Animation and sound wise, the movie is very good. It uses cinematics greater than those in the initial episodes (how do I miss those) and makes the story to look dramatic, like a good samurai movie. The level of lining detail is more or less the same, though there is a higher spectrum of colors and a much lower amount of static images and repeating frames. I must say that as far as atmosphere in a title like Bleach goes, the movie did a wonderful job.
Of course, most will not care about this as much as the action part. Yes, there is action and it is freaking awesome. If you are into superpower battles, you will not be disappointed. Still, don’t expect any realism or decent choreography, as the whole deal was, and still is, just people yelling the names of their attacks and then their swords magically change shapes and spit all sorts of elemental spells. Thunders and lightings fill the screen and buildings crumble and dimensions merge and… Well, it looks epic, who cares about logic.
Story and characters are, as expected, more shallow and uninteresting than in the series. Not by too much though, as all of us who know of Bleach are aware that there was never much meat around those bones to begin with. So, once again, Soul Society is in danger, all the captains attack and do a cameo parade of special attacks before Ichigo storms in and saves the day in the same fashion as always… Actually, the story is not very different than the Hueco Mundo ark. Same basic plot, same pattern in battles.
I can only say that the shift of protagonist from the dorky lead Ichigo, to the white haired boy Hitsugaya was not very successful. Being a filler mission, it doesn’t matter how much they try to flesh him out. Sure, he is less pathetic than Strawberry Boy, but still, he is just another guy shy around women, wielding a magic sword. As for his tragic past and movie rival, it was quite ridiculous as you never quite see how his childhood friend managed to survive, raised a huge army of ghosts and invaded Soul Society like there was no protection at all. Or why the heck doesn’t anyone do something about the ever-present scheming leaders of Soul Society and just kills all those who try to change things. Anyways, Ichigo was still the one to beat the baddy, so what’s the point? Why don’t they just make a movie about Zaraki picking his nose and slaying monsters from beginning to end? It will be far more interesting and it will not even need a story. Anyways, as a whole it is about every character in the series showing off his powers before Ichigo predictably wins. Nice action, boring plot.
Value and enjoyment … or the absence of them. I lost interest in shonen that are nothing more than brainless action and lame attempts at drama. There are far more interesting shonen, as there are far more dramatic and realistic samurai movies. This movie is more or less a waste of time. Something to watch when you just want to see pretty lights filling the screen. At best you can enjoy yet another uninspired movie about yet another series that went down the drain after a while.
