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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bleach - The Most Popular Manga of the Year!, 11 May 2006
For those of you who have absolutely no idea what Bleach is about, here is a short synopsis for you:
Ichigo Kurosaki, aged 15, is just a normal high school kid. There's just one difference. He can see, touch, and talk to ghosts. He hates this gift, because the ghosts sense his high spiritual power and are drawn to him. However, its not just harmless 'whole' spirits who are after him. There is another type of ghost, called a 'Hollow', which was previously a whole spirit but since becoming a Hollow has no control over its burning desire for human souls. Its favourite meal - high spiritual energy people, and Soul Reapers.
Rukia Kuchiki is a soul reaper, who is a heck of a lot older than Ichigo. She fights and cleanses the souls of Hollows, sending them to 'heaven' or Soul Society (unless they sinned in their life on Earth, in which case they're off to hell :P). She also sends normal 'whole' spirits to Soul Society - in other words, makes them pass on.
By chance encounter, these two are faced with a Hollow, who is after Ichigo and his family. Filled with rage, Ichigo blindly tries to trade himself for his family, to save them. However, Rukia gets caught in the crossfire, and is injured badly. She cannot defeat the Hollow. Having realized Ichigo's gift, she informs him the only way he can save his family, is to become a Soul Reaper.
This is a story of Ichigo, part-time Soul Reaper and Rukia, his demoted minion. Together, they face Hollows, and other Soul Reapers.
Thats the blurb. Here's what I thought of the first manga.
Having seen the anime first, I found it difficult to adjust to the slightly different drawing style of the manga. But because I love the story so much, I was willing to compromise, and actually found the manga far more funny than the anime (the little quirky comments did it for me). There are some things you miss out when you're reading the manga, for example the absurdly hilarious voices of Ichigo's father and Kon, the 'mod-soul'. The scanlation of this manga is also quite poor in terms of sound effects, as the words tend to blend into the background, and you can miss the humour. HOWEVER, the overall rating is four stars because of the fantastic wit and originality of the characters, and the brilliant story line.
Hoping this review helped you, ja ne!
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bleach - a must have for even non-manga readers!, 24 Sep 2005
Ichigo is unlike other high school students - he can see spirits. He never really saw the ghosts as dangerous until the day a hollow attacked his family.
The hollow, in search of Ichigo's life force, is being chased by Rukia, a Soul Reaper, who is trying to release the hollow into Hell with her samurai sword. Surprised that Ichigo can see her and the hollow, Rukia is thrown by the hellhound and injured so badly she can't take it on herself. So she channels her powers to gain Ichigo's assistance. What she didn't expect was his life force being so powerful that it would absorb all of her samurai, soul reaper powers.
For the rest of this volume, Rukia is subjected to a life as a mortal until her powers return to her. But until then, Ichigo remains the only Soul Reaper in the realm of the living to release the souls of the hollows attacking humans. As Ichigo trains for his fate as a Soul Reaper by his newly - and yet begrudgingly unwelcome - found friend, Rukia, he attempts to save his family, friends and strangers from the hollows who consume humans to ease their pain. Ichigo's also got himself a new mobile phone in hand - it texts exact locations of the hollows he must slay, making his life fast paced as he tries to balance being a kid and saving the lives of the innocent.
Written by Kubo Tite, Bleach is a fascinating story - but it isn't necessarily about demons and spirits. It's about where we go when life forces us down a path we didn't choose nor expect to find. It's about accepting destiny and embracing the fate handed to us - and the people we meet along the way. And maybe, just maybe, down that path we might discover how to act on the things we've always wanted - and have never had the guts to do. In the end we may realise what and who is truly important to us.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brillint shonen manga, 5 Jul 2007
I got this a couple of years ago as a christmas present from my aunt, and while I thought it looked cool I never actually could be bothered to read it at the time. Then a few weeks ago I started reading about it on Amazon and I thought it sounded really good. I was all ready to buy until I remembered that I already had it, and after an hour of looking I found it in a box in the living room.
I started reading it straight away and after only a couple of pages I was totally hooked. I finished the whole thing in one go and then read it again soon after.
The characters are all fantastically drawn and thought out, even if they are your standard shonen characters, and the dialouge is always clever and seriously funny. There were dozens of times I just burst out laughing because of something someone said or the brilliant way Tite has animated the characters. But it's not all funny and there is plenty of really great storytelling as well as comedy. I think after this first volume my favourite character is definitely Rukia Kuchiki. She is very cool.
The story of Bleach never gets too confusing and you will never find yourself wondering what is actually going on. Also, this is read right to left instead of left to right which I think is much better. It makes it closer to how it should be and learning to read right to left is easy.
This is a manga you can't do without. Buy it right now. That's an order.
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