Bleach Vol. 1 Manga & DVD Bundle

Review by E. A Solinas for Bleach Vol. 1 Manga & DVD Bundle Rating: Ichigo “Strawberry” Kurosaki is just your average teenage boy… except that he can see spirits.

So it’s not exactly surprising that he gets involved in wild, dangerous adventures, in the volume of the hilarious, action-packed “Bleach.” And the “Volume 1: Manga And DVD Bundle” brings together both the first part of Tite Kubo’s hit manga, and the even better anime series that spun off from it. As introductions go, this is a pretty good one.

One night a strange girl appears in Ichigo’s bedroom, and is shocked when he can see her. She explains that she’s a Soul Reaper, who helps the dead pass on to the Soul Society (a sort of afterlife… thing), and purifies evil spirits called Hollows.

But when Rukia is injured in a fight with a Hollow, all her powers are transferred to Ichigo — and with them, the responsibility of killing Hollows all over his town. Ichigo soon finds out that it isn’t easy juggling his new responsibilities with his everyday life — especially since the powerless Rukia is now attending his school in a fake body, and living in his closet.

And even worse, his involvement with Soul Reapers and Hollows is leaking over to his friends and classmates. First the likably flaky Orihime is stalked by a Hollow she is very familiar with, leading Ichigo to make a heartbreaking choice. And Ichigo’s enormous, mostly-silent pal Chad is given a “cursed parakeet,” and immediately dangerous things start happening to him — what is the parakeet’s “curse,” why is a Hollow pursing Chad, and why does his new pet seem to be intelligent?

Some anime series deviate wildly from their source material, but thankfully “Bleach” is not one of those. The content of both the DVD and the manga are pretty much the same — they contain the same basic stories, and end in roughly the same spot. And both serve the same purpose — getting Ichigo into the whole Soul Reaper situation, introducing about half of the main cast, and to the whole worldview of this particular series. Things get much more complex later on, but at this point Kubo is just laying out the groundwork.

The similarities between the DVD and manga aren’t restricted to the story — the anime takes Tite Kubo’s slightly rough artwork, polishes it, and recreates it almost perfectly. Even scenes like Chad’s I-beam encounter or Ichigo pummeling some street punks are almost identical in both manga and anime, although some scenes are left out of the anime (Ichigo and the pepper balls), and a couple are added.

Primarily this is an action anime, with lots of monster-slaying with swords (in Ichigo’s case, the freakishly huge one). But there’s a lot of comedy (Rukia’s terrible drawing skills, Ichigo’s intensely oddball family), and some moments of intense poignancy, such as when Orihime recognizes the Hollow that has attacked her, Ichigo and her best friend.

This is our first introduction to the various characters, but Ichigo is a pretty good hero — rough, determinedly lonerish, but very good-hearted (“Is that any way to treat your son after he risked his life to help a spirit find PEACE?!”). The prickly Rukia and likably flaky Orihime add a feminine edge to the story, although gentle giant Chad hasn’t been explored much yet.

The bundled “Bleach Volume 1″ DVD and manga are an excellent introduction, both to Tite Kubo’s series and the anime that was adapted from it. A solid action story, with just enough tragedy and comedy.