Worth Getting Back Into The Bleach Manga?

Shirokurou

New member
Mar 8, 2010
1,039
0
0
Starbird said:
Title.

I didn't much care for the series at first, but the Soul Society arc was decent and the Aizen/Arrancar arc was gold from start to finish.

Then things started to go loopy in the Fullbring arc (well, it started in the previous arc) and I wasn't really motivated to get back into it after finishing that.

The big problem for me was both zero character development and the tendency for the main character to constantly and suddenly pull new powers directly out of his ass, and then seemingly forget them or never use them again.

It really felt to me like the author was completely sick of the series and just didn't know how to end it.

So...have things been wrapped up yet? Is the current (Quincy, I believe) arc any good?
It's the Fullbringer all over again and much worse.
1. Introduce stupidly strong enemy.
2. Beat him in some way.
3. Character dies and leaves.

If you like how Ulquiorra and Grimmjow were built-up in the Arrancar/Hueco Mundo arc...there is none of that left.

The whole Sternritter (our new Espada) are pretty much Barragan's Fraccion - they get quickly introduced and they quickly die.

I'm sticking with manga out of sheer habit and masochism.
 

The Wykydtron

"Emotions are very important!"
Sep 23, 2010
5,458
0
0
LarsInCharge said:
The Wykydtron said:
Yeah the end of the Aizen arc and the first few issues of the next arc made me jump ship from Bleach ages ago. It was clear after the way Ichigo pulled random OP powers out of nowhere to beat the most overpowered villain ever created in one hit was a sign that the writing quality had divebombed. Seriously, he built Aizen to be so unkillable that no matter how he was defeated it would look like a total copout because there was no reasonable way to beat him.

He could have ended it with the Aizen arc, he really could. Massive villain defeated and everyone gets on with their lives with no loose plot threads hanging.
At the same time, he did it fairly well. Not only did Ichigo not win with the 11th hour superpower, the only person who honestly COULD win the fight (Urahara) did. It took some bizarre leaps of faith and logic for it to work, but it worked.

Now if he had ended it there, I could have called Bleach a decent series. But the dragging out has been tiresome.

Same with Kishimoto. If the Naruto series had ended with the Pain arc, I could have remembered it fondly. But no. "MIND CONTROL LASER IN THE MOON" and everything that followed...
Mind control lazer in the Moon... What happened to Naruto after I jumped ship around issue 500 dare I ask? I'm guess I must just be good at naturally realising that a plot is going amazingly downhill so I jump ship earlier than most other people. I saw the "second ninja war" arc starting and just left it. I saw 500 issues and not only no end in sight, but a perfectly good ending was missed intentionally for a totally new arc. Naruto is nearing 700 issues now, dear god.

I wish more manga writers started out with a set number of issues in mind instead of going "ah fuck it, i'll see where it goes" like the two guys who wrote Death Note explicitly said they wanted no more than a little over 100 issues (think it ended up on 108?) and how my all time favourite The World God Only Knows ended exactly when it needed to with perfect closure and actually makes sense.

Gotta give it to the guy, Wakaki Tamiki knew that the main character Keima carried the entire weight of the series on his own and making sure he didn't compromise on his character was the most important thing to do and he managed it even over 250+ issues. Must be hard to keep an eye on what exactly makes your series good over such time I suppose

[sub][sub]*cough*NarutoBleach*cough*[/sub][/sub]
 

LarsInCharge

New member
Sep 9, 2014
123
0
0
The Wykydtron said:
LarsInCharge said:
The Wykydtron said:
Yeah the end of the Aizen arc and the first few issues of the next arc made me jump ship from Bleach ages ago. It was clear after the way Ichigo pulled random OP powers out of nowhere to beat the most overpowered villain ever created in one hit was a sign that the writing quality had divebombed. Seriously, he built Aizen to be so unkillable that no matter how he was defeated it would look like a total copout because there was no reasonable way to beat him.

He could have ended it with the Aizen arc, he really could. Massive villain defeated and everyone gets on with their lives with no loose plot threads hanging.
At the same time, he did it fairly well. Not only did Ichigo not win with the 11th hour superpower, the only person who honestly COULD win the fight (Urahara) did. It took some bizarre leaps of faith and logic for it to work, but it worked.

Now if he had ended it there, I could have called Bleach a decent series. But the dragging out has been tiresome.

