Bleach

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Japanese: BLEACH

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 74

Chapters: 705

Status: Finished

Published: Aug 7, 2001 to Aug 22, 2016

Genres: Action, Adventure, Award Winning, Supernatural

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Kubo, Tite (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.90¹ (scored by 251,069 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1015²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #15

Members: 410,670

Favorites: 37,506

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7.90

Ranked #1015Popularity #15Members 410,670

MangaShounen Jump (Weekly)Kubo, Tite (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /74

Chapters: /705

Bleach

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Synopsis

For as long as he can remember, high school student Ichigo Kurosaki has been able to see the spirits of the dead, but that has not stopped him from leading an ordinary life. One day, Ichigo returns home to find an intruder in his room who introduces herself as Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper tasked with helping souls pass over. Suddenly, the two are jolted from their conversation when a Hollow—an evil spirit known for consuming souls—attacks. As Ichigo makes a brash attempt to stop the Hollow, Rukia steps in and shields him from a counterattack. Injured and unable to keep fighting, Rukia suggests a risky plan—transfer half of her Soul Reaper powers to Ichigo. He accepts and, to Rukia's surprise, ends up absorbing her powers entirely, allowing him to easily dispatch the Hollow.

Now a Soul Reaper himself, Ichigo must take up Rukia's duties of exterminating Hollows and protecting spirits, both living and dead. Along with his friends Orihime Inoue and Yasutora Sado—who later discover spiritual abilities of their own—Ichigo soon learns that the consequences of becoming a Soul Reaper and dealing with the world of spirits are far greater than he ever imagined.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Bleach has sold over 130 million copies worldwide as of 2022, making it one of the top 20 best-selling manga series of all time; North American sales have also been significant with 1.7 million copies sold in the region. In 2005, the series won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shounen category.

The series was published in English by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump imprint from July 6, 2004, to October 2, 2018, and as omnibus volumes from June 7, 2011, to March 5, 2019; a hardcover collector's edition for volume one was released by VIZ Media on August 5, 2008, a box set of volumes 1-21 was released on September 16, 2008, as well as volumes 22-48 on July 7, 2015, and the final box set containing volumes 49-74 on November 6, 2018. It has also been published in Brazilian Portuguese by Panini Comics since July 2007, and in Spanish by Glénat since June 2006, publishing 51 volumes before the publisher went defunct; it was later republished by Panini Comics from February 2013 to November 2017.

Many adaptations have also been made of Bleach, with four feature-length films, numerous video games, spin-off light novels, databooks, a live-action movie, and even a musical.

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Related Entries

More characters
Characters

Kurosaki, Ichigo

Main

Kuchiki, Rukia

Main

Inoue, Orihime

Main

Abarai, Renji

Main

Ishida, Uryuu

Main

Sado, Yasutora

Main

Zaraki, Kenpachi

Supporting

Urahara, Kisuke

Supporting

Aizen, Sousuke

Supporting

Cifer, Ulquiorra

Supporting

Reviews

Dec 31, 2020

infoworms

Recommended

Bleach is a truly cohesive work that plays to the strengths of the battle series genre with little fluff and fat. The characters are always moving forward, the story is engaging and iterates on itself smartly, it's constantly refining and executing on its themes, it's a near perfect showing of the battle genre. It pays off on investing in side characters, it rewards thinking about the themes and visual/textual metaphor with a deceptive amount of depth. It employs a mature cast and a strong grasp on real, tangibly complex emotion to great effect.

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Aug 23, 2016

Sapphire

Mixed Feelings

*THIS REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS*

Like a flutter of a butterfly’s wing, Kubo has created the dynamic of a life after death scenario, twisting people’s minds and imaginations throughout its journey with surprises, questions, and a bold statement of what happens after we leave this world. Invisible forces play into the scenes, grasping a hold of reality and raining out a massive event that not even humans can comprehend. Sparks fly as metal swords clash. Tears fall down pale cheeks. Romances bloom like a soft flower petal in the spring. People think there is nothing after life, but they are wrong. Death is only the beginning.

