BLEACH

Summary: Ichigo Kurosaki is 15, has naturally bright orange hair and can see spirits. He has been able to see them from birth, but has kept this a secret and has sometimes helped spirits when they have been troubled by humans who can’t see them. One day, after helping a young girl ghost scare away gangsters who were knocking down her flowers, he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a death god (shinigami). Rukia comes from the Soul Society, and her duty as a death god is to help spirits find their way safely back to the Soul Society and to kill Hollows: spirits that have lost their sanity and eat souls to survive. As they are talking, a Hollow breaks into the house and attacks Ichigo’s family, who cannot see spirits. Ichigo, feeling that it is his fault that his family were attacked (because Hollows tend to hunt for souls that have a strong spiritual power i.e. people who can see spirits), faces the Hollow, but just as the Hollow is about to attack Ichigo, Rukia jumps between them, saving Ichigo’s life and mortally wounding herself. There is now only one way in which Ichigo can save his family and Rukia. He must thrust Rukia’s zanbakutou (japanese sword) into his heart so that her death god power will transfer into him, and he will become a death god himself.

My recommendation: This manga is good for anyone, unless you don’t like the sight of blood, or frequent fight scenes. It’s a shounenn, so there’s not much on the romance side of things, but there is a lot of very good humour, and the story line is very well thought out with a clever structure. Bleach is very popular, so if you read it, you can usually make conversation with any manga readers, but I’ve found is that many people have heard of it but never read it. If you’re one of those people, read it now!! I definitely recommend it to anyone who is into shounenn, and who has read the likes of Naruto and Death Note.

My comments: I love this manga, not only is the plot good, it has a very very wide range of characters. I love the style it’s drawn in too, because the characters look like they could actually exist (except some who have really weird hair cuts...). Also, you never get bored with it, and there’s a lot of side-plots or -stories that add to it. Oh, and the humour is so funny, but that’s just because I laugh at anything.

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