this may be one to consider it was fun to watch

enjoyable till it ended wish it had more action but there was a bit to much repeats fun but still repeats of moments other episodes oif the show have in them like ichigo helping spirts beating up punks in his neighborhood like episode one in some ways even his sisters in trouble

i could say in my opinion the movie was more about the journey than the destination(the ending) and the action fights with vilians of hell who run amok in a group trying to escape hell any means nesseasary even try to provoke ichigo going out of control destroying things in hell that should never be tampered with

It took two seemingly long years for Bleach to have a sequel from their very much successful third movie. Finally it is here!

Be it in the anime series or the films, Bleach has taken us to different breath-taking and magnificent worlds. And this time they will take us to their version of Hell. As always, the film is packed with overwhelming actions and non-stop fight scenes which is no doubt one of the greatest factors of Bleach that made it one of the best and most famous anime and manga series of all time. If in the previous films, Ichigo, despite being the main character, ... is not directly involved with the main plots but this time, Ichigo is once again the center of the plot as him and his family is being targeted by unknown creatures. Though, we’ve seen Ichigo loses his cool or down, we never see Ichigo breakdown in tears so much like in this film when his sister almost died because of him. The drama is polish at its best. Not that I didn’t love how the drama was made from the preceded ones.

The new characters in this one are very much interesting. I am just so amaze that Bleach can always come up with new exciting and interesting characters. Can’t wait what they can still create in the future. One of the edges of Bleach from the others is creating a villain. For some reasons, they can always make the most irritating villains in the anime and manga world. In the fight with Ulquiorra, I am just so thrilled with Ichigo’s transformations so I am more than delighted that I get to see it again in this film. Moreover, we get to see another magnificent transformation of Ichigo which is very much appropriate for hell. Plus, one of the things that amazes me about Ichigo is his ability to make people side with him; soul society, hollows, and vizards. And this time, even hell sides with him. I also notice that unlike the previous films where almost all the important characters were present in the films and were very much involved in the fight scenes, in this film, the main characters are the only ones part of the main plot. Even though, some are shown in the later part of the film, they did not even participate to any action scene. I am a little bit disappointed but not enough to view the whole thing negatively. I guess, it is quite good for a change.

Like I said before, Bleach’s greatest edge is its Hollywood –like animation. Bleach is not only one of the best but in fact, the best animation of all time. And if the anime series is like that, you would drop your jaw how magnificent the films are. The animation of this sequel is just nothing like I’ve expected. Bleach always amaze us of their versions of different worlds, so when I heard that they are making their version of hell, I was like “HELL! ITS ABOUT TIME”. The illustrations and graphics of their version of hell are just phenomenal. It’s a whole different type of hell than what we see before. It is so unique and original which is a trademark of Bleach. Making their original versions is always breath-taking. Plus the fights scenes are at its best. It is heart-pounding and very much so exciting.

Bleach took long enough on making us wait with so much anticipation for their fourth movie but it is so worth it. Every film always lives up to the greatness of the preceded films. It always surpasses the others. I just don’t know how they can still make ones in the future when it is already this great. It just shows how creative they are. They never feel contented with the success of one film and they always know that there are still rooms for much improvement. I just can’t wait for the next one.

Review 24: Bleach Movie 4, Hell Verse

Watch out Hell, Ichigo is on his way.....

Yet again....... (I need to come up with new intros), Tite Kubo has come up with another great Bleach film... But rumour has it this maybe his last one, if so then its been a brilliant send off to Kubo's series of films that are Bleach.

In the opening to the film we see a previous fight inbetween Ichigo and a Arrancar. This little opening to the film does seem pointless, as there are no Arrancars actually involved in the story line.

This scene is to indicate that someone is watching Ichigo once he's ... lost control of his powers. We soon learn that the person who's been watching him fight is the one that wants to use all of Ichigos powers and cause trouble within the world of the living.

