Bleach...

Writted by: Demius

Bleach Anime Episodes 1-100

Bleach, like Naruto, is an incredibly popular manga franchise that has originated from the Shonen Jump manga collection. Like almost all other mangas from Shonen Jump, Bleach has proved itself to be extremely successful and in 2005, finally made it to the anime stage. Over the last few years, Bleach has become a phenomenon on a similar scale to that of Naruto. It is a scale that has only been reached by some of the greatest anime series of all time.

For those that have read the manga Shaman King, Bleach will be, in some ways, familiar.
Bleach is about a rather contained high-school teenager Kurosaki Ichigo. Since he was little, Ichigo has had the ability to see and interact with spirits, ghosts and other worldly entities. Though he takes this ability seriously, he does not see it as a big deal. That is until the day when he sees a huge, demonic monster appears with the intention to kill him. Ichigo is saved by a mysterious warrior called Kuchiki Rukia appears out of nowhere and destroys the monster. Later on, Ichigo discovers that Rukia is ‘Death God’ or a ‘Soul Reaper’ and that she comes from a world in between Heaven and Earth called the Soul Society, a world where people like Rukia grow up to become Soul Reapers that exist to destroy the demonic spirits called Hollows. After a very powerful Hollow shows up and threatens the life of Ichigo’s family, Rukia gives her powers to Ichigo as a last resort and Ichigo himself discovers in inner powers as a Death God. Ichigo saves his family and the events that follow not only have fantastically powerful plot twists, battle scenes and brilliant characters.
Ichigo’s adventures will lead him through the ghastly activities of the real world, the mysterious culture of the Soul Society and a war against an otherworldly army. All woven brilliantly.

Voice acting is perfect. Like the Japanese acting in Naruto, the picked the right people for the right parts. Their clarity is clear, tone of voice spot on and they really add the dramas/comedy to every aspect of their character. Immaculate. Bleach is coming to the west very soon and we are hoping that they do a better job with the subbing than Naruto did.

What is a very big surprise is that over the course of all the currently aired 100 episodes, Bleach has only included around five fillers. Five. That is a huge relief since fillers in animes, especially Naruto, often spoil series and are really a waste of time. Thankfully the fillers that have been aired have been of fairly good standard in terms of story and they are not squashed together like the ones in other animes.

The manga of Bleach has not reached western shores yet, but it is expected that the series, especially with the very small amount of fillers, will follow the story very accurately. And what a story. The balance of action/comedy like seen in Naruto is still present, but it is on a smaller scale since Bleach is more of a drama than the action series that Naruto is.
Bleach knows how to bring a tear to your eye, make your heart pump out unnecessary amounts of blood and have you really feel or oppose the characters.

The characters are extremely believable, despite the fact that many of them bear special abilities. You soon meet the quiet but strong-hearted Chad, a classmate of Ichigo who posses incredible physical strength. Inoue is cheerful and spirited girl who also goes to class with Ichigo and is able to call out six small spirits that make up her soul to help her do battle. You soon find out that there are many more secret communities other than that of the Death Gods and Uryuu Ishida is the first person to reveal that fact. He is Quincy, a group of warrior that the Death Gods almost wiped out but now survive only now in Ishida, who uses the power of his soul to fire magical arrows at his foes. He is also very intelligent and with his very shiny glasses and sowing skills, brings the word ‘cool’ to Nerd.
But Soul Society is where many of you will most likely find your favourite characters. Many of them Death Gods, they all if capture your attention or even your heart at some point, be it the bloody thirsty Zaraki, red-hot-head Renji, the sexy Sio Fon or the cold, silent Byukkuya.
Exceptional characters that are all varied in some form or manner and are possible the best in any anime.

Anime soundtracks have often been acclaimed to be of exceptional standard and Bleach is right up there alongside Naruto’s rock-and-roll ballads.
Opening themes are varied lots, each with suiting the arc of which the series would have reached. ‘Asterisk’ is the first opening and is a nice blend of hip-hop, rap and light rock. ‘D-Techno’ is a dynamic pop song performed by UverWorld that contains great lyrics and a lovely rhythmic pop beat that is very traditional for animes. High and Mighty colour sing ‘Ichirin no Hara’ which is easily classified as the best songs in the Bleach series. The song uses electric guitars to the full and with a fantastic male verse and female chorus vocals; it can rightfully be claimed as the flagship theme of the series.
Past the openings you are greeted with quietly played background music, which is often a cheerful hip-hop mix. When the drama sets in violins resound and drums crash to spray the magnitude of the story at your heart. Vocals are used lots as well in both uplifting battle themes and moody confrontations.
The ending themes surprisingly use lots of English in them though they still keep the Japanese lyrics in as well. As usual, ending themes are slow, peaceful songs that help you settle down after the climax of the episode. Though some of the better ones are the hip-hop/rock endings ‘My Pace’ and ‘Happy People’ which provide a new edge to ending the show.

