Story (6.8/10):
Redemption arcs are one of the most oversaturated story arcs in Shounen, sequentially, one of the best arcs in Shounen series, if they hit the nail right. Unfortunately, this movie tried pulling out a fast one on us, but it did not click at all, with more loose plot threads and too little setup that it felt like an elementary kids' fight.
The pacing was weird in this one, it started very dully and slow, to the point of falling asleep somewhere at the beginning of the movie, like watching a Naruto filler hell, but then towards the end it speeds up the flow of events so much so your attention gives up processing anything that happens, knocking you back into reality “This is just a filler Movie, why should I care?”.
Art (8/10):
Definitely not the best I've seen from a Movie production, even back in the day. It just looks like a well-animated TV episode and nothing more.
The characters are well defined, they look sharper and clearer than the usual blurry treatment they get from a weekly episode. The particle effects were spot on, probably the only shine in this mediocre work.
Sound (8/10):
When starting a movie, or any high production entertainment product, you'd at least expect the delivery to be on par with what you get from the regular of said product. I like voice acting in Bleach, I love the OSTs, I adore the ambient sound effects. Thankfully, all of that was present, but unfortunately, nothing new came out of it. Again, following the same trend of a well-animated filler episode.
Characters (6/10):
Well, that was an unfortunate turn of events.
In every series, you have tat one character people put over the main characters, characters so cool they shatter that “side character” label and make it into countless fans' hearts, roll the dollars on merchandise, and even used to market their series at times, take into example “Kakashi, Levi, Law...”, in Bleach's case, that's undoubtedly Toshiro.
To have a movie revolve around a fans' favorite is a clever way into marketing your series-related content that the fact it might backfire and just not work is staggering.
The main villain made complete nonsense, it was painfully apparent how Toshiro is forced to act the way he did like nothing from his showings in the main series mattered. The villain was a doll, unrelatable, and just another typical vengeful figure that somehow makes the entire Soul Society bond to fight the greater evil.
Enjoyment (7/10):
This is a definitive upgrade from the first movie, no doubt, But not by a lot.
It was definitely more encouraging to keep watch as all characters involved has had already been introduced properly and/or built-in relation to familiar characters, so not a lot of strange faces all introduced at once and you have to struggle and keep up with so many tongues rolling names.
Again, the premise of revenge story has been done so many times in a lot of different shapes and flavors that it's practically hard to pull anything new to the mix, but more Bleach is always okay with me.
Overlay (7.16/10):
All in all, you're most likely not going to walk out of this movie mind blown, however, if you're looking for just another Bleach movie, this one has the best blend of fan service and filler crap that no one cares about.
