Bleach: Fade to Black - The Movie 3

I enjoy Bleach as a series, but there are so many episodes I haven't seen. There are sixteen seasons of this show and 366 episodes. Now only about 13 seasons have been shown in the U.S., but knowing that only tells me how little of the series is left and how much I have missed. The time I spent without cable is one of the reasons I missed a lot of shows and the fact that I missed a lot of shows is one of the reasons I missed a lot more shows when I got TV back. You see, if you miss just a couple of episodes of certain anime then you are royally screwed. But a couple of seasons? Forget it. You'll have no idea what the hell is going on and it will be like the characters are completely different. You might as well be watching a completely different anime. 

But recently I started watching Bleach again. I have no idea how things got the way they are, but I am enjoying the show again anyway. Naturally, I went out and got Bleach: Fade to Black - The Movie when I saw it at Wal-Mart. The cover of the movie didn't tell me that it was the third film in a series because I didn't read the fine print on the back. The prequels to this movie are Memories of Nobody and The DiamondDust Rebellion. I include that information just in case you wanted to know. 

Now, considering the sheer amount of episodes I have missed and the fact that I had no idea if a few characters were actually main characters or not, I really enjoyed this movie. I can't tell you just where the movie might take place along the Bleach timeline, but I would assume it takes place somewhere in the last third of the series. I could be wrong, but anime movies usually are that way. The later movies take place later in the series. So until I'm proven wrong I guess I'm going to stand by that theory. 

Now I cannot stress enough how important it is to watch the anime series to which a certain movie belongs. I have no doubt I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more (and would have been slightly less confused about certain things, too) if I had managed to keep up with the series. 

So my summary of this movie will stick to the just the movie and I won't try to say much about how the characters in the series actually are. Anime movies typically don't tell you more about the characters than you already know. So if you know nothing then you get nothing. But I do know a little. 

The main character of the Bleach series is Ichigo Kurosaki. Ichigo is what is known as a Soul Reaper and he is part of the Soul Society. He was made a Soul Reaper by his very good friend Rukia Kuchiki, the woman that saved his life and his family's life by making him into a Soul Reaper. 

At the beginning of the movie there is an attack on the Soul Society and this peculiar substance called "reiatsu" ends up covering much of the Soul Society, freezing and killing many Soul Reapers. The attack was caused by two peculiar siblings who wield a scythe that makes people forget things. They confront Rukia and when they do they manage to erase her memories and the memories everyone has of her. Why do they want her and why do they want no one to remember her?

Meanwhile, in the land of the living, Ichigo Kurosaki realizes that even he had forgotten Rukia for a brief period of time. Troubled by forgetting her, Ichigo goes on mission to understand why and if she might be in trouble. But when he gets to the Soul Society, he discovers no one remembers who he is, either. Ichigo is labeled as an intruder by his friends who can't remember him and he is forced on the run while trying to search for Rukia and find whoever caused all of this chaos. 

Well, I think I covered the basic plot without stepping on any toes.

Again, I found this movie to be very enjoyable and I think it's worth the fifteen dollars I paid for it. I just wish I had managed to watch more of the series.