Bleach's story has a fair enough setup: Ichigo meets Rukia, a soul reaper, and becomes a soul reaper himself. Antics ensue. Right? Well...to some extent, yes. For a little while the story has a kind of monster-of-the-week feel, with our characters facing some fun, inconsequential enemies. We see a little of Ichigo's high school life. Then the big Soul Society arc begins, and it's pretty fun! It introduces a bunch of new characters and lore, we see plenty of fights, it's a good time. It's a pretty long arc, and it culminates in a villain reveal that has obviously been memorable among fans.
In my opinion, this is the highest point the manga ever reached. Unfortunately, this arc is generally accepted to end around chapter 182. And there are *705* chapters. That's a pretty big gap. So what was going on for the rest of the time? To be brutally honest, nothing that ever felt that important. There are really only 3 big arcs after the Soul Society. I think that in order to hold your attention over such a long-running shounen series, there should ideally be a higher number of slightly shorter arcs, or at the very least the arcs need to be more varied. But each new arc in Bleach seems to follow the exact same structure as the first, but in increasingly bleaker locations.
I think characterisation is another place Bleach falls short. There's nothing wrong with the characters designs; but I just couldn't ever connect with the main characters the way I wanted to. I'm not certain why this is. They're not TERRIBLE - but I just don't feel that their motivations and goals are well expressed. Ichigo, for example, should be the biggest driver of the story, and I guess I like him well enough - but I don't know what his ultimate goals are. I think this makes it apparent that the story really lacks something important: an emotional core. Without this it's hard to feel invested in any of the goings on. I also always found it kind of odd that Ichigo's high school pals all happened to have their own super abilities outside of the reaper powers.
The artwork of the series, while it's biggest strength, also suffered from deteriorating quality through the years. I think initially the art and designs of Bleach were very impressive; Tite Kubo is a very talented artist. The characters look sleek and very very cool. The fight scenes were visually exciting. But by the mid point there is less and less to hold your eye's attention - the scenery and backgrounds seemed to become much bleaker and washed out. It feels like you're just looking at the characters talking or battling in a blank void, and this only lends to an increasingly empty story.
Overall, I think it's a shame that Bleach fell from grace the way it did. I read it faithfully every week for 3-4 years up till sometime in 2013, and yet I find it hard to pinpoint many memories from that all time spent reading. For some time I convinced myself that I would eventually catch up and finish the manga, but I've now long accepted that I will probably never bother. I've seen summaries of the very last chapters and they're not enough to compel me to spend my time reading through more of the same.
I don't want to place blame too harshly on any one factor for the disappointing nature of the series. I think perhaps Tite's strengths lie in artwork and character design, rather than character development. I understand that the world of weekly manga, especially Weekly Shounen Jump, is a unique and unforgiving environment in which to publish these stories, but that doesn't automatically mean that any series in there is doomed to the same failures. And I know that eventually Tite was given a brutally short frame in which to end the manga, but, truthfully, what would have happened otherwise? Would the manga have been drawn out for another 150 chapters of stale plot? Who knows.
Ultimately, I think Bleach would have worked much better as a shorter series; perhaps after the Soul Society arc there could have been a short conclusion. I think Bleach would be remembered more fondly if had ended sooner. But, alas. It's certainly not the worst manga in the world; if shounen manga in a cool, modern setting appeals to you then I think it's worth your time to read the beginnings of it. Just know that, even if you enjoy it to start with, and you're determined to power through the lacklustre arcs in the hopes that the story will get better: it won't.
