The reason Bleach has been falling in the rankings recently: a theory

The main problem was that Bleach felt almost like a different manga...The introduction of the Fullbringers and the way Ichigo was illustrated living as an ordinary person almost like a slice of life hasnt been done in years. It was about action, character development and certain plot revelations eg the Vizards back story, Aizen revealing that Ichi was a test subject fro his own hybridization goals, Gin betraying Aizen etc etc....Fans were unaccustomed to just watching Ichi and company live and ordinary life and it didnt sit too well with them...I liked it however...It needed to be done because Ichi and co are ordinary teenagers in essence who live an extraordinary life. Also like everyone said, no Shinigami, no Arrancar, and a serious drop in power levels...Going from facing Aizen to facing Fullbringers was a massive drop...But all in all i personally liked the LSS Arc because it answered a few questions that needed to be answered ( Chad's powers, why Ichi has always been so inconsistent, SS real intentions towards Ichi etc) and gave Ichi back his powers.....

In regards to people comparing Bleach to OP and Naruto i honestly prefer it Naruto...Naruto for me has way too many holes...If you notice with Bleach however, it doesnt have many holes per say, just a few unanswered questions but they are eventually all answered just Kubo takes his time :P...Naruto has genuine contradictions however that are never explained..OP is different...Plot wise its almost faultless...Just wayyyy too many characters and i dont really like the art...Bleach is still my fav of the 3 but to each his own...Glad too see it back in the top 3

the reason is due to the less popularity of it,and especially to the last arc,the fullbringers' one. Furthermore,its beginning isn't as appreciated as Naruto or One Piece's but that doesn't count since you asked "recently". Yet,the fact less people follow it means that less people WILL follow it,cause they abandoned it during that shame of arc.

Well, the rankings got turned around. It was third in Jump 17 (after Toriko and One Piece with Naruto as the color) and first in Jump 18 before One Piece

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Originally Posted by vizardichigo

The main problem was that Bleach felt almost like a different manga...The introduction of the Fullbringers and the way Ichigo was illustrated living as an ordinary person almost like a slice of life hasnt been done in years. It was about action, character development and certain plot revelations eg the Vizards back story, Aizen revealing that Ichi was a test subject fro his own hybridization goals, Gin betraying Aizen etc etc....Fans were unaccustomed to just watching Ichi and company live and ordinary life and it didnt sit too well with them...I liked it however...It needed to be done because Ichi and co are ordinary teenagers in essence who live an extraordinary life. Also like everyone said, no Shinigami, no Arrancar, and a serious drop in power levels...Going from facing Aizen to facing Fullbringers was a massive drop...But all in all i personally liked the LSS Arc because it answered a few questions that needed to be answered ( Chad's powers, why Ichi has always been so inconsistent, SS real intentions towards Ichi etc) and gave Ichi back his powers.....

In regards to people comparing Bleach to OP and Naruto i honestly prefer it Naruto...Naruto for me has way too many holes...If you notice with Bleach however, it doesnt have many holes per say, just a few unanswered questions but they are eventually all answered just Kubo takes his time :P...Naruto has genuine contradictions however that are never explained..OP is different...Plot wise its almost faultless...Just wayyyy too many characters and i dont really like the art...Bleach is still my fav of the 3 but to each his own...Glad too see it back in the top 3

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I agree here. I think it mainly comes down to a lot of unanswered questions to some of the characters, that Kubo has kept in secrecy regarding their past backgrounds. So, I imagine that cases like Isshin, Urahara and many other characters, who haven't had their origins revealed yet, could be a major breaking point in the manga series as a whole. And this could be all that Kubo has left to run on as far as the series goes. He started doing this a lot, after the Soul Society arc by putting small details out there that kept the audience in anticipation and interest.

For now, where the series is currently at, I don't expect much from this year in Bleach, but I think will see old characters come back and already, we've had one of the good guys die and the former villains being on the side of abuse now, by "new" villains.

I wouldn't count Bleach out just yet, folks.



p.s., Bleach and Naruto might be on the same level, but Bleach compared to One Piece is like comparing One Piece to Dragon Ball. There is a world of difference between the stories.

And we see why the arc wasn't recieved well. People just didn't like the story and characters.

This week, Bleach is #1 in ToC.

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Originally Posted by Darjaille

And we see why the arc wasn't recieved well. People just didn't like the story and characters.

This week, Bleach is #1 in ToC.

