Director: Noriyuki Abe
Starring: Yuki Matsuoka, Johnny Yong Bosch, Fumiko Orikasa, Michelle Ruff,
Running Time: 275 minutes
Certificate: 12
Sometimes an anime just outstays its welcome. BLEACH is such an anime. Sure, it often gives us a great episode here and there, but it used to be that entire arcs would engross and entertain. Now it’s a never ending stream of characters given fights and stories that fail to be developed. Despite continuing on the story of Aizen’s attempt at power, BLEACH Season 11 was unbearable for the most part.
It started off promisingly with a bit of a lighter tone. We get to follow a few comedic shenanigans with earthbound characters that have been lost in the incessantly complicated narrative. The humour brings back moments of nostalgia when the cast of characters were a broad range of conflicting personalities that gelled despite their differences. After this distraction it’s back into boredom inducing fights. And fights are all you’ll get. Aizen and his team have attempted to take over Karakura town, but the Soul Society has created a fake version of that town, wherein they can battle Aizen without causing collateral damage. Rather than one battle being fought, the different sides split up and stage a number of fights around the faux town. This here is BLEACH’s biggest problem.
We could have had an emotionally engaging battle that means something, but instead the narrative constantly jumps around from fight to fight. The amount of characters is simply absurd, leaving none of them to breathe. For a show filled with action sequences it is simply unfathomable at how much pointless dialogue had been shoved into every episode. It gives rise to one of the most annoying and intolerable characters ever created in the form of Charlotte. A hulking man voiced terribly and littered with drag queen clichés. In fact, the focus on secondary characters is so extensive their lack of any sort of development is inexcusable.
BLEACH is simply dragging the carcass of a once great show as far as possible. These fights mean absolutely nothing and the lack of focus results in a cluttered and dull show. The end of this season highlights exactly how disrespectful the writers and producers of this show are to the fans. Just as our supposed protagonist arrives at his destination, the final three episodes are non-related filler. There is a beach party episode that involves fighting gigantic watermelon creatures. Why? Probably because the writers are looking for ways to extend this already stretched-out series. Even the narrators in the ‘Next Week On BLEACH’ segment point out how irritating and stupid it is to stray so far from the main plot. The prospect of more BLEACH to come used to be exciting, now it’s simply painful.
BLEACH Season 11 is released on DVD on 9th September via Manga Entertainment.
Check out more Anime news and reviews here!
