Bleach movie: Memories of Nobody US theatrical release

Last night I went with my one of my friends to see the US theatrical premier of the first Bleach movie at a theater in Woodland Hills, CA. Like the US premier of the Death Note live-action movies back in May, Viz premiered the English dub of the Bleach movie for two nights (June 11th and 12th) at a few select theaters across the country…

Besides the Miyazaki movies, anime gets very little theatrical release in the US. I think the only anime movies to be released in most mainstream theaters were the Pokemon movies, but those stopped being released in the theaters many years ago because of Pokemon’s drop in popularity (and Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh! only got one movie release each). A couple of years ago, Viz also did a short theatrical release of the 3rd Inuyasha movie, and Funimation did the same for the Full Metal Alchemist movie, so at least US anime companies are trying. Hopefully one day we’ll see more anime in US theaters (though I don’t know if the US will ever be ready for a mainstream theatrical release of the Evangelion movies! XD) There were quite a number of people at the Bleach movie, and from what I’ve heard, when the Death Note movies were shown at AX last year, the room was totally filled. I hope things like this will make people consider the growing popularity of anime and realize that showing it in theaters might not be a bad idea.

Anyway, as far as the showing of the Bleach movie, I think Viz did a pretty good job. In place of standard movie trailers, we had a few quick promo videos for various Viz titles. And before the movie actually started, there was a 15-20 minute segment about how Viz makes the US release of Bleach, including insight into the manga translation, voice actor recording sessions, and of course, appearances by the English cast themselves. We even got to see some of the Japanese staff as well as Tite Kubo himself (with their dialogue subtitled) so that was a nice little addition. I wish more US anime DVD releases would have extra material like this.

And as for the movie itself, it was pretty much just what I expected of a movie based on a long running shounen series; it was a filler story that wasn’t terrible but definitely wasn’t anything exceptional. I could predict right away that Senna was the one who caused all that chaos in the Soul Society at the beginning of the movie, and that she had some “secret” behind her carefree attitude, AND that Ichigo would have to rescue her from the new villains eventually. Upon mention of the Shinenju, I also knew right away that she was indeed the Shinenju…I even predicted that she would die in the end. So yeah, the movie didn’t really surprise me at any point. This kind of storyline in which a new character (who isn’t all they appear to be) is introduced, gets attached to the lead characters, gets into trouble with the new villains, then leaves or dies in the end, is a pretty familiar storyline that’s been used in many anime filler stories. Although I like Bleach, I’m not a fan (I prefer Naruto and One Piece) and it never struck me as having much depth…it’s pretty much all about the action scenes, which was just what I expected from the movie. And of course, with the movie’s higher budget, the action scenes looked better than in the TV episodes so that was cool. Another good point was that most of the characters got to make an appearance at one point in the movie (but why not Yoruichi?! XP)

I haven’t watched dubbed Bleach in a while, but hearing it again, it’s not too bad. Most of the lead characters are well cast. Johnny Young Bosch, Michelle Ruff, Stephanie Sheh, Megan Hollingshead, and Derek Stephen Prince are all veteran English voice actors that have done a number of other anime voices besides their Bleach characters. The new voice actors for Senna and Ganryu were okay but their acting could’ve been better. Viz still has their weird translation inconsistencies, for example, why they translate “shinigami” as “soul reaper,” but leave “gigai” and “zanpakutou” untranslated. But more or less it was a good translation and they even kept in all the original music.

All in all, I can only recommend this movie if you’re already a fan of Bleach. If you’re just a casual Bleach watcher like me, then it’s basically just a predictable and typical shounen filler story that isn’t really thought provoking at all. But still, it has some good action scenes, decent animation and music, and it was great watching anime on the big screen (at a place that’s not an anime con! XD)