Bleach: still going strong?

[neflight86]

Hey, there, fellas. Back in the day I used to watch Bleach along with the other shonen must haves like Naruto and OP, but dropped it after the end of the first Soul Society arc (around ep 70 or so) when it entered into fillers. Since Shippuden came out and revived my interest in our favorite autistic shinobi, I've been thinking of picking this back up after a year+ haiatus. I would like to know what you guys think. Are the story, action, and characters still of the calibur that kept me watching for about twenty hours? A little input could go a long ways to preventing a regretful batch torrent if this is merely a shell of its former shelf (Naruto fillers). Obviously I'm asking a biased crowd, but tell me: is Bleach still going strong in your opinion, or are there better things to spend bandwidth on?
-Thanks

[eat_toast]

Well in the grand scale of things I'm sure there are better things to spend bandwidth on, in my opinion Bleach is still more than worth the download. Of course with the thin description of what you consider "going strong," you could consider differently.

Also, if you are asking if the fillers are worth the download, I'd have to reserve my judgment, only having downloaded the last few episodes of the bunch to catch up. I read the manga as well, so I wasn't missing much.

In the current arc, however, you have more things plot-wise going on than ever before, characters being fleshed out more fully, and fights (of course!) that just keep coming. While the inclusion of a few of the filler characters is a tad unnecessary, they do help pace the episodes so a future filler arc won't come so quickly. Plus, at least the main characters didn't have a 60 episode amnesia attack.

Bottom line? If you enjoyed pre-filler Bleach, what's on now should more than entertain.

[JaySee]

Start searching for a new series. Bleach is going into DBZ hell. New big enemy, train, power-up, fight, new big enemy, train, power-up, fight... All the while no real character development or interesting story lines.

[Testarossa Autodrive]

I wouldn't say Bleach has taken a turn for the worst just yet. In fact, I'm quite excited about what's to come more now than I was with the Soul Society arc and those stupid fillers. This is where we get into the meat of the story, but it'll just take some time.

[Kraco]

Start searching for a new series. Bleach is going into DBZ hell. New big enemy, train, power-up, fight, new big enemy, train, power-up, fight... All the while no real character development or interesting story lines.

Unless that was a tasteless joke, you should just drop watching any shounen fight anime, because what you described is the basic concept behind them.

[JaySee]

Unless that was a tasteless joke, you should just drop watching any shounen fight anime, because what you described is the basic concept behind them.

Nope. Naruto I find to be different. Lots of different well-made characters that many people can relate to. Good development on the characters. Actual story line. Good life lessons.

There's a constant strive to get better, but it's not one disposable boss character after another. And it's most definitely not MAIN CHARACTER TO THE RESCUE at the last second non-sense. And there are actually goals and purpose to the madness. Not just, Oh, I have to save the world again.

Ichigo had purpose and although his companions suck ass as characters, they were somewhat on a close level. Now it's just DBZ Goku reincarnated and Ichigo's a stupid emo-kid.

[Yukimura]

I think one of the things you're looking is good guys other than the main charachter winning battles. In DBZ of course only Goku could ever beat an high level opponent, even that 1 time where it was Gohan, it was really Goku as Gohan was failing till Goku came and told him to win.

With Bleach there hadn't been too many of those before the fillers. (Yorouichi vs Soi Fong and Ishida vs Mayuri and maybe Ganjyuu vs Yumichika) are the only good guy wins that didn't involve Ichigo. However, since the filler arc ended we've seen other charachters come into their own and beat tough opponents completely without Ichigo's help. Notice in all the fighting that's happened since the fillers ended the only person who hasn't managed to beat someone is Ichigo. I would take this as a sign that the minor charachters are going to start to come into their own and be developed more as peers instead of just eye candy.

[Splash!]

Nope. Naruto I find to be different. Lots of different well-made characters that many people can relate to. Good development on the characters. Actual story line. Good life lessons.

LMAO! What are you talking about? Unless you think the main character constantly rambling about how they can do ANYTHING if they believe in themselves is a good life lesson.

Naruto does have a better storyline than bleach and the characters have been better developed. And if you go purely by that, that just means that the Naruto manga is better than the bleach manga (lets not argue about this!)

