Bleach: v. 14 - Tite Kubo

This is the earliest volume of "Bleach" on ciao but rather than just review it I will give you a brief summary of volumes 1-13 and then give my thoughts on volume 14.

Bleach is one of the most popular manga's in the world at the moment. Manga is a Japanese form of comic book or graphic novel. You may associate the word "comic" with kids reading Spiderman but that is not the way it is thought of in Japan. Comics ...
...of different types of manga's. Some are for kids but a lot of them are aimed at people in their late teens or even early twenties. It is not uncommon for adults over 40 to read manga.

Bleach is aimed at quite a range of ages. It may be too mature and contain too much blood for early teens but it is quite common that people in their early twenties read Bleach. Since its translation into English it has proved to be a big hit in the ... more

This is the earliest volume of "Bleach" on ciao but rather than just review it I will give you a brief summary of volumes 1-13 and then give my thoughts on volume 14.

Bleach is one of the most popular manga's in the world at the moment. Manga is a Japanese form of comic book or graphic novel. You may associate the word "comic" with kids reading Spiderman but that is not the way it is thought of in Japan. Comics are not just for children. There is a wide range of different types of manga's. Some are for kids but a lot of them are aimed at people in their late teens or even early twenties. It is not uncommon for adults over 40 to read manga.

Bleach is aimed at quite a range of ages. It may be too mature and contain too much blood for early teens but it is quite common that people in their early twenties read Bleach. Since its translation into English it has proved to be a big hit in the west and it is proving to be a catalyst that leads to other manga series being read all over the world!

This series is written and illustrated by Tite Kubo and Bleach to date is the most well known of his work. It has been adapted into an anime (Japanese animation) in recent years and that too has had massive success and is currently approaching its two hundredth episode. It too has been translated into English and has featured on a few channels here in England!

The story starts by introducing us to Ichigo Kurosaki who is a student. We soon learn he has the unfortunate ability to see the dead. Its not like the "Sixth Sense" or anything like that, he just sees ghosts every now and again. We soon learn Ichigo is a tough guy who sticks up for those smaller than himself. His mother died when he was younger and he lives with his father and his two younger sisters. His father owns a small medical centre which doubles up as their house. One day Ichigo has run in with a girl named Rukia Kuchiki. She is amazed Ichigo can see her as she is a Soul reaper (Shinigami). Soul reapers help ghost that have not left earth to pass on to the next life. They have another job however. There are evil souls called Hollows. A hollow is a person that has been on earth too long without passing on. They become consumed by all the bad emotions you can think of. Their appearance and personality changes to something much more primal and they gain a skull like mask. These hollows prey on the souls of other ghosts, consuming them so they can never pass on. Soul reapers have to stop this. They have what is known as a Zanpaktou, which is essentially a samurai sword. Most hollows can be killed by average shinigami but some are much more powerful. Both the Soul reapers and hollows get their strength from spirit energy. Their strength depends on how much of this energy they have. This then means some soul reapers are reasonably weak as they have little spirit energy and some are very strong having lots of energy. The same is true for hollows. Anyway back to this story... Ichigo gets in the way during a fight between Rukia and a hollow. Rukia is injured saving Ichigo and explain to him that he can take some of her power to save them both. He however accidentally takes too much and becomes a Soul reaper himself. He however has a huge Zanpaktou. This means he has loads of energy but that he has no control over it. He easily beats the hollow. That summaries the first of the volumes which is probably the most important, I wont be so detailed from now on.

The story continues and we learn Ichigo can become a soul reaper at will. He is still human and still alive but he can temporarily detach his soul from his body, the soul being a reaper! Rukia however was weakened by giving her powers to Ichigo and has temporarily lost her powers. Whilst she is resting she teaches Ichigo how to hunt hollows. She also starts going to Ichigo's school. We learn she has bought a fake body for her soul to reside in. She bought it from a mysterious shop keeper named Kisuke Urahara who we will meet again later. For a while the story involves Ichigo defeating different hollows and coming to terms with his new power.

Later some of ichigo's friends from school learn they too have certain powers. Their spirit energy has awakened due to constant contact with Ichigo : This is a good time to go through some of the characters :

Ichigo - A substitute Soul reaper with lots of power. I have said a lot about him so wont dwell too much on him. He is however the hero of our story

Rukia - A soul reaper who gave her powers to Ichigo. She is stuck on earth until she can regain her powers but seems to have developed a bond with Ichigo.

Chad - Chad is in ichigos class at school. He has Mexican blood in him. He is huge and powerful. Much taller than anyone else his age. He respects Ichigo because he too is strong. He cannot see hollows at first (as he's human) but when his spirit energy is awakened he begins to be able to see and fight them. His power involves his severe punching power. His right arm transforms into what resembles a hollows. We later learn his power is very similar to that of a hollows.

