User blog comment:Tinni/Distorted Perceptions: The Soul Society Arc vs Arrancar Arc/@comment-1432572-20100123115754

I started reading bleach in June 2009. I've been watching the anime ever since it debuted, but it really didn't interest me. Ichigo and Rukia's mini-arc was quite lackluster and I found the pace of the Soul Society Arc slow. I was just a casual, less than that, I was a "once-in-a-while type of watcher. That is I found many other things to watch OTHER than Bleach, and would rather go to sleep than watch it. There were only two things in the Soul Society Arc that interested me: the concepts of Shikai and Bankai, and Kaname Tosen, other than those it was a bust. In fact, whenever I went to onemanga to read Naruto, I would often see Bleach, get bad memories of lame fights, then scoff at Bleach, and then proceed to reading Naruto.

Bleach never appealed to me until the Bount Arc. It was very well-written, and because I never read the manga prior to it, I thought it was a manga-canon arc. When I reached the mid-point of the arc I was extremely eager to see the next episode and the next and the next....

What really hooked me was Grimmjow's invasion. I loved the fights, the characters and the fast pace battles. Grimmjow's last message to Ichigo made me want to watch the subs right away, but I resisted and I stumbled upon this wikia, and the wikia made me a Bleach-manga fan and a Bleach anime English-sub fan.

So in my case, the SS Arc was dumb and the Arrancar Arc pulled me in. It is the best Bleach Arc in my opinion. The only disappointment was that the Espada don't seem to be the great threat they were perceived to be, they seemed more like cannon-fodder, or Stormtroopers, or even Redcoats, they fell one after the other. But what kept me reading were two factors: 1. I grew attached to the Espadas and I wanted to see how each died/will die. Those that already died, perished in a poetic way, in my opinion. 2. The Shinigami that killed them grew on me as characters (even though I still think some Espada were cheated out of their victories, but I digress, all's fair in love and war) The only problem I have with this Arc is the fact that no good guy has died. Hollows and Shinigami are supposed to be balanced, but how can they when not even an unseated officer has died? *sigh

Point is, Bleach is still good, BETTER in fact, in my opinion