Anime Review: "Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody"

Well it's been a couple of days longer than I'd intended, but here I'm finally writing my review of the first Bleach movie, "Memories of Nobody". Now, if you have been even remotely interested in anime in the past few years, there's a good chance you've heard of Bleach. Set in contemporary Japan, the story centers around 15 year old high school student Ichigo Kurosaki (using western naming order). With his naturally bright orange hair, he's had to deal with assumptions that he's a delinquent for years and so has developed a kind of hard, take-no-shit attitude, but he remains a very caring and kind person despite his perpetual scowl. However, the thing that really sets him apart from his peers is his ability to see and interact with spirits. He's been able to see them and speak to them for as long as he can remember but his life takes a sharp turn when he meets up with a shinigami (lit: death god, translated as "Soul Reaper") and his family is attacked by an evil spirit called a Hollow. Through a certain sequence of events, Ichigo gains the powers of a Soul Reaper to protect his family and the series follows him and his growing cast of allies as they strive to get stronger to defeat a cast of increasingly more powerful enemies.

If this plot summary sounds kind of familiar, that's because in the most general sense it follows the structure of dozens of shonen type action-adventure series that came before it. But both the manga and the anime have enough style, humor, and plot to make it compelling nonetheless. Now the problem with movie spinoffs of these kind of long running (nearly 180 episodes in Japan) series is that they occupy some kind of nebulous other-space in the series canon. The movies assume that you've already watched the show, so little or no attempt is made to introduce established characters to new viewers. On the other hand, long running fans of the anime sometimes dislike these movies because they take place at a time in series canon where there should have been no time for these kinds of shenanigans. This problem seems especially pronounced if they also follow the source manga and they have very clear expectations of what the plot flow in the anime should look like. "Memories of Nobody" falls into this same area, so if you are either new to the series or a continuity fanatic, consider yourself warned. Additionally, minor spoilers follow in the review, FYI.

In "Memories of Nobody", a strange dimensional space bridging the Soul Society and the living world spells possible catastrophe for both while in the real world Ichigo must deal with the appearance of an unknown type of spirit and a mysterious Soul Reaper named Senna. Eventually it is revealed that the new spirits and the dimensional space are the products of a nefarious plot masterminded by some newcomers in strange armor, but honestly that stuff is all kind of glossed over really quickly. The meaning of the new dimension and the danger it poses is explained in a five-minute lecture using kid-like drawings and most of the villains (I think there are about 6) don't even get names let alone any meaningful dialog or screen time. Senna is the only new character to get any kind of development and half of the movie seems to be Senna and Ichigo hanging out. Needless to say, Senna is more than what she appears and is somehow central to the villain's plans (vaguely defined in objective or motivation), so the bad guys snatch her up. What follows is a series of fights as backup from Soul Society arrives to support Ichigo in his bid to save Senna. This sequence is basically nothing more than fan service as you get to see some of the different squad captains use their special abilities to dispatch underlings in short 2-3 minute fight sequences.

Now my description of the movie may sound a bit critical, but let me get one thing out of the way: I really enjoyed this movie. The animators had a larger budget to work with and it really shows, especially in the fights at the movie's climax. And although initially a bit obnoxious, I grew to care about Senna's character and her plight as the story fleshed her out, though admittedly I'm a bit of a softy at heart. What I dislike is the movie's pacing. As you're watching it keeps things moving at a pretty good clip so you never really get bored, but once all is said done and the credits roll, you can't help but feel that everything moved maybe a bit too quickly. The villains may as well have been cardboard cutouts and the only purpose they really served was as cannon fodder, and to put Senna in danger. I'm kind of rambling at this point, but I expect my villains to have a little more substance, especially with the pedigree of baddies from Bleach. Additionally, Ichigo's main allies, his human schoolmates and comrades, get a 5 minute cameo in the whole movie. I personally like these guys more than some of the Soul Reapers, but since their moves are not as flashy and you can only reasonably showcase a handful of characters, I grudgingly acknowledge why they were sidelined.

Being a theater showing in America, the movie was dubbed and dubbed well, in my opinion. All the regulars from the TV dub reprised their roles with Jonny Young Bosch as Ichigo and Michelle Ruff as Rukia. Dubs have come a long way in terms of quality compared to when I first started watching anime and I like to give them their fair shake, if only because it allows me to multi-task while watching anime. A few years ago, and maybe even today, the question of dubs vs. subs was a contentious one and maybe someday I'll post a soapbox with my take on the issue. But it's getting late, so I'll end this slightly rambling review with this recommendation: if you like Bleach then I would highly recommend watching this movie at least once. If you don't like Bleach, there's a good chance you've never seen it so go watch it. Right now.

-ZK