TL;DR I thought it was alright but I’m surprised that people hype it up as one of the best arcs in shonen
I started reading Bleach recently. I loved the early monster of the week stuff before they go into Soul Society. I was told SS is where the series really picks up, but honestly after finishing it I definitely had a couple issues with it
- Aizen killing the judges is treated as a big twist when they’re shown maybe 1 time hundreds of chapters ago and no one’s likely to remember who they even were
- SLOOOOOOWW pacing. This was longer than the Dressrosa arc, but whereas Dressrosa was filled to the brim a ton of shit going on Soul Society had a very simple, straightforward narrative that really didn’t need to be 110 chapters long. But because it wanted to give each of the 13 captains some spotlight the story moved at a snail’s pace to show each of them doing stuff. I think cutting a few of the captains would have helped things.
- Weirdly lacked any real sense of urgency. Up until the climax the heroes had plenty of time to rescue Rukia which imo went against the whole feeling of entering into enemy territory
- The main cast (sans Ichigo) barely getting anything to do. Uryu/Orihime/Chad were just standing at the sidelines in the climax cheering Ichigo on. They all got some nice character moments, sure, but it didn’t really feel like they contributed much to the arc’s story. Pretty sure even Ganju and Ikkaku got more spotlight in Soul Society than Chad did. Also Mayuri not getting killed by Uryu was such fucking bullshit. Granted I’m on Arrancar right now and I can at least tell that Uryu and Orihime are getting their due with some actual character development. Sucks about Chad though.
- Ichigo winning every fight by whipping out a power up and overpowering his opponent. It was alright at first but it started to get really ridiculous with him blocking that Fire bird which was stated to be a million times stronger than a zanpakuto. I like Ichigo’s character but he borders on being a total power fantasy except for when he obligatorily jobs for the sake of creating stakes.
Overall though I did like the arc. Despite my criticisms there are definitely points of praise like the characterization of a lot of the soul reapers (Renji, Ikkaku, Matsumoto, Tosen, Kenpachi, the one cherry blossom guy, etc were all great to watch) and there were definitely some entertaining fights in there. I liked Rukia’s and Byakuya’s storyline. And of course the art is great.
But while I think this arc was GOOD, I really don’t agree with people saying it’s one of the best arcs in shonen. I wouldn’t put it on the same level as Chimera Ant and Greed Island, Shibuya Incident, Sasuke Retrieval, 75% of One Piece arcs, CSM Part 1, all of Jigokuraku, etc.
So far I think Arrancar is just Soul Society but better. It has more interesting antagonists, better character designs, a more emotional storyline with the character they’re trying to rescue, and Aizen gets to take center stage as the main villain from the very start.
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@MonsterKaido you wanted to hear my thoughts on Bleach so here you go
I started reading Bleach recently. I loved the early monster of the week stuff before they go into Soul Society. I was told SS is where the series really picks up, but honestly after finishing it I definitely had a couple issues with it
- Aizen killing the judges is treated as a big twist when they’re shown maybe 1 time hundreds of chapters ago and no one’s likely to remember who they even were
- SLOOOOOOWW pacing. This was longer than the Dressrosa arc, but whereas Dressrosa was filled to the brim a ton of shit going on Soul Society had a very simple, straightforward narrative that really didn’t need to be 110 chapters long. But because it wanted to give each of the 13 captains some spotlight the story moved at a snail’s pace to show each of them doing stuff. I think cutting a few of the captains would have helped things.
- Weirdly lacked any real sense of urgency. Up until the climax the heroes had plenty of time to rescue Rukia which imo went against the whole feeling of entering into enemy territory
- The main cast (sans Ichigo) barely getting anything to do. Uryu/Orihime/Chad were just standing at the sidelines in the climax cheering Ichigo on. They all got some nice character moments, sure, but it didn’t really feel like they contributed much to the arc’s story. Pretty sure even Ganju and Ikkaku got more spotlight in Soul Society than Chad did. Also Mayuri not getting killed by Uryu was such fucking bullshit. Granted I’m on Arrancar right now and I can at least tell that Uryu and Orihime are getting their due with some actual character development. Sucks about Chad though.
- Ichigo winning every fight by whipping out a power up and overpowering his opponent. It was alright at first but it started to get really ridiculous with him blocking that Fire bird which was stated to be a million times stronger than a zanpakuto. I like Ichigo’s character but he borders on being a total power fantasy except for when he obligatorily jobs for the sake of creating stakes.
Overall though I did like the arc. Despite my criticisms there are definitely points of praise like the characterization of a lot of the soul reapers (Renji, Ikkaku, Matsumoto, Tosen, Kenpachi, the one cherry blossom guy, etc were all great to watch) and there were definitely some entertaining fights in there. I liked Rukia’s and Byakuya’s storyline. And of course the art is great.
But while I think this arc was GOOD, I really don’t agree with people saying it’s one of the best arcs in shonen. I wouldn’t put it on the same level as Chimera Ant and Greed Island, Shibuya Incident, Sasuke Retrieval, 75% of One Piece arcs, CSM Part 1, all of Jigokuraku, etc.
So far I think Arrancar is just Soul Society but better. It has more interesting antagonists, better character designs, a more emotional storyline with the character they’re trying to rescue, and Aizen gets to take center stage as the main villain from the very start.
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@MonsterKaido you wanted to hear my thoughts on Bleach so here you go
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