Bleach

We all know feature films of animes are trash. Dragon Balls, Full Metal Alchemist, Attack on Titan etc. But this one is decent. I think Japanes just starting to find that grey area between movie and anime. /Blade of Immortal, this one/ I would give this movie about 7 stars, but I gave 8 because, I know there are people who would just give a star only for sake of being picky.

I happened to find the live action movie "Bleach" on Netflix. But I am only familiar with the franchise by its name, as I haven't read the anime, nor have I watched any of the animations. So I sat down to watch "Bleach" with a blank canvas left open to impressions, so to speak.

And not being familiar with the franchise, I have no idea how true the movie is to the animations or anime in general. So I will not even venture there.

I found "Bleach" to be entertaining enough for what it turned out to be. Sure, it had some shortcomings, but it was an overly entertaining enough movie.

The storyline was nice and quite straight forward. It required very little attention from the audience actually to stay up to speed with the movie. Perhaps it was a little bit too simplistic and streamlined. But hey, it made for adequate entertainment, which is why we watch movies after all.

I liked the characters - well most of them anyway. I think they had a good ensemble of actors and actresses to portray the individual characters on the screen.

The CGI in the movie was actually quite good, and that was something that I was really impressed with. Because for a movie such as this, CGI was a make or break situation. Luckily they opted to throw cash into proper CGI and the result was fantastic. They had some great creature designs and the creatures looked very realistic and actually turned out menacing on the screen.

One of the drawbacks of the movie was the music they had in it. It felt somewhat out of place given the presentation and mood of the movie. But music can easily be tuned out, so it wasn't something that dragged the movie down.

Has this 2018 live action movie placed a seed in me that urges me to start delving into the anime or animations? No, not really. It was a good movie, good but not fantastic.

Personally I don't really understand the title of the movie and franchise; "Bleach". It made absolutely no sense to me, and it wasn't explained throughout the course of this 2018 movie.

For a 'Live-Action' adaption from an anime-series, it was in my opinion a very well made movie contrary to my expectations.

Many movie adaptions, be they from games of animes, usually leave me dissapointed. This mainly while they can never really translate the story or feeling behind the original work as well on the big screen. Which made me very dubious about the quality this movie would be when I spotted it on Netflix today.

While Bleach (the movie) is not a cinematic master-piece like 'The Shawshank Redemption, or any other Hollywood movie in that regard, it should actually not be compared to those standards. While Bleach is a 'from-anime-to-movie'-adaption, it had me very sceptical at first. Those doubts where quickly expelled a few minutes in, when I really became engrossed and decided to grab a bag of popcorn to watch it with.

The story and characters were believable, and the typical japanese over-dramatical acting kept to a minimum. The movie tried to put about a seasons worth of anime into roughly two-hours of movie, and I got to say they did it quite well! Within the time constraints a movie is expected to last, and the budget they had available, I can positively say that this is the best movie-adaption of an anime-series I have seen to date.

This may not be the most enjoyable movie for those wanting realism, expecting a cinematic master-piece (or perfect copy/paste of the animes plot), or generally not into asian/anime-themed plots. Everyone else I would definitely recommend giving it a try, and seeing it for yourselves!

The movie focused on the 1st arc of the anime-- it remained loyal to the story, but changed some things too, so there's something to look forward to. Acting was not that great, but decent. Some plot holes and underutilized characters, but those can be forgiven. However those who haven't watched the anime / read the manga will have difficulty in understanding certain parts of the story because some of the explanations were incomplete (I think the writers assume viewers should have at least watched the anime already before watching the movie). When I first saw the trailer months back, I was worried that the CGI will be disappointing, but I was wrong. CGI was excellent and the hollows were awesome! This is a must watch for anime / manga fans!

Bleach (2018) wisely plays with a much smaller, and focused scope than most anime adaptations, and comes out as an enjoyable, and cohesive film that fans can enjoy.

Thankfully, the writers did not try to cram every story arc in season 1 into this film like Death Note did, but instead focused on the important stuff like Ichigo and Rukia. The actors all do a fine job, and as long as you dont expect a 1 to 1 recreation, i think fans will be pleased with how much respect it pays to the source material.

Now sure, its still extremely cheesy to see some sequences translated to live action. There isnt the iconic BANKAI sequence where you really see the outrageous power of a Reaper, nor do you get amazing action sequences. Plus, the PG 13 rating makes the action sequences surprisingly bloodless and tame by comparison. But what is here is more than serviceable, and its still pretty entertaining for what it is. Most of the humor also lands, and at its core the film has an emotional center along with an arc which it completes.

I doubt we will get a sequel since the Soul Society arc would be insanely expensive and effects heavy, but the ending wraps it up pretty neatly so there is at least closure at the end for new fans who just came into the series. It doesn't break new ground, nor is it amazing, but it is a rock solid adaptation of the first season.

The best praise i can give the film, is that it made me want to re watch the animated series again. Not because the live action remake was trash, but because it reminded me of why i liked Bleach in the first place.