But to say the anime is better, you ALSO have to consider other things (like presentation, pacing, animation quality, action, etc.) Quite Frankly, the anime didnt deliver at all during the filler period while Bleach somewhat did (And Naruto has been running quite longer so they had more than ample time to pull something out half decent). And now that both animes have gone back to the original manga storyline, Naruto's way of prolonging the story is quite dissappointing (The most recent episode is an example). The show has yet to be anywhere near as good as it was early on and has been like this for a LONG LONG time. It has become much more frustrating and harder to like because of this reason. But hopefully, that will eventually change.

Currently Bleach is delivering almost the same quality that it did in the pre-filler arcs. We have yet to see any major twists like we did in the soul society arc but its just starting off. The filler arc in between was also short and much better than any of the stuff in Naruto and the integration with the actual story line is much better (Although unnecessary at some times)

Bottom line? If you enjoyed pre-filler Bleach, what's on now should more than entertain.

Well said. So to answer neflight86's question, if you liked the show then, you will definitely like it now.

[Bleach4Me]

Start searching for a new series. Bleach is going into DBZ hell. New big enemy, train, power-up, fight, new big enemy, train, power-up, fight... All the while no real character development or interesting story lines.

I disaggree,
I watch both Naruto and Bleach and am far happier with Bleach after the fillers then Naruto. You are correct that Bleach has the same basic story line as many others, but its presentation of that story is different and great. Naruto has a different story, that I think is great, but after the fillers they have not done a good job at presenting it. Take the last ep of Naruto. It consisted of 2 things. Some dude playing with water and a drawn out conversation with another guy. WTF kind of ep is that? At leased Bleach still is going hard in the action area, Narutos action level has dropped considerably for me, at leased at this point.

[DeathscytheVII]

Considering the magnitude of the crap of the fillers naruto had to struggle through and the fact that it compeltely morphed my experience with that anime. I gotta say, bleach isn't doing so bad. Its not as good as soul society at the moment, but it certainly is getting better with each new episode.

Also, Ichigo isn't the goku of this..i don't recall him winning any real world fights since the Kariya one.

Start searching for a new series. Bleach is going into DBZ hell. New big enemy, train, power-up, fight, new big enemy, train, power-up, fight... All the while no real character development or interesting story lines.

And Naruto...with Gaara..then Orochimaru, then Akatsuki? Its pretty much the same with all anime like this.

And Naruto's just recovering too. there hasn't been a single really interesting story line in all of its 2ish years of filler. Not to mention the last ep was just all talk and small fighting. The new plot looks really good, but it certainly hasn't gotten very exciting just yet.

[JaySee]

I like Naruto's lack of fighting and more intelligent and interesting dialog and plot detailing. Closest thing to a boss fight in Naruto was Naruto vs Gaara, but that wasn't even a boss fight. It was a piece of a conspiracy. The dialogue in Naruto is about the plot, or strategies, etc. Bleach/DBZ is "I'm stronger than you n00b! MUAHAHAHA!!!" That happens occasionally in Naruto, but the "weaker" person can win in Naruto. No chance of that in Bleach a la DBZ.

Also, I'm not counting fillers.

Ichigo is Goku. They've been making him out to be the greatest since the beginning of the story. He's the savior. He's the one that has to beat the boss. There are people supposedly stronger than him now like Byakuya, but he'll obviously surpass them just as Goku surpassed everyone.

No one in their right mind is going to say Naruto is the best and is going to be the best. That's why there are so many debates as to if he'll become Hokage or not.

So yes to Bleach if you're a dumb action loving moron like this neg rep I got:
"you should be banned asshole. get the hell out of this forums, your kind only makes this planet sick"

No to Bleach if you want good story lines and intelligent dialogue.

And to the idiot fanboys like above, I'll probably be gone soon anyway. I have friends who dropped Bleach for the reasons I've stated now that Naruto's fillers are over. We only watched Bleach because Naruto was stuck in filler hell. Now that Naruto's back, there's not much reason to watch Bleach. Especially with the direction it seems to be headed. So if it keeps on with this DBZ nonsense, I won't be on your precious Bleach board anymore.