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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The history of Bleach, November 18, 2008
This review is from: Bleach SOULs. Official Character Book (Shonen Jump Profiles) (Paperback)
Tite Kubo's "Bleach" series spans dozens of volumes and multiple arcs, and it's still not finished in Japan.
So "Bleach SOULs: Official Character Book" is a convenient little handbook for the first twentysomething volumes of the series, covering the large cast of important characters, the settings, the concepts, and a wealth of fun trivia (Uryu Ishida's nickname is the "Four Eyed Sewing Machine"). Think of it as a sort of Cliff's Notes for the "Bleach" series.
First, we get a bunch of coloured pictures, ranging from Kon and Ichigo celebrating Christmas to a wild-eyed Ichigo about to unleash his bankai. Then we get into the serious stuff -- a truncated summary of each part of the storyline, divided into a bunch of little articles. He starts at the very first "Bleach" chapter, and follows the storyline up through the introduction of the arrancar.
And very time a character is introduced, we get a basic profile with some funny little asides ("Rukia's illustrations are kitschy and chic. She's good and bad?!"). And though most of the individual stories are not described, Kubo keeps in important character development (Chad's vow with Ichigo, Ichigo's guilt over his mother's death) and plot elements (the potential destruction caused by the Quincies). He even adds some details that could not be easily included in the story (such as Byakuya's ridiculously expensive scarf, and why he throws it at Renji).
But that's not all -- he provides detailed information abouyt Karakura town and its important locales (even ones we never see, like "Sunflower Sewing"), as well as the Soul Society's structure, hierarchy, and the reincarnation cycle for souls who end up there. There's also a chronological timeline, title chapter translations, manga panels and pages when illustration is needed, and Kubo and Ichigo's Japanese voice actor Masakazu Morita give a fun little interview.
Since much of this info is contained in the series, Kubo also sprinkles it with odd bits of trivia, such as Hitsugaya mentoring genial gatekeeper Jidanbo. And there's a fun conpendium near the end, with all sorts of wacky terms (for example, "Kurosaki Family Tombstone Domino Tournament." Apparently it makes the local priest crazy).
Aaaaaaannddddd... that's still not all.
Kubo also includes two backstory chapters. One has an ordinary day for Ichigo before the events of the series (crazy pals, sad ghosts, memory lapses). The other is sort of an earlier draft -- Ichigo is a little more laid-back (he gives bus tickets to the Soul Society!), the Hollows aren't quite as ghastly, and one of the main characters actually dies for real.
Additionally, Kubo includes some deliciously wacky little short comic strips, such as the "Bleach" cast posing as pirates, Byakuya doing a demonstration on cell phones, or Ichigo being nagged into wearing a Santa costume during the holidays. Even crazy scientist Mayuri gets in on the action ("All that's important is how funny you are once I stab you!" "He's talked about stabbing twice. Is that all right?!").
In short, the "Bleach SOULs. Official Character Book" is kind of like a manga cliff's notes -- good for investigating the series, summarizing the complex storylines, or just refreshing your memory. And the extras make it worth the read, even if you already know it all.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great!, December 3, 2008
This review is from: Bleach SOULs. Official Character Book (Shonen Jump Profiles) (Paperback)
This is a great item for any Bleach Fan. I haven't gotten through all of it yet (halfway there), but it's awesome.
It summarizes Volumes 1 to 21 by story arc, while giving brief character descriptions. It has snippets of the manga and some new parts not included elsewhere.
It's also very well translated, and I've only found one error so far (Ikkaku taught Renji to fight, not the other way around like it states here. It's a translation error, I assume).
The stickers and color pictures are a great added bonus, including the mini fold out poster, for those who don't mind the creases and will put it up.
Well worth the price and quite a treat for any fan.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great guide to a universe of numerous characters and names!, September 10, 2009
This review is from: Bleach SOULs. Official Character Book (Shonen Jump Profiles) (Paperback)
The Official Character Book to Bleach is a nice buy for fans of the manga as well as the anime. I myself only own a few manga volumes (Tank'bon) as I'd rather watch the story instead of reading it. If I hear the anime follows the manga, then I am usually in favor of that anime, because I think there is a lot one can miss when just reading the story via the manga.
This book, done in manga style, reads left to right, actually has some of the Bleach panels inside, and the overall book gives a run down of the first 21 volumes of Bleach. There are two main styles, as I have grown to call them) in this book. The first is a character profile, which shows a drawing of that character and other information such as birthday and their zanpaku-to's name. Some characters like Ichigo appear many times throughout the book. Secondly, some of the pages have a black background with white writing, and instead of focusing on characters it will focus on parts of the story instead.
If you are a big fan of the anime like myself then I would recommend getting this book. Now that the first three uncut box sets are out, that follows the first 21 manga volumes, then this book will act as a guide. You could read this book along with watching the episodes to help fill in any information you may have missed while watching the anime. Or you could read this book after watching the first three box sets, like I did, to help refresh all that had happened. I was quit surprised that I did miss a lot of things in the anime that I got out of this book!
Another reason why I recommend this to fans of the anime is because there is a lot of stuff that happens in Bleach! You have the main characters, and then you have all the 12 Captains and even a lot of members of the squads that make it into the storyline. That is a lot of people to remember! When the story leads into special moves, like kido spells, and zanpaku-to names, it's easy to forget which character can perform which move (especially gets complicated with bankai!)! One more thing that this book has helped me with is the actual names of the people. Some other animes that I have watched (like Naruto and DBZ) have easy names to remember. The names in Bleach, to me at least, seem harder to pronounce and to remember. So if I was reading this book I would definitely get tripped up on a lot of the names, but after watching the anime and then reading this book, I can almost fly through the 300+ pages with ease.
Overall this Bleach Character Guide is well done. Besides getting a refresher (and really if you haven't read the manga or watched the anime buying this book would be pointless), the book also has other short stories, guides to kido spells, an interview with creator Tite Kubo, as well as a poster (that is actually kind of hard to get out of the book!) and stickers! If you're a fan of the anime and or manga, shill out the cash to get this - you won't regret it!
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