Of course, with all the time it gets for character and plot development by being a long-running anime, it’s a good run almost no matter what your preferences are.
I rate this anime 5, not because it’s the most awesome anime I’ve ever seen(Gurren Lagann takes that spot) nor does it have a plot that keeps me sitting in constant expectation(Death Note does that better), but because not only does it give you plenty of time to get to love it, when the big plot twists do come they come from out of nowhere, even with all the - very effective - foreshadowing throughout the series.
Another thing that keeps you interested is of course what each character will do and, perhaps most of all, what their powers are. Each shinigami wields a zanpakuto(lit. "soul-cutter sword") which is both a weapon and a partner. Seeing the "released" power of a new zanpakuto is always interesting, even later in the series.
Lastly, I would like to talk about filler.
As most of you know, filler is bad. As considerably fewer of you know, filler is at times a necessary evil.
For your own sakes, I highly recommend that you do not take the first filler arc(Bounto) too seriously.
It leaves you with 3 new characters(that are non-canon and thus mostly appear in later fillers) but other than that it has no real impact on the plot.
Still, a few nice fights, although animation is kinda poor.
The second filler arc(Amagai) is way different, and(this is another reason for those 5 stars) does not IN ANY WAY impact the main story, as it doesn’t pretend to be part of the storyline, and instead "sometime else" with no affiliation as to what is currently happening in the real story.
It’s also much more well animated(you’ll find that Bleach improves its animation greatly over the course of the show) and the story is actually quite good.
The Zanpakuto Unknown Tales filler arc has just begun, but it looks awesome ^^
So if you haven’t watched Bleach, or got tired of it after 2-3 eps, take my word for it and try it out for the first 25 at least. There’s always fast-forward^^
Sincerely,
renji59
