Bleach The Movie: Memories of Nobody

As anyone into anime is aware, Bleach is a long-running shounen show, currently in its eighth year on air and it’s still strong with its fans. ‘Memories of Nobody’ is the first of a series of three Bleach movies to be released in the UK by Kaze and Manga Entertainment, which are based on the TV series, but still detached from the main story line in order to be enjoyable to non-regular viewers of the show, and was deliberately made to be so, as stated by director Noriyuki Abe in the interviews in the extra features of the disc.

Chronologically, this film is placed somewhere between the Soul Society Arc and the Bount Arcs of the TV show, with Ichigo and Rukia in their usual routine of hunting down Hollows in the town of Karakura. Little do they know that this routine would soon be over with the appearance of white ghosts with red heads, an enemy in uniform that is only seem by Kon at this point and a mysterious Soul Reaper called Senna, who has no memories of where she came from and which squad she’s in.

As the film progresses, the viewer learns that the white ghosts are called blanks and that they are coming to the world of the living because both the Soul Society and the world of the living are getting closer together through some unknown enemy action and it’s up to Ichigo & co to find and stop the culprit before both worlds collapse. All this happens in the very first ten minutes of the film, so none of this is actually a spoiler.

The overall film has good production values, with a few scenes that stands out, but nothing that brings the overall film quality up to Ghibliesque standards, for instance. As you watch the film, it’s easy to realise that the creators tried to please all fans of the show with even a little peek at all the Soul Reapers in the Soul Society, as well as the whole of Ichigo’s troupe, including his family.

As for characterisation, the only character that develops itself a little is Senna, which is quite understandable, considering that any characterisation in the film would be difficult to be brought back to the series, but still it’s a small disappointment not to see any character development at all, for me at least.

The fights in the movie are ok, nothing like Ichigo’s duels with Kenpachi or Byakuya, but they still hold their own. It is a great treat for Bleach fans, while the casual viewer might be overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of characters, but if the casual viewer does enjoy what they see in this movie, they would be very likely to enjoy watching the series as well.

The disc has both English dub and Japanese dub with English subtitles. The disc is locked, so if you watch the English dub, you cannot see the English subtitles. This is particularly annoying for someone like me who enjoys comparing what is said on the dubs and what’s written in the subs, as both are inevitably different due to either the time for lip-syncing or the space to write the subtitles on screen. The US voice actors surprised me, as this was my first time watching it in English. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it, but after a few lines, I quite liked their delivery and none of the characters seemed particularly off because of their voices.

The Extras are ‘Pre-production sketches’, ‘Interview with Noriyuki Abe, Masashi Kudo and Ken Hagino’ (Japanese with subs only), ‘Official Japanese trailers’ and ‘Storyboards’.

The verdict is this is a good and enjoyable film as long you’re a Bleach fan or a huge fan of shounen anime.

According to Wiki, this film is best viewed after episode 80.