Ichigo Kurosaki has always been able to see ghosts, but this ability doesn't change his life nearly as much as his close encounter with Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper and member of the mysterious Soul Society. While fighting a Hollow, an evil spirit that preys on humans who display psychic energy, Rukia attempts to lend Ichigo some of her powers so that he can save his family; but much to her surprise, Ichigo absorbs every last drop of her energy.
source: Bleach Mangarock
About
Bleach is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. It was serialized in the Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump from August 2001 to August 2016. The anime series run for a total of 366 episodes from October 2004 to March 2012 before being cancelled.
Thoughts
Wow! I can't believe it's already almost 6 years since the last episode of Bleach. Man I feel so old right now lol Bleach is with no doubt one of the most popular anime series ever made and is often considered to be one of the big three in the anime world, together with One Piece and Naruto with Fairy tail closing at a close 4th.
Plot
The story follows a hot tempered young boy named Ichigo Kurosaki who can see spirits and ghosts. One day he meets a shinigami named Rukia who is fighting a Hollow. In order to save his family, Rukia transfer some of her powers to Ichigo, however to her surprise, Ichigo absorbed every little bit of power she has. While Rukia is recovering the powers she lost, Ichigo became her substitute and was tasked to kill the Hollows that disrupt the balance in the world. Things start to get interesting when the folks up in Soul Society learned about Rukia's forbidden transfer of power. Ichigo finds that he might have to challenge the whole Soul Society in order to save his friend, the damsel in distress, Rukia.
Everything at this point of the story was what made Bleach popular, It was your typical shounen series. A young boy with a unique ability met someone who is part of a mysterious society, soon after he is slowly being sucked in and is now being the center of that world. The pacing and progression of the show was remarkable, we start off with evil spirits/ hollows with little to no effect to the storyline but it was perfectly added with the introduction of our side characters. Their occasional banters, the not so dramatic battle scenes, and the comedic hijinks made it feel very light and easy to watch, so you end up watching more.
As expected, everything changed when the fire nation atttacked lol sorry can't help it. Everything changed with the introduction to the world of Soul Society, things start to gain momentum and the story starts to get serious. The number of characters grow exponentially, in a good way. The Gotei 13 completes Bleach. Everyone just love seeing a group of elite powerful cool people in a shounen action anime series right? Anyway, we get the expected internal battles inside the Soul Society, A sub-group trying to get control of everything because of their greed for power, yada yada yada.
I have to admit that Bleach was really good when it first started. It was very well written. As I've said the progression and pacing was remarkable. The plot twists were above average. Sure it has it's ups and downs but it was tolerable at this point. Everything started to go downhill though after Aizen's death and Ichigo losing his shinigami powers. I for one, personally think the anime Bleach should have ended at that point. After that we got a lot of filler arcs, not just a bunch of 3-5 episodes thrown off to give leeway to the manga, but an entire 25-30 worth of filler episodes. To top things off, after a filler arc is finished, another filler arc comes along. You can't really blame people for losing interest. In fact, a lot of people was so disappointed on the direction Bleach was taking that Bleach took a massive decline in sales both in manga and the viewership of the anime series. Which ultimately leads to its anime series being cancelled. The manga did continue, but it still cannot come close to what it used to before. The introduction of Gotei 0 was an interesting move but was too short. The final enemy was too overpowered that I just completely lost interest on it, much like Naruto ha ha.
Art and Animation
The art and animation was okay, they're not exactly good and they're not exactly bad. The lack of budget in the very first few episodes were very apparent. However, as Bleach starts to get popular and with their budget increased, you'll eventually see a lot of improvements both in the character designs and animation.
Sound and Music
The OSTs are very daebak. They're awesome. They really suit very well with the tone and atmosphere of the show. They are normally upbeat and adrenaline pumping which is probably why a lot of people enjoy it.
Now a lot of you probably don't know why Bleach is called Bleach. Originally it's supposed to be called "Black" but Tite Kubo, the mangaka feels that it is way too generic and boring. So he decided to go with the opposite "White" it's complimentary color. Long story short, Tite Kubo chose "Bleach" to evoke the impression of the color white. You can also read it here Why is the story called Bleach?