Retrokaiser here welcoming you to my first ever series where I take a collection of films and release one review a day on a film from that series for a whole week.  This week I am going to go through all four Bleach movies... OK so it's not technically a full week but you get the picture.  So grab your seven-foot swords and horny teddy bears because we are kicking off Bleach Week with "Memories of Nobody (2008)".  Memories of Nobody is about two soul reapers (grim reapers) named Ichigo and Rukia who are out just doing their job helping spirits reach the afterlife and warding off corrupted souls called Hollows.  Their work day is going pretty well until they are called in for a job down town and are surprised to see a whole group of mystical beings that sort of look like KKK members having a birthday party.  They can't seem to figure out how to defeat these things until out of nowhere another soul reaper pops out of nowhere and wipes them all out with one big massive tornado attack.  Ichigo goes and reports this to his friends and then they do some research so they can find out who she really is.  Kon (Ichigo's teddy bear sidekick) swears he saw another warrior in the battle that makes this situation a lot more serious.  Ichigo goes out and runs back into the mystery female soul reaper over at a local market and she said she'll tell him anything he wants if he can catch her. Ichigo chases her all over the market that's full of stalls and random men stripping for television (don't ask).  Ichigo does end up catching her after she falls from a high place and they go hangout for awhile with her telling him what she knows.  While they are walking home they decide to visit a graveyard and get attacked by warriors in some very old looking armor and they want the girl so they can not only destroy the otherworld but the living worlds also.  I wonder how this will turn out? (Click "Read More" to see full article).

After being very disappointed by the horrid television series my expectations for this film were pretty low so I was dreading seeing this film.  Man did I pick the wrong time to think that as instead of a terrible show that has more filler than a fat porn star at an orgy, I got a pretty damn impressive action flick with a hint of romance, a well told story and excellent characters and I'll go as far as to call this film a masterpiece.  It is also a film that stands out on it's own so people that are not familiar with the Bleach series will enjoy it just as much as fans of the Bleach series. 

Animation is very smooth with some beautiful and very detailed visuals that will make you say "wow, that actually looks pretty good".  English dub is the same as the television series so it won't alienate the people that watch the show and will feel fresh for the people who only know of Bleach because of this film and it is also pretty good with a strong cast that really suits the characters well.  The menus are frustrating to get through due to being really sluggish making it hard to know when to click the remote so you can have the menus in English*.  I kid you not as it took me three attempts (on average) to pick the right language so it does lose some points for lack of convenience (even though we don't score on a points ratio here in the Terrordome).

Special features in this release include a bunch of really lovely looking production artwork, promotional trailers, and a very enlightening documentary interviewing the crew with some very interesting things to say like how they made it with the intention of making it so that people who haven't seen the show will enjoy the film (and indeed it worked).  Overall this was classic and I highly recommend this one should be an essential to anime collections.  Bleach fans will love it and Bleach haters will be pleasantly surprised .  So that wraps up day one of this special series with three more films to look at.  Check in tomorrow as we look at the second film "The Diamond Dust Rebellion".


Title: Bleach the Movie #1 - Memories of Nobody
Animation Studio: Studio Pierrot
Genre: Animation/Anime, Horror/Supernatural, Action
Running Time: 87 minutes
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (www.madman.com.au)
Rating: M15+ (Animated violence)
Price: $29.95
Recommended: Yes

*Note: When you boot up the disc it takes you to a screen with about six to ten different language options.