Bleach (2004–2023) User Reviews (127)

A great series, all the way

[teraneugenio · 9/10 · 30 April 2007]

I first saw the Bleach manga, and I was absolutely trapped by the story, mixture of Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball, Samurai 7; even though Bleach has a signature of its own.

Usually, when I watch an anime AFTER I read the manga, I get a little bit disappointed, because of poor animation, misplaced character voice acting, etc. But Bleach, far from letting me down, got me even more hooked to the story.

Kurosaki Ichigo, a middle-schooler from Karakura Town, has a very rare ability: he can see dead people. This ability will find itself enhanced one night that Ichigo accidentally meets Kuchiki Rukia, a Shinigami (Death God). Rukia, as all other Shinigamis, dedicates her time to slay Hollows, monsters that devour human souls. Just watch the first chapter... you'll get hooked right away.

Here's a little thing you should know. Bleach manga writer, Kubo Tite, is still drawing Bleach. So the story is not over. So, how does this affect the anime? Bleach, starting in chapter 63 or so, begins what is commonly known as a "filler": chapters on the anime that are not drawn in the manga, created with the sole purpose of giving the author time to finish the manga.

Bleach's filler is... um... not so good. At least, not as good as the non-filler anime. You can watch it, but it will not add much to the real story. The real "second season" of Bleach comes around the 105th episode or so. And it absolutely, definitely, seriously, no-kidding-around-on-this-one, ROCKS!!

The only thing I have against Bleach, and so I put a 9 Vote to it, is that I don't like long series, such as Naruto or One Piece. In fact, I don't watch either, but Bleach, I'll watch it until it ends, because it is seriously worth it. Trust me, it's great.

Excellent Versatile Anime

[bmoredlj · 9/10 · 7 October 2006]

I first heard the title "Bleach" in a newspaper article covering Otakon in Baltimore, and I sought out the series with nothing but what I thought was a cryptic title.

The 108 episodes of Bleach that are out so far comprise more than 80 hrs of action, the careful fleshing-out of richly detailed main characters and a HUGE cast of supporting characters, multi-layered conflicts, and a solid soundtrack.

Every episode leaves you knowing a little bit more about the Bleach universe, while doing a great job mixing often operatic drama with manic comedy. Bleach knows 90% of the time when to not take itself too seriously, and the comic timing is usually on the money.

As for the best way to watch Bleach, I've recently gotten used to the English voices and they're not THAT bad, its just there's so much in the original Japanese that is left out. It's not as natural or well-flowing as the Japanese, but after closer inspection, it is tolerable for those who cannot abide subtitles.

Great anime.

[willisx90 · 8/10 · 6 October 2007]

I'm not amused that so many people expect this series to be funny. It seems like most people just gave up watching it after the first episode. Frankly, if you don't know who Kenpachi Zaraki is then you shouldn't even be granting advice on this series.

Listen, this is a series made to be dramatic and also to show people beat the hell out of each other with swords. It's probably one of the best animes in terms of plot twists and character development. (It's also the only one that has ever caught my interest.) If you expect to see robot chicken style antics in ANY A.S. anime then you are crap out of luck. But as for anime, this will not leave you bored.

The only reason it isn't a ten is because of the nobodies selected to give voice-over jobs in yet another American anime. To get the best quality I would highly suggest finding the Japanese versions online with English- or another respective-subtitle.

domo

Action, redefined

[alannon19 · 10/10 · 28 March 2005]

For anyone who enjoys action anime, this is the stuff to watch. Bleach revolves around Kurosaki Ichigo, a regular always-grouchy high-schooler who for some strange reason is able to see the souls of the dead around him. Although they are not usually dangerous, there are some called 'hollows' that aim to eat the regular ones, and on one fateful night, his entire family is put in danger by them. A death god, Kuchiki Rukia, happens to be there to battle these creatures, and after a dangerous mistake she is forced to give her powers to Ichigo in order to defeat the monster.

