T5W#374-Top 5 Bleach Movies

Bleach fans rejoice, the long wait is finally over.  10 years after its Anime ended rather unceremoniously, one of the original Big Three has returned to finish the original Manga story in Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War.  I’ll be honest, I kind of stopped watching the Anime after the first break in the Arrancar War and stopped reading a little farther into the Manga afterwards.  Ergo, I cant exactly shine a light on Bleach’s best TV Moments.  However, I have seen all of the Bleach theatrical adventures (including the Live Action Feature).  I suppose that’s more than adequate for a Top 5 this week in honor of the return of one of the OG Big Three.  So I’m counting them down, these are the Top 5 Bleach Movies.

 
#5-Bleach: The Movie 3-Fade to Black

Fade to Black’s biggest weakness is its need to fall back on nostalgia for the early days of Bleach.  Rather than focus on the Rukia’s absence and the effect it has on Ichigo, Renji and Byakuya, the movie instead decides to recycle the old Ichigo has to fight the entire Soul Society arc that tries to harken back to Bleach’s earliest golden days.  It doesn’t help that the main antagonists aren’t memorable and the third act becomes another all out Shonen brawl, with Soul Reapers battling a giant tentacle monster, rather than an intimate showdown between Ichigo and a possessed Rukia.  The premise has potential but Fade to Black squanders it from beginning to end.

 
#4-Bleach (2018 Live Action)

Believe it or not, this isn’t the worst Live Action Anime.  It does a good job of fitting the first arc of the Manga into a two hour feature and is visually spot on, well cast and has some great action.  The problem is that the film is way too focused on exposition and world building that there’s hardly any action at all.  I wont say it’s boring, its surprisingly faithful to the source material.  But those wanting to see more of the epic fights the Anime and Manga are best known for will be woefully disappointed, or at least wishing what action there is would’ve been long and more abundant.  Otherwise, it’s far from say Fullmetal Alchemsit levels bad, especially in the visual effects department.

 
#3-Bleach: The Movie-Memories of Nobody

Bleach’s theatrical debut is pretty standard for a Shonen feature film.  It’s a stand alone story, whether its canon is up for debate, with one shot characters and lackluster villains.  Some of the action is decent but the best moments of the movie come from the brief but ultimately doomed friendship between Ichigo and newcomer Senna.  The pair go from bickering buddies to emotionally vulnerable plenty of times and it lends the film a surprising amount of heart.  Like I said though, this is passable, albeit standard Shonen filler stuff, not exactly the big win Bleach needed for its first big theatrical bow.

 
#2-Bleach: The Movie 2-The Diamond Dust Rebellion

To say Bleach has a huge cast is an understatement and each Soul Reaper is worthy of their own arc or movie.  Case in point, The Diamond Dust Rebellion centers on fan favorite Toshiro Hitsugaya, who is quickly accused of a crime he didn’t commit and sentenced to death (because youre either innocent or dead in the Soul Society’s eyes).  The movie is several steps above its predecessor for giving Toshiro a solid story and having much better and bigger action.  Naturally, everyone has to get involved in the finale, which takes away the spotlight from Toshiro for a little while.  As far as Bleach movies go though, this is the event film Memories of Nobody should have been.
 

#1-Bleach: The Movie 4-Hell Verse

As the last of the Bleach films (for now, we’ll see if we get more if the return goes well), Hell Verse seems to learn a lot from the mistakes of its predecessors.  There are bigger and more emotional stakes with Ichigo needing to save his younger sister from Hell itself.  The animation, action and drama are better than ever and, GASP, it doesn’t try to involve the entire Bleach cast in the final act?  Yeah, go figure how big a difference it makes toning down Ichigo’s big final duel when its turned into a mano a mano showdown.  Hell Verse takes a surprising amount of chances with its storytelling and while darker than previous films and TV story arcs, it’s so big its a tale that couldn’t be told as just another TV filler arc, it had to be a movie, and that’s the best sign you’ve done your Shonen Anime Movie right.