Why I’ll Never Stop Loving Bleach

On August 7th, 2001, Weekly Shonen Jump began the serialization of a manga by a young man from Hiroshima Prefecture. This wasn’t his first serialization, as the year before he would end his short 27 chapter run of a manga by the name of Zombiepowder due to suffering and dealing with severe emotional trauma, as well as three other one shots that had been published in the magazine in the years prior. This manga was conceived with the idea to center around Shinigami, the Japanese gods of death, clad in kimono. His original vision had them wield firearms, and was thus given the name “Snipe,” but as he later settled in them wielding swords, the name was changed to “Black,” but fearing that title would be too generic, changed it to “White,” and eventually settling on a name that would reach the eyes and ears of millions around the world, impacting the lives of people far more than the young man ever thought possible. And on that day in August 7th, 2001, the image of a boy with orange hair in all-black robes and an oversized sword would lie dead center on the cover of that issue of Weekly Shonen Jump. And little did anyone know, that face, that title and that manga would reach the hearts of many along with the name of Tite Kubo and his creation that changed my life.

That day, the world would know the name “Bleach.”

As I’m sure is the case with many, many anime fans, the Shonen Jump manga turned long-running anime was integral to my immersion into this terrible and wonderful medium we all have grown to love. While it wasn’t necessarily my VERY first anime, as being part FIlipino and Japanese and a million other ethnicities, I ended up watching a lot of anime in my childhood, from Sailor Moon to Inuyasha to Pokemon, but I never really understood the difference between these and really any animation. I always sort of just viewed it all as cartoons. But Bleach was different. When my older sister called me over to watch this cool new show she and her friends were into around 2007, I looked at the screen of the three-part YouTube rips she was watching on and saw these amazing character designs with these cool weapons and badass powers and this music that got my heart pumping every time a fight was kicking into gear. They were speaking a language I didn’t understand but the emotions and personalities got across to me just fine, and learning who these people were and their names, the names of their weapons, their attacks and just all of the detail I was just overwhelmed with changed something in me. I was hooked. I was hopelessly obsessed with Bleach.

Bleach’s position amongst the most popularly discussed long-running adaptations of Weekly Shonen Jump manga in the Western anime fanbase in the 2000’s, later referred to as “the Big 3”, is no accident. At least for me, who ended up watching more anime after being led into the medium by Bleach, I saw other shows that were coming out and just thought that there was something different about it. I wasn’t that big a fan of One Piece’s art style and thought that pirates were just kind of lame, and found Naruto to just not be as cool, let alone my general ignorance of Dragonball beyond the Kamehameha and some snippets I saw from relatives playing Budokai games. Even amongst those who were fans of Bleach at the time, it had something that no other show at the time undeniably had. Bleach had style.

There’s something to be said about Bleach’s advantage in aesthetic that really seems to be ignored amongst its detractors, especially considering how much focus Kubo puts into the design aspects, even going so far as to state himself that he prefers to work by designing the characters first and foremost. Looking at Ichigo in comparison to his shounen MC contemporaries at the time and even possibly now, he has this mature badass look. From his tough face, to his body proportions and the fact that he wields a giant sword that eventually becomes the most badass kitchen knife the world has ever seen, along with the fact that his bright orange hair complements his pitch black robes perfectly, something about him is just striking and pleasing to the eye. This isn’t even mentioning the numerous, numerous, NUMEROUS other characters that Kubo spreads throughout his manga that I came to love a lot. My favorites at the time just so happened to be Kuchiki Byakuya, Hitsugaya Toushiro, Soi Fon, Zaraki Kenpachi and, who would probably be one of my first favorite girls in an anime, Kuchiki Rukia. This doesn’t even mention the fact that Bleach gives every single character their own unique power with their own unique names for their swords and their attacks, names that I ended up memorizing due to the little translation notes at the top of the fansubbed episodes. Senbonzakura Kageyoshi was this badass cloud of tiny blades that ripped apart anyone that Byakuya sent after. Hyourinmaru was an ice dragon that was fittingly my favorite Zanpakuto at the time for my love of the color blue. Zabimaru, Houzokimaru, Suzumebachi, Fuji Kujaku, Benihime, Sode no Shirayuki and of course Zangetsu with one of my favorite attack calls of all time:

