Quality

[Archangel]

Yes, i know i do my share of ranting about the bleach manga, but that's only because i used to like this show alot ( reminded me of DBZ more adapted to today's anime(manga world ) and now we keep getting worse and worse chapters each week where Kubo never ceases to amaze my with his utter stupidity.

Am i alone in this? How would you rate the bleach manga today? If you rate it low, why do you keep reading it?

[RyougaZell]

When it began it was fantastic. It was an 8 out of 10 because of one or another thing. It went to hell when the Hueco Mundo arc began. It felt very dragged. Today I would give it a 3 out of 10.

Why do I keep reading? Because I have hope someday the Vaizards will show up again. So far my favorite parts have featured them. Specially the past arc.

I fear Kubo destroys the cool image I have of them though. If he does I will stop reading completely.

[Nadouku]

I have deleted this post.

[enkoujin]

Not necessarily, Nadouku. The Bleach Manga section has been dead the past year or so and you really cannot blame Archangel for attempting to revive the once excellent series.

I have been keeping up with the anime during its childhood before the masses of internet attention stayed focused on Bleach. In my opinion, Kubo really has created his own labyrinth early in the series with unexplainable plot holes. It was not until just recently, storyline-wise, that we now know the capabilities of Orihime's powers and possibly, the origins other than that Ichigo gave her the powers unintentionally. Because her powers was bestowed so early in the series, this arc is a consequence of such mistakes.

I remember that I posted somewhere before about the constraining limits Kubo had set in place, specifically, the levels of a Zanpakuto: Shikai and Bankai. Once again, I will capitalize on such constrictions. It was stated early in the series that Bankai took decades to obtain under normal circumstances. Suddenly, Ichigo learns to obtain Bankai in three days using Urahara's Bankai training. This accelerates the story faster in order for him to save Rukia from execution.

As for the other Shinigami techniques, Kubo has never really expanded much on the four basic types: Kido, Zanjutsu, Hakuda and Hoho. I felt that he meshed everything together during the Ichigo-Byakuya that no one seemed to even think, soberly, about this amongst the tension and anticipation of other events prominent at the time. Truly, the above techniques, I thought, showed a lot of potential. How come Ichigo is not learning the mastery of Kido while it yet proved so effective against Captain Komamura (fox guy) when such a technique was utilized by Aizen seems to be an ongoing mystery to me.

While it is true that Kubo had never built a structure surrounding those laws, he, like Kishimoto, tried to rewire the established laws and go beyond the physics of such said foundation. While Kishimoto still had some of those laws in place, like infusing the shape manipulation of chakra and elements together to create a more powerful technique that we know as the Rasenshuriken, Kubo made Ichigo into a Hollow hybrid that highly excelled in regeneration and Zanjutsu.

Now, you're thinking,

"Yeah, yeah. We know all that! What's your point?"

My point is that Kubo's route, while similar to Kishimoto's, is [ending] as a failure as the last due to terrible writing. First, he accelerates and now he's decelerating. His writing is very inconsistent and is the major downfall to why the series is the way it is concurrently. While many of his panels consists of deemed "artistic" and unique angles, it cannot redeem the loss in faith by his readers and his episodic suspension in each chapter's end feels very forced.

While Kishimoto did accelerate the writings of his storyline, he actually introduced new characters with new strengths in a new setting with a new storyline. Kubo, on contrast, did introduce new minor antagonists with new strengths in a new setting with a recycled storyline.

Kishimoto set a limit for the powers of the universe, which was the infinite, ironically, chakra of the Kyuubi and has used this versatility to make what Naruto is right now: exciting. Kubo set a limit for the powers of the universe, which was the King, but He/She/It currently plays little role in the storyline other than Aizen wanting to destroy His/Her/Its existence to become the next God of the world.

Another reason as to why the series has degraded itself to such low standards is because, as others stated, how the current Soul Society Captains seem to be pulling new (or old, in a sense) tricks out of their sleeves with their abilities already being preset in the antecedent action. Captain Kenpachi had used two hands to wield his Zanpakuto to obliterate Nnoitra and recently, Soifon activating her Bankai - which she could have used against Yoruichi back in the Soul Society arc.

All of these new "plothole" techniques that Kubo had just come up with while throwing away the basis of his universe is what upsets me deeply and are just some of the factors that is making the series excruciating and dreadful. Truly, the only remaining future we all yearn for is the arrival of the Vizards and the end to this awful arc. However, as I see it, I have further doubts about the horrendous preparation of the next arc Kubo has concocted for us due to a lack of a better plot development or such powerups that I fail to see. I don't see anything better coming our path - only satisfactory or worse.

