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Whatever Happened to Bleach?


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LaughingElbow



Joined: 19 Apr 2014
Posts: 237
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:34 am Reply with quote
Been a while since I've seen so much butthurt in one article. Last time I saw this was the Fate Zero review.
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consignia



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 394
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:39 am Reply with quote
Has it's manga sales dwindled? They're not as good as they used to be and I know it doesn't do particularly well in the weekly rankings, but I thought it's actual collected volumes sales were still pretty decent. Has been a while since I really looked, so maybe they have tanked more recently.
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Ulinox



Joined: 22 Aug 2009
Posts: 687
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:43 am Reply with quote
I can not say this enough. Bleach peaked during the Soul Society arc where Ichigo and co. invades and fights all the Captains for the first time. The Hueco Mundo arc basically felt like a rehash of that and everything that came after has been downright terrible. It's like Kubo lost his imagination or just gave up and stopped trying when he revealed the stronger Captain's bankais, most of them looked hideous or just nonsensical and the overall plot somehow managed to become worse than it already was, which is an achievement in itself since there was no plot in this hack-and-slash.
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TakeruAller



Joined: 06 Nov 2015
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:46 am Reply with quote
I for one still enjoy Bleach its one of the anime/manga that got me into the world of anime,manga, and Japanese culture(to lesser degree), and I feel like the manga 's final arc is pretty good. However, I will admit there has been flaws and mistakes made but I think every mangaka will do this in their entire lifetime because writing stories isn't exactly easy. With that being said I feel like Bleach will make a big comeback with enough advertisement, promotion, hype, and open-minds.

Also to answer a post earlier, I do believe Bleach is still selling relatively well despite how it has become, especially if you compare its sell to all the mangas in the world and history. However, I can't say for sure so don't take my word on it.
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Sasukeuzi



Joined: 04 Jul 2012
Posts: 128
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:50 am Reply with quote
"Oh no! So and so character is dead! What do we do?"
"...Well we can't use Orihime's powers for unknown reasons."
"True true. Oh well, I guess we're fucked."
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Gasero



Joined: 24 Jul 2009
Posts: 939
Location: USA
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:56 am Reply with quote
It will soon be revealed that this was always a part of Aizen's plan.
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Saffire



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 1256
Location: Iowa, USA
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:02 pm Reply with quote
consignia wrote:
Has it's manga sales dwindled? They're not as good as they used to be and I know it doesn't do particularly well in the weekly rankings, but I thought it's actual collected volumes sales were still pretty decent. Has been a while since I really looked, so maybe they have tanked more recently.
I glanced at the latest volume and it looks like it landed around 400k before falling off the bestseller list, on the same level as Food Wars and One Punch Man. So basically it's now a mid-list Jump title that "only" sells more copies than 99% of manga instead of outselling practically all of them.

I loved Bleach so much at one point that I was a moderator for bleachforums.com for about two years before the whole thing spontaneously died. That ended right around the end of the Arrancar arc, where I had many of the same problems the author did (as well as realizing that large fandoms are toxic as **** and I wanted no more part of it). I don't mind the current arc though. Kubo's basically just decided to go full ridiculous instead of trying to be deep, which is honestly probably enough to carry him to the finish line.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 871
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:03 pm Reply with quote
Oh Bleach,you had so much potential and then the Soul Society arc happened. It just became another run of the mill shonen at that point. Had pointless fights that didn't advance the plot,and introducing a ton of characters for no reason at all. I stopped shortly after that arc,and it seems like I made a good choice.
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Animechic420



Joined: 25 Sep 2012
Posts: 1733
Location: A Cave Filled With Riches
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:04 pm Reply with quote
The Thousand Year arc started in 2012. 170 chapters have past and now we're approaching 2016. This arc has gone on for almost 4 dogdamn years! I think the reason behind this has to do with the number of enemies in this arc contains. There's Yhwach and 25 members of Wandenreich. Ichigo and crew have to go through all those not-so-nice-people in order for this series to end. Completely.

That's aside, I'd like to believe the anime ended on a good note. Cool
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j Talbain



Joined: 27 Oct 2010
Posts: 279
Location: Toronto, Ontario
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:04 pm Reply with quote
I have read Bleach from day one. Honestly I was looking forward to this arc to come to a close. However it has dragged on and on. 4 issue fights with each of the Gotei 13 member's making it a slog to get through.