This all isn’t even mentioning the way that Bleach is able to unfuse that modern urban vibe seamlessly with the cool mystique of feudal Japanese samurai. Badass magical urban ghost samurai fighting against some of the creepiest and coolest monsters in the form of the mask-wearing Hollows is a combination you’d be remiss to see anywhere else other than in Bleach. Just looking at Renji with those sunglasses he used to wear and those badass tattoos that covered his head is evidence enough of just how well Kubo was able to merge the style of these two aspects. If there is any phrase that Bleach embodies wholeheartedly, then it’s the “rule of cool.” The anime managed to capture this perfectly with its amazing OST by Shiro Sagisu that manages to have that same urban mix, and the song that always sort of embodied that for me is still one of my favorite OST’s of all time. For as cheesy as it kind of is, when you hear that electronic drumpad kick in followed by that electric guitar, you know that the Substitute Soul Reaper’s about to kick some ass.

This isn’t even mentioning the amazing openings that were playing on repeat on my iPod every single day because I will stand by the opinion that Bleach has some of if not THE best openings in all of anime. Asterisk, D-Technolife, Ichirin no Hana, Tonight Tonight Tonight, Rolling Star, Alones, After Dark, Chu-Bura, Velonica, so on and so on. Bleach is entirely the reason why I will always love an UVERworld opening and why I hold anime OP’s in such high regard. Bleach had an aesthetic, a charm, a vibe that just resonated with me on every level, even well into high school and essentially oriented me to appreciate shows that I perceived as badass. I would come up with my own OC in the Bleach world, designing a Zanpakuto of my own that, in retrospect, was just a broke-ass Hyourinmaru/Ryujin Jakka fusion, blue fire, chain and everything. Even now when I formulate my own ideas for stories that I want to write, and even some that I’m currently working on, I always have that image of Bleach in the back of my head and it is permanently one of my greatest influences.

This is also neglecting another thing that made Bleach fairly unique amongst the other members of the Big 3: the fact that it did take place in our world with a human boy just like you and me suddenly being thrust into this world he didn’t understand. Unlike Naruto that took place in a similar urban fusion of old-timey Japan yet still undeniably took place in a separate reality and the fantastical worlds of One Piece and Dragonball, Bleach was about a kid like me, who had the same struggles of fitting in that I did. It gave me this feeling that I could be a Shinigami, that seeing all of these things taking place in a reality similar to mine brought a life and a soul to it that resonated with me, and coupled with that style it was nothing if not perfect for me. All of these elements merged together to create something that I refused to let go of, that filled my every thought. Bleach, its world, characters, sound and everything became my obsession.

But of course, I eventually grew up. I watched more shows, fell in and out of anime, and did the same with Bleach. And after a few years of not having watched it, coming back to see that the anime had yet again reached one of its numerous filler arcs that I found myself heavily disliking as they piled on, and only now had recently just beaten the main antagonist at the time after years and years of anticipation, I found myself underwhelmed. Sure, it was exciting to see Ichigo reach Dangai and release the final Getsuga Tenshou, but after so many years, I found it hard to keep the same interest. I later came back to Bleach and watched the anime from the Fullbring arc after it ended on March of 2012, finding myself liking it less and less until Ichigo got his Shinigami powers back and unleashed his classic Getsuga Tenshou that I was so accustomed to…but that ending to the anime left me feeling empty. And further and further away I drifted away from that anime that consumed so much of my childhood.

And in July of 2016, the summer after my last year of highschool, it was announced that Bleach would end in August of that same year.

And I found myself back in the world of Tite Kubo’s creation.

The Thousand Year Blood War was something I never even really knew about or was aware of. I don’t know if it’s entirely evident from what I’ve said up until now, but while I was heavily immersed in anime, I hadn’t read a lot of manga, with the exception of Soul Eater and the World God Only Knows, both of which also remain favorites of mine to this day. So, I went into Bleach’s manga right after where the anime ended off, reading through this arc filled with some of the best fights in the entire series, giving character moments to these people that I had grown to adore over the years and seeing this story that I had loved for so many years finally end…and I just felt this overwhelming wave of nostalgia when that final image of Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, Orihime, Chad, Uryu, Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, Karin and Yuzu sitting together in that final spread that read “May these moments go on forever.” It hit me. This was it. This story that was growing up with me had finally hit its end and I just kept rereading that final chapter over and over again, desperate for more because I couldn’t accept that it was over. But…it seems I wasn’t the only one. This was around the time when I started to become more involved with the anime community online and in discussion with my friends and I realized that there was this majority opinion that Bleach, this story that I loved and was obsessed with, wasn’t as good as I thought it was. People would call it the worst of the Big 3 and insisted that it had gotten worse in its final arcs, ending because Kubo was forced to stop or that he had no choice but to end it there, all things debunked later on but it was all I ever heard.

