BLEACH (Burichi), by Tite Kubo. First published in 2001, and first published in North America in 2004.
PLOT:
Ichigo has always been able to see ghosts, but he doesn't consider it a big deal. It's just one more complication in a busy life full of school, siblings, and his family's medical clinic. That ability becomes a big deal when a Soul Reaper named Rukia shows up in his house to fight an evil spirit called a Hollow. When Rukia is injured, she insists that Ichigo take part of her power to continue the fight. Ichigo accidentally takes it all, forcing him to take on Rukia's role of keeping the balance between the human and spirit world while Rukia figures out how to fix things.
It's hard to look back on Bleach with fresh eyes, knowing what a huge, bloated, and divisive phenomenon it ultimately became. That being said, doing so lets one appreciate how modest its early chapters were and appreciate the charms that helped it become such a huge hit in the first place.
Ichigo strikes a nice balance between the extremes that shonen heroes of the early 2000s tended to take. He's not a doofus concerned only with being the best, a hot-shot punk always ready for a fight, or a half-sketched nebbishy pervert. He feels like a fairly down-to-earth and kind boy, one who is willing to stand up and defend others (be they living or dead) when needed, and this makes him very relatable. He also has a great dynamic with Rukia, who despite her youthful looks fills the requisite Older Mentor role. She will have none of Ichigo's crap or hesistance in doing his duty as a Soul Reaper, but she also gets to have some good moments of fish-out-of-water comedy as she gets used to a world that's nearly a century removed from her own.
Something else that stands out is how many female characters there are already, and how charmingly they are written. Ichigo's sweet, spacey friend Orihime quickly became one of my favorites, but Ichigo's snarky younger sisters and Orihime's friend Tatsumi are also amusing and distinctive in their own right. Their presence, along with Rukia, helps give this cast a lot more balance than what is usually seen in shonen manga of this era. If there's any fault in this, it's that they don't get more than a few scenes to really shine.
While I suspect the change from shinigami to Soul Reaper was mostly an artifact of the times in translations (or a hope for a phrase ready for merchandising), the mythology that Kubo is building up is simple and solid: exorcism through battle. It might be a little easier to follow if Rukia wasn't so fond of dropping all sorts of untranslated Reaper terminology and new powers for Ichigo to use out of thin air. Still, it leads to battles with Hollows that manage to strike a good balance between action and drama. Taking together with all the other positives I noted, it's easy to see how Bleach could have charmed so many shonen fans back in the day.
ART:
There's a bit of early-chapter roughness here, but overall Kubo's art is rather elegant . His characters are long and lean, and they strike a nice balance between broad caricature and sleek, mildly angular simplicity (save for Ichigo and his spiky red mop of hair). He's got a keen eye for fashion and shows it off regularly on the page and the chapter splash pages. Even something as simple as the black and white Soul Reaper robes have a lot of style to them. Meanwhile, he lets himself loose with the Hollows, who are all suitably horrifying, bizarre, monstrous, and unique.
When it comes to the battles, he tends to favor low angles and extreme perspectives to create a sense of excitement. I do wish he had toned down the sound effects and speedlines, as they get a bit overbearing after a while. Still, they get the job done, and the lead-up to Ichigo's final blows are satisfying. He favors hatching over screentones for shading, which helps lend everyone a bit of extra dimension (particuarly in the close-ups).
RATING:
Bleach is a series that starts out with its best foot forward. It builds on its simple premise with style and a lot of charm and character. It might not have been able to keep that up for its full run, but it's fun enough that I would consider reading more.
This series is published by Viz. This series is complete in Japan with 74 volumes available. All 74 have been published and are currently in print.
There's a bit of early-chapter roughness here, but overall Kubo's art is rather elegant . His characters are long and lean, and they strike a nice balance between broad caricature and sleek, mildly angular simplicity (save for Ichigo and his spiky red mop of hair). He's got a keen eye for fashion and shows it off regularly on the page and the chapter splash pages. Even something as simple as the black and white Soul Reaper robes have a lot of style to them. Meanwhile, he lets himself loose with the Hollows, who are all suitably horrifying, bizarre, monstrous, and unique.
When it comes to the battles, he tends to favor low angles and extreme perspectives to create a sense of excitement. I do wish he had toned down the sound effects and speedlines, as they get a bit overbearing after a while. Still, they get the job done, and the lead-up to Ichigo's final blows are satisfying. He favors hatching over screentones for shading, which helps lend everyone a bit of extra dimension (particuarly in the close-ups).
RATING:
Bleach is a series that starts out with its best foot forward. It builds on its simple premise with style and a lot of charm and character. It might not have been able to keep that up for its full run, but it's fun enough that I would consider reading more.
This series is published by Viz. This series is complete in Japan with 74 volumes available. All 74 have been published and are currently in print.
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