Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen

In 2012, Bleach ended its long anime-run without adapting the final arc from the manga. Dubbed as part of the 'Big 3', it almost felt like an end of an era. Some fans were left confused that the anime omitted its final arc although it's understandable that the manga was still ongoing at the time. Almost 8 years later, Bleach's massive 20th Anniversary Event breathed new life into the franchise as we got the final arc anime announcement: Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War. Mind you, this isn't just an announcement for what fans wanted after all these years. It's a celebration for the entire Bleach fandom.

Tite ... Kubo has amassed a loyal fanbase and I confidentally say that he deserves it for his creative vision and sheer determination. Initially, he didn't expect Bleach to bloosom into the franchise as we know today but mangaka Akira Toriyama provided the encouragement for him to succeed. Tite Kubo's creative vision to make characters dressed up in kimono and supernatural monsters associated with spiritual themes is what made this franchise so special. Of course, he was influenced by other works but Bleach still stands out as a very special show on its own. And with the final story arc, this served as the ultimate sendoff for anime viewers who had hoped to see this one day.

Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War is based on the final story arc of the manga, pitching Ichigo Kurosaki, the Soul Society, and his allies, friends against a new enemy known as the Wandenreich. They make an immediately impact by disposing a lieutenant and challenges against the very best of Soul Society. Led by the Quincy King Yhwach, their true agenda remains a mystery but it's clear that they are a prominent threat against all of Soul Society and the human world. Even the world of Hueco Mundo isn't safe from their wrath as Ichigo and his allies decides to take a stand against this new threat. Watching the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc immediately shows just how dangerous and capable the Wandenreich is with their special abilities, equipment, and ruthless ambitions. While not much is known about their, some of their members display a malevolent aura that borderlines on a God-like complex. If there's anything Bleach has taught me about its antagonists, it's that they often come across as charismatic characters such as Sosuke Aizen and the Espadas. While we don't know much yet about Wandenreich, it's clear that they a force to be feared.

Our oranged hair main protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki is still the same Shinigami we came to know since previous seasons. Joining him in his quest to stop the Wandenreich includes his loyal friends such as Rukia, Renji, Yasutora Sado, Orihime, and of course, the Soul Society. The oddball of this show is Uryu Ishida, because of his status as a Quincy, and this is a source that gets complex this season. Unfortunately, this season doesn't truly dive into Uryu's motivations or what his true purpose is yet. Most interestingly however, we come to know a deeper background story of a few Soul Reaper captains including Genryuusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Kenpachi Zaraki, and Retsu Unohana. Even Ichigo's parents gets a spotlight this season as we come to know how Isshin and Masaki met in their past. It's important because Bleach has a large cast of characters and we can easily get lost. This season took its time to give these characters more meaning with their stories. But fear not, other favorite characters in the franchise also makes a return including Toshiro and Byakuya. They've received storytelling about their backgrounds in the past before so this season mainly reminds us how strong they've become.

Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War is exactly how it sounds, a war with bloodshed and been in the making for a thousand years. Narratively driven, this arc goes to show the importance of how the past can affect the future in the Bleach world. It goes to say that with every story arc, there's usually some sort of main antagonist but also lessons to be learned. Ichigo has learned a lot from his first days as a Shinigami and this season will he will learn again what it means to be one. Watching this series serves as a celebration and ultimately, a way to give fans back what they've wanted all these years.

Despite the near decade long absence on television, studio Pierrot knew it had to step up and deliver this arc to its eager fans. Thankfully, the quality of this season received a well-deserved upgrade. Character designs looks like it got a next generation upgrade with their detailed outlines and expressions. Battles scenes have been enhanced to bring the fights alive from the manga. Most importantly are the way this season adapted its character emotions. There are several episodes where we see how characters are pushed to their limits when emotions take over. This season captures the essence of those emotions at their fullest. Similar, the theme songs and battle soundtrack still remains stellar like the old days. You can say whatever you want about the Bleach but the the music has always been top tier class for this franchise.

Bleach is a franchise that always stood out with its large colorful cast of characters, themes, and pushes its lore to a level we've fondly remember. This season takes another step forward to showcase the final story arc from the manga. Believe me, Bleach fans have always wanted this for years and this was another one of those cases of 'not if, but when'. The 20th anniversary was the perfect storm to announce this show and since then, we've been graced with one of the most memorable arcs so far in just 13 episodes. Fear not for this is just the first season of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. There's so much more left to tell and we're only just getting started.

Warning! No spoilers ahead. <3

Short review:
Very unexpected, very different, cool, juicy art, juicy music, fancy animation camera angles, fancy effects.
Everything about "Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen" screams
Wow, this is so different from what the old "Bleach" was.

In general:
Another good shounen anime that has conflicts/issues and how people solve them either through being clever or using power.

... Is it a must-watch?
If you're a fan of one of those:
*In general Shounen animes
*Antagonist/Protagonist story system.
*Long intertwined stories.
*Cool/Complex power system.
Then it's a must-watch whether you want it or have doubts.
Otherwise, the only reason not to watch is if you're too lazy to watch long series.

I don't recommend watching "Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen" without watching the story that happened before.
*The story in "Bleach" is connected to the story in "Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen".
*It will be a painful spoiler if you do decide to watch the story that happened before.
*You won't understand much in general.
The only reason to watch new series without watching old series is if you only want to see some cool action without caring about the story.

If you do consider watching the story from the very beginning. Please watch the blu-ray version it looks perfect, not worse than anime that could be released nowadays and be considered a good anime.


Review of just the "Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen":

Positive things:
Music, art, story, characters, etc. simply top-notch.

Negative things:
The pace of the story is horrible. Everything happens so fast it almost feels like more things happened in 13 "Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen" episodes than in 366 "Bleach" episodes. Many things became needlessly cruel which is a big reason why everything became so fast-paced.



