Animania

Usually when I think of the big shōnen series like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and InuYasha, I generally think they are long, boring, ridiculously repetitive, with no actual progression towards the supposed goal and containing excessively drawn out fights. They also, of course, tend to leave romances unresolved, which aggravates this shojo loving girl. The problems are even worse in the anime adaptations of such manga series, but suffice to say, I generally won't read those series. I did try InuYasha, having enjoyed at least some of the anime episodes before getting bored with the same old, same old in the second season. Having caught some episodes of the Bleach anime adaptation on Cartoon Network and worked on its Wikipedia article, it seemed a bit better plot wise, except it still suffered from fights being drawn out a ridiculous number of episodes and filler crap. So while at the library back in August I decided to pick up a few volumes of its source manga, written by Tite Kubo, and give it whirl. Since then, I've purchased all 25 volumes currently available and am eagerly awaiting volume 26, due in March.

In Bleach, high school freshman Ichigo Kurosaki has always been able to see ghosts, to his own annoyance. One day, he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a "Soul Reaper", as she is working on battling a menacing spirit called a hollow that preys on regular spirits. Injured while protecting Ichigo during the fight, she tries to transfers half her power to him but he ends up taking all of them. After battling and defeating the hollow, Ichigo begins training as a Soul Reaper to complete Rukia's duties while she recovers from the power transfer and attempts to integrate herself into human life by disguising herself as a student at Ichigo's school. However, her giving him her powers is claimed to be illegal, so months later she is arrested, returned to the Soul Society, and sentenced to execution. Ichigo sets out to rescue her, with help from several of his classmates who begin to discover they have their own unique powers as well. As they work towards where Rukia is being held, they encounter a variety of Soul Reaper captains and learn that Rukia's reason for execution may not be what it seems.

On the face of it, Bleach has the trappings of a typical extended shōnen series: a group of characters forms around a powerful central character (Ichigo), they must battle various enemies with each battle generally leading to an increase in strength, skill, or a personal improvement/revelation, while the enemies grow more powerful as they leading group does. No matter how strong the group gets, they are never as strong as the main character and depend on him in the end. However to me, Bleach manages to take these stereotypes and make them unique and interesting. While Ichigo is the most powerful of the "good guys", the others do grow strong without him rather than having to depend exclusively on him to save their butts and while Ichigo is physical strong, they aid him battle inner demons. The battles are varied and, quite frequently, its hard to decide if the bad guys are really all that bad. The whole world of hollows, Soul Reapers, and the Soul Society is richly and deeply developed. The plot twists are excellently executed and plausible without being easy to see coming from a mile away. And, despite its length, the series is thus far managing to avoid being repetitive nor redundant, as it moves into its second (or third, depending on your point of view) major arc with the introduction of a new kind of enemy and Ichigo's growing semi-desperate battle with his self. It certainly doesn't hurt that the characters are all unique, well developed, and just plain interesting. Their back-stories are, again, well-crafted. There too the series bucks some trends. Orihime may have an overly developed bust and initially comes off as an air head, but as the series progresses, her intelligence and warm personality shine through, and while often subtle, she is shown to perhaps be one of the wisest of the group.

I may be a "girl" and I normally pass on this type of series, but Bleach just plain rocks. It has made me laugh, cry, and yell out loud (always a good thing). I think its a great series for both male and female readers (even if its probably that the romance between Ichigo and Rukia will never actually be bluntly declared. Now, Bleach is certainly a serious investment for anyone interested in reading it, with 25 volumes released here, 37 currently in Japan, and it is still on-going. So I'm not about to just say "go grab it all." I would suggest doing like I did and checking your local library and reading maybe the first 4-5 volumes of the series, up through 10. If you are still wanting more, then buy them. Fortunately, Viz does seem to realize the series is a bit hefty for getting into later in the game, and they released a box set containing the first 21 volumes of the series. It has an MSRP of $150, but Amazon has it for $102) , which works out to less than $5 a volume. Can also check eBay (which is how I bought most of my volumes). If you can spare the coin, I do recommend picking it up, because despite its length, it has plenty of rereading value.

Rating: A+