Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Is Fantastic, But It Still Can’t Fix The Series’ One Fatal Flaw

Viewers have rejoiced since Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War revived the series with the visual upgrades it deserved, but a big reason the original anime was canceled still persists. Along with Naruto and One Piece, Bleach was once regarded as one of the legendary Big Three anime series that aired during a pivotal time when the medium was finally cracking into mainstream pop culture. But unlike the other two, Bleach‘s series was canceled before it could adapt its final arc, for multiple reasons.

The current seasonal release model that modern anime production studios use provides a much different viewing experience than in the past. While many of today’s greatest ongoing anime release around 12 episodes a year, at one time Studio Pierrot was producing multiple high-profile releases, including both Naruto and Bleach, almost every week for years. It was unsustainable and likely one of the reasons that Bleach was canceled.

Bleach‘s original anime was put on hiatus in 2012, despite the manga continuing until 2016. Like most long-running manga authors, Tite Kubo suffered from illness while producing his series. He felt the need to conclude the series early, which produced a rushed ending that left a lot of readers unsatisfied. Thankfully, the author has played a large role in supervising the anime’s return with Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and is even helping to improve the story’s ending. But even the upgraded anime can’t fix the series’ overuse of exposition and clichés.

Even Updated Visuals Can’t Fix Bleach’s Biggest Problems

While Rukia’s rescue and the Aizen twist rightfully rank among the best content released from Shōnen Jump, the series had a hard time maintaining the same level of excitement. Most of Bleach‘s arcs follow a similar formula that sees a group of mysterious warriors with fascinating abilities threaten the heroes who must level up their own skills, and fight the villains in one-on-one battles. The third or fourth time the series followed this formula without much deviation, it lost momentum with certain fans.

Much like other popular shōnen series, Bleach is packed with many larger-than-life battles, but arguably a lot of its story would remain unchanged if most of them were completely removed. While Tite Kubo’s incredible artistic talents have helped Bleach become iconic, the strength of its narrative’s dialogue and pacing has been a consistent problem since the beginning of Ichigo’s story.

The original Bleach anime was canceled after the divisive Fullbringer Arc in 2012 but returned with a vengeance in 2022. With more time to cook and a much more manageable production schedule, Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War removed filler that often held the series back while looking better than ever. Still, even with filler removed, Bleach finds ways to stretch its runtime with plenty of conversations that say a lot without saying anything at all.

Bleach’s Worst Trait Continues To Drag The Anime Down

It’s not unusual for a shōnen series to follow the same formula of pitting two opposing sides of characters against each other in battles, but the way Bleach’s characters communicate and develop during those battles is when the series can feel the most frustrating. Nearly 100% of its battles involve two fighters standing in place, talking about how powerful they are, how their complex abilities work, or repetitively saying lines like, “You didn’t actually think that would be enough to stop me?“. That method of character writing grows stale fast, especially if the anime is binged and not being watched on a week-to-week basis.

Other popular anime like Naruto and One Piece normally put their characters in battles against foes that challenge the heroes to confront not only a formidable physical obstacle but also an internal character flaw. This allows the writing and dialogue to provide compelling character development, but with Bleach, its heroes often come out on top without any sort of evolution for their character, besides the occasional power-up. Unfortunately, this aggravating trend persists in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.

Bleach’s Swords Are Indeed Mightier Than Its Words

Exposition can be used as a tool to explain story elements that may prove to be too complex to demonstrate visually, but using it too much can threaten to derail narrative pacing or worse, frustrate audiences. Arguably, Bleach uses expositional dialogue far more than any other successful Shōnen Jump series, which can be annoying for viewers hungry for engaging banter or to see their favorite characters evolve in meaningful ways that help progress the plot or the protagonist’s development.

Thankfully, Bleach has a lot to offer in terms of intriguing world-building and a power system that allows for creative and sometimes disturbing abilities that are a blast to watch in action. While the method that author Tite Kubo writes his characters often fails to be as engaging as their visual designs, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War can still be highly entertaining to watch, even if its dialogue and lack of compelling character arcs drag.

Video Game(s)

Bleach: Blade Battlers, Bleach: Soul Resurrección, Jump Force

First Film

Bleach: Memories of Nobody

Cast

Johnny Yong Bosch, Michelle Ruff, Stephanie Sheh, Jamieson Price, Derek Stephen Prince, Wally Wingert

Created by

Tite Kubo