In the beginning of the film, we see three mysterious characters attempting to destroy the school that Ichigo and his friends attend. It fails but they do cause some damage to the school and students (Nothing Majour).

Soon after another two of these mysterious people appear, this time their not at the school but at Ichigos house and clinic. These two freaky looking characters have been assigned the task of abducting Ichigos little sisters. Only one of them is taken to hell though....

The rest of the film is basically Ichigo attempting to rescue one of his sisters from hell, trying not to lose control of his powers and keeping balance in the world of the living and Hell itself.

All in all I don't think this is the best Bleach flm that has been made. It lacks any sense of humour that the other films and episodes bring but has more action that fits in perfectly with the story line. For it to fit in with the other films and programmes I recommend a slightly humourous side is added to it just to lighten the mode slightly. The action is amazing and all but at times it was too quickly paced and hard to keep up with, but still had the amazing moves and graphics which we would expect from a Bleach film.

The film still has all of the great aspects that we would anticipate from Bleach. One thing it doesn't have is the fact that it usually shows our main cast for Bleach, in this film it shows about half. The action is amazing but slightly fast paced.

A brilliant film from start to finish.

Monday 4th March 2013. 6:18pm. ~AmyXxx

Finally we get to go down to hell! We had so many boring Bleach movies before. This one gets everything right! It's probably even better than the series (anything beyond the saving Rukia arc, that is).

Music is as epic as ever, the animations are very well done. While the story does mess with canon a bit, we don't really have any solid information on Hell itself in the world of Bleach, which makes this great!

Bleach: Hell Verse, where should I start? For starters, this is the best Bleach movie ever. It has the most action, and the story unfolds really quickly. You know what's going on really quick.

Story- The story is really interesting. I'll try mot to give any spoilers. Ichigo Kurosaki must travel into Hell after his sister is captured by Sinners. Sinners are evil humans that cannot pass over into the Soul Society after they die, because they committed some kind of crime when they were alive. Along with Renji, Rukia and Uryu, he goes through Hell trying to look for his sister.

Art- The art ... really suffers at time on the DVD, but if you get the Blu-Ray, these changes should be fixed. For example, there were times where dark spots like shadows suffered, and times where the Soul Reapers clothes were like a dark dark green color, rather than pitch black. All depends on the video quality.

Sound- The sound quality is pretty fair for this movie. There was only one part during the whole movie where I had to raise the volume. Besides that, there is no reason to raise or lower the volume.

Character- I loved all the characters in the movie. Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, Uryu, and even more that I won't mention because spoilers.

Enjoyment- I really enjoyed this movie, that right now, I want to go and rematch it again. I really didn't want it to end at all. If it's because I am Bleach fan, I'll stand by it.

Overall- If you are a Bleach fan, this is a must buy movie. Even if you don't know a lot about Bleach, it's still an easy movie to get into. You'll know who most of the characters are within the first 15 minutes of the movie. Great movie, and I recommend it highly.

Bleach Hell Verse or Hell Chapter is the forth movie in the Bleach series. And is personal one of my favorites. First off I am a huge Bleach fan. It's one of my favorite series of all time and the movies are great on there own. This Movie takes Ichigo the Main Character of the anime series To the depths of hell along with him and a few of his friends. To put it very simply Ichigo and his friends are at school when they are suddenly attacked by mysterious warriors dawning masks protecting there identity. After a fight breaks out ... Ichigo is soon drawn away to another fight in which he finds out one of them is kidnapping his little sister and taking her back to hell with him, He goes to stop them but is stopped himself by another person holding him back a man shows up and starts helping Ichigo still to no avail the sister is dragged back down to hell. Ichigo is left screaming his sisters name. So that is it in a nut shell the opening anyway. So first off I love this movie from opening to the end its a great watch even if your not a bleach fan I can see a lot of people enjoying this title, Now it does help to kind of know the back story to The Bleach Story line but it doesn't ruin the movie in anyway. I could pretty much talk about Bleach forever so i'll leave with this if you like a good but simply story great action awesome characters and just overall great animation you really can't go wrong with Bleach Movie 4 Hell Verse.

