Manga Review: Bleach by Tite Kubo

Living out in the Arizona desert, the only manga offering I'm able to consistently buy off the shelves has been the ultra-popular Naruto, which has regularly been popping up in the book section of our local Super Wal-Mart. With holiday gift-giving in half-swing, however, I recently came across a batch of Viz manga gift boxes at Wally World. Each set contained three titles: the first volumes of Naruto, Bleach and Dragon Ball Z. All three series are well-known to anime fans as they are manga readers -- the volume of Bleach, for instance, makes a point of advertising that it's "as seen on Adult Swim" -- which presumably was a factor in the store's including the box among its holiday offerings. "Is this the show young Fremont's always watching?" you can see some befuddled aunt or uncle wondering as they weigh the package in their hands before ultimately putting it back on the shelves and heading over to Electronics.

I've been happily following Naruto for some time now, but seeing that first volume of Tite Kubo's Bleach reminded me that I had several books in this series that I hadn't read. Enjoyed the first two volumes, but while I went on to buy four more in the series, I still hadn't cracked 'em open. We all have teevee, book or comic/manga series that elicit this response, I suspect: once we get into an entry, we find ourselves thinking, "This is fun - wonder why I didn't get to it sooner?" But when we reach the conclusion, we hang back and take our own sweet time before dipping into another one.

To be sure, the basic concept behind Bleach is a perfectly durable one. Surly, strawberry-topped high school student Ichigo Kurosaki is a member of a knockabout family whose children are all capable of seeing ghosts. This ability also makes Ichigo privy to other creatures that lurk beyond normal human sight: most significantly, otherworld enforcers called Soul Reapers, who police the netherworld of Hollows, monstrous once-human creatures who devour the souls of the living. When a Soul Reaper named Rukia shows up at the Kurosaki Clinic, attracted to the siblings' "spirit energy," our hero is drafted into battle after Rukia gets seriously injured by an attacking Hollow.

Article Author: Bill Sherman

Bill Sherman is the Comics & Graphic Novels review editor for Blogcritics. With his lovely wife Rebecca Fox, he has recently co-authored a sudsy size acceptance novel entitled Measure By Measure.

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