Bleach - The Movie: Memories of Nobody

Being a big fan of the Bleach TV series my view may be a bit biased but i did enjoy this movie.

It has an interesting although a bit too predictable story line, chances are thats a by product of the rather short length. It may be 90min but if you have watched much of the bleach series you will know nothing in bleach happens that fast.

i would of liked to see more of the characters from the series involved more often, as it is most of the characters get to only make an appearance and the ones that do get an appearance tend to be the lucky ones.

Just quickly I think it's relevant to say that I'm a huge fan of the Bleach manga and a moderate fan of the TV series (except the filler sagas). This review assumes that people are familiar with the Bleach manga and/ or TV series. I would advise against watching this movie if you're not.

You know the great thing about making a movie follow up to a TV series or movie that is already popular? You can put in a fairly minimal amount of effort and still be guaranteed to make at least a decent amount of money, so long as you've conducted enough market research to give the fans of the original what they want. I watched the TV series until half way through the bount saga, then stopped and started reading the manga because the series had become slow moving and unimaginative. I subsequently found out that the bount saga wasn't part of the manga (a "filler" saga) and was made to make money rather than for the sake of art. Memories of Nobody is basically the same thing; a 90 minute filler episode.

Memories of Nobody is not a complete waste of space though. The voice acting (in the English dubbed version which I'm reviewing) is quite frankly excellent. The plot - while inferior to Tite Kubo's masterpiece - is better than what you'd get from a lot of action movies and fits with the tone of the TV series without clashing with it.

And what about the characters? Joining Ichigo and Rukia is a third main character - a mysterious young girl named Senna. (Mysterious young girls in anime?!? No way!!)

Senna is a hyperactive demi-loli who runs around giggling and annoying Ichigo. She is given a sob story background to try to force an emotional attachment from the viewers, but unfortunately that's about as far as the character development goes and so she's very one dimensional. This means the character really isn't believable, which means we don't get the emotional attachment, which means we fail to care.

Ouch.

All the most popular characters from the series make appearances which should make the fans happy, but they haven't gone to the effort of properly integrating them into the main story and so they just end up feeling like cameo appearances (you're guaranteed to make money so long as you give the fans what they want, remember?)

The movie could have (should have) built upon the series by riding it's strengths while providing better quality animation and getting rid of the super-cheesy music, but the animation quality hasn't noticeably improved and they've kept the same cheesy music from the series. It has its good points and bad points, but all the bad points easily outweigh the good ones. For example: It's a Bleach movie! YAY! The animation is TV series quality! BOO! It's got Kenpachi in it! YAY! The main character is about as deep as a puddle! BOO! Etc.

Basically Memories of Nobody only ever aspired to provide a pleasant experience for the existing Bleach fans and because of this it was never going to be a great movie in it's own right. Even for fans of the show this is definitely "rent before you buy" material.

There seem to be a huge important place for Japanese animation in today's world market. By now they have built a very solid, interlinked set of creative industries, and successfully spread them to a global scale. That industry has 3 vortexes: comic books, TV animation series, and films. The safety net for such an industry is that (as with Hollywood's bad films) there seems to be a hard core vast group of fans who will turn to these products and hysterically support them no matter what the product is. Well, the thing is, they would be careful if they want to stay in business for more than a few years, that strategy (ask Hollywood) wears out unless quality is taken care of.

I saw this in a kind of discreet student's moved session, where some of the hard-core blind fans were present.

Knowing the comics and the series seems to en richen the experience of this. I didn't know any of them. But that allowed me to understand how poor minds of dire fans work, as they weaved and clapped at things only because they knew it from the series, while the scene in itself was completely uninteresting.

The thing here had some legs to walk. The idea that memory creates time, and fills space, and having none is wandering with no objectives, in an uncertain land, with an uncertain fate. In other words, the idea that having a past can create your future.

But they were only interested in exploring the movements, the fights, and the cool side of having handsome characters with big weapons and big powers.

this probably has the same visual aspect of the TV series, unless the series production is rather poor.

My opinion: 1/5

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I had never seen the Bleach series before, but I kept hearing great things about it. I got the opportunity to see this movie and was completely blown away. I was a little confused on some elements of the story, but they were easily cleared up by watching the first episode of the series.

The voice acting is incredible here, as is the animation. Everything about the movie is really well done. The story keeps you gripped the entire time, and you will wish to see more when the credits start to roll.

Definitely check this out, whether you are a big Bleach fan, or haven't dabbled in the series yet. It's a great film.

The first feature length animated project based on the popular Shonen Jump manga proves to be a forgettable and redundant entry into the Bleach anime franchise. Instead of weaving an epic tale that would be a crucial turning point for the beloved Bleach characters and do justice to a heightened movie-styled animation budget, the production team decides to churn out what is in essence an extended TV series episode in which, rather conveniently thanks to a plot twist, nothing that happens in this movie has any place or effect in the main anime storyline. One could easily find a better way to spend 90 minutes and not miss a thing.

The story begins during a routine "Hollow" hunting when Ichigo and Ruika encounter strange spirits know as "Blanks". Initially confused by their sudden appearance, the plot thickens with the appearance of a mysterious new Soul Reaper named Senna who quickly befriends Ichigo. Slowly, the nature of Senna and the strange appearances of the spirits are revealed culminating with Ichigo and gang having to stop a age old feud by a group of Soul Reaper exiles who intend on destroying the world and the Soul society.

Face it, "Bleach: Memories of Nobody" is just an extended filler episode of the popular Bleach anime series. None of the characters get any further development and the cast of new characters do not add much to the soup. Senna especially was no doubt written to be a spunky yet likable girl with a carefree outlook on life, but thanks to either the script or the seiyuu (Japanese voice actress), she comes across as quite an irritant with her "sad" back story feeling forced into place to milk a few tears from the audience. Thankfully the returning cast from the TV series all deliver some adequate performances that fit their character personalities.(note: i have only watched the Japanese version thus far but i hear that the English dub has had much positive reception)

Despite having a movie sized budget, the animation still suffers from the same flaws that plague the TV series. Stiff character motion, flat backgrounds and frequent use of lazy looking animation short-cuts make this movie look even more like a glorified episode of the TV series. There are even a couple of scenes with very obvious "off-model" or disproportionate character art. Along with the overly bright cheery color scheme and minimally detailed artwork, the only "improvement" there is seems to be a greater usage of CGI for some backgrounds and special power effects.

Unless you are an existing fan of Bleach, this movie would fail to satisfy. As if the story were not confusing enough, No introductions or exposition is given hence newcomers would find it really difficult to watch this show and understand the various terms and Bleach lingo. As an anime movie, the production standards are sub-par and the story is plagued by some pacing issues. Top it off with one major cop-out ending(no it was not all a dream, but it is something close to that), and what you get is one major disappointment.

Basically, if you thought the TV series was good, "Bleach: Memories of Nobody" would not change your mind, but neither would it be increasing your impression about Bleach as a whole. If you thought the TV series was not up to expectations, this movie would only prove you right once more as you will find the same flaws here. A real treat for hardcore Bleach fanatics, and a real let down for fans of good anime movies.