I only recently got into Bleach like last summer so this is my first Bleach movie. I may watch older ones soon. This movie was made for the 10th year anniversary of Bleach and it was one hell of a celebration (bad pun intended, sorry).

Because the current anime is just full of random fillers I expected something slightly boring but after watching this I'm just assuming they sent all the good animators to the movie production because this was much better than I thought.

The movie itself was pretty unique, exploring the world other than soul society and Karakura town; hell. The original characters ... were unique as well and I was glad they looked much more developed with better designs than random arrancars and other characters.

Certain moments caught me off guard but it was well made nevertheless.

I love Bleach but their movies are oftentimes disappointing. For this 4th installment, it was kinda all out of sorts.

Story: 7 - Well, from the title itself, we know that it's about Hell... movie started out interesting, showing Ulquiorra's fight with Ichigo w/c had a little more detail and flair... then it jumped to the real world with the usual set of characters trying to find out what's going on in Karakura town... Shinigamis get into a fight and we meet new characters... knowing how Bleach goes, you cannot just trust anyone -- especially the ones who Ichigo gets involved with... anyway, so we get ... to see Ishida, Renji and Rukia (with a little Chad) fight... it was nothing special, really... aside from Ishida, Renji and Rukia's powers never "evolved" anymore so it was so boring... so as the movie slowly progressed, we learn that the main plot is about getting Ichigo to destroy the Hell Gate and end the suffering of the Sinners... good! good! we get a glimpse of Bleach Hell at this point and it was kinda creepy since I believe that it had a kind of truth to it...

Art/Sound/Characters: 8 - I was surprised on how vivid and sharp the movie looked... everything was clear and crisp -- from the realistic Hell door to Ichigo's gold-speckled eyes... sound was very ominous-like... Characters were still enjoyable, though they did not really show anything different... Ichigo still wants to protect his friends -- hooray!

Enjoyment/Overall: 7 - I got bored and kinda fell asleep in the 1st half of the movie... almost, almost gave it an 8 after seeing Ichigo's Hollow-Berserker mode + the Yuzu twist but then it went downhill again... I've seen Ichigo fight countless times (he is the star after all)... i mean, i cannot complain since he gives one hell of a battle every time... but it would have been better if the other characters were given more exposure... a background story, a parody, anything to liven things and give it a little spice... thankfully, Hitsugaya and Byakuya had some screentime or else i would have scored this as 6...

Ichigo fights bad guys + A disapproving Soul Society + Friendship + Saving the world = Bleach

This formula worked before but it gets really old fast... give us something new, please?

Recommended to Bleach fans. To those who do not religiously watch the anime or read the manga, no need to bother since they might not be able to keep up. Oh, but then again, if you want a short Rukia fan service then go ahead and watch. Ichigo fan service is all over the series and I must say that I missed those ripped abs. teehee!

All too often I see that reviews base the worth of a movie on whether it brings something new to the table. This movie, it does have a similar formula to the entire series with a few exceptions - but unlike some of the other examples this movie does it very well.

In my personal opinion something does not need to be groundbreaking our standard-setting to be considered good - it just needs to keep you entertained through some combination of its traits.

Without a doubt, this movie accomplishes that. It actually adds a little more depth the the plot - the ... balance between soul society, heuco mudno, the real world, and hell. For the longest time I knew that heuco mundo was NOT the same thing as hell, but I wasn't really sure of any distinction - one thing this movie did right, though the coherency can be questioned, was make them and the reason for their existence markedly different from heuco mundo and soul society.

The characters I found good - bleach has good characters. They hare fairly non-cookie-cutter for shonen anime, exceptions notwithstanding, and they are always presented well and stay in character - in the exceptions where they deviate from it, there's a reason that adds to events or the comedy. I particularly liked the unique villain's art design.