Review of "Bleach" as a whole series.

| THORNY FILLER PATH |
Many filler arcs are as long as the main story arcs, not just a random couple of episode pop-ups like in most animes that have fillers.

The fillers are often so intertwined with the main story you would never guess they are fillers.
There are many points when something from the filler is mentioned or present in the main story, after the filler has already ended, which makes it even more difficult to understand that it was a filler.
First time I watched bleach I didn't know that "Bount arc" was a filler, because of the same reasons I mentioned above.

Some fillers can repeat concepts exactly from the story that happened before. A good example of that is the end of the "Bount arc" (Bount Assault on Soul Society Arc) took at the same place in a similar style as the canon arc that happened before the "Bount arc" (Soul Society: The Rescue Arc).

Horrible power system.
Dragged-out/boring things. Boring non-canon characters.

Not all fillers are horrible tho. "Bount arc" is not too bad.

If you do consider watching the fillers as there can be some fun things to see or you don't want to feel left out with some intertwined things that will happen while watching the main arc. If you ever consider dropping the anime because it's boring at whatever point you're at, check out whether you're watching a filler. I guarantee if you're bored you are watching a filler.

| COMPLEX STORYLINE |
From the start to the very end of the series everything was already thought of on the day when the manga production has begun.
Everything that happens in the story has a reason.
New random things don't happen at the midpoint of the story just because the author thinks it's better that way which means the reason behind things happening throughout the story is realistic and has a logical explanation.

There are lots of moments you could've predicted because many key story points were present from the very beginning, but you most likely didn't/won't predict things cause they're not that obvious, when you don't know them before watching for the first time.

I come from an era where "THE BIG 3" anime were the biggest hype that existed in this community. Back when watching anime was still the top nerd thing one can do. Among these anime, Naruto was easily the best, but it already started declining and the next big thing to break through was Bleach.
Bleach had everything a fighting anime needs. Good action, cohesive enough world building and most importantly a large and interesting cast. The overarching theme - a group of teenagers going up against the unfair society / stuck up adults is one that resonated with me a lot back then. However, after ... the first big arc reached its conclusion something started to happen... something so bad that the whole fandom noticed. Kubo ran out of gas. The "rules" by which the story plays and the actions of the cast started making less and less sense, the new characters were way less interesting and the poor attempts to give them a short backstory made it even more visible. The story had extreme copy-paste moments that were impossible to not see. The final arc was so uninteresting that I don't even remember most of it at this point, besides the swastika memes.
There were many reasons why this happened with the most obvious one being the horrible exploitative conditions that the manga artists have to work under. In any case, this was not something new and a lot of other manga/anime tend to drop in quality as time goes on. Naruto is also a great example of that, but not to this degree. The only long running show that didn't follow this trend is obviously One Piece, since it was shit from the very start.
Sooo... the anime was done, the manga had the rushed final arc out and Bleach died off. Then we get to the present day and the final arc is announced to be animated. And holy shit the trailer is a banger. This thing was so good that even I was getting goosebumps, despite reading the manga till the end and pretty much knowing all of its baggage of problems. The quality of animation looks gorgeous and with a trailer so good it's entirely possible that they might catch some of that cool style stuff that made the Bleach start so good.
The conclusion is sad, but expected. The anime looks very nice, but it did feel like trying to put a bandage over a dead body. Even with great animation quality and really not bad direction, when the source material is garbage it's still hopeless. The fights were good, but nothing made me care about them. It was just a contest of flashy stuff with zero substance. The good stuff was lacking. There is no sense of importance to anything, despite the grandiose presentation. Even worse, when the important stuff is supposed to hit, it's extremely lackluster. Ichigo's emotional journey started and ended in the soul society arc and every new reveal about his identity or dare I say, evolution as a character, has zero impact.
At this point I'll start repeating myself, but every problem I have with Bleach can be summed up into 2 big categories: nothing makes sense and no proper buildup for emotional impacts (or sum them both up as - the plot is shit).
The first part is mostly technical and not that many people seem to care about it, but I will keep stressing how important it is for the viewer to understand what can and cannot happen in a show. There is a point at which things get so ridiculous and/or random that you start to understand that the author can add in any crap at any point, because there are no rules. This is the moment when I stop caring, because any bs can fly, so everything that happens feels cheap. Fiction generally works not because of the magic, but because it resembles reality in some way and the viewers can clearly understand what is happening. This is why characters that are considered good are usually complex ones that resemble real humans as much as possible.
As for the second point... There is a certain rhythm to great plot points (or fights for this genre). First there must be an emotional investment in what's happening - buildup. Then there's a confrontation, a problem that needs to be solved, best if that problem is slightly obvious due to the buildup naturally leading to it and finally there's a resolution/conclusion. Every problem in Bleach completely lacks any buildup, which makes all other parts very cheap... maybe because it's rushed or maybe because nobody cared about writing an actual plot at this point... Especially with gems like Mob Psycho in the same season, the stuff that's happening in Bleach is as whatever as it can get.
One more thing to mention is that many anime focus on one main character. This happens a lot in fighting anime where it starts with a larger cast and then the main character becomes way stronger than everyone and is the only one that matters. Bleach does the same, despite having a very large cast. This in itself is not necessarily a problem, however it's important to keep in mind that it can potentially create two big issues - the rest of the cast becomes way less important and the way you handle the main character will have extra added weight. Where I'm getting at is that Ichigo is a very meh standard character and because there's nothing going for him, it drags the show down even more.
My final conclusion is that nostalgia will wear off and after some time, Bleach will be remembered as the mediocrity it actually is or forgotten (or a good case study for nerds like me). If anyone reading this has at least the feeling that what I say makes some sense, go watch World Trigger instead.