Bleach Series 12 - Part 1   Starring (voice): Fumiko Orikasa, Masakazu Morita, Hiroki Yasumoto and Kentarou Itou Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £24.99 Certificate: 12 Release Date: 28 October 2013

Bleach has the same problems as a show like A Game of Thrones; because the television version is truncated the show will get through the material quicker than the writer can produce more stories. So, this far into Bleach we have come to expect filler season, allowing the actual story to bypass the show.

Bleach: Series 12 - Part 1 (2009 - 300 min) contains episodes 230-241, covering the Zanpakutō: The Alternate Tale arc. The season was directed by Noriyuki Abe.

Although it is obviously a filler arc, I’m not a purist and have found some of the filler stories more interesting than the canon which bookends them. The premise of the arc is fairly simple. A mysterious man, Muramasa, arrives and transforms the Soul Societies Zanpakutō (the weapons they use to fight with) into living beings.

The first inkling anyone gets of what is going on is when various characters start to feel removed from their Zanpakutō, they also start to disobey their masters. There is normally a link between weapon and master and they are often anthropomorphised by their owners, so it’s interesting to see if the owners vision of their weapon actually matches up to their human form.

In human form, the Zanpakutō force their previous masters to fight them, often to regain the trust the masters have abused in some way. Of course, this does not come without some concern. If the captains have to destroy their own weapons what happens to the powers which like the swords with their masters.

All of this is just an excuse for the real reason Bleach exists, yup, small premise to set up a seemingly endless line of fights.

I’ve noticed a trend with the latest batch of anime; with discs having a couple of adverts playing before you can access the actual disc you bought. Now it was bad enough when these adverts were passed off as extras, but to make you watch them every time you want to watch your show leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

You get a pretty sharp 1.78:1 aspect ratio picture, as well as the textless opening and closing sequences, for all you freaky anime karaoke fans.

What’s to say? It's Bleach; it’s posturing and fights and then some more fights.

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Charles Packer