Bleach Live Action Film and Nostalgia

I never expected to be writing about Bleach in the year of our lord 2018 alone in one post. I know that I did mention this series a few times when it comes to my anime fan origin story posts. Also, I have mentioned that I am a Bleachtard in my big three post. I am going to point the blame at Raistlin and Karandi in a good way for writing reviews on the Bleach Live Action films and getting me interested in watching it. If you didn’t know already, it’s on Netflix internationally. Man, this film was such a nostalgia trip for me. I was watching it and went with a lot of “they changed this” and/or “this thing actually led to this other thing” by watching it and I had a blast doing. Thank you both leading through this trip down memory lane you two. I had a lot of fun.

This Bleach live action film is just the first arc of the anime/manga in 90 minutes. Ichigo Kurosaki, our main character with red hair who can see ghosts, meets Rukia Kuchiki the Soul Reaper, whose job is to exorcise souls, during one of her missions. Things happen that leads to Rukia transmitting her powers to Ichigo in order to defeat the powerful hollow, a soul that has been corrupted to transform their presence into a monster. Rukia is powerless and tries her best to get the grumpy Ichigo to accept the job of substitute soul reaper. There we have it, the chemistry that got me into the show in the first place. Rukia begrudgingly training and forcing Ichigo on how to reap souls. Ichigo eventually hunts down the hollow that killed his mother and the consequences of Rukia’s power transfer to Ichigo comes to a head as well. There are plenty of story changes which didn’t make sense to me, but the general flow of the film was pretty good.

This movie captures that magic in a short amount of time. In fact, it captures a lot of the chemistry of Bleach’s cast in such a quick and efficient manner. Rukia and Ichigo’s chemistry was the glue that holds this arc together and I have no problems with how they portrayed it here. If they didn’t nail that right, this film wouldn’t work at all. They pulled it off, so kudos to this film crew and its cast. The other character stuff was good too. Uryu the quincy, a human who hunt that uses a bow and arrow, does cool stuff and is established. Also, some of the other characters aren’t as important in this arc, so having quick scenes to establish who they are and what kind of relationship they have with Ichigo works here. Everything works and is completely functional. I won’t say that this Bleach live action film is perfect, but it’s solid. If you have never watched Bleach before, this film will give you a good feel for the first arc of the anime/manga. I can’t wait to see how they adapt the Soul Society arc if they ever get to it. It’s ok if they don’t.

Man, the feels this film gave me. I felt like I was in high school again for ninety minutes. Where did those years go? While I did start watching anime because of toonami, if I never touched upon Bleach I could have stopped. That’s something huge to think about to me. Bleach was the first show I ever watched on the internet and it led me to watching anime series that I couldn’t find anywhere else. I’ve never forgotten that fact. After watching this movie, I spent at least an hour going on youtube watching Bleach openings and AMVS with action scenes. It was already late in the night and I didn’t mind it. I wanted to keep the nostalgia train going for a little bit. That first opening is stuck in my cultural consciousness and I don’t think that’s going away anytime soon. Thank you so much for indulging me on my adventure through nostalgia and me writing about Bleach in 2018. I never thought that would happen, but I liked it.