Bleach is an anime series that's sometimes controversial, for a variety of reasons. While some of these criticisms are valid, a great many of them are unfounded, or even outright wrong.

The original Bleach anime ran from 2004 to 2012, when it was canceled before finishing the adaptation of the final arc. Many haters of the anime rejoiced at the news, saying that Bleach had clearly fallen off and that the quality of the story was garbage. Critics like to complain that the series lacks an overarching narrative, or that it gets repetitive after a certain point, but these criticisms show an actual lack of familiarity with the show, and the problems that it actually did experience. In truth, the canon Bleach anime is innocent of these particular crimes, although it did fall victim to others.

Bleach's Narrative Approach is Realistic

Events Spiral Out From an Inciting Incident

Many anime fans who aren't fans of Bleach will accuse the series of simply being "a series of events" that have little to do with one another. The truth, however, is that each story arc in Bleach is actually directly caused by the one that preceded it. Rukia's capture and time as a prisoner in the Soul Society is a direct consequence of her unlocking Ichigo's own Soul Reaper powers. The true villain of the series, Aizen, plays a big role in the Soul Society arc, and is revealed to have been the mastermind behind Rukia's arrest, attempting to use her execution to seize power.

That, of course, directly leads into the Hueco Mundo and Arrancar arcs, which see Aizen's minions taking action against the Soul Society and capturing Orihime, to make use of the unique powers she developed during the Soul Society arc. It eventually becomes clear that Aizen's intentions aren't just domination--they're to ascend to godhood, and he must be stopped. Aizen's defeat costs Ichigo his powers, and trying to find a way to be useful again is what leads Ichigo into the Fullbringer arc.

The only arc which doesn't immediately follow the consequences of the preceding arc is the Thousand-Year Blood War, which builds off of Quincy lore that was established much earlier in the story. Of course, this is only considering canonical arcs; many of the filler arcs don't have the necessary connections to the main story to be logical follow-ups to the preceding arc, simply because they're completely made up by the anime team.

The Bleach Anime's Repetitiveness is Due to Filler

The Filler Content is What Commonly Repeats Plot Points

The other major complaint about Bleach is that the story repeats plot points. There is some truth to this, in that different arcs "mirror" each other in some ways. For example, the Hueco Mundo arc features Orihime being kidnapped, not long after Rukia was just rescued from her own confinement. The reasons for abducting Orihime are very different from those for Rukia, however, and the Orihime situation ends up playing an important role in the plot of the following arcs due to the very unique powers that she alone possesses.

Once again, though, the filler is the problem with Bleach's anime. Bleach was afflicted with filler content early and often, much like its contemporary Big Three member, Naruto. The incredible canon Soul Society arc is immediately followed up in the anime with the Bount arc, which is entirely unrelated and considered by most fans to be one of the worst filler arcs in the entire series. That killed a lot of momentum that the story had, and caused a number of people who might have become fans to tune out and stop watching.

Filler arcs in Bleach often echoed the content of the main story; several story arcs in the filler involve an invading force infiltrating the Soul Society, for example. This definitely gives a distinct feeling that plot points are being repeated, especially when these storylines typically involve Ichigo powering up to a level he has, in fact, already hit in the canon material. Filler stories also often introduce new characters who feel like shallow knock-offs of existing characters, once again causing the series to feel more repetitive than it actually is in the canon of the series.

Most Non-Fan Complaints About Bleach Are Actually Filler

The Series' Filler Caused an Already Slow-Paced Story to Drag On

Bleach is noted for having a particularly high amount of filler during its run--around 45% of all episodes (pre-Thousand-Year Blood War) are filler, which is actually shocking to some people. This is more a mark of when Bleach was being made than it is anything about the series itself, though; airing episodes all year long and creating filler to buy time was just the way things were done, just like Dragon Ball Z. Most fans today will strongly recommend skipping all the filler, at least until after the canonical content, as most of it is derivative and just... not very good.

Nowadays, major anime that are adapting an ongoing manga have taken to a season-based approach, like My Hero Academia or Demon Slayer. This eliminates the need for filler, for the most part, and means that storylines aren't broken up or disrupted by filler content, allowing the story to be told as it was intended. Dragon Ball Z received a recut that removed a substantial amount of filler, known as Dragon Ball Z Kai, which dramatically improved the pacing and storytelling of the anime. Bleach would very much benefit from such a recut as well, although there are no known plans.

Whether Bleach ever gets recut, or perhaps even reanimated Hunter X Hunter-style, the fact of the matter is that what actually is considered canon Bleach is of far higher quality than what many non-fans think. That's not to say Bleach is perfect without filler, but it's a far more cohesive and less repetitive story. Those who think they might want to give Bleach another shot should either read the manga or watch the anime with a Bleach filler list to enable them to skip to only the good parts. That's no guarantee you'll love Bleach, but at least you'll be giving it a fair shake.