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Actually, the way it is calculated, Bleach is #1 because people liked the final chapter of the Fullbring arc if I counted right. There is a eight week difference.

Yeah, calculating it it's probably the last chapter. I was talking more about comparing the part with horrible rankings -> shinigami's return [bleach gets steady in the middle or higher] -> the end [it's #1]. The ending was recieved quite well even here, I'd say because it wasn't too stretched out and slow like the first ~30-40 chapters of the arc.

I can't even compare the first part of the Agent arc and the second one. While the second part of the Agent arc wasn't the absolute best thing out there, it was much more enjoyable for me than the first part.

this latest and final arc has potential to really bring bleach back to the top

bleach was one of my favorite manga's EVER up through the fight with aizen and ichigo, and the fullbring arc was a regression of sorts

now lets see what kubo has, this is his make, or break moment for the story, it will either go down as one of the most epic manga's ever created, or an above average wildly popular manga that went on for a bit too long

all depending on the quality of this arc

LETS SEE WHAT YOU ARE MADE OF KUBO, THE BLEACH FANS ARE CHEERING FOR YOU!!!

surely with this new and last arc,bleach will raise again! new people should be interested in it,knowing that it's almost finishing,they should start reading it,imo.

I think the fullbringer arc kind of slowed down popularity...It was almost as bad as Dragonball GT, but the fullbring arc got a little better at the end. It's just a little too slow for people I think which might be why Kubo has picked up the pace a little. But even here on mangahelpers, bleach isn't nearly as popular as say Naruto or One Piece. Look at the number of posts for the current Bleach chapter vs. the number of posts for the current Naruto chapter. It's not even close...

So Bleach is not popular now just because he became more seinen like?

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Originally Posted by Sky Render

Bleach's popularity is increasing. In fact, last week it even surpassed One Piece in the TOC (and it was with the chapter that ended the Xcution arc, I believe).

Pointing out mistakes and flaws on the author's work is good and makes for good discussion, but this kind of meaningless trollin is not cute at all.

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let's see some real evidence and see who's the real meaningless troll here. oricon annual tankobon sales rank 2009-2011:

Spoiler show

2011, ranked 8th
http://www.oricon.co.jp/entertainmen...1/index06.html

2010, ranked 5th
http://www.oricon.co.jp/entertainmen...1/index13.html

2009, ranked 3rd, as was for years before that, when one piece/naruto/bleach was the "holy trinity" of WJS.
http://contents.oricon.co.jp/enterta...204_01_13.html

comparing the sales of one piece/naruto and bleach for each year shows an even clearer picture - sales of both naruto and one piece, both several more years in their run are actually increasing, while bleach is bleeding its reader base away, partially because of chapters such as these (just so i stay somewhat on topic) - where we see the introduction, no RE-introduction (!) of fodder characters with little relevance and significantly lowered power levels of all parties involved, this is not moving the plot anywhere, especially considering this new group is essentially scavenging aizen's "leftovers", while aizen, his powers and motivation remains a complete mystery, and no replacement villain that matches aizen's charisma, cunning, power or plot relevance is anywhere in sight.

if this doesn't bother you, good for you, but it obviously bothers a lot of people, and that's a fact backed by quantifiable evidence, if you can't see that, you're blind.

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Originally Posted by hdx514

comparing the sales of one piece/naruto and bleach for each year shows an even clearer picture - sales of both naruto and one piece, both several more years in their run are actually increasing, while bleach is bleeding its reader base away, partially because of chapters such as these (just so i stay somewhat on topic) - where we see the introduction, no RE-introduction (!) of fodder characters with little relevance and significantly lowered power levels of all parties involved, this is not moving the plot anywhere, especially considering this new group is essentially scavenging aizen's "leftovers", while aizen, his powers and motivation remains a complete mystery, and no replacement villain that matches aizen's charisma, cunning, power or plot relevance is anywhere in sight.

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Strange then that your numbers already show Bleach dropping when that 'charismatic, cunning' villain was the main highlight in the manga.

Bleach is getting higher in the rankings, I think as long as there're good villains and a good story, people will keep reading Bleach. Aizen was one of the best villains in manga history but IMHO Bleach is still a good manga without Aizen and I'm looking forward to new chapters of this last arc, which seems very promising so far.

True Miyagi. The new character, the leader of Vandenriech, already looks menacing to me. Bleach has some of the best characters, especially the good guys. A decent opposition would make it as interesting as it was years ago.