Bleach Series 7 - Part 2   Starring (voice): Fumiko Orikasa, Masakazu Morita, Hiroki Yasumoto and Kentarou Itou Manga Entertainment RRP: £24.99 MANG9058 Certificate: 15 Available 17 October 2011

Ichigo’s life has never been the same since he was introduced to the Soul Society, a civilisation of skilled fighters all committed to defeat the Hollow, strange creature which steal souls. Having inherited his Soul Reaper abilities from Rukia Kuchiki, Ichigo has moved further from his human past to become an accepted member of the Soul Society. Even this civilisation has its deserters and detractors, and so Ichigo finds himself on a journey through the world of the Hollows, Jueco Mundo, to rescue from Sosuke Aizen...

Bleach: Series 7 - Part 2 (2007) two disc DVD set, completes the second half of season seven - episodes 142 to 151. The most important thing to know about this show is that it is all about the quest. Sure, you get at least one fight per episode, but it is the journey that counts, as the journey allows you to drag out stories so that they no longer even feel like a quest but have taken on all the important aspects of a soap opera.

With season seven you suddenly realise that the show has essentially run out of ideas and started feeding on its own history. So, Ichigo is on another interminable quest, this time to rescue Orihime, which is exactly how season one started. The series has also continued the format, borrowed from video games (now there's old style terminology for you) of having consecutive fights which allow the hero to power up before they have to confront the boss villain.

Does it really matter what happens? Ultimately not. The show, when first broadcast, had a massive following. This had the plus effect on the level of animation, which even this far down the line is simple but impressive. On the down side it probably meant that the show continued long after its, reasonable, cancellation date. This is shown in the general lack of originality in the seventh series.

Disc one has no extras, only options for either an English or Japanese (with subtitles) 2.0 audio track. The only extras on disc two are some production art, textless closing and trailers for other Bleach fare.

Overall, the show has never really been bad, but I’m not sure that it was as good as some thought it to be. Now that it has started to rehash its own history one can one wonder what direction the show took to be still being made today with series sixteen. Only time will tell.

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Charles Packer