Reversal

yes, I love anime, I SPECIALLY love shounen anime, in case you dont know, shounen anime is mostly fight-focused anime, like Naruto, One piece or Yuyu hakusho, I like shounen anime so much Im planning on develop my own fight-themed series, there is nothing I find better than someone screaming an attack in middle of a tense situation, like GOMU GOMU RIFLE or ZA WARUDO.

How come I hate bleach then? of all things, why is bleach excluded?

One of the requirements of shounen is to make battles interesting, normal animes like nanoha are just usual explosions and beams, shounen usually makes them more interesting
with concepts like using an eye that can see in a 360 radius (Neji from naruto) a seal that makes anything follow you, including knives (yuyu hakusho) or a Rubber human scretching his body resembling interesting weapons like a Firecraker (One piece). Bleach fails at this, characters usually just make things explode, take Chad for example, he just trows blast punches.

First of all, take a look at the openings, simply wonderful openings, specially for the first and fourth, these openings represent a very stilysh & modern aura, almost like these series tried to be like cowboy bebop or such, the characters appear in urban settings and wearing these modern clothes, its just awesome when you see it first.

What happens when the series actually start? complete and utter boredom, the characters just wear your typical school uniforms, wear white shirts, and avobe all, behave like pretty much other anime that takes place in japan, no style here. the themes, instead of being all like they look in the opening, are just spooky music you would find in yuyu hakusho, the characters are too serious. I still remember watching the first episode like 2 years ago, So I predict these series will soon die for being so damn stereotypical (seriously, it was like watching yuyu hakusho all over again but with different characters, OHH ICHIGO HAS HIDDEN POWERS AND A BIGASS SWORD, THE STORY TAKES PLACE IN NORMAL JAPAN, BOOORING.").

about a year later, I hear bleach is looking pretty good, this was around bleach reaching episode 50, my hears cant believe it, so I decide to give bleach another chance and watch more, the first episode is always stereotypical, right? the same happened to one piece, so I decide to give bleach a chance to develop.

Until episode 13, and the series still seem like pretty much any other anime, its a guy with a soul sword killing hollows, yeah, the typical "other good guys" are introduced, like chad or ishida, so far the only episode I have liked is Ichigo visiting his grave, and some of the hollow fights are well animated, I keep praying for some non-monster villains to appear, so the main characters can finally develop new skills, Ichigo swinging a sword is getting tired.

around episode 16 or such, finally real bad guys appear, Chad and Orihime also seem to be around and shikai is introduced, at this point, I start to get interested in the series, Shikai looks like a pretty good concept! morphing swords can be quite original battlewise! cant wait to see a worthy battle. since the series so far, hasnt bringed a SINGLE good battle moment, all of them have been just crappy hollows getting cut or such.

Here comes the first dissapointment, after like 5 episodes of Ichigo TRAINING (ZZZZ) FINALLY the group of good guys is getting to soul society, supposedly the land of the dead, surprise surprise! the land of the dead if just an ancient-japan themed place, the place is so freaking strange you dont even feel these guys are dead, is the writer of bleach playing with my mind of was just too freaking lazy to make a worthy "world of the dead"? the "cool" style bleach barely had on the first episodes changes completely to just guys with exploding swords in ancient japan, The hell is going on.

after "yawn" 6 or such episodes, the guys FINALLY enter into soul society, after SO MUCH preparation, FINALLY a worthy battle is coming (I hope so, because at this point of episodes, another series have already finished, or Naruto has already fought haku with kiuby, or the kuro arc just took place in one piece).

Generals are introduced, not 3 or 5, but 12 at the same time, this brings me a chill of expectation, Ichigo and friends have to beat these guys? AWESOME.

from episodes (25-40)after a couple of "ahem" INTRODUCTORY battles, like that bald guy or such, the characters are still fighting like they did on the first episodes, BORINGLY, Ichigos shikai is just a different looking sword that he uses the same, Ichigo is TOO damn strong and seems to be able to defeat all his enemies with a single slash just like he did in the first episode, Chad just trows punches and Ishida just trows arrows. these fights arent like one piece or any other shounen for that matter, the heroes just seem to be stronger for no reason and suddenly defeat their without a sweat, there are no hidden sword skills or smart moves, the strongest wins, the end. even worse, the setting is boring as hell, its just some undecorated paths and coat-dressed sword weilders, its like each episode its the same than the last one, the spark of style of the first episodes is dead, oh yeah, generals talk here and there, but no one has fought yet, they just talk talk talk about serious stuff I dont care, I though this was about saving rukia, not what the hell the generals talk about.

