librus-anime

Manga

Main article: List of Bleach chapters

The series was published in the Japanese-language magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump. The individual chapters are collected by Shueisha in series of tankōbon volumes, which also include a poem by the character of the cover.[14] Chapter names in English have katakana above them to indicate how they are read in Japanese, similarly to furigana for kanji. The first volume was released on January 5, 2002 while currently thirty-six volumes have been released.[15][16] The distributing company Viz Media has been releasing the Bleach manga volumes in English in the United States. Viz released the first volume on June 1, 2004.[17] The most recent volume released in the US was volume twenty-five, released on December 2, 2008.[18] Viz has also released a Bleach box set on September 2, 2008, that contains all the first twenty-one volumes as well as poster and a booklet of the series.[19] Viz has also been serializing the individual chapters in the Shonen Jump magazine since November of 2007.[20]

Anime

Main article: List of Bleach episodes

The anime version of Bleach is produced by Studio Pierrot and directed by Noriyuki Abe. It began broadcasting in Japan on October 5, 2004, on TV Tokyo. Episodes 1-167 were made and broadcast in 4:3, with episodes 168+ made and broadcast in 16:9 wide screen.

On March 15, 2006, Viz Media obtained foreign television, home video, and merchandising rights to the Bleach anime from the TV Tokyo Corporation and Shueisha.[21] Subsequently, Viz Media contracted Studiopolis to create the English dub of the anime,[22] and has licensed its individual Bleach merchandising rights to several different companies.[23] The English version of the Bleach anime premiered on Canada's YTV channel in the Bionix program block on September 8, 2006. Cartoon Network began airing Bleach the following evening as part of its Adult Swim block. The show went on hiatus on October 20, 2007 after airing the first 52 episodes of the series. It was replaced with another Viz series, Death Note, while additional episodes of Bleach were being dubbed. YTV began showing reruns of the anime after episode 26. On March 2, 2008 at 1:00 a.m. EST, the series returned from hiatus and began the next 52 episodes.[24] In the UK, Bleach premiered on AnimeCentral on September 13, 2007, with new episodes airing daily, but is currently on hiatus after airing the first 52 episodes.

CDs

Eleven CD soundtracks, produced by Shirō Sagisu, have been released for the Bleach anime series and movies. Bleach Original Soundtrack 1 was released on May 18, 2005 and contains twenty-five tracks, including the first opening and ending themes in their original television lengths. Bleach Original Soundtrack 2 followed on August 2, 2006 with an additional twenty-three instrumental tracks. "Bleach Original Soundtrack 3" followed later on November 5, 2008 with 27 instrumental tracks, Bleach: Memories of Nobody Original Soundtrack was released with twenty-five tracks from the Bleach: Memories of Nobody anime film. A soundtrack was also released for the Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion film, with nearly thirty tracks from the movie and finally a 3rd one for the "Bleach: Fade To Black, I Call Your Name" movie, with twenty-nine tracks. Bleach: The Best contains twelve of the opening and ending themes from the series in their full length versions later followed by "Bleach: Best Tunes" with contains the next twelve of opening and ending themes.

The Bleach Beat Collections, is an on-going set of CDs published by Sony Music featuring recordings by the original Japanese voice actors that provide a look at the personalities of the characters they play, as well as the voice actors themselves. The first CD was released on June 22, 2005; as of December 17, 2008, nineteen volumes have been released across four named sets called "Sessions".[25][26]

Two "Radio DJCD Bleach 'B' Station" CD season sets, each containing six volumes, have been released in Japan. Five drama CDs have been produced for the series as well, featuring the original voice actors from the series. These drama CDs have only been included as part of the DVD releases.

