Am I the only one here who still has a soft spot for Bleach despite all its valid criticism?

Am I the only one here who still has a soft spot for Bleach despite all its valid criticism?

I mean yeah, the the story dragged on and felt repetitive, the plot had a bunch of side stories unresolved, the characters became less interesting as the series progressed, the final arc and its conclusion felt underwhelming, et cetera et cetera.

But in spite of that, I can't help but still have a soft spot for Bleach and think back fondly to all the good times in the series despite how things ended up.

What do you guys think?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=PLyi5xHtkb0&list=PL7C116DA2E46BBFD7
youtube.com/user/ShinigamiXZEROX
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Orihime is perfection.

Aside from that, Bleach's early years were the best because it kept closest to Kubo's strengths and away from the weaknesses he'd later show. The cast was a manageable size at that time, and character interactions and growth were entertaining. Hints at Shinigami and Hollow lore were intriguing. The fights were entertaining and designs were good.

Then the Soul Society arc came along, and while it's still good, it's here all the problems began. The cast more than tripled, and of the former main cast only Ichigo's fights mattered anymore (even Uryu's excellent fight against Mayuri didn't actually accomplish anything). Then it ended with the Aizen twist, foreshadowing the shitty twists that would become a hallmark of Kubo's writing. It was also at this point that Rukia's character was completed, and so she began to be sidelined. From a writing perspective, it made perfect sense, but we all know how certain autists took it.

I don't really feel like going through the rest of the series, but the long and short of it is that yeah, Bleach had some real good in it, but over time it became too stuffed with garbage for that to be worth it.

The definition of a true fan is someone who enjoys a work while recognizing its weaknesses.

I unironically enjoyed the Sternritters arc. Loved how the Sternritters' powers were conceptual and how the Shinigami found ways to overcome them.

Bleach was good, before it got lost in power level bullshit

I guess what really started its decline was with the Hueco Mundo ard. While it was still a hell of a lot of fun, its story structure felt too similar to Soul Society and kinda indicated that Kubo wasn't willing to take risks.

I was actually legitimately hopeful for the Thousand Year Blood War arc since it actually felt like Kubo was ready to take risks and depict an all out war where characters we've grown to know and love over the years end up dying. Me and everyone on Sup Forums at the time were going nuts in the beginning and updating the "shit gets real" chart frequently, but after a while it gave us less of a reason to care and the chart ended up unfinished.

I dunno whether Kubo legitimately changed his mind, or whether he felt pressured by his fans and editors, but Byakuya should have died at the beginning of the arc. It REALLY would've set the stage for a great story and had a huge impact on a lot of the characters like Ichigo and Rukia, but when Byakuya came back, it gave the impression that Kubo was playing it safe and not willing to take risks again, which is what happened in the final arc. It had a lot of hype, but then turned out to be not so different from Hueco Mundo. It had its fun moments, but really Bleach could've ended at Hueco Mundo and fans would've been satisfied.

Well said. I admit Bleach's faults, but I'll still acknowledge it as a solid series that'll have a special place in my heart.

I did too, but I also felt like it had a lot of untapped potential, and the Sternritters weren't as memorable of villains as the Arrancar. I think TYBW was pretty good, but had SO much potential to be SO much better.

>It was also at this point that Rukia's character was completed, and so she began to be sidelined.
Fucking this. I love Rukia, but at the end of Soul Society, Rukia already felt like a completed character, and developing her further just became exceedingly difficult.

I always hated this argument because it's just such a simplistic analysis on why Bleach declined. Plus it implies that the Soul Society arc sucked, which is just plain wrong.

I grew up with the big three (flame me all you want) and looking back, my fondest memories were of Bleach even though I'd say I was a bigger fan of Naruto.

>flame me all you want
Why would we? A LOT of us did.

But I love bleach, always loved it.

I like the art style, the universe, even if a lot of things are left unexplained, the character development of the gotei 13, the stupid twists and the smart twists, the concepts kubo came up with.

My hope is that after some rest and peace of mind Kubo starts a new series on a Seinen magazine, 40-50 pages of his glorious art and stupid twists each month. It would be glorious.

All Kubo had to do was listen to the editors, then maybe he wouldn't have gotten his brain child axed.

Agreed. It's obvious that Kubo just got burnt out towards the end, but yeah he would do great drawing seinen manga.
Is there any real evidence to show that Bleach actually got cancelled? Because to me it just seems that Bleach simply ended.
But yeah, at a certain point Kubo had a very strained relationship with the editorial branch at Shonen Jump, which was reflected in several interviews.

