Bleach anime
****WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!****
Ugh. Yeah, ok. I'm going to give my candid and unfortunately, rather negative review of the anime adaptation of Bleach. First impressions determine whether or not someone would want to continue on with a particular series, and in this aspect, the Bleach anime really falls short. After seeing three episodes, I don't particularly want to see any more. And why?
Well, I realize and admit that a lot of it stems from the fact that I am first and foremost a manga reader. The switch from one medium into another is always jarring, and how jarring it is for me personally has a lot to do with how willing I would be to watch more of the show. But I have done this successfully before, with say, the LotR movies. I was a big fan of Tolkien's books and I remember how nervous I had been in the theatre when Fellowship came out; wringing my hands, I sat there and HOPED they wouldn't "mess up." And in short, they didn't. I love the LotR movies, despite the cuts they made (watch the extended versions, much better), despite the dumbing down of a particular character, despite deletion of favorite lines.
So why don't I like Bleach? For one thing, its flow is all wrong. The anime changes these little details that don't make any sense, and instead messes up the movement of the action. As an example, we can look at the scene in episode 3 where Inoue's brother attacks both her and Tatsuki. It takes forever until they get to the hollow-brother's arm sticking out from the teddy bear and through Orihime. In the meantime they get to hear this annoying grating noise made by said hollow which is probably supposed to build up suspense but is just...well, annoying. Besides it being annoying, it doesn't make much sense, because neither Inoue nor Tatsuki have very high spiritual powers at this point. They do have a little, which might be the logic behind their hearing the initial sound made by the hollow (in the manga), but I'm not sure how it is that they can hear the noises continuously or even why the hollow is MAKING so much noise when it seems to move rather soundlessly later. Then right before Tatsuki is attacked, she notices the hollow's shadow. What? The hollow HAS no shadow, it's a soul! Having inconsistencies like this just makes the show look messy and ill-thought out.
And why, in the name of good anime, does Tatsuki not attempt to CRAWL AWAY when the hollow is hovering over her? In the manga this is prevented by the hollow immediately strangling her. In the anime they inexplicably decide to have said hollow just kind of hanging out, with Tatsuki using a hand to push at him. If she can spend all that time pushing (the hollow isn't even crushing her, I saw her legs exposed), she can turn around and try to move. She might not get very far, sure, but that's not the point. Tatsuki's this girl of action and she's a martial arts 2nd degree black belt. In this situation, she should be trying, to the best of her ability, to get the heck out of there. One might attempt an explanation of this by saying that she is too weak to move, but then she ought to be even weaker after the hollow finally decides he ought to do some strangling. Instead, Tatsuki has the strength to start screaming, waving her arms wildly, and scrambling against the wall. She doesn't even faint immediately afterwards, she just sort of topples over in the middle of Orihime and her brother the hollow's conversation. It was extremely distracting, and made me laugh in a serious moment, which is never a good idea. There was also this scene later on, where we flashed back and forth between Ichigo, the hollow, Ichigo, the hollow, Ichigo, the hollow...over and over, with these speed lines in the back. After that remarkable display of technological advancement, we have Rukia with the comment, "Why are you hesitating??" Oh, was that what Ichigo was doing? I thought he was just looking constipated.
Not to mention, I'm not at all certain how I feel about the "extra" explanation the anime producers decided to stick in. I imagine all this "every hollow attack is YOUR fault, Ichigo!!!" is supposed to lead up to the hollow attack which really WAS his fault (in his eyes), namely the death of his mother, but it oversimplifies the story, making it campy instead of powerful. This particular arc is more for Orihime than for Ichigo, and the brother became a hollow because he was couldn't let go of her, not because there was some conspiracy theory to "Kill Ichigo and make him OURS" (even if this turns out to be the case later). But apparently having more than one extremely major character is too much for the producers, and everything must revolve around Ichigo. The anime goes so far as to have Rukia say something utterly ridiculous, that is, "Because his soul became a hollow when it failed to eat you, it should seek out the person it loved most in life..." Nooo, Rukia, he became a hollow because he was a protective brother who loved his sister too much to accept that she would grow up and make new friends. Later she keeps making the observation that he didn't become a hollow of his own free will, so *gasp* SOMEONE ELSE must have done it! To kill Ichigo, no less! Everyone is just suddenly after him! One wonders how he managed to survive for 15 years!