And when I got involved in anitube, it only got worse from there.

I was still trying to find myself in 2016, and arguably I still am. I didn’t know how to properly word my arguments or form any proper opinions that were solely my own and seeing all of these criticisms being levied at Bleach began to sway me. While I still liked Bleach, I didn’t think it was nearly as good as I did when I was younger. I reread it later on, but the amount of other people’s thoughts that filled my head twisted my own beliefs of the series. I couldn’t pull myself away from the idea that while Bleach was good, it wasn’t worthy of being one of my favorites.

It was around this time when I also started to view most long-running shonen as being the junk food of anime with the exceptions of ones that I found myself enjoying as the years went by such as Soul Eater, Hajime no Ippo, Fullmetal Alchemist and Trigun. My tastes continued to shift as I watched more shows with melodrama like Hibike! Euphonium, Toradora, anohana, Code Geass, Fate/Zero, OreGairu, Kyoukai no Kanata, No Game No Life, and so on. I had never revisited Bleach since that time, and as I began to grow my watchlist, engage in discourse more and more and eventually form my YouTube channel, I had been so far removed from that series that got me to where I am that I started to fall into that trap that every other member of the anime fandom had fallen into. 

But there is something to be said about the value of an opposing opinion. In my time as a YouTuber and more importantly being involved in anime discourse, reading more manga and discussing it with others who gave rise to different ideas in my head, I was learning all of these things that I hadn’t considered before. I was seeing all of the misinformation that surrounded Bleach, namely the dropping of its rankings based off of the Table of Contents, that Kubo was forced to end the series, that the ending is bad and ruins the themes of the series and so on. All of these things that had formed in my head based entirely off of discussion from others who were already set in their ways was soon changed in my mind from people who were actively trying to fight against preconceptions and say things that no one else was saying. I was seeing this side of the community that didn’t agree with the status quo opinions and gave that series I loved a chance when no one else did. I remembered my love for Bleach’s openings, of Kenpachi who I adored as one of the most badass characters of all time. I remembered my love for its fights, its designs, and that ending that I actually sort of liked back when I first read it, if not mildly unsatisfied. I remembered just why this story meant so much to me, and in March of 2019, a year after the video where I expressed my greatest changes as a content creator, I decided to reread that story I loved once more. 

And I was reminded of just why I love Bleach.

I found myself once again in the world of Karakura Town with that young teenage boy who never thought he belonged. Back into the moment where a small woman clad in black robes and wielding a katana saved his family from a Hollow and gave him the powers that changed his life. I saw him get stronger, find the value of lives that aren’t human on Kon, be surrounded by friends who wanted to help him too, deal with the loss of his mother that scarred him for life, watch the one who changed him get ripped away from him only to find the determination to get her back with those friends he swore to protect. I watched him fight against all odds in this world that rejected him and was so set in their ways and traditions despite their hypocrisy. I watched him fight against people that forced him to grow, those same people who eventually were changed by him and progressively fought against that rigid, unchanging system. I saw him try to readjust to a normal life, only to have to constantly deal with the reality that he alone isn’t enough to protect the people he loves yet constantly try to fight against that reality by getting as strong as he can and try to suppress the demon inside him, only for one of the ones he was fighting to protect to put herself in harm’s way to protect him once again. I saw him be urged on by his friends to do what needed to be done, to see the humanity that lied within a world of monsters, to defeat the enemy that threatened all that stood against that which he loved and in the process sacrifice the powers that gave him the strength to do so. I saw him, after years of being away from that life-changing world be thrust back into it once his life was threatened once again, rediscovering the pride that he never realized he had until it was gone and once again being saved by those he helped find themselves. I saw his past be uncovered, to find out more about himself that he never thought possible, to accept all sides of himself and allow himself to be protected by those he thought weren’t strong enough to fight for themselves and against the fear of death find the courage to fight no matter what and eventually claiming that peace and hope that he wanted all that time. And once again I found myself at that same spread. I found myself at that image of all of those characters I had grown to love and that message that said “May these moments go on forever.” And…this time I didn’t feel that sense of dissatisfaction. This time I felt nothing but a deep appreciation for that manga that brought me into this medium and the moments that helped inspire me to be who I am. This time, I couldn’t help but feel nothing but sadness and joy at the end of the story that changed my life.

