Customer Reviews

Bleach Box Set (Vol. 1-21)

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This box set covers volume 1-21 of the Manga series: Bleach. I won't go into detail about the plot of the manga but the box set itself instead. The quality of the carrying case is surprisingly good - the cardboard is sturdy and is a good size for storing on a bookshelf if needed. The poster and the collector's booklet is neat but nothing special. The collector's booklet gives you a map of Karakura Town, labeling where the character's live and the major landmarks of the town. There are a few pages dedicated to the 'Explanation Of The Soul Society' and the 'Explanation of Soul Reapers' (explains shikai/bankai, fighting styles, kido spells, etc). Then there is 'The Ryoka's Guide to the Soul Society' (meant for visitors who enter the Soul Society illegally). The last page features Q&A's with the manga-ka, Kubo Tite.

Overall, it's good box set. Amazon's price for all 21 volumes is pretty reasonable too, considering a book alone costs $7.95.

Ichigo "Strawberry" Kurosaki is just your average teenage boy... except that he can see spirits wherever he goes.

So it's not exactly surprising that he gets involved in wild, dangerous adventures from the very start of Tite Kubo's "Bleach." And while the series starts small, it rapidly blossoms into an epic action series that spans the worlds of the living and the dead. This twenty-one volume boxed set is filled with blood-spattered action, kooky comedy, and a likable spiky-haired hero.

One night a strange girl named Rukia appears in Ichigo's bedroom, and is shocked when he can see her. She explains that she's a Soul Reaper, who helps the dead pass on to the Soul Society, and purifies evil spirits called Hollows. But when Rukia is injured in a fight with a Hollow, all her powers are transferred to Ichigo -- and with them, the responsibility of killing Hollows all over his town.

Ichigo soon finds that it isn't easy juggling his new responsibilities with his everyday life -- especially since the powerless Rukia is now attending his school, and living in his closet. Even more distressing, his new powers are attracting all sorts of trouble, and are causing his schoolmates Chad and Orihime to develop their own powers, as well as attracting the interest of Uryu Ishida, last of the Soul Reapers' sworn enemies.

After an epic battle with a skyscraper-sized Hollow, two Soul Reaper officers appear to arrest Rukia -- and leave Ichigo powerless and almost dead. To regain his powers, Ichigo undergoes a horrific, near-lethal training with the mysterious shopkeeper Urahara, and sets off into the Soul Society with Uryu, Orihime, Chad and talking cat Yoruichi. But as soon as they arrive, they find that the Soul Society is no paradise -- it's a dangerous place patrolled by skilled, deadly Soul Reapers. To infiltrate the Seireitei citadel, the little gang will have to blast their way in.

Then one of the Soul Reaper captains is brutally murdered, and the intruders are the main suspects. As the citadel falls into chaos, our heroes face increasingly powerful opponents. Ichigo finds that to save Rukia, he will need to gain a level of power that few Soul Reapers can manage in their entire lives so he can defeat her icy brother Byakuya... but saving Rukia won't stop the sinister forces at work.

Twenty-one volumes of a manga can take you pretty far -- heck, it's longer than many series in total. But in the case of Bleach, it includes only two arcs of the still-running series -- and it has that magical mix of complex plot, kinetic action, likable characters and kooky comedy. Not only does it click, but the results are sort of a mad hybrid of "Yu Yu Hakusho" and "Inuyasha."

Admittedly sometimes the series drags, particularly when Kubo chronicles simultaneous fights in detail -- it can take chapters and chapters to get through one fight. To keep us entertained, Kubo fills it with bloodsoaked action, monsters, impalements, giant magical swords, spirit arrows and an army of lethal warriors whose swords hold amazing powers. Flower petal shrapnel, skeletal serpents, gigantic energy bows, little fairies and other such powers make appearances.

While the first arc is a pretty straightforward affair, Kubo rapidly turns the second one from a good-guys-infiltrate-enemy-base story into a vast, complex conspiracy where nothing -- not even life and death -- is what it seems -- friends may turn against you, and foes may not be all that bad. And Kubo injects some truly poignant moments into the overall series, such as Orihime's farewell to her beloved brother.

