Forum - View topicSo if I wanted to watch Bleach...
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rainbowcourage
 Posts: 1216 Location: what is commonly known as "hell week" |
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I've heard that the first arc of Bleach is awesome, and really it's a pretty monumental shounen, and while I generally shy away from that kind of thing I feel like maybe I should give it a chance. So if I did want to watch Bleach, which episodes (i.e. arcs) would be considered the "meat and potatoes" and which should I avoid to evade filler and not waste my time? thanks!
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vtnwesley
Posts: 171 Location: Natrona Heights, PA |
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Well, the first arc was the introduction to the Bleach universe and it's characters. Outside of meeting everyone and setting things up, it's a little bit "monster of the week"-ish. It is pretty good. The second and third arcs are pretty good too. I won't explain because it might involve spoilers. They are the sneak entry and rescue arcs.
The Bount arc is filler and not quite as good as rest of the show. It is the fourth arc, by wikipedia's calculation. The nice thing about Bleach filler is aside from not being terrible (I felt the Bount arc got okay after it got going), it is almost completely segmented off from the real series. You don't HAVE to watch if you don't want to. The Bount arc is currently running on Cartoon Network, and much of the show is available through digital distribution outlets (itunes, Xbox Live, and a few others). The DVDs are nicely priced too. The boxsets are between $30-50 depending on where you buy. I am sure after watching the first arc and/or seeing some of the show you can make the choices for yourself. It's still typical shounen, just with a little bit of a twist. It's a bit darker, bloodier, and more cynical compared to the normal shounen fair. You still have some sentiments you'd expect. Hard work, value of friends, protecting others, blah blah blah. You know the drill. |
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BrothersElric
 Posts: 1996 |
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Well IMO the "introductory" arc if you will (eps 1-14) are not half bad, though not the "meat and potatoes" that you're looking for. Although there are some very, very strong points the series has towards the end of that particular batch of episodes. so yeah, definitley watch those.
The true "meat and potatoes" don't really start until 15-65 (If my memory serves me right....); the ever famous Soul Society arc. Without a doubt by and far the best arc of the entire series, in fact I'd say pretty much the entire world of Bleach centers around this particular arc alone. Just keep in mind 2 episodes in particular (33 and one other I can't remember.....) are indeed filler, but those 2 are just stand alone episodes that are actually based off of little end of volume shorts Tite Kubo did. Then 65-100 or so is all filler, but that filler arc IMO and in the opinions of most others from what I can tell is actually quite good, so you might not be at a total loss watching it. I guess it depends on personal tastes, but just keep in mind that that is indeed a filler arc. Then after that it's kind of hard to tell, it's cannon for the most part but there are a few filler arcs/episodes thrown in here and there, some horrible, some not that bad. I can't remember exactly where they are though. All I really can say for sure is that the current episodes of anime have been on filler for quite a while now, although I hear this arc in particular is even better than the Bount (65-100) filler arc! 
But yeah, while the anime isn't bad, I think this is pretty much like most other shounen series of it's kind; you'd probably be MUCH better off just reading the manga. 
Although if you want my personal opinion on the series as a whole, I don't know how much good it's going to do you for wanting to watch it any more. Well, it's not that I don't like the series or anything..... in fact, it's actually either in my top 5 favorite all time shounen or just barely outside of it at this point. But mostly because of the fact that this is just a downright all around cool show.  The battle sequences, the art/animation, Tite Kubo's inventive and imaginative ideas, it's just cool, what else can I say?  But even then, there are actually a ton of really good, in fact really genius plot ideas, and for the most part that's actually another thing I like about it. Problem is though, I can't help that the hype for this series as one of the best shounen of all time in that sense is very, very overrated. As brilliant as some of those plot ideas are, they take a back seat BIGTIME to very, very generic shouen battling, and in a sense, quite frankly aren't very well executed or structured AT ALL. Personaly I think all the hype for this series comes from just how incredible the plot ideas indeed are, and I'd think it'd be very well deserving of it if it had lived up to that potential it had, but quite frankly it just doesn't.
