Back to KingNoahTheThird's Profile KingNoahTheThird's Profile

Bleach is my favorite of the Big Three. It may not be as long as detailed as One Piece, or have the complex rivalries of Naruto (with Sasuke at least), but it doesn't need to. You see, Bleach has something that I haven't seen in any other Shonen at least to the extent as Bleach. Bleach excels at the tone and layers of it's story.

First, however, let's take a look at the "first" layer of Bleach: the actual story and plot itself. Bleach follows a teenager named Ichigo who, after meeting tritagonist (or deuteragonist, this is subjective) Rukia, leanrs about the existence of evil spirits ... called Hollows and the spirits that combat them, called Soul Reapers. Soul Reapers live in a different dimension called the Soul Society. As well as Soul Reapers, there are quite a few other groups of people, races, and even dimensions. The most notable of these are the Quincys, a (thought to be) extinct group of humans who instead of releasing Hollows to the Soul Society simply destroy their souls, causing them to have a rivalry with Soul Repears. Ichigos rival and the (again subjective) deuteragonist of the story, Uryu Ishida, is one of the last Quincys still alive. Throughout the story, Ichigo grows stronger and meets literally hundreds of allies and enemies including the rest of the Soul Society, the Arrancars, the Visored, the Fullbringers, and finally, the Quicnys, revealed to still be alive. The genius of Bleach, and the reason that the average Shonen fan considers Bleach to be "mid", lies in the surprising tone, emotion, and symbolism in the story. Kubo is a master at telling without telling. Now, lets get to some examples.

Ichigo does not have a motivation he yells about every other page, but his true motivations are clear. Ichigo's driving point for fighting is to protect his friends. He will literally go to hell (or, I guess, the Soul Society and Hueco Muendo) for his friends. Hell, he'll even lose his powers for them. Ichigo is deeply troubled, and by reading his emotional breakdown in the Fullbringer arc, you can see this. Unlike most exasperatingly stupid shonen MCs, Ichigo feels like a real person. He is intelligent, emotional, angsty, determined, etc. His character development is deep and you can feel for him and his goals.

Uryu Ishida is at first the cocky rival of Ichigo. He is the clear opposite of our favorite MC, being cold and calculated where Ichigo is more reckless and emotional. However, his development and goals are revealed more and more as the story progresses, and he reaches his peak during the final arc, the Thousand Year Blood War. We find out he has a more emotional side through Orihime, who he initially has feelings for (or at least this is my perception of his character), but eventually he comes to terms with the fact that she likes Ichigo. He loses his powers to get revenge on the Reaper that killed his teacher, and regains them through the help is his father. Throughout the Arrancar arc he is less important as that is a Reaper focused arc, however when TYBW and the Quincy invasion rolls around, his character really shines. Uryu joins the Sternritter(Quincys 26 strongest) and seemingly turns on our main cast. As we can tell, however, he does not want to be on their side. We find out through subtelity that Uryu wants to kill Yhwach, leader of the Quincy, as Yhwach is the reason his father his dead. Uryu ends up succeeding, as through the combined efforts of him, Ichigo, and Aizen, arguably the most famous character from Bleach and one of the most famous manga villains, they defeat Yhwach.

Of course, both of these characters, and the massive cast in general, have significantly more going for them then I mentioned, but I don't want to make this drag on. Overall, if you want a series that you can spend time pondering on or just want to read a long, well written manga, I highly suggest Bleach. Of course with all the criticism thrown its way I can't say its for everyone, but give it a chance. Even if you don't like it, it wont waste your time.