I only have a soft spot for this series up to the end of the Soul Society arc.

It became utterly irredemable garbage after this.

Oh come on, it's not like the Arrancar, Fullbring, and Quincy arcs were ALL bad.

They were though. They were fucking horrible.

Oh fuck off. Nothing is 100% awful. You're just memeing.

Im not though. Your fanboy goggles are on too tight and are starving your brain of oxygen.

Being a fanboy would imply that I am denying ANY and all criticism.
I acknowledge Bleach's flaws and how it declined after Soul Society, but to say that the series became completely flawed and irredeemable is nothing short of hyperbole.
But if you want to keep acting like a mouth breather, be my guest.

Like another user said, Bleach is still one of my favorites.

I'll admit reading that lull between Ichigo vs Grimmjow and the Captains showing up and fake Karakura as a whole were torturous on a weekly basis, and I really didn't like that there were no breather chapters between Fake Karakura and Fullbring and Fullbring and Bloodwar, but I still think the characters were good, the abilities were fun, and some of the fights were top-tier.

I really like Kubo's style so I hope he doesn't give up on drawing manga.

I have a soft-spot for bleach since it helped me get into anime, i'm just glad I stopped paying attention to it after the Arrancar arc

>I really like Kubo's style so I hope he doesn't give up on drawing manga.
He won't. He's taking a break right now and is enjoying married life.
Once he feels rejuvenated he'll come back.
As another user said, Kubo would be great at drawing Seinen manga.
I'd kinda like it if Kubo rebooted Zombie Powder as a seinen manga, but it's more likely that he'll create a brand new series altogether.

There are some parts that I really enjoy like the Mayuri/Kenpachi stuff where Kubo was having a great deal of fun. And the girls are hot. It's juts that those are burried under lots of boring, predictable shonen fights.

I am rereading TYBW and found that the beginning was really exciting, and the quality level of Kubo's art then was also high.

I suppose it started going stupid when 4/13 of captains decided that it's a good idea to let their bankai be sealed for "research" even though Mayuri and Kisuke are the only ones with actual brain around there.

youtube.com/watch?v=PLyi5xHtkb0&list=PL7C116DA2E46BBFD7

the OST of the anime was god tier, I hope the live action movie gets good revenue so they maybe animate the final arc in 2 seasons of 26 chapters.

The opposite in fact.

I loved the beginning of Bleach but my interest in it started to dwindle as the final arc came. Then the final arc came and it started out great until the fights started. I was okay with it since i knew pacing in Bleach is awful, but then the ending happened.

It was so anti-climactic that I ended up hating all of Bleach. Why the fuck would you build up a fight for a couple of years to have it end in the most uninspired way possible? It was like if Goku turned Super Saiyan about to fight Frieza and the next chapter showed a time skip to them being back on Earth.

You had the same effect on the ending of Bleach as Mass Effect 3 had for me with the previous games, especially 1.

How unfortunate because it's really sad when that happens but I can understand it.

i stomached the soul society since it was the second arc and it it still had the good will of the first arc, but ichigo basically overpowering all of soul society was a retarded decision. and then after that there were so many irrelevant fights with irrelevant cast members that made it difficult to read and it just kept on getting worse. kubo didn't even try to give any decent backstory or motivations to make you care for them. bleach was lucky to last as long as it did.

What they might end up doing is adapting the final arc as a means of promoting the live action movie.

Yeah, I'm another one that grew up on the big 3, and though I still enjoy One Piece a great bit, I think fondest of Bleach, even if it probably fell from grace the hardest. I had my time with Naruto but I think I just preferred the character designs, the music and mood of the anime and manga.

I think is a very accurate depiction of how it fell apart, but I definitely still enjoyed it a lot. The Hueco Mundo arc (pre-Aizen invading Earth / Karakura) was probably the last part I truly enjoyed, despite how sloppy the character development and introduction was. I think it became a real mess after that, and it was urecoverable.

But I'll be damned if Ichigos Bankai and 90% of the design still don't look awesome. I hope Kubo scales things down on his next project, but I will read & watch it nonetheless.

me too my man :'(

Damn shame, loved following the chapters as it first came out. After Aizen though I just lost interest and would catch up every couple of months. I literally only kept up with this image in Bleach threads the entire final arc, and I feel like I've missed nothing. Is this the last version anyone produced?

whatever the case is I just hope we can get it with a new based OST and the following god tier animated fights:

Yamamoto vs Lloyd
Ichibei vs Yawach
Mayuri VS Pernida

I care way less about any of the others.

