I've already given my thoughts on the manga below, but while reading that, I decided to watch the corresponding first 20 episodes of the anime, going back and forth between chapters and episodes as they synced up in material covered, because I'd only ever really watched the later seasons covering the FKT/Zanpakuto arcs and wanted to see what I was missing. Turns out...not much.
(Spoilers ahead)
Background for anyone unfamiliar: around the time the anime was greenlit, the Bleach manga was in nearing the end of the massively popular Soul Society arc. As anime adapted from manga serve chiefly to promote sales of the manga and related merchandise, it was basically decided to cover this first arc of the series as fast as possible (in 20 episodes, which amounts to an average of 3.5 chapters covered per episode compared to later episodes covering maybe 3 at most per) so they could get to the much more financially lucrative Soul Society arc and take their sweet time there. Not a surprising decision for something designed to make money. What could go wrong, you ask?
A lot.
For starters, the pacing gets...kinda ludicrous at points. Remember that 3.5 chapters per episode thing I mentioned? There are two episode, 9 and 20, that cover 6 episodes worth of material - as you can imagine, this leads to a LOT of stuff being skipped in both. The manga has a pretty consistent pacing throughout, even once the shift toward Soul Society starts 20 chapters before the arc ends - not so here. Every single fight has something cut from it or changed (and I'm used to that in most instances, censorship for prime time television and all that), but bizarrely enough, two of them actually have stuff ADDED - you heard that right, in the only season of Bleach being rushed through its storyline to get to the popular stuff coming later, Studio Pierrot STILL added filler. And, of course, what they add is just...okay. Entertaining enough, but not at the level of quality of what they cut, which mainly consists of character development and moments that become important in later arcs (which can lead to anime-only viewers being very confused when an episode down the line references an event they never saw).
But that's not the only confusing decision that persists through the entire 20 episodes of the show. For whatever reason, the anime basically butchers Orihime's character. Now, I'm not going to pretend that she's the best character in Bleach or that Kubo himself didn't make mistakes when writing/using her later on down the line, but in this part of the manga, she's portrayed pretty groundbreakingly as far as female characters/potential love interests go (for 2001/2002) - she's goofy and ditzy but also smart, she makes mistakes and apologizes for them, she's got a well-developed friendship with another female character that doesn't involve them competing over the same boy toy, and most importantly she's got agency and goals of her own. The anime, both in cutting content and changing scenes, manages to remove pretty much everything that makes her unique, memorable, and likable, basically leaving a shell for the audience to lust after. This is most notable in the leadup to Ichigo's group leaving for Soul Society: in the manga, Orihime starts by asserting that SHE will protect Ichigo while he saves Rukia, so she seeks out Sado and Yoruichi to train with of her OWN ACCORD, manages to access her powers through HER desire to protect Ichigo, and is finally treated as an equal by Ichigo when she shows up during the rendezvous at the Urahara Shop and simply tells him "I'm going with you". Meanwhile, in the anime, YORUICHI is the one to find Orihime and Sado (just standing around after Ichigo ditches them, no less), Orihime accesses her powers just by remembering the last time she used them, and when everyone shows up at the Urahara Shop, Orihime comes second-to-last after Ichigo and Sado and asks them to protect her. Holy SHIT. That's not even getting into how little care it shows for her friendship with Tatsuki (to the point that what was a very poignant final scene between the two of them before her departure in the manga is reduced to a nonsensical "I like dragonflies" "Come back at some point" in the anime), but that should tell you everything about how the anime treats her. Honestly, I'm shocked they didn't just cut out the fight that gives her the Shun Shun Rikka entirely and instead have her awaken them during a cooking session or some crap, it's that bad (as it is, it's visibly the episode with the lowest budget in the entire season, so way to rub salt in the wound).
It's not like this arc of anime is all bad. The OST starts what becomes a tradition of consistently excellent music for the series, with tracks like "On The Precipice Of Defeat", "Noting Can Be Explained", and of course "Number One" all making their debut here. And even with the cut content, the fights are still pretty memorable thanks to the voice acting and generally decent-to-good animation - I particularly enjoyed Ichigo vs. Shrieker. And, thank goodness, Old Man Zangetsu is done perfectly. But to anyone looking to watch this anime for the first time or rewatch it front to back, I would highly recommend reading the manga for this one, then going to episode 21 after you finish chapter 70. That's the most complete viewing experience you'll get if you're a stickler for anime > manga, because this arc really, REALLY got the (shattered) shaft.
