First post after my introduction and I just want to continue sharing my journey watching shows. Partly because I love talking about it, but I also think it would help you all get to know me a bit better.

So, what happened after finishing Naruto? I felt like this:

I feel like it’s this for most people. Either you understand Naruto is a good show but don’t necessarily feel the need to watch anything else, or you get too curious for your own good, drastically alter the course of your life, and become pulled in by the never-ending abyss of anime/manga content (it’s a good thing).

I eventually took the right path, and continued watching shows that I deemed “safe”. What is safe, you ask?

It started with the Big Three. I was curious about the other shows that were competing with Naruto while I was a kid.

So it was either Bleach or One Piece. How did I decide?

The episode count was literally all it took. Bleach, with 366 episodes available at the time, was much more approachable than One Piece, which was floating around 900 episodes at the time. I thought, “how the f*** can a show run for that long??”

We’ll save my experience with One Piece for another time (it is in my top two and it’s not two), but for now, I want to focus on Bleach.

Bleach was the ostensibly “cool” show. Spirit hunters with cool swords and special powers? Sign me up. It was a little slow to start (I feel like most people can agree with that), but man, that Soul Society arc hit like crack. Sucked me right in.

I was in it for the long ride with Ichigo. He was different than Naruto in the sense that he had his resolve right from the start, which I appreciated in his character. He had me rooting for him and as a watcher, you get a surreal sense of relief when he is on the screen saving his friend from danger or fighting to meet his goals.

Not to mention, the zanpakuto is one of the coolest power systems of all time, even to this day. A hill I am willing to die on honestly.

However, logistically, Bleach was much more rough of a watch than Shippuden was. I know most people know why and also feel the same way, but I want to say it again because it’s actually that bad:

Filler.

How can a show actually be majority filler. Literally how. It should be illegal. It made me like the show less, but as a watcher binging the series years after it’s release, skipping entire arcs was definitely something I had to do.

Aside from the filler, the story arcs were mostly good (might make a ratings list in a post here in a couple weeks), the villains were well written, the power-ups felt a bit more earned (sometimes), and Ichigo losing his shinigami powers felt like a good ending to the show. I know.

Oh boy did it make me mad to realize that the anime didn’t go through the end of the series. An entire final arc wasn’t animated? HOW. At that point, I did not love anime enough to read the manga (hindsight), so I was at a loss.

So there I was. Just watched the bulk of the series, never got the satisfaction of a true ending, felt like I skipped a lot even though it was all filler, and I just did not love it as much as Naruto.

Maybe it was a good thing in the end. The lack of cathartic relief I got from Bleach left me yearning for more. I decided to continue on the beast. It was time to tackle One Piece.

A story for next time.