Bleach wasn't on my list of shows to check out this season but I'm now quite interested in it. I'm going to be totally out of sync with everyone else on this thread but well I've only just watched Episode 1 at the AnimeSuki IRC anime party today and I've never seen the manga, so you'll just have to bare with me and suffer my naivety.
I can see why a lot of people don't like the opening music; it sounds really erratic almost discordant at first and like your average "spoken" / "rapped" jpop immediately afterwards... however it is catchy and the second time around the chorus starts to grow on you... listen to it enough and you'll be finding yourself actually liking it.
The opening itself is quite nice too ... I'm not normally a fan of the style; but the bold lines and bright colours, reminiscent of a 70s American TV show, really grab the attention and mix well with the music. Luckily it doesn't stick with this though and the blend of styles and themes is actually interesting to watch, unlike a lot of shows I was quite content to watch the whole thing without feeling the need to skip it.
The opening is only a small part of a show, but I found this one did a good job of putting me in the right mood to receive what came next. After a few minutes I was getting the same feeling I got from Get Backers -- it looks like a serious show but with a strong current of comedy and a mix of characters that would be easy to get attached to -- this feeling didn't stop either. Right from the first few scenes I had an idea about what to expect from the show and it didn't disappoint.
I'm wasn't overly fond of the character designs for the main part -- Ichigo took a bit of getting used to... but there is a good mix of cute girls and chibi-esq moments in the mix to soften the atmosphere, again much like Get Backers. Of course, by the end of the show you're left with what I expect will be the design that carries him through to the end... and he did look quite cool in that outfit.
Which brings me to the premise of the show; for some reason I find it very appealing. All I can think is "cool idea"... although I don't know why, I'm not normally a fan of such shows. I'm looking forward to interesting plot developments. As I said, I've not read the manga... and while I'm not a fan of the genera I still hear good things about it so hopefully I won't be disappointed... given we don't know how long it will be yet, it would be a shame if were to end up like Naruto and become stale. If the style used in the fights so far continues I think I'll be able to deal with it
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