First of all, NO ONE becomes a hollow of his own free will. Kubo-sensei is playing off an old folk belief that benign ghosts who have unfinished business, who refuse to cross over, will eventually become increasingly malicious and evil. Souls who start out evil (like the serial killer in the parakeet story) obviously don't have far to go before this happens. Hence in his story, all the hollows you encounter were originally souls who simply had too many ties, too many regrets, in the world of the living. The anime cuts out nearly the entire explanation of this idea, shifts the emphasis to Ichigo (Orihime's brother became a hollow because other hollows who wanted Ichigo dead turned him into one, not because he loved Orihime too much), and thus severely lessens Orihime's role. She becomes like, this afterthought. "Oh dang, I couldn't eat Ichigo, the smorgasbord of hollows. I'm so mad now! Let's go attack my sister instead!" Cutting out the fact that Orihime's bro was also mad at Ichigo because Orihime had a crush on the latter was also an attempt, in my view, to pound into our heads that "There is a big conspiracy! Hollows, they're after Ichigo!" Why? Because this erases the personal motives behind the attack on Ichigo, leaving behind only our red-headed hero's enormous spiritual power as the driving force for the hollow.
Perhaps because they are so focused on Ichigo and his mad powerz, or perhaps because they just don't like her, Orihime's personality suffers. Part of what makes her so cool is her general...well, kookiness. You might argue that they cut out the hilarious exchange between Tatsuki and Orihime, plus the latter's ensuing daydream of a date in the park, in the interests of time, but I know they put in Ishida's quirky little sewing sequence in later episdoes. Ishida's allowed his quirks, why not Orihime? Maybe it's because when Ishida was introduced, there had been less action. But come on, the stupid fight scene in episode 3 didn't have to be that long. It wasn't even particularly cool. They could've stopped making random melodramatic pauses so much or shortened the amount of time Orihime and Tatsuki spent listening to the really annoying noise, or quit flashing shots of constipated-looking Ichigo interspersed with ugly hollow. Instead the girls' conversation, extremely telling of each of their characters, was cut to make room for a mediocre action scene which didn't need the extra time, because the actual physical fight wasn't the main point in this story. Tatsuki and Orihime wind up having this absolutely insipid conversation about how oh-so-yummy their dinner was. It sounded like a freakin' language exercise in my beginning level Japanese class, for crying out loud.
There was also no point in Rukia arriving as early as she did. I don't know why the anime bothered, because it messed things up. In the manga, the fight stayed more or less in Orihime's house, with Ichigo being knocked outside once. Why the anime chose to move the whole darned stupid fight outside is beyond me. Was the furniture too valuable to be ruined or something? Whatever their reasons, this move meant that the climax of the fight, when Orihime didn't move out of the way of her brother's attack, actually happened outside. In other words, Orihime had to jump out her window (or the big gaping hole in her wall) and rush down to where Ichigo and her brother were, just so she could get bitten. This makes no sense because 1. she can't possibly move that fast, and 2. Why the heck didn't Rukia stop her? Rukia is stronger, more experienced, and can't possibly want Orihime to get hurt. Since the anime had Rukia arrive early, and in fact had her standing right next to Orihime the whole time, why didn't she grab the girl and stop her from attempting something which seemed suicidal?
At this point the anime felt the need to explain more unnecessary things. It wasn't obvious enough to the stupid audience, they felt, that the brother's soul stayed around because he couldn't bear to leave his sister (maybe they realized that they confused that issue with the whole "kill Ichigo conspiracy" thing). No, we are so dumb that we need an even MORE concrete reason. Orihime has to actually say to her brother right before he died, that he "can't leave her." Because apparently if she hadn't said those magic words, he would've just happily gone off to paradise without another care in the world. Yeah, ok.
A credit to the show is that I really like the seiyuu, the art seems pretty consistent (but then I only saw 3 episodes), and the songs are pretty cool. I'm partial to the opening, though I'm not too hot on the sequence. For one thing, the animators' favorite shot of Ichigo is one where he's making the weirdest scowl EVER. It's supposed to look cool, but it just looks...unflattering. In addition, they keep changing the way they draw Orihime, which is a shame, because she's very pretty. Not to mention that, for some strange reason, they keep downplaying her. Why do we see Chad's cool arm and Ishida's awesome bow (biased toward bows and arrows XD), but nothing of Orihime's little flying buddies? Why, when there's the neat section where Chad, Ichigo, Ishida, and Rukia are all standing in a circle, is Orihime not included? She IS part of the whole "Team Save Rukia," the last time I checked, and she totally rocks. The opening sequence gives us no indication of this, leaving casual viewers with the impression that she fills the generic airhead slot.
Well, I'm willing give this show the benefit of the doubt because I really like Bleach. A few more episodes later and I might change my mind, but for now... Come on, anime producers, you can do better than this.
