If you've been following the Bam Smack Pow team's ongoing anime coverage, you've probably seen us mention the "Big Three" of anime and manga a few times now. The term refers to three of the most successful anime and manga series of all time and easily the three most popular of the early years of the 21st century. Those three series are One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach, which together total nearly a billion (with a b) copies sold.
We've already shared our recommendation of the most popular anime series with our look at One Piece. Today, we're going to be taking a quick look at the second of the Big Three of anime, the stylish supernatural action series Bleach. The original Bleach manga by artist Tite Kubo ran from 2001-2016, with an anime series that debuted in 2004.
Your quick introduction to Bleach
The opening scene of the very first episode of Bleach reveals a few key details about our hero Ichigo Kurosaki: he's a hothead, he's not afraid to beat down the bad guys, and he's quick to defend the innocent. Most importantly, he can see and talk to ghosts. In watching Ichigo lay the smackdown on a group of hooligans who've trashed the sidewalk memorial to a dead girl, we learn everything we need to know about Ichigo and one of the most important aspects of the show's lore.
Ichigo's ability to communicate with ghosts quickly leads to him crossing paths with Rukia, a member of the Soul Society and something called a Soul Reaper, a supernatural being tasked with bringing the souls of the dead to the Soul Society and defending both innocent spirits and regular humans from evil spirits called Hollows. One thing leads to another and Ichigo begins developing his own Soul Reaper powers, ultimately being dragged into the conspiracy led by the traitorous Soul Reaper Aizen to overthrow the Soul Society.
As Ichigo develops his own Soul Reaper powers, his friends — both Soul Reapers and regular humans — gain their own unique powers. Every Soul Reaper has a sword called a Zanpakuto, a weapon with its own spirit that can be unlocked first by attaining a technique called a Shikai that unlocks the Zanpakuto's first level of power and then mastery of the weapon's Bankai to unlock its full power — it's similar to Goku's progression first learning the Kaio-ken and then ultimately going Super Saiyan in Dragon Ball.
Bleach has phenomenal art direction
What Bleach is most notable for is its fantastic art style. While the art in Bleach does have a lot of stylistic flair — especially where the Hollows and fully unlocked Bankai forms are concerned — on the whole, it has a more grounded and less cartoonish art style than either of the other Big Three anime. The anime's openings and endings are particularly stylish and impressive. Bleach has also been criticized for the fanservice-heavy design of its female characters, though the fanbase does generally see most of the female cast as well-written and compelling in spite of it.
On the other hand, Bleach has been criticized for how slowly the plot moves forward. This is a particular issue for the anime, which included several filler arcs basically entirely separate from the main plot that was produced so the anime wouldn't outpace the original manga series. That being said, several of the filler arcs are pretty cool stories when considered on their own merits. Notably, even after running for eight years and almost 370 episodes, the original Bleach anime didn't finish adapting the plot of the manga. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War debuted in 2022 with the goal of finishing out the adaptation of the original manga storyline.
Where to watch Bleach
The license to distribute both the original manga and the anime adaptation of Bleach is held by Viz Media, which also publishes several other manga and anime series that began life being published via Weekly Shōnen Jump, including the other two of the Big Three series in Naruto and One Piece, as well as Dragon Ball. The original Bleach manga can be read via the Manga Plus app and website from Shueisha, the publisher of Weekly Shōnen Jump, as well as on Viz Media's app and website devoted to the Shõnen Jump manga series.
The Bleach anime has been around long enough that the streaming rights to the series have changed hands several times. Previously available to stream on the likes of Netflix and Crunchyroll, the rights to both the initial Bleach anime series and the Thousand Year Blood War are currently held by Disney, which has been making more of a push into anime streaming recently. The two Bleach anime series stream on Hulu in the United States and on Disney Plus in regions where Hulu isn't available. However, as is often the case for streaming series, the limits of the licensing agreements in place mean that the series may not be available in all international regions.
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