Series: Bleach - Series 06: Part 01
Release date: 11th April 2011
Certificate: 12
Running time: 250 mins
Director: Noriyuki Abe
Starring: Fumiko Orikasa, Masakazu Morita, Hiroki Yasumoto, Kentarou Itou, Noriaki Sugiyama
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Series 06: Part 01 of the highly successful Bleach anime arrives on DVD. Among the collection of hugely popular Shonen Jump magazine anime adaptations (which also includes Dragon Ball, Naruto, Death Note and One Piece), this set of Bleach episodes (110 through to 120) continues the story of Ichigo Kurosaki and his role as a Soul Reaper.
Beginning the Arrancar story arc, Ichigo and his friends have returned to a relatively normal life. But when the mysterious Shinji Hirako enrols at Ichigo’s school, Ichigo is offered to join a group known as the Visoreds, who can produce Hollow masks willingly like Ichigo has done in the past.
Ichigo declines, but this isn’t the only problem he has to face. The Arrancars – a group with the powers of both Soul Reapers and Hollows - have set their sights on Ichigo. Reunited with his friend and fellow Soul Reaper, Rukia Kuchiki, along with a whole team of Soul Reapers, Ichigo begins his fight against the Arrancars and their leader – the former Soul Society captain Sōsuke Aizen...
For an anime that’s so popular, it’s incredibly difficult to determine just exactly what Bleach is – one minute it’s attempting to be a semi-series supernatural fighting anime, the next it’s a school-life comedy. It’s like two completely different sides to the same coin, and the two just don’t seem to integrate at all, making it seem like two completely different things spliced together into one incoherent mess. The change between them is so sudden that’s it’s impossible to fully appreciate either, and worse still the comedy side of Bleach always returns to spoil the more serious aspect of the series. Initially, it doesn’t seem like there are any sombre moments, where at least one character isn’t providing some sort of comedy relief, and this is very distracting from any build up that these episodes are trying to achieve.
As the Arrancars are properly introduced and the reapers from the Soul Society are brought back into the story, the plot does improve, but even then it is still riddled with faults. Towards the end of the set, when reaper Ikkaku Madarame enters a climatic face off against Arrancar Edorad, the season has its first epic fight sequence, and for the first time it’s clear why Bleach has achieved the popularity it has. The weapons and power ups are outlandish, the dialogue loud, and the fight itself well and imaginatively done. Despite these elements being a staple in a lot of similar anime series’, Bleach still manages to keep its own unique spin on these things. But as episode 118 draws to a close, after a highly satisfying beginning to the fight and leaving the audience with a cliff hanger that’ll certainly leave you wanting more, the following episode chooses to ignore the conclusion almost entirely. Instead, we’re treated to Ikkaku’s back-story, which at any other time may have been interesting, but at this stage in the story only serves to ruin any tension the previous episode built up. When the fight is finally concluded, it is given a mere five minutes focus – just to make sure that not only have you lost interest in it by that stage, but it’s also anticlimactic.
The dialogue is equally as difficult to get to grips with – chock-full of confusing terms and complicated attack names (which are shouted out in the traditional anime style). There are many times where the exposition that precedes the following episode makes more sense than the episodes themselves. Despite this, there are a few notable performances, particularly from popular seiyū Nobuyuki Hiyama (Gurren Lagann, The King Of Braves GaoGaiGar) in his role as Soul Society reaper Ikkaku Madarame and Daisuke Namikawa as antagonist and Arrancar Ulquiorra Schiffer.
The music is one of Bleach’s saving graces. The opening track – ‘Rolling Star’ by J-pop singer/songwriter Yui (who is also responsible for the first opening theme to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) - is an excellent song, which is followed by many strong pieces of background music (particularly in episodes 114 and 116). Its closing theme – ‘Cherry Blossom Weather’ by Mai Hoshimura - is a more sombre piece, which, on many occasions, unintentionally fits the disappointing aura of the episode that has preceded it.
Already at over 300 episodes in Japan, Series 06: Part 01 only serves to show that Bleach passed its sell by date long ago. Bland, generic and ultimately boring, this set will only appease the biggest of Bleach fans and entice them into buying the following set – which may or may not deliver the action that this one failed to deliver. AJ
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