[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Reid

meryl, I started to read the manga and you were right about it. It's pretty good so far. I've read up to Volume 5 and so far it's quite a bit better than the anime.

Yeah, it is somewhat better than the anime...but, if the anime does follow the manga storyline faithfully, then the anime shouldn't be too bad. Though, as I mentioned earlier, there are a few parts cut out because of unnecessary details and lack of space, etc. I'm glad you're enjoying it Reid!

Originally Posted by Reid

The thing is, the manga has a really, really neat art style that the anime doesn't really do justice to.

OMG! I'm so happy you said this! To be honest, the real reason why I picked up the series was because of the art style! I know that sounds really superficial of me, but because I don't have access to those manga magazines, I gauge mangas by their cover. Bleach, for some reason, really grabbed my attention. From the covers, I think I liked the very clean art and the single characters dominating each cover. Then, the actual manga art itself, really was just so...beautiful to me. I can't explain it, but I feel his style is somewhat unique (especially the way he draws his very angular, square jawlines and his light pen style...not too much pressure at all...very clean). And, I agree with you too; the anime is nice to look at (of course, it had to be this way due to the animation process) but the manga is more detailed and refined (like most mangas). ^_^

Originally Posted by Reid

The storyline is pretty neat too. Once it gets going there's some interesting stuff. I really liked the story arc about Ichigo's mother and the fact that there's a Hollow he can't defeat right away now. It adds something more to the story and I like that they portray the characters as having real motivation and such.

I think you'll enjoy the later chapters Reid. There are more sense of motivation and more sense of "responsibility" and growth on each character's part. Though Ichigo probably is the more developed, next to Rukia. Also, the manga flows along very well; there hasn't been many situations where I thought, "This is totally useless, what's the point?" As I said, some fight scenes are a bit dragged on/uninteresting, but overall, it's not too bad.