Netflix has made its third attempt at adapting an anime with Bleach, and since the first two anime attempts were flops, will this be the third strike or the first success? Kubo's Bleach follows the story of Ichigo Kurosaki, a young man who can see spirits and help them move on. One day he gets a strange visitor in his room: Rukia Kuchiki, a shinigami or "soul reaper" on the hunt for a "Hollow" coming after his family. Hollows are the result of a spirit staying for too long and becoming malevolent, attempting to devour other souls and becoming monstrous as a result. Ichigo tries to defend his family from an attack, causing Rukia to be injured, and she decides their only option is to make Ichigo a shinigami so he can fight in her stead, having recognized an immense "spiritual pressure" within him. Unfortunately, he accidentally takes all of her power, forcing her to stay on Earth and him to pick up the slack as a substitute soul reaper. The movie kicks us off with one of the most important events in Ichigo's life: the death of his mother Masaki (Masami Nagasawa) when he was a child. While walking home in the rain, a young Ichigo notices a little girl standing without an umbrella and approaches, and the next thing he knows, his mother is lying on top of him, slashed up. Fast forward to the present, where a now teenage Ichigo (Sota Fukushi) beats up a group of skater punks for knocking over a tribute to a child who died in a car crash. Though confused as only Ichigo can see the boy's ghost, the group apologizes and rushes away, so Ichigo convinces the boy to move on. As he does so, one of the skaters tries to attack from behind, and Ichigo's friend Yasutora "Chad" Sado (Yû Koyanagi) gives him a hand. Ichigo heads home, greeting his sisters, Yuzu and Karin, and earning a strange beating from his father Isshin (Yōsuke Eguchi) for coming home late. He tries to explain about the ghost, as his family knows of his ability, but Isshin notes that he didn't ask his son to help the boy. Ichigo decides to head to his room, upsetting Isshin by saying he won't eat his father's food. Isshin is further comically bothered when he learns Ichigo tells his sisters about his paranormal experiences but not him, and that they also wouldn't talk to him. While Isshin's actions might seem odd to a new viewer, Eguchi's performance is actually quite faithful to the source material and entertaining to watch. There's more to him than he initially appears, but Isshin from the original series constantly expressed his feelings toward his son with sudden attacks and a wacky personality and behavior. While Isshin ponders the situation looking at a picture of his late wife Masaki, Ichigo, in his room, looks over to find Rukia (Hana Sugisaki) looking around. Dumbfounded, he watches her walk around and asks what she means when she says something is near, shocking her with the knowledge he can see her. She draws her sword and shoves the hilt past him, to the forehead of a ghost who pleads that she do nothing, afraid of going to hell. She calms him by explaining he'll go to the Soul Society, and exorcises him. Ichigo obviously has many questions, but Rukia ignores him, trying to focus on the appearance of the "Fishbone" Hollow, finally binding Ichigo with a "Bakudō" spell. Rukia explains that she's a Shinigami, and after hearing Yuzu cry out for help, Ichigo stuns her again by breaking free of her spell and running downstairs. Yuzu tells her worried family she heard a scary voice, and when her father and sister step forward to check, the hollow Rukia was after suddenly smashes through the wall, taking her captive and knocking out Isshin and Karin. Rukia is further bewildered with Ichigo since he could see the Hollow, which he chases to no avail with a metal baseball bat, easily being tossed around. Ichigo is able to catch Yuzu when Rukia cuts the Hollow's arm, and she explains it eats souls like his, which is why it keeps repeating "I want your soul," and that he must have strong spiritual pressure to be able to see the creature. Rukia saves Ichigo from another attack but is bitten and grabbed, freeing herself with a spell. Unable to fight anymore, she says the only way to survive is to turn him into a reaper by stabbing him in the chest with her "Zanpakutō," or soul-cutter sword. Initially reluctant when Rukia says they could both die if the process fails, Ichigo agrees when she claims the Hollow will do whatever it takes to kill him, and he notices Yuzu begging him to help her. In a flash, the transfer is complete and Ichigo severs Fishbone's arm with a massive sword, the now powerless Rukia lying on the ground in white robes. Rukia realizes Ichigo's immense power made his sword enormous, and he defeats Fishbone by slicing him down the middle. With Rukia wondering how he can be so strong, Ichigo confirms that he is nothing more than a human. Ichigo wakes the next day to find his family has no memory of the night before, believing a truck slammed into the house. At Karakura High School we're introduced to Orihime Inoue (Erina Mano) and her friend Tatsuki, who doesn't understand why she's interested in Ichigo. As Orihime explains his grumpiness makes him funny, another classmate breaks the news about Ichigo's