Oh and delicious GiGi.

Yep, that's the last chart.
What I hope they end up doing is adding new scenes for extra clarification and filling in dropped subplots, and perhaps even rewriting other scenes and events. I think they should rewrite Byakuya's fate and have him ACTUALLY get killed by As Nodt. It would HEAVILY strengthen the emotional impact of Rukia beating As Nodt, and Renji can be the one to give Rukia the pep talk she needs before she reveals her Bankai. It'd also give more gravitas to Rukia and Renji's romantic relationship.

The only things I want to know are what the fuck was ichibei planning by sending ichigo to Yawach and with that vague sentence that the nature of their powers was similar and what they replaced the soul king with after the fight.

At least to me it seems obvious that an editor told Kubo "Yeah, you're done. Wrap it up in the next few chapters." The ending was so rushed. Kubo's style is to drag things out

For me the most disappointing thing was the reason as to why Yuha lost, because the biggest trolling and the greatest ending would have been him winning and carrying out his threat in the last chapter, killing everyone in their moment of greatest happiness.

>Whole power, OP skills and his keikauing and decision making rely on his ability to see every possible future.
>In the middle of his war of survival and to change the world as he wants he dismisses a vision of his defeat as a dream.
>He fucks up royally and enters probably one of the few futures where he loses.

Has there been a biggest retard than Yuha Bach with powers as overpowered as his that has made an equal or a biggest fuck up? Because after that he just comes up as a comple retard.

>Byakuya should have died
But who would have payed for the Renruki wedding?

Better than 90% of the trash this board loves to talk about but because it's also way more popular than 95% of everything this board loves to talk about we're supposed to pretend it's the worst manga ever.

inb4
>xD xDD how dare you say it's better than generic haremshit Isekai #10294012 , generic gay trash #20982 and generic lolishit #20190 because we're all little girls here haha so funny!

I was totally gay for the manga, but Kubo just needed to fuck everything up great about it. Never going to waste my time on a manga from Kubo ever again.

I want to know how the SK ended up in his position. I want to know all of the dark past and secrets of SS. I want to know what is Aizen's backstory.

I am still totally gay for Aizen.

In the end he was more beard than man

Shounen Jump was just as surprised at the sudden ending as we were. SJ wanted to milk Bleach as long as it could, Kubo ended it prematurely due to health issues.

>Shounen Jump was just as surprised at the sudden ending as we were.
No they weren't.

This is how retarded Bleachfags are

Wow what a well thought out reply.

...

>Jump was surprised that a frequent bottom dweller series that lost the bulk of its sales down the pipeline ended even though its ending was planned 3 years in advance.

This is how retarded you sound.

>he thinks that SJ rankings aren't completely arbitrary
>he doesn't know that Bleach sells more in tankobons than the vast majority of SJ manga

Yeah, but I'm retarded, way to do your research

>he thinks that SJ rankings aren't completely arbitrary
They're not
>he doesn't know that Bleach sells more in tankobons than the vast majority of SJ manga
The only series that it sells better than are the new titles THAT JUST STARTED IN THE SAME YEAR. Titles such as MHA, Souma, Ass Class and even that shitty Boruto manga sold better than Bleach

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about, try sticking to Naruto threads kiddo

Should I read Bleach?

Yhwach's beard was the true hero of the story. What a concept.

>implying this isn't a part of his plan

Everyone is pretty happy now aren't they? except uryu.
Yhwach entered kazui and will kill orihime in his body, driving Ichigo insane.
Where the fuck is bleach 2 kubo?

It should have stayed as Japanese ghostbusters

Ita painfully obvious Kubo has done everything hes wanted to with Bleach. I'd rather see him try something different like he started to do with the Fullbring arc.

Bleach would have gotten cancelled if it stayed as Japanese Ghostbusters. Soul Society is where Bleachs massive popularity in japan stems from, without it Bleach would have ended the same way as Zombie Powder.

Anyone know of a good soundtrack list?

The soundtrack of bleach is vast and it's very hard to look up specific songs.
Would be nice if anyone knew of a listing where you can filter by arc, characters(played while this character was on screen), and type(sad, flashback, fight).

I still have soft spot for bleach (Big 3)because it reminded me of good ol days of 2005-2010 that is the time where i went to lake ,fishing and swimming just enjoying life as a kid

No idea, but pretty much anything from the Arrancar arc is god tier.