Films

There are three feature films based on the Bleach series, all directed by Noriyuki Abe, director of the Bleach anime series. The films have been released in December of each year starting in 2006. Each movie features an original plotline, rather than being an adaptation of the manga's story. They also feature original characters designed by Tite Kubo, which is contrary to the normal practice for anime-based films, as the original author usually has little creative involvement.[27]

The first film, Bleach: Memories of Nobody, was released in Japan on December 16, 2006 and had a limited release in American theaters in June 2008. The movie is centered around the activities of a group called the "Dark Ones," who were banished from the Soul Society and trying to destroy both Soul Society and the World of the Living. Memories of Nobody was released in North America on Region 1 DVD by Viz Media on October 14, 2008.[28]

The second film, Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, was released to Japanese theaters on December 22, 2007. Its plot focuses on an artifact belonging to Soul Society's King, and 10th Division captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya's efforts to clear his name after it is stolen while under his care.[29]

Bleach: Fade to Black, I Call Your Name (BLEACH Fade to Black 君の名を呼ぶ, Burichi: Fade to Black - Kimi no Na o Yobu?), the third film, was released in Japan on December 13, 2008. This film's screenplay was written by Natsuko Takahashi, who is a screenwriter for the anime series. The official film website gives the tagline of "Sayonara, Rukia". In the film, members of Soul Society are struck with amnesia causing them to forget Ichigo and Rukia. When he goes to Soul Society to investigate, Ichigo discovers that Rukia has forgotten not only him, but her own identity as well.[28] For the film, the band Porno Graffiti performed the song "Koyoi, Tsuki wa Miezu Tomo".[28]

Musical

Bleach has been adapted into a series of rock musicals, jointly produced by Studio Pierrot and Nelke Planning. There have been five musicals produced which covered portions of the Substitute and Soul Society arcs, as well as two additional performances known as "Live Bankai Shows" which did not follow the Bleach plotline. The initial performance run of the Bleach musical was from August 17 to August 28, 2005 at the Space Zero Tokyo center in Shinjuku.[30][31][32]

The musicals are directed by Takuya Hiramitsu, with a script adaptation by Naoshi Okumura and music composed by playwright Shoichi Tama. The songs are completely original and not taken from the anime soundtrack. Key actors in the series include Tatsuya Isaka, who plays Ichigo Kurosaki, Miki Satō, who plays Rukia Kuchiki, and Eiji Moriyama, who plays Renji Abarai.

Trading card game

Two collectible card games (CCG) based on the Bleach series have been produced. "Bleach Soul Card Battle", produced by Bandai, was introduced in Japan in 2004.[33] As of October 2008, seventeen named sets have been released for the series.[34]

"Bleach TCG" was introduced in the United States by Score Entertainment in May 2007.[35] Designed by Aik Tongtharadol, it is a two-player game in which each player starts with at least 61 cards: a "Guardian" card, a 60-card "main deck" and an optional 20-card "side deck". A player loses if their power, as dictated by their Guardian card, is reduced to zero, or if they are unable to draw or discard a card from their deck.[36] The cards for the game have been released in named sets with each set released in three formats: a 72-card preconstructed box set containing a starter deck and two booster packs, a 10-card booster pack, and a 12-pack booster box. As of December 2008, six named sets have been released.

Video games

Main article: List of Bleach video games

Currently, the majority of the games have only been released in Japan, though Sega has directly ported the first, and second Nintendo DS game and the Wii version for North America. So far, all dedicated Bleach games released for Sony's consoles have been developed and published by SCEI, whereas the Nintendo GameCube ones are developed and published by Sega, and the Nintendo DS versions are developed by Treasure Co. Ltd.

Other

A single Bleach artbook, All Colour But The Black, has been released in Japan.[37]

Three databooks have also been released about the series. The first two, Bleach: Official Character Book Souls and Bleach: Official Animation Book Vibes were released on February 3, 2006.[38][39] The third, Bleach Official Bootleg: KaraBuri+ (BLEACH OFFICIAL BOOTLEG カラブリ プラス?), was released on August 3, 2007. In addition to character guides and articles on other fictional aspects of the series, it compiles the various short comics, Tedious Everyday Tales Colorful Bleach (徒然日常絵詞 カラフル ブリーチ, Tsuredure Nichijou Ekotoba Karafuru Buriichi?), that were published in V Jump. The omake-style panels are similar to those included in the main series, but unrelated to the actual plot of the manga.[40]

Tite Kubo and Makoto Matsubara have co-authored two novelizations of the Bleach series, which were published by Shueisha under their Jump Books label. The first volume, BLEACH-letters from the other side: The Death and The Strawberry was published on December 15, 2004, and the second, BLEACH: The Honey Dish Rhapsody, was published in October 30, 2006.[41][42]