Graphically, Bleach is traditionally crafted to look like a normal, bold-looking animation. Though the detail is great and picture clarity excellent, Bleach is very graphic.
Naruto got it just right with the right amounts of blood spilling at the right times. Bleach on the other hand, will give a character a serious wound they will bleed for the next few minutes or so will non-stop cascades of red liquid. They will often cough up a few times as well and there will even be limb-loss, in which the blood on screen will be screen-filling. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but bear in mind that it will limit the appeal of Bleach to middle-aged teens and over as well as those who are not faint-hearted.
Thankfully, all the other anime elements are still in place as well as great light and sound effects, CG and great camera angles. You cannot fault any Japanese animation for doing that. Especially ‘…’ *sweat drop*.

[b]Story: 8.5/10[/b]

Excellently strung together with little filler, great characters and emotional story arcs. However, animes of demons, ghosts and supernatural have been done many times before and therefore Bleach’s storyline cannot be classified as totally original.

[b]Voice Acting: 9.5/10 [/b]

Excellent acting with great clarity, dramatisation and comedy done with equal fervour. Possibly the best voice acting done in a manga yet.

[b]Music: 9/10[/b]

Brilliantly done with excellent variation of genres and beats. Background music is kept nicely quiet whilst the battle themes rock your TV with the skeletal guitars and bass. Superb.

[b]Animation: 8/10[/b]


Kept traditional so nothing has gone wrong in general though the excess of blood may narrow down the appeal of the series.


Though Bleach may not have been around for as long as Naruto or DBZ, it has had a very fast a huge success. Amazing characters, deep story line and emotional drama make Bleach one of the best recent animes. And with the manga and the anime show coming to the west very soon, the popularity of it will inevitably grow and grow. It is still a rising anime so watch it now because it is getting very interesting.

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Naruto...

Written by : Demius

Genre: Action/Fantasy
Channels/Sites: Jetstream/ Tokyo TV / www.youtube.com / www.douliedbz.net
Certificate: 12A/PG13

Naruto. Not only one of the greatest and best-selling mangas in the world, but now it has spawned a TV series which hope to follow in its footsteps.
It is now a fast-paced anime about ninjas, friendship and conspiracy.

If any of you have ever read the manga (that should be quite a few), then you will be delighted to hear that almost nothing from the manga has changed, or been lost in it’s transition to the TV.
For those that have not read the manga a brief summary.

“The story of Naruto takes place in another world where ninjas are the ultimate power. In the village of Konohagakure live some of the stealthiest and most respected ninjas in the land. But 12 years prior, Konohagakure faced a fearsome threat - a nine-tailed fox demon, which terrorized the village and caused massive destruction before it was finally defeated. The Hokage, the village leader and most powerful ninja, was able to subdue the fox by sealing its soul inside the body of an orphaned baby boy. Now that boy, Uzumaki Naruto, has grown up to become a ninja-in-training, learning the art of ninjutsu with his classmates Sakura and Sasuke. The trio of student ninjas study under the instruction of their teacher, Kakashi. With Kakashi, the group faces a series of dangerous and daunting tests and challenges. Through their adventures, the young ninjas learn the importance of friendship, teamwork, loyalty, hard work, creativity, ingenuity, and right vs. wrong.”

That pretty much summarizes the story. The commercial has been used since it is official, effective, and one of the simpler ways to explain the story and plot at length.

Now the voice acting is either great or rather bad. The Japanese can really do the job well and provide an excellent quality to the anime, doing the franchise justice. The Americans on the other hand are not exactly the best with the voices. Sure it is not like they are abysmal but after watching the pure quality of the Japanese voice-overs, it occurs that they are in both completely different leagues.
If you do watch the Japanese version of the anime, then you are watching the absolute highest quality of the anime with some great voice acting. Opt for the more understandable, though less brilliant American dubs, then you may not be watching the anime at its peak. *Make sure you have subtitles with the Japanese version!

Episodes 1-50 in the anime are equivalent to the first 8 volumes in the manga. The episodes are about 20 minutes long themselves.
In these first 50 episodes, there is a huge amount going on. You are introduced to the world in which the characters live in, Naruto’s life and his friends Sakura and Sasuke. This world is very much like the days of Feudal Japan. Medieval eastern culture is mass and ninja’s are widespread through the land. Naruto lives in Konohagakure, a peaceful green ninja village referred to as the Hidden Village of Leaf. Naruto, having a demon sealed inside his body for his whole has made things difficult for him since that he is scorned by the youngsters an looked down upon by the elders. Naruto, harboring a huge desire to be acknowledged by his people and to become the Hokage, the most powerful and well-respected member of ninjas. Early on we see him grow on many characters, most of which are his classmates Sakura and Sasuke, who both learn to respect him.