house. He goes into a gag that later returns of Ichigo having "died on the spot," only for Ichigo to pop up behind him and deny the claim. The others want info on the crash, and when Ichigo tries to reveal the truth, they wonder if he hit his head. Ichigo is flabbergasted when he hears and sees Rukia, now fitting in as a transfer student, who drags him over to ask about a textbook, in which she has written "make a scene and you're dead." On the roof, she reveals she can't go back to the Soul Society because he took all of her power, which in turn caused his soul to become that of a Shinigami's. Rukia puts on a special glove that allows her to forcefully shove Ichigo's soul from his body, turning him into a Soul Reaper again, and here we get one of the variations from how things happened in the original story. There, Rukia states that Ichigo must take over her duties until her powers return, while here, she tells him to give her powers back with the same process he got them from. When it doesn't work, she suggests he work with her, and explains the difference between normal ghosts, and Hollows that form from ghosts with grudges. She further explains that Shinigami send normal souls to the Soul Society like she did in his room, and exterminate Hollows. The diagrams she uses to explain everything are a good representation of how she did so in the original series, with her cutesie drawings. In another aspect I felt matches the series, once she ends saying Ichigo will help, the music cuts out as he stares at her and simply says "No I won't" while turning away. She says innocent people could be hurt, be he retorts that he only helped the previous night because his family was in danger. With Ichigo confused how his energy is low if she previously said it was high, she explains that it's untrained, and transferring the powers back to her could kill him. Rukia suggests he fight Hollows and train to develop his powers, but he says he simply wants to be himself, and we cut rather awkwardly to his house at night. Yuzu asks if he knows where her pajamas are, and he quickly finds out, as he learns Rukia has taken them and is using his closet as a home. Isshin comes in and takes Ichigo's suspicious behavior as meaning he has a girl in the closet, but leaves when he doesn't see Rukia. She wakes Ichigo the next morning to drag him to training: she uses a pitching machine to shoot baseballs he is meant to deflect. He abandons the training and goes to school, where the male student's belief that he is dating Rukia upsets Orihime before Rukia herself scolds the boy. To everyone's surprise, she swiftly gut punches Ichigo and drags him back to training, and when he again becomes frustrated and quits, she smacks him with a kendo training sword and the two begin sparring. Ichigo offers to be Rukia's friend since she's alone, but she claims reapers and humans can't be friends, and she lives by the reaper code. Orihime arrives, misinterpreting the two's relationship since they are so close and turn to argue about Rukia being too old-fashioned in her way of speaking. Ichigo leaves despite Rukia's claim that she needs his help to leave, saying she can just be a swordsmanship trainer. We cut to a shop I'd been waiting to see, where Rukia gets new supplies from owner Kisuke Urahara (Seiichi Tanabe). Though he gives her a new battery for her tracker, he warns Rukia that transferring one's power to a human is punishable by execution. In the original series, Urahara is a former Shinigami captain. Another captain, Sosuke Aizen, framed him for attempting Hollowfication of others. When it was decided he and his friend Tessai Tsukabishi, along with the Hollowfied captains, would be executed, they went into exile with the aid of Yoruichi Shihoin. Though both Tessai and Yoruichi are absent from this adaptation, we get a less silly Urahara than how he normally behaves in the show. Though incredibly smart, powerful, and capable of being serious, Urahara is most often goofy. Here with less time to set characters up, the focus is the mystery of who he is. With another change in that the Shinigami back in the Soul Society already know of Rukia's actions, her is more grave in his words because of Rukia's position. In the Soul Society, we see the shadowy figures of Renji Abarai (Taichi Saotome) and Rukia's older adoptive brother, Captain Byakuya Kuchiki (Miyavi). Byakuya orders Renji, who wonders if Rukia would really break such a rule, to find out if she indeed gave Ichigo her powers, and to capture her if so. Ichigo runs into Renji while walking home, and when the reaper asks about Rukia, he pretends to not know who she is. Renji draws his sword and chases Ichigo, only for an arrow to whiz by his head. He hides behind a pillar and gets another arrow when he looks over, realizing the attacker is a "Quincy." At home, Ichigo questions Rukia about what's going on, but she refuses to give details other than to keep training, despite noting to herself that he'll die otherwise. Renji has reported back to Byakuya in the meantime, confirming that if the hollow shows up, they'll find Rukia, and Byakuya decides to step in. While Ichigo is eating, he gets a visit from classmate Uryu Ishida (Ryo Yoshizawa), who surprises