Same with Kishimoto. If the Naruto series had ended with the Pain arc, I could have remembered it fondly. But no. "MIND CONTROL LASER IN THE MOON" and everything that followed...
Mind control lazer in the Moon... What happened to Naruto after I jumped ship around issue 500 dare I ask? I'm guess I must just be good at naturally realising that a plot is going amazingly downhill so I jump ship earlier than most other people. I saw the "second ninja war" arc starting and just left it. I saw 500 issues and not only no end in sight, but a perfectly good ending was missed intentionally for a totally new arc. Naruto is nearing 700 issues now, dear god.

I wish more manga writers started out with a set number of issues in mind instead of going "ah fuck it, i'll see where it goes" like the two guys who wrote Death Note explicitly said they wanted no more than a little over 100 issues (think it ended up on 108?) and how my all time favourite The World God Only Knows ended exactly when it needed to with perfect closure and actually makes sense.

Gotta give it to the guy, Wakaki Tamiki knew that the main character Keima carried the entire weight of the series on his own and making sure he didn't compromise on his character was the most important thing to do and he managed it even over 250+ issues. Must be hard to keep an eye on what exactly makes your series good over such time I suppose

[sub][sub]*cough*NarutoBleach*cough*[/sub][/sub]
Mind Control Laser in the Moon is how my group of friends and I make fun of Madara (Tobi, Obito)'s plan of casting Tsukuyomi on the moon so that it reflects over the entire planet, turning everyone into happy, healthy mind control slaves who don't think about war because they don't think. Ignoring all of the aspects of why this plan makes ZERO F--KING SENSE, the arc also featured Sasuke being improbably awesome because "Sasuke Shippuden", so everyone just resigned themselves to "It could have been a contender".
 

Queen Michael

has read 4,010 manga books
Jun 9, 2009
10,400
0
0
LarsInCharge said:
this plan makes ZERO F--KING SENSE


And he's not the only one with a plan that makes no sense, fucking or otherwise. Take Itachi's plan concerning Sasuke... Ugh. So damn far-fetched.

I hate the fact that these two horrible series get so much sales just from people watching/reading them in order to see how it ends, when there are genuinely good series out there that don't get the same sales.
 

sextus the crazy

New member
Oct 15, 2011
2,348
0
0
Starbird said:
Monster...never heard of it. I am looking for a good long manga to get my teeth into though - care to elaborate?
Monster is a mystery/ psychological thriller manga that's 18 volumes long.

Dr. Kenzo Tenma is a young Japanese doctor, working at Eisler Memorial Hospital in Dusseldorf in 1986. An accomplished brain surgeon, he seems to have everything: a promotion in the offing; the favor of the hospital's director, Udo Heinemann; and Heinemann's daughter Eva as his fiancee. However, Tenma is increasingly dissatisfied with the political bias of the hospital in treating patients, and seizes the chance to change things after a massacre brings fraternal twins Johan and Anna Liebert into the hospital. Tenma, going by his ethics as a doctor, decides to operate on Johan instead of the mayor of Dusseldorf, who arrived later. Johan is saved, but Mayor Roedecker dies. Tenma loses his social standing (and Eva) as a result, but comforts himself by believing he did the right thing and despairs of ever achieving his earlier high goals. However, Director Heinemann and the other doctors in Tenma's way are mysteriously murdered, and both children disappear from the hospital soon afterwards. The police suspect Tenma, since he benefits from the unfortunate turn of events; however, they have no evidence and can only question him.

Nine years later, Tenma is Chief of Surgery at Eisler Memorial. A patient of his, being questioned in connection with the murder of middle-aged couples across Germany, is murdered in front of his eyes, and the killer is revealed to be Johan Liebert, the child who disappeared. Tenma tells all to the police, but they find no trace of anyone named Johan Liebert, and Tenma soon becomes the lead suspect. Distraught that what he believed was the right thing has actually led to so much misery, Tenma begins to track down Johan, wanting to hunt the Monster down as atonement for his fatal mistake.

It's got a very distinct, but realistic art-style and focuses on mystery and character over fighting (this is not to say the series is boring, but it is still a slow-burn). There was an anime adaption (with a dub). The Writer, Naoki Urasawa, also wrote the series 20th century boys, which is also very good, especially if you like Monster.
 

Random Argument Man

New member
May 21, 2008
6,011
0
0
The last arc is so much of clusterfuck. Everything is thrown at you fast. There's a lot of characters that die and you lose track. Often, they die off-screen. Some characters, you're not sure if they're still alive or they are dead.

