Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody

When a life ends, its soul departs to its final resting place known as the Soul Society. However, if a soul is left to wander in the human world for too long, it ends up turning into a corrupted "Hollow" that feeds on other souls. In such cases, spirits called "Soul Reapers" are needed to eliminate the Hollows and guide the lost souls to the Soul Society.

Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki are two Soul Reapers who are used to dealing with Hollows that appear in Karakura Town. But when they encounter the hostile "Blanks"—souls devoid of memories and immune to the "soul burial" used by Reapers—they are thrown for a loop. Senna, a fellow Reaper that neither Ichigo or Rukia are familiar with, comes to their rescue and manages to fend off the Blanks. The mystery deepens when a mirage of the human world suddenly appears over Soul Society. What could be the reason behind the strange phenomena, and how is it connected to Senna, who avoids any questions about her identity?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kurosaki, Ichigo Main

Morita, Masakazu Japanese

Kuchiki, Rukia Main

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Senna Main

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Zaraki, Kenpachi Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Urahara, Kisuke Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Hitsugaya, Toushirou Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Kuchiki, Byakuya Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Kyouraku, Jirou Souzousuke Shunsui Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Inoue, Orihime Supporting

Matsuoka, Yuki Japanese

Abarai, Renji Supporting

Itou, Kentarou Japanese

Simone, Jamie Producer, Casting Director

Hagino, Ken Producer

Abe, Noriyuki Director, Storyboard

Tachibana, Hideki Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Reviews

Mar 14, 2008

TheLlama

Recommended

Well, this was a really good anime movie.

I really like the story, about the Memory Rosary, the bad dudes, and of course Senna. I really liked her interaction with Ichigo, and it made me start thinking of shipping IchigoxSenna. Of course, she was a movie-only character... unfortunately. I liked the beginning of the plot, and how it moved along during the movie.

Of course, they could've used at least twice the amount of time to give it some more meat around the bones, but they actually did pretty well the way they did it, and I'm satisfied with what came out.

So, this is a great movie, ... and if you like Bleach, you shouldn't omit watching this movie.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 4, 2023

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Mixed Feelings

Funny

This is the first Bleach movie and I must say it ended up being better than I expected. As far as movies go, you can of course expect far better production values and flashier battles. Yet it has something more than just an excuse for a parade of special attacks. It is by all means nothing more than a filler mission but it had a metaphysical aspect that went beyond the simple plot of “Let’s save Soul Society for the millionth time”.

First of all, if you haven’t watched any episodes, stay away from the movie. You won’t understand the new twist to the cosmology of ... the setting without prior knowledge of the general story and cast. Plus, the action may mislead you, as it hardly gets so good in the series.

Second, if you do know of the series and go for this movie, chances are you watch Bleach just for the battles as neither the story nor the characters are deeper than a rain pond. Still, the main idea behind the Blanks and the Memory Rosary are very good as an extra aspect of the otherwise simplified and polarized good souls – bad souls and it would be quite catchy if they had it inserted in the main story from the beginning. It would leave room for side stories in the Valley of Screams and excuse a lot better those out of place fillers. Too bad they didn’t.

Animation and sound wise, the movie is very good. It uses cinematics, greater than those in the initial episodes (how do I miss those) and makes the story to look dramatic, like a good samurai movie. The level of lining detail is more or less the same, though there is a higher plethora of colors and a much lower amount of static images and repeating frames. I must say that as far as atmosphere in a title like Bleach goes, the movie did a wonderful job.

Of course, most will not care about this as much as the action part. Yes, there is action and it generally good. If you are into superpower battles, you will not be disappointed. Still, don’t expect any realism or decent choreography, as the whole deal was, and still is, just people yelling the names of their attacks and then their swords magically change shapes and spit all sorts of elemental spells. Thunders and lightings fill the screen and buildings crumble and dimensions merge. Still, the showdown was very disappointing as the villains in the story weren’t much of a threat in close combat and only their run-of-the-mill “Let’s destroy Soul Society from afar” plan was their only slight change of winning.

