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Bleach

Author: Tite Kubo

Volumes: 74 (Complete at 686 chapters)

Publisher: Shonen Jump [click HERE for digital chapters]

Ichigo Kurosaki is a student capable of seeing ghosts, when his family is attacked by an evil spirit known as a hollow, the shinigami (a death god/ soul reaper) on the scene Rukia, is badly wounded, and stepping in to save his family, Ichigo is recruited as a substitute shinigami in her place. From this point on, Ichigo’s world is expanded as a sort of… well if another world is Isekai, would we call the world beyond a meta-kai? Patent pending…

You know… if panelling was all I graded these series on, Bleach would win, no contest, hands down, thank you for playing etc. If there’s one thing Kubo does even better than Dragonball’s author Akira Toriyama, it’s panel flow and negative space. I’ve seen people accuse Tite’s work as being lazy and simple, but I think it’s more than a little unfair, and potentially a nasty side effect of utilising a comic's finest strengths in such a way that it appears like anybody could do the same thing effortlessly.

When it comes to the big 3 (a term i’m not fond of) I honestly think that despite how pacing would be affected in bleach on a week to week basis because of the panelling choices, in the long run, Bleach has the best re-read value of the 3 by far. Where I think the series falls down is the same reason it at least gets to be this high on the list. Bleach often has a lot of aesthetically pleasing moments to look at in any given chapter. The rule of cool is pretty much always king, the problem is that done to this much excess means the series is also more style than it is substance.

It doesn’t forget to be more than that though, and it’s emotionally engaging where it needs to be, partly thanks to the fact that Tite Kubo is god like at writing character banter and comedy. What I find really interesting, is that even though the series ended earlier than planned, I was impressed with just how much was paid off by the end, character arc wise. Kubo filled his story with a varied cast, but was able to give a lot of that cast enough time to really leave their mark.