What I think people don’t seem to understand about Bleach is that there is far more to it than just style and the rule of cool. Tite Kubo may have started the process of his writing by designing the characters first and foremost, but within that process itself is why his characters remain so memorable and why the story of Bleach impacts people as much as it does. We have characters like Hitsugaya Toushiro who are children desperately attempting to assert that they are mature enough to handle the situations at hand, only to realize that they have far more room to grow than they realize. We have people like Kuchiki Byakuya, who are so pressured by the rules and expectations of someone of their caliber and status that they are tied between their reputation and their love for the ones dearest to them, only to realize that the rules shouldn’t matter if it’s for the ones you love. We have people like Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez who was forced to kill and eat his own friends just to survive and believed his actions were right, only for another who was just like him to show him that he was just as human as he was. We have Soi Fon, who spent so long admiring the woman who gave her worth and individuality that when she left her behind she felt betrayed, only to realize that she had others around her who looked up to and admired her. We have Zaraki Kenpachi, who to this day is one of my favorite characters of all time, who wanted desperately to retain the one connection that changed who he was and made him feel alive yet denied all parts of himself to retain that connection, only for him to finally realize his full potential by cutting off his past and moving towards his future. Even someone like Sosuke Aizen, who was a villain who I always loved was brought into a new light for me, not just as some diabolical villain who can 20D chess any way out of any situation but as someone who just wanted to be understood yet never felt like he belonged or could relate to anyone, a walking contradiction who just needed someone that was able to see him for who he was. Just in terms of its characters, Kubo himself stated that he wanted to design characters that have personalities that betrayed their looks and it’s so obvious when you look at their interactions and listen to their beliefs and what they add to the story. Along with this, Kubo has stated that he’s surprised when people are attached to characters based on design alone, showing that, while he does design them first, he values the character and the substance that lies beneath the surface. I myself adore these characters far more than just for their designs and love them for their personalities and their journeys of growth as they went through the series.

Within its fights that I adored as well for how cool they are, there is more to each conflict than simply big swords and magical explosions. Every fight in the story of Bleach is a battle of ideologies, with each character with their own personalities and beliefs challenging others who represent aspects of their own beliefs that they must challenge. A very clear example is any fight with Kenpachi, a character who is defined by his love for battle that weighs him down so much that he crushes his own potential and strength for the sake of enjoyment. His fight with Ichigo exposes his own unwillingness to form a connection with his Zanpakuto, shown throughout the series to be a Shinigami’s beliefs embodied and an integral part of themselves, and by Kenpachi’s inability to learn its name showing that he was unable to understand himself, something Ichigo in the same fight was capable of. His fights serve to slowly break down the wall that prevents him from evolving and confronting himself by fighting against an insect that is reaching for the moon and the embodiments of imagination and miracles, with the pinnacle of his growth in his duel against that which caused his own self-rejection from the very beginning. We have Rukia, bound by the guilt she feels for the death of her former Vice-Captain as well as her desire to be accepted by her older brother, mirrored in her two prominent fights against one who wears her grief as his own skin and the embodiment of fear that previously was able to defeat the brother she loved and respected. Speaking of said brother, Byakuya’s fights are those that test his convictions versus his love for his wife and his sister who he swore to protect, the most prominent being his iconic fight against Ichigo, where the rebellious ryoka exposed Byakuya’s contradiction: that he swore to protect Rukia yet was still trying to be bound by the rules of this society that he formerly rejected for the sake of his love long ago. The conviction brought about by one’s desire to be by their idol’s side for the rest of time. The hatred of battle brought about by the suffering it causes. The love for that which couldn’t be reached that had the power to reject the gods. The fight of pride brought about by a world of survival of the fittest. The longing for the heart. A battle of a living contradiction who desired understanding. A fight against the fear of death with the power of courage. With every single conflict that is executed in Bleach’s story, we see the development of every character that engages in it, growing as people who formerly rejected parts of themselves and are forced to come to terms with what lies within in order to achieve victory. Or even in loss, they are able to learn the flaws of their actions and even sometimes return once again with those flaws addressed. It’s a very common belief that such series like those of Bleach are nothing more than cool setpieces, but from just breaking down the fights and the characters, you can see that there is so much more beneath the surface.