It pretty confusing. Bleach loss its peak a long time ago.
 

madwarper

New member
Mar 17, 2011
1,841
0
0
sextus the crazy said:
Or, the TL;DR version of the plot: It's the Fugitive in post-Cold War Europe.

But, if you like Monster, I'd recommend reading Pluto (by the same author), which is an adaptation of Atro Boy's "The Greatest Robot on Earth" arc.
 

sextus the crazy

New member
Oct 15, 2011
2,348
0
0
madwarper said:
sextus the crazy said:
Or, the TL;DR version of the plot: It's the Fugitive in post-Cold War Europe.
I'll assume it's the TV series/ 1993 Harrison Ford movie you're referencing, given the large number of works with that title. But yeah, that's pretty accurate.
 

Jux

Hmm
Sep 2, 2012
868
4
23
Starbird said:
Thanks for the advice. Man...I need another good manga to get my teeth into. Current on One Piece and waiting for Naruto to end for me to read the final few volumes. Attack on Titan does *not* appeal.
Apocalypse no Toride, Vagabond, Vinland, Tower of God are some of the ones I'm following right now. Tower of God seems to meander at times, but I really like the art style.
 

Super Cyborg

New member
Jul 25, 2014
474
0
0
Starbird said:
Title.

I didn't much care for the series at first, but the Soul Society arc was decent and the Aizen/Arrancar arc was gold from start to finish.

Then things started to go loopy in the Fullbring arc (well, it started in the previous arc) and I wasn't really motivated to get back into it after finishing that.

The big problem for me was both zero character development and the tendency for the main character to constantly and suddenly pull new powers directly out of his ass, and then seemingly forget them or never use them again.

It really felt to me like the author was completely sick of the series and just didn't know how to end it.

So...have things been wrapped up yet? Is the current (Quincy, I believe) arc any good?
You seem to be one of the minority that found all the Aizen stuff to be great, so you might like the current stuff. It depends on what you liked about the Aizen stuff.

I always get surprised when people talk about Bleach in a positive light after a certain point into the Arrancar stuff. Everything through Soul Society was Grade A stuff, then over time it just got really bad. I won't get into the reasons that I despise what it became, since I have a different place I discuss that stuff.

All that I will say is that instead of worrying about Bleach, read One Piece or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, as both are leagues above Bleach. That's assuming you don't mind reading long series, which both are ongoing and have over 700 chapters each.
 

Starbird

New member
Sep 30, 2012
710
0
0
Queen Michael said:
LarsInCharge said:
this plan makes ZERO F--KING SENSE


And he's not the only one with a plan that makes no sense, fucking or otherwise. Take Itachi's plan concerning Sasuke... Ugh. So damn far-fetched.

I hate the fact that these two horrible series get so much sales just from people watching/reading them in order to see how it ends, when there are genuinely good series out there that don't get the same sales.
Mm. I get to a certain point where I go 'okay this plot makes no sense but screw it, I just want to see awesome characters throwing super lasers at each other while leveling up ridiculously cool powers in interesting ways' and am moderately satisfied.

You seem to be one of the minority that found all the Aizen stuff to be great, so you might like the current stuff. It depends on what you liked about the Aizen stuff.

I always get surprised when people talk about Bleach in a positive light after a certain point into the Arrancar stuff. Everything through Soul Society was Grade A stuff, then over time it just got really bad. I won't get into the reasons that I despise what it became, since I have a different place I discuss that stuff.

All that I will say is that instead of worrying about Bleach, read One Piece or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, as both are leagues above Bleach. That's assuming you don't mind reading long series, which both are ongoing and have over 700 chapters each.
Weirdly I never loved the Soul Society stuff, aside from the various captains and the fights with Zaraki and Byukuya respectively. I absolutely loved the Arrancar arc however, and Nnoitora and Ulquiorra are among my favorite characters ever.

Jux said:
Starbird said:
Thanks for the advice. Man...I need another good manga to get my teeth into. Current on One Piece and waiting for Naruto to end for me to read the final few volumes. Attack on Titan does *not* appeal.
Apocalypse no Toride, Vagabond, Vinland, Tower of God are some of the ones I'm following right now. Tower of God seems to meander at times, but I really like the art style.
Interesting. I'll give them a look. I have heard about Vagabond but never checked it out.

I also need to check if Berserk has gone anywhere in the last year or so. Man...I love that manga to bits.