The Shonen demographic has dominated the anime and manga industry for decades, and they continue to get the most hype compared to other shows. While Shonen is still thriving even now, the 1990s and the 2000s were revolutionary decades for fans. Around that time, three major Shonen series aside from Dragon Ball etched their names in the industry. One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach are still known as the Shonen Big Three among fans as they maintain wide global fan bases even now. These series gained massive attention from across the globe, including Bleach, which is currently at the center of attention thanks to its final arc.
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While the anime initially premiered in 2002 in Japan, the anime was made accessible to fans in the U.S. on September 9th, 2006, thanks to Adult Swim. The debut took the anime industry by storm as it became a massive success, much more than anticipated. Bleach is still known for having one of the best first episodes of all time, which got viewers hooked right from the start and ensured long-term stability. The debut on Adult Swim and inclusion in Toonami helped the anime reach new heights of success, paving the path for several such Shonen fantasies that are loved even to this day.
Bleach Has One of the Best First Episodes Ever
Most long-running series take a while before getting viewers hooked on the show. The stories are expansive, and the world-building is so vast that it’d make sense that viewers won’t be able to grasp the full premise in just one episode. Bleach is no different since it does take a lot of time introducing fans to the Soul Society and the villains. However, it creates enough tension and hype in the debut episode to keep viewers glued to the screen.
Ichigo was never detached from the world of the supernatural since he could already see ghosts, which is another reason he was able to see Rukia, a Soul Reaper. After a major turn of events, he finds himself borrowing her powers in order to defeat a monster. Ichigo unlocked a completely new realm of powers thanks to Rukia, but that was only the beginning of his journey. The story kept dropping more plot twists as it explored his origins and everything else connected to him.
Bleach Faced Major Setbacks in the 2010s
Despite its initial popularity, Bleach suffered several setbacks in the 2010s. The anime stopped airing in 2012 not only because it caught up with the manga but also because of the falling ratings. One of the downsides of long-running series is that they rely heavily on filler episodes, and Bleach had almost half of its episodes based on non-canon material. The animation studio did everything they could to delay the anime from catching up with the manga.
However, since the manga was also serializing weekly at the time, there’s no doubt that the studio was bound to run out of material at some point. Not only that, but the filler episodes made a lot of fans uninterested in the anime since many preferred the main story instead of non-canon anime arcs. However, later in 2016, the franchise suffered an even bigger setback when the manga’s ending received huge fan backlash.
The rushed ending primarily happened due to Kubo facing health issues amid tight deadlines, which is one of the downsides of working on a weekly serialization, especially on a popular manga where the pressure is immense. The conclusion, the unanswered questions, and the last-minute time-skip without solving major mysteries all resulted in the series being criticized for many years to come.
Bleach Is Finally Reaching Its Finale Next Month
Luckily, the anime made its iconic comeback in 2022 with the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc and showed fans why it deserves to rank among the Shonen Big Three. The final arc of the main story was divided into four parts, and it returned with far better quality animation, pacing, and original scenes, without filler episodes. The anime is all set to conclude its fourth part of the final arc next month, and it will have a new ending as well.
While this doesn’t necessarily mean that the anime will deviate from the original ending, fans can expect original scenes to make up for the rushed ending. Tite Kubo has always been involved with the anime, but his contributions are much more significant in TYBW since he not only helped with new character designs but also original scenes from mostly the light novel. The anime ending won’t be much different, but it was already teased before that fans can expect something new from the finale.
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