Bleach Movie 3 Fade to Black / I Call Your Name: Rather soft side story to the anime

Written by Little_Wolf-18 on May 4, 2012 at 5:44 AM

Of course you can’t expect something too involved with the original plot in movies - those are side stories and can’t be dramatically involved as they basically have to stand on their own. (As long as they don’t draw a direct connection, that is.) And if you expect something utterly involved with the Bleach series, you might be disappointed in this.

Next, you won’t find 90 minutes of nonstop action here either. “Fade to Black / I Call Your Name” focuses on plot and characters, and there it definitely scores higher than most other Bleach movies for me.

Once the plot is revealed, this movie proves to be well thought-out, and for me is the best of the four Bleach movies. It is predictable in a way, and granted, the beginning really reminded me of the anime’s first arc (Ichigo pitted against Soul Society? Where did we have that before?) but it doesn’t leave greater plot holes. Focusing on Rukia this time, “Fade to Black / I Call Your Name” reveals quite a cute aspect of Rukia’s past. If you like Rukia, you might just happen to love this movie. :)
FYI, there are a lot of flashbacks as this concentrates around occurrings in the past. I could deal with those easily as they do play a role in the plot, but if you happen to hate flashbacks...

Character-wise, the general screen time appears more balanced between different characters in this movie as Ichigo’s placement seems to have been done carefully.

The dialogue is well-done, and although it still has its corny moments, there is a tiny touch of philosophy Bleach was always missing IMO. (Yup, I just happened to like Urahara-san’s thoughts on memories XD)

Genre-wise, this movie has more of the drama/tragedy/friendship aspect with adventure/suspense; there’s definitely less action than e.g. in the previous and following movies. (Looking for obvious romance is generally kinda futile in the series, lol.) Even though this is rather relaxing than too action-heavy, the animation amazes with details. The soundtrack is finely done once more.

Entertainment: "Fade to Black" provides some nice situational humour, and a few moments actually had me rolling on the floor. The part of Rukia’s past that is revealed here was quite heartwarming to me. This is definitely a change of pace from the usual series, and quite soft for a Bleach side story, so-to-speak.

If you’re watching (or by now have watched) Bleach for action only, or if you are expecting something deeply involved with the original plot, this might disappoint you. However, I found this to be a relaxing change from an otherwise quite battle-heavy series -- don’t get me wrong, I like action, but I don’t watch anime for action only -- and I definitely recommend this to Rukia fans out there.
For me, the best out of the four Bleach movies!