DVD Gekijouban Bleach: Jigokuhen

I have been a fan of Bleach ever since it first came out as an animated series. The first 50 or so episodes were golden, absolutely brilliant, because there was a clear goal in mind for Kurosaki Ichigo. Once the goal had been achieved, however, the show's entertainment value ebbed considerably. The entire show has just become another aimless soap opera for Japanafreaks.

Unfortunately, this movie is no different from the usual Bleach stuff. It's VERY formulaic and really introduces nothing new. It feels as thought the writers have a template that they routinely just plug different ideas into and come out with the next movie.

Allow me to demonstrate:

……….

Ichigo chillin.

"Oh noes! Someone needs help (insert victim here)." "Hey Ichigo, we're here to help (insert Ichigo's friends here)." "I'm your enemy Ichigo (insert new opponent here)!" "RAAAAAWWWRRRRR (insert Ichigo getting angry here)!"

Fight begins. (Super-mega-ultra-power-blasts inserted here) Pause fight for enemy character development. (Insert storyline for enemy here)

"My drama is stronger than your drama Ichigo!" (Insert enemy drama-blasts here) "Oh noes! I've been defeated!" (Ichigo's drama-blasts fail to overcome enemy drama-blasts)

"What did you learn Ichigo?" (insert Ichigo's lesson here) "I will use my new knowledge to become more drama-powerful and defeat my enemy!" (Ichigo's drama level rises by 10)

Fight resumes. (Ichigo's drama-blasts succeed. Enemy is defeated and all Ichigo's friends are saved)

Ichigo goes home and resumes chillin.

……….

And that pretty much sums up most of the Bleach episodes and movies.

Again, I like Bleach, and I overall enjoyed this movie, but I feel at this point that the makers are simply not willing to move on with their story. I feel like the show has essentially been "paused" for some time now, and I'm just waiting for it to.. well.. DO something.

Anything.

I have not been a big Bleach fan, same reason as always, too late for me to jump on board at this point, unless I spend weeks, months possibly catching up, and I just don't have the time, unfortunately, because Bleach seems really awesome, This and the first movie, Memories of Nobody are the only one's I've watched, oh yeah, and that random beach/fanservice episode. The first movie was decent but really confusing, this one is not THAT hard to follow, but it seems to leave out a few key scenes which would've helped explain things or even make other scenes make sense. It's a 90 minute movie, and some pointless stuff could've been cut to actual make way for something that matters. I don't want to spoil too much, but one character dies, and the other characters are told that it's impossible to revive that particular character, as the movie all throughout has told us, anyone connected to Hell's chains cannot be brought back to life, then a few minutes later, the character somehow, inexplicably is resurrected, and it is never really dealt with, they just move on. The scene after the credits also show another character being overjoyed that the previously dead character has come back to life, yet there was never any scene previous to this that hinted that this other character was even aware of the death of…you know, what? The various special openings to the show itself and trailers have spoiled this movie's surprises completely, so no more of this "that character" "this character" nonsense, it's Yuzu that dies, for a few minutes mind you, and who cares? Although I appreciate it didn't become too melodramatic, as anime tends to be sometimes. There are a few other scenes which are somehow baffling, but they're not that distracting, and I think some of them could be explained to me by Bleach fans.

The action scenes are sometimes spectacular, especially the battle at the school and the first one in hell, the final one is a bit disappointing. I did like the villain, and the tone of the movie is darker, and actually I think it could've used a little more comedy, and having Rukia naked in chains seemed a little gratuitous, but hey, it's Japanese animation. I must say I was pleasantly surprised the scene where Rukia is captured by a villain with several tentacles didn't cross over into pathetic soft hentai-esque territory. I also wish hell wasn't so "generic", the visuals are pretty standard stuff, fire, rocks, lightning, I would've really loved to see something unique, like the moment early on where a guy is dragged through the Hell gate, that scene was awesome and pretty creative with the giant arm and sword, but hey, it's not as visually deadly boring as the third Narto Shippuden movie. The villains looks pretty cool, like the tentacle guy, the fat blob was too silly and just lame, the giant monsters, I think they were called "Hell's will" or something like that, look pretty much like the pirate robot from Dragon Ball, I couldn't stop thinking about that whenever they were on screen. Anime shows that take the step into movies have been hit and miss for me, some are amazing, the best Detective Conan movies, some are decent, fun to watch once entertainment, like the two Bleach movies I've seen and some of the Naruto and Dragon Ball movies, and then, some are just beyond awful, like the worst Detective Conan movies. But I would definitely like to see them make more Bleach movies, I know they don't really do all that well at the box office, but I hope they will continue making them in the meantime I'll check out the two other Bleach movies I haven't seen like "The Diamond Dust Rebellion" and wait for "Fade to Black" to be released on DVD later this year.