[Archangel]

Wow enkoujin that post was... great O_o

Has someone hacked you account? ( I mean this is the nicest way of course )

As for Nad, go take a nap and then come back ( and if possible stay away from this thread )

[Nadouku]

Soifon activating her Bankai - which she could have used against Yoruichi back in the Soul Society arc.

Actually, her Bankai took a while to set up and since Yoruichi is literally the fastest Flash Stepper alive, there's no way that missile can hit her. On the other hand, Barragan was distracted thus he didn't notice Soifon preparing her Bankai just in time to blast him away. Opponents like Barragan, who seem slow, are perfect for Soifon's Bankai.

Napping or not, it really doesn't help me understand the point of this topic, still. You also don't have the power to regulate order in a thread, so don't even try, Archangel.

[TwisT]

Well i voted 4. I think it's a decent manga still as long as you don't analyze it. It's not a manga that should really be discussed anymore because that only leads to pointing fingers at all the flaws and people starting to compare it to One Piece which only leads to people comming to the conclusion that Bleach suck so much it's below a 1 in rating. If you just read the chapter and not overthink about it, it actually ends up prtty decent. Granted that some of the most recent chapters have been worse and Soi Fon was a complete disappointment i still find it worth to read.

As someone said you also hope that it's going to become better and maybe, just maybe, one day reach the greatness it started out with. But even if it don't i wouldn't care. I would continue to read it to the end of days. I don't read that many mangas and the amount that is released weekly can be counted on one hand. So the time it takes me to read Bleach is hardly anything i consider a loss in my life. So it could actually be worse and be on the level of the recent chapters and i would still go along with it.

In the end this is a children's anime/manga and the big problem is that we are adults and we think and like to analyze things as such. And when a manga/anime stop having as much interesting things and topics to discuss (like OP has and had since the beginning) that's when the complaining starts. If you just fall back and start watching/reading as a child would it actually becomes pretty decent.

Personally i don't think Bleach deserves a own manga section anymore and should actually be just one topic in general manga. And instead find some other manga that alot of other manga readers find to have that level maturity that we like to discuss. That way we could hopefully get more people to start reading it thanks to it having a own section. Or make a monthly manga section instead where we could discuss such mangas as Berserk, Claymore, FMA(it's monthly right), HxH (if it will ever stop going in Hiatus all the time), Hajime no Ippo (don't really know if it's monthly or weekly but could be a cool to discuss with the new anime and all) and many more.

But then again many people here keeps on going on the hope that we will have greatness again. Mainly in the form of the Vizards. And if we got that i think we would still need this section. So it's not an easy thing to do to remove it. As it is right now, this section have become a shrine dedicated to Oda and OP where we thank the heavens for the existence of One Piece and how Oda never do anything wrong and then people moan and bitch about how Kubo suck and Bleach can't get any worse.

[Archangel]

Personally i don't think Bleach deserves a own manga section anymore and should actually be just one topic in general manga.

Well i hate playing devil's advocate, but the bleach manga section still gets an average of 20 posts per chapter, which is alot more than most other manga threads around here ( even if most if them are just ranting )

[Prof. Chaos]

Well i hate playing devil's advocate, but the bleach manga section still gets an average of 20 posts per chapter, which is alot more than most other manga threads around here ( even if most if them are just ranting )
Just have a single Bleach section where both manga and anime can be discussed.

[Nadouku]

Are you suggesting a sub category in Bleach (like in One Piece) or a place where both will just be placed and discussed in the same manner?

[DeathscytheVII]

I personally think Bleach should have gone the way of the first FMA series and Soul Eater, deviate from the Manga once material runs out to go for an Anime Original ending.

[Carnage]

It's actually entertaining to see how bad it can get.

[Augury]

I voted 5.

I agree with most of you that Bleach's storyline and pacing have been lackluster (to put a positive spin on it) in the last couple years. However, I based my vote more on my interest in the series when a chapter is released. Even though I do not expect much from the series, I am still reading each chapter on Friday when a scan comes out. I can't say the same for many other series, which I'll forget about for a while then catch up to by reading a few chapters in one go. If I consider that those series are also better than the ones which I drop completely and never read again, I think 5 (or perhaps 6) is appropriate for where I would rate Bleach.

On a related note, I took a look at the weekly rankings for Shounen Jump (http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers15.tsukaeru.net%2Fhamada%2Fj ump%2F2007%2Fjump0752.html&sl=ja&tl=en&history_state0=). Apparently the Japanese readers still like Bleach in comparison to the other stories in the magazine, because Bleach has been consistently rated 3rd - 4th during recent years.

[shinta|hikari]

You should remember that most readers of Shounen Jump are around 13-16 years old, which might explain their preferences.