It starts well, climaxes in the middle, and rolles down a hill untill the end. Overall, it's above average, but nothing too special. The whole human-goes-to-after-life-and-battles-demons thing has been done plenty of times, and it has been done better. This is just one of those and an average one at that, but being as long as it is there are some great scenes worth exploring. If you have the time to kill, go for it.

As Tite Kubo himself pointed out in an interview he is the type who focuses on characters rather than the story/plot, and to be honest he is usually good at that- but the thing is, he keeps creating new ones, so let alone the plot, there is no time for character development... So Bleach became an excuse for Tite Kubo to create characters and enjoy, forgetting the actual main-character(s)... and the plot. - if there was a plot to begin with...
Bleach is "same stuff happening with slight changes in the story and different characters"
And still I cannot say that I do not enjoy reading Bleach, I have to agree that it gets really boring sometimes, but as a shounen manga it is good. So I, too, am waiting to see how it ends.
We'll see...

For those who are complaining that recently Bleach is being draged on without plot-
From the start Bleach never really focused on plot development. And from the start it was a generic battle manga with next to 0 plot development.(If you consider facing a strong enemy one after other who have shitty traumatic history as plot development...then this is the other case.)
Weak-->Enemy Beats Proatgonist-->Training/I will grow stronger-->Power Up/Cool Moves-->Beats Enemy-->Strong Enemy-->Looses Battle-->Defeats Enemy (A loop with change of locations and addition of characters with traumatic past).

It is basically for those who never really cares about serious plot development and only focuses on fights with power-ups.
From my side I am just reading it to see its ending.

Anyone that hasn't started it yet, and has been backed off by the monstrous amount of hate it receives, I would like to say this to you: It isn't anywhere under Naruto or OP, seriously. It does have its weak points, definitely, but by no means it's bad. Granted, there is repetitiveness and quite a few holes in the plot that are supposed to be filled in the future, thought there's only one arc more, by the author's own words. However. Artwork (not in the beginning, but eventually, with time), character interaction, interesting abilities, way of showing people emotions/thoughts with just pictures and no words, feelings, character attitude, themes and atmosphere as a whole. If you like shounen in general, this is indeed something that you should definitely like.

Like many people has said, the Soul Society arc was really great. The other arcs were good too but it lost it's "touch". I think that the author could have did some other arc and left the espada arc on hold because I thought he rushed it.

The thing is really hated was the insane power ups Ichigo gets when he barely does anything. The fighting in Bleach was good but not great because to me the fight is not as imaginative as "Naruto". Basically Ichigo just uses a tiny handful of attacks only and then he just sword fights. Aizen is so overpowered that it's not even funny.

I thought the author is picking poop out of his butt when basically the Captains Ichigo beats were not fighting 100%. I'm really disappointed with the author because he now just milking Bleach for all the money. It's even worse than Naruto. I just always thought that the character development was really bad because the story just revolves around Ichigo.

Overall I can only give this a 7/10 because Bleach could have been better if the author knew how to execute his manga better.

Bleach is a world of it's own. Either you're in it, or you avert your eyes and don't be in it at all.

It's a visual experience. Both the illustration and composition style are very artistic and adds to the atmosphere. True to the shonen manga genre, it's filled with moments that makes you think "HOLY CRAP THAT IS SO COOL/AWESOME/BADASS/". The use of Japanese brush and ink in the manga not only adds to the texture, but also increases the atmosphere of the Shinigami world. The character design are colorful and interesting. There are plenty of characters that caters to all readers. Manly man? Check. Manly manly manly man? Check. Bouncy babes? Check. Cute innocent girls? Check. Tsundere? Check.

The story itself, for me, is amazing. For a manga in the shonen genre that cannot avoid plot devices and cliches, Bleach still manages to make you think that there's still a unique freshness to it. The 'damsel in distress' plus 'badass fighting chicks' trope gets used a lot, and 'unlikely savior at the last minute' cliche happens very often. The 'Oh you cut me! Oh wait no you didn't lol' thing was exciting for the first hundred times, but gets a bit repetitive. I don't really mind it that much since I can still find it exciting, but if you're the type of reader that goes "Oh, not THIS again" you'll probably be bored by the 21th volume (end of execution arc). That's around the time I stopped before I started again recently.

Rumor has it that the series is ending soon (although it's unlikely the way I saw it) and I think it's about time, although for me it's a bit sad. The heroes just keep getting stronger and stronger, and even though I keep thinking 'WHOA that is so badass", the enemies ALSO keeps getting stronger, and THEN the heroes unleashed an even GREATER power. Of course it wouldn't be interesting if the enemies are weaker, so whoa now the enemy is EVEN stronger. But wait! Let's train some more! Now the heroes are stronger. Repeat the cycle a couple of times and all of the sudden you have god vs. god. True story.

Also about you-know-who who didn't die, I think he will come back in the future and become an ally. It's just a guess, but if it came true I called it.

All in all I'm glad I read Bleach and would recommend it to anyone that loves that heroic ass kicking moments. I know I said there are lots of cliches, but even knowing that reading Bleach can still keep me on the edge so I think you can still enjoy it too.

I can't really say anything about the anime yet, but there are a lot of unrelated filler arcs that I would suggest you avoid. Start from the manga first.

