The manga is flawed in just about every way possible and its actually getting kind of pathetic to read right now.
I mean, I can't name think of a positive thing about it(the whole mindlessly "entertaining" is another way of calling it stupid).
The characters are generally one dimensional and receive little to no actual growth or development. There are a few characters with some depth(Byakuya for instance) but most characters are shallow and their entire character analysis can be summed up with in just a few short sentences(and some a single sentence). I'm not talking about minor characters btw, I'm talking about major ones. Occasionally Kubo will attempt to give a few characters some "development" but that all resets by the beginning of the next arc.
Another problem with the characters is that Kubo has no idea how to use them. The main cast is pretty much thrown away every arc so the captains can shine. Its sad the people like Chad, Ishida, and Orihime are thrown away so quickly each and every arc. Its hard to call them "main" characters at this point. I guess this all stems from Kubo introducing WAY too many characters and not really knowing how to write a real story.
Pacing is also another gigantic problem for Bleach as well. Every chapter is filled with reaction faces and posing with very little dialogue. While almost every manga does this occasionally, Bleach does this every chapter on almost every page. In most chapters only one or two scenes occur. EVERY chapter can be fully read and comprehended in less than a minute.
Another reason that Bleach has bad pacing is due to the fact that Kubo introduces too many villains who don't matter in the end. The Espada is the prime example of this. People who kept up with Bleach for the entirety of the arrancar arc watched the heroes of Bleach fight against these guys for around 4 years or so. But in the end they really had no lasting impact on the manga at all. They didn't really cause any real story development nor did they actually have any lasting impact on the characters. If the manga took out the Hueco Mundo arc and just skipped to the war, the exact same result would occur and nothing in the manga right now would be any different. Hell even the manga indirectly tells you at one point that the Espada have no point.
And for anyone who thinks that this isn't typical for Bleach, look at the Fullbringers(most of them were pointless), and for anyone reading the current chapters, how many enemies did Kubo introduce again? They even had Ichigo fighting against this loser for 3 or so chapters and we're nowhere near close to finishing that fight. We're going to go through another 300 or so chapter arc with only 70-80 chapters that isn't pointless padding.
People complement the art, but its really not that good either. I guess the character designs aren't too bad, but that's not where the problem is. My complaint is the lack of background art. Instead of actually drawing out backgrounds, in many panels Kubo will just color in some shading or just leave it blank. The only backgrounds that exist that seem to be consistent are the sky and the clouds. It just doesn't make the manga look good.
Fights are also kind of bad. They generally consist of beamspams that do little damage and then the characters go back and forth between powerups. After that, the fights end in a single hit once character A(the victor) reaches his max power level. its a pretty predictable setup.
The plot is also fairly laughable as well. The plot is shallow and just...
lmao
The plot for Bleach completely fell apart after the Soul Society arc. At this point, all Kubo has done is introduce random enemies and make them seem important in order to make make an illusion that things happen. But everything just kind of goes back to status quo after each arc is finished and it just doesn't feel like Bleach has really accomplished anything significant.
That's just how I see this manga. The saddest part? I didn't even list all of my complaints about it.
I basically see it as SJ's version of Inuyasha, seeing as how both of them are uselessly padded for hundreds of chapters longer than they should be.
