Bleach....so the series is coming to an end.

[Wanzer]

Alright, we all know that there is only one more arc after this one; probably nothing more than a this occurred to so and so and blah blah. A fevered attempt to tie up all the lose ends and have one massive character reunion. So, here is my question to all of you. As a whole, how do you rate Bleach? We all agree that Kubo ran it to the ground towards the end; however, would you say that as a whole the series is still worth a read through, even if it got ridiculous during the arrancar arc and beyond?

[Galihan]

In my humble opinion, I think it was overall pretty good. Didnt care for Aizen in general turning it into a curbstomp-fest of epic Dragon Ball Z proportions, the best fights involvied regular hollows with unique abilities against regular shinigami in my opinion. The last legitamate fight was Rukia vs Arroneiro whats-his-faces.

I'd definitely recommend a read through though - or even watching it - the anime is pretty decent with its omake material making good use of the humor behind the characters. I definately think the whole fullbring thing should have been more elaborated on earlier on to make it seem more important rather than just some filleresque seasonal gimmick like the bounts, the bokkoto, the rebellious zanpakuto, mod souls in general...

Bleach is definitely okay, like most top shounen animes the side-characters are more interesting than the main cast, the plot is decent but convoluted and a bit bare when you get down to it - so much that could be explained but doesn't, or if does, is done weakly. And character development is very limited. Ichigo conquers despair, Ichigo convinces Byakuya and Yammamoto to conquer pride that's about it. Maybe thats the fault of having characters in the hundreds and even thousands of years age bracket.

The most interesting characters in the series need more depth. The setting is poorly described, the whole story takes place in small bursts taking less than a week ever per arc in where everyone somehow becomes pretty much gods compared to anyone last season.

I'd definately place Bleach at the bottom of my top ten favourite anime list after Inuyasha, Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail, Soul Eater, Death Note, FMA, Gurren Lagan, and Dragon Ball.

Overall, Its a matter of the author and not the series itself. Bleach is alright, but Tite Kubo I could care less about. Every time I make something here it seems either Kubo or the fillers steals something from me.

[GoldenKitten]

There's a reason Bleached Souls stopped taking material from the canon around the introduction of the Arrancar, just saying. Anyway, naturally I understand why the series continued, it's as much a business as a story but at the end of the day anything intriguing it had to say ended at the Soul Society arc (or the Bount arc in the animes case). As a pure shounen action story it stayed coherent if far more dull up until we got to around Ulquiorras defeat by Hichigo.

After that...well, fuck after that...even if I really shouldn't be talking about god characters with Death running around...*cough*...

[Wanzer]

Well, I have to agreed with both of you, as a shonen manga it is interesting and really was grand until we got into the whole 'Aizen's betrayal crap'. In all do honesty, the series would have been much better in my opinion if they had downplayed Aizen's power; given Gin a much larger role in the ensuing chaos and had actually allowed some of the captain's to show off a little. The tension between Konahamura and Tosen was far too short lived and ended on such a bleak note; including, the whole Aizen...you failed me so therefore you must die. As a whole, the series had so much potential that was never used; though at the end of the day...I'd suggest it as a read.