... Last updated on April 2nd, 2012, 6:49pm

Of course, by all means, read the manga (and while you're at it, watch the anime adaption) - it's definitely worth it! But I'm not kidding you when I say you need top-notch patience. Yes, you need to have patience made of steel in order to endure this endless, slow-paced series.

However, since the positives of Bleach overpower any negative, I say this series is worth the wait. It's exciting, hilarious, action-packed, and sometimes pretty casual. Anyway, it's everything you ever want tied into one praise-worthy, enormous manga.

From what I've witnessed, you can only either really hate it or really love it. Almost never in between.

Bleach was an amazing manga I feel up until the Soul Society arc. The potential was there and I could not wait until Kubo used it. A shame he never did, and the series just tumbled further and further.

1. There should not have been another kidnapping arc. Awfully repetitive and unequal in terms of effort and succeeding. Both arcs will obviously be compared for quality and the Hueco mundo arc does not reach par.

2. Hichigo/hollow ichigo made the manga become a pseudo shounen manga. Kubo started leaning far too much towards dark and depressing; much like a seinen manga and lost many aspects of previous Bleach. The obvious being a confident protagonist.

3. Lack of plot coherency. I could not for the life of me understand the Decide arc. It was just one big ball of ugly, mixed with several rushed transformations and no conclusion after 5 years of struggling for one. I have never read such pitiful work else where.

4. Absolutely terrible pacing. I am sorry, but Tite Kubo cannot pace a story to save his life. The Hueco Mundo arc was awfully paced, as was the arrancar, decide and fullbring arcs. Fullbring ended too quick with no back stories for the main antagonist, yet the so-so villains got tiny ones. The small arrancar segment before heading into Hueco Mundo, was Kubo's way of steeping on his own logic.

5. Lack of character development for anybody thats not Ichigo. Ichigo's friends all lack severe character development, and so does the rest of the cast. Kubo decided to create a new truck load of characters every arc and then they're either forgotten about or merely killed off (mostly villains die with terribly generic back stories as accompaniment).

6. Ichigo's development consists of a new outfit and sword. All he does attack wise, is fire off Getsuga Tenshou and scream Bankai in belligerence. After several filler arcs, you'll wanna go for your ears with a q tip.

7. Nobody dies except for the arrancar. Who might not even be dead, I've read somewhere. My biggest gripe about deaths, is that Aizen didn't die after all of that terrible pacing and b.s power ups.

8. Aizen and Ichigo are too OP. Unless you enjoy dragon ball z - esque fights, you won't enjoy their matches. Even in dragon ball z, there was a limit to the amount of power ups you could obtain.

9. Kubo trolls. You might of heard this somewhere, you might not even believe this, but yes - Kubo trolls. He hints one thing heavily and does the exact opposite. That my friends, is trolling. Unless, you think that Hitsugaya being sliced cleanly into half and still living is not trolling, then your with me on this one.

10. Why does nobody but Renji have a goal? Why must Ichigo be the under dog forever? Can't he focus and train so he can achieve better results. Screw his formula of waiting for trouble, persistently getting his rear handed to him, and then winning because he claims he has experience. Can't we just skip all the senin underdog vomit and actually try to formalize some thought of winning beforehand. Ichigo looks like a little ***** when he says things like "I want to protect my friends" but keeps making the same mistakes again and again.

Well there are my reasons why Bleach tanks. I'll be gracious and not rate it.

i love bleach! the first arc was amazing!!!! and i'm really sick of all the hate bleach is getting, i understand that not everyone likes everything but patience is a virtue and bleach WILL get better after the lost agents arc

people complain about it dragging on but the same people will complain when it has finally ended.

for any future potential readers, i highly reccomend

(though i do wish that orihime would kick some more ass! that would push the rating up to 10!)

... Last updated on July 4th, 2012, 5:42pm

Seriously. wtf. Make up your mind Kubo!! Its currently on a 3 week break so I hope Kubo sorts his shit out. I've never seen another series that has stayed this strong simply because of the characters and action. Yes the characters are awesome and you want to know what's gonna happen to them. The only problem is: NO ONE DIES!! I mean seriously, were the Arrancars really that shit??

Then there's action. I used to think Bleach has awesome action. But then I found Claymore, The Breaker, Ubel Blatt, Until Death do us Part, I can go on and on. So yes even the action isn't extraordinary. I'm a sucker for fluid action, especially something like The Breaker and Bleach's action is anything but fluid. Its most people disappearing and appearing and killing the enemy with one lethal stroke after having their ass handed to them.

But that's it!!

The plot is horrendous. Excepting the Soul Society twist I was just feeding my inner action junkie the whole time. One Piece and Naruto have very strong narratives which keep me going back to them. Often wonder if I wasted my time reading this and that I shouldn't have let my self give in to the hype. If you're reading this and you haven't read or seen Bleach don't read this unless you have serious social outcast issues. Because Bleach is the 'in' thing to talk about with others. Enough said. If you want action and characters then read this, that's why I gave it a 7. If you want an actual story then stay the hell away.

I have one weakness as a person which is: I can't stop something once I've started it. So yes, I'm a member of the legion of fans who can't drop Bleach simply because they're 479 chapters in.