But despite all the action and conspiracy, Kubo never forgets to include some comedy as well -- some from the lecherous stuffed animal Kon, and some from Ichigo's kooky family ("GOOD MORNING ICHIGO!") and friends. And it turns out that the Soul Reapers are almost as weird as the regular people -- for example, a raging narcissist wants to kill an ally of Ichigo's because the guy is too ugly to live, in his opinion.

Like many a good anime hero, Ichigo is rough, brash, kindly and fights for those he loves. And he really struggles in these stories -- he repeatedly gets stabbed, impaled, slashed, almost bleeds to death and develops a berserk evil side. But Kubo is all too happy to have fun with him -- such as Ichigo's comical reaction when he sees Yoruichi naked.

He's backed by a colourful little squad -- the silent giant Chad, the chilly archer Uryu, and the lovably flaky Orihime, all with their own flaws and tragedies. There's also dozens of Soul Reapers ranging from child geniuses to mad scientists, from fight-loving sociopaths to gentle tuberculosis-suffering captains. Some of them even get their personal history explored, such as Byakuya's bittersweet past and the rough-edged Renji's background as a street urchin.

The first twenty-one volumes of "Bleach" span only two arcs of the series -- a straightforward monster-slaying one, and an intricate bloodsoaked conspiracy story. And when it's over, you'll only be left reaching for the next volume.

This is a great deal for those that are a fan of the Bleach series. I wish more manga titles would follow this manga's lead and start selling them as a box set instead of buying them one by one.

Not so long ago my husband watched episodes from an Anime series that was new to him. At that time I had no idea what it was when I noticed it for the first time when I was passing by through the living room. The artwork immediately got my attention. I hate the extreme Manga style showing people with huge eyes and piggy bank lips. I especially dislike the habit of putting girl faces on women`s bodies and dress them in silly school uniforms. Afterwards the writers often seem to have trouble to make their minds up if these are actually girls or women.

But this time, I found the artwork actually beautiful and intriguing. This was still typical Manga or Anime in many ways but the extremes were toned down in a way I found attractive and interesting to look at. But my timing was unfortunate. Having a dad kicking his son across the room and shouting at each other while the artwork changed into a very abstract style spoiled it for me and when I paid more attention next time it was during a fight involving a character who looked so much like the typical Anime brute that I didn`t stick around for long again.

Therefore my passion for Bleach was definitely not love at first sight. In spite of my bad first impressions my husband was insistent and asked me one day to stay and try to look past the quirks this series has. Now I am grateful that my husband`s colleague introduced him to Bleach and that my husband, who knows what I actually like, got me to give the series a real chance. I must admit, there are still some of these over-the- top moments when I just roll my eyes and I still can`t stand this stupid talking teddy bear but these scenes don`t happen often and sometimes I can`t help it: The exaggeration can make these humorous scenes actually more funny!

The more I watched Bleach the more I was amazed how complex this series actually is. It is a very impressive example of world building. The Bleach universe has a LOT of different layers and elements I find fascinating to explore. It is continually growing and evolving, building on what happened before and providing new surprises. Bleach is an ongoing series that has to date more than 200 episodes and three movies. I started to become a fan when my husband had nearly reached episode 70. It didn`t put me off, the contrary. Of course I didn`t know all the background when I started to get seriously interested but I still understood what the main story thread was about.

But I think in order to really appreciate Bleach you should watch it from the beginning. I definitely understood a lot more and also noticed some subtle fineries for the first time when I watched episodes again. You can watch Bleach and just enjoy the action, the amazing and sometimes breath taking fantasy fight scenes, the humour, the music and the strong friendship between the main characters. Bleach is definitely entertaining but to me it is much more than that.

Not only has Bleach a very sophisticated universe, it also has a rich variety of characters who also have layers that are very complex when you look closely. Some of them are very interesting indeed. It didn`t take long and I developed very close bonds with some of these fictional characters. The same applies to my daughter who loves this series as well.

My six-year-old loves science fiction and fantasy, as we do. We let her watch Doctor Who under supervision but not Torchwood. In this case, we decided to let her watch Bleach under supervision but not D.Gray-Man, which is excellent too, a different series with similar ideas but in many ways darker than Bleach. Her favourite character is the main female character called Rukia. She is a warrior, a strong but also very feminine character I also like very much. My favourite character is Ishida, the Quincy. He is the "nerd" of the group of friends, socially awkward and extremely intelligent. He isn`t particularly strong, certainly not physically but makes up for it by outthinking his opponents. Ishida is one of the most complex characters and a lot of his history is still waiting to be explored in much more depth and detail.