Henceforth, Ichigo has to take over her duties as a death god, protecting good spirits and other humans from hollows. The action in this series is stylish and fast paced, and the story line has you wanting more almost every episode. Ichigo is funny because of his ever-grouchy personality, and his friends are just as hilarious in their own way.

If you watch any anime at all this year, make Bleach number 1 on that list.

Bleach is addicting and just plain awesome!

[babyblue04002 · 10/10 · 3 July 2007]

When I first started watching Bleach it was because I had nothing else to do, i caught it around episode 5. After i watched two shows i was completely hooked. I love everything, the characters, the animation everything! I was running around like a mad woman trying to catch up on the episodes. For main characters we have

Ichigo: A normal 15 year old boy, except for the fact he can see spirits. He's torn up over his mothers death and he's angry. Rukia: A past soul reaper who's lost her powers helps Ichigo all while trying to understand him. Kon: A mod spirit who is actually really funny, i love that he was added to the show.

Once you start watching your captivated for the next half hour, as soon as i turn on Bleach the next thing i know its over.

There are no words to explain how much i love this show, and i know i'm not the only one.

Normally I Don't Watch Animes Or Cartoons But Bleach Really Got Me Hooked

[ryder_78 · 10/10 · 14 October 2007]

Okay let's get the facts straight.

I noticed the rating for Bleach is 8.8/10. I'm adding my own comment here in an attempt to get that beyond 9.

For starters, I'm 29 years old, male and was never an anime or cartoon fan. Throughout my teenage years, I've only got hooked to Dragonball Z(15-18 years). That's it. Gundam Seed did appealed to me once in a while but I was totally not into anime for almost more than a decade. I suppose I got matured and that these kiddies stuff are waay past my time and not my type anymore. Damn I was wrong when I incidentally stumbled onto Bleach one day while changing through channels on TV. I was transported to my childhood days just after watching 2 episodes and instantly got hooked to the series like an eager blood-sucking leech.

It is wonderful to live in a fantasy world and that is the reason Bleach is so watchable. The excellent scripted storyline and wonderful varied characters will bring out the child in every man or woman. Watching the character of Ichigo develops from a normal kid to one that has super-natural powers is a rewarding journey, not to mention his what-you-call-that powerful 'bankai' that enables him to prevail in most of his battles with other powerful villains. The ups and downs throughout the journey from resisting turning into a hollow to becoming a shinigami had made this series so much enjoyable to watch. Coupled with his allies, from the cute little girl who can summon cute little angels to the cool-looking bloke with his deadly bow and arrows, and not to mention the powerful and indestructible Byakuya(did I spell that correctly?). Man talking about that guy. I saw him taking down Ichigo in one chapter without much effort at all along the alley on one fateful night which he took Rukia to Soul Society with him after that, leaving Ichigo as good as dead. I then thought to myself, how the hell is Ichigo going to bring his level up to that of Byakuya's if he were to match his powers and to save Rukia from the gallows? Anticipating what's going to happen next, the show ended. booo... Wait till the next episode comes by. duh.... See? The level of addiction is high as every time you anticipate the twists and turns of the story 30 minutes had passed.

Great stuff. Highly recommended even for age 30+ and above.

10. Why? Read Below.

[shiznox_the_official_gar · 10/10 · 10 July 2008]

Every anime has flaws, but when the flaws over-weigh the anime, it becomes a problem.

As for Bleach, I don't feel that it's going to happen any time soon. Sure, Bleach has some flaws, but overall this anime is satisfying. It has comedy, action, drama, and above all, intriguing weirdness that only this anime can provide.

I want to make this clear. It doesn't make sense when you start judging an anime by its fillers only. Hence the word 'FILLER'.

Bleach is not for everyone. Some call it 'overrated'. That doesn't matter. If you genuinely enjoy Bleach, stick with it like a true fan, and you won't regret it.

I'm rating it 10 'cause I'm a hardcore fan. Screw the flaws. If it has me coming back for more, they have got to be doing something right.

