Bleach - Season 0 Episode 1 Memories in the Rain
Overview: On the anniversary of his mother's death, Kurosaki Ichigo travels to his mother's grave. When Rukia arrives, Ichigo leaves to speak with her; but what she has to say upsets him. His sisters have a much bigger problem, however: they're being attacked by a particulary vicious Hollow with a few tricks up his sleeve. But this isn't any ordinary Hollow! Could it have something to do with the death of Ichigo's mother? Ichigo must discover the truth and fight the Hollow on his own to protect his pride.
Comment
Having long avoided this due to the hype it had, I finally decided to pick it up. Hype can often be just that: hype. In the case of Bleach, it was justifiable and were I younger, it definitely would've been that good. You see, the main character is a teenager who discovers that his ability to see spirits can allow him to battle transformed and evil ones too. Since the main character is a teenager, he does a lot of what teenagers do. He's impulsive and lacks foresight, somewhat arrogant, doesn't admit fault easily or gets in over his head pretty often. Sometimes, his mistakes are very repetitive and seem to be a device plot. Talking about device plots, this series has fillers and a good load of them too. If you aren't into that, then look for the filler list and skip them. Additionally, what this sorely lacks is a version with all the flashbacks, intros, outros and fillers cut out similar to what Dragon Ball Kai did. Aside from that, the world is well described, the lore interesting and the characters well developed. One is able to understand their intentions and motivations (even though they often boil down to the basic 6 "sins" wrath, envy, etc.) Seriously, if this had a supercut I'd watch it a second time.