Story: What Bleach offers in story is unforgivable given the textbook predictability of a shounen manga. Something that is required is to provide a rival one step ahead of the next, hopefully with a few unique characteristics setting them apart to bring the story moving forward to the end. I found that Bleach quickly strayed when arcs would end resulting in the series faultering off the main plot to focus on filler arcs. Normally I have no problem with these because it prolongs things and with some series I appreciate that being done. In the case of Bleach you could easily skip some arcs in entirity and still not miss a thing.
For a series that had an initially strong concept, it was wasted mostly.
Art: The art is nice in Bleach. It's not the greatest art I've found in a series but nevertheless it's consistent and has it's own look that suits the tone of it and sets up characters personalities with it's unique character designs. Animation is how you'd expect, mid-range, no complaints with it, but no reason to stick out.
Sound: The openings, endings and the BGM are very well done. Can't think of an opening that I don't like, or doesn't fit the mood of your typical shounen story. The OST certainly fits the tone of scenes, but I didn't find it memorable. The voice actors used are all strong performers and I can't find fault in this regard.
Characters: Probably one of the first things you'll notice about bleach beside it's reputation and odd name is it's characters. All characters are uniquely designed with nicely laid out personalities that don't simply pertain to stereotypical anime personality types and it's quite easy for viewers to have their own favorite characters, which I find is typical when watching an enjoyable series.
enjoyment: A miserable five is all this series deserves despite the points made previous to this. When faced with a long-lasting series it's important for each episode to make you want to keep watching, at no point did I feel this. It was common to not want to continue with the knowledge that I was in a 'filler arc', or I didn't actually enjoy the premise of the current arc (Rukia!) that so many people describe as 'the good part'. The filler in Bleach is unbearable, it intends to be humorous, or at least I think it does. Never during a series have I felt so miserable during a filler, maybe except the island episodes during 'Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water'.
Overall: Seven. It's not the worst thing I've watched, but it's not enjoyable. The things I like about Bleach are all superficial things mostly, art and sound. These do not matter to me so long as characters and story are well done, but for me Bleach has it's priorities all wrong, so I found little reason to continue it therefore I'm probably being generous by giving it a seven.
