The episodes in this set work at concluding the story arc about the Bounts. While I enjoyed most of the episodes that appeared in this set, I was rather disappointed by how this story arc ended. Basically, the story arc is built up, and then it reaches its conclusion in a rather anticlimactic fashion. While I understand that the Bount arc is a "filler" storyline (since it's not part of Tite Kubo's manga series), it was still disappointing to see that everything is essentially reset to the way it was before the start of the story arc. I also suspect that the new characters that were introduced in this filler arc will probably never be seen or referenced again in the anime series.There are four extras on the first disc. The first extra is "Production Art," which is 11 pages of line art of the characters and locations that appear on this disc. I noticed that one of the pages had the line art sideways, which made it really hard for me to see what it truly was without trying to crane my neck in an awkward position. Next is "Manga Preview," which has four pages of advertisements for the Bleach manga, as well as other titles released by Shonen Jump. "Clean Ending" is a textless version of the first ending that appears in this box set. The final extra on the disc is labeled as "Sneak Peek," and this contains trailers for Naruto Shippuden, Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody, and the Bleach: Dark Souls videogame.
The second disc has 13 pages of line art of the characters and locations that appear in the episodes on this disc. The "Manga Preview" and "Clean Ending" are the exact same features that appear on the first disc. The "Sneak Peeks" are also duplicated from the first disc.
The third disc has 11 pages of line art of the characters and locations that appear in the episodes included on the disc. The "Clean Ending" that appears on this disc is a textless version of the second ending that appears in this box set. The remaining bonus features are exactly the same as what appeared on the first two discs in the set.
The final disc has a "Squad Roster," which is an interactive guide of the 13 Soul Reaper squads; the guide includes profiles for the captain and lieutenant for each squad. However, there were some entries in this guide that appeared to be out of the date for the point in the story that the episodes in this disc take place at. The "Production Art" on this disc includes 10 pages, and several of these pages are sideways; this makes it very difficult to see what those images are truly supposed to look like. The "Manga Previews" and the "Clean Ending" are the same as what appears on the third disc. The "Sneak Peek" section on this disc includes trailers for Bleach the Movie: The DiamondDust Rebellion, Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody, and Naruto Shippuden: The Movie.
While I've come to expect a relative lack of bonus features in the Bleach sets, I still can't help but feel a little disappointed by how little effort was put into what few bonuses were included. The worst thing to me was the fact that Viz Media made no effort with the sideways line art to turn them right side up for viewers to be able to see them better. However, I do have to give Viz Media credit for packaging the discs in individual slimline boxes.
I would recommend this box set to anyone who is a fan of Bleach, especially since this is currently the only legal way to get these Bleach episodes in a DVD box set in the United States.
I wrote this review after watching a copy of this DVD box set that my husband gave to me as a gift.
| Episode 92 Episode 93 Episode 94 Episode 95 Bonus Features | Episode 96 Episode 97 Episode 98 Episode 99 Bonus Features | Episode 100 Episode 101 Episode 102 Episode 103 Episode 104 Bonus Features | Episode 105 Episode 106 Episode 107 Episode 108 Episode 109 Bonus Features |