Ugh. Yeah, ok. I'm going to give my candid and unfortunately, rather negative review of the anime adaptation of Bleach. First impressions determine whether or not someone would want to continue on with a particular series, and in this aspect, the Bleach anime really falls short. After seeing three episodes, I don't particularly want to see any more. And why?
Well, I realize and admit that a lot of it stems from the fact that I am first and foremost a manga reader. The switch from one medium into another is always jarring, and how jarring it is for me personally has a lot to do with how willing I would be to watch more of the show. But I have done this successfully before, with say, the LotR movies. I was a big fan of Tolkien's books and I remember how nervous I had been in the theatre when Fellowship came out; wringing my hands, I sat there and HOPED they wouldn't "mess up." And in short, they didn't. I love the LotR movies, despite the cuts they made (watch the extended versions, much better), despite the dumbing down of a particular character, despite deletion of favorite lines.
So why don't I like Bleach? For one thing, its flow is all wrong. The anime changes these little details that don't make any sense, and instead messes up the movement of the action. As an example, we can look at the scene in episode 3 where Inoue's brother attacks both her and Tatsuki. It takes forever until they get to the hollow-brother's arm sticking out from the teddy bear and through Orihime. In the meantime they get to hear this annoying grating noise made by said hollow which is probably supposed to build up suspense but is just...well, annoying. Besides it being annoying, it doesn't make much sense, because neither Inoue nor Tatsuki have very high spiritual powers at this point. They do have a little, which might be the logic behind their hearing the initial sound made by the hollow (in the manga), but I'm not sure how it is that they can hear the noises continuously or even why the hollow is MAKING so much noise when it seems to move rather soundlessly later. Then right before Tatsuki is attacked, she notices the hollow's shadow. What? The hollow HAS no shadow, it's a soul! Having inconsistencies like this just makes the show look messy and ill-thought out.
And why, in the name of good anime, does Tatsuki not attempt to CRAWL AWAY when the hollow is hovering over her? In the manga this is prevented by the hollow immediately strangling her. In the anime they inexplicably decide to have said hollow just kind of hanging out, with Tatsuki using a hand to push at him. If she can spend all that time pushing (the hollow isn't even crushing her, I saw her legs exposed), she can turn around and try to move. She might not get very far, sure, but that's not the point. Tatsuki's this girl of action and she's a martial arts 2nd degree black belt. In this situation, she should be trying, to the best of her ability, to get the heck out of there. One might attempt an explanation of this by saying that she is too weak to move, but then she ought to be even weaker after the hollow finally decides he ought to do some strangling. Instead, Tatsuki has the strength to start screaming, waving her arms wildly, and scrambling against the wall. She doesn't even faint immediately afterwards, she just sort of topples over in the middle of Orihime and her brother the hollow's conversation. It was extremely distracting, and made me laugh in a serious moment, which is never a good idea. There was also this scene later on, where we flashed back and forth between Ichigo, the hollow, Ichigo, the hollow, Ichigo, the hollow...over and over, with these speed lines in the back. After that remarkable display of technological advancement, we have Rukia with the comment, "Why are you hesitating??" Oh, was that what Ichigo was doing? I thought he was just looking constipated.
Not to mention, I'm not at all certain how I feel about the "extra" explanation the anime producers decided to stick in. I imagine all this "every hollow attack is YOUR fault, Ichigo!!!" is supposed to lead up to the hollow attack which really WAS his fault (in his eyes), namely the death of his mother, but it oversimplifies the story, making it campy instead of powerful. This particular arc is more for Orihime than for Ichigo, and the brother became a hollow because he was couldn't let go of her, not because there was some conspiracy theory to "Kill Ichigo and make him OURS" (even if this turns out to be the case later). But apparently having more than one extremely major character is too much for the producers, and everything must revolve around Ichigo. The anime goes so far as to have Rukia say something utterly ridiculous, that is, "Because his soul became a hollow when it failed to eat you, it should seek out the person it loved most in life..." Nooo, Rukia, he became a hollow because he was a protective brother who loved his sister too much to accept that she would grow up and make new friends. Later she keeps making the observation that he didn't become a hollow of his own free will, so *gasp* SOMEONE ELSE must have done it! To kill Ichigo, no less! Everyone is just suddenly after him! One wonders how he managed to survive for 15 years!