Legendary Anime

[hitlerdidnothingwrong-66600 · 10/10 · 28 November 2021]

One of the best Anime shows ever made. Bleach sets the bar for any anime I watch, and a high one at that. The fights are epic and I have yet to see a better battle system and fights then Bleach has.

I've seen the show multiple times, never gets old.

Bleach is amazing.

[evilyoshifan · 10/10 · 19 August 2007]

I can't remember when I started watching Bleach, I was suddenly hooked. I started at like, episode 30 and had no clue what was going on. After about two episodes, I decided to watch them online in a English sub-titled version. I'm not a fan of English dubs, either. I watch Bleach all the time, it's really addicting Bleach is about this kid, Ichigo. 15, currently in High-School. He's been able to see ghosts ever since he could remember. Rukia, a death-god suddenly appears one day. She gets wounded trying to protect Ichigo and transfers most of her power to him.

It has a lot of action, comedy, and a bit of drama. Great show for teenagers, or even older than that.

Spread the BLEACH Love!

[Rosko2004 · 22 June 2005]

Bleach, is maybe one of the most sophisticated animes \ mangas ever. why is that? well, I can't say it's too heavy, but there is something about it that holds on to you and keep you excited before every episode and along the episode itself. After watching animes such as the amazing FMA or GANTZ... BLEACH was a refreshing yet exciting and touching gust of wind.

It's OST is not one of the best, but the animation, plot, cast of voices and the "cool" characters, along with side jokes, drama and battles easily compensate it, and surpass many of the animes out there.

***SPOILERS AHEAD!!!***

Those of you who read the manga probably know about the twists that the animes viewers should expect in the soul-society arc such as the death of Aizen (anime, episode 34), the great fight against Renji which ended with a heart-breaking screams of Renji towards Ichigo, or the conspiracy in Soul-Society.

Hope everyone will manage to enjoy it as much as I and many friends of mine do.

Good show, but only if you fast forward and skip

[syntory · 7/10 · 24 January 2024]

This show is the epitome of a watered down series. There are 366 episodes and out of those 366 there may be only 100 episodes worth of actual story. The rest of it is pure filler. I never understood this method of writing. I get that writers need to write a certain number of episodes, but why bother wasting time with episodes that have absolutely nothing to do with the main story at all? Who cares about Ichigo going to high school? There are entire episodes that are just about his normal life. WHO CARES?!

For those of you who are planning on watching Bleach for the first time, I strongly recommend the use of an episode guide that highlights all of the filler episodes and pointless story arcs that you can skip.

Bleach off to a good start in the US

[TheHarshAndLastWord · 10/10 · 10 September 2006]

So it's finally hit the US shores. Bleach. What is Bleach exactly? In simple turns it's Yu Yu Hakusho meets 7 Samurai, except substitute the 7 for a much much larger number. The story revolves around 15 year old Ichigo Kurosaki who seems to able to see dead people, except he's not as emo as that 6th Sense Kid. By a chance encounter he meets Rukia who is a Soul Reaper, or to the old fans "shinigami". She cannot be seen by humans, but strangely enough Ichigo and can see her and even touch her. After being completely knocked to the ground she strangely stares at Ichigo surprised and bewildered. Her job is to send souls that are worthy to the "Soul Society" which is a much much less divine heaven. She must also battle and defeat Hollows which are evil souls that have gone astray. A bit much? Not really, this is just the basis of the series but after episode 14 or 15 I guarantee you the excitement factor will jump through the roof. I am glad to say that Cartoon Network kept the original intro Asterisk by Orange Range, same with the ending credits. Bleach has always had the great music w/ the fashionable intros. Overall it's a mystic story with a modern day twist and am sure it'll appeal to anyone any age. The voice acting is on par and decided to use Johnny Yong Bosch, you may remember him as the Black Power Ranger or as Vash the Stampede's voice. Overall I don't see any major problems, good clean fun and clear skies ahead. Let's just hope they don't dumb down Bleach like they did Naruto. So here's to Bleach and it's successful first run on US soil..

ps I'm surprised they kept in the word "Zanpakutou", that's a very good sign.

