Kubo should be an illustrator or short story creator rather than long running mangaka. He's struggling with story and character developments and tend to drag the story of one arc for too long. He said it in interview that he only wanted to focus on drawing something cool and didn't care for the story very much.

If only he did shorter story on this manga, it won't suffer from bad backlashes so much. It's hurting the fans too, people wanted more of Bleach back when it came out fresh, then it went down so hard, I could feel Kubo didn't know what the direction of it then started to not cared anymore about this manga he CREATED and wanted it to be ended fast. Despite the rushed full of stupidity ending he gave us.

One that I dislike is Orihime... OMG, I used to like her in the earlier of the series, she's pretty much lovable, but then Kubo decided to give her bs powers and turned her into a goddess princess who everybody needs to protect at all cost due to how awesome she is, how beautiful she is and how big her B00Bs are, so basically a typical useless Mary Sue. Ichigo also a Gary Sue, nobody could defeat him because he's the most badass of them all.

The story from arc to arc also similar a friend needs help, go to rescue the friend, battle scene, more talking, defeat the bad guy, bad guy left, and another friend needs help again, go to the rescue, another bad guy appears,repeat repeat and repeat until Ichigo gets his final form. Then boom, ending where everyone is married and have kids. So disappointed with this series. Again, another manga that started strong then ended badly, on top of that the mangaka didn't even care about it. I get it, you want to express your ideas, but when your idea is having a wrong turn, you need to think why? How this is happening? How can I fix it? Instead of just giving up and put more bs arc on it.

I want to say first off, the character arcs(after the first) are abysmal. Stagnant, bland, done several times over(lookin at you ichigo) or dropped completely.
I can't say I hated anyone single story arc, they all had their high points i found interesting. Though they give me the badly conflicting thoughts "why the f is this taking so long" and "hold up wtf was that, author get back here and do some in depth explaining or at least put it in a extras book".
I really wanted to like the series, it kept interesting me back into looking at it, but oh my god was it failing story growth. "oh look, a elite enemy! level grind this much to oneshot the roadblock" was all i was getting after the entire aizen arc.
I'll even give credit to several of the anime filler arcs for interesting plots(manifesting zanpakto spirits was hella cool), but it just never went anywhere with the build up.

I'm not even sure where i was going with this ramble now, 5/10 it's kinda cool if you don't mind weird pace and low payoff.

... Last updated on March 4th, 2018, 4:50pm

For me, Aizen's story arc was the best, but after Aizen's defeat, the story is not interesting for me again (especially fake karakura arc, i hate it). After knowing that Ichigo has hollow's power, now he got QUINCY'S POWER?? and usually Bleach's story goes like this: some battles then training period, new enemies&acquired new power, then training again...

... Last updated on May 27th, 2013, 9:51pm

I stumbled upon the anime many moons ago when it was new and i was an older teen. I liked it just fine but switched to the manga later to save time as episodes became too drawn out even without the filler.
I then quit the manga just before Vol. 50 entirely and started to hate it now. I am currently 24 and still deem the first two arcs (till Soul Society ended) as decent in retrospect but the word "empty" describes them best. Good art (but never backgrounds), fine choreography and decent ideas were commence but any from of substance was lacking.
To quote user strixflash "Bleach was never a plot driven manga" and that was true even then but the narrative utterly stopped when arc 3 began and the unending action scenes turned into the following: Two "awesome" underwear models with mullets of power meet, begin to stand in the air and beat each other up with super moves for no reason till someone wins or they agree to become friends. Noone ever dies but the word death / i´ll kill you are the most dominant sentences in the entire manga. The female characters are big breasted moral support only too but i will note that their sexualisation isn´t as dumb as in most such series. I thus quit the manga after that arc was finally over and never looked back. The series apparently still sucks (500+ chapters and a dead spin-off are the stats now) and it finally started to loose both fans and an anime (!) but i am out for good. As many problems i have with One Piece and Naruto now i still have fun with them so go for the rest of the Jump trinity instead.
Claymore (8,5/10), Hunter x Hunter (9/10) or Rurouni Kenshin (10/10) are lastly how modern shounen battle manga need to look like. Don´t even get me started how much better the action (or everything else) is in the adult targeted Berserk, Kamui Gaiden or Until Death Do Us Part is but these were done by masters. The only thing of note about Kubo Tite is his glamorous hair and that he created the memetastic Aizen while the "prequel" Zombie Powder is even less interesting than Bleach. I wonder if he will even start a third series as the final arc of Bleach was apparently changed back to not being a finale... Money never sleeps. Even among the dead!

... Last updated on November 6th, 2015, 11:18am

Do yourself a favor and drop it after the Rescue Rukia arc, everything after that is all dragged on. Kubo trying to create some suspenseful moments and plot twists but failing to do so miserably.