Don't get me wrong I love Zaraki and Kyōraku however I'm to the point where I don't even care about their battles anymore, I want to see the main protagonist Ichigo and his crew. However they haven't been shown for more then a couple of pages in the last 13 or 15 issues...
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:05 pm Reply with quote
I still stand by my thought that Tite Kubo is filibustering. I think he is afraid of losing his job as a manga author and afraid he might not get any hits later on, so he's stretching out the Thousand-Year Blood arc for as long as he can. At this point, I don't think he himself cares about the story, only that he receives a paycheck at the end. He is going through the motions, nothing more than a grocery store clerk.

Except that one thing Kubo has not intellectually lost is his ability to draw. He would be perfect for a writer-artist duo a la Bakuman. All of the issues related to Bleach as it currently is is writing-related. Art-wise, I think he's just fine: He can still convey character emotions, make each character recognizable (he was accused of Only Six Faces, but I think he's taken that to heart and his character designs have been diversifying since the introduction of Squad Zero), show action scenes with clarity and give big impact to big attacks (physically, not narratively), and invoke feelings through what few backgrounds he comes up with (like the emptiness of Las Noches or the freezing cold of Quincyland). What he needs is someone who can write good characters, keep them organized, keep the story paced well, and ideally avoid having characters explain their powers mid-battle. Imagine Tite Kubo illustrating for someone like the Baccano! novelist (forgot his name) or even Neil Gaiman. I would love that!

As it stands right now, Bleach reads a lot like those Golden Age comics, where villains do something dastardly and the superheroes arrive to fight them, both sides explaining everything as they fight, only those stories rarely lasted longer than a few issues so they were immune from the pacing issues Bleach currently has.

animechic420 wrote:
The Thousand Year arc started in 2012. 170 chapters have past and now we're approaching 2016. This arc has gone on for almost 4 dogdamn years! I think the reason behind this has to do with the number of enemies in this arc contains. There's Yhwach and 25 members of Wandenreich. Ichigo and crew have to go through all those not-so-nice-people in order for this series to end. Completely.

That's aside, I'd like to believe the anime ended on a good note. Cool


More than that, actually. Some letters are doubled (such as Royd and Loyd both representing "Y" and Yhwach endowing Uryu with his letter "A"), and fighters like Pernida don't have letters.

As of right now, I think the only ones left besides Yhwach and Uryu are Askin, Mr. Valkyrie, and Jugram.


Last edited by leafy sea dragon on Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13240
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:05 pm Reply with quote
I still enjoy Bleach immensely though I'll admit it's true it probably should have ended awhile ago. But I've spent years with these characters and I do care about them and thus want to know how things turn out for them.

I'd argue Aizen's over reliance on his powers isn't the result of bad writing but is a natural progression. He was so confident he was untouchable he didn't need to bother thinking up plans and stuff anymore. And we all know pride comes before the fall.

Personally I think it's One Piece that has really lost its luster. The Dressrossa arc was a real slog with tons of fights going on at once and it constantly jumping back and forth between them. At least Bleach focuses on a single fight for several chapters.
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KutovoiAnton



Joined: 03 Mar 2013
Posts: 958
Location: Vladimir, Russia
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:22 pm Reply with quote
I pretty much sign under every word here. Although to be honest I didn't even find Aizen to be that interesting. For me, Bleach was god TILL Aizen's betrayal. After that it went downhill with endless fights, where I started getting bored.
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Souther



Joined: 22 Feb 2015
Posts: 606
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:28 pm Reply with quote
Saffire wrote:
I don't mind the current arc though. Kubo's basically just decided to go full ridiculous instead of trying to be deep, which is honestly probably enough to carry him to the finish line.


I have the same feelings about the current arc. Kubo's just going full throttle and given us a flat out slugfest with a lot of absurd enemies and one of the most ridiculous bosses I've seen in some time. The Arrancar arc felt like a slog, but this arc's so absurd, it's got my full attention.


Last edited by Souther on Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Utsuro no Hako



Joined: 18 May 2012
Posts: 1052
PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:29 pm Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
I still stand by my thought that Tite Kubo is filibustering. I think he is afraid of losing his job as a manga author and afraid he might not get any hits later on, so he's stretching out the Thousand-Year Blood arc for as long as he can. At this point, I don't think he himself cares about the story, only that he receives a paycheck at the end. He is going through the motions, nothing more than a grocery store clerk.


Unless he's made some stupendously bad investments, he should have more than enough money to retire to a huge mansion full of hot women, fast cars and fine wines for the rest of his life.
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