A month or so ago, the Bleach manga came to a conclusion after fifteen years of continuous publication. Quite an amazing feat! That's longer than almost any other manga ever published! This makes it a perfect to revisit the story in a different format--shiny new Blu-ray! Join me as we celebrate the end of a series by looking at the beginning with Bleach Blu-ray Set 1!

This first collection covers 27 episodes, starting with Ichigo's rise from spiky-haired ghost-befriending street punk to up-and-coming Substitute Soul Reaper...and beyond. Forced into the role of when the resident reaper for Karakura Town, Rukia Kuchiki sacrifices herself to protect him. From there, Ichigo discovers that the world of the living is far from devoid of negative spiritual activity. Angry mask-wearing ghosts called Hollows roam unseen, dangerous to both the living and the dead. And while Ichigo isn't quite keen on his new job from the get-go, he warms to it as he sees how much good he's doing for both the living and the dead. Getting to put to rest some serious baggage from his past doesn't hurt either. Nor does his human friends' discovery of their own powers. Awesomeness loves company, right?

...right up until Rukia's arrest. 

Yeah, turns out that Rukia's illegal transfer of her powers to a member of the living didn't exactly fly with Soul Society's upper tier. Watching helplessly as she's carried off to await execution, Ichigo decides to follow her back to the Soul Society's capitol city (with a little help from a crafty salesman from a secluded shop). Ichigo's gonna save Rukia from her bitter fate and he's got both his friends behind him and a grueling training regimen in front of him. The afterlife's militia doesn't stand a chance against that!

The Bleach Blu-ray looks amazing. I know, I know, snow is cold, water is wet, Kubo-sensei's art looks fantastic, the animators do a great job making the jump from page to screen and Blu-ray enhances everything above and beyond the norm. But still, right from the very first, with the eerie skyline and ethereal plane fading into Karakura Town, Rukia's first meeting with Ichigo and the epic battles just look even more amazing with the added definition. And...real-talk, sharpness is important in an anime that's all about magic swords and variously barbed hairdos.

There's also some fun to be had with the extras. A little production art of the heroes never goes amiss--Kubo Sensei put some serious thought into his work and it's fun to catch all the little character quirks that come out in what they choose to wear. Clean Openings and Endings also let you soak up the animation without having to deal with the text in the way. 

Finally, there's a nice 45-minute interview with Bleach's main English cast, where you get to hear the actors talk about their experience with Bleach. I dunno if it's just me, but there's something fun about getting to hear about the experience of voicing a character. And hearing what they sound like when they're just...y'know, people being people. Unscripted. Crazy, right?

Like most long-running series, Bleach  changed quite a bit since it first hit the shelves, and it can be fun to guess where Kubo Sensei started making those changes and when he started seeding little clues to foreshadow what was to come. And just try to pretend you don't enjoy snickering when a friend watches something for the first time and doesn't catch onto what's going on. We'll certainly miss the Bleach manga, but there's plenty more fun to be had with the anime. Especially with the powerful spell of nostalgia these early episodes cast on you! 

You can see Bleach all high def and pretty by picking up the Blu-ray right here! 

English & Japanese / English Subtitles
Episodes 1–27
Special Features: Art Gallery, Clean Endings, Behind the Scenes of Bleach (interviews with the English cast).

by Chris Turner