Ending song*
ED 1-Save the one, save the all (T.M. revolution)
Genre:Action, adventure, supernatural
Episodes:1**
**(Its a movie -.-)
Alright, this will be my very 1st anime movie review. While things will more or less be the same as it always has been, I may be elaborating a liiiitle bit more, you know, it being a movie and all. Still, not much of my general anime review style will change, so don't expect a major overhaul. For my 1st anime movie review....its just gonna be bleach. Whats there to say right? Bleach is bleach, and the series has already done movies in the past. I have watched all of done, and just recently I caught the latest one, "the hell verse". So how is it? Is it generally the same as the previous ones? Is it better, or is it worse? Heres what I think
First things first, lets talk about the ending song, save the one, save the all. Well, being a song from T.M. revolution we can all expect some sort of epicness from it, and it sure delivers that much. If you like the basic stuff from T.M. revolution, then you will love this song. Yes, I really enjoyed the song, and I think its a really good idea to tie it to a series such as bleach. Im actually suprised T.M. revolution hasn't done a song for bleach after all this time. All in all, it's awesome song.
Rating:7.0/10
Now, hell verse as a bleach movie....where does it stand? To be honest, its better than the 1st two movies, in my opinion. Its not quite as good as fade to black, but it beats out diamond dust rebellion and memories of nobody (which both in my opinion had pretty shitty plots). Hell verse though, has a pretty quirky, cliche and straightfoward plot too, so it kinda disappoints. But hell verse has some over the top animation and fight scenes that actually look pretty cool, making it shine more in the animation department.
As stated, the story is pretty damn cliche. Like all 3 movies, hell verse doesnt appear to be canon to be original bleach universe. The plot starts pretty normally, it shows ichigo in the human world as a normal student. He goes around beating up thugs that messed up some dead kid's flower vase memorial. Well he meets with renji and rukia who are investigating some weird stuff thats going on in karakura town. He is asked not to worry and just to live as per normal. He attends school , but the school is later attacked and that leaves most of ichigo's normal classmates in critical states of injury. The school is attacked by a bunch of weird cloaked figures wearing masks, and ichigo and gang face off against them.
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| We WILL see more of ichigo's full hollow form in this movie, sweet. |
The cloaked ones are later identified as sinners from hell. Little do they know however that the attack was a mere diversion and ichigo's sisters yuzu and karin are kidnapped elsewhere by 2 more cloaked dudes, with rukia trying to hold off against them. Ichigo comes and tries to fight them off, and another sinner appears to attack the cloaked ones. The stranger sinner saved karin, but the cloaked sinners make it off with yuzu. The strange man identifies himself as kokuto, and states that he will help ichigo to get yuzu back. And so begin ichigo and gang's trip into hell......
I wont spoil any further, but things from there get pretty cliche anyway....The story is one of the weaker points of the movie. It starts out alright, and is pretty interesting too, since the cloaked sinners come out of nowhere to attack ichigo and gang in the school. The reason they do so however is just so uncool..
Anyway, lets talk about the animation. The animation in hell verse is probably its best point, and deserves a 9/10 for this compartment alone. The animations in hell verse is SOLID, better than any of the previous 3 movies. It looks amazing, and the visual effects in the movie are badass. Crumbling environments, explosions, swift and quick clashes between fighters....everything looks great. Looks like the animation studio went all out on this one, and it really saved their bacon. The animation prevents this from being "just another bleach movie".
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| Ichigo alongside kokuto, one of the hell's sinners. |
The action is kind of mixed. On one hand the moves and all look great (though they all have been, one way or another, seen before at least once in the anime), but as the movie drags on, the fights seem to drop in standard too. The beginning fights in the school are so badass, I was like ,"shit, its been awhile since fights in bleach were this good!". All the sinners have interesting powers, and its interesting to see them unravel it at the beginning. Gunjo however, has disappointing powers (just fire? come on...). As the party proceeds into hell to fight the sinners again, things are pretty damn cool too, but just not as good at the beginning fights. They show their true selves (they arent exactly very good looking without those cloaks on...) and each pick individual opponents to fight like the usual one on one they always do in the anime. Those fights are cool in thier way, but since we have already seen the powers of the sinners, its not quite as interesting as before.
The confrontation with gunjo is just stupid. I think gunjo has pretty crappy powers, and that fight with ichigo was just boring. The FINAL battle was INCREDIBLY CHEESY. I wont spoil nothing about it, but its stupid and so damn....freaking cliche. All in all, the action starts out great and slowly degrades. The final battle is just disappointing :(.
Hell verse in an interesting take on the bleach movies in general. Its somewhat different from the previous few, and for once, they didnt have all the captains showing up during the final battle to smash everyone into oblivion -.-, now I am pretty grateful for that. The captains do make a minor appearance in this movie, and though not every captain was present, I'd say its sufficient. I wouldn't want to see the captains curb stomping all the bad guys again......For you bleach fans, hell verse is a pretty damn good movie for you all to catch. However, I still think fade to black was better, since it was the only bleach movie with a pretty awesome plot.
Peace.
