Bleach

This is a very interesting and humorous series.

The truth is the first episode didn't catch me. I found it very boring. But i'm glad that i had gave it a second chance and now i can't stop watching it. lol.

The story is still continuing with episodes comming out each week. (i dunnoe what to do when i watched all the ones that are out!)

The opening songs are good. Especially Rolling Star.

Watch it! You will not be dissapointed.

Edit: up to episode 138 now, this anime is moving really slow. i've changed this anime to a buy from a rent, it's getting really interesting.

In searching after Japanese Leeks (pls don’t ask why).. I came across something called Loituma Girl (which is Finnish for LEEK GIRL).... which sent me spinning.

If you are a Bleach Fan... then you will have to check this out!

http://www.youtube.c­om/watch?v=ekdKIKfY6­Ng

It appears that someone had too much time on their hands and took some Bleach footage of Orihime Inoue and paired it up with a Finnish nonsense folk song ..... (very clever!)

And popular!! It has spawned its own wikipage - http://en.wikipedia.­org/wiki/Loituma_Gir­l

And then I found that Orihim has her own wikipage....

http://en.wikipedia.­org/wiki/Orihime_Ino­ue

Through 1 episode...

Shounen fare through and through, however like many shounen titles, it has an interesting, action-packed intro. Certainly this will be something I'll be interested in seeing more of. More later.

Last updated Wednesday, August 16 2006.

Going in, I was afraid this would be a dark, disturbing show. I certainly wasn't expecting dialogue like this:

Ichigo: It says "Soul Candy"

Rukia: Well that... is because the League of Women Death Gods complained that the name "Gikongan" wasn't cute, so it was renamed.

Ichigo: Why... is it (shaped like) a duck?

Rukia: Shut up! I wanted the most popular one, Chappy the Rabbit, too!

I think the ability of an anime to switch back and forth between drama and comedy in a pleasing, believable manner is a quality I especially enjoy. I've noticed this ability in "Black Cat" as well.

More later...

- 47 Episodes watched -

So far, this anime has been rated exceedingly high by A LOT of people. And after venturing into it, it does revolve rather nicely and has an original story and plot. However, I find the story of this series to be running a bit slow, which is a shame because there are far too many great characters to be explored. But considering the manga is still running at this point and the end of the anime is nowhere in sight, I still have hopes for this series to further develop.

On a sidenote, episode 33 was a total disappointment. I wasted 8 minutes watching it before dragging the progress bar to the end to skin through if there were any good bits. There were none.

Anyway. The essence of a good anime, in my opinion, are, one - characters of the anime, how interesting they are portrayed, how they develop as the series progress, and how they are able to capture the attention of the audience, two - actions and fights that are involved, the cool intensity and adrenaline rush is very much required, and three - the pace of the anime in accordance to the story. This series has a bad habit of deviating from the climax of an intense battle into a comic relief scene. It is VERY annoying.

In short, it's still moving too slow. That is why so far 55 episodes have been released and yet the whole thing is still basically dragging like a rickshaw with no finale in sight. COME ON, people!!!!

More on this series later.

(After 40 episodes)

This is definately a well-done anime. With up-to-date art and animation, the action and plot go into high gear straight from episode one. Now, 28 episodes later, its still going strong. This anime has a bit of everything: A hero who doesn't want to be, but eventually gives in as he feels the need to save the girl who saved is life, a stoic death-god girl who's a REALLY good actor (enough to blend in with high school girls), a 15 year old who's the size of a world champion weight trainer, a girl who eats chocolate onion ramen and is a total ditz, a stand-offish bowman who hates death-gods, and a talking cat.

The thing is, Ichigo's spirit power is released, and also affects the other characters (Chad and Inoue) and releases their spirit abilities too. So the 3 of them plus the cat end up going to 'heaven' to save Rukia from death after she gets put on death row for being gone too long :P

The music is quite good, especially the intro which is very stylish, and the story has progressed between an anti-hero to a save the world, to a save the girl, to a power-training, to a multi-showdown style plot.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of Ichigo's dad too, he's great ;-)

Edit: Sept 20. The show has really gone into overdrive with the incursion into soul society as our heros face ever more powerful members of the 13 divisions, including some captains right off the bat. But if you think this is just another "face another super-bad-guy and be forced to get stronger by fighting him dbz-clone", you're dead wrong. Our heros are constantly ducking in and out of stealth mode in their attempt to save rukia, and there is even a major plot going on within soul society with the murder of a captain by someone other than one of our heros. While sometimes it seems to be far too often, there are many very interesting back-story flashbacks from the perspectives of many characters, hero and supposed 'bad guy' alike.

Lookin forward to more. (also, i've found this to be the best yet anime to show as an introductory anime to the uninitiated, since the action and pace of the show is on overdrive right from episode one)