You learn to take in a new appreciation for what Kubo is doing when you really start to view Bleach from more than just how cool it is for its designs and style. The names of the weapons are a cool detail, but by connecting them through their characters and understanding the naming conventions behind them, you discover even more about the characters and the arcs they go through. Scattered cherry blossoms, the representation of a short, yet striking and beautiful love that a man experienced with a forbidden flower that eventually left him, leaving him only with a petal. The weather-beaten one that has endured the elements yet always stands tall with its indomitable strength. The azure peacock with proud feathers that are kept hidden and only shown where no others can see. The tiny wasp shouldering a burden and housing strength beyond what others may see. The right arm of the giant that protects and the arm of the devil that destroys, two in one that serve to fight for that which he loves. A panther, a wild beast whose pride and strength lie within its claws. The lone wolf that feared being alone above all else. The reflection of the moon on the water and that which can cut the moon. There is far, far more to Bleach and its details than I feel most give it credit for.

It’s because of Bleach that I came into this medium of animation and comics that I now love to an obsessive degree. It’s because of Bleach that I learned to appreciate anime openings for more than just cool music and visuals. It’s because of Bleach that I have become inspired to make my own stories, and it’s funny that even then I didn’t truly understand it. I didn’t appreciate it like I really feel I should have. But rereading it, discussing it with others with fresh perspectives on the series that I hadn’t even considered and likely some of you who still are unsure if it’s anything more than a cool action series might not have either, and learning to love it all over again has given me new perspective. I’ve learned to give other series a chance where I otherwise might not have. It’s because of Bleach that I was able to give Naruto a second chance and give One Piece a chance where I otherwise threw both under the bus before. It’s allowed me to fully realize that there are always things I don’t understand and should seek to learn about media. It’s given me the belief that there is always more that lies beneath the surface level, because the one thing I’ve realized more than anything else is that childhood is liking Bleach for its style and rule of cool. Growing up is learning to see what lies beneath the surface. And adulthood is realizing just how amazing of a main character Kurosaki Ichigo is.

It’s through the journey of Kurosaki Ichigo that I ultimately grew to latch onto the most when I experienced Bleach again. He’s this outsider branded by his appearance that made him push others away and desire nothing but normalcy and a happy life. But time and time again, duty and his desire to protect that which he loves pulls him out of his comfort zone. Even just in the Substitute Soul Reaper arc, we see hints of the person Ichigo would eventually become when he is forced out of that quiet life by not just understanding what is at stake, but also the empathy he grew from meeting different people. In Kon, the mod soul, he sees this person who was born against his will and then forced to pay for being undesirable, branded as a crime just for existing, something Ichigo recognizes from his own childhood and causes him to connect. We see him defend Chad, someone who also was branded an outsider yet still fought to protect one innocent bird. In Orihime, we see the love for a sibling and the grief and guilt of being the one who lived while the other died and a desire to cling to what you have left, something shared in Uryu who watched as the grandfather who accepted him for who he was was slain by the Shinigami who proclaimed themselves as the arbiters of justice. And in Rukia, the one who changed his world, he realized the core of what his ideal was. Because there is this idea amongst most who are critical of Bleach that Ichigo has no goal unlike his contemporaries, but in analyzing the media, we see very clearly what his goal is and why his actions serve to achieve that goal. Ichigo’s ideal and his goal is to protect all that he can so that no one suffers the way he did when he let his own mom die, and that’s what drives him when he’s unable to uphold that ideal when the one who changed his world was sentenced to death and sacrificed herself for him.

