Bleach (live-action movie)

[Mad Pierrot]

Since it has already been released on Netflix, I wonder if people wanna talk about the new Bleach liveaction film.

Premise:
Ichigo Kurosaki is a teenager from Karakura Town who can see ghosts, a talent which lets him meet Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper whose mission is to ushering the souls of the dead from the World of the Living to the Soul Society while fighting Hollows, monstrous lost souls who can harm both ghosts and humans. When Rukia is severely wounded defending Ichigo and his family from a Hollow she is pursuing, she transfers her powers to Ichigo so that he may fight instead of her, while she recovers her strength. But Ichigo finds himself in a fight beyond imagination as he contends with both a pair of Soul Reapers sent to retrieve Rukia against her will and the monstrous Hollow known as Grand Fisher.
The main actors are:

* Sota Fukushi as Ichigo Kurosaki, a high school student who becomes a Soul Reaper after receiving powers from an injured Soul Reaper.
* Hana Sugisaki as Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper who is forced to forfeit her powers after being injured while hunting the Hollow, Fishbone D.
* Erina Mano as Orihime Inoue, Ichigo's classmate.
* Ryo Yoshizawa as Uryū Ishida, a Quincy who is Ichigo's classmate
* Yu Koyanagi as Yasutora "Chad" Sado, Ichigo's classmate.
* Taichi Saotome as Renji Abarai, a Soul Reaper and the Squad Six's lieutenant who is sent to retrieve Rukia.
* Miyavi as Byakuya Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper who is Rukia's brother-in-law and the Squad Six's Captain of the Gotei 13
* Seiichi Tanabe as Kisuke Urahara, the mysterious owner of Urahara Shop.
* Yōsuke Eguchi as Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo's father.

The entire text and image were taken from Wikipedia. Now comment!

[Kuroageha]

I'm confused and curious but also reluctant to try it.

[Mad Pierrot]

Okay, I'll give my spoiler-less analysis.

The two main actors managed to pull a nice performance becoming very likable but didn't become that close to their original counterparts. For example, Ichigo is far friendlier in contrast to the his original persona who was a bit reluctant hero. In contrast to the manga, Ichigo performs good kenjutsu during a scene but sadly there is not enough scenes to feature this. Uryu is also more likable but he gets little screentime despite providing a lot to help.

Renji is probably the closest to his manga incarnation but his appearance might not look like the best. Byakuya is Byakuya but with a style of Vergil from Devil May Cry 3 based on the way he fights.

Sado and Orihime probably got the worst treatment. While they appear, they barely say anything important or do something for the plot. The Kurosaki family also barely appear and the Grand Fisher's past in not explored too much.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Just saw it last weekend and it's.........decent. It's not bad enough to be offensive to the original work (or offend most of the fans), but it's also not good enough to be put among the great animanga live-action adaptations like Rurouni Kenshin, Yatterman, Blade of the Immortal, etc. The direction is rather bland and the cinematography is weak, but the sword-fight choreo between Ichigo & Renji is quite good. The hollows look good too. The actors gave it their all and many of them work considering what they were given. But maybe the one playing Rukia is a little bit too stiff. I know Rukia isn't the most flexible person early in the story, but there's something stiffer about the actress' portrayal here.

I'm just disappointed that the adaptation practically abandoned parts of the first Karakura Arc where Chad & Orihime get deeper development. Orihime doesn't even get to talk about her brother at all. Ori was just there in few scenes worrying about Ichigo while Chad gets to help very very little.

Since the movie is required to be judged on its own, I have some questions:
Spoiler time:

Spoiler for plot points:

So....why Renji (& Byakuya) didn't outright finish off Uryu who was just lying there after the final battle if they have the desire to kill him? Even if Renji & Byaku decided to just ignore Uryu, how did Uryu survive the stab to the chest and loking 100% okay the next morning?

Also, now that Rukia has gone to soul society facing her punishment, I assume that the movie will never do Orihime's story involving his brother and Chad's story that involve the bird. A shame because those stories can easily become the highlight of this first LA movie.

[Okoy09]

I really enjoyed seeing this action movie and was very much overwhelmed by the star cast. Entire team did great work. But nowadays I am more interested in the shows by Andy Yeatman. They are perfect for our entire family show-time. It feels so nice to watch the shows with kids along with some yummy snacks in our hands!

[Jaden]

Honestly, not bad, I would recommend this movie to people that are naive about Bleach. Won't take a lot of your time and is sure to be at least somewhat entertaining. And if it gets you hyped, well, there's plenty more material out there.

[Johnny Dy]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

I'm confused and curious but also reluctant to try it.

I think you shouldn't. Seen it like a month ago, here's my intake:

Bleach 2018 7.5/10 Middle ways through, I was prepared to give it a 6/10 and say it wasn't a complete disaster like most artistic movie adaptations after anime. But were it not for the last 30 minutes or so! Now that's what movies made after anime should look more like! It seems that the japonese movie makers in conjuncture with Netflix this time have done it!

There were obvious minuses to the anime, 1st hour or so is the best example, but oddly enough the middle and the ending brought pluses over the anime, even as many as 3 of them!

Spoiler:

1. The build up Ichigo vs Renji was a little bit better, Renji seemed far too strong and fast for an ignorant Ichigo to handle, but then he got serious after realizing Rukia's predicament and also had some time to train, so there's 2 fights between them here, compared to the anime where it's just 1.
2. The 2nd fight between Ichigo and Renji was better than their fight in the anime, believe it or not!
3. The ending with Byakuya did not suck! Was decent enough, they finally made a good copy from an anime of a difficult to handle scene! Now that's impressive! Thank you... Netflix! One thing that was different (some might say better) was that after cut down with ease, Ichigo got up more times than he did in the anime, and doing so he aggravated Byakuya through his defiance, making the renown captain clench his sword and take an aggressive position, that did not happen in the anime where he just nonchalantly toyed with Ichigo. That's because when our Ichigo's got some training under his belt, he's a beast! In the anime he did not train much yet! (The anime better part is that Renji can't see much of his captains swordplay to give notice that Byakuya's lvl is beyond crazy strong, while here we don't have that conundrum. But we get what we get, I am satisfied with what I've seen here.)

The movie covers the Shinigami Substitute Arc, 1st 18 or so episodes of the anime, as you would expect. I can say now that I can hardly wait for Bleach 2, Soul Society Arc, if it's anything like the ending of the 1st movie, it's gonna be a solid 8/10 at the very least, considering the quality upgrade in the anime story! Netflix, please do not desert them!

I was tempted to say can't wait to meet Gin, but that quickly turned into I hope they won't make Gin seem like a retard! Same with Yoruichi, Soi Fon and all of them rest Kenpachi, Kommamura, Shunsui, Tosen, etc. It's gonna be a hard production to make if they're serious about it, but the 1st movie was encouraging if nothing else! Bleach has the best characters of any just one anime, it's gonna be a colossal effort to just cosplay them all, not mentioning finding good actors for the parts! It could be a total blunder, but it also has a small chance to be epic! One can be forgiven the hope!

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

but it's also not good enough to be put among the great animanga live-action adaptations like Rurouni Kenshin, Yatterman, Blade of the Immortal, etc.

WOW, DUUUUUDE! Aside from Rurouni Kenshin, I don't know of any anime adaptation that didn't bring shame to it's anime source! (Maybe except Ghost in The Shell! - it could have been better, but it did not completely suck, at least the CGI guys did a fair effort) So I heed you to tell me of all the movies that (incredible) "etc." in your sentence may uphold! I can not believe that "etc."! DUUUUDE! I wanna watch them! Do tell!