Perhaps one comment summed the situation up best: “FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!”

There exists an abusive relationship between anime and manga fans and movie producers. As often as the change of seasons, some successful franchise is needlessly trotted out and presented with flesh and bone and CGI actors but somehow always lacking the core elements that made the original material successful.

And yet despite getting slapped in the face with embarrassingly bad interpretations, fans keep bringing their money back for more thinking, “this time will be different,” and “they said they’d changed.” But they never do, every time it’s exactly the same routine: announce the film, cosplay actors as well as they can to get people worked up, then slap together a poorly conceived film – wash, rinse, repeat.

That alone is enough to turn a profit on these productions and so the dance continues. This time it is the worldwide hit series Bleach‘s turn through the wringer. It is slated to star Sota Fukushi as Ichigo Kurasaki (pictured, sort of, above) and Hana Sugisaki as Rukia Kuchiki (pictured below in both death god and human form)

Production of the live action film, in which Soul Reapers do battle against other supernatural foes, was announced some time ago, but finally a brief trailer and some photos have been released leading up to its 20 July release date.

Granted, it’s a pretty brief glimpse, but more than enough to send fans of the series into a renewed rage.

“Hana-chan just ain’t Rukia.”
“This is a 100% failure.”
“Please stop this.”
“Have they seen the original works at all?”
“It doesn’t look like Bleach… It doesn’t even look like live-action for that matter.”
“So Bleach is their next prey…”
“They couldn’t even achieve cosplay levels on this one.”
“If they had dazzled me with some nice imagery, I might have gone to see it. But they didn’t.”
“FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!! FUUUUUUUCK YOU JAPAN MONTAJERS!”

As that colorful final comment probably didn’t originate in Japan, it’s a testament to the success of Bleach and how widespread the disappointment reaches. It also begs the question of what a “montajer” is…possibly someone who makes montages.

Anyway, Bleach is coming and many of us will go see it, get bummed out, and then say, “At least it wasn’t as bad as Devilman.” Then, another great manga title will be put through the process and reduced to nothing more than another bargain bin Blu-Ray title bundled together with Leprechaun 4: In Space for 1,000 yen. The circle of life continues.

Meanwhile we wait, because the movie industry has to run out of franchises to ruin someday…right?

Source: Bleach Movie Official Website, YouTube/Warner Brothers Official Channel
Images: © Tite Kubo / Shueisha © 2018 Movie “BLEACH” Production Committee
[ Read in Japanese ]