What else… Ah, yes; voice acting. Can’t say it was any better than in the series. It is still mostly one-liners and yelling of the names of transforming swords and spells. The dramatic tension is almost lost because of all that. Thank goodness there were some semi-psychological dialogues around existentialism issues that saved the movie from complete boredom. I never say no to some intellectual flavoring to a fighting shounen.

The characters are, as expected, more shallow and uninteresting than in the series. Not by too much though, as all of us who know of Bleach are aware that there was never much meat around those bones to begin with. It is a filler movie and you get nothing extra, other than seeing all the captains attack and do a cameo parade of special attacks before Ichigo storms in and saves the day in the same fashion as always. The movie villains were all talk and no personality. Unless you consider a “kill everyone as revenge” attitude as personality. Senna on the other hand was quite an interesting character, both as a girl fooling around the serious Ichigo but also as a character with issues around the meaning of life and being. I actually sympathized with her more than almost anyone else in the whole series.

The story has a simple and expected plot. Soul Society is in danger; Ichigo to the rescue, everyone fights the minions and lets the lead take on the boss. But the main idea behind the otherwise simple plot was very interesting. Imagine being given a bunch of memories, not of your own. Are you a different person than before because of them? Are your thoughts the thing that defines your soul? Great food for the mind although it is not really looked upon and you’d probably care more about the battles than this issue. Still, the story overall is quite weak as you hardly believe these Nobodies (literally speaking) were actually a real threat for the captains of Soul Society, with their imba cannon and their imba bankais and the imba lead on their side. By the way, everybody was just trying to deal with the villains that were created by the very misdoings of their leaders and no one seemed to think how getting rid of their scheming leaders would stop bringing their world to the brink of destruction every 2 months. Not to forget to mention that once again Ichigo was fighting to save a chick and not to save the world. Somebody needs to explain to him one day that a random chick he has no real interest in is less important than the rest of the world.

Value and enjoyment ain’t much. I lost interest in shounen that are nothing more than brainless action and lame attempts at drama. There are far more interesting shounen, as there are far more dramatic and realistic samurai movies. So this movie is more or less a quick watch without something to remember it for.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 9, 2010

Chopstick

Not Recommended

Memories of an Irrelevant Movie

If you're a fan of the bleach series, this movie plays like an extended episode. For this reviewer, therein lies the problem.

While this movie is to the untrained eye mediocre, I find it to be tacked-on. At the end of this movie the story has progressed no more than where it started. In fact it may have regressed, leaving more questions than answers,questions that surely will never be brought up again in the series.

I am certain that no facet of this movie will even be mentioned by any primary, secondary, or even one of the huge numbers of 2D characters ... made up on the spot by the creators when they are needed to fill a plot-hole. The nail in this coffin is the fact that in the end of the movie, this is ensured.

This movie is a morbid waste of time if you are looking for a good story, I would recommend renting or borrowing it, this by no means implies that you should spend any money to watch it. Furthermore, I would recommend playing Pong in the time you have allotted to watch this movie, as it has a better plot.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Bleach: Memories of Nobody Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Piroko - Jun 11, 2008	78 replies	by mrixl »» Nov 11, 9:14 PM
	timeline TsundereRic - Oct 26, 2007	3 replies	by Shidoteki »» Dec 15, 2022 2:05 PM
	Senna's name origin? superdowg316 - Apr 20, 2014	1 replies	by WickedAngel »» Oct 29, 2014 7:47 AM
	Is this movie an adaptation? Tuskus - Apr 15, 2010	1 replies	by BUTTHURT »» Apr 15, 2010 5:31 PM
	Sad but happy? Lilly1x - Feb 14, 2009	6 replies	by BurningMoon65 »» Dec 6, 2009 3:59 AM