Lets not forget to mention, the animation quality was excellent. Of course. Most Bleach movies are. It was a pleasure to watch.

The plot was good and most importantly ADDED to lore, didn't butcher it - I HATE when movies butcher the lore of a series - and the sound design was not bad for Bleach. I have never been a big fan of Bleach soundtrack. There are some good tracks with impact, yes - and then there are some very poor choices. This is not much different in that respect - maybe just a little bit less of the "number one" crap that I disliked from the start.

Overall this was an enjoying watch - it's been quite some time since I watched any bleach and I was not disappointed.

The latest Bleach movie to come stateside was released this past Tuesday and having just finished it I felt like writing my thoughts on it. The story is incredibly basic something akin to a DBZ movie in that it takes place in a fictional time after the Ulquiorra v Ichigo fight but before Ichigo returns to fight Aizen. That being the case the movie interestingly follows events similar to the series, the first episode that is, but after that comparisons stop. Ichigo must go to Hell to save his sister from a man that wants to be free from Hell. This story is the weakest ... of the four Bleach movies, but upon retrospect less is more in this instance. Why? They don't try to bog down the movie with establishing new rules for new characters that will likely be gone before the credits roll. The movies before and the filler episodes were guilty of this because they created rules that contradicted the Bleach universe. With all due respect this story is mediocre and I think most people will agree. Before I forget the opening action scene was quite beautiful even if we've seen it once already. And the other action scenes have the same amount of detail, however, pretty much all of the fights end in a predictable fashion. But the movie does throw in a minor twist shortly after, while it's not shocking at least the writers were trying at that point. The animation in the film is superb, it's not the best I have seen it certainly ranks up there at this moment. The Bleach movies have always had one good thing going for it and that has always been the animation. The sound was not bad but the re-use of the same soundtrack that we have heard since episode 1 doesn't help matters any. As for character they kept things normal, thankfully the movie did an ok job at portraying characters at a normal strength level. Sometimes these shonen movies will create villains that far too powerful to be convincing, and only one character truly fits that description. This movie isn't terrible by any stretch of the imagination but with a lackluster story and decent fights this movie will probably only be enjoyed by diehard fans of Bleach.

The last few bleach movies really haven't impressed me. They seemed a bit bland and rushed, just there to be there. This film is the first one that actually drew me in. It starts off with an amazing scene from the anime and injects its self well in to the canon. You really feel like you are watching something that is meaningful rather than something just made for a quick cash-grab.

I really didn't like when the character design in bleach got silly. When I first started watching bleach I really loved how everything looked and a while after he rescues Rukia the show just ... seemed to suck. It picked up with the arrancar arc and ended again after he beats aizen. Essentially, the show has some major ups and downs.

However, this movie, even though most of the villains have the horrible "one-piece knock off" look to them the main villain is actually a very interesting character. I kind of wish I had gotten to know more about him. Besides him they made hell its own character me as well. The movie doesn't just say "here's hell.. have fun" They added lore and rules and gave us a good idea of how it works and what goes on.

There is so much story here and so much to love that it makes me wonder why the show couldn't have as much thought put in to it at times.

Short review:

-Shiro Sagisu is literally a god -> Bleach OST Incantation [Complete Suite]
-The animation was very good.
-The voice actors were as always good
-The story wasn't really that good. The other movies were definitely better in this regard.
-The characters didn't really feel like Bleach's typical cast

The best thing about the movie is definitely the music, but I mean, it's Shiro Sagisu! His music is always great! The plot was nothing special, and the villain was not that good either. Also, the cast didn't really feel like Bleach at all. But the animations were pretty good, so it's definitely not a total disaster. I can definitely understand ... why Kubo wanted to remove his name from the credits!

Rating:
I would say on a good day it's a 7-8
and on a bad day a 5-6
So it's a 6-7 for me