My biggest issue with this series is Ichigo is the main character but all he has is:
Getsuga Tenshou
Bankai
Hollowfication (Don't even count the full hollowfication vs Ulquiorra)
And that new thing I forgot the name in the recent chapters

How can he learned his hollowfication but can't even use Cero like everyone else? Then he always has some magical powerup during or directly before battle and goes to win.

With all that said I love Bleach's art the most, but creativity-wise One Piece beats it. (Don't forget I said creativity-wise, not in general drawing characters, but different looks and so on) I look forward to Kubo's new work though, I only keep reading it cause I read so far and only takes 10 seconds to read Bleach's chapters nowadays anyways.

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.

What kickstarted this manga off was attitude. It had a very in-your-face kind of approach to plot, it's characters and its powers. Then we got the Soul Society Arc, which was a well-executed damsel-in-distress arc with an M. Night Shyamalan moment at the end. This led into the Hueco Mundo arc, and the all out war. Again a damsel in distress plot to begin with, which turned into a 'find some way to defeat the omnipotent antagonist' plot. Now... I dunno what's happening now.

All right:- Pros
Fights - fantastic fights with well executed individual powers and moves.
Style - art and character design is utter top notch, always.
Kuchiki Rukia - I have a crush on her.
Humour - often very, very funny.

Cons:-
Pacing:- pages often comprise on one or two frames (usually closer to 3-5) with only a little happening each week. I remember comparing this to One Piece a year or two ago - with Bleach I was surprised that the chapter ended so soon, with One Piece I was often surprised there was so much of the chapter left.
Characters:- almost all have some kind of backstory, but even that is often quite shallow in execution with very little depth or believability. Plus I hate antagonists who are utterly overpowered and arrogant. They tend to make up for this in the 'Style' and 'humour' Pros I mentioned already. Except Aizen.
Plot:- Fighting, damsel in distress + 'what a tweest' moments. Unoriginal and repeptetive, overall.

Tite Kubo is a troll simply because of how he paces this bl**ding manga. Sense the frustration. People have theorized that's he's some kind of divinity simply for the way he keeps his audience whilst successfully trolling them, every. single. week.

Better than most, but still... once you've finished this manga Kubo, there will be nothing to stop us from visiting retribution on you... 7/10

... Last updated on July 5th, 2012, 4:46am

This manga started out really, really, really good. I absolutely loved it up until Ichigo saves Rukia. After that the manga gets really boring, drawn out, and repetative. The fight scenes especially get extremely long. The plot no longer seems that interesting and about the only good thing that happens later on in the manga is that Hitsugaya seems to show up a lot more. Orihime just gets more and more annoying and one of the most interesting character, Ulquiorra, ends up dying. So overall I think this manga started out really well, but like a lot of other good mangas like Naruto and Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, it's just getting to be way too long. I think the mangaka just doesn't want to end this manga even though it should've ended a long time ago.

... Last updated on May 17th, 2012, 7:49am

I am a big fan of the popular shounens, so one piece, bleach and naruto are my three weekly staples. I've just gotta say that bleach started really interesting, as one person put it, ghostbusters with swords, and I found it original and interesting. I almost gave up on SS, but the conspiracies and the extra stories of the shinigami kept it interesting. Unfortunately, the espada stuff is just such a run-of-the-mill fight fest. The reason I keep following bleach is because I've really grown to love the characters and not only do I want to see them develop, but also I want to see how the story pans out and ends. Yes they repeated the rukia arc, which sucks, but I'll bear through this, hopefully the HM arc finishes and kubo picks up the pace a little. My biggest gripe is Ichigo, he used to be such a badass, didnt care what people thought, had an attitude, but now hes just a regular joe hero without any emotion. I bet Kubo would have ended the series much sooner, but bleach has reached such popularity, that not only does Kubo get more money the longer it goes, so do the people who sell bleach merchandise. Its sad but thats life.

But, I don't know if its me, strangely, the events at whatever-place-they-are are getting strangely out of hand. All the good elements of the manga have somehow dissolved into nothingness.
The beginning is amazing, leaves the reader wanting more. I liked it up to chapter 50 and the soul society arc. Thereafter began the series of neverending events and the fights extending for chapters on end. I'm waiting for it to pick up again or maybe reach to a conclusion before I can begin reading.
I still give it an 6.5 for the artwork, humour and how much I liked the former half of the story.

BTW, I was expecting it to end after the Hueco Mundo arc but, apparently finishing up the manga while it is still salvageable (is that a word?) - granted it's not fresh anymore and it has degraded to cliches - is not on Kubo Tite's mind. It is evident he wants to leech as much money as he can out of this and then he'll probably hand us a half-assed end.
I really hope I'm wrong.

... Last updated on April 28th, 2011, 12:12am