Bleach: The Movie 4-Hell Verse

In Hell, a group of disgraced warriors known as The Sinners have discovered the key to escaping eternal torment: Substitute Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki.  A surprise attack from The Sinners results in the capture of Ichigo’s sister, Yuzu.  Aided by a shady ally, Ichigo and his friends descend into Hell itself, a realm even Soul Reapers are unable to enter.  Ichigo is in for the battle of his life as he takes on powerful new opponents as well as his own dark inner abilities: those same abilities that The Sinners could use to escape and bring Hell to Earth.

Bleach: The Movie 4-Hell Verse marks the 10^th Anniversary of the Bleach Franchise, from where the manga began in 2001. With that kind of milestone in mind, you know you have to go a bit beyond what’s come before and deliver on some high expectations.  And while I do think it is a mixed bag, Hell Verse does manage to look back at the previous three films and correct a lot of the missteps they took. 

 

It’s actually a little strange Bleach never sent Ichigo into Hell itself by this point.  I guess places like Hueco Mundo, where Ichigo and friends spent entire arcs battling the same foes, was more of a Purgatory.  At first Hell seems a lot less fire and brimstone and more like a digital foundation for a video game.  When you get deeper in, that’s then the more recognizable concepts come into play.  I did get a strange feeling of “Berserk” at various points of Hell Verse with the level of intensity and despair inflicted on Ichigo and his comrades but it never gets that bad…if anything the uneasiness I felt served to enhance that this was probably the most dire battle ever waged by the Substitute Soul Reaper.  Darker might not always equal better but it gave Hell Verse the urgency needed to be an event level feature.

 

(Brief side note: In college, I watched  a film called “Accepted” with my dormmates and they tried to make a drinking game out of it by taking a shot every time the word “College” was spoken…they stopped in the first few minutes when in one scene alone “college” was said like 15 times in 20 seconds.  A word of warning DON’T TRY THIS WITH HELL VERSE!!! Seriously, I get that Hell is the setting and the main subject but how many times can you say it before someone makes a youtube video counting how many times everyone says it?)

 

Ok back to the review, this is probably the second best of the Bleach feature films.  The action feels more cinematic than ever before, especially during Ichigo’s clash with the second to last boss and the opening prologue highlighting one of Bleach’s most infamous and intense battles.  What’s more, many of my complaints from previous films have been heard.  For once, the movie sticks to a select group of characters getting involved in events.  In this case, it’s kind of back to basics focusing on Ichigo’s starting lineup of warrior allies: Rukia, Urryu, Renji, Orhimie…and even useless Chad (I don’t like Chad).  It was a huge breath of fresh air to keep the action mostly on them and not call upon an army of reinforcements to win the day.  Sure The Soul Reapers do show up and that does lead to a very touching scene between Ichigo and Byakuya (if you know where they started in the series you’d know why this was a good scene).  But the final battle is mano y mano without the need to have everyone show off their special attacks or get their 10 seconds of screen time.  And that’s absolutely for the best since Hell Verse is all about Ichigo saving his younger sister from the clutches of Hell.  How far will he go and how deep will he need to tap into his inner demon powers?  Will he destroy Hell itself and make things worse?  Ichigo is struggling and Johnny Yong Bosch gives his best performance emphasizing this in the English Dub.  Even if the villains, again, never become important parts of the Bleach pantheon, the characters giving their all to stop them is worthy of note.

 

Bleach: The Movie 4-Hell Verse does everything a movie should with a long running Shonen Anime franchise: the stakes are higher than before, the story feels darker and more urgent, the characters are put through their paces-battling themselves as well as their enemies, and the art department is giving their all to the presentation and coming out on top…naturally the action soars as well.  I probably like Move 2 a bit better because I like Toshiro a little more than Ichigo but I didn’t expect Hell Verse to have a chance at matching it at all after the stumble that was Fade to Black.  The darker descent into Hell might not have been an ideal approach but Hell Verse did succeed in it too.  For what seems to be the last film of the Bleach Film Franchise (at least in Anime form) this wasn’t a bad note to go out on.

 

8/10

 

With that, a month of Bleach films comes to an end.  Next week it’s back to school to deal with another God like entity…a High School Girl who will get you to do whatever she wants whether it’s illegal or not.  Yep, SHE has finally come to the Gundam Anime Corner.  The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya begins next Monday.  See ya then.