Bleach-Volume 01 (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio Gallery-Production Art Featurette-Clean Closing Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	91:52 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (45:55)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Noriyuki Abe
Studio Distributor	Viz Media Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Shirô Sagisu Junichi Uematsu Natsuko Suzuki

    Bleach: Agent of the Soul Reaper comes from the pages of Shonen Jump, the same variety manga that spawned Naruto. It tells the ongoing saga of Ichigo Kurosaki, a fifteen year old high school student in present day Japan (more or less) who has been able to see ghosts since he was a child. Ichigo assumes the role of a soul reaper (hence the subtitle of the show), a sort of samurai psychopomp, when he comes across a young female soul reaper named Rukia Kuchiki who is wounded in battle. In this world, soul reapers have two roles, one being to guide souls that have failed to cross over, called Wholes, to the "Soul Society" on their way and the other being to battle "hollows", souls that have lost their humanity and run around eating other souls (both of the living and the dead).

    Unsurprisingly, Bleach is similar to Naruto in many ways, particularly the animation style and formula to its plotting, though it is aimed at more mature viewers than Naruto and features both more mature concepts and a bit more violence (though it is still fairly tame stuff). In many ways, Bleach is the anime equivalent to a soap opera - a reasonably steady ongoing plot (though whole story arcs generally run 2-3 episodes) and no firm end in sight at any point (in fact, the show has run for more than 200 episodes in a weekly format since it premiered in Japan in 2004). The concepts in the show are frequently involved, but rarely over-complicated. Most similarly, Bleach is addictive stuff.

    This disc features four episodes. They are:

• 1. A Shinigami is Born! - Rukia Kuchiki follows Ichigo, who lives with his single father and two younger sisters at his father's health clinic, home after he saves the soul of a young ghost, but is wounded by a Hollow who is after Ichigo's soul. Rukia reluctantly passes her reaping abilities to Ichigo as she defends him.
• 2. Pay or Play - Rukia dons a fake human body and enrols at Ichigo's school to keep an eye on him as her soul reaping abilities recover. The pair hunt a Hollow who is haunting a girl in Ichigo's class named Orihime Inoue. This episode also introduces another female classmate, Orihime's best friend Tatsuki.
• 3. Sibling Rivalry - Ichigo discovers there is a family link between the Hollow he is hunting and Orihime.
• 4. And Your Bird Can Speak - Chad, one of Ichigo's classmates and kind-hearted muscle-bound fellow, finds himself in possession of a talking parakeet that houses the spirit of a young child's soul. Alas the soul is being used as bait by a menacing Hollow.

Video

    The show is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio and is, rightfully, not 16x9 enhanced. The video generally looks very good.

    The image is sharp and clear throughout. The animation is reasonably basic, maintaining generally maintaining static or simple backgrounds with limited character animation, but its simplicity evokes a good feel for the manga upon which the series is based. There is no noticeable grain or low-level noise in the image.

    The colour in the transfer is bright and appropriately cartoonish. Colour levels are consistent throughout the show.

    Interlacing artefacts are present every third or fourth frame, but they are never really noticeable due to the fairly basic animation style of the show. No compression-related artefacts or film artefacts are noticeable at any point in the transfer.

    Bright Yellow English subtitles are present for the show. The subtitles are a direct translation of the Japanese audio and occasionally present a slightly different emphasis to the English dialogue, however the story is fundamentally the same despite these minor differences.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs between the second and third episodes at 45:55 and was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    A Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps) audio track and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps) audio track are present for the film.

    Both tracks sound crisp and clear. The audio is generally well enough synchronised to the video, less so the English than the Japanese.

    The series features a great opening theme from J-Rock band Orange Range and fairly stock orchestral stabs throughout the show itself.

    There is no noticeable surround or subwoofer usage.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Textless Closing (1:01)

    The closing credits without credits. More or less a dull music video for the closing credits song Life is Like a Boat by Rie Fu.

Production Art Gallery

    A so-so collection of character sketches and background art images.

Reversible Cover

    Identical to the regular cover, minus the classification warning that many see as an eyesore.

Madman Trailers

    Following a skippable anti-piracy trailer, there are trailers for spectobes, Elemental Gelade and Eureka Seven.

    The US Region 1 release of Bleach is identical to the Region 4 edition, save for PAL/NTSC formatting and a handful of trailers for other anime releases that are featured on the Region 4 edition.

    A box set is available in both regions that collects the first 5 discs in the series, including this one, which is the most economical way to purchase the series.

    A highly addictive anime series that strikes a good balance between action, melodrama and weird afterworld-related storyline.

    The video and audio are very good, though not the sort of stuff you would look at as demo material. The extras are negligible.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall