Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Review: Color Bleach+ by Tite Kubo

Title: Color Bleach+

Series: Bleach

Author: Tite Kubo

Genre: YA, manga, fantasy

Publication date: August 2010

Published by: VIZ Media

Source: Purchased paperback

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Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository | Thrift Books

Synopsis: The Soul Reaper's Handbook

This indispensable guide takes you behind the scenes of the shadowy world of the Soul Reapers! Read all about the illustrious Thirteen Court Guard Companies, study for the grueling entrance examination, get fighting tips from a master, take the personality quiz and much, much more! This book includes 66 pages of full-color manga spun off from the original Bleach.

My rating: ★★★★★

I watched the Bleach anime nearly 2 years ago and I was immediately hooked! When I finished the anime we still didn’t know that they were going to adapt the last arc of the manga, so I just went ahead and read it. But I needed more, and that’s where this book comes in! It’s this sort of supplemental read with a lot of information on the characters and other fun little things. Suffice to say, I loved it!

One of my favorite things about the anime were the scenes at the end of the episode called The Illustrated Guide to Soul Reapers where they basically showed what they did in their everyday life. Things got silly and I loved it! This book has all those scenes and more! They’re the Illustrated Manuscript of Daily Idleness, and they are in color! They are literally just fluff, but I love that! One of my favorite ones is where The Society of Female Soul Reapers are trying to get a picture of Byakuya and instead of saying “cheese,” Nemu says "butter" 😂 (or you can see the clip from the anime here!)

(Little reminder: manga panels and dialogue bubbles are read right to left!)

Another of my favorites is when Yachiru is riding around on her scooter... inside of Byakuya’s house! 😂 Poor guy, The Society of Female Soul Reapers are always bugging him and holding their meetings in his house without his knowledge. It’s so funny!
Then there’s the Thirteen Court Guard Squads complete guide, which has a bunch of interesting information on all the captains, lieutenants, and other reapers of the squads. I just loved learning more about them! For example, I love Renji—he is my absolute favorite, so I really liked learning about all these fun facts. Like the fact that Renji wears the bandana around his head because he loves goggles, but all of his goggles are broken so he wears the bandana in their place... Weird, but okay 😂 I mean, I did always wonder about the bandana. Lol.

Another thing I found interesting was that besties Jushiro and Shunsui were the first two graduates to reach the level of captain. I can totally see that. And I also just want to mention how much I love their relationship. Lol. They’re just the best of friends and it’s great! And speaking of Jushiro, I love him! He is one of my favorite characters in the entire series! He is just very sweet, and under his character data it says that his special skill is making friends! 🥰🥰🥰 Omg stop! That is so cute! I love it! And another thing that is funny is that he is always offering Toshiro candy because I guess they look alike and their names are similar.

“An individual who personifies the Court Guards with his gentle and sincere personality. Whenever he sees his look-alike, Captain Hitsugaya, he offers him candy and refuses to take no for an answer.”


And speaking of Toshiro, Toshiro and Rangiku are one of my favorite duos! It’s really funny because Toshiro is captain and is a really hard worker, while Rangiku, the lieutenant is... not 😂 I’m sometimes surprised their squad runs as smoothly as it does. Lol.
This panel above is particularly funny because in their character data under hobbies, they both have listed “napping.” 😂

Another of my favorite duos is Kenpachi and Yachiru. I love how polar opposite they are, but honestly, I’m just wondering how their squad runs at all with these two in charge 😂 Two other reapers I like from this same squad are Ikkaku and Yumichika. Some interesting information I learned about them in this book is that they are both strong enough to be lieutenants themselves, but I guess they just really like their Squad 11 🤷‍♀️ I don’t know, I think that’s kinda sweet... even though this is the most violent of all squads 😂

Another fun section in this book was this sort of bulletin thing where the squads are recruiting new members. Basically, the captains and lieutenants write some messages to those potential new members and answer some questions. And also, members of other squads comment on squads that are not their own. They're all mostly positive, because the reapers are all mostly friends with each other, but one that really made me laugh was Kurotsuchi commenting on Squad 11 (Kenapchi and Yachiru’s squad)...
😂 Oh, and before I forget, I’d like to mention that Kurotsuchi’s hobbies and special skills include experimenting.... Yep. That tracks 😅

Towards the end of the book we have what is called the Soul Reaper Academy Entrance Exam. I was excited to take this! I love Bleach and the Soul Reapers and I was sure I was gonna do well on it. I got 50/100 😬 That’s literally and F! 🙈 I love the show but, man, I would not be a good Soul Reaper 😂

One of the last things in this book is an Aptitude Test that places you in one of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. When I took the test it placed me in Squad 6 with Byakuya and Renji. As I previously mentioned, I adore Renji, so yay! But I’m not gonna lie, I was hoping to get squad 13, which is Jushiro Ukitake’s squad (Rukia is also in this one!) This squad just seems so chill, and their captain is such a sweetheart.

But yeah! I really loved this! It had a lot of fun information about the characters and a bunch of silly little stories. I am so glad I found this 🥰 I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Bleach as much as I do 🖤 And now I’ll leave you with an ad... because yeah, they had ads sprinkled throughout this and it was great!
Photo collections of Byakuya and Toshiro? Oh yeah, I’d buy the hell out of that! 😂


Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊

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