Renji appears, just for what? to be defeated in a "serious" Ichigo slash, not amused, Ichigo just powered up again for no reason and defeated renji, the battle wasnt interesting seriously, Ichigo hasnt used his brain in a single battle so far, he just resists attacks and attacks winning, its like watching some guy lv50 defeat lv20 guys.

Im still praying for a battle I CANT predict, Orihime and Chad are wimps that dont know to fight, Chad specially, just trows blast punches, its like DBZ all over again, no brain, just explosions and suddenly you lose, all revolves around power levels, saving rukia is getting boring, oh yeah, and Aizen is dead, the only actual interesting thing I can remember.

Episode 40, FINALLY Ichigo is gonna fight someone you cant defeat with a power up, kempachi, so far the battle is boring and kempachi is TOO freaking powerful, Ichigo talks to his zampakuto and gets a POWERUP for trusting it, I hate ichigo so far, all it takes to him to get stronger is a decison, then suddenly his typical slash we saw since the first episode gets stronger, Kempachi takes out his eyepatch, at this point, I say, FINALLY THE BATTLE IS GOING TO START, just for what? an explosion and the battle ended, oh god, this has got to be the most dissapointing moment in what I have seen so far, Ichigo is the most boring hero I have ever seen in my life, he is just a hothead that happens to be strong, he never really develops interesting skills, and just gets angry in the supposed "comedy" moments, am I watching a joke? its like my fangirl sister thought of this show, everything its so damn predictable I cant believe, even the "dark hollow side" of Ichigo is stereotypical, (AKA Kyubi naruto, AKA Possessed Iori, AKA Dark side in star wars, AKA Ring-posessed Frodo, AKA Evil side in pretty much anything) Ishida and Chad arent helping either, they are too weak and their pasts dont convince me, their battle styles and designs are completely outshadowed by the generals, they are just there to save rukia, and I dont care about them anymore.

Yet another thing Im not liking in bleach, is the fact these random "past storyes" are getting told, they arent really interesting, I barely remember what the hell was rukia doing on soul society, or anything, everything is too "japanese" and serious. Chads past was the most boring so far. this DEFINITELY isnt the bleach of the first episodes, everything is so SLOW and everyone is so POWERFUL, not even in an interesting way, they just have powerful swords. It seems like soul society wont ever end.

I mean, it just took 10 Damn episodes of Arlong arc to make one piece one of the best shows I have ever seen, It only took like 15 episodes of Zabuza arc to make me love naruto, it just took like 5 Episodes of Genkais tournament in yuyu hakusho to hook me up, and so far, Soul society is too damn big and the battles are too damn boring, I have barely seen a shikai worth remembering apart from renjis. yet Im told the best is yet to come, so I STILL give bleach another chance.

Oh shit, bankais are introduced, you GOTTA be shitting me, I havent even seen a worthy shikai battle and Bankais already? even worse, Ichigo needs to train AGAIN, the only thing that keeps me watching this excuse of shounen is The whole aizen mistery.

So far I find a LOT of problems in bleach, first of all, the purpose of winning every battle is for saving rukia, it really gets boring after a while, Its just not enough motivation, most of the heroes lack very much will, they just help Ichigo, almost like zombies. there are no doubts here, you dont really get what they feel like you would in Full metal alchemist, the tears and pure human feelings kind of lack in most battles.

Bankai Ichigo is just a faster Ichigo in black.

Bleachs problem is that they captured rukia, that just felt like an excuse to bring Ichigo to fight, even worse, it would be good if AT LEAST the battles where complex, but they arent, they are just explosions and powerups, techniques or using your brain are prohibited in bleach battles. if THAT doesnt work, liking the characters do, this can usually be done when they show you their past, bleach fails at this too, there isnt a SINGLE tearful past I have seen, just compare how dull Chads past compared to say.. ROCK LEE or CHOPPER.

in Resume, Bleach has boring characters fighting boring battles in boring places.

Analize this, Ichigos bankai is just a faster ichigo, aka Super sayajin mode or Gear second, Ichigo pulled it out around episode 60, and he had not even developed a single Shikai skill worth remembering.
Around the SAME 60 EPISODES, Luffy had already shown us: Gomu pistol, gomu bazooka, Gomu bell, Gomu sledgehammer, Gomu axe, Gomu net, Gomu Spear, among others, and he didnt power up a single time, it took him many experimenting of his battle style with other skills like Gomu rifle, Golden rifle, Gomu storm, gomu balloon, Mizu luffy, Boxing luffy: to finally show us the first sign of power up around episode 270: gear second. the same can be said about every other main character in these 2 series, from this point, which is better battle wise? try to make the same comparison with naruto/bleach.

Just how bad can bleach battles get? well, take the First general (that old fire general) vs the dual sword generals, it wasnt even a battle, they just standed and watched, seriously. go watch it again if you dont believe me.