Surprisingly, very early on in the series sagas of different events occur which, not only are extremely closely follow the manga, are even more exciting to watch. Most notably, episode 12-19 feature an emotional and epic revalations in the Mist Country and two warriors known as Haku and Zabuza. I will most certainly not spoil the events that occur in this brilliant set of episodes for those that have not seen them, but let me assure you that tears will flow from your eyes, your heart will pound at the excitement and your mind will completely tossed around in the drama.
The company that distributes the anime, Dattebayo, have used some sort of genius to balance the dramatic sagas with blooper episodes full of hilarious comedy with, guarantees that your liver with receive damage from laughter at the comics involved. Nearing the end of the first 50 episodes, we come to the start of a very important set of story developments with Chunnin Exams, a set of tests where ninja from all over the world come to prove that they can graduate past their mediocre rank of Gennin. To put this all into one phrase: the episodes of the Naruto anime are laid out in brilliant fashion and perfectly set the balance of story-related episodes and sub-story episodes.

The art is done in traditional anime style with all the text book measures crossed and checked. Solid artwork based of the fantastic work of Masashi Kishimoto and all beautifully converted from manga to anime. Notable additions however are the increase of how graphic the blood is. Though not overly frequent like DBZ is, it is a lot more realistic than even portrayed in the manga and when it does spill a great sense of tension will grip your chest and raise your hairs on end. CG and computer animation is occasionally used for attacks and special feature and though not particularly special, they are eye-pleasing to say the least. All in all, nothing to fault with the artwork though it lacks a huge aura of originality that Ghost in the Shell or Spirited away carried.

[b]Story: 9/10 – Perfectly follows the manga and tells the story of one the most popular and greatest animes today. [/b]

[b]Voice Acting: 7.5/10 – It varies depending on the dubbing. The original Japanese version is fantastic and separates each character down to their personality which would have scored a 9, but the American translations are somewhat amateurish and not enough effort was given in so therefore it puts it down to a 6 so 7.5 is the best given. [/b]

[b]Animation: 8.5/10 – Very solid and moves fluently. Nothing extremely special but the fact that it is incorporated in such a way makes it stand quite a bit above the ordinary mangas.[/b]

Excellent in many aspects of the genre, the Naruto anime is still climbing through the ranks and already has earned its position as a much respected anime. The voice acting and transition from Japan to the west has faltered the acting of the series, but it is of little hindrance to huge a phenomenal series.

[b]Overall: 91/100 [/b]

This review was brought to you by Demius.

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A Love Hina introduction

Written by: Buncy the Frog

Ah, Love Hina, the reason for my existence today. Love Hina was one of the first anime's I watched, until recently, one of the only.

Love Hina is set in Hinata, Japan, as the first episode starts the main character, Keitaro Urashima, is remembering his times with a old childhood friend, who is basically nameless and (almost) faceless. She says that if two that love each other get into Tokyo U (Toudai for short), a very prestigious university they'll live happily together. The girl then moves away, yelling back at the young Keitaro to remember their promise to each other to get into the university.

We then meet Keitaro as he is today, being accepted to the university and meeting his love. A couple of pictures come afterwards, showing their life together, which of course ends in marriage, and that, is Love Hina. Oh wait, but that was just a fantasy. Keitaro really has failed the entrance exams multiple times and is almost giving up hope. He decides to move in with his aunt who has a hotel in Hinata. He arrives and everything goes well, it even has a hot spring! But his calm is shattered when a young lady walks into the bath, mistaking him for someone she knows. After a heated chase and discussion, Keitaro realizes that the hotel has been turned into an all girls dorm! The inn, needing a Kanrinin (or manager), takes him in on the misunderstanding that he is currently attending Toudai.
Along the way, some more characters are introduced as we watch the development of Keitaro's relationships with the fellow dormers, most of all Naru Narusegawa (the other main character who he met in the hot spring). Now, you know the basic storyline and how it started, it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty. This series, I must admit, is really focused towards the guys, as there are many risqué situations in which Keitaro gets himself into. The storyline is pretty predictable with a few twists, but is extremely addictive anyway. The quality is typical anime style, with detailed characters being reduced to a few hectic lines at points. Voicing is good for the Japanese edition, although I really can't be a good judge of that, and the English version is just plain bad. Watch the series first as Japanese and then with English and you'll see my point. Over all, it is a good series.

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