Director: Noriyuki Abe
Starring: Matsuoka, Johnny Yong Bosch, Fumiko Orikasa, Michelle Ruff,
Running Time: 94 minutes
Certificate: 12
If you have a successful anime series, then you best be damned sure you’re going to churn out some feature length efforts. But how does a well established series, like BLEACH, decide to tackle their cinematic turns? Well, this fourth offering is clearly cemented within the world of the series, but keeps itself focused on a self contained story. This results in a film that is both accessible to newcomers; although they’ll have to just go with some of the relationships and terminology, and long-term fans alike. It’s a neat manoeuvre, as it also reels in fans such as myself who may have drifted away in recent seasons, without making us feel as though we are being excluded.
BLEACH: THE MOVIE 4 – HELL VERSE joins the world of the Soulreapers with that of Hell. In a show that has always dealt with souls and the afterlife, Hell has remained in the background often having to settle with mere mentions of the darkness it holds. It was only a matter of time before Hell got its dues and this entry into the long running series is mostly a solid action epic. That’s not to say it’s anything special. The plot sees Ichigo dragged to hell in an attempt to save his sister. Fairly simple stuff and it never becomes more complicated than that. I was constantly aware of the fact that the film was trying to insert itself into the viewers consciousness, but was always ready to be immediately erased so as not to create any continuity errors with the series.
Whenever a film goes to hell I am immediately excited to see the interpretation of the filmmaker. Hell can be just about anything, but how do you capture the essence of eternal damnation? BLEACH: THE MOVIE 4 –HELLVERSE splits hell up into a number of different districts, so there’s plenty of imagination to go around. Unfortunately the designs and creativity ranges from predictable sparse landscapes, fiery visions of terror, and most bizarrely of all a poorly rendered CGI entrance sequence made of textureless 3D cubes. It’s an interesting but bland choice.
The action is very much handled in a competent way and can generate excitement almost without effort, but the stakes just never feel that high. Part of the problem is that the main emotional journey is for a brand new character. As stated before, the film is wary of making big changes to the mythology, which means all the conflict and tension is focussed on brand new and unfamiliar characters. It’s a fun enough piece of escapism with great vocal work (in both languages) and some nice visuals, but it comes across as more of a brief sidenote rather than something that deserved a feature length exploration.
BLEACH: THE MOVIE 4 – HELL VERSE is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 25th February.
