Bleach was one of my favorite series of all time. The beginning intrigued me because it was about a boy who was straddling the line between being a teen and exorcising demons that ate people's souls. One of the highlights of bleach was the exorcism of orihime's brother. It was a great mini arc. From here Kubo transitioned into the soul society arc that not only makes one question authority, but it also introduced a bunch of mysteries into the story.
Who is kisuke and yoroichi? What the heck is aizen up to? Where would ichigo's friends go from here? How would ichigo explain to his family who he was now and where he had been? And it lead to even more questions like why would a soul society that is fairly even handed when it comes to justice, go on a genoicide of the quincies? And why does heaven look like medieval japan, where those without power were as poor as they would have been on earth or worse?
and my biggest question which relates to grand fisher...what is hell's role in all of this?
Kubo opened up a lot of cool cans of worms. He presented some really interesting story beats such the early teenager working part time as a soul reaper. But he sort of lost the plot after the soul society arc. Never again did we really ever visit the idea of exorcising hollow to help people pass on. Never again did we visit being a teen. Nor did we really see any clues or foreshadowing about ichigo's dad. yoroichi or kisuke. When I think critically about bleach, it's a mess. But when I watch old clips...i get a sense of nostalgia. I miss bleach and wish it would have lived up to my expectations. But it was cool for what it was.
Kenpachi is still my favorite character of all time. But even he was sort of whacky and we never explored why he was a walking sun. xD I assume it's related to what byuakuya said about being BORN A SOUL REAPER. but I'm just like...aren't they dead? or gods? what is this kubo? Still a nice 7/10 and my teenage years.
I hope the continuation series is a fun dbz experience at least.