Reception

The first volume of the manga has sold over 1.25 million copies in Japan, and the original Japanese version of the manga series as a whole has sold over 50 million copies.[43] In 2005, Bleach was awarded the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category.[44][45] During 2008, volume 34 of the manga sold 874,153 copies in Japan, becoming the 12th best-seller comics from the year. Volumes 33 and 35 have also ranked 17 and 18, respectively.[46] In total the manga has sold 3,161,825 copies in Japan during 2008, becoming 5th best seller series.[47] North American sales of the manga have been high, with Volume 16 placing in the top 10 graphic novel sales in December 2006[48] and Volume 17 being the best-selling manga volume for the month of February 2007.[49][50] The English version of Bleach was nominated for the "best manga" and "best theme" awards at the 2006 American Anime Awards, but did not win either category. It was nominated again in 2007 in the fields of "best manga", "best actor", "best DVD package design", and "best theme", but failed to win any awards.[51][dead link] In a 2006 Internet poll by TV Asahi, Bleach was ranked as Japan's seventh-favorite anime program.[52] The previous year, it was ranked as the twenty-seventh favorite program.[53]

Deb Aoki from About.com considered the series as the Best Continuing Shonen Manga of 2007, along with Eyeshield 21, praising the "compelling stories, dazzling action sequences and great character development".[54] She also placed the title on her list of "Top 10 Shonen Manga Must-Reads".[55] Mania.com reviewer Jarred Pine criticized the series as being plagued with stereotypes from the genre. He felt it was a rough start for the series with unimpressive battles, overused gags, and a bad introduction for central character Ichigo that causes him to come across "as a frowning punk" whose one good trait is his desire to protect. Despite this, Pine notes that he loves the series, particularly its quirky, lovable characters.[56]

With the acclaimed Studio Pierrot handling animation duties, a storyline that dishes out cliffhanger after cliffhanger, and a rapidly growing fanbase, Bleach is clearly the Next Big Anime License. It doesn't aspire to be high art, but it doesn't need to—this is high entertainment, swords out and spirit energy blazing, ready to bring a modern sensibility to the classic shōnen themes of friendship, challenge, and victory.
—Carlos Santos, Anime News Network[57]

Anime News Network's Carlos Santos praised the anime adaptation, describing it as "...one incredibly entertaining anime that will grab you and refuse to let go."[57] Animefringe's Maria Lin liked the varied and distinct characters, and how well they handle the responsibilities increasing powers give them. She also complimented the series for its attention to details, well paced script, and balance of seriousness and comedy. In summary, she notes "Bleach the anime deserves its popularity. It has something for everyone: the supernatural, comedy, action and a little bit of romance, all tied together with excellent animation and a very enthusiastic sounding bunch of voice actors."[58] Adam Arseneau of DVD Verdict, felt Bleach was a "show that only gets better with age" and was "surprisingly well-rounded and appealing" with well developed characters and pacing.[59] Active Anime's Holly Ellingwood praising the anime for perfectly capturing "the excitement, the caustic humour and supernatural intrigue" of the original manga.[60] She felt that the series "does a wonderful job of building on its continuity to provide increasingly tense and layered episodes involving not only Ichigo and Rukia, but the secondary characters as well".[61] She also praised the series for its striking visual effects, intriguing plot and its "brilliant blend of action, off the wall comedy."[62][63][63] In reviewing the series for DVD Talk, Don Houston felt the characters surpassed the usual shōnen anime stereotypes and liked "the mixture of darker material with the comedic".[64] Another Fellow reviewer John Sinnott felt series starts out as a boring "monster-of-the-week program" that becomes more engaging as the stories build and the characters are fleshed out.[65] Otaku USA''s Joseph Luster wrote that "the storylines are consistently dramatic without hammering it home too heavily, the characters manage comic relief that's not as eye rolling as one would expect, and the action (in classic fighting series form) has only gotten more ridiculous over the years; in a good way, of course".[66] Mania.com's Bryce Coulter praised the series for its plot twists and "the quirky and amusing characters".[67][68] In comparing the series with Naruto, Mania.com's Chris Beveridge felt Bleach was less childish and "simply comes together surprisingly well in its style and execution of what is fairly standard material".[69]