The plot.. what plot is what I am wondering. While watching this, every so often I found myself questioning this, or when I read other reviews on different websites. There really was no plot, other than a 15 year old boy, in school being able to see ghosts and become a soul reaper. To be all honest I didn't even see the plot in this, it felt more like an episodic anime with no plot at all.
The first episode was rather boring, and just lead up to what others would call a breath taking transformation. Breath taking really, I think not. It was rather dull and un impressive. I had to role my eyes at yet another Sailor Moon reminder (without the fancy music or dance). The second episode was a bit better but still I saw no plot to this series. 'sighs' The is a disappoint ment to me.
As the show progressed I started to lack in memory of the series. Due to my ability to block out any boring or dull movie scenes, it was an automatic switch on for this series. I didn't like it and the plot seemed to run more on the action and humor instead of itself.
There was no real ending so far, just more prologue.
Art (Animation)- If you guys no me well, you know I pay a bit more attention to the art instead of the characters or plot, seeing as the english voice cast has away to ruin that for me (unless I am watching subs, I can consentrate more on what is going on with them). Where as many would say that the art was fantastic, or very good.. I say that it seriously lacked. I saw no real creativity for this, not even in the manga itself did I see creativity. The soul, a blue fire ball. It seemed more like light blue paint that they made glow and move. Action scenes with spiritual powers.. also another site of sqlaushed paint being formed into something. I would say the ice of Hitsugiya was probably the only creative thing I seen in the show concerning art.
The background now was way to bright, like a Spring Break party. Where it tired to show something gloomy or tragic it failed somewhat, but they did manage to capture rain and clouds right.
Character art wasn't so good either. Like Naruto, when a character either gets bruised or has a small cut it would heal quickly without cause. Only major damage showed, pathetic. Hair styles, limbs, and tones could have been better also.
I am being rather generous with rating sound a five. Mostly because of the song choices and the not too bad voice cast for this.
The songs for the series, though they had a good beat and were somewhat rememberable, it did not match the series at all. Rare cases like Kuroshitsuji's soundtrack actually fit and flow with the story as if it belonged, but most cases like Bleach it was just put there to show off the series. Apperantly, in this case you run good on soundtrack you tend to have a bit more fans.. Nothing of real interest to the songs, a good soundtrack but nothing relating to the series.
Voice cast.. now I mind you that I do not watch this on dvds or youtube. I am stuck with AdultSwim and watching it every Saturday, so yes.. I am reviewing for the enlgish dub. How unfortunate. Thankfully, Viz didn't do too bad with it, I felt that though some of the voice actors like JYB didn't fit the roles correctly some did. It wasn't too bad to where you'd hate listening to it, but you can get annoyed by it at times. So it is watchable, I just suggest you be careful before doing so.
Characters.. now people are going to hate me for this, I just know it. One charater out of all of them stood out for me.. and that was Orhime. Now before anyone curses me out, let me explain to you this. Orhime, had these god like abilities and yet instead of going into that they skipped over her like a rag doll in garbage. Ouch. Not only that, but I notice (and another person notice as well) that the enter series consentrated more on the males instead of the females. Useless characters I would have to say, seeing as they only put them there for show. How rude is that... I mean you have these amazing girls here, that probably have more power than they show and they are skipped over. What in the world happened I was wondering.
Oh and the males.. most of the male characters seem to just stand around and do nothing where as Ichigo bothers to do something about any problem. I mean come on.. all these characters seemed nothing but sueish or stuish to me.. and it hurt me to feel that the series was like a statement that females are only good for their looks. If any anti-club there should notice it was not the girls fault for what the staff did it is the staff and mangaka that ruined their chances.
I can't help but rate them a 3.. just poor. Poor development, poor attitudes, and the majority of useless characters. This just irritated me.
My enjoyment a three. I found my enjoyment seriously lacking in this series. I was not impressed by the action or attempts at being funny. I was not impressed by the characters, sound, etc. Really, I was just like a china doll staring at the screen. Though I should probably rate it lower if it where that bad, I did find some things rather funny like the blood being thrown at the wall and writting itself. I couldn't help but laugh, or any time Mr. Hat and Clogs came up.
Overall.. a 3.4 (3 here). I could not like this series.. not with the serious lack of creativity, anti-female feel, episodic feel, and lack of plot.. just a serious lack of everything. My advise to the staff would be stop and change it. The manga is feeling the same so I am not surprised by this. 'sighs' Not at all good or enjoyable in my opinion.
