Bleach Memories of Nobody Review ~ Hall0606 Blogs

Review: Bleach Memories of Nobody
Released: 6th July 2009 (UK) (Out Now)
Platforms: DVD
FINAL OPINION: AWESOME / MUST WATCH

Over the past few years I’ve really gotten into the Bleach series. I was sceptical whether this series was worth watching but after watching the first three DVD releases in the UK and the latest episodes coming out of Japan I’ve become a big fan of the series. But enough about that I’m here to talk about the first Bleach film entitled Bleach: Memories of Nobody. Just like the series I wasn’t sure at first if the film would be worth watching; however I’m glad I made the purchase as this film has become one of my favourite anime films.

The thing I adore most about Memories of Nobody is it doesn’t seem like a regular episode drawn out over sixty minutes. In fact Memories Of Nobody does what some anime films fail to do that’s provide a decent story and a decent amount of action that’s easy to follow and makes sense for an anime in just over sixty minutes. Anyway the basics of story without giving to much away are that beings known as “Blanks” show up along with an unidentifiable girl called Senna who looks like a Soul Reaper, wields a sword like a Soul Reaper and also looks thinks she’s a Soul Reaper. Things get more interesting when the Ichigo, the Soul Society and a banished clan known as the Dark Ones are all seeking the same entity referred to as a “Memory Rosary”. One thing I have to say about the story is that even though it’s easy to follow and decent it’s a little obvious what’s going on within the first ten minutes of watching the film. It’s not a major fault, it is a film and typical anime films based on an ongoing series tend not to be very long and there’s a lot to cram in within a short amount of time.

Senna is a great character and her character development throughout the film is done nicely. It’s too bad we only get to see her in this film only. There isn’t much character development with the villains of this film a short back-story and that’s it. In fact these villains fall into that typical anime thing where we have a strong leader and his minions who are only there so that the other heroes of the series can get some meaningful air time. DragonBall Z movies three and four spring to mind in this respect as they followed a similar theme with the way the villains are presented. Anyway it’s great to see Renji, Toshiro, Soi Fon, Byakuya and Kenpachi get some air time in some decent and nice-looking fights even if they are pretty short, but don’t forget this is an anime film and not a TV episode (thankfully). It’s a shame the Dark Ones were not fleshed out a bit more they look like an interesting bunch but we only get to see them a few times.

The animation is great better than most of the filler arcs from the series and the music is great to even if most of them are just reused from the series. As for extras well the UK release doesn’t really have much apart from some trailers, which is a shame, but then again for an anime film that is under £5 these days it’s not that much of an upset. The DVD packaging is well designed with a number of characters from the film present on it including Ichigo, Reni, Senna just to name a few.