Thoughts on Bleach

Out of all the things that have happened in Bleach, what do you make of the distance the manga has gone over the past few years?

What do you think will happen next?

What do you think of its plot?

As for me, These are my thoughts,

Bleach has wonderful character design, but it seems that Tite kubo doesn't appreciate proper pacing and continuity. To me, it seemed as though the Espada were far too easily defeated, with soul society suffering no causalities. Many of the fights seemed rushed, and it seemed that character development was given to only two of the many villains that needed it. I like Ulquiorra and Grimmjow, and actually appreciated the parts they played. However, this is were Bleach's continuity seems to be disregarded. Ichigo had defeated both Byakuya and Zaraki, both considered the strongest of the captains. Not the strongest mind you, but probably stronger than Mayuri, Komamura, Tousen, and Toshiro. Ichigo is no match for Grimmjow, the sixth espada, on their first fight. Right then, it should have been clear that the espada 6-1 would be more powerful than 5 out of 10 of Soul Society's captains. But Tousen seems much stronger than Grimmjow when he rips his arm off. I would let that slide, if we assume that Aizen had used the Hogyoku to power him up. But that still begs the questions...
How did Rukia, an unseated officer, defeat the 9th espada?
How did Byakuya and Zaraki defeat the 0 espada, when both would be weaker than the sixth?
How did Byakuya soundly defeat the seventh espada, when in reality, they probably would have been around the same level?

Of course these aren't my only problems with the series. I am upset mostly due to the winter war being one battle. A battle, that despite the urgency it was given by soul society, was won without any causalities 'till Aizen himself decided to fight. Something he could have done when he was revealed as the mastermind at the beginning.

It just seemed so rushed and anticlimactic, why oh why would Aizen not retreat once he saw how badly he was losing? I know he's the cocky type, but he was supposed to be the smart type too. I know some will argue that soul society could have gotten stronger while preparing for the war, but you have to remember the plateau effect. Something Ichigo could avoid since he was still "climbing the hill" as it were.

All in all, I like Bleach, but it could have been much much better.

Ah you triggered my nerve on this one. Mainly surrounding the Kenpachi and Byakuya portion.


Many folks like to say that Kenpachi and Byakuya are both weaker than Ichigo, when it is very much so the opposite. There was never a time during each of their battles against Ichigo that the individual had truly gone all out. After all, did we ever see Byakuya's full-blown shunpo capabilities until the Espada Arc? Hardly. We also never saw the full extent of his kido powers, nevermind that when Ichigo and Byakuya fought, Byakuya's own arrogance was getting in the way of him allowing himself to properly gauge Ichigo's power, but even then he rightfully defeated Ichigo had it not been for his hollow interfering, and we've seen canon proof that, when Ichigo's hollow takes over, he's many times more power than ichigo even when he's using his mask.

Kenpachi is an easy explanation. There was never a time during which Kenpachi allowed himself to use the fullest extent of his powers, solely for the purpose of having fun when fighting. When he was fighting Nniotra though, if became something a bit more serious, and we finally saw just how strong Kenpachi really was, especially when he finally used proper swordsmanship.

You've gotta think deeper than the surface mate.

You've gotta think deeper than the surface mate,

Well I'd like to think that I do, but I see your points about Zaraki and Byakuya. It's just that, as a writer, I look at it like I'm dissecting a novel, rather than actuality. Usually, Novelists try to keep their readers from asking questions at the end. Their responsibility is to keep their works from having holes. I can see that your points about Byakuya make sense, but about Zaraki, well...by his own confession, Ichigo won.

I'm not trying to be offensive, I'm just saying that I'm still a little iffy on that one.

yeah and so far bleach is the serie with more holes that i've ever seen.

is like Tite just don't feel like explaining a lot of things...

Kubo would regain a lot of my respect if he killed some good characters, instead trying to show moral like some fairy tale "hey only the good ones survive and bad guys always get kicked in the ass, so don't be bad kids"

I see someone shares my view on character death. I just think the stakes would be upped if we actually considered the Arrancar a threat. I mean, can you imagine The Taking of Pelham 123, being the great thriller that it was if John Travolta didn't kill anyone that whole time? It wouldn't have even been half as exciting.

I think kubo has something very special planned for us.( or he damn well better by this point.). There are just too many loose ends that need to be tied up. numerous things bother me that haven't been answered. here are some of the greater ones on my mind:

1. Urahara

he has been playing in and out of the shadows but has yet to give any real reason too it. Ichigo isn't the first person he has helped become a shinigami. Jinta, his assistant, made reference to that vaguely by his personal knowledge of how ichigo regained his shini powers after fighting byakuya the first time. I think he has an alternative motive to all this but im not sure what, he even seems to know isshin rather too personally...

2. Isshin

No answers what-so-ever outta him. I wanta know how he knows so much about his sons "unusual" condition. He seems like he has seen it before, i'm hoping the new arc will shed some light on him.

3.Grimmjow

unlike the other espada, grimmjow is the only esapda to have "unknown" as his status. All other espada, even with no actual glimpse of their death, has been deemed dead. i think we might be seeing more of him later.

well those are the big ones on my end anyway

As it stands. Tite Kubo has always eventually answered the questions of his readers, that's his writing style though, to keep us asking questions. That's also how a good writer does it, answer questions and then make more in the process to keep people around and interested. After all, would you watch a movie if you knew exactly what was going to happen, why and when? No. Human nature is inquisitive in and of itself, Kubo has been feeding off of that in his writing style and done well to keep us all flustered enough to keep reading (obviously)

On the note of Kenpachi. He did indeed agree that Ichigo won, but, like Byakuya, we can agree that Kenpachi never pulled out all of the stops. It's safe to say, Ichigo beat Kenpachi when Kenpachi kept himself at Ichigo's level. Pretty sure that, if Kenpachi stepped up his game like he did against Nniotra, Ichigo would've been dead in a heartbeat.

Quote :

Kubo has been feeding off of that in his writing style and done well to keep us all flustered enough to keep reading (obviously)

no i just can stop an old habit, after reading something the same day, every week for more than 7 years its hard to just stop like that.

besides what escher appointed theres also other things...

like what the fuck Mayuri discovered in Aporro's Lab?

why the fuck Yoruichi never uses her Zanpakuto or talk about it?

or why the fuck those freaking visored when fighting against Aizen didn't release their bankai, they were captain (most of them) and were fighting AIZEN, it was supposed to be a fucking serious fight it wasn't time to hold on and try to look cool. They deserved to die just because of that.

Luck, don't get angry over something like this. After all, what we're discussing isn't black and white. All of this is just opinion. Hopefully, we all realize that.

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I know this might seem inconsequential, since Bleach is an Anime, and Anime often have screwy things for no reason, but... Why is Komamura a dog? Does anyone have a logical reason for this?

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