Vague

Okay, so as much as I LOVE Bleach…and I really mean love in all caps, the movies are a bit…um well they aren’t canon so I find them enjoyable yet unnecessary. In all honesty I probably like them more than that but I have to look cool writing this review…about anime…

No but seriously, I haven’t written any reviews over Bleach yet for various reasons, but I felt I needed to write one for this movie. First of all I noticed that it wasn’t well received on this site which saddens me not because I thought it was super mega fantastic but because I feel like any Bleach fan, big or small, should at least watch the first, what, ten minutes that may actually be the credits. Why you ask? Because in the first few minutes of this film you get to see the Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra fight the way it should have been. No interruptions, no stupid other things happening, no dumb feelings. Just plain, amazing animation with two of my personal favorites just beating the crap out of each other. So here’s the rest of the review but if you just stop here and go watch the opening scene, know this: I’m cool with that.

Story- 6/10

So, the plot is kind of unnecessary in my opinion. Ichigo and friends are attacked in their most unfortunate home of Karakura Town at the most unlucky high school ever Karakura High by these guys called Unforgiven who are escapees from Hell. Bad mojo right? The Unforgiven are led by a guy named Shuren who kidnaps Ichigo’s sister Yuzu and takes her to Hell with him. So of course Ichigo and friends go after him in order to save her. Shuren has a Just Between You and Me moment and tells Ichigo his whole reason for bringing Yuzu to Hell was to get him to break the chains that bind him and the other Unforgiven to Hell with his Ichiginator form. When Ichigo is like “No way” some fighting happens and maybe some betrayal and other spoilers and Ichigo and Yuzu are shoved back into the real world while friends are left behind. The Soul Society gets pissed at Ichi for using his hollow form which of course stops him for like a minute before he decides to go back to Hell to save his friends. Not a horrible plot but I think an easier explanation would be this: Ichigo fights, sometimes in hollow form. The story is sort of ran over by the fighting, which by the way, is not the worst thing ever. Just don’t expect a content heavy story.

Animation 10/10

Like I said way up at the top, the animation is mega cool. I find this to be true about most Bleach movies but this one in particular is just way too good. And like I said in the not so up at the top section, the whole movie is Ichigo fighting junk so of course they are going to break out the big guns for this sort of thing. And let me tell you, the guns are big, very big.

Sound 8/10

I rather enjoy the various sounds of Bleach whether it is the opening/ending themes or background music and the movies are no different. I don’t remember any specifics being super amazing for this one but then again I don’t remember them sucking either. Good to know huh?

Characters 10/10- as always for the regulars 6/10- for the newbies

I absolutely love the regular characters from Bleach, every single one of them…except Omaeda…so their rating is still 10/10. The new guys however were a little subpar. The idea of the Unforgiven from Hell is kind of cool but I have a hard time finding non canon stuff very interesting as far as content goes. Shuren was kind of overrated and Kokuto was pretty obvious. And I guess that’s it for that section. Someday I’ll do a review on Bleach as a whole and this category will be ridiculously long.

Overall- 7/10

So, after re-reading this review it kind of sounds like I hated the movie, but I didn’t I promise, it’s just really hard to get super into something that has nothing to do with the canon story line. I don’t know when I developed this problem but it seems I have it now. Like I said, amazing animation and neato fights both old and new. Bleach fans should definitely watch it, others should watch it if they want.

Another time, another review.