And in the beginnings of the Soul Society Arc, we see him grow the conviction to act out this ideal, aided by others who he fought to protect now fighting to be by his side and rescue their friend. In that simple act of rebellion, the stagnant world of Soul Society was shaken to its core, its contradictions exposed and the need for change ignited as the Substitute Soul Reaper destroyed the very foundations of that hypocrisy, ending with Ichigo rescuing Rukia and the introduction of his foil in Sosuke Aizen, one who saw this hypocrisy yet desired to stand above all, leading into the beginning of the Arrancar where Ichigo is once again attempting to live out his quiet life until once again that which he loves is threatened. Along with this, the introduction of his Hollow powers causes turmoil within himself as he tries to reject another part of him until he is forced to confront it to protect his world…and once again he found himself being protected by someone else, helpless to do anything.

Time and time again we see this boy who doesn’t understand anything about himself except for his ideal, that same ideal that keeps getting trampled on because of others who want to protect him in turn. We see him reject parts of himself he sees as evil or threatening to that which he loves yet is forced to come to terms with as he meets people that he realizes are just like him. It’s through conflict that incites understanding that he grows, capping off after his battle with Aizen when he is the only one to realize his enemy’s intentions: the desire to be understood and to understand others yet being so isolated that they couldn’t possibly do that. But that realization came at the result of the loss of the power that gave him change. And he finally had that normal life he wanted…until he realized it wasn’t enough.

The change and the conflict was what gave his life meaning–it exposed the core of what he really was and what he really wanted. He realized after all that time that he had something he was proud of, yet for the sake of protecting his world he sacrificed that power. The Fullbring Arc highlights this isolation, this loneliness and this fear that comes from wanting to protect everything on your own and not learning to rely on or reach out to others…until the ones he gave his life for returned his pride to him in exchange for everything he did for them.

And Bleach’s final arc highlights the finale of Ichigo’s growth as a person when he learns his past and who he really is. He learns to accept all sides of himself and fight not for the ideals of his forefathers or of any one side, be it Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy or Human, but for a unification of all of these things as the fully realized person that Kurosaki Ichigo is, represented in his true Zanpakuto, the two blades that are able to cut the moon. He, this time not alone but allied with the girl he once swore to protect, the friend that he helped reunite with his loved one, the Quincy who learned to rely on those friends that he once saw as liabilities and the god who found a connection, defeated the embodiment of the fear of death and with the power of his courage and his bonds borne from understanding. A journey capped off with the normal life he desired brought about this time due to the growth he experienced after all these years.

In Ichigo, I see someone rejecting parts of himself due to his lack of understanding, only to be pushed out of his comfort zone and confronted on those beliefs in order to mature as a person, becoming more accepting and fully realized as an individual. But more importantly, his journey of understanding causes the world around him to change as his own growth and ability to reach out causes others to see the flaws within themselves and the humanity that lies within each other. The world of Bleach was stuck in stagnation, changed only by the actions of that idealistic young man still searching for himself, and if there is anything that applies to many of us going through this journey of adulthood, it’s that struggle to find ourselves even now. What’s interesting in Bleach is that it’s not just the youth that changes, but the jaded adults stuck in their ways being challenged by the youth that run towards their own adulthood, and I know as someone who reread this series that I loved as a kid now in my adulthood, I sympathize with that because I see myself in Ichigo. I see this person who doesn’t quite have a grasp of what I want to do or become in the future except that I wanted to keep the things I loved close. But growing up makes you realize that you must be pushed out of your comfort zone and evolve, but only by understanding the perspectives of others. I was able to grow as a creator by interacting with others and learning from all forms of media and learning the trains of thought that form the opinions of not just my friends but also those I don’t agree with and in the process learning about myself. Ironically, in the process of understanding the core of Bleach, I came to the same conclusion as Ichigo. I can’t just rely on my own understanding, but I also can’t reject the beliefs of others and instead learn to see things from their perspective. I can only grow as a creator and find my own style by challenging myself and my own beliefs and showing others why I feel so strongly about them, never abandoning my own beliefs but developing them. 

I adored Bleach when I first watched it. It formed who I am as an anime fan and led me into this world and I found myself only able to become more well-rounded and understanding as a creator once I found myself back to it. It only got better as I reread. I learned to appreciate the efforts of Kubo and be inspired to make my own stories. But more importantly, I came to the biggest conclusion: Bleach was what led me into this world, and even now after all of these years I love it just as much. It’s a story that changed who I am, and it will always lie at the core of myself.

That’s why I’ll never stop loving Bleach.