Bleach

One of the anime series we've been following lately is Bleach, based on Tite Kubo's original manga originally published in Shonen Jump. Bleach is a story about 15-year old Ichigo Kurosaki who has the ability to see ghosts - Ichigo's life is otherwise pretty normal, until the day he meets a Soul Reaper (japn. shinigami, literally Death God) named Rukia Kuchiki and due to an unfortunate accident ends up with all of Rukia's Soul Reaper powers. From thereon Ichigo has to cover for Rukia and take on Soul Reaper's responsibilities, mainly fighting evil spirits called hollows and perform konso (engl. soul burial) to send spirits of dead people to Soul Society. Ichigo's career as a Soul Reaper is however cut short soon enough when Rukia's colleagues from Soul Society come looking for her, and he needs to make some tough decisions.

I like the Bleach anime. After a bit of a slow start story gets really interesting around episode 15 when other Soul Reapers come looking for Rukia and from there the whole story arc happening in Soul Society is very good. And when I say "very good", I mean it in an entertaining way - there are lot of interesting characters, good action and the world and mythology are very detailed and fascinating. It is however first and foremost action-type shonen series, and I can't help but to compare it with Naruto - especially in the beginning I had difficulties not to think about Naruto when looking at Ichigo who shares with him not only the hairstyle but other personality traits too. However Bleach loses to Naruto in every turn - mainly because it's lacking Naruto's strong themes. Naruto is deep and meaningful with big themes like friendship, love and loneliness, whereas Bleach... well, I think it's about duty and friendship - but unlike Naruto, Ichigo as the protagonist is too angry and independent for me to identify with, and unlike in Naruto I couldn't care less about his friends nor do the relationships really touch me that deeply.

But I absolutely love the Bleach manga. Tite Kubo is a very talented mangaka, and the manga is skipping lot of the puerile jokes and fluff that has been added to the anime. Characterizations are better, and generally the complicated plotline is easier to follow. Kubo's art is very clear and strong, and he's especially good at drawing action scenes - and his storytelling is top notch too. If I had to choose between manga and anime in Bleach, I would choose the manga without hesitation - I really enjoy the anime as animation together with talented voice actors and interesting soundtrack is always really great, but manga just makes much more sense in so many ways.

My favourite thing in Bleach is the mythology. Especially in the real world the boundaries between the sprit world and the human world are sometimes a bit hazy, but Soul Society (in Rukia's words: "Soul Society is 80-90% better than this world!") is extremely elaborate and logical. Kubo has some pretty original ideas - part of all Soul Reapers who are made purely of spirit matter (japn. reishi) is their sword, zanpakuto (literally soul cutter - which is also the only weapon capable of touching spirits like hollows and other Soul Reapers). Zanpakutos are not only the manifestation of a Soul Reaper's power and resolve so they all look different, but they are also conscious entities of their own with names - for example Ichigo's zanpakuto is called Zangetsu and in his own form he looks like a older rock star/vampire with sunglasses and flowing hair and cape (Ichigo calls him ossan, engl. "old man", or "uncle").

And when talking about Bleach I have to mention the absolutely humongous supporting cast it has. In the first 25 episodes in the anime around 50 characters are introduced, and it is quite overwhelming as they all have complicated Japanese names that are nearly impossible to remember. Not only does Ichigo have a family and lots of friends at school there are also different allies in the real world, and when we get to Soul Society there is the 13 Guard divisions that guard the Seireitei (engl. Court of Pure Souls) with 13 captains, each having their own vice-captains and several underlings in the upper seats that are introduced by name, and double that if you count their zanpakutos. This huge number of characters is both a help and a hinderance - there are lot of original and interesting characters, but the overpowering numbers make everything difficult to follow at times - for example the 13 Guards are helpfully numbered... with Chinese numbers (that we then had to learn to make any sense out of the seething mass of Soul Reapers in Seireitei). I can't touch but a small number of them in this review, so I'll just mention few of my favourites... Ichigo is a good protagonist, and Rukia is a refreshing independent female lead. I really like the mysterious merchant Urahara in the human world that Rukia goes to get help from - and his posse, especially the helpers energetic Jinta and shy Ururu that look like small children but are probably nothing of the sort. My favourite Soul Reaper is probably fierce red haired Renji Abarai, the 6th division vice-captain and Rukia's old friend, and his zanpakuto Zabimaru (Howl, Zabimaru!). Dragon's favourites are the unbeatable 11th division captain Kenpachi Zaraki and his vice-captain who rides on his shoulder, the pink-haired girl Yachiru Kusajishi.

If it sounds like something you'd be interested in, I really recommend checking out the manga (from Viz) first - there are 14 volumes translated so far. It's really entertaining and well done, and I'm always eagerly waiting for the next volume as it just keeps getting better and better. If you're in North America, Bleach has just started showing on TV - on YTV in Canada and Adult Swim in US - and the English dub has actually been extremely good so far. If you prefer the Japanese version, almost 100 episodes of it have been shown so far - with a first movie coming out this Christmas - and it's probably available with fansubs on your favourite torrent site. But now that it's on TV in North America, this series is going to be the next big thing within a year.

And oh - you might be wondering about the strange name for the series. It's got nothing to do with bleaching anything, it's not a term used, and neither is it a character... in a genuine Japanese weirdo style, Kubo just wanted to name the series Bleach because he's a big fan of Nirvana - and one of their albums is called Bleach. So there...

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