Plot/Length
Initially, when I first read/watched Bleach, it was quite captivating and a great piece to read. Unfortunately, although the start was great and I'm sure many of us agree. However, the series soon got dull. In the case of the anime, the fillers pretty much screwed things up. In the case of the manga, the series just kept dragging on. For a manga with a plot, 370 something is very long.
3/10 for Plot.

Concept: To be honest, I liked the concept of samurai in black killing evil ghosts, I mean who wouldnt? The whole concept of hollows, shinigami, soul society, etc. was well thought out initially. However, as the story moves along some of the original concepts are gone (e.g. Purified hollows are supposed to go to Soul Society and the concept of Hell only lasted 1 chapter). Hueco Mundo was pretty easy to understand... don't know why some people don't take it in well. But the explanations do get boring.... Can't they jsut say its the Hollow version of soul society?
7/10 for concept.

Art: The artwork of Bleach is pretty well done. The action scenes are easy to follow and the characters look alright. Need I say more?
9/10 for art.

Characters: The main protagonist, Ichigo is your typical shonen character.... Starts out normal, then gets dragged into strange situation, powers unlock and becomes overly strong. Orihime is also a typical shonen female secondary lead.... Thinks shes weak... wants to be useful... gets captured... etc. I could go on about Uryuu and Sado but we'll leave that for another day. The shinigami are better imo, each shinigami is like a typical guy in anyone's high school classroom. Espada, on the other hand, are a bitch to pronounce and type.
Characters 5/10

Final rating: 6/10
Additional note(s): Would do better in Monthly Shonen Jump/Jump SQ as the fight scenes won't feel as tedious.

I was first exposed to Bleach via adult swim, after which I quickly moved towards fansubs, and found that I really enjoyed the series, so I turned to the manga to feed my addiction. Bad idea.

As the series wears on, things become both hectic and boring. By hectic I mean that several things are going on at once. And by boring I mean that you will find VERY little story progress within a single chapter, or even 10.

I certainly like many of the characters, but unlike One Piece and Naruto, the tv series has far more flavor than the comic. The characters don't really leap out and grab you as they do in other shounen works. Very few of the characters are well-developed, since there are so goddamn many. Unlike most other manga, the protagonist does not have a clear goal or ambition in mind; the plot is driven entirely by 'the bad guys', and the protagonist just follows along like a good little sheep. The main villain in the series is so unimaginably powerful and 'clever' that it is just irritating. There are quite a few 'villains' that I liked, but some never ceased to piss me off; how stupid can you get? Twisted ideologies are a trademark of bad guys, but Tousen makes Kefka look like a perfectly logical being.

I will say that out of all shounen works I've read, Kubo's artistic style and creativity in costume and character design is unrivaled. Clean lines, detailed spells and characters; the combat is drawn very well. What I don't like is the lack of detail in the backdrop, and the fact that youwill find many pages filled with a single panel of action. Detail is nice, but progression is better.

I loved the concept of shinigami and hollows, but things just fell apart as the story wore on. This series is without a doubt full of 'cool' characters, but they don't really get anything done most of the time.

Stick with the tv series, and go read One Piece instead.

... Last updated on February 7th, 2012, 2:12pm

Like one of the previous comments, this is one of the three most popular shonen mangas. The way it starts is very good and could have grown into an interesting idea. However, the focus changes to a different topic and style, which is not bad either, although I personally think the original idea should have lasted longer. In any case, it is still a decent read, like Naruto, that i would recommend to an audience of 9-15, as the story is, while nothing like Naruto in concept, similar to Naruto in basic idea, although the original group enemy is not actually bad, just going overboard in law upholding. Once again, it is a decent manga that would be worth reading. It's not great and it's not bad. It's very much fighting based like many other shonen mangas, but not to bad.

I would have to agree with everyone else. I think the series is just dragging on and on. It's like every chapter that comes out gets absolutely nowhere. The same thing is happening with Naruto. They just talk... develop some plan and don't actually do the plan until a couple chapters have passed. This leaves the reader hanging and eventually they just kind of drift away. And have you people noticed? They never seal or send a spirit to the spirit world anymore. Oh and i miss Don Kanoji lol. Yup Bleach is not really getting anywhere for the moment. I can't believe that the author took so much time developing the characters and then just left them. There's nothing really that the author can do. He is trying his best to develop some kind of plot. And like i said it's still a hundred times better than where Naruto is currently. I still like the beginning of Naruto. =D

I loved bleach in the beginning and don't get me wrong I still do like it, it's just that I feel that it is now going onto be a plot of neverending battles. I like the anime as well but to be honest I had to take a couple of months break from it as I got abit bored. all in all it is a great read and watch but I just want it to end soon. my gripe about the anime is the stupid freakin fillers! they are pointless and bear no relevance to the story at all!, other than that the anime is ok.

... Last updated on July 22nd, 2008, 8:08am

One of great Mangas and Anime I've ever encountered. Everything about it is great storyline, characters, fights, art, comedy, concept… besides just one thing, it's slacking off on battles these days like, 10 chapter for a single scenario. So, it's kind of slow pace although fights themselves are awesomely awesome. (what ever I mean by it)

One thing about Manga, Kubo Tite's drawing is great that it never fails to amaze me.

Two thumbs up....!

I will agree with a lot of people here when I say that Bleach DOES drag on... and on.... and on... But the truth is, I've seen worse, *coughnarutocough* so it doesn't bother me that much.

If you take out many of the pointless "sub-boss" battles, however, Bleach isn't that bad. The plot is semi-original, and if you look past the "damsel in distress" plot device, the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo arcs are a lot different. So far the Hueco Mundo arc hasn't been that bad.

In my opinion, half the fun of reading this manga is waiting to see if any of the sub-plots will turn out like you want them to turn out, or the questions you have will be wrapped up in a way you expect them to be wrapped up. Like someone said before, it would be extremely disappointing if things were left unexplained.

It's fun at first, but quickly goes into repetivity. The story hardly moves forward sometimes, and when it does it's all clichés, about saving someone or putting it all on the line for someone... Getting stronger with each fight, each fight being very predictable and with certain stages. (i.e. it starts with one having the upper hand, then the other one shows a move that gives him the upper hand or makes them equal, then they escalate like that until someone shows his ultimate superduper move and wins).

With that being said, it's sort of entertaining. But certainly not worth the hype everyone's giving it.

Completely unoriginal as it may be, it's still way much better than Naruto and is overall a good read. I just hope the story won't go on forever so it doesn't become naruto-ish.

I love this manga!! its absulutely superb and I'm so in love with it, I've read it 5 times so far. Kinda sounds like some obssessive stalker or what, but does is deffinetely one of the best mangas ever