why do you think the amazing anime series Bleach ended so soon?

[crazygameguy4ever]

I'm a huge anime/manga fan, and think Bleach is one of if the best anime series I've ever watched..(as my avatar can help prove).. in anycase I know that the anime adaption ends at episode 366 (though as a dub only anime fan, I've only seen up to episode 337 so far that aired on Saturday night on Toonami..) even though the manga is still going on and still great.

I can't find any reason as to why the amazing anime series ended and wanted to know people opinions on why it ended.

Personally i can't think of any reasons.. it's an amazing anime that even has good filer arcs as opposed to bad ones like in other anime( like Naruto for example) great characters, great animation ,the best English dubbing around, interesting stories... so why they ended it i just can figure out..

 

[Hazzard]

I don't think you understand the meaning of short.
Most anime series don't go past 52, with Monster and FMA: Brotherhood being notable exceptions.
Shounens like Bleach and Naruto go on for ages by their nature. They need to shove in piles of arcs and seasons just so they can drag them on. They have a tendency to become hugely popular and make piles of cash, so they drag them on.
This video has a good discussion on it:
They talk about two methods for story telling, gardeners and architects, which is something George R.R Martin stated. Gardeners make it up as they go, Architects plan. Shounen by its nature means the writers will make it up as they go because of how they need to keep making stuff up to drag it out.

 

[Queen Michael]

This video has a good discussion on it:

Fixed that for you. No need to thank me. I'm just awesome like that.

 

[Hazzard]

Thanks

This video has a good discussion on it:

Fixed that for you. No need to thank me. I'm just awesome like that.

Thank you anyway. I don't think I'll ever understand how to get this right first time.

Captcha: Cookie Cutter
That defines what Bleach turned into.

 

[Smeatza]

They talk about two methods for story telling, gardeners and architects, which is something George R.R Martin stated. Gardeners make it up as they go, Architects plan. Shounen by its nature means the writers will make it up as they go because of how they need to keep making stuff up to drag it out.

Bleach is an exception to this rule though. If you look back through the manga you can clearly see a number of incidences of foreshadowing and planning ahead.
The latest manga arc has even resolved foreshadowing and questions from the first few chapters.

OT: Isn't the reason the anime ended pretty clear? Because it wasn't that popular in Japan anymore.
As to why that is, it's hard to say. I personally think it had a lot to do with the atrocious filler that Bleach liked to pump out on a semi-regular basis. I reckon they left a good chunk of the fans with a severe case of burnout after they had to sit through full arcs of shitty filler. They probably moved onto something where that wasn't a problem.

 

[Elfgore]

The second Japan stopped liking it, plain and simple. The anime biz is all about the money and those big shounen shows cost A LOT of money to make. Thing you have to realize is, Japan don't care about foreign watchers of anime. The dub means nothing to them besides being a huge fee for them.

I too am a victim of Japan's lack of interest. I'll never see a Baka and Test season 3. *runs of crying.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Too soon? It's over 300 episodes long! It aired for 8 years! Most other anime are 26 episodes at the most.

Anyways, I've got nothing. Never watched Bleach nor do I pay attention to it. I don't watch long running shounen anime, and shows like Bleach or Naruto just aren't for me, so I can't answer your question. If you enjoy it, though, more power to you. I guess the only thing for you to do now is either read the manga, rewatch the series, or perhaps look for a new one.

 

[Auron225]

...why the amazing anime series ended... it's an amazing anime that even has good filer arcs... great characters, great animation, the best English dubbing around, interesting stories...

Everything you stated here is your own subjective opinion. In Japan, for every one of you shouting your love of Bleach from the rooftops, there was a half-a-dozen former fans saying they couldn't stand it anymore.

I know many people who feel similar to my own personal take on the aspects you just listed;

Filler arcs - absolutely atrocious. They were some of the worst filler arcs I've ever seen. Naruto wasn't any better but Bleach was still bad.