Out of all sword-action anime, this is the best

[katzz212 · 7/10 · 23 December 2007]

Bleach is by far better than such sword-based action anime like Blood+ or Inuyasha. Unlike most action anime in which the plot is simply battle after battle broken up by long winded speeches, Bleach breaks the mold, at least in most cases.

Early episodes of the show (minus the filler arcs)feature intense character development and touch upon human emotion/psychology. The show is entertaining up to episode 63. Past episode 63, there have been few good episodes. However, if one is willing to look, most episodes featuring Ichigo and Rukia or Captain Hitsugaya are worth watching, as they are by far the most interesting characters.

However, the reason I gave this anime only 7 out of 10 is because of the amount of filler episodes, the now repetitive storyline, and meaningless character interactions.

Also, a comparison of the English dub and sub reveals another dilemma. The English dub contains good voice dubs for most characters (except Hitsugaya, who sounds more like a man than the young boy he really is)it also excludes a lot of the somewhat annoying battle cries and exaggerated vocal tones prevalent to most anime of this nature. However, I would still recommend watching the subbed version as the voices tend to better portray the characters and most English dubs tend to change the wording of important scenes.

All I can say is, if sword action is your preferred type of anime, Bleach is most likely the best choice.

Has incredible potential, but ruins it at almost every turn.

[dekkar5 · 5/10 · 4 January 2008]

Before you guys say that I didn't watch Bleach, wait, because I sat down and watched the first 5 seasons almost back to back. And yes, its not a bad show, there are a lot worse animes out there. I tried REALLY hard to LOVE Bleach like everyone else does, but it seems that almost every chance Bleach has to make itself a great show, it fails.

Negatives.

First of all, the first season of Bleach is stupidly boring.

Second, there are WAY to many filler episodes in the series.

Third, the second season introduces a totally stupid amount of secondary characters, and then spends way too much time detailing their history, their special attacks and individual personalities, and all kinds of crap that drags the show down.

Fourth, serious and emotional/drama filled moments in this show are constantly shattered by "comic relief" when they shouldn't be. They are also dragged out to the point of ruin by excessive dialog.

Fifth, the characters need to SHUT UP AND FIGHT, and stop taunting each other and giving huge monologues about their abilities and their swords and what not. If I want to hear about every detail about a character's powers I'll go read the wikipedia article about them; it doesn't help the already crawling pace of the action to constantly interrupt it with boring talk.

Sixth, the action in Bleach is way behind the times for animation and for the most part is not that fun to watch. For the most part, I could describe the action in Bleach as Dragon Ball Z, with swords, in slow motion. ITS BORING. In almost every major fight in the series, as soon as the action starts up, it cuts away to another scene with boring dialog somewhere else in the world. Its damn annoying. There are certain Nickelodeon shows *cough*Avatar*cough* which have action that is 10 times more entertaining than Bleach.

Positives

1. I will admit, I have a big soft spot for emotionally damaged female characters, and Bleach has a couple of really good ones. It also has pretty solid character development overall, thanks to the excessive talking and explaining that goes on.

In conclusion, I've watched Bleach because I wanted to see some bad ass sword fighting; while there are a few good fights in the series, none are very memorable, and all of them are marred by the aforementioned mouth diarrhea that almost every character possesses. I will continue to watch Bleach in hopes that it gets better though.

THOSE WHO ARE RATING BELOW 8 SHOULD NOT WATCH ANIME

[farhanmfq · 10/10 · 15 August 2022]

I saw too many people , who are rating like 1/10 , 2/10 and they are giving reasons like why Ichigo is so powerful , Dude that's the plot, if they told why he is so powerful in the first episode then how would you enjoy the later plot twists .