First of all, NO ONE becomes a hollow of his own free will. Kubo-sensei is playing off an old folk belief that benign ghosts who have unfinished business, who refuse to cross over, will eventually become increasingly malicious and evil. Souls who start out evil (like the serial killer in the parakeet story) obviously don't have far to go before this happens. Hence in his story, all the hollows you encounter were originally souls who simply had too many ties, too many regrets, in the world of the living. The anime cuts out nearly the entire explanation of this idea, shifts the emphasis to Ichigo (Orihime's brother became a hollow because other hollows who wanted Ichigo dead turned him into one, not because he loved Orihime too much), and thus severely lessens Orihime's role. She becomes like, this afterthought. "Oh dang, I couldn't eat Ichigo, the smorgasbord of hollows. I'm so mad now! Let's go attack my sister instead!" Cutting out the fact that Orihime's bro was also mad at Ichigo because Orihime had a crush on the latter was also an attempt, in my view, to pound into our heads that "There is a big conspiracy! Hollows, they're after Ichigo!" Why? Because this erases the personal motives behind the attack on Ichigo, leaving behind only our red-headed hero's enormous spiritual power as the driving force for the hollow.
Perhaps because they are so focused on Ichigo and his mad powerz, or perhaps because they just don't like her, Orihime's personality suffers. Part of what makes her so cool is her general...well, kookiness. You might argue that they cut out the hilarious exchange between Tatsuki and Orihime, plus the latter's ensuing daydream of a date in the park, in the interests of time, but I know they put in Ishida's quirky little sewing sequence in later episdoes. Ishida's allowed his quirks, why not Orihime? Maybe it's because when Ishida was introduced, there had been less action. But come on, the stupid fight scene in episode 3 didn't have to be that long. It wasn't even particularly cool. They could've stopped making random melodramatic pauses so much or shortened the amount of time Orihime and Tatsuki spent listening to the really annoying noise, or quit flashing shots of constipated-looking Ichigo interspersed with ugly hollow. Instead the girls' conversation, extremely telling of each of their characters, was cut to make room for a mediocre action scene which didn't need the extra time, because the actual physical fight wasn't the main point in this story. Tatsuki and Orihime wind up having this absolutely insipid conversation about how oh-so-yummy their dinner was. It sounded like a freakin' language exercise in my beginning level Japanese class, for crying out loud.
There was also no point in Rukia arriving as early as she did. I don't know why the anime bothered, because it messed things up. In the manga, the fight stayed more or less in Orihime's house, with Ichigo being knocked outside once. Why the anime chose to move the whole darned stupid fight outside is beyond me. Was the furniture too valuable to be ruined or something? Whatever their reasons, this move meant that the climax of the fight, when Orihime didn't move out of the way of her brother's attack, actually happened outside. In other words, Orihime had to jump out her window (or the big gaping hole in her wall) and rush down to where Ichigo and her brother were, just so she could get bitten. This makes no sense because 1. she can't possibly move that fast, and 2. Why the heck didn't Rukia stop her? Rukia is stronger, more experienced, and can't possibly want Orihime to get hurt. Since the anime had Rukia arrive early, and in fact had her standing right next to Orihime the whole time, why didn't she grab the girl and stop her from attempting something which seemed suicidal?
At this point the anime felt the need to explain more unnecessary things. It wasn't obvious enough to the stupid audience, they felt, that the brother's soul stayed around because he couldn't bear to leave his sister (maybe they realized that they confused that issue with the whole "kill Ichigo conspiracy" thing). No, we are so dumb that we need an even MORE concrete reason. Orihime has to actually say to her brother right before he died, that he "can't leave her." Because apparently if she hadn't said those magic words, he would've just happily gone off to paradise without another care in the world. Yeah, ok.
A credit to the show is that I really like the seiyuu, the art seems pretty consistent (but then I only saw 3 episodes), and the songs are pretty cool. I'm partial to the opening, though I'm not too hot on the sequence. For one thing, the animators' favorite shot of Ichigo is one where he's making the weirdest scowl EVER. It's supposed to look cool, but it just looks...unflattering. In addition, they keep changing the way they draw Orihime, which is a shame, because she's very pretty. Not to mention that, for some strange reason, they keep downplaying her. Why do we see Chad's cool arm and Ishida's awesome bow (biased toward bows and arrows XD), but nothing of Orihime's little flying buddies? Why, when there's the neat section where Chad, Ichigo, Ishida, and Rukia are all standing in a circle, is Orihime not included? She IS part of the whole "Team Save Rukia," the last time I checked, and she totally rocks. The opening sequence gives us no indication of this, leaving casual viewers with the impression that she fills the generic airhead slot.
Well, I'm willing give this show the benefit of the doubt because I really like Bleach. A few more episodes later and I might change my mind, but for now... Come on, anime producers, you can do better than this.
posted by Yayoi @ 1/14/2005 06:14:00 PM