Uryu Ishida - He is the resident genius at Ichigo's school. He is also a Quincy. These are humans that are aware of the threat of hollows. Unlike soul reapers they have no inner spiritual energy. Instead they absorb surrounding energy and transform it into weapons against the hollows. Ishida uses a bow and arrows which are composed of absorbed energy.

Orihime - A girl who is a bit odd and ditsy. Early on in the books her brother was a hollow. This brought out her power which is very mysterious. She seems to have the ability to cure people when in fact she simple negates the existence of the attack ever happening!

That will do with characters for now. There is a short period where everyone realises their powers and fights hollows. Then one night two soul reapers named Renji Abarai and Buyakuya Kuchiki (Rukias brother). They are there to take Rukia back to what they refer to as Soul society.

Soul society - This is where souls go when they die before they are reborn again (remember this isn't Christian!). The soul reapers also reside in soul society and essentially rule over it. The soul reapers are split into different squads. The thirteen main squads each have a Captain in charge of the all and also a lieutenant who is the second seat. Each squad may have 3- 40 members. Each one is different and we are never really told why. Anyway Renji is the lieutenant in the 6th division and Buykuya is his captain. There is one man known as the Captain commander who is the head Soul reaper if you will. Soul society is like a massive town. The soul reapers are in the middle and their are surrounding houses and villages where the souls wander about. Its not a very happy place but again its not heaven and they are waiting to be reborn!

Back to the story - Ichigo tries to stop them from taking Rukia. It appears Rukia will serve trial in soul society for not reporting back soon enough and for giving her powers to a human! Ichigo puts up a decent fight against Renji which surprises the second in command. A mere substitute soul reaper shoul be weak in comparison. Soon though Buykuya steps in. He easily beats Ichigo and leaves him for dead. rukia is taken back to the soul society. Ichigo is then rescued by that shopkeeper Urahara. He turns out to be a former Captain level shinigami who was banished (we don't find out for a while why). He helps Ichigo to train and get ready to go save Rukia. He helps ichigo to get more powerful and release his zanpaktous Shikai.

Shikai - This is the second level of the sword. Only lieutenant level shinigami should be able to release this state. The sword changes shape and becomes more powerful. Normally a soul reaper will have to ask his sword to release and it will later revert back. Because Ichigo has no control over his huge amount of spirit energy Ichigos sword is always in its shikai from now on

Urahara helps Ichigo get back to the soul society. When their Ichigo learns Rukia is set to be executed. Even many of the captains are hocked by this as the courts are never normally so brutal. They must however uphold the law. Ichigo must fight hi way through soul society coming against many powerful people. He fights Renji again and even comes across a captain! Ichigo must now stop the execution from taking place and perhaps even release the next level of his sword in the process. The Bankai!

I very much like the story in Bleach. It is difficult to understand at first as the culture is so different from our own. Thankfully things are layed out well enough for us to understand. The story in volume 14 is part of the Soul society arc in which the main focus is to save Rukia.

I love all of the characters in bleach. Tito was asked once hw he continues to create so many unique characters to which he doesn't really know the answer. I personally think its in the hair. Each character has very original haircuts. Some have been said to be the hardest to draw in any Manga! Even though there is no colour in the actual books you don't really need it. Everyone is so individual you never get confused. He has managed to create a very likeable group of people. ichigo himself is a very good protagonist. He is reserved but can be funny at times. you find yourself identifying with him quite a lot and you are always rooting for him. In Japan there are many polls on favourite Manga and anime character. Now there are masses of both but Bleach always does well with many characters in the top 10.

The art of the books is mainly the reason why I buy them. I find it a very refreshing sort of style. It is like a very detailed sketch. The backgrounds always have a lot going on but the way the artist use shading help it to not look static. I find in some manga that the backgrounds are sometimes non existent or very plain and boring. The art on the characters as I have said is very good. They don't look realistic but they are not meant to. The expressions on the faces can change dramatically from a very detailed battle roar to a hilarious plain confused look. This is something very common in manga and is one of the things that separates it from other styles of drawing. Another nice element is the use of words to show noises. There are "bangs" and "pows" as you would expect from the old batman shows. Here however they are used in a way that they become part of the scene for a fight. This helps the fight to come alive off the page. Obviously it is much easier to do fight scenes in the anime but it is still enjoyable to read a fight.

A volume of bleach is around 200 pages. It wont take you long to get through one. It will cost you about £5. some shops like waterstones will do three for two offers but not often. bleach still doesn't have a huge audience over here so prices are going to be higher. I don't think £5 is too unreasonable but I may suggest you spend £10 and get the anime. You can get around 13 episodes for £ and that will cover perhaps two or three volumes of the manga!

Bleach may not be for you.Manga is till so unfamiliar over here that many will not like it. however if you have seen some anime on the TV (like naruto) that you enjoyed but now you are too old for it then manga may suit you well! 

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