If you watch Bleach until the ending then you would understand that it was all Aizen's Plan and Ichigo didn't got powers by chance ,It is one of best anime of all time imo because it has good plots ,superb fighting scenes and so much comedy and arguably the best OST ever , All those people who are hating this anime are mid , they should quit watching anime.

Bleach anime will keep you enticed and enthralled!

[tribulattifather · 10/10 · 2 January 2009]

This is an excellent anime by Tite Kubo originating from the manga series Bleach. The anime is half way through but is more or less likely the if not one of the most popular animations out there. The main character, Ichigo Kurosaki, tantalizes your mind by taking you through a journey of being a Soul Reaper - Shinigami - who guide the departed souls to afterlife. Going beyond this, however, Ichigo's strength starkly increases after battles with various antagonists. Even though the end of the story line is yet not known, Bleach promises to keep you enticed and enthralled all the way to the end. You can watch at sites like http://BleachCoda.com, http://VidBleach.com and http://Vidberry.com.

My advice

[djalildjodjo · 9/10 · 12 July 2020]

If you are looking to enjoy anime you should watch it without Filler.

The Greatest

[rr-64546 · 10/10 · 8 January 2021]

I Realy love bleach and see it the best show ever

bleach is the Greatest

Just amazing 😍

[Aniket123 · 10/10 · 18 March 2021]

One of the best anime I ever watched. The character development in the series is too good specially for ichigo. The fights in the series is incredible. I watched all series in just 13 days , you can imagine addictive it is !!!! Just go for it..😎:-)

Really Positive Stories

[Johnny_West · 10/10 · 6 July 2021]

I watched this series with my daughter when she was a young girl, and it was a lot of fun. Some of the story arcs lasted too long in my opinion, but like every TV series that has a long run, there is a point when the creators and writers run out of new ideas. At least that is what I notice with most long TV shows, like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Law & Order, etc. At some point you are seeing stories that are similar to something from previous years.

I watched all the way into the 300 episodes, but I could not get English translations all the way to the end. I was about one season short. I really enjoyed the stories for the most part.

One of my favourite animals but then I realised something....Filler arcs and repetitive storylines create Bleach's downfall

[manchunianangel · 7/10 · 27 August 2018]

When I first watched the anime, I totally fell in love with it. It had the right amount of comedy, story, sadness, friendship and most of all violence. (Come on, it has zanpukutos (swords), bow/spirit arrows and human might what were you going to expect?). But then I realised something: there are a lot of plotholes, filler arcs which are bland and then as you get to the later arcs, the story is something that we have seen before and thus loses that original feel that Bleach first had at the beginning. I know that when drawing the manga, Kubo Tite is amazing and his artwork is sublime but storyline is not his forte. Beyond the weapons, status of the characters, there is no way to see them in a different and deeper light or even shade when a revelation occurs. If I think of an anime that does that very well, it would be Cowboy Bebop. I think that it may be due to the large ensemble of characters in the story. We may never get to see the final Thousand Year Blood War arc but Bleach deserves better. What Bleach desperately needed to make it an epic story was literally a soul.

Great fantasy

[briancham1994 · 9/10 · 3 June 2020]

Bleach is one of my favourite anime series. I adored the characters, the setting, the swordfights and the whole storyline. There is a lot to get invested in. The action is brutal and menacing, the characters are distinctive and the storyline is gripping with a lot of suspense and surprises.

Relies off its name too much

[bayushikazemi · 7/10 · 7 May 2009]

Bleach is a pretty unique anime. It's got unique powers for each person in the form of zanpactou, it has demonish mooks, and it has a likable cast of characters.

However, they haven't really revealed anything since Rukia was rescued. The only shinigami who have revealed any new powers were Tozen's lieutenant and arguably Rukia. Nothing new has been explained about the other captains since their initial reveal (excluding Toushiro). On top of that, the episodes are being drawn out with needless speech instead of exciting combat, beginning an episode with Ichigo emerging the fight Ulquiorra and ending the episode with Ichigo finishing his smack-talk with Ulquiorra. The characters keep pausing in the middle of battle, too, to talk smack. Yet, it is rare for someone to take advantage of these pauses.