Characters - a handful of interesting characters (Ichimaru, Urahara Kisuke, a few others) but most were cookie-cutter shounen anime characters that had little to define them. They seemed to take note of the top 10-15 favourite characters by the public and from then on shoe-horned them into every single scenario (especially fillers) whether they belonged there or not, which just got annoying. I'm sick of looking at Byakuya and Hitsugaya.

Animation - the fights got lazy toward the end. They put effort into actually animating them at the beginning but eventually it became disappearing and reappearing behind each other and massive explosions. That's it. Even now people keep pulling new techniques and power forms out of f*cking nowhere.

Dubbing - Can't comment on this one, I watched subbed.

Interesting stories - A lot of them were cliche but credit where it's due; the 2nd and 7th seasons (aka "Save Rukia" and "Hueco Mundo Infiltration" respectively) were fantastic.

All in all it was very entertaining at times but far from the best anime I've ever seen. Actually, one thing I praise it for that you didn't mention is the soundtrack. It has some friggin awesome music in it!

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

]Too soon? It's over 300 episodes long! It aired for 8 years! Most other anime are 26 episodes at the most.

Anyways, I've got nothing. Never watched Bleach nor do I pay attention to it. I don't watch long running shounen anime, and shows like Bleach or Naruto just aren't for me, so I can't answer your question. If you enjoy it, though, more power to you. I guess the only thing for you to do now is either read the manga, rewatch the series, or perhaps look for a new one.

When i said too soon, I'm comparing to a long anime series like Naruto that's had 220 episodes of the first anime and another 354 episodes ( and counting) of Naruto Shippuden.. and while I like Naruto Shippuden I still consider Bleach better

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

...why the amazing anime series ended... it's an amazing anime that even has good filer arcs... great characters, great animation, the best English dubbing around, interesting stories...

Everything you stated here is your own subjective opinion. In Japan, for every one of you shouting your love of Bleach from the rooftops, there was a half-a-dozen former fans saying they couldn't stand it anymore.

I know many people who feel similar to my own personal take on the aspects you just listed;

Filler arcs - absolutely atrocious. They were some of the worst filler arcs I've ever seen. Naruto wasn't any better but Bleach was still bad.

Characters - a handful of interesting characters (Ichimaru, Urahara Kisuke, a few others) but most were cookie-cutter shounen anime characters that had little to define them. They seemed to take note of the top 10-15 favourite characters by the public and from then on shoe-horned them into every single scenario (especially fillers) whether they belonged there or not, which just got annoying. I'm sick of looking at Byakuya and Hitsugaya.

Animation - the fights got lazy toward the end. They put effort into actually animating them at the beginning but eventually it became disappearing and reappearing behind each other and massive explosions. That's it. Even now people keep pulling new techniques and power forms out of f*cking nowhere.

Dubbing - Can't comment on this one, I watched subbed.

Interesting stories - A lot of them were cliche but credit where it's due; the 2nd and 7th seasons (aka "Save Rukia" and "Hueco Mundo Infiltration" respectively) were fantastic.

All in all it was very entertaining at times but far from the best anime I've ever seen. Actually, one thing I praise it for that you didn't mention is the soundtrack. It has some friggin awesome music in it!

Yeah i forgot the music(I have no idea how), The opening and closing themes are what got me into Japanese music to the pint where I listen to Japanese music more then american now.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Ended so soon? Didn't the anime have like 6 seasons or something? That's from what I recall.

Also, the final arc is not completed yet and it is be quite a big one (I'm currently watching it every week) and I'm guessing that until that arc is completed we won't see any more anime coming out of Bleach any time soon.

I wish they would, because black and white pages just don't hold a candle to an anime, but hey that's just me.