I STILL dont get why people watch this, If you want Lovable characters with pasts that dont make you sleep, watch one piece, if you want battles that dont make you sleep, watch naruto, if you want a real concept of ghosts and dead, watch Yuyu hakusho or Death note, if you want a stylish series, watch samurai champloo.

Bleach fails for much more other reasons, take for example the whole generals randomness, a character usually is interesting when he crosses paths with the characters you like, in this case it would be the heroes, in bleach, the main characters are so boring that the series NEEDS to forget them here and there and put episodes about the generals talking about serious matterz, so the brainwashed watcher feels something like "ohh, this series is complex, so much stuff is happening!!!"

That is no story, its just a bunch of random shit happening so fast the watcher feels like he is watching something complex, not a single moment is memorable, Its like a formula, put 20 boring characters doing many things so it feels like 1 interesting thing, bleach tries to explain so many characters that each one ends up being uninteresting, and if the damn author of bleach took its time to tell us the past of each character, I would fall asleep. the series would never end in a circle of boredom storyes. I almost forget, these guys are supposed to be dead arent they? HELL I dont care. there are so many damn powerful characters its annoying, its like watching DBZ, everyone is so powerful that no one is, only the one with the ULTIMATE BANKAI is the most one, and you need to train 5 days to reach bankai. duh.

So finally, Soul society ends, around 65, just for fillers to start. way to go! just when an anime cant get worse, that horrible word appears, fillers, not even naruto went to fillers that fast, thats what happens when you make an anime of a series too fast without even confirming if the series are good in the first place. Im NOT wasting more of my time EXPECTING bleach to get better, I WANTED to like bleach, I like shounen anime, but this is just DBZ level.

(In case you are wondering, I read the manga to see if it got better, its pretty much the same boring fights but against hollows and they must save orihime this time, the characters are so damn powerful I wont get surprised if they can destroy planets just like in Dbz not too soon. Hueco mundo is just a desert in case you wondering, Just like I said: Boring battles in boring places with boring characters, with power levels OVER NINE THOUSAAAAND

I still want them to ditch their superpowers and get back to the real world, I miss that lesbian that chased orihime and the lion doll.

at this point you must be thinking "well, battles arent everything" sure, they arent, but by that you are accepting that bleach battles blow like hell, and bleach is a series that revolves around battles, each new story is just a sad excuse to make Ichigo and friends fight and TRAIN for harder battles. whats the point then? is it really worth watching 50 episodes per year just to watch 10 of development and story, and other 40 of battles that suck? with THIS MUCH characters? and fillers when they dont really feel like going on? You want a guy with a Big sword actually killing people? (because no one dies in bleach) watch Berserk.

So far, the ONE AND ONLY thing I respect in bleach is Aizen and Gin, cool bad guys, they look smart and all, TOO BAD it will take Ichigo 23987439027 shitty boring power ups to defeat them in an EXPLOSION just like he did with kempachi or byakuya and that guy from the fillers.

*updated*
Lastly, I receive many replies like OMG ONEPIECE/NARUTO SUX COMPARED TO BLEACH, BLEACH IS MORE SERIOUS, NARUTO IS A BUNCH OF KIDS DOING KIDS STUFF.

If you really watch ANIME to feel more mature, go watch something like Ghost in the shell, since Bleach, Naruto and Piece are ALL aimed for the same audience in japan, ALL shounen is, thats why its called shounen, EVEN Death note, also, you dont really get the concept of maturity in anime if you think Bleach is more serious because they use swords, bleed and "look older", you usually see that in the copypasta bullshit boredom that is INUYASHA (yes, I SAW the 170 episodes, I usually hate series I KNOW well). Anime for "adults" would be stuff like Evangelion or Great teacher onizuka.

Maturity usually comes in storyes that give you "that" deep feeling, like Watching The background story behind skypeia in One piece (lots of themes regarding Religion vs Science, Pointless wars), most storyes in FMA, and Haku/Kimimaro purposes in life, Bleach can also get quite mature in this like they did in the storyes of the parrot/kid and Ichigos mom in the graveyard, so yes, Shounen can be mature, bleach is mature, but not for its designs and "blood", geez I have seen more violent battles in One piece than in bleach, Sanji getting his lungs Fuxx0red by pressure and lack of oxygen in Arlong park or Ussop getting his skull broken in Arabasta anyone? thats different violence than just "omg I got slashed by a sword, blood splurt", but thats not the point, a series can be stupidly Gore, but stupidly boring at the same time, meh.

Also, maturity isnt really important to make something good, Take for example fairly odd parents or Dexters lab, those shows where Hilarious and where obviously targeted to kids around 10.