They also occasionally do really stupid things, such as when Rukia (the smart one) holds her sword to the throat of an assassin, one whose colleague Committed SUICIDE to avoid capture. Even then, the assassin didn't do the obvious self-skewering, instead preferring to jump into the air and crush himself under rocks. Problems emerge even outside of filler arcs. In the recent battle with Kira and the Red Bird, Kira eventually hides in a building when his foe proves too powerful to take on at the moment. However, he was supposed to be protecting the pillar. Of course, his foe was too stupid to realize that he could just attack the pillar while Kira hid and accomplish his goal then, but whatever. Everyone still praises the anime for being great, even with gaping flaws like that.

In the beginning, Bleach was a 9 or 10 out of 10. Now, it has dropped to a 7, and that is only because the beginning was so great.

Emotionally Draining and Lacking Soul

[ikrani · 4/10 · 27 February 2014]

I liked Bleach at first. The first section where Ichigo (the main character) receives his powers and learns the basics of being a Soul Reaper to guide souls to the afterlife was pretty interesting, Ichigo being this sort of lost soul who can't seem to connect to people after some undisclosed tragedy that happened in his past.

The second arc where Ichigo and his friends have to go rescue Rukia (the Soul Reaper that gave Ichigo his powers) from execution was also pretty engaging, introducing us to the Soul Reaper captains and the militaristic Soul Society as well as revealing the main villain.

Then the series started to spiral downward. It took a while, but eventually the pacing of the episodes slowed enough to the point that not even to cool action scenes were engaging, as they were falling into the shonen trap of having characters perform a 13-second special move and then spend the next five minutes explaining EVERY SINGLE DETAIL about said move.

But the crowning moment of lameness came at what should've been the series' most exciting episode. Ichigo is finally ready to confront the big villain who's been causing all the woe and death up to this point; the villain who they've spent episode after episode building up as this invincible god-like entity who is so powerful that you can die just by getting too close to him; the villain who can tame an entire realm. Ichigo has also grown pretty strong, though we haven't exactly seen go through these changes as most of them take place off screen. And when the two meet, do we get a huge explosive finale to the plot that has taken over 300 episodes to conclude? NOPE! Instead we get an two-episode long flashback followed by the exchange of all of THREE attacks (I'm not exaggerating, that is LITERALLY how many blows are exchanged) before the god-like villain who in no way can be defeated is defeated by a deus ex machina.

I have no clue as to what happens next, as this was the point at which I checked out of Bleach. It started off well enough, but the amount of padding combined with the tired shonen tropes that plague long-running anime of today took its toll on me. Ichigo went from being a tortured soul to an emo kid with a connection to his friends that honestly felt kind of fake seeing as he only seems to care about them when they're in danger.

And there's a pointless love subplot that goes nowhere. Seriously, the anime finished in Japan and the girl with the obvious crush on Ichigo remained in the friendzone. LAAAAAAME!

Stick with it and you'll be rewarded

[byakuyataicho · 9/10 · 6 August 2006]

NOTE: For sake of size, I'm ditching giving storyline overviews. On a side note, I'm not fond of word maximums....

When you first start watching Bleach, you might quit after getting hammered with Hollow hunting episodes. However, if you're one of many to stick with it, it takes a turn that will keep you hooked for a LONG time.

Around this time, it'll keep you on your toes with twists and turns at every corner until the big finale at the end of it (I won't spoil it, it's just too shocking). And then, enter fillers.

INTERESTING FILLERS. Yes, that's right. FILLERS THAT ARE INTERESTING.

Some point out that this show is a LOT like Dragon Ball Z, and they're right. However, it takes what Dragon Ball Z started and adds what it always needed. And unlike DBZ, there is no screaming to power up. Normally.

All in all, this is a great show that will keep you kicking. Keep em coming, Kubo! 9/10