Agent of the Shinigami arc (anime)
I've already given my thoughts on the manga below, but while reading that, I decided to watch the corresponding first 20 episodes of the anime, going back and forth between chapters and episodes as they synced up in material covered, because I'd only ever really watched the later seasons covering the FKT/Zanpakuto arcs and wanted to see what I was missing. Turns out...not much.
(Spoilers ahead)
Background for anyone unfamiliar: around the time the anime was greenlit, the Bleach manga was in nearing the end of the massively popular Soul Society arc. As anime adapted from manga serve chiefly to promote sales of the manga and related merchandise, it was basically decided to cover this first arc of the series as fast as possible (in 20 episodes, which amounts to an average of 3.5 chapters covered per episode compared to later episodes covering maybe 3 at most per) so they could get to the much more financially lucrative Soul Society arc and take their sweet time there. Not a surprising decision for something designed to make money. What could go wrong, you ask?
A lot.
For starters, the pacing gets...kinda ludicrous at points. Remember that 3.5 chapters per episode thing I mentioned? There are two episode, 9 and 20, that cover 6 episodes worth of material - as you can imagine, this leads to a LOT of stuff being skipped in both. The manga has a pretty consistent pacing throughout, even once the shift toward Soul Society starts 20 chapters before the arc ends - not so here. Every single fight has something cut from it or changed (and I'm used to that in most instances, censorship for prime time television and all that), but bizarrely enough, two of them actually have stuff ADDED - you heard that right, in the only season of Bleach being rushed through its storyline to get to the popular stuff coming later, Studio Pierrot STILL added filler. And, of course, what they add is just...okay. Entertaining enough, but not at the level of quality of what they cut, which mainly consists of character development and moments that become important in later arcs (which can lead to anime-only viewers being very confused when an episode down the line references an event they never saw).
But that's not the only confusing decision that persists through the entire 20 episodes of the show. For whatever reason, the anime basically butchers Orihime's character. Now, I'm not going to pretend that she's the best character in Bleach or that Kubo himself didn't make mistakes when writing/using her later on down the line, but in this part of the manga, she's portrayed pretty groundbreakingly as far as female characters/potential love interests go (for 2001/2002) - she's goofy and ditzy but also smart, she makes mistakes and apologizes for them, she's got a well-developed friendship with another female character that doesn't involve them competing over the same boy toy, and most importantly she's got agency and goals of her own. The anime, both in cutting content and changing scenes, manages to remove pretty much everything that makes her unique, memorable, and likable, basically leaving a shell for the audience to lust after. This is most notable in the leadup to Ichigo's group leaving for Soul Society: in the manga, Orihime starts by asserting that SHE will protect Ichigo while he saves Rukia, so she seeks out Sado and Yoruichi to train with of her OWN ACCORD, manages to access her powers through HER desire to protect Ichigo, and is finally treated as an equal by Ichigo when she shows up during the rendezvous at the Urahara Shop and simply tells him "I'm going with you". Meanwhile, in the anime, YORUICHI is the one to find Orihime and Sado (just standing around after Ichigo ditches them, no less), Orihime accesses her powers just by remembering the last time she used them, and when everyone shows up at the Urahara Shop, Orihime comes second-to-last after Ichigo and Sado and asks them to protect her. Holy SHIT. That's not even getting into how little care it shows for her friendship with Tatsuki (to the point that what was a very poignant final scene between the two of them before her departure in the manga is reduced to a nonsensical "I like dragonflies" "Come back at some point" in the anime), but that should tell you everything about how the anime treats her. Honestly, I'm shocked they didn't just cut out the fight that gives her the Shun Shun Rikka entirely and instead have her awaken them during a cooking session or some crap, it's that bad (as it is, it's visibly the episode with the lowest budget in the entire season, so way to rub salt in the wound).
It's not like this arc of anime is all bad. The OST starts what becomes a tradition of consistently excellent music for the series, with tracks like "On The Precipice Of Defeat", "Noting Can Be Explained", and of course "Number One" all making their debut here. And even with the cut content, the fights are still pretty memorable thanks to the voice acting and generally decent-to-good animation - I particularly enjoyed Ichigo vs. Shrieker. And, thank goodness, Old Man Zangetsu is done perfectly. But to anyone looking to watch this anime for the first time or rewatch it front to back, I would highly recommend reading the manga for this one, then going to episode 21 after you finish chapter 70. That's the most complete viewing experience you'll get if you're a stickler for anime > manga, because this arc really, REALLY got the (shattered) shaft.