Sword wielding ghosts. Hell yeah. A popular Japanese concept seen in anime is the idea of the Shinigami, the death god, a supernatural being similar to the grim reaper. It is this idea that the anime Bleach focuses on. Beginning in 2004, it is nearing the end of its fifteenth season, with two hundred and seventy eight episodes. Again coming from the popular manga, this show has rocketed into popularity leading to games, movies, card games and even a musical. Lets dig into Bleach, episode one, to find out what all the fuss is about.
The first episode annoys me from the get go. It makes the simple mistake of starting with the title sequence, shooting the characters of the show in my face before explaining anything. I don’t care yet. It just adds too many questions before the show even starts. Who are these people, what are they doing, where are we, why the fuck did the stuffed animal just scream in pain and why does this title sequence start with a ASS SHOT of the main character? Title sequences are a BAD IDEA to start a first episode. The majority of these characters aren’t even in this episode, so get your shit together anime. After that bad start, the show picks up straightaway, as if to apologise. As two monsters crash down, only to become invisible, we’re hit with music that just tells you something awesome is about to occur. At the same time, a three line poem is comes along the screen, ‘We have no form, therefore we fear it. And because we are formless, we revere it. Thus, we are slain’. A black butterfly flies in front of the moon. We cut to a woman who stands on a pole of great height with perfect balance, and the moon behind her. She glides across the sky with grace, sensing the monsters arrival. This feels epic. It has a sense of mystery that catches my attention and makes me genuinely interested to continue. Why the hell wouldn’t you open with this instead of a prolonged title sequence? Why?
We’re then introduced to the protagonist of the show. He beats the bejebus out of five skateboarding punks, punishing them for knocking over flowers that were a tribute to a child that recently died. This is alot better of an introduction than Naruto defiling public property. We see that our hero can see and speak with the dead, as he helps the ghost girl for whom the tribute was for. He introduces himself in an internal monologue, that his name is Kurosaki Ichigo, a high school freshman whose family own a clinic and that he sees dead people. I adore the introduction to his family, for as he returns home, he is met with a kick to the face for being late. He has a comical battle with his father, who fights in the same over the top manner, so one assumes that our hero has learned to fight through such encounters. Since his mother is dead, the youngest sister, Yuzu, has taken the role of caregiver and his second younger sister, Karin, plays the steady headed, but cold, member of the family. Karin can also see the dead, unlike her sister or father, so already there are questions about the mother. Does this ability to see the dead come from her and if so, how and why? Again, the show elevates my interest.
And so we come to the first real piece of action in the anime. As an invisible monster tears through the city, we see the young ghost from before fleeing from it. Now however, we can see the beast, this bug like thing with a white mask that smiles eerily. Again our hero looks to help the young girl, running in the direction of the beast. As it rushes to attack our hero, a black butterfly slowly passes in front of him. We again cut to the female shinigami, who now floats between the great beast and our hero. With one stroke of her blade she slashes its face and with a second she chops it down the center. It becomes apparent that nobody else saw either the monster or the woman, nobody except for Ichigo. The eloquence and precession of the fight is awesome, and the sudden departure of the mysterious woman makes her an intriguing enigma.
We continue onwards to later that day, as our hero lies on his bed, wondering what the hell just happened. Now, the show makes some pretty bad decisions, which confuse and annoy me beyond belief. The mysterious woman decides to enter his bedroom through the window, searching for another monster, believing that our protagonist cannot see her. She ignores him, grasping her sword and saying ‘it is near’. Why in the name of God is she in the room. It’s pretty obvious the monster’s not there and the room isn’t a lookout point as it’s INDOORS and her back is to the window. If she’s sensing its spiritual energy, surely the roof would be a better damn location. It has nothing to do with our hero, as she is surprised when he interacts with her. Our hero, who’s not the smartest tool in the box, decides to kick over the sword wielding figure to get its attention. Not enjoying being attacked, she uses magic to subdue him, binding him into an uncomfortable position. For some reason the shinigami, Rukia, feels compelled to give the entire death god 101 introduction. Basically, death gods kill bad souls called ‘Hollows’ and send good souls to heaven. Why, because it’s their purpose I guess. To kill ANY credibility that she once had, the shinigami produces crude bunny drawings to explain the situation. She proceeds to show the maturity of a five year old by drawing a moustache on the hero, even after saying she has lived five times longer than him. The cool mysterious enigma from before is gone now, replaced by this odd, immature and rather short, crackpot.
Again apologising for that brief moment of nonsensical bullshit, we get a dramatic fight to conclude the episode. A hollow appears and attacks the protagonist family. It’s revealed that the monsters have been seeking out Ichigo because he’s special, having alot of spiritual energy. The sight of his family in danger leads our hero to break the magical restraints and face the monster head on. With what you may ask? A chair… we’ve apparently gone to WWE now. The shit is knocked out of him as he’s punched into next week, his chair strategy amazingly failing. Again showing his heroic nature, Ichigo attempts to sacrifice himself to make the hollow leave. Unfortunately this is a stupid idea, for the beast’ appetite is never satisfied. Rukia puts herself between the hollows attack and Ichigo, which almost kills her. She gives him an opportunity to save everyone, to become a shinigami, by thrusting her sword through his chest. Damn, who the hell discovered that could be done? And so, the hero is created and a freakin awesome battle ensues. Our hero obtains a gigantic sword, one to match any final fantasy weapon. He proceeds to remove the hollows arm and leg, cutting through them like butter. As he does, Rukia commentates how freakin awesome Ichigo is and that she’s never seen anything like it before. As he slices it down the center with ease, the triumphant music that accompanies it blows me away. Writing flashes across the screen, summarising our character, ending with a black screen with red writing saying that he is now a ‘Death God’.
That’s Bleach, episode one, and what an episode it was. Zigzagging from interesting epics to cringingly odd bits, overall it was good. With a rocky start, the first episode does what it should, introducing us to the valiant protagonist. Grim reapers with swords fighting soul eating monsters is quite an interesting premise, and one accomplished very well here. One thing in particular that confuses me is the name. The show is very specific in its description of Ichigo, saying he has orange hair, so the name wouldn’t refer to that. There’s no real reference to bleach in any accompanying episodes, so I’m waiting for the inevitable big bad to have bleach blonde hair, though that would be silly. The accompanying few episodes worried me, that they might get caught in a rut, repeating the same pattern again and again of hollow appears and Ichigo beats it. There is no need to be concerned about that. One of the things I love about anime is the massive story arches, and the events of this episode lead to great conspiracies spanning over all the accompanying seasons. While I detest having to wait for the answers to most of these questions, this fact shows how great the show is. The action is amazing, the fighting is fast paced with cool and unusual abilities as the show progresses. Unfortunately the hero, as so often in anime, gets his ass whooped most battles, coming back at the end to defeat his enemy in a surprising turn of events. The music is great, to the extent that I almost bob my head up and down during the fights. This and the visuals make the fights damn intriguing and make the show worth keeping an eye out for. This is one of the anime greats and I would definitely recommend Bleach.
It is coming.
