Bleach-Volume 03 (2004)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio Gallery-Production Art Featurette-Clean Closing Credits Trailer-Madman Trailers
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, the first volume of which is reviewed here, continues. The story picks up immediately where the last episodes on the second volume left off.

    This third volume features a little more ongoing plot than the first couple of volumes, though the show is still in the process of introducing significant characters. The most notable addition in this volume is Uryu Ishida, a rival Hollow-hunter who calls himself a Quincy - a brotherhood of human Hollow hunters long thought to have died out.

    This disc features four episodes. They are:

• 9. Unbeatable Enemy - Ichigo and Rukia convince an agent from the Soul Society to let her stay in the human world after he witnesses Ichigo's power.
• 10. Assault on Trip at Sacred Ground! - Everyone in town heads to an abandoned hospital to watch the taping of a ghost-hunting show. The dubious Ichigo is shocked to find out that the show's host has real supernatural powers, but is unaware of how to really use them.
• 11. The Legendary Quincy - Ichigo discovers that one of his classmates, the arrogant Uryu Ishida, has supernatural abilities similar to his own and hunts Hollows, but Uryu calls himself a Quincy - a rival type of Hollow-hunter - and forcibly challenges Ichigo to a duel. The winner being the person who despatches the most Hollows in 24 hours.
• 12. A Gentle Right Arm - The duel between Ichigo and Uryu gets out of hand and puts many of Ichigo's family and friends in danger. Chad awakens his own spiritual powers as he attempts to protect Ichigo's sister Karin.

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. Identical to the featurette that appears on the first two volumes of the series.

Production Art Gallery

    A so-so collection of character sketches and background art images. The images themselves are similar, but different, to the ones on the first two volumes of the series.

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 Fate/Stay Night, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Le Chevalier D'Eon.

    The US Region 1 release of Bleach (this volume, at any rate) 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. This third volume progresses the story substantially, but is still busy introducing the surrounding world.

    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