him by knowing he and Rukia are reapers. Uryu takes Ichigo to the roof, where he reveals he is a Quincy, and the reapers exterminated his people. He surprises Ichigo by revealing a charm on his bracelet can become a bow that fires his spiritual pressure as arrows. Ichigo realizes Uryu is the one who saved him before, and the latter explains he came to Karakura Town the year prior upon sensing Ichigo, to challenge him. Though the Quincies also kill Hollows like Shinigami, he says it's his destiny to kill reapers like Ichigo for what happened to his people. Ichigo refuses to become a reaper again, and dodges an arrow, so Uryu decides to force him into changing by crushing up a pill and tossing it. It attracts Hollows, which gets Rukia up to the roof, somehow missing Uryu as he hides, and she brings out Ichigo's Shinigami form again. Ichigo stays adamant that he doesn't care if she's stuck in the human world or about Hollows, but rushes out when he hears the ghost boy he helped earlier cry out. Rukia catches up and tells him he'll have to treat all spirits equally and help if he helps this boy, and Ichigo simply says screw the rules and fights the spider-like Hollow. The Hollow gets the upper hand when suddenly Renji arrives, killing it. He threatens Ichigo, calling him slow, then attacks, leaving him injured on the ground. Rukia steps in before he can finish Ichigo, and he gives some clunky background saying she knows why he's there and expressing disappointment in her actions and appearing human after the Kuchiki clan adopted them both. She is surprised and bows upon seeing Byakuya, explaining that she broke the law so she wouldn't be eaten. He states that she'll be executed if she goes back as she is now, surprising Ichigo, but says she'll be pardoned if she takes her powers back. Rukia tells him Ichigo will die if she does so, and Byakuya callously asks who cares. She claims it's not their job to kill innocent men and Byakuya wonders why she feels such compassion toward him, giving her until the full moon to get her powers back. Rukia heals Ichigo and he dreams of his mom's death, waking to find his dad at his bedside. The calm Isshin stays lighthearted and says Ichigo should invite Rukia over sometime since she's the one who found him. Ichigo tells him about the dream, and Isshin says he too dreams about Masaki, and that the anniversary of her death is coming up. Ichigo reveals he feels responsible for her death and is frustrated with being unable to protect anyone, but Isshin calmly states that he's proud she died protecting their son. Ichigo refuses to go in detail about what happened to him when he gets back to school, but Orihime notices him staring at Rukia. While everyone else hangs out at "Rob's Burgers" (I'm guessing the Belcher family doesn't work here), Rukia looks at her device, noting that he's not strong enough yet as she thinks back to Byakuya's command. Back at Ichigo's, he asks Rukia why she was willing to sacrifice herself for him the night of the Fishbone attack, only to find she's not in his closet. Knowing something's up, he looks around town, then decides to ask Uryu where he can find the Soul Society. Though Uryu doesn't know, he sends Ichigo to the person who does: Urahara. The man says Rukia wouldn't go back, since she'd be wasting her life; he believes she's trying to beg Byakuya to spare Ichigo. As it turns out, she's meeting with Byakuya and Renji right then, saying she'll redeem herself by exorcising Grand Fisher when he comes for Ichigo, and asking that they simply spare him. Urahara continues that she could be killed on the spot if she tries this, and tells Ichigo where the reapers' favorite portal to the human world is. Ichigo rushes over and interrupts the meeting, making the deal that if he defeats Grand Fisher, they'll pardon Rukia. Byakuya agrees, and Ichigo asks that Rukia complete his training as a reaper. We then go into a montage of Ichigo training kendo, exercising to increase his strength and speed, and back at Rukia's pitching machine. The other students notice and are confused, and Rukia explains that Grand Fisher has been evading the Shinigami for 54 years. She also tells Ichigo he is actually not killing Hollows with his sword, but rather redeeming their sins, she says to aim for their heads, because that's the weak point. Ichigo becomes upset upon hearing that Grand Fisher has likely been after him since he was a kid, and that while people say it looks like a monster or giant flower, it started out as a little girl's spirit. As the training continues, we get an odd moment where Urahara randomly shows up to tell Chad and Orihime that Ichigo has a big fight coming up. Ichigo and Rukia get a friendly moment as the training seems to end, when he succeeds in swinging his blade around to destroy a circle of bottles. Elsewhere we see that Byakuya has hidden intentions, and Ichigo and his family prepare for the trek to Masaki's grave for the anniversary of her death. Ichigo and Rukia have a touching moment, and the next day as Isshin asks his wife to help Ichigo understand her death was not his fault, Yuzu and Karin have a dangerous encounter that kicks off the climax. I was honestly pleasantly surprised with this movie, because it does a pretty good job at both appeasing longtime fans and introducing new viewers to the universe.
Obviously anime adaptations and similar haven't made a good impression on people, like Dragonball Evolution, Last Airbender, and Death Note. Unlike the first two, where the creators didn't seem to understand the source material or what made it great, this film obviously understands the story and characters of "Bleach." Comedy actually works in this movie, for one, with Fukushi doing a great job of showcasing Ichigo's aloof, lazy attitude. I honestly rewound the moment where he refuses to be a soul reaper after hearing Rukia's explanation multiple times because I found it so funny. It's not much, but the cut from silly drawings and music to a quiet, stonefaced Ichigo was already pretty funny, and after everything he's heard, it's just a "No I won't." He doesn't get as loud as Ichigo often does when against or bewildered by something, but that is probably for the best, because going too much like the original would make things a bit to hammy. I do wish they had done a bit more with Rukia's character, however. Sugisaki did a fantastic job in the film, so this isn't me attacking her specifically. It just felt like they focused more so much on the "prim and proper" aspect of her character that they dropped some of Rukia's lighter, funnier aspects. We see these a bit when she threatens to kill Ichigo and punches him in the stomach, like in the series, but for the most part she was always serious. In the series, Rukia could be rather comical at times, often growing exasperated with Ichigo's actions, especially his early laziness. In particular, I was disappointed that Ichigo's reaction to her explanation didn't include the series joke of mocking Rukia's drawings. Rukia's explanations always included her cutesie characters, and Ichigo would make fun of them, causing her to get mad and smack him around. The characters still know when to be lighthearted and when to be serious, which is a major plus for the movie. Mixed in with the comedy comes the darker moments, like Ichigo admitting the guilt he feels about his mom's death. In such scenes, the writers didn't bog things down with heavy, unnecessary talking. Rather, the characters sit in silence and seem to ponder what they're hearing and how they should respond. It gives the scenes a lot more weight, and the performances, like Sugisaki and Fukushi sitting silently in class, or Eguchi taking in Ichigo's feeling of being responsible for his mom's death, show off all the emotions one would feel in such a situation. The story obviously had to be changed a bit to fit the runtime, most obviously with how Byakuya and Renji showed up long before they originally did, as in the series Ichigo had already started taking on his duties as a soul reaper when they appeared. They also handle the situation differently because of how Rukia can manually get her powers back in this story. In the original, since she simply had to wait for them back, the act of giving her powers was the crime and there was no way to really make up for it, so their goal in coming to Karakura was solely to take Rukia back for execution. We also get Uryu's appearance a lot sooner and he takes part in some action moments that he didn't in the original. His background isn't changed, however, and his contempt for soul reapers, only to help Ichigo, remains unchanged. Two things I do think were drawbacks are that Chad's character got downgraded to doing very little, as did Urahara. In the original,one of the first chapters shows Chad's immense strength, protecting classmates from a falling steel beam. He also faces a Hollow, able to withstand its damage as well as eventually fight it barehanded despite not being able to see it. This would grow into an impressive power later on, but here we mostly get the part of him that is more quiet and reserved, as he hardly says anything. He does at one point show off a supernatural strength, but the actor doesn't quite fit what Chad originally looked like, and only has that single moment. The effects on the Hollows are basically what was expected: full cgi that isn't really bad, but it still clearly fake, rather than any practical effects. It doesn't ruin the viewing experience, honestly, and some of the other effects are good, like whenever Rukia uses her glove to bring out Ichigo's soul form. The worst cgi would probably go to Renji, when he reveals the true strength of his sword, and it looks about as fake as the Hollows at some point and worse at others. The choreography is nice, with Ichigo and Rukia showing some good move when they're practicing, and the climax's fight having some rather impressive moves. Overall I'd say this was actually a nice adaptation of "Bleach." It doesn't for sure cut out a bunch of characters who are important to the story, like Fullmetal Alchemist, and understands the source unlike "Last Airbender" and "Dragonball Evolution." The ending means it could make it as a standalone film, but leaves the room for a potential sequel if fans enjoyed it enough, which would also allow for aspects and characters that were cut out to make an appearance.
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