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, Shunsui Jirou Sakuranosuke 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

Oct 24, 2024

phantom346

Recommended

A template movie version of a popular tv show. Even if you haven't seen the original Bleach anime, read the manga or even heard of Bleach, this movie does a good job of establishing the fundamentals of the Bleach world within its opening half and it's nothing too complicated. This is a non-canon self-contained story about a soul phenomenon that threatens the safety of the world and Ichigo must try his best to save it. The villains are a generic bunch of loser outcasts who want to destroy the world for no reason. They have no character and no beauty to speak of and a ... hero's story is only as good as his villains. Senna is a sympathetic young girl that the MC has to protect. She was somewhat of an interesting character as she basically questioned the other characters’ and the viewer’s definition of a living being. I, of course, would happily chop her in two like Ukitaka wanted to but Ichigo was conflicted by his feelings for her and the necessity of her elimination.
Rukia loses every fight like always and has to have someone save her from distress. Minimal Orihime screentime; which is a plus as always.
Music was typical Bleach OST and the animation was movie quality enough to hold up two decades later.
This is a must watch for all Bleach fans and even non-Bleach fans are welcome to try it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by phantom346 (13)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

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

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ThatAnimeSnobRE (188)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Feb 21, 2024

Drakestalker

Not Recommended

Memories of Nobody is the quintessential example of everything that’s wrong with non-canon shounen movies.

Bleach’s worldbuilding is not exactly top tier to begin with, but that’s fine. It’s not that kind of story. I mean, there are no two ways about it. Tite Kubo’s ambition as a youth was to be a fashion designer. It’s not an accident that the element Bleach is best known for is its character design. The guy is a visual artist, first and foremost. Storytelling and worldbuilding are very much secondary skillsets. So far, in the canon, we’ve got the World of the Living, our world, Soul Society, the world ... of pure souls, Hueco Mundo, the world of corrupted souls, Hell, the world of sinful souls, and the Precipice, a sort of in-between world that separates it all. In principle, these are just fancy sets for Kubo to showcase his cool ass characters wearing all manner of fancy clothing in various locations and environments. They’re paper-thin and mostly just for show.

However, such as it is, Bleach’s worldbuilding works just fine for the story Tite-sensei wants to tell. It’s serviceable.

Alas, on top of that already tenuous worldbuilding, Memories of Nobody attempts to tack on even more cosmology. The movie adds 1 extra realm, the Valley of Screams. The problem with the Valley of Screams is that it’s just completely ill-conceived and doesn’t mesh with the larger Bleach cosmology. Urahara explains what the Valley of Screams is and how it works fairly early on. I listened to him, paid attention, and by the end of his monologue, it still didn’t really make sense. After listening to him explain it for a second time, I just gave it up as a bad job. Shit just doesn’t make sense. It’s exactly the kind of thing I would expect a fanfiction writer to come up with. “Hey, what if I came up with a new character called Sailor Sun???”

I also can’t really analyze any of the movie’s unique elements, because to talk about them would be to spoil them, and truth be told, the mystery of all of the new shit is the only thing keeping Memories of Nobody alive. Without you constantly asking “What the fuck is this? What the fuck is that? Who the fuck are you?”, the movie’s story instantly dies. Every aspect of the film is one-dimensional. As soon as something is explained, it’s like “Oh.” and that’s it. It doesn’t ever get any more development or complexity.

This is especially true of the villains. They’re neither Soul Reapers, nor Hollows, nor Arrancar, nor Quincy, nor regular humans. As such, you may find yourself thinking, oh, wow, I wonder who they are and what they’re about. The reveal is just about as generic as you can possibly think of and goes no further afterwards.

Have you ever looked at the way a character is designed and thought to yourself, man, you look like a filler character? That is effectively the malady plaguing all of Memories of Nobody’s villains. The main dude looks kind of not terrible, but also not exactly someone you will remember by tomorrow. “Hey, you know that guy Aizen? – Yes. – Well, let’s make that guy again, but worse in every way.” That’s how I roughly imagine the main bad guy’s design meeting went.

