There’s a hole in my heart

// Synopsis: Ichigo is your average emo teenager except that he can see ghosts that linger in this world. When a demon threatens to kill his family a mysterious soul slayer name Rukia comes to his rescue. But she is mortally wounded and passes all of her powers to him. He soon discovers that heaven isn’t the utopia it’s thought to be and he fights to save Rukia from execution who is the center of an insidious conspiracy.

// Review: This is your basic anti-hero teenager who has the “can’t quit, Cobra Kai never die” attitude who evolves from a newb to beastly fighting god. In this particular anime there are demons called Hollows who have a hole where there heart was and they pop in and out of the world to consume spirits that haven’t passed onto heaven for one reason or another. Enter the Soul Slayers, who are the elite agents of heaven who hunt and destroy them when they appear.

/ Once Ichigo gets his new powers the series could’ve easily settled into ho-hum episodes where Ichigo and Rukia team up to take down X demon of the week ala Inuyasha. Instead Bleach becomes a highly compelling story when Rukia is put on death row for giving her powers to Ichigo.

/ During a long drawn out rescue attempt Ichigo’s powers continue to develop and he ends up fighting several fantastic boss battles against Soul Society’s finest. While Ichigo seems to be your typical anime archetype hero, he struggles with the duality of his Hollow alter-ego. This makes his character development intriguing, but that’s balanced out by his irritatingly impulsive and macho personality.

/ This main storyline is so absorbing you’ll find yourself plowing through the episodes. But when all is finally revealed, they snip the conclusion and shelve it. Because the anime caught up to the manga so quickly a bunch of filler episodes were made to give the writer more time to continue the mythos. What we get are some very uneventful misadventures. A long story arc involves a type of immortal pseudo-vampires. This was about 80+ episodes in and I became bored and quit the series.

/ The action is frenetic and genuinely exciting and it’s interesting how everyone has a unique uber-power for their swords. The quirky humor is very standard for anime and often gimmicky and too cutesy. A lot about Bleach follows anime cliches, but it’s not always a bad thing when it does them well.

// Wrap up: In this hyper popular series, the first 50 or so episodes are awesome and well worth watching especially once they get to Soul Society. The fillers are easily skippable, but come back for the main story arc.

Entertainment rating: 4