 

[Korenith]

I think it had a lot to do with how poorly the Aizen thing was wrapped up and then the stupidity of what comes afterwards. Oh and the timing of the filler arcs. They interrupted the main story for the best part of a year at some really inopportune times. Now I know that's because the Hueco Mundo arc goes on forever and there are no opportunities to pad things out but it's why I lost interest. All the arcs and characters I got invested in had crappy resolutions (especially the blind captain whose name I forget at this minute) and even the fights got tedious.

 

[Scars Unseen]

What.

I stopped watching Bleach after the Soul Society arc. Everything after that wandered into DBZ levels of ridiculousness. Bleach didn't end too soon; the author just couldn't figure out when to stop(and the people making the anime just couldn't stay away from the filler).

Go watch Darker than Black, Steins;Gate and Bakemonogatari for a bit. You'll feel better.

 

[Alarien]

When I first started watching anime, a standard show ran 1 season - 26 episodes. Around 15 years ago, they started doing the 13 episodes as a more standard format for shows that might have less widespread appeal. Shows that ran longer than that were a rarity. Yes, there was your Dragonball baloney and Sailor Moon which just kept going and going... but manga based shows didn't translate more than 1 season or some weirdly wrapped up meta-arc crap. The rarities were shows like Fushigi Yuugi, Rurouni Kenshin, or Marmalade Boy, which tried to varying extents(Kenshin's anime season 3 can @*#( right off) to follow multi-season manga arcs.

They are still pretty rare to find, frankly. Some recent ones that have tried to do so have created good cautionary tales about the dangers. Nurarihyon no Mago (Nura: Rise of the Yokai) stopped the anime at the end of the second season's Kyoto arc because... no idea. It seemed fairly popular and was a very well done anime. The lack of a season 3 is a real disappointment. On the other hand, Attack on Titan's first season was fantastic but... no second season yet, simply because the anime has more or less caught up with the manga and we're now in a waiting stage.

So, Bleach is really an outlier. One of those ultra-popular shounen/shojo titles that just keeps going and going. Sometimes they are ok, sometimes not. However, at 300+ episodes, calling this an "early end" is sorta hilarious; no offense intended.

That said, I really didn't care for Bleach. It started out great, and I enjoyed the first season or arc. However, after about 80 episodes in, I realized that I was watching someone make anime the way that R.A. Salvatore writes (and that's not a good thing to me). Single duels or fights were taking 5 or 6 or even more episodes, so the actual plot seemed stagnant during those periods. It felt very stretched and I mostly was just waiting for them to "get on with it." That's a shame to me. I felt the show had some interesting ideas and potential.

 

[EbonBehelit]

I don't know about 'too soon': as far as I'm concerned, Bleach ended after the Soul Society Arc.

May I make a suggestion?
Watch One Piece.

No, seriously - if you think Bleach has great characters/stories, One Piece is going to knock your socks off.
It's also the best-selling Manga of all-time in Japan, so it's very unlikely to be cut short.

 

[Briantb]

Bleach was good but way to much filler.

 

[Kinitawowi]

366?! 366 is too soon?!!

Go watch Pushing Daisies (we were very lucky to get 22 episodes of that) or Cowboy Bebop (26) or something.

 

[xmbts]

I don't think it's a question of ending too soon rather than doing more with the time they had. maybe the filler could explore more about the side characters rather than set up a new powerful enemy for the main character to work hard to beat while at the same time learning nothing so that the status quo is preserved for when it does get back on track.

But that's all opinions and stuff.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

366 episodes is ending too soon???? Most anime series don't last that long. Most series, anime or otherwise, run out of steam before they reach 200.

 

[omega 616]

Even I think Bleach was dragging it's ass and I like it!

I stopped watching after he beat Aizen 'cos it seemed like the best place. I mean the whole main arc is about bringing Aizen to justice/stopping him and Ichigo going from "some human" to "Neo". So Ichigo losing his powers as the big bad is defeated seemed like the best place to stop.

Some of the fillers were good as well, like the swords rebelling from their owners.