Yes

I wanted Kubo to show at least a flashback of the first war between the quincies and the shinigami, with the original yakuza killing squad of Yamamoto.

You make a compelling case.

I have a soft spot for what it could've been

I can't disagree with you there, but that sort of flashback could easily take up an entire volume (think Turn Back the Pendulum) and the final arc was already getting held back by numerous flashbacks.

I have a soft spot for Rukia but I completely lost interest in it by Hueco Mundo.

Looking back even the Soul Society was mostly whatever. Also, Ichigo's fights were so awful.

There was so little reason to invest in the human cast and I think that was one of it's biggest issues

Not him but if you want to have an opinion about a manga, you might as well read it yourself.

>Implying Kazui didn't retain control of his body
>Implying Yhwach hasn't been reduced to being part of Kazui's inner world
>Implying Yhwach isn't trying and failing to convince Kazui to merge the mortal world and the afterlife together when all he wants is to go to space/run a bakery/???

Nope. Bleach last volume had 450k before it fell from the rankings and the others rounded around 400 while reaching nearly 500 by the end of the year. Only Haikyuu, HxH and One Piece sell more.

Hero Academia sells around the same, 400-30 and the only reason it surpassed bleach in total sales last year is because of backlog volumes.

Then there's no need to mention that Bleach actually sells merch as opposed to virtually every other series that's not Haikyuu and One Piece, Bleach has a mobage that makes millions and Bleach has an anime that still gets overseas money from licenses and stuff.

JUMP is not stupid to cancel a series that does better than pretty pretty much all their series when it was already ending and it could've wrapped up fine in 2 or 3 more volumes.

You asked a yes or no question.

If you want a compelling case I will tell you this: Bleach is unfinished, even if the series has ended, the ending was rushed and many MANY plot threads are left unexplained and open, so it will generate expectations on you that won't be fulfilled.

Now, on the other hand he universe is vast, it has very interesting characters and powers, the art style evolves into god tier really fast and the attention of Kubo into character detail and action is really great, but sometimes can be confusing because not everything is told directly to the reader at all times.

The story is interesting enough and the antagonist are great, specially Aizen, and sometimes the plot tweests are stupid, others are eldritch horror tier and change your whole view of the series and make perfect sense with clues dropped from all over the series from the beginning.

Sometimes it seems that Kubo wants to tackle some complex matters about the story or the psychology of the characters that is way out of the scope for a series on a magazine aimed at 12-16 year olds, even the art style reflects this on occasion, so this drags him down and it's why some aspects are not fully developed in the way they could have been.

It also has Zaraki Kenpachi and Kurotsuchi Mayuri, two of the most fun to read characters that I've encountered in any manga (a battle junkie and a mad scientist taken to the extreme). It also has god tier waifus, nazi jews and mexico.

If you like an action shounen with those characteristics you will enjoy it, also now that is finished, Bleach flows way better in bulk than on a weekly basis.

Speaking of the mobage I hope they eventually get permission to add manga stuff. It's the only fun mobage to play.

There was a lot to explain though.

Compilation of unfinished plot points in Bleach

If you remember anything else please mention it

Shikais NOT revealed or explained

>Tessai
>Hikifune
>Shutara
>Oetsu
>Yoruichi
>Mashiro
>Hiyori's Shikai Ability
>Lisa's Shikai Ability
>Tenjiro's Shikai Ability
>Isane's Shikai Ability
>Iba's Shikai Name and Ability

Bankais NOT revealed or explained

>Tessai
>Hisagi
>Ukitake
>Aizen
>Shinji
>Love
>Isshin
>Tenjiro
>Hikifune
>Shutara
>Oetsu
>Yoruichi
>Unohona's Bankai Ability
>Ichigo's Final Bankai Ability

Characters without a proper 1 on 1 fight or hyped but never delivered

>Chad
>Tessai
>Isshin
>Love
>Ryuken
>Ukitake
>Cyborg Kira
>Hisagi (using his bankai)
>Tenjiro
>Hikifune
>Shutara
>Oetsu (Using his own zampakuto)
>Ichigo with his new bankai

CONT.