I like it very much that men and women are treated as equals in the series. Women are no less diverse, strong and interesting than the men. I also like it that the series also shows strong people who are not warriors, who lack the "killer instinct", but who are no less important and valued, well, not by everyone but Bleach does a good job of challenging these prejudices especially warrior characters have sometimes as well as the idea of nobility and class. There are good character stories dealing with what is the law and what is actually right, about when not to follow orders, when to stand up for what you think is right even when doing so is not only difficult but even dangerous. I found it very interesting that one of the captains and therefore one of the strongest fighters is a man who also battles a chronic and it seems incurable illness he has since birth.

When I started to explore what is available I was amazed to discover how big Bleach actually is. The variety of merchandise is amazing. One of the first things I bought are the Bleach art books, soundtracks and the Manga books. Therefore I read the books after having watched the series and I discovered that there are scenes in the books that are not in the episodes as well as the other way round. Sometimes the books have more character scenes and also darker versions of scenes that seemed to have been toned down for the TV audience. I found it interesting to compare both.

This 21 books box set is covering the first three Bleach Anime seasons which is the whole Soul Society chapter.

The Bleach set came in a boxed set, was immaculate and was a great gift. Shipping has been right on time.

I highly recommend the Bleach mangas to any teen or adult interested in mangas. The story is interesting and intriguing and the art is gorgeous. A great over all manga series. Not hard to see why it has won the awards it has. The anime is great as well. But if you're a fan of the anime you can't miss the mangas, there are great details they can't incorporate in the shows.

The quality of the art box, and the amazing deal make this a great buy! Though, I have to say the manga series as a whole starts to lose steam after book 12 or so, anyway, I'd have to say that if you like Bleach it's a great deal!

I love Bleach, both the anime and the manga. I have only ever read the online translations that people do on their own computers. Because of that I was expecting a far more literal translation like the online ones. I don't want anyone to get the idea that I don't like these books because they beat having to read on a computer screen. I have listed all the things I think are wrong in just the first book because I don't want this review to be horribly long.

The Japanese title for the first volume is "The Death and the Strawberry" That was written on the cover in English, so there should have been no reason to change it to "Strawberry and the Soul Reaper" but they did anyway.

Ichigo's name is pronounced the same way as the word that means strawberry in Japanese, but strawberry was never his nickname. In this version it is, and people call him "Strawberry" on a regular basis. This removes the possibility of the jokes where his friends call him strawberry later in the series.

When Chad indroduces himself he calls himself Yasutora Chad. But his name in the Japanese version is Yasutora Sado, and only Ichigo calls him Chad.

Orihime's name can be shortened to Hime, which in Japanese means princess. But when Chizuru Honshou (the girl with a massive crush on Orihime) calls her Hime it is simply translated to princess with no explanation. So you wouldn't know how the word princess was connected to her name unless you had a very good understanding of the Japanese language.

There are honorifics in the Japanese language that are added to the ends of names to show the relationship between the people talking. For example: Orihime does not call Ichigo by his first name, she calls him Kurosaki-kun. And he calls her Inoue, her last name. In this version they just call each other by their first names. There are other more funny things such as later when Kon introduces himself he calls himself Kon-sama. That is funny because it would be like if he had he called himself sir or lord. Little things like that are lost when the honorifics are left out. I also don't think it would have been that hard to simply leave them in.

The most annoying thing though is that every few pages there is an arrow pointing left with a caption say: "read this way" As though the cover being on the other side, and the fact that you have been reading that way the whole time wasn't a clue.

I have read the whole first arc that is teh sould society arc and after reading it I concluded that Bleach is one of the best manga around. The storyline is flawless. It had hidden secrets and mystery. I was desperate to get to the next page. An extremel addictive series. The first arc (which is vol 1-21) is the bes part of teh story. I started reading the second arc but gave up by chapter 289 because it can't realy match p to the first arc.

Wow, I really enjoyed these books. At first I was a little skeptical as to how I felt about these, but as the books progressed, I found myself wanting to read them more and more. I can't wait to start the next books that aren't included in this set!