Story: ...

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Aug 19, 2016

riflow

Not Recommended

Bleach started out as a very promising character-driven manga with several great arcs. It’s a massive shame it didn’t keep up. The story starts with a bang, builds and builds, wraps up the first few arcs in a satisfying manner and then trips over itself, rolls down a hill, into the ocean and sinks into the abyss. I can say I was thoroughly disappointed with the way it ended after the potential it showed at first.

I've been reading this manga since I was 13. The story was never really anything special, but it was fun. Initially, the characters were interesting and dynamic, they felt important ... and the threats felt like something they needed to overcome, to grow and to protect each other and their family. I loved seeing the way everything was depicted - supernatural or not - and the absolute creativity of some of the designs hypnotized me.

The plot, simple at first, evolves and escalates, jumping through several arcs and then begins to degrade after a specific point rather rapidly. More characters ended up introduced than it felt was needed, and often there was so much focus on the new characters that there was no room for anyone else. Ichigo (our main character) in particular was a black hole for focus, and the side characters may as well have not existed. Their motivations were paper thin, felt reused or just plain didn’t go anywhere. After a while it felt like I'd seen the same characters come along several times and not really add anything, and just questioned why they were even included in the story.

Boring, throwaway villains, silly misunderstandings, pointless trips, unclear motivations. The last arc has been particularly shameless with making the final big bad just… the worst the manga has ever seen even amongst the minor henchmen. He had little to no personality, nothing relatable, charming or fascinating about him and more or less just felt like a silly plot device to try to prove how strong Ichigo was and /try/ to reinforce that he has an amazing relationship with the people he's met on his journey.

Sadly, the message of friendship and being together as humans is undermined constantly and almost the entirety of the manga makes it a pointless aesop. Ichigo is impossibly strong and unfailingly virtuous, with just enough flaws to add a bit of depth to his character, but he is the main character who rises so far above his friends that he doesn't ever truly seem to connect with them. His friends who began as interesting become quickly underpowered compared to him and to the enemies he faces.

Having a character who is miles above the rest in terms of power can be pulled off successfully, provided that he shares a deep enough emotional connection with at least some of the cast and that doesn’t lower the stakes of the story. Unfortunately, Bleach does not succeed in this and most of the initial friends Ichigo made get the same treatment as much of the side characters from Dragon Ball Z, becoming completely unable to compete on any level, or even keep up, with our main character.

It was a true shame to once again have a shounen series fall victim to this. It left a terrible aftertaste.

For anyone willing to read things before the downfall, up to chapter 182 was a great exciting adventure with plenty of characters to enjoy (but not too many), and a fairly well balanced character driven story. Or up to chapter 423 where it was still...complicated and interesting but beginning to feel a little bit samey.

For those willing to continue reading past that point, I would advise that you prepare yourselves for disappointment. I don't know what Kubo was thinking with the majority of the later plot, but much of it felt flat or just plain not impactful. A common and well-deserved complaint was how cheap many of the plot devices were and how little things seemed to actually matter in the long run. Another complaint was the over build up for many a lacklustre reveal.

As for the art - it was clean and fairly well executed. Later on a lot of the scenes become hard to follow, with too many effects and cluttered panels, but the character designs and environments were overall of an acceptable level. You could however argue that, barring a few, Kubo falls into same face syndrome much like many manga authors, reusing the same general faces for specific types of characters with marginal alterations. It wasn’t the most amazing art ever but it was definitely above average.

In summary, Bleach started its run as a pleasant experience with more ambition than it knew what to do with, and it eventually caved in under the weight of its enormous but underdeveloped cast, disproportionate focus on a single character whose importance was poorly justified with increasingly contrived plot twists, and an overabundance of questionable creative decisions.

Sorry if this is kind of all over the place, it's my first review and I wanted people to know this manga started well, but still ended terribly. I mostly want to save anyone else from reading the next 200-300 chapters because it isn't worth it.

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