You have some limited involvement from the larger Bleach cast, but in true filler fashion, you get fanservice showing off only powers and abilities you’ve already seen in the show, but nothing beyond that. Additionally, the reason I call it fanservice is because I, at no point, got the impression that the Captains who used their bankai needed it. Are they weaker than the Caps who won their fights without using their bankai? No, it’s just that the latter group hadn’t gotten theirs revealed, whereas the former did, so you get to gratuitously see them again. It’s not difficult to hypothesize how these filler fight scenes are conceived. The studio cba coming up with a compelling reason for you to get hyped up about the action, so they’d much rather you just gawk at the shiny thing they’ve already shown you before, but now with 0 effort behind it. “Ooo, they did the thing!!!” Don’t ask questions. Just consume product and get excited for next product.

I would also like to comment specifically on the Supreme Commander. Fillers seem to have no idea how to write the guy. In almost every single Bleach filler I’ve seen, he seems to exist to just be an asshole and to antagonize Ichigo (and by extension, the audience) from the background. I say background because he never actually does anything, of course.

That leads me to another point. Memories of Nobody starts the tradition of Bleach fillers reinventing some kind of conflict between Ichigo and the Soul Reapers of Soul Society. “Hey, you know how everyone loved the Rukia rescue arc back when Ichigo and the Soul Reapers were enemies? – Yes. – Let’s do that again, but worse in every way.” That’s how I roughly imagine every single filler arc plot meeting goes.

Just about the only sorta good thing about the movie is the newly added main heroine, Senna. Again, I can’t really talk about her without spoiling, and the mystery of her identity is pretty much the entire lifeline of the movie, but a good chunk of the fandom seems to be fairly enamored with her. It’s not difficult to see why. She has a pleasant design that feels very derivative of Yoruichi. That’s not criticism, mind you. Yoruichi looks great, so it stands to reason that any character inspired by her would be nice, too. Bitch could very well be her daughter.

My only issue with Senna is that I found her personality and temperament obnoxious. This is not to be confused with me saying she’s unrealistic or anything. She is very realistic, but that’s part of the problem. I have entirely too much personal experience with women who are just as fickle and self-centered as her to have any patience left for the character. The perennial expectation is for everyone else around them to deal with their mood swings, whims, and tantrums, and if you don’t, you’re the asshole. Why? Because they’re hot? Yeah, sorry, she was cute, but not that cute.

Her entire character arc essentially amounts to Ichigo saying “Hey, please help us, this is serious! The fate of the world is at stake!” and her going “Lolno, watch me dance, teehee!”

In conclusion, if a movie that lives solely on the notion that it is confusing and mysterious sounds appealing to you, then I could potentially see you being tempted to watch Memories of Nobody, but given that every reveal feels ultimately pointless and superficial, I can’t recommend it in good conscience.

A fair number of people seem to like the film, but I can only guess it’s a consequence of not really having seen that many anime. Sure, if Bleach and Naruto are the only anime you’ve ever seen, perhaps you could watch this and have a milquetoast time, as I did when I first saw it in high school, but why would you? There is so much better content out there for you to occupy your time with.

If you’re not already a Bleach fan, would this sell you on the franchise? Doubtful.

P.S.: The supernatural shit that was being thrown around by the main bad guy during the climax (no pun intended) of the movie was some kind of white paste that looked like... well, you know exactly what it looked like.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Drakestalker (78)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Bleach Anime Watch Order (TV, Movies, Specials, Filler Guide etc)

by TheCoolGuy82

13 Entries · 40 Restacks

Noriyuki Abe Directed Anime Watchlist

by TheCoolGuy82

36 Entries · 7 Restacks

Bleach Canon Guide

by NightlyData

9 Entries · 7 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for November

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases* for November. Week 1: November 1 - 7 Anime Releases Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei! (incl. S...read more

Nov 13, 2022 4:58 PM by Aiimee | Discuss (7 comments)

SPJA announces 2009 winners.

The SPJA, Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, presented a list of winners on Anime Expo 2009. The SPJA is a non-profit organization which purpose is to ...read more

Jul 5, 2009 5:10 AM by Zirgo | Discuss (84 comments)

	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