But then again, it's all about personal tastes. I guess if you have the patience to wait through episode after episode after episode, volume after volume after volume of nothing but battling and love the plot devices it rewards you with in the end, than all the more power to you. I'm just saying, for me, one of the most patient people on the face of this planet, it wasn't quite as easy. It was enough to make me love it, but not nearly enough to consider it an actual quality series. |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2094 |
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Just some minor corrections:
The arcs are as follows: Substitute arc (1-20) - currently available as a Season 1 boxset Sneak Entry arc (21-41) - will be available August 19th as Season 2 boxset Rescue arc (42-63) Bount arc (64-91) (filler) Bount Assault on Soul Society arc (92-109) (filler) Arrancar arc (110-143) (mostly canon, a bit of filler) Hueco Mundo arc (144-167) New Captain Shūsuke Amagai arc (168-183 and ongoing) (filler) Bleach movie 1 (anytime after episode 63) Bleach movie 2 (haven't seen, but I've heard anytime after 63 as well) |
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Shadowrun20XX
 Posts: 1937 Location: Vegas |
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Are you pretty active into fansubs or do you do a lot of research.Sounds like you've seen all of this. |
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doctordoom85
Posts: 2094 |
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It's all up on the Wikipedia page, and I'm assuming it's the official list, since Viz is following it so far with the season sets. Yes, I've watched up to 167 in fansubs (holding off on the new filler arc until it's complete), and I've watched all the episodes on Adult Swim, and own the first boxset and getting the second one the 19th. (note: I enjoy Bleach but I'm not insane about it, but I only listed all that so you know I do support the show, though my posting history kinda says I stand in the "only download if you intend to support the show later" side. But that's OT, so let's not get into that). |
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guet
 Posts: 492 Location: Sparta |
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As long as you don't take it too seriously and don't dwell on some of the questions that pop up from time to time Bleach is in my opinion one of the more enjoyable shounen out there. It has a good sense of humor, the cast is huge but almost every one is different and has his/her own style/personality that makes them stand out, there are several good moments that will suprise you if you can avoid the spoilers, and at some points the action animation is quite excellent. I really like some of the music as well.
The bad for me pretty much comes down to some pacing issues later on in the series, a few of the filler epidodes are pretty bad (individual filler eps, the actuall filler arcs are not bad imo), and there are a couple small things that bug me a bit about the world itself as the series goes on. But nothing that really takes away from the overall enjoyment I get from the show. You will know if you are going to be in for the long haul by episode 40 something, I do suggest that any shounen fan at least give it a shot. |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2175 |
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Well, I only got into Bleach beacuse I had a summertime job where I worked 6 hours of day and had like 5 hours of downtime on my shift. And I had access to a computer and the internet. Had I started of DL'ing Bleach or watching it on TV, I would hate the show and never gotten past the first 5 episodes. Its one of my favorites now, but the first like 20 episodes are absolutely boring in my opinion. Easily the worst episodes in the whole series. There are maybe 3 episodes (Ichigo's mom and Inoue's brother) that are worth watching, but everything else is way worse than filler. Someone described it as "monster of the week" and I agree. The show kinda felt like it wasn't going anywhere or that nothing is happening. Its just random battles, which isn't really how the rest of Bleach feels at all. Thats the core of my issue. The first few episodes don't let you get a "feel" for how the show is. In fact, the real "feel" of Bleach is like a 180 compared to those first episodes. I can see different people feeling that Bleach gets way better after the first few episodes or that it gets way worse depending on whether you liked that first "feel". If you can wrap your head around the idea that Uryuu, Ichigo, Chad, Rukia and Inoue are all super powered friends who fight hollows, you can skip ahead to episode 15 and start from there. Well, watch episode 1 so you can see why Rukia is different than everyone else and why whats happening is happening. If you like Bleach, I suggest going back and watching episodes: 3, 8 and 9. Later in the show they go indepth about Chad, Uryuu and Rukia, but they only gloss over Ichigo and Inoue. If you like them as characters, I think you'll like these 3. |
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Zoe
 Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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I, for one, feel that the first arc in the real world is essential to getting to know the characters. It is easily my favorite part of the series. It's after those episodes that it degrades into generic shonen fodder.
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zaphdash
 Posts: 620 Location: Brooklyn |
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I agree with Zoe that the first arc is necessary to get to know the characters, although it's definitely not my favorite part of the series. I wouldn't skip those episodes, but I'd try to burn through them as quickly as possible. Soul Society arc is pretty solid. The Bount arc was better than I would have expected out of a filler arc, but I still felt like I really couldn't finish it fast enough and I was thrilled when it was finally over. I really think that the Arrancar/Hueco Mundo arc might end up being better than the Soul Society arc, but it's been interrupted by a new filler arc (which started off totally whatever, but I'm starting to enjoy it more in the past few episodes, it's probably better than the Bount arc at this point). I have pretty much zero interest in reading manga, I've never been a comic book person either. I read the Jinchuu arc of Rurouni Kenshin because I didn't have any choice, but that's about it. But I'm considering continuing the manga where the anime currently leaves off, because I was getting really into the Arrancar stuff right up until it abruptly gets cut off and diverts into the filler arc. And the Amagai arc is especially weird because of just how sudden it is. Bount was filler, but at least the show kind of gracefully segued into it from the Soul Society arc. Amagai arc, everyone is kicking it in Hueco Mundo and some crazy stuff is going down and then suddenly everyone's back at home, everything's back to normal, and it's just really jarring. Amagai arc has slowly developed into something moderately interesting, but I can't wait for them to pick up the Arrancar storyline again.
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veed
 Posts: 19 |
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Avoid all the fillers! These are in the form of Episodes 64-109, Episodes 128-137 and the current arc. There are some other fillers scattered troughout such as Episodes 147-149 but those are good cause they serve to develop the characters.
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