Compilation of unfinished plot points in Bleach

If you remember anything else please mention it

Main plot points unexplained

>Yhwach being the son of the Soul King
>Aizen motivations to hate the Soul King
>Yhwach motivations to hate the Soul King
>The Soul King organs
>Is the Soul King awake or sleeping?
>What is the Soul King in the first place
>Zanka No Tachi never used or mentioned again after being stolen
>Why wasn't the Antithesis taken?
>How Uryuu survived Auswahlen twice
>Yhwach not being able to leave the shadow realm for too long
>The silver arrow
>The Vandenreich's backstory and what they've been doing for 1000 years
>Why Yamamoto spared Yhwach 1000 years ago
>Urahara´s endgame agenda and last words

Minor character plot lines unresolved

>Halibel's fate
>Matsumoto's soul and alleged importance in the final arc
>Ganju's past
>What did Renji ask Urahara?
>What are the two kids who live with Urahara?
>How and why did Uryu survive Yhwach's racial cleaning when he was a child?
>How and why Ginjo became a shinigami
>What Stern Ritter K and N stood for
>Kubo's original idea of Hell realm arc
>The name of Ichigo's Fullbring
>How and when Isshin learned about Final Getsuga Tensho, and against who did he ever used it
>Orihime powers
>Ichigo's sisters being implied to have powers
>what was Karin doing that seemed suspicious when Ichigo lost his powers?
>Tatsuki developing spiritual sensitivity
>The purpose of the Soul tickets that Kyoraku gave to Tatsuki, Keigo, and Mizuiro
>Komamura and Iba's fate
>Yoruichi's god armor AND her brother
>Yachiru having Shikai
>Orihime's implied inner corruption from the HM arc
>Who are the other immortal prisoners in the SS Prison
>What was Rukia's first visit to the human world which she doesn't remember
>How you become a Vasto Lorde
>What happened to Lille Barro
>What is doing the Royal Guard
>Rose and Kensei's fate
>How is possible communication within the Dangai if time goes 2000 times slower

I'll give it a shot, but I sure hope this isn't some ruse.

I did tell you the good and the bad though, I hope you enjoy it.

I'm still suspicious. Thanks for answering sincerely though.

Those are exposition, not major plot points.

Most of these are incredibly minor plot details or simply fan theories gone off the rails.

Pretty much anything not covered by the next light novel or the new chapter to promote the movie simply isn't important enough to warrant Kubo to restart Bleach, he wrote the fights he wanted in the last arc and left us with Ichika and Kazui as a small window into the future; but honestly I don't expect an actual sequel by Kubo, if anything I expect his next manga to be a spiritual successor to both ZP and Bleach, almost like HxH was to Yuyu Hakusho.

Again, different user but if you can at least make it though the Deicide arc then you've read most of what Kubo has to offer.

...

The last arc has some of the best moments in the series though, the ac itself is weak I would agree, but overall worth of reading

This is also true, but it also really depends on people's preferences towards charcters and the way Kubo handles his fight scenes.

youtube.com/user/ShinigamiXZEROX

Very well said.

Remain suspicious

The universe is "vast" as he said, and also completely lifeless and undeveloped. The fights are mind numbing. If you can stomach Hueco Mundo then you'll probably slog through the rest of it because what little it gives you is enough to satisfy you.

He has the advantage not to wait every week for a chapter. It flows much MUCH better.

Most of the hate towards Bleach is because it's not for everyone.
The pacing was slow on a weekly basis and his way to develop the characters is not always straightforward, which some people say it's bad writing, others like me take it as his way to tell his story, which is a way I honestly like and enjoy.

>Ichigo vs Kirge
>Kisuke vs Askin
>Komamura vs Bambietta
>Renji vs Mask
>Bazz B vs Haschwalth

All these fights were excellent so don't sleep on them. They were multitudes better than Naruto's last arc and Dressrosa's battles at least.

Again, just let him read it himself and form his own opinion.

Bleach is also getting a new mobage made by Chinks sometime next year.

2018 is the year of bleach, anime will most likely come back as well.

Thank you.

Bleach was what got me into anime, so yeah i guess I also have a soft spot for it as well.

I still don't understand why people think Naruto was worse than Bleashit. Bleach is the worst manga/anime I've witnessed in the last two decades.

>Askin
He was a fantastic character.

How a new anime can fix that ending?

>Narutofag who thinks he needs to defend his manga.

Please return to one of your numerous containment threads.

You should know by now that Bleach didn't have an anime in the last 5 fucking years. That kinda puts a damper on manga sales while literally everything else either had an anime or still does nigga.

Even then it still sold better than the vast majority of Jump manga

Adapting the novels.

>tfw no more since when were you under the impression
>tfw no more behind you
>tfw no more BAN-KAI
>tfw no more KUBOOOOOOO