A review by tayanapier
Bleach, Vol. 74: The Death and the Strawberry by Tite Kubo

fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I genuinely don’t think I have been so disappointed by an ending of a story before in my life. 
The thousand year blood war arc has been dissatisfying and disappointing considering how strong the first arc was. 

✨spoilers below✨

1. There were WAY too many side characters. I love a large cast of characters, but when the minor characters are continually getting more page time than ANY of the main characters then we have a problem.  We spent so much time with minor characters arcs that every single main character literally had ZERO development.  Also there was just weird fan service thrown into random scenes and they just felt gross. 

2.  The villains fell flat every single time. They all felt the same and were very cartoonish. They didn’t feel like real villains at all.  Any stakes that they did bring to the table were very quickly wrapped up with a pretty bow and any consequences very quickly forgotten with a convenient power up. 

3. The battle scenes were long and boring. They felt repetitive because, once again every minor character had to have a ‘moment’.  Be it character development or a surprise power up (that had little to no foreshadowing), that came at very convenient moments and felt cheap.  ALSO returning characters are just coming out of no where to just magically fix problems. Like where the fuck did you come from. 

4. The final battle was so bad! LIKE WHY THE FUCK is it just Ichigo, Aizen and Renji that goes into the final battle (which last for 0.2 seconds) then Uryū just magically turns up with a very convenient arrow that can stop a persons powers!?!? WHERE ARE THE REST OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS!?! Why did Rukia stay behind??? Ichigo and Rukia are the two main protagonists and they have barely any contact or dialogue this whole final arc and they don’t even finish the battle together! 

5. The epilogue undos every single ounce of character development the main characters go through.  Characters literally doing and becoming people they vowed they would never become.  It honestly makes me so upset that characters that had so much potential and development just written into endings that make no sense for any of them. 
The ships that have been seeded this whole series are just thrown out the window.  Even the platonic relationships between the world of the living and the soul reaper society make no sense. 
ALSO NOT A SINGLE DAMN QUESTION IS ANSWERED AT ALL about any of the loose threads left behind after the battle